For millions of people in China’s remote far west, dystopian future is already here. A visit to Kashgar, which the Chinese state is using as a kind of frontline laboratory for surveillance – with very real consequences for the muslim minority living there.
From Weekly Filet #252, in October 2017.
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The story of an app that found a way for people to say nice things to each other online – and got bought by Facebook after just nine weeks, for 100 million.
From Weekly Filet #252, in October 2017.
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These are interesting findings: Online dating seems to increase the number of interracial marriages.
From Weekly Filet #251, in October 2017.
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The best text on Facebook and its role in, well, the world, that I’ve read in a long while. It excels in that it addresses the difficulty of grasping Facebook as a company, as a community, as a phenomenon. It doesn’t try to reduce complexity, but embraces it instead. Key quote: «Facebook has grown so big, and become so totalizing, that we can’t really grasp it all at once. Like a four-dimensional object, we catch slices of it when it passes through the three-dimensional world we recognize.»
From Weekly Filet #250, in October 2017.
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Become a Uber driver for a week and make all the right decisions so that you are – unlike me – able to pay your mortgage. A great news game.
From Weekly Filet #250, in October 2017.
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How barbed wire created the modern definition of private property. How air-conditioning invented the modern world. And does technology inherently create superstar effects and inequality? Interesting interview with economist Tim Harford, the author of a new book on history’s greatest breakthroughs.
From Weekly Filet #249, in September 2017.
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A beautifully crafted, beautifully told ode to the group chat, arguably one of the defining forms of social interaction of our age. And I mean that in a good way.
From Weekly Filet #249, in September 2017.
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A magical extension to a great podcast. While «Song Exploder» has musicians deconstruct their songs and explain how they came about, «Inside Music» lets you virtually step into songs and explore their fabric – the individual sounds and instruments that make it come to life.
From Weekly Filet #246, in September 2017.
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Hadn’t thought about it that way yet: Cities built before the advent of cars might be best equipped for a future with far fewer cars.
From Weekly Filet #246, in September 2017.
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It’s not that I’ve wondered before, but suddenly, it seems like a pressing matter: What does it feel like to be a cow? So here goes: Three cows, equipped with multiple sensors each. An algorithm to translate signals from those sensors into sentences. And a chatbot to deliver those messages to you (apparently, you can also write back and «chat» with the cows, because…sure). The project starts on September 4th.
From Weekly Filet #245, in September 2017.
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