Random

✽ Some restaurants and coffee shops are attempting to niche themselves as places of refuge from electronic interaction. ~ NY Times

✽ Why male spiders are so much smaller than female spiders. ~ BBC

✽ The US is using Manga as propaganda to persuade Okinawans of the value of the US-Japan military alliance. ~ BBC.

✽ "As African governments try to facilitate a Green Revolution in Africa, Brazil is uniquely positioned to help." ~ GlobalPost

✽ Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu: "...our own government has become our enemy." Ah... Mr Sheriff, you are the government and your job is to figure out how to cooperate and work with the other sections of the government. ~ KTAR

✽ "Robert Driscoll, a Washington lawyer representing (Maricopa County Sheriff Joe) Arpaio, said Justice Department lawyers 'have picked the man and the department and are trying to find a violation, rather than find a violation and then seeking to vindicate someone's rights.'" Hmmm? If this is accurate (and I'm not sure that it is) it's not good. It's too much like the way the sheriff does his "crime sweeps." The deputies go out fishing -- looking for small violations that they can use to stop people, which then gives them cause to delve further into the suspect's immigration status. It is an intimidation tactic. Right or wrong -- what goes around, comes around. ~ AP

✽ "The Obama administration is deporting more illegal immigrants than even before, undermining blasts by Republicans, including Gov Jan Brewer, that it is failing in its duty to deal with the problem...." More illegal immigrants have been deported during the Obama administration than during the prior years under President Bush. The longer this circus goes on, the clearer it becomes that the magnitude of the immigration crisis is contrived to benefit certain politicians who are looking for an issue to turn people against the president. The Republicans, who are really in a position of weakness right now, are trying to stir things up so they can regain control in upcoming elections. It's a strategic power play. By way of disclosure, I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I'm mostly just annoyed at the way both parties seek to manipulate voters -- yanking our chains. ~ EV Tribune

✽ Why is the FBI yanking on Wikipedia's chain? They've apparently run out of things to do in DC. ~ FastCompany

✽ "Cancer cells slurp up fructose." That's counter intuitive. ~ Reuters

✽ ASU has been named one of the nation's greenest universities. I would say that it is also one of the brownest. We probably have more desert landscaping than another school in the US. ~ link

✽ Smart meters have inherent security issues. ~ link

✽ Creative public initiative --