Good Reads and Information

Air Force Lt. Col. Dan Ward did a cost/benefit analysis of a fictional project for the Pentagon’s in-house publication Defense AT&L Magazine. It’s a cautionary tale about the Empire’s Death Star. (via TYWKIWDBI)

Many of the iconic sounds you associate with classic Top 40 music started out with “Hey, check out this sound!” The Word magazine has a list of 40 of those sounds you know, with the story behind each and samples for you to hear. (via the Presurfer)

Vladimir Putin, Action Man. The former Russian leader is carefully cultivating his image as he prepares for another run at the presidency -and enjoying every minute of it.

What Happened To Mitrice Richardson? The strange actions of the local police only add to the mystery of the young woman’s 2009 murder. (via Boing Boing)

America currently has a higher poverty rate than at any time in the past twenty years. The line is drawn at $22,113 for a family of four, so if you make more than that, you’re officially not poor.

TNT and Dynamite: What’s the Difference? For one thing, I’ve never heard of anyone fishing with TNT.

An Immune System Trained to Kill Cancer. (NYT link) Doctors used the HIV-1 virus to re-engineer a patient’s T-cells to battle his leukemia.

Puzzlemaster Will Shortz explains how he edits a New York Times crossword puzzle. It’s a matter of collaborating to make a good puzzle into a great one. (via Neatorama)

Isn’t it time to give up the charade of the student-athlete and start paying college athletes the six-figure salaries they deserve? After all, they earn millions of dollars for the schools and the NCAA.

12 Unusual College Football Trophies. There’s plenty of awards up for grabs besides the Heisman and the NCAA championships -many designed with old rivalries in mind.