Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
American companies continue to build surveillance tools that are used to violate human rights. Workers who refuse to comply deserve protections. Mr. Poulson is a former research scientist at Google. ImageA protester outside Google’s London headquarters in January urging the company to scrap the Dragonfly project, a censored search engine for China.CreditCreditBen Stansall/Agence France-Presse —…
Two employee activists at Google say they have been retaliated against for helping to organize a walkout among thousands of Google employees in November, and are planning a “town hall” meeting on Friday for others to discuss alleged instances of retaliation. In a message posted to many internal Google mailing lists Monday, Meredith Whittaker, who…
Illustration: Elena Scotti (Photos: Getty Images, AP) In February, a little more than a week after she officially announced she was running for president, Elizabeth Warren rolled out a sweeping proposal to make high-quality child care accessible to every family in the country by levying a tax on the ultra-rich. It would be a massive…
The New York Times is again looking to fashion to amplify its own brand. As part of a marketing push around Earth Day, the publisher is teaming with Everlane for a small collection of T-shirts and sweatshirts that riff on its ongoing “The Truth Is Worth It” campaign, but with an environmental twist. Everlane is…
A video that appears to show a white Tesla Model S exploding in Shanghai—set to be home to the US electric car firm’s first overseas factory—has been widely shared on Chinese social media platform Weibo, prompting the company to investigate. “We immediately sent a team on site and we’re supporting local authorities to establish the…
Image: via AP If the rising sea levels, catastrophic storms, and CGI brand ambassadors don’t kill us, there’s always the drug-resistant bacteria, which are now so prevalent around the world that a study says one in 3 international travelers will come home harboring lethal little superbugs. Hahaha! It is so very fun to be alive!…
A series of explosions ripped through the island nation of Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 207 people and injuring at least 450 in the worst terrorist attacks since a lengthy civil war ended a decade ago. Eight bombs exploded, several of them detonated by suicide bombers, at luxury hotels, churches, and other locations. In…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday proposed eliminating the student loan debts of tens of millions of Americans and making all public colleges tuition-free, staking out an ambitious stance on one of the central policy debates of the 2020 Democratic primary. Student debt and college affordability have become a key dividing line in the Democratic race, between more…
Instagram memers have had enough. They generate the engagement that helps keep Instagram growing—but, they argue, the multibillion-dollar platform doesn’t pay them for their work, or give them any control. So they’re fighting back. And before you write off IG Meme Union Local 69-420 as a joke, the organizers of the collective would like you…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a foreign policy community in possession of great power must be in want of peace of mind. Climate change, the Middle East, terrorism, trade, nonproliferation—there is never a shortage of issues and areas for those who work in international relations to fret about. If you were to flip…