- How Trump walked into Putin’s web (Guardian) "Trump’s organisation owned luxury hotels around the world. One obvious question...was: 'Are there business ties to Russia?' Steele put out his Trump-Russia query and waited for answers. His sources started reporting back. The information was astonishing; 'hair-raising'. As he told friends: 'For anyone who reads it, this is a life-changing experience.' For at least the past five years, Russian intelligence had been secretly cultivating Trump. This operation had succeeded beyond Moscow’s wildest expectations. If Steele’s reporting was to be believed, Trump had been colluding with Russia. This arrangement was transactional, with both sides trading favours. How certain was Steele that his sources had got it right and that he wasn’t being fed disinformation? Steele was adamant that his reporting was credible. According to friends, he assessed that his work on the Trump dossier was 70-90% accurate."
- Odds Are, Russia Owns Trump (NYT) "One uncanny aspect of the investigations into Trump’s Russia connections is that instead of too little evidence there’s too much. There’s no longer any serious question that there was cooperation between Trump’s campaign and Russia, but the extent of the cooperation, and the precise nature of it, remains opaque. America, stunned and divided, appears incapable of metabolizing all we’re learning about the man in the White House."
BUSINESS/PERSONAL FINANCE:
- I’m Rich, and That Makes Me Anxious (NYT) "Wealth frequently comes with a bundle of expectations — anxiety and pressure to make smart money decisions, for example, about how it is managed, spent, passed on to future generations, or used to create a legacy. There is a degree of fear."
- Capitalism the Apple Way vs. Capitalism the Google Way (Atlantic) "The companies have taken completely different approaches to their shareholders and to the future, one willing to accede to the demands of investors and the other keeping power in the hands of founders and executives. These rival approaches are about something much bigger than just two of the most important companies in the world; they embody two alternative models of capitalism, and the one that wins out will shape the future of the economy. Having investors dominate, as Apple does, is a good way of handling one principal-agent problem: getting managers to do right by their owners. Proponents of the managerial model embodied by Google worry about a different principal-agent problem. Rather than being concerned about managers ignoring investors, they are concerned that investors won’t serve the people who would benefit from the long-term success of the company. Who’s right? ...it won’t be known for many years to come if Apple or Google has a sharper financial strategy."
NEWS:
- This Is How Every Genocide Begins (FP) "Some of the greatest crimes in human history have begun with moments like this one. Social scientists agree that attacks on an entire class of people — whether identified by their race, religion, education, or any other distinguishing characteristic — do not happen spontaneously. First the mob has to be primed. The targeted group has to be demonized through a campaign of hateful misinformation, always presented as legitimate information by people in positions of trust. Then the signal for violence falls on ready ears. The analogy to the president and his retweets is striking. He has used populist rhetoric to gain sway with vast numbers of disadvantaged and disillusioned Americans, in part by appealing to long-held prejudices. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in Schenck v. United States, 'The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.' The president is trying to generate just such a panic against Muslim Americans, clearly putting them at risk of mob violence. I hope he will face the full force of the law, before it’s too late."
- Odds Are, Russia Owns Trump (NYT) "One uncanny aspect of the investigations into Trump’s Russia connections is that instead of too little evidence there’s too much. There’s no longer any serious question that there was cooperation between Trump’s campaign and Russia, but the extent of the cooperation, and the precise nature of it, remains opaque. America, stunned and divided, appears incapable of metabolizing all we’re learning about the man in the White House."
BUSINESS/PERSONAL FINANCE:
- I’m Rich, and That Makes Me Anxious (NYT) "Wealth frequently comes with a bundle of expectations — anxiety and pressure to make smart money decisions, for example, about how it is managed, spent, passed on to future generations, or used to create a legacy. There is a degree of fear."
- Capitalism the Apple Way vs. Capitalism the Google Way (Atlantic) "The companies have taken completely different approaches to their shareholders and to the future, one willing to accede to the demands of investors and the other keeping power in the hands of founders and executives. These rival approaches are about something much bigger than just two of the most important companies in the world; they embody two alternative models of capitalism, and the one that wins out will shape the future of the economy. Having investors dominate, as Apple does, is a good way of handling one principal-agent problem: getting managers to do right by their owners. Proponents of the managerial model embodied by Google worry about a different principal-agent problem. Rather than being concerned about managers ignoring investors, they are concerned that investors won’t serve the people who would benefit from the long-term success of the company. Who’s right? ...it won’t be known for many years to come if Apple or Google has a sharper financial strategy."
NEWS:
- This Is How Every Genocide Begins (FP) "Some of the greatest crimes in human history have begun with moments like this one. Social scientists agree that attacks on an entire class of people — whether identified by their race, religion, education, or any other distinguishing characteristic — do not happen spontaneously. First the mob has to be primed. The targeted group has to be demonized through a campaign of hateful misinformation, always presented as legitimate information by people in positions of trust. Then the signal for violence falls on ready ears. The analogy to the president and his retweets is striking. He has used populist rhetoric to gain sway with vast numbers of disadvantaged and disillusioned Americans, in part by appealing to long-held prejudices. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in Schenck v. United States, 'The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.' The president is trying to generate just such a panic against Muslim Americans, clearly putting them at risk of mob violence. I hope he will face the full force of the law, before it’s too late."
- Is It Too Late for Robert Mueller to Save Us? (Slate) "...Michael Flynn agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. This moment will prove to be incredibly important, or not important at all. The importance or nonimportance of Flynn’s plea will depend on whether the law and legal conclusions continue to matter going forward, or whether they matter not at all. This is the question all of us are asking all day every day: Is the rule of law an escape hatch or a relic? It’s not yet clear what the answer to that question will be. It seems as though truth and law are forever losing ground in the footrace against open looting and overt totalitarianism. America is operating along two parallel legal tracks. On one track is the chug-chug of law and order, as embodied in the Mueller investigation. On the other is the daily mayhem and denialism and circus-performing of the present White House."
- China has a plan to rule the world (WaPo) "Trump’s 'America first' strategy has facilitated China’s buildup, unintentionally. The administration’s rhetoric on fair trade has been strong, but the actual gains have been modest. Meanwhile, Trump has shredded the Trans-Pacific Partnership and stepped back from other U.S.-led alliances — opening the way for China’s new network of global institutions, including the 'One Belt, One Road' (OBOR) plan for Eurasian trade and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to finance Chinese-led projects. There’s an eerie sense in today’s world that China is racing to capture the commanding heights of technology and trade. Meanwhile, under the banner of 'America first,' the Trump administration is protecting coal-mining jobs and questioning climate science."
- She Warned of ‘Peer-to-Peer Misinformation.’ Congress Listened. (NYT) "How a small group of self-made experts came to advise Congress on disinformation campaigns is a testament to just how long tech companies have failed to find a solution to the problem."
- Would the world be more peaceful if there were more women leaders? (Aeon) "States are...more likely to achieve lasting peace post-conflict when women are invited to the negotiating table. Although the number of women included in peace talks is minuscule (a United Nations study found that just 2.4 per cent of mediators and 9 per cent of negotiators are women, and just 4 per cent of the signatories of 31 peace processes), the inclusion of women can make a profound difference. Peace is more likely to endure: an analysis by the U.S. non-profit Inclusive Security of 182 signed peace agreements between 1989 and 2011 found that an agreement is 35 per cent more likely to last at least 15 years if women are included as negotiators, mediators and signatories."
READ THIS:
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval Noah Harari) "In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions."
SCIENCE:
- This Gene-Editing Tech Might Be Too Dangerous To Unleash (Wired) "The technology Akbari is designing is something called a gene drive. Think of it as a way to supercharge evolution, forcing a genetic modification to spread through an entire population in just a few generations. But U.S. defense agencies see something else: a national security issue."
TECHNOLOGY:
- China’s Technology Ambitions Could Upset the Global Trade Order (NYT) "Under an ambitious plan unveiled two years ago called Made in China 2025, Beijing has designs to dominate cutting-edge technologies like advanced microchips, artificial intelligence and electric cars, among many others, in a decade. China is directing billions of dollars to invest in research at home as well as to acquire innovative technology from abroad. China looks to the West for much of its technology. The goal is not simply to beat the United States. China is preparing for a day when cheap manufacturing no longer keeps its economy humming."
- Worried About Robots Taking Your Job? Learn Spreadsheets (Wired) "Nearly two-thirds of new jobs created since 2010 required high or medium digital skills, the report says. That shift is problematic given America’s long-established deficit in basic digital skills... Overall, the Brookings report suggests the window of opportunity for workers without basic digital skills or a college degree is closing."
- Not the Bots We Were Looking For (NYT) "Before the election, researchers at Oxford University suggested that between the first and second presidential debates, more than a third of pro-Trump tweets and almost a fifth of pro-Clinton tweets came from bot accounts. Political social bots have been stealing headlines ever since, described variously as 'fake Americans,' as 'weaponized' and as 'fake-news-disseminating' agents of Russia. This type of bot bears little resemblance to the ones demonstrated on the stages of tech campus auditoriums. But each sort of bot is made, in its own way, to exploit untapped opportunity in large-scale automation."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- 11 Beloved Movies That Were Box Office Flops (Mental Floss)
TODAY’S SONG:
- Collateral Damage (LEVV)
- China has a plan to rule the world (WaPo) "Trump’s 'America first' strategy has facilitated China’s buildup, unintentionally. The administration’s rhetoric on fair trade has been strong, but the actual gains have been modest. Meanwhile, Trump has shredded the Trans-Pacific Partnership and stepped back from other U.S.-led alliances — opening the way for China’s new network of global institutions, including the 'One Belt, One Road' (OBOR) plan for Eurasian trade and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to finance Chinese-led projects. There’s an eerie sense in today’s world that China is racing to capture the commanding heights of technology and trade. Meanwhile, under the banner of 'America first,' the Trump administration is protecting coal-mining jobs and questioning climate science."
- She Warned of ‘Peer-to-Peer Misinformation.’ Congress Listened. (NYT) "How a small group of self-made experts came to advise Congress on disinformation campaigns is a testament to just how long tech companies have failed to find a solution to the problem."
- Would the world be more peaceful if there were more women leaders? (Aeon) "States are...more likely to achieve lasting peace post-conflict when women are invited to the negotiating table. Although the number of women included in peace talks is minuscule (a United Nations study found that just 2.4 per cent of mediators and 9 per cent of negotiators are women, and just 4 per cent of the signatories of 31 peace processes), the inclusion of women can make a profound difference. Peace is more likely to endure: an analysis by the U.S. non-profit Inclusive Security of 182 signed peace agreements between 1989 and 2011 found that an agreement is 35 per cent more likely to last at least 15 years if women are included as negotiators, mediators and signatories."
READ THIS:
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval Noah Harari) "In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions."
SCIENCE:
- This Gene-Editing Tech Might Be Too Dangerous To Unleash (Wired) "The technology Akbari is designing is something called a gene drive. Think of it as a way to supercharge evolution, forcing a genetic modification to spread through an entire population in just a few generations. But U.S. defense agencies see something else: a national security issue."
TECHNOLOGY:
- China’s Technology Ambitions Could Upset the Global Trade Order (NYT) "Under an ambitious plan unveiled two years ago called Made in China 2025, Beijing has designs to dominate cutting-edge technologies like advanced microchips, artificial intelligence and electric cars, among many others, in a decade. China is directing billions of dollars to invest in research at home as well as to acquire innovative technology from abroad. China looks to the West for much of its technology. The goal is not simply to beat the United States. China is preparing for a day when cheap manufacturing no longer keeps its economy humming."
- Worried About Robots Taking Your Job? Learn Spreadsheets (Wired) "Nearly two-thirds of new jobs created since 2010 required high or medium digital skills, the report says. That shift is problematic given America’s long-established deficit in basic digital skills... Overall, the Brookings report suggests the window of opportunity for workers without basic digital skills or a college degree is closing."
- Not the Bots We Were Looking For (NYT) "Before the election, researchers at Oxford University suggested that between the first and second presidential debates, more than a third of pro-Trump tweets and almost a fifth of pro-Clinton tweets came from bot accounts. Political social bots have been stealing headlines ever since, described variously as 'fake Americans,' as 'weaponized' and as 'fake-news-disseminating' agents of Russia. This type of bot bears little resemblance to the ones demonstrated on the stages of tech campus auditoriums. But each sort of bot is made, in its own way, to exploit untapped opportunity in large-scale automation."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- 11 Beloved Movies That Were Box Office Flops (Mental Floss)
TODAY’S SONG:
- Collateral Damage (LEVV)
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