CAN YOU HAVE A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T HAVE A GOOD JOB?

IF YOU READ NO FURTHER... :

- Can You Have a Good Life if You Don’t Have a Good Job? (NYT) "Bipartisan experts tend to agree that the decline in employer-provided benefits and the rise of unconventional work arrangements are trends that should be accommodated, by reforms including new portable benefits and expanded income maintenance programs, like tax credits for low-income workers. Slowly, incrementally, Americans have been moving away from a system in which a good job with a generous employer was the key to having a good life to a new system in which even people with low-wage jobs can have access to the basic goods and services that define a decent life in a modern society."

BUSINESS/FINANCE:

- The Stealth Entrepreneur Behind One of the Biggest Innovations in Finance (Ozy) "But for Hughes, solar is just the way in; the ultimate goal is to disrupt finance. (Kopa is Swahili for borrow.) After customers pay down their solar kit, which usually takes about a year, they can remortgage it to buy other items from M-Kopa that would otherwise be too expensive: low-wattage TVs, water tanks, smartphones."

- How Donald Trump Turned the Tax Code Into a Giant Tax Shelter (NYT) "Even if Mr. Trump was correct when he asserted that he only took advantage of what the law allows, such a huge loss undermines one of his central campaign themes, which is that he is an astute and successful businessman."

- Even Obama doesn’t recommend American-style capitalism (Quartz)

- How One Man and One Beer Disrupted an Entire Industry (Fortune)

ENTERTAINMENT:

- ‘Do Not Resist’: A chilling look at the normalization of warrior cops (WaPo) "The striking thing about the footage is, again, the utter mundanity of the raid. A family was just violently raided over an unmeasurable amount of pot. A man was arrested over that pot. The money he needed for his business was taken from him. Yet there’s no shame or embarrassment from the officers. There’s no panic that the whole thing was captured on video. That’s when it hits you. They don’t think they’ve made a mistake. This is what they do."

NEWS:

- A spy’s unhappy wife could have turned D-Day into a disaster for the Allies (WaPo) "Pujol's most famous accomplishment: In June 1944, his missives managed to convince Hitler that the planned Allied invasion of Normandy was a trick, and that the Germans should concentrate their military strength in Pas de Calais, along the Belgian border."

- Ailing Obama Health Care Act May Have to Change to Survive (NYT) "'Even the most ardent proponents of the law would say that it has structural and technical problems that need to be addressed,' she [Sara Rosenbaum] said. 'The subsidies were not generous enough. The penalties for not getting insurance were not stiff enough. And we don’t have enough young healthy people in the exchanges.'"

- The clear and present danger of Donald Trump (WaPo)

- The New Health Care: The Two Mysteries of Medicare (NYT)

SCIENCE:

- The Science Behind Senior Moments (Ozy)

- A New Generation of Astronomers Is on the Hunt for the Next Earth (Wired)

TECHNOLOGY:

- The Internet Finally Belongs to Everyone (Wired)

- Ways I Use Your Data (The New Yorker)

- How to Outsmart Hackers (Ozy)

- What (we think) we know about Google’s new Pixel phones — and why you should care (WaPo)

BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:

- Need to Land a Plane? In Australia, They Break Out the Toilet Paper (NYT) "'She was flat on her back,' Mrs. Smith said. 'Lucky we have the flying doctor.' And the 30 rolls of toilet paper."

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THE RIGHT TO VOTE SHOULD BE RESTRICTED TO THOSE WITH KNOWLEDGE

IF YOU READ NO FURTHER...:

- The right to vote should be restricted to those with knowledge (Quartz) "The idea here is not that knowledgeable people deserve to rule—of course they don’t—but that the rest of us deserve not to be subjected to incompetently-made political decisions. Political decisions are high stakes, and democracies entrust some of these high-stakes decisions to the ignorant and incompetent. Democracies tend to pass laws and policies that appeal to the median voter, yet the median voter would fail Econ, History, Sociology, and Poli Sci 101. Empirical work generally shows that voters would support different policies if they were better informed."

ART/CULTURE:

- Tech is transforming how we live with art (VentureBeat)

BUSINESS/FINANCE:

- Deutsche Bank Troubles Raise Fear of Global Shock (NYT) "In short, fears that Europe lacks the cohesion to avoid a financial crisis may be enhancing the threat of one."

SCIENCE:

- The Geopolitical Secrets Hidden on Wikipedia (Ozy) "The Wikipedia Dispute Index correlates with a number of established measures of geopolitical stability, about as well as they correlate with one other. Rob Russell worked with two colleagues at the University of Heidelberg to create the index by running a relatively simple calculation: On how many pages linked to each country’s homepage does Wikipedia helpfully notify the reader 'The neutrality of this article is disputed'”?

- Nikola Tesla’s Dark Secret (Ozy) "His obsessive mind, helped by an eidetic memory that focused the direction of his experiments, would often give way to overwhelming mania that some historians say resembled the chronic symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder."

NEWS:

- How autonomous vehicles could lead to more jobs in Detroit (ReadWriteWeb) "In the city of Detroit, a city known for being the backbone of America’s auto industry, over 25% of its households do not own an automobile. To make matters worse, its public transportation system is described as one of the worst in the country. This makes going to and from work difficult, if not impossible for many of that city’s citizens."

- Detroit schools Silicon Valley on the future of transportation (VentureBeat) "The race in transportation isn’t about delivering driverless vehicles; it’s about turning transport into a service industry, where consumers no longer own their own cars but rely on car-like services to get from point A to point B."

- Automakers partner to compete against Apple and Google for autonomous car services (VentureBeat) "

- Donald Trump’s catch-22: To sue the New York Times for publishing his tax returns, he’d have to admit they’re his (Quartz)

SPORTS:

- When the Dallas Cowboys have a problem, this is the man who makes it go away (WaPo) "He is, like the “Pulp Fiction” character Winston Wolf, a fixer who exists on the margins and functions without ceremony. He considers the angles, contemplates the ifs, solves the most complicated problems. No wonder the Cowboys, known for acquiring players on their second or third chances, have come to trust Wells implicitly with their most valuable and unpredictable assets. Whatever route a player is trying to find through the system there’s always one more option to help find a way: Call in the Wolf."

- Cubs’ Theo Epstein Is Making Lightning Strike Twice (NYT) "The Cubs, who opened the season with 22 players obtained by Epstein, have the best record in Major League Baseball. On the eve of the playoffs, they are a team deep in talent and seemingly without weakness, a roster that is a mix of youthful prodigies and wily veterans. Epstein patiently and strategically built the mosaic that is the Cubs’ lineup with one prescient acquisition after another."

- To the N.F.L., 40 Winks Is as Vital as the 40-Yard Dash (NYT) "Yet in recent years, in the never-ending search for an edge, teams have opened their eyes to sleep as a priority, backed up by science that increasingly points to its importance for physical and mental health. A solid night in the sack particularly helps players recover from the inevitable wear and tear of a taxing season."

TECNOLOGY:

- Google's Going to Change the Gadget Game, But Not Like You Think (Wired) "So no, Google’s probably not trying to sell more phones than Apple. What it’s trying to do instead is turn Google into the connective tissue for all your devices, phone or otherwise."

- The Untold Story Of Facebook Live (FastCompany) "Outside of Snapchat, there is no more interesting corner of the social media universe than Facebook Live. Live has been touted as Mark Zuckerberg’s pet project, one he’s 'obsessed' with. Some believe Live is the key to Facebook’s future—a resource that will help it compete against broadcast television. Others doubt that Live will ever take off. But no one can deny the potential of live video on a platform that has over 1.71 billion users."

BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:

- What You Should Watch to Catch Up on This Summer’s Shows (NYT)

- How to Pick the Best Credit Card, Based on Rewards (NYT)

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