Curated Commons // Edition 78
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 78th edition of Curated Commons. The newsletter is free but do consider sharing it on your social networks if you like it and spread the love!
Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
Consent? What’s that?
One of the most egregious violators of user consent is a Swedish company called TrueCaller. The app has found its engagement mojo in India where it has 205 Mn out of its 278 Mn monthly active users. It has absolutely no qualms in uploading your address book to their servers, and even if you haven’t installed the app, as long as one of your contacts has your details and installed it, your details are available to the entire TrueCaller community. Also pretty wild that the app has brazenly implemented varying levels of privacy protection across countries, with India getting the worst! Very good story - Read here
Facebook & the fruit of the poisoned tree
Very good deep-dive by the FT on how Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Diem failed. And this was a rare case where a tech company asked for permission first, not forgiveness. They got their answer - Read here ($)
Bezos is enjoying his life
He built Amazon, messed up his marriage, and is now apparently leaving some of his professed ideals for enjoying his money and his new goals in life. - Read here ($)
Heavy-duty electric trucks are a reality
Interesting stuff from Scania. Not waiting for hydrogen. - Read here
“Everything is a climate story”
Story on Ukraine being a climate story, but really, these first few lines are something that should stick with all of us. - Read here
How do you breach US Govt systems? Hack a livestock app?
Everybody loves an app. Most apps have security flaws. and there’s always a bad actor lurking. - Read here
Robotic at-scale hydroponic farming is here
Food security for the future will require some of these startups, or similar ones elsewhere, to succeed. - Read here
Need more reasons to hate the Metaverse? Eye tracking
Not totally unexpected. - Read here
While at it, meet the metaverse’s killer app - Poker. - Read here ($)
Russia is more than oil, when it comes to energy
Europe is now trying to get rid of hits hunger for Russian gas. But going electric also means going to a medium that requires a lot of commodities mined by…Russia. - Read here ($)
Kawasaki has a robot goat. Beat that.
I already love it. - Read here
War = Peak mis-information
This is peak narrative creation time, so watch out what you believe on social media. - Read here ($)
Guns. Nerf guns.
Not quite sure what to make of this story on the navy SEAL-ification of nerf guns. Some pretty wild pics! - Read here
Twitter, during major events
This is a brilliant depiction of all the various characters the pop up on Twitter during every major global event. - Read here ($)
What it takes to render Interstellar on IMAX
Some 40,000 lines of C++. Plus ~32,000-cores of E5-2680 Intel Xeon CPUs with 156GB RAM. Not much. - Read here (technical paper alert)
It’s a lawyer’s world. We are all just mere inhabitants
More Interesting reads:
Interesting read on a 1000-year old hair ritual that’s alive in Chad - Read here
AI + Historians = better understand of our past? Fascinating research from DeepMind - Read here
“Amazon rainforest is losing its ability to recover from destruction” :-( - Read here
Like it will help? -”The children of some of Russia's wealthiest oligarchs are rebelling against Putin on Instagram and calling for peace” - Read here
Guy buys rare Pokemon card. Using COVID relief funds. Gets 3 years in prison. - Read here
Is it possible to end all inflammation with just one drug? Researchers are working on it. - Read here
Sure sounds like it’s easier to buy a gun in the US, than it is to buy a syringe for your injection! - Thread
As you head back to the office, this is a lovely video worth watching
And finally
Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, thank you, and maybe considering it? My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.