Curated Commons // Edition 43
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 43rd edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in!
When an algorithm is your boss...
…You better hope it comes with an empathy & fairness mode
Livestreaming farmers are here
Fascinating story!
In 2018, village-born Jin Guowei was knee-deep in debt and peddling fruit to tourists in the streets of Lijiang, Yunnan. Now he’s Brother Pomegranate, an Internet sensation with 7.3 million followers and 300 million yuan ($46 million) of sales in 2020. He once sold 6 million yuan worth of pomegranates in 20 minutes.
Related interesting story from Southern India
Hacker, with a conscience
A security researcher, on the prowl for vulnerable machines found a stash of child pornography. He risked going to jail by turning in the alleged abuser.
A hacker working for a security firm got the shock of their life last month when they stumbled across what appeared to be a Middlebury College employee’s stash of child pornography while hunting for vulnerable computers.
The hacker was faced with a moral quandary: alert law enforcement to their findings and risk criminal charges for hacking—or say nothing and live with a guilty conscience knowing a possible child abuser is on the prowl.
Your washing machine would like to spam your contacts
Can't make this up. Some 'Smart” Samsung washing machines are apparently refusing to work without access to contacts and location.
Car insurance, and human behavior
Fascinating chart from China, and the likely reasoning behind it, in this post.
The chart below shows the number of accidents by policy holders sorted by the months since the policy has been taken. The WTF moment is obvious. The two spikes in accidents in months 12 and 24 just before the policy expires. The research indicates that about 2%-3% of all accidents by individual drivers in China are due to this sunk cost effect.
Stretchable, bendable, circuits on artificial skin might be a reality in the future
Hard to imagine applications today, but this is some exciting news from Stanford. Researchers have managed to squeeze 40,000 transistors into a single square centimetre of stretchable circuitry. Towards a connected health future!
NATO's view on future of wars
Read. And be worried.
New technologies and capabilities are already beginning to turn speculative fiction into reality. Quantum sensing could make oceans ‘transparent’. High-end decryption capacities could make secure communications as open as the front page of a newspaper. Losing control of satellites and the electromagnetic spectrum could degrade Alliance capabilities. Lethal autonomous weapons systems are likely to challenge longstanding ethical and legal norms. These developments are becoming increasingly feasible operational realities of warfare and must be considered as we shape the future NATO strategy.
Security, the evergreen industry, now more greener than ever
There's a surplus of ransomware attacks and a shortage of cybersecurity engineers!
“We’re having to be selective on some of the cases we’re taking. I’ve never been in a position like this before, where I’m choosing work based on what I’m most interested in working today”
Tech, for controlling tech
TenCent is now using facial recognition to limit the number of hours kids can play on phones. The Chinese govt has limits on how much time kids under 18 can spend on a phone and companies are now using tech to implement it.
The Future of Work…need not be this complex.
Don't be Google!
Big, bad companies doing big, bad things
Big auto - “"Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler spent years illegally colluding to slow the deployment of cleaner emissions technology, says the European Union, which is dishing out fines as a result." - https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/8/22568356/volkswagen-bmw-daimler-emissions-cartel-fine-audi-porsche-eu
All your data belongs to the Chinese Govt
Talk about playing the long con!
A Chinese gene company selling prenatal tests around the world developed them in collaboration with the country's military and is using them to collect genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations, a Reuters review of scientific papers and company statements found.
TikTok now competes with…Linkedin
TikTok announced that, starting today, it will invite users to submit video resumes to participating companies, including Target, Chipotle, Shopify, Meredith, NASCAR and the WWE. The company encourages applicants to show off their skills in a creative way while tagging the content with the hashtag #TikTokResumes.
The pilot program is TikTok’s latest effort to streamline the relationship between brands and creators, giving both even more reason to invest time and cash into the platform.
Are you missing flying?
I got just the right game for you!
AMC Games' debut title is something any frequent flyer can appreciate. It's called Airplane Mode, and it's a simulator that recreates the thrills and excitement of a six-hour plane ride in economy seating. No Wi-Fi? Check. Constant droning hum of the craft? Check. Crying, sneezing, coughing, and other human noises? Check. The only thing's missing is the tight cramped spaces, leg cramps, tight backs, and having to pee every 10 minutes.
Players (well I use that term lightly, you're really not playing) will sit through the entire flight in real-time. Luckily the devs have given you some tools to whittle away the hours. You can do Sudoku, crosswords, read a book in real-time, and watch some royalty-free programming from the 1930s like Georges Melies' classic Voyage to the Moon.
Identifying landmines, but with glowing bacteria
Science is fascinating and fantastic, exhibit #232492
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have spent a decade developing living land mine sensors using E. coli bacteria. In recent studies, they describe their latest progress. By using genetic engineering, they can turn each bacterium into “a miniature firefly” in the presence of a chemical associated with the explosives, said Shimshon Belkin, the Hebrew University microbiologist leading the research.
On private labels
Good thread given the recent brouhaha over Amazon's private label business.
If there's an arbitrage opportunity, Goldman Sachs will use it!
Goldman Sachs apparently uses a system to arbitrage difference between on-and-off-peak electricity prices (#TIL, story from 2014)
In the basement of Goldman Sachs' headquarters, one of the the nation's largest thermal storage system makes 1.7 million pounds of ice every night. Goldman runs chilled anti-freeze through pipes connected to 11-ton tanks at night when power costs less to freeze water inside.
More Interesting Reads:
When you are targeted on Tinder for your Bitcoin holdings. New attack vectors! - https://blog.keys.casa/casa-client-case-study-the-tinder-trap/
Netflix now has a new head for podcasting. Everybody does everything. -https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-08/netflix-hires-ex-apple-executive-to-lead-podcasting-operations
Good read on the great chip shortage - https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/1026438/global-microchip-shortage-problem-m1-apple-tsmc-intel/
What if your life was made out to be a fiction story that goes viral online? This one says something about our future, not quite sure what - https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/07/cat-person-kristen-roupenian-viral-story-about-me.html
Unique 2021 story- “Bitcoin power plant making part of glacial lake ‘feel like a hot tub,’ residents say”- https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/bitcoin-power-plant-is-turning-a-12000-year-old-glacial-lake-into-a-hot-tub/
18 years a bootstrapped company - https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2021/07/07/utah-unicorn-entrata-raises-507-million-after-18-years-bootstrapped/
Europe is making a case to ban biometric surveillance - https://www.wired.co.uk/article/europe-ai-biometrics
The rise and fall of the ultimate doomsday prepper - https://theintercept.com/2021/07/05/barrett-moore-brad-thor-doomsday-prepper-the-haven/
Video calls with random strangers online got a bad rap after Chatroulette. But this looks like it has some potential - https://www.meetcafecito.com
Can Roblox build the metaverse? - https://www.wired.co.uk/article/roblox-metaverse
“AI Designs Quantum Physics Experiments Beyond What Any Human Has Conceived”- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-designs-quantum-physics-experiments-beyond-what-any-human-has-conceived/
And finally, forget self-driving mode. We need this!
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.