Curated Commons // Edition 18
Happy New Year to you and your family. 2021 already is starting with strong news of vaccine approvals globally - so much to look out for and be optimistic indeed!
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the Eighteenth edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in.
Cartels are adapting to the pandemic!
It’s not just companies, but drug cartels too that have had to rapidly adapt to the pandemic. And looks like they have done so in style. Drones, crypto, semi-submersible vehicles and more!
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/world/americas/mexico-pandemic-drug-trade.html
Streaming and the pandemic boost
Talk about increasing the overall market! Good read with lots of numbers on streaming in the US the past year.
The largest streaming services are expected to finish 2020 with combined U.S. subscriber numbers more than 50% higher than a year ago…U.S. households now subscribe to 3.1 streaming services on average—up from 2.7 last year.
“Prime Video is a loss leader for Jeff’s sex life”
Interesting interview with an anon security engineer with AWS. Including a reference to the famed Snowmobile. Strange flex though asking a cybersecurity engineer totally random questions on company strategy!
https://logicmag.io/commons/inside-the-whale-an-interview-with-an-anonymous-amazonian/
Farmville is dead. Long live Farmville
It’s hard to forget the impact Farmville had on Internet. For Farmville, Facebook was the Internet and its playground. Today, For many, Facebook is the Internet, and the good/bad/ugly things that Farmville gave to us are now deeply embedded in Facebook and beyond.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/technology/farmville-zynga-facebook.html
If you can’t meet the standard…break the algorithm
Good investigative read on the lax safety that an armored truck operator in the US follows. The interesting part - there’s always an algorithm involved!
Buy the erudite background you want
Should have guess this business existed, but you can apparently buy books by the feet, for your background of course. Typically used by politicians for their offices, and TV sets, and increasingly for Zoom backgrounds. Thankfully, they appear to be real books, so there’s a non-zero possibility someone might eventually read some of them!
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/26/books-by-the-foot-washington-dc-covid-books-440347
On a related note, was recently introduced to a vendor in Mumbai who sells books by the kilogram! Fascinating approach!
Scaling is hard, even more so if you are called Tesla
A harsh article on Tesla China that shows how the company is struggling with its manufacturing as it is scaling. And yea, no automation here - it’s humans all the way!
https://en.pingwest.com/a/8154
Our insecure online future is becoming our dangerous present
The world has smart, evil people, exhibit #323532. Hackers are reusing leaked online credentials to break into smart cameras, and then hoax calling up the FBI, and watch a livestream of police potentially swatting into the house!
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55499164
Scrabble, but with an algorithmic twist
A smart researcher pulled up this twist on Scrabble. Give it a shot!
https://mkremins.github.io/blabrecs/
The woman scientist who wasn’t good for a faculty position, but might help end a pandemic
An inspiring read on Katalin Kariko who battled a variety of odds, and whose work is now behind the two key mRNA vaccines. A remarkable story on perseverance and believing in yourself!
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mrna-coronavirus-vaccine-pfizer-biontech
On a related note, this is a very good read on how the research into HIV helped lay the foundation for rapid progress in COVID-19 vaccines.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-hiv-research-laid-the-foundation-for-covid-vaccines-11608821508
Slowly, and then suddenly - how software finally ate the business world
True ad personalization is coming soon
Online ads have forever claimed to collect data so they can serve us ‘personalized’ ads. But then, some companies are now taking it to the next level, in real life. BMW is planning to publicly shame (err, advertise), their warranty program to cars out of warranty. They will apparently do so by reading license plates of BMWs at traffic intersection, and broadcasting an ad at a nearby billboard.
For some reason, reminded me of this Brazilian campaign to shame trolls from 2015!
#TIL
Board game Monopoly was invented by a badass woman named Elizabeth Magie. Fascinating thread.
What makes a TikTok dance go viral?
If you have a TikTok alt-life as a dancer, this is a good read (even otherwise as well!)
https://www.dancemagazine.com/popular-tiktok-dances-2649519038.html
"I think that TikTok, and specifically the artificial intelligence that powers TikTok, is the most sophisticated dance curator on the planet," says Skybetter, who researches intersections of dance and technology. "It is a computational and curatorial marvel, and it should be viewed with awe and terror accordingly."
Big Pasta is standing tall
This is a brilliant read with many plot twists about the intriguing world of…a pasta variant! I wish more journalists took this level of obsession with whatever their respective beats are!
https://www.grubstreet.com/2020/12/2020-bucatini-shortage-investigation.html
More good reads:
Cyberpunk 2077 has had enough bad press that more people need to know one good thing they did. A reviewer suffered a seizure while playing a review version of the game that came without a trigger warning. The company worked with her to adapt the game to minimize risk of seizures. - https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/12/31/cyberpunk-2077-seizure/
We are about to communicate with our noses (smells, that is!) - https://www.wired.co.uk/article/fragrance-communication
Singapore, climate change, and the country’s hunt for sand - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-11-15/what-happens-when-singapore-runs-out-of-sand
This is an extremely insightful read on the economic impact of the pandemic and why markets have boomed in 2020 - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/upshot/why-markets-boomed-2020.html
Quantum is coming… “Chinese scientists claim to have built a quantum computer that is able to perform certain computations nearly 100 trillion times faster than the world’s most advanced supercomputer…” - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-04/chinese-scientists-claim-breakthrough-in-quantum-computing-race
Trust PE companies to push the edges of financialization. “Private equity firms have a new set of buyers for their portfolio companies: themselves.” - https://www.ft.com/content/ee914ea4-4ad9-4eec-97c3-95af841122bf
The pandemic forced retailers without a delivery arm to partner with third-parties such a Instacart. Now, as consumers and retailers alike, start getting addicted to home delivery, retailers are realizing the costs - if they can figure it out! - https://www.wsj.com/articles/instacart-looked-like-a-savior-now-stores-arent-so-sure-11609151401
Business >>> ads mocking competitors. Xiaomi mocked Apple when the trillion-dollar company decided to do ‘good’ for t̶h̶e̶m̶s̶e̶l̶v̶e̶s̶ the environment and removed the charger from the package. They quickly ate their ad - https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/26/22200610/xiaomi-ceo-phone-no-charger-mocking-apple-iphone
It’s 2021, and we still have pieces extolling the China ecommerce model. Does the Economist really think this is news to its readers? - https://www.economist.com/business/2021/01/02/the-next-big-thing-in-retail-comes-with-chinese-characteristics
And because one can never have enough videos of robots dancing, here’s the latest from the best in the field!
Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, please do share on your social networks. My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.