Saturday roundup

Good morning, all! Specifically (and not even that ironically), greetings from my mom's laptop. I'll start with what's new and move on to what I tweeted while I was computerless on the Cape.

Brazil's apparently much-needed activist judge.

Gail Collins ponders how far we've come and how far we have to go.

Will the Tesla go the way of the smartphone or stay the private jet of the auto world?

Ballmer's 2007 reaction to the iPhone is amusing in hindsight but I wouldn't have disagreed, even two years ago. I often think how quickly I've gone from not seeing the point of having a smartphone to being very, very dependent on mine. And now, from late adopter who didn't care what phone she had, and then, even a month ago, thinking I'd hold on to my Galaxy II until they were giving away the IIIs, to considering paying for an upgrade. I'm still not considering an iPhone. My analysis (having an iPad and having used other people's iPhones) is that the Apple products, while of higher quality mechanically--which is not nothing, as I appreciate the more my phone freezes--are just not user-friendly.

Now for earlier in the week, as documented by my Twitter feed:

Dr. Phil shouldn't be pilloried for asking a question/starting a dialogue.

The carnivores among you can thank dung beetles for reducing your carbon methane footprint. So spare them and have some of these bugs.

Humans aren't so much hairless apes as apes with thinner hair.

How do you measure an animal's intelligence?

Cupcake decorating ideas (kidding!)

Did you know of the #notanonionheadline hashtag?