tech, startups, internet
TikTok is a privacy nightmare, says guy who reverse-engineered it
“TikTok is a data collection service that is thinly-veiled as a social network.” | learn more
oh, chicago
Block Club does in 3 days what the park district couldn’t in 5 years
Five years ago, a wealthy Lakeview resident added creative landscaping to make a semi-private yard out of public park land. The park district tried without success to get the hedges removed. Block Club published the story Tuesday. People came to picnic there Wednesday. The […]
fun facts
There’s a ‘Magic Age’ when you find your musical taste
“And just as there’s a critical period for learning a language, so too is there a critical period for learning your musical tastes: It starts at 14 and peaks at 24.” | learn more
fun facts
Americans and Brits love a good gamble
CNBC reports, “Americans earning less than $30,000 admit to spending about 13% of their income on lottery tickets”, and the average American buys $1,000 of lotto tickets. Meanwhile, about 1 in 3 people in the UK hold Premium Bonds where the interest on […]
fun facts
You aren’t allowed to criticize Goldman Sachs with their new font
“Investment bank Goldman Sachs has released a free-to-use family of fonts called Goldman Sans. But the fonts have a catch: according to the license, you’re not allowed to use them to criticize Goldman Sachs.” | learn more
on the blockchain
PayPal & Venmo plan to roll out direct sales of crypto
This could be a big move toward driving adoption of cryptocurrency by a large group of new users. Telegram’s attempt might have accomplished this, except for those pesky securities law violations (see above). | learn more
on the blockchain
Telegram to return $1.2 billion and pay $18.5 million fine to SEC
“Pavel Durov’s grand cryptocurrency dreams for his Telegram messaging service are ending with an $18.5 million civil settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a pledge to return the more than $1.2 billion that investors had put into […]
on the blockchain
Balaji on decentralized personal media corporations
Balaji Srinivasan has earned a second appearance in today’s newsletter. This is a presentation “on how the multiple concurrent crises of 2020 have led to further breakdowns in trust in both establishment media and social media, and how crypto could […]
big ideas
Vladimir Putin’s essay on World War II
Putin probably didn’t write this, but he did put his name on it. It’s surely published for self-serving reasons, but that doesn’t mean it’s not useful. In particular, he directly contradicts the history I learned in school about the Nazi-Soviet […]
big ideas
The American soviet mentality
Some timely writing about the Soviet Union that’s applicable to the US culture today. “It was during that campaign [against Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago] that the Soviet catchphrase “ne chital, no osuzhdayu”—“didn’t read, but disapprove”—was born: Pasternak’s accusers had coined it to […]