Emily Badger, The Atlantic:

Because of this, we won’t need traffic lights at all (or stop signs, for that matter). Traffic will constantly flow, and at a rate that would probably unnerve the average human driver. The researchers have modeled just how this would work, as you can see in the animation below.

The simulation reminds me of a cab ride I took in Boston.

Marco Arment:

The recently rumored, larger-screened “iPhone Math”, or more likely “iPhone Plus”, is plausible as an additional model (not a replacement) alongside the 4” iPhone. And there’s a good chance that it would have a 4.94”, 16:9 screen.

Arment does the math to detail how the iPhone Plus would theoretically be implemented such that the impact to developers would be minimal.

By keeping the pixel dimensions the same as the iPhone 5, no app changes would be necessary. While the larger screen would hinder one-handed use, two-handed use would actually be easier because the touch targets would all be larger, and UIKit’s standard metrics and controls still work well at that physical size.

Check out Arment’s mockup to see how the phone would fit into Apple’s lineup. It makes sense - visually and technically. Making such a device would be an admission from Apple that there is a market for phablets. If an iPhone Plus is released, I’ll have to eat crow.

Alan Taylor, The Atlantic, with photos of China’s horrific air quality:

Since the beginning of this year, the levels of air pollution in Beijing have been dangerously high, with thick clouds of smog chasing people indoors, disrupting air travel, and affecting the health of millions. The past two weeks have been especially bad – at one point the pollution level measured 40 times recommended safety levels.

The price of “progress”?

As our handsome pal, Gordon Carrie, shared - “we are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to.”

Bill Gates delivers his annual letter. In it, he discusses how his foundation measures success in several area of focus - including poverty, hunger, education, child mortality, disease. Such great work:

I hope everyone who reads this is excited to see how much progress the world has made in helping the poorest in the last 15 years. It is the kind of good-news story that happens one life at a time and so it often doesn’t get the same visibility as a big setback like the outbreak of a new epidemic. From time to time we should step back and celebrate the achievements that come with having the right goals-combined with political will, generous aid, and innovation in tools and their delivery. It has certainly deepened my commitment to this work.

Tom Warren, The Verge:

A company spokesperson has confirmed to The Verge that the 64GB edition of Surface Pro will have 23GB of free storage out of the box. The 128GB model will have 83GB of free storage. It appears that the Windows 8 install, built-in apps, and a recovery partition will make up the 41GB total on the base Surface Pro model.

Holy shit! Microsoft is advertising a “Pro” device as having 64GB of storage. In truth, it ships with a mere 36% of the listed capacity. That’s bonkers.

Before you lecture me about hard drives always shipping with less space than advertised, let’s put it in perspective. Most of the discrepancies originate from advertising space in gigabytes when the OS uses gibibytes.¹ There is also the footprint of the operating system. Consider a 64GB iPad. Converting from gigabytes to gibibytes yields a space of around 59.6GB - and subtracting 1GB or so for iOS gives around 58.6GB. That’s roughly 92% of the advertised capacity.

Again, Microsoft is shipping with 36% of the advertised space!

At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On board were seven crew members. Seventy-three seconds after liftoff, the shuttle exploded. All seven were lost.

A young Disneyland worker from California, 19-year-old Jeffrey Ault, traveled to Florida to witness the launch. He captured the events on a personal Super 8 camera. The footage remained in a box at Ault’s home for twenty-six years, until he released it this past March.

The video is chilling - in particular when the crowd grows confused following the explosion and we hear public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt announce, “We have a report from the Flight Dynamics Officer that the vehicle has exploded.”

Dieter Bohn and Ellis Hamburger, The Verge, on Google’s new focus on design.

Google’s process is quintessentially Google and happened in a quintessentially Google way. Larry Page mandated that there be a new design focus to get the ball rolling, but instead of micromanaging at every step he let his employees to do the rest — guided by an empowered, core team of designers. They organized themselves in a typically Google structure: cross-discipline, informal, but driven to achieve a goal.

As a long-time Apple user, I am finding myself drawn to Google’s iOS design style over Apple’s. Google’s latest apps are a great combination of intuitive controls, flat design, and subtle aesthetic. Bravo.

Sloan Schang, writing for the Bygone Bureau, channels Jerry Seinfeld in his new position as Apple CFO:

I heard an analyst on TV the other day describe our stock as a real roller coaster. Now there’s something I’ve never understood. Roller coasters. I’m going to pay you to almost kill me and then right before you kill me, you’re going to save me by flipping me upside down, sending me through a cave and then dropping me off right where I started? And you’re going to try to sell me a picture of myself screaming in mid-flight, right at the moment I thought I was about to die? No thanks. I’ll just fly Southwest.

Former Apple engineer, Glenn Reid, on working with Steve Jobs:

I am off doing other things now, again, but it’s still Product Design, and I still love it. That is what I remember most about Steve, that he simply loved designing and shipping products. Again, and again, and again. None of the magic that has become Apple would have ever happened if he were simply a CEO. Steve’s magic recipe was that he was a product designer at his core, who was smart enough to know that the best way to design products was to have the magic wand of CEO in one of your hands.

Adam Cole, NPR:

English critic Samuel Johnson once said of William Shakespeare “that his drama is the mirror of life.” Now the Bard’s words have been translated into life’s most basic language. British scientists have stored all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets on tiny stretches of DNA.

It all started with two men in a pub. Ewan Birney and Nick Goldman, both scientists from the European Bioinformatics Institute, were drinking beer and discussing a problem.

What can’t be solved over a pint of beer?