Curated Commons // Edition 47
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 47th edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
What’s in a name? A lot, if it is Artificial Intelligence $
This is a very good read on why AI might not be as intelligent as we expect, or hope, it to be.
When your corporate culture is a legal liability $
Wild, unbelievable story of the goings-on at Blizzard.
When cyber-gossip meets a parent’s dark anxiety $
Whatsapp, disinformation, and real-world impact. A dark, but good, read from southern India.
Human ingenuity beats algorithmic genius. Always.
Young people are developing ‘algorithmic folklore’ to understand and further shape the code that determines their social media experience. Fascinating how in various small ways, all of us are trying to work around opaque algorithms.
Modern-day Thieves and their Targets
Gangs are using e-scooters to sneak on to UK farms and steal high-value GPS technology, an insurer has said.
NFU Mutual said the cost of replacing the stolen equipment that forms an "essential part of modern farming" nearly doubled in a year to £2.9m.
"Highly-organised criminals continued to plague farmyards," with quad bikes also being targeted, the firm said.
Silicon is back in fashion in Silicon Valley
From a book I am currently reading…
$10 for your palm print?
Amazon loves to paint itself as a target for a variety of things. Now it is offering to pay $10 if you enroll your palm prints in its checkout-free stores and link it to your Amazon account.
Our insecure future is already here
Hackers have shut down the system for booking COVID-19 shots in Italy's Lazio region. :-(
Software + human error = ISS out of control
A software glitch, and possible lapse in human attention, were to blame for throwing the International Space Station out of control, but work was proceeding to activate a newly attached module at the centre of the mishap, Russian space officials said on Friday.
Jet thrusters on the Russian research module Nauka inadvertently reignited on Thursday a few hours after it had docked to the space station, causing the entire orbital outpost to pitch out of its normal flight position some 250 miles above the Earth with seven crew members aboard.
The Internet never ceases to surprise $
This piece is on a new app called F#*$ You Pay Me, which purports to reduce pay inequality among influencers. And buried deep within this story is this category of influencers. Make what you will!
Daniel Herrold, 47, a creator in Tulsa, Okla., who is focused on divorce and lifestyle content, said FYPM had been a lifeline.
“I started to get approached six months ago by random brands,” he said. “The challenge for me and anyone else in the space is that I don’t even know what a market deal is.”
Machine learning + accelerometer = a picture of you
Fascinating thread on how much understanding we can gain just from the accelerometer data on our smartphones.
More good reads:
Tokyo's Olympic medals were made from 78,985 tons of recycled electronic devices, including cell phones - https://www.insider.com/tokyo-olympics-medals-recycled-cell-phones-2021-7
Is online anonymity a threatened privilege than a right? - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/style/anonymity-pseudonymity-online-identity.html
What happens when we talk to animals? - https://harpers.org/archive/2021/04/the-crow-whisperer-animal-communicators/
Are you the kind of dad who will build a voice-controlled exoskeleton so his son could walk? - https://futurism.com/neoscope/voice-controlled-exoskeleton-walk
I learnt about the Marlboro Ranch through this story. America is truly one amazing place! - https://www.wsj.com/articles/sale-of-marlboro-ranch-snuffs-out-smokers-vacation-dreams-11627832239
Very good story of the couple that were harassed by some eBay employees. Pretty out there! - https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/31/business/it-has-be-known-what-was-done-us-natick-couple-harassed-by-ebay-tell-their-story-first-time/
Only Facebook can do this. It accused researchers of collecting data on users without their consent and cut of their access. The “users” in this case were advertisers whose ads were already public. - https://www.protocol.com/nyu-researchers-facebook-disables-accounts
Videos have done more to help companies gain a conscience than any regulation. After the huge backlash against how Amazon destroys unused, returned products, they are now coming up with ways and means to contribute to the circular economy - https://blog.aboutamazon.co.uk/sustainability/amazons-new-programmes-give-returned-and-unsold-inventory-new-life
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