Bottom of the News

“Etiquette and beauty standards dictated that the mouth be kept small — resulting in an instruction to say prunes (rather than cheese) when a photograph was being taken.” From the MIT Tech Review: Data mining reveals how smiling evolved during a century of yearbook photos.

+ How did Black Friday get its name?

+ Syndicated via Kottke: Fourteen-year-old Lucas Etter solved a randomly scrambled Rubik’s Cube in just 4.9 seconds the other day.

+ Great photo of an ancient Chinese Ginkgo Tree that dropped a lot of leaves.

+ And to celebrate the Warriors record-setting 16-0 start, here’s a look at the artistry of Steph Curry. (For Warriors fans, the image from this story makes an excellent desktop pattern.)

+ And finally, one thing I’m grateful for this (and every) Thanksgiving are the investigative reporters who inform and entertain us; and often risk their lives sharing stories that change the lives of others. No one does it better than my friends at Reveal (The Center for Investigative Reporting). Phil Bronstein and I record our What Hurts podcast at the Reveal Studios (aside from that, everything they put out is top notch). Join me in supporting their Kickstarter to help their remarkable new radio show go weekly.