Linkspam: DuckDuckGo, solitary confinement, anachronistic language, and addictive videogames

[firecat]

The DuckDuckGo search engine has exploded in popularity since Snowden. IMO, the next step is to switch from "google" to "quack" as the verb to mean "look up something on a search engine." (Isn't JFQI more fun than JFGI?)
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3026698/inside-duckduckgo-googles-tiniest-fiercest-competitor

The cruel, unusual, and ineffective punishment that is long-term solitary confinement. "no U.S. prison is willing to allow its otherwise isolated prisoners to take part in research."
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-solitary-confinement-180949793/

Anachronistic language in the TV show Masters of Sex
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2014/02/masters-of-sex-nobody-said-that-then.html

The life and death of Flappy Bird, and an amusingly overwritten essay on why it's so addictive
http://mashable.com/2014/02/10/flappy-bird-story/
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/the-squalid-grace-of-flappy-bird/283526/
"Flappy Bird is not amateurish nor sociopathic. Instead, it is something more unusual. It is earnest. It is exactly what it is, and it is unapologetic. Not even unapologetic—stoic, aloof. Impervious."