The Very First Webcam Was Invented to Keep an Eye on a Coffee Pot at Cambridge University

I don't feel old, generally, except when I read pieces like this. I remember accessing this webcam like it was yesterday ... [Link]

We are benefitting hugely from Brexit, says Estonia’s prime minister

"“We have seen more than 4,000 British companies coming to Estonia,” Kallas continued, explaining that the UK companies’ main reasons were access to the EU, the country’s tax system, as well as Estonia’s flourishing tech scene and digital infrastructure." Brexit was such a stupid own

How one coder became Indonesia’s misinformation guru

"To the overwhelming majority of observers, Fahmi successfully treads the line between the interests of entities who could be either his clients or his targets. Drone Emprit is one of a kind. With it, Fahmi has established credibility as a misinformation authority in a noisy landscape." [Link]

Lyra McKee: four men arrested over killing of journalist in Derry

"The four men, aged 19, 20, 21 and 33, were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2006 on Wednesday morning. They were in the Derry area, and are now being questioned at Musgrave police station in Belfast." Lyra's death was a loss for the world. [Link]

Blood Concrete Could Be Used to Build Dwellings on Mars

"You may not be able to get blood from stone. But now, getting stone from blood is a real possibility… At least on Mars. New research published in Materials Today Bio suggests an unlikely source for building materials on Mars: astronauts’ blood." [Link]

Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show

"“Social comparison is worse on Instagram,” states Facebook’s deep dive into teen girl body-image issues in 2020, noting that TikTok, a short-video app, is grounded in performance, while users on Snapchat, a rival photo and video-sharing app, are sheltered by jokey filters that “keep the focus on the

Tesla vs Toyota

I took delivery of a Tesla Model 3 a few months ago. My original intention was to take my mother to dialysis in it (she really wanted an electric car), but when that didn’t work out, I decided to keep it. For one thing, I’ve always resented having

Judith Butler calls out transphobia as “one of the dominant strains of fascism in our times”

"“The anti-gender ideology is one of the dominant strains of fascism in our times,” Butler said, referring to everyone who believes that sex is “biological and real or that sex is divinely ordained,” including TERFs like J.K. Rowling, fascists like Tucker Carlson, and religious conservatives like Rep. Greg

Barnyard breakthrough: Researchers successfully potty train cows

"“The calves’ rate of learning is within the range seen with 2- to 4-year-old children, and faster than for many children,” Matthews says. The waste, Langbein adds, could be moved to a storage tank, used for fertilizer, or even sampled to monitor the health of individual cows." [Link]

MailChimp: an inequitous acquisition

MailChimp is selling to Intuit for $12 billion. Importantly, seemingly because it’s a privately-held, bootstrapped company, it never gave stock options to its employees - so not a single one will see a penny from the deal. If I was a MailChimp employee, I’d be pretty upset. Venture

The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers

"Our results show that firm-wide remote work caused the collaboration network of workers to become more static and siloed, with fewer bridges between disparate parts. Furthermore, there was a decrease in synchronous communication and an increase in asynchronous communication. Together, these effects may make it harder for employees to

Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt.

"In private, the company has built a system that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of its rules, according to company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal." [Link]