Insight and analysis on global marine issues from The Economist. We’re not treating our most common resource well. We’re raiding it.
The Untold Story of Magic Leap, the World’s Most Secretive Startup, WIRED, May 2016 cover story. The world’s hottest startup isn’t located in Silicon Valley—it’s in suburban Florida. Kevin Kelly explores what Magic Leap’s mind-bending technology tells us about the future of virtual reality.
Inside OpenAI, Elon Musk’s Wild Plan to Set Artificial Intelligence Free, WIRED, 27 Apr 2016. Elon Musk has a new startup. OpenAI is a billion-dollar effort to push AI as far as it will go.
Facebook Isn’t the Social Network Anymore, Slate, 24 Apr 2016. Facebook may have peaked as a social network. But it’s reinventing itself as something bigger.
Alphabet’s Next Big Thing: Building a ‘Smart’ City, WSJ 26 Apr 2016. Unit of Google parent explores project to ‘create a city from scratch’.
The State is Back in Business, CFR, 22 Apr 2016. It’s how state capitalists are governed that matters—not how much of the economy they control, argues Joshua Kurlantzick in new book, State Capitalism.
President Xi Jinping’s Most Dangerous Venture Yet: Remaking China’s Military, WSJ, 25 Apr 2016. The Chinese leader’s plan to revamp the armed forces, the biggest restructuring of the People’s Liberation Army since the 1950s, a plan that unnerves America and its Asian allies and could upset the global balance of power. A milestone in the nation’s emergence from isolationism, it faces hurdles at home.
Please Vote For Me, An Aeon Video exclusive. Chinese children grow up largely unfamiliar with democracy. But when taught its basic principles and asked to elect a class monitor, a group of third graders is quick to embody the imperfections of the democratic process, from empty promises to back door bribery.
Venezuela Doesn’t Have Enough Money to Pay for Its Money, Bloomberg, 27 Apr 2016. Venezuela’s inflation, the world’s highest, is expected to rise this year to close to 500 percent, according to the IMF.
The city with $248 billion beneath its pavement, BBC Capital, 19 Apr 2016. Under London’s streets lies a hidden gold mine: vaults that stash one-fifth of all the gold held by the world’s governments.
The Dice You Never Knew You Needed, The New Yorker, 26 Apr 2016. [The] d120 is billed as the “ultimate fair die allowed by Mother Nature (i.e., mathematics!),” since a die couldn’t, practically speaking, possess more sides or more symmetry, and dice must be symmetrical to be fair.
Why Physics Is Not a Discipline, Nautilus, 21 Apr 2016. Physics is not just what happens in the Department of Physics.
The Psychopath, the Altruist and the Rest of Us, WSJ, 21 Apr 2016. Studies of psychopaths and extreme altruists suggest that their behavior could be linked to the amygdala, part of the brain.
Cheap MBAs: Costly for some, The Economist, 21 Apr 2016. Cheap as chips MBAs aren’t worth the risk. Why it’s worth investing a little more.
Sex: the myths debunked, The Guardian, 23 Apr 2016. From boosting your IQ level to lowering your blood pressure, how much do you really know about sex?