Is Google making us stupid? (Via MeFi.) It's certainly true that in my daily life I find myself using a indexing logic to process most new information, remembering what I'll need so I can find It again if I need It rather than just remembering the thing itself. Just one example: I recently spent a few weeks aimlessly trying to retrieve the terms studium and punctum. Google searches describing what I remembered of the concepts were completely hopeless; unusual for me, I'd remembered bad keywords. It was only when I somehow dredged up the name of the theorist who coined them (Barthes) that my search became possible—and after that it over in fifteen seconds.

Also in the Atlantic, a classic Canavan hobbyhorse: traffic signs make us less safe.

It's been a while since I blogged about traffic laws, but I continue to find the question fascinating. Via MeFi, here's another profile of cities like Haren, the Netherlands, and Bohmte, Germany, which have responded to downtown traffic crises by eliminating stoplights and lane markings—counterintuitively reducing traffic accidents by as much as 80% or more. (Check out these posts for more.)