Curated Commons // Edition 34
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the Thirty-Fourth edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in.
The rise of the creator economy
Good read from the Economist on the rise of creators and platforms and their implications.
The more possible it becomes to make a living out of online content, the more precarious becomes the position of the companies that have acted as intermediaries between creators and consumers.
Another human bastion falls to the bots
A crossword-solving automaton has won the latest edition of American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Rejoice. Or worry.
Is it too late to fix the music streaming model for smaller artists?
The music industry business model has gone through a massive upheaval in the past couple of decades post Napster & MP3 and now streaming makes up 80%+ of recorded music revenues in the US. Spotify’s payout is approximately at half a cent per stream & ~97% of all artists on the platform failed to reach more than $1,000.
Autonomous in the streets, not-so-autonomous in the sheets
‘nuff said!
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been overstating the capabilities of the company’s advanced driver assist system, the company’s director of Autopilot software told the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The comments came from a memo released by legal transparency group PlainSite, which obtained the documents from a public records request.
Can we persuade our body to regenerate its limbs?
This is a fascinating read on our bodies, regeneration, and where we are headed!
Fast fashion is, maybe, giving way to virtual fashion
Soon, you might not have to buy dresses just for that nice social media post! People are now buying clothes online which will never arrive physically. But once they submit their pictures, they will get a realistic picture of them ‘wearing’ it.
How did Jeff Bezos beat the tabloids?
“When a gossip rag went after the CEO, he retaliated with the brutal, brilliant efficiency he used to build his business empire” - An excerpt from Brad Stone’s new book. I liked his previous book and this one sounds promising as well.
Not all retail is struggling
This is such a telling stat!
Three dollar store chains will make up almost half of all the new stores opening up in the United States this year
Did the SARS-CoV-2 virus escape from a lab in Wuhan and was potentially born out of a US govt-funded project?
This is a very comprehensive look, from an ex-NYT science reporter, at the lab leak theories around the SARS-CoV-2 virus and makes quite a compelling case. We still don’t have clear answers, and till that is the case, each, more cogent than the other, story that points in the direction of a lab leak sounds that much more impactful.
The ways of the pandemic are strange
The world’s most vaccinated country is seeing an unprecedented spike in coronavirus cases. The case of Seychelles - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/06/seychelles-vaccines-covid-cases/
“One Of The World's Poorest Countries Has One Of The World's Lowest COVID Death Rates” - The case of Haiti - https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/05/04/992544022/one-of-the-worlds-poorest-countries-has-one-of-the-worlds-lowest-covid-death-rat
Meet Project Kiwi from Disney Imagineering
“Project Kiwi is a custom bipedal human robot designed to bring fantasy characters to life”
The new benchmark for porous country borders
Apparently frustrated by a 200-year-old stone border marker, a Belgian farmer dug it out and moved it about seven feet into French territory, local officials told French news media, thus slightly enlarging his own land as well as the entire country of Belgium.
More interesting reads:
A really long-read this one. An oral history that captures the tension of the moment at the time of the Osama Bin Laden raid - https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/30/osama-bin-laden-death-white-house-oral-history-484793
Return those VHS tapes you have in the attic - https://gizmodo.com/woman-hit-with-embezzlement-charges-for-20-year-old-ove-1846764009
Shift to electric vehicles can mean less jobs in automotive industry, new report from Germany - https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/germanys-move-to-evs-to-affect-thousands-of-workers-new-study-says-.html
Do brain implants change your identity? - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/26/do-brain-implants-change-your-identity
Not all retail is struggling. Nearly 1 in 3 new stores opening in the US is a Dollar General -https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/06/business/dollar-store-openings-retail/index.html
Do you want your colleagues to determine your salary? - https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56915767
Just another day in our insecure world. A mental health startup built its business on easy-to-use technology. Patients joined in droves. Then came a catastrophic data breach. - https://www.wired.com/story/vastaamo-psychotherapy-patients-hack-data-breach/
The biggest price that Nasdaq’s computers can handle is $429,496.7295. And the share price of Berkshire Hathaway is dangerously close to it. - https://www.wsj.com/articles/berkshire-hathaways-stock-price-is-too-much-for-computers-11620168548
Our future is weird, and dangerous. “This Motorcycle Airbag Vest Will Stop Working If You Miss a Payment” - https://www.vice.com/en/article/93yyyd/this-motorcycle-airbag-vest-will-stop-working-if-you-miss-a-payment
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.