Mark Twain to censors: “I wrote Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn for adults exclusively.” After hearing that his books had been censored by the Brooklyn Public Library’s Children’s Department in 1905, Twain got his sarcasm on in this one-of-a-kind letter to a librarian there. “The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean,” he snidely continues. “I know this by experience.” Read the rest of his delightful scorn, here.

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An argument for a community-based approach to mental illness.
 

Some not-so-pretty pictures of tar-sand mining in Alberta.
 

The latest breakthrough in invisibility-cloak technology. 
 

Why Warren Buffett is buying up every last local newspaper he can find.
 

Colorado’s amazing, frozen, (and almost) exploding cows.

Why Elvis refused to dance at his senior prom in 1953.

Tokyo’s gorgeous, haunting LED-illuminated river.

It turns out that college students’ internal gaydar is surprisingly accurate.

Why LSD is more likely to block brain activity than expand it.

Solitary confinement is more and more common in American prisons, even though it defies common sense.

Why we should really be taking the Unabomber more seriously. Ted Kaczynski, the math-genius-turned-domestic-terrorist probably has every reason to stay in prison. But his manifesto on the dangers of technology dependence is gaining more ground among academics and philosophers. Find out why, here.

The Crockpot: Utne’s Weekly Guide to What You May Have Missed  

It turns out that only about a tenth of Americans believe climate change isn’t real, and more than two thirds think it should be a bigger political issue. The findings, by Yale and George Mason University, fly in the face of what’s passing for an environmental debate in this country, says Ecopolitology. Most Americans also believe the environmentalism/economic growth conflict is a false one and that sustainability can help create jobs. The really weird part? Another George Mason study back in 2010 found that about a quarter of weathercasters thought global warming was a hoax. But honestly, who believes what the weatherman says?

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Why the pope controls our traffic laws—and how Samoa learned to fight back.

Why Arizona could be a battleground in this election—no, really.   

Check out the new, brilliant, extremely Russian mobile sauna. 

Iran to Google Maps: It’s the Persian Gulf, OK? 

Why sex robots will soon take over the world without us really noticing.

Explore Tokyo’s exquisite, real-life glass house.

Researchers at Emory University complete the first-ever MRI scan of a dog’s brain.

What a therapeutic playground for autism sufferers might look like.

Why Cap’n Crunch is a total chauvinist.

Why it took the Queen of England 169 years to get real on freedom of speech.

What an ancient Roman garbage heap can teach us about designing modern parks.

Knowing more than one language has a profound effect on brain development in children, and not just in language skills, says New Scientist. New studies have found that bilingual kids are better at concentrating, multitasking, and are faster to empathize with others. And in adults, bilingualism may even stave off the effects of aging, dementia, and Alzheimer’s as it keeps the brain active and vital. The best part? It’s never too late to learn. Read More.