Designer homeless lifestyles. There is at least one serious design competition for designers, architects, and engineers which focuses on customized shopping carts for homeless people. — The Homeless Guy (via Tworque)

Cheers for the small countries. What the big news story was at the Olympics this week depends on where you are. In Ulaan Bataar, the big news was Mongolia’s first ever Olympic gold medal… Looking down the medals table, I think Mongolia and Jamaica (fewer than 3 million people each) are the smallest countries that won gold medals during the first week. — East Asia and Pacific on the rise

Alma matters: Changes in Australian higher education. Last month, 27 years after graduating from there with an honours degree, I returned to the University of Sydney as a full-time PhD student. The three years (1987-1990) I spent on the personal staff of John Dawkins while he ‘revolutionised’ Australia’s higher education system has given me an added interest in the changes the last quarter of a century has wrought. — Trevor Cook, ABC Unleashed

For sale: Your browser history. Behavioural ad targeting, web companies’ favourite new way to invade your privacy. (Web Ed’s note – while it’s becoming mroe common, I wouldn’t describe it as new – Google’s been doing it in GMail and on its search pages for quite a while and that’s just one example.) — Slate