1. Designer Min Ming Lo looks at the different icons that mean "share this thing" on different operating systems. His favorite is pre-2011 Android's old Y.

"Prior to Honeycomb, this share symbol was used across Android devices. It represents a single point spreading outwards in two directions. This symbol is not widely used now, but I still really like this symbol because the arrows represent outward motion, much like the act of sharing, and also because it is vertically symmetrical. I do think that this is one of the best representations of the concept of sharing purely based on its shape."

2. An argument that people don't need to learn how to code but to think 'computationally.' 

"Just as knowing how to scramble an egg or write an email makes life easier, so too will a grasp of computational thinking. Yet the "learn to code!" camp may have set people on the uphill path of mastering C++ syntax instead of encouraging all of us to think a little more computationally. The happy truth is, if you get the fundamentals about how computers think, and how humans can talk to them in a language the machines understand, you can imagine a project that a computer could do, and discuss it in a way that will make sense to an actual programmer. Because as programmers will tell you, the building part is often not the hardest part: It's figuring out what to build."

3. Rail is a risky way to move a lot of crude oil, but rail is the only way to move the oil from the shale-boom places to market. So this is what's happening.

"U.S. and Canadian railways moved 50 times as much crude oil in 2013 as they did five years earlier. Yet in too many places this monumental undertaking has proved terrifying: Trains have derailed, causing explosions, fires, evacuations and trails of pollution. More crude spilled in U.S. rail accidents in 2013 than in the previous 37 years combined. The shale oil from the vast Bakken formation that straddles the U.S.-Canada border has proved extraordinarily volatile."

4. The Digital Public Library of America and Imgur have created some beautiful collections together, like these old postcards.

"These vintage linen color postcards, printed by Tichnor Brothers Inc. (Boston) and held at the Boston Public Library, are perfect little glimpses into America's favorite summertime locales circa 1930-1945. All images featured in this album are courtesy Boston Public Library, via Digital Commonwealth and DPLA."

+ The complete collection of more than 23,000 postcards. 

5. In early 2011, after the revolution, a Tunisian ad agency convinced a bunch of media outlets to participate in a collective futurism project, pretending that it was June 16, 2014 (i.e. yesterday).

"We convinced 6 brands and 5 major Tunisian media of which 1 radio, 1TV, 2 newspapers and 1 online magazine to participate in the June 16th 2014 campaign. During a whole day, the media acted as if it were June 16th 2014 and presented Tunisia as a prosperous, modern and democratic country. To further engage people, we launched a hashtag on Twitter and 16juin2014.com, a website with all the content and where people could share their own vision of the future. The media content spread to social media via 16juin2014.com and people began to imagine wonderful futures and called everyone for action. #16juin2014 hashtag was n°1 top trend topic on Twitter all day long. At 6pm, the debate was everywhere on TV, radios, blogs."

+ A futurist considers the project.

Today's 1957 American English Usage Tip

Briticism, the name for an idiom used in Great Britain & not in America, is a BARBARISM; COD prefers Britishism, and implies that Briticism is an Americanism.

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Purely Based on Its Shape