Watch the question mark suit guy from those old TV commercials do a twitchy little dance to some bleeps and bloops.

Through a combination of sobering real life stories and a treasure trove of data, researchers Heather Hunt and Prof. Gene Nichol explain how North Carolina is, quite literally, criminalizing poverty through the imposition of burdensome fines and fees that millions of people cannot afford.

Why must this uniquely successful genre keep enduring slights and insults? After all, snobs dismiss all kinds of pop culture — from hip-hop to sitcoms — but romance novels elicit a special degree of fervent condescension. That denigration fits a larger historical pattern that regards any of the particular interests of women — from midwifery to knitting to “old wives’ tales” — as inferior to the particular interests of men. Are romance novels any more formulaic or unrealistic than the spy novels and thrillers that attract a male readership? Is there any reason — besides stale misogyny — to question the intelligence of romance authors and their fans?

1 in 3 Americans has a state/city/county/district election tomorrow 11/7/2017. Learn more, spread the word, and vote.

Lego art is real art. Discover brick artists and their impressive work in this simple and entertaining app.

In addition to the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, the US government is pursuing court orders to force Apple to help bypass the security passcodes of "about a dozen" other iPhones, the Wall Street Journal reports. The other cases don't involve terror charges, the Journal's sources say, but prosecutors involved have also sought to use the same 220-year-old law — the All Writs Act of 1789 — to access the phones in question.

Born 1983.
Dead never.
Cherry MX keyboards forever!

There’s a plenty of reason to believe that Apple complying with the FBI order is bad policy, it’s legally shaky, and at least one of the people who makes the strongest arguments in this direction is now voting on a secret government board? What the heck is going on here?
What’s going on is Justice Antonin Scalia is dead.

Dean Ween:

"My roadie told me that Carlos Santana’s equipment (including his guitars) had arrived via a trucking company that night at their depot. Carlos was recording an appearance on “Good Morning America” the next morning and his equipment was to be delivered to the set in NYC in a few hours."

What follows is kind of bonkers.

On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission completed its journey to the moon. Although its crew of Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins were highly trained, there was a significant possibility of disaster, and everyone knew that the astronauts might not make it back.

In case the mission ended in tragedy, President Nixon had a speech on hand to deliver to the nation to address the demise of the astronauts. The speech was written by one of President Nixon’s top speechwriters, William Safire, and sent as a memo to Nixon’s chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, the night before the mission. It was finally unveiled to the public in 1999.

In an unusual tribute, the ashes of well-known Italian coffee impresario Renato Bialetti were placed in a giant aluminum coffee pot at his funeral this week.

"Tim Cook is right, and encryption and privacy experts are all on his side, but where are the other leaders of major U.S. companies? Where is Larry Page? Satya Nadella? Mark Zuckerberg? Jack Dorsey? I hear crickets chirping. Real leaders have courage, and on this very essential issue — in the face of fierce political pushback from law enforcement officials — only Tim Cook is showing any."

"Clarity wins arguments but it may not be where salvation or truth can be found. Good judgement in a cloudy reality is a better compass than a clear road map to a fantasy world."

An insightful assessment of Apple, business in general, and everything else in 21st century life.

An Apple Watch game in which you take advantage of the Digital Crown and haptic feedback to break into a safe.

Charles was the first black photographer at the New York Times. These photos, from 1966, were never published.