Juliane Koepcke | BBC | 24 March 2012 Juliane Koepcke was flying over Peru when lightning struck her plane. It broke apart in mid-air and she was catapulted into the outside, plummeting two miles down, still strapped into her seat. She awoke in the rainforest below Comments Michael Chorost | Wired | 20 March 2012 Inside the race to create the perfect prosthetic limb. “It’s not that we’re not going to be able to do it, but it’s higher-hanging fruit than people think." Our current understanding of biology simply isn't comprehensive enough Comments Simon Winchester | Lapham's Quarterly | 22 March 2012 Fascinating story of the Dictionary of American Regional English. In 1965 volunteers were sent out to thousands of towns, villages and hamlets across the US to record local dialects. Almost 50 years later the book is complete Comments John Seabrook | New Yorker | 22 March 2012 How a pop song gets written. Production team comes up with chord changes, instrumentation, beat. "Top line" composer brought in to add a vocal track with melody, catchy hooks. Then a demo goes out to the intended artist Comments Venkatesh Rao | Ribbonfarm | 22 March 2012 Rumination on how to deal in principle with black swans, unknown unknowns. You can deny they exist. Or you can despair. Or you can design systems that thrive on threats—like hydras, which grow two heads when one is cut off Comments Clementine Ford | Daily Life | 22 March 2012 "Discomfort around women and sex permeates our culture, and the act itself has become a darkly comic battleground." Reflecting on Limbaugh's attack on Sandra Fluke prompts wider discussion of society's attitude to female sexuality Comments | 
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