“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’ ”
—Isaac Asimov

We’ve been used to getting soda by vending machine for a long time, but how about pizza? Or bicycle parts? Or live crabs? Check out a gallery of the world’s most unusual vending machines over here.

It’s July 4. Which means it’s time to listen to Jean Shepherd tell the story of Ludlow Kissel and the Dago Bomb That Struck Back. (Here’s an alternate link.)

Hey, look who just became cable’s biggest TV network. GigaOm reports.

… dollars. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 billion, that is. That’s how much Google contributed to the U.S. economy in 2011 … according to Google, of course. Social Times reports.