Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
GMAIL’S “SMART REPLY” FEATURE OFFERS three options in a choose-your-own-adventure game at the bottom of received emails: “Got it.” “Got it, thanks!” and “Looks good!” are common choices. Sometimes the suggested responses are lightly ridiculous. An “I love you” email can prompt “It works!”—perhaps an overcorrection from an early bug when the algorithm was saying “I love…
TAPACHULA, Mexico — As the migrant caravan advanced through Mexico en route to the US on Monday, 15 days before midterm elections, President Donald Trump attempted to stoke new fears, tweeting that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in.” “I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy [sic],” he…
Catch The Sun Amid recent (depressing) revelations that some cheap calculators have fake solar cells on them, a short history of real solar cells on calculators. Recently, a video has been making the rounds online that highlights a stunning fact: We so expect cheap calculators to have solar charging capabilities that manufacturers will go to…
A landlord says Eagan Avenatti, the longtime law firm of Michael Avenatti, right, has failed to pay more than $213,000 in rent for its office suite in Newport Beach. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn actress Stormy Daniels, was hit with a personal judgment of $4.85 million…
On Tuesday, Bloomberg doubled down on its bombshell report from last week, which alleged China had surreptitiously implanted tiny chips into the motherboards of servers to spy on US companies such as Apple and Amazon. If true, this would be one of the worst hacks in history. In its new story, Bloomberg reports that a…
John Micklethwait, the editor in chief of Bloomberg News, told a group of top editors a week ago that their news organization no longer had to groom young, raw talent. It could go after the best journalists around. As an example of its capabilities in high-impact reporting, Micklethwait cited an Oct. 4 piece under the…
When more than 500 white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and members of the alt-right marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, they weren’t just showcasing their startling numbers and their hateful creeds but also their organizational capacity. There were guest speakers, rideshares, demonstration permits, and houses and hotels rented out—everything you’d expect from a group staging a large protest. But…
Samaira Mehta is a 10-year-old girl growing up in Silicon Valley who has quietly attracted an almost cult-like following because of her work as a programmer. She’s the founder and CEO of a company called CoderBunnyz that’s earned national media recognition and landed her speaker roles at nearly a dozen Valley conferences (and counting). It all started when she…
When you have a bit of money, your whole calculus for approaching life’s daily decisions shifts compared to when you didn’t; it’s a change that comes with a mental adjustment, too, as you feel a bit more secure than before. But there’s a point at which this transformation spins off its axis into something grotesque…
You can nuke your friends and enemies in Bethesda’s upcoming Fallout 76, and people aren’t happy about it. Video games have always trivialized violence, but some fans and critics feel that the inclusion of a nuclear war mechanic is a step too far. Waypoint’s excellent article about this subject pointed out that nuclear war is…