7.18

The foreigners in China’s disinformation drive

Feeling Lonely Increases Interest in Previously Owned Products

If you want to learn more about what’s going on in your gut, the first step is to turn your poo blue

For the cover of its diversity report, ODNI bought a stock photo called “Portrait Of Multi-Cultural Office Staff Standing In Lobby” and then photoshopped a woman in a wheelchair and a blind guy into it.

Thanks to a MS-DOS emulator called iDOS 2 on the App Store, you can install Microsoft Windows 3.1 on your iPad—then play classic Windows games or simply shock your friends. Here’s how to set it up.

Effort to Decipher Hospital Prices Yields Key Finding: Don’t Try It at Home

Inside L.A.’s Ultimate Mid-century Modern Home

Ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn: How I escaped Japan in a box

Apple Music Style Guide 2.1.6

It wasn’t to be. Dante’s friend Giovanni del Virgilio promised to secure him the laureate’s crown in Bologna if he produced a poem worthy of it, perhaps a military epic in Latin. Dante declined, just as he had declined the humiliating terms on which the Florentines offered to revoke his exile.

Employees were already stirred up over opaque policies on remote work. Then a senior executive announced he’s moving to New Zealand in what some workers consider special treatment.

Spanish court rules COVID-19 home confinement was unconstitutional

Merkel seems to genuinely care about human rights, and she certainly does not seem to be eyeing any payoffs of her close ties to China during her post-chancellorship. Unlike her predecessor Gerhard Schröder, who now makes his money serving Russian President Vladimir Putin as chairman of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Merkel is not at all driven by personal wealth, and it’s very unlikely that she will accept a cent from the Chinese or Russian government or companies after leaving office this fall.

On the referendum #21: Branching histories of the 2016 referendum and ‘the frogs before the storm’

A Facebook spokesman declined to share what percentage of its users have accepted the company’s tracking prompt, but roughly 75% of the world’s iPhone users have downloaded the newest operating system, according to Branch. Seufert estimated that in the first full quarter users see the prompt, the iOS changes could cut Facebook’s revenue by 7% if roughly 20% of users agree to be tracked. If just 10% of users grant Facebook tracking permission, revenue could be down as much as 13.6%, according to his models. The first full quarter with the prompt is the third quarter. Facebook reports second quarter earnings at the end of July.

Many of my predictions in “The most likely outcome for HK” (3-Sep-2019) have come to pass, thankfully without material bloodshed. The civil service, legislature and district councils have been, or are being, cleansed of pandemocrats in a kind of inverse McCarthyism. Pro-democracy media have either been shut or are self-censoring. In schools, the Liberal Studies curriculum has been replaced with “Citizenship and Social Development”, and teachers are being watched more closely. In universities, Student Unions are being derecognised. The public broadcaster RTHK has been reined in (although I still appear on its air, while I can).

Incident: Baltic BCS3 at Copenhagen on Jul 11th 2021, both engines shut down automatically on touch down

Public API Lists

“Hokusai’s Breathtaking and Rarely Seen Wave Painting Will Go on View This Month” at the Freer Gallery of Art

TECH

Google parts with Cloud VP after uproar over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

“It’s hard to know whether they are going to devote resources toward successful implementation or just talk about how they support transparency but not make it a priority,” Blase said.

Citizenship for sale: fugitives, politicians and disgraced businesspeople buying Vanuatu passports

The first park she illustrated for the Instagram account was Arches and its non-license-plate-worthy scenery. Once she put up a few more and shared the account, the project took off. With more than 350,000 followers, the account has been called “an immediate hit,” taking “creativity to a whole new level” and providing “comic relief in strange times.” Soon enough, literary agents were sliding into Share’s DMs to get her to create a book with them.