Happy day-before-Thanksgiving for folks in the U.S.!
Department of Technology:
- Not good: Facebook knew its algorithms were biased against persons of color but evidently didn't change them because doing so might upset conservatives (or something). It's getting to the point where one has to presume that Facebook's actions on any topic are going to be the inverse of a morally correct action.
- The European Parliament is really turning the DMA into a beast of a law... More details here. Relatedly, Benedict Evans digs into the big tech M&A landscape.
- And the Italian competition authority hit Apple and Amazon with a combined $225 million in fines for alleged anticompetitive behavior regarding the sale of Apple and Beats products.
- The advent and growth of computational microscopes will likely have massive positive implications for biosciences.
- The downside of smart EVs: if your software glitches out, well, you may not be able to use your car. Speaking of: Apple is reasserting itself in a major way into the self-driving car debates, with hopes of having self-driving cars available by 2025. Maybe that's another reason it's good for them to be strengthening their partnership with TSMC.
- Several state attorneys general are investigating Instagram's impact on young people, following revelations in the Facebook Papers.
- Tile was right about the promise of bluetooth-based tracking. But they couldn't corner the market before Apple and others jumped in. Now they've sold themselves to Life360.
- Wild: NASA is looking to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade or so. They also just teamed up with SpaceX to launch a rocket at an asteroid to see if they can alter its trajectory (the launch was visible across much of California last night).
- China's SAMR just went after several large Chinese tech companies for their failure to adhere to competition law requirements.
- I didn't know that the Washington Post has a software arm.
- Cue the memes: El Salvador is planning a "bitcoin city" powered by a volcano. Could be awesome, could be awful.
- It's a creator economy indeed: Adele got Spotify to change their approach to shuffling songs for her new album '30'. But if it's a creator economy, don't mention that to Clubhouse -- they've been struggling mightily since last winter.
- After Paytm's IPO flopped, Indian startups are under greater scrutiny from investors.
- Fortnite has left China.
- Facebook, once the 'it' company for people in the Valley, is struggling with retention and brand value loss. Seems like the only ones who want to work there now are the lawyers?
- Wild: keyboards weren't designed for the Khmer language, and so users in Cambodia have decided to use voice notes instead of messages on Facebook Messenger (accounting for an astonishing 50% of global voice traffic on the app).
Privacy and Security matter:
Covid is a battle we can win:
Climate Change is a challenge we must meet:
California is a fascinating state:
- There were wild scenes all over the Bay Area the past week as large flash-mob like groups vandalized and robbed a series of stores (stealing $200k in goods from one Nordstrom alone). People blame the classification of <$950 thefts as misdemeanors, but participating in an organized criminal operation like these will likely bring additional charges...assuming they catch the criminals. In any event, regular people are getting scared and starting to invest in self-protection.
- Relatedly, as the NYT points out, the new book San Fransicko gets the diagnosis part-right, but definitely misses the cure for SF's homeless woes by focusing on the author's agenda-based narrative.
- California's high-speed rail plan is, like many infrastructure projects, cutting through disadvantaged areas (this time in the San Joaquin Valley, impacting groups ranging from the Valley's largest homeless shelter to Cambodian diner owners, and more).
- Many people are moving from California to Texas and other places, in large part due to the high costs of living here. And even within the state, people are leaving the more expensive coast for cheaper inland digs. In light of that, Sacramento has given SF 30 days to explain why the City has blocked the construction of hundreds of housing units in the past few months.
- The Monarch butterflies are back in a big way this year.
- The Department of Missing the Point: if you're buying a home in SF, don't ruin it by stripping it of its color and charm.
- Horrible: the fires in the southern Sierra in 2020-21 (the Creek Fire, the SQF Complex, etc.) have killed approximately 20% of all giant Sequoias in the wild.
- Squaw Valley changing to the Palisades Tahoe was ahead of the curve. The DOI has created a panel to remove "squaw" and other offensive names from federal lands.
- Calling it like he sees it: a local resident outlines the case against the NPS plan for Point Reyes National Seashore. He's right.
- This collision is inevitable: wind power vs. avian protection. It's being contested right now in Alameda County over the expansion of the Altamont Pass turbine farm. Related: does California need to keep an aging nuclear power plant (that is situated basically on a fault line) to keep up with its clean energy goals?
- Yikes! Lead is leaching into Lake Tahoe.
- Democracy often dies by a thousand cuts, which is why the Biden administration and Congress should prioritize voting rights protections in advance of the 2022 election. Related: Foreshadowing the potential state of U.S. governance in 2023, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy babbled for a record-length speech last Thursday/Friday to oppose a fairly innocuous set of positive, common-sense policy objectives supported by most Americans that are included in the House's Build Back Better bill.
- A welcome (and belated) first: when President Biden went under anesthesia for a brief operation last Friday, VP Kamala Harris took over the reins as Acting President, marking the first time a woman has been in charge of the U.S. government (even if only temporarily).
- The Rittenhouse verdict will likely inspire more paramilitary/militia action, unfortunately.
- It's Native American Heritage Month, and the Washington Post has a great set of vignettes from Native Americans from across the U.S. speaking to their experiences.
- Common sense, but I'm glad it's being done: the UK is recognizing that lobsters, octopuses, crabs, and other related species are sentient beings and experience pain. This may result in better requirements for treatment of these animals in the food ecosystem.
- Thanksgiving special: how inflation is impacting the price of Thanksgiving meals in the U.S.
- If you're struggling for holiday gift ideas, crowdsource it using Google Shopping's trend analysis.
- A needed move: telecoms will be required to route calls/texts to 988 to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline starting in July.
- Yikes: a very common drug (acetaminophen) has interesting effects on people's risk tolerance and behavior.
- The NYT has a wild story about how some marine biologists out of Monterey found a 100,000+ year old mammoth tusk on the bottom of the ocean.
- Noah Smith continues to dig into the question of China's progress and suggests that China's growth has reached a new, slower stage.
- Scientists have recreated a new phase of water, called 'superionic ice.' It might help explain how planets like Uranus and Neptune work.
- The supply chain woes that have plagued much of the world for months appear to be easing over the next few months.
- Apparently, cultures all over the world have taboos regarding how one reacts to (or points at) rainbows.
- Ethiopia is not in a good place right now.
- Vice doesn't like the way people talk in Josh Whedon projects.
- Age-old question answered: zebras are black with white stripes.
- Finally, to close things out, the 8th Circuit recently found that police officers who shoot dogs are not necessarily entitled to qualified immunity. Now, let's have the same finding for shootings involving persons of color.
