- Are Wet Wipes Wrecking the World's Sewers? (The Atlantic) "But lawsuits are now popping up across the country over use of the word “flushable.” Sewerage authorities claim that flushable wet wipes don’t break apart, and, as a result, are destroying municipal sewer systems. The wipes cluster with congealed food fat to form large blockages known as fatberg—a portmanteau of fat and iceberg. Last year, a 10-ton lump was removed from the London sewer system at a cost of £400,000. Cases have also been reported in Newcastle, Sydney, San Francisco, Miami, New York City, Toronto, and Washington, D.C."
ART/CULTURE:
- A True-Crime Documentary About the Con That Shook the World of Wine (New Yorker) "'Sour Grapes,' by the documentary filmmakers Jerry Rothwell and Reuben Atlas, traces Kurniawan’s ascent to the inner sanctum of connoisseurship, then rehashes the detective work that led to his downfall and scandalized the world of wine collectors."
BUSINESS:
- Uber and other companies like it make up a surprisingly small share of the gig economy (WaPo) "The share of workers engaged in gig work has grown over time, though relatively modestly, from about 10 percent in 2005 to almost 16 percent in 2015, according to the report. Popular notions would say that this has to do with technological advancements. But the McKinsey report suggests differently. Among these gig workers, only 15 percent, a relatively small fraction, have earned income using a digital platform. 'Despite their extensive media coverage, digital 'on-demand' or 'sharing economy' platforms such as Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit, Upwork, Freelancer.com, Thumbtack, Airbnb, and the like facilitate only a small fraction of independent work today,' the report states."
NEWS:
- North Korea is scarier than ever (NYT) "There’s a sense here, among South Korean and American officials alike, that Kim Jong Un, the mercurial leader in Pyongyang, is racing through the warning lights to gain nuclear weapons and missile capabilities to attack his neighbors, and also the United States. The next U.S. president will have to decide what to do about it."
- The Submarine Disaster That Blew Up In Putin's Face (Ozy) "Sixteen years later, the best guess is that the Kursk was carrying the exact opposite of a high-tech weapon. It had been equipped with aging torpedoes fueled by HTP, or high-test peroxide, a substance banned by other major naval powers in the 1950s. If HTP leaks onto other parts of a torpedo’s highly volatile engine, it quickly expands in a chemical reaction that can cause a deadly explosion. That, according to a 2002 official government investigation, was what caused the first explosion on the Kursk, which sent it careening toward the ocean floor. The next explosion — the one that registered in Alaska — came when the sub hit the seafloor, triggering other torpedoes."
SCIENCE:
- Elon Musk is Treating Mars Like It's a Morre's Law Problem. It's Not (Wired) "One of the fundamental problems with a grand visionary projects such as shooting people to Mars is they do nothing to solve the underlying problem of physics, laws of thermodynamics, and the most grand, visionary aspect of all: How to pay for them. Musk ignores the fact that NASA and others have outlined similar roadmaps to Mars for more than 50 years."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Some Basic Security Tips for the Clinton Campaign (and Anyone Else) (Wired)
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Xerox—Yeah, Xerox—Has Found a Way to Bust Carpool Lane Cheaters (Wired) "Joseph Averkamp collects stories about how people break the law. He keeps them in a Powerpoint presentation, dragging the grainy local news photos into the slides. There’s the guy who stuffed a pile of wooden boards into a hoodie. The Washington man who buckled up next to a cardboard cutout of Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man” mascot. Another one he could add, but hasn’t yet: The dude who stuck a yuge picture of Donald Trump’s face on the headrest of his passenger seat."
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ART/CULTURE:
- A True-Crime Documentary About the Con That Shook the World of Wine (New Yorker) "'Sour Grapes,' by the documentary filmmakers Jerry Rothwell and Reuben Atlas, traces Kurniawan’s ascent to the inner sanctum of connoisseurship, then rehashes the detective work that led to his downfall and scandalized the world of wine collectors."
BUSINESS:
- Uber and other companies like it make up a surprisingly small share of the gig economy (WaPo) "The share of workers engaged in gig work has grown over time, though relatively modestly, from about 10 percent in 2005 to almost 16 percent in 2015, according to the report. Popular notions would say that this has to do with technological advancements. But the McKinsey report suggests differently. Among these gig workers, only 15 percent, a relatively small fraction, have earned income using a digital platform. 'Despite their extensive media coverage, digital 'on-demand' or 'sharing economy' platforms such as Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit, Upwork, Freelancer.com, Thumbtack, Airbnb, and the like facilitate only a small fraction of independent work today,' the report states."
NEWS:
- North Korea is scarier than ever (NYT) "There’s a sense here, among South Korean and American officials alike, that Kim Jong Un, the mercurial leader in Pyongyang, is racing through the warning lights to gain nuclear weapons and missile capabilities to attack his neighbors, and also the United States. The next U.S. president will have to decide what to do about it."
- The Submarine Disaster That Blew Up In Putin's Face (Ozy) "Sixteen years later, the best guess is that the Kursk was carrying the exact opposite of a high-tech weapon. It had been equipped with aging torpedoes fueled by HTP, or high-test peroxide, a substance banned by other major naval powers in the 1950s. If HTP leaks onto other parts of a torpedo’s highly volatile engine, it quickly expands in a chemical reaction that can cause a deadly explosion. That, according to a 2002 official government investigation, was what caused the first explosion on the Kursk, which sent it careening toward the ocean floor. The next explosion — the one that registered in Alaska — came when the sub hit the seafloor, triggering other torpedoes."
SCIENCE:
- Elon Musk is Treating Mars Like It's a Morre's Law Problem. It's Not (Wired) "One of the fundamental problems with a grand visionary projects such as shooting people to Mars is they do nothing to solve the underlying problem of physics, laws of thermodynamics, and the most grand, visionary aspect of all: How to pay for them. Musk ignores the fact that NASA and others have outlined similar roadmaps to Mars for more than 50 years."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Some Basic Security Tips for the Clinton Campaign (and Anyone Else) (Wired)
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Xerox—Yeah, Xerox—Has Found a Way to Bust Carpool Lane Cheaters (Wired) "Joseph Averkamp collects stories about how people break the law. He keeps them in a Powerpoint presentation, dragging the grainy local news photos into the slides. There’s the guy who stuffed a pile of wooden boards into a hoodie. The Washington man who buckled up next to a cardboard cutout of Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man” mascot. Another one he could add, but hasn’t yet: The dude who stuck a yuge picture of Donald Trump’s face on the headrest of his passenger seat."
Sign up for email distribution of the Day's Most Compelling News below or by visiting Top of the News
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