Daily Bafflements

• From Max Linsky comes a set of scanned pages from a handbook for a class about the Internet that his grandmother took in her retirement home in 1998. “How Big is the Internet? No one knows.”

• This Bloomberg video breaks down several meticulously-thought-out design elements in a Starbucks that encourage the customer to buy. “Start with the door handle—designers like to call this ‘the handshake between the customer and the store.’” Terrifying!

• Recommended reading: Kate Losse’s piece about her visit to Kink.com at San Francisco’s Armory and her thoughts about “kink as a platform.”

• This one isn’t a bafflement as much as an update to a previous bafflement: Chelsea Manning has now been given permission for a transfer to a civilian prison so she can undergo gender reassignment surgery. “Transgenders are not allowed to serve in the U.S. military and the Defense Department does not provide such treatment, but Manning can’t be discharged from the service while serving his 35-year prison sentence,” reports the AP. “Some officials have said privately that keeping the soldier in a military prison and unable to have treatment could amount to cruel and unusual punishment.”