EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY Can Twitter Really Bring Absolute Free Speech? Key Takeaways: Elon Musk is the planet’s number one billionaire. When free-market elephants like Musk or Jeff Bezos (who bought the Washington Post in 2013) take charge of major mass-media outlets, concerns are raised about the direction of free speech, which remains the essential ingredient of democratic participation. There can be no question that protest […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY The Algorithm That Recently Changed The World Earlier this year, an algorithm was released online — full and completely free — for academics to use. This algorithm represents one of the most important scientific discoveries of our lifetimes, showcasing the growing potential for AI to alter the course of our civilization. Using deep learning and neural networks the algorithm known as Alpha […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS Is Patriotism Actually Good? The root of patriotism is the belief that one is part of something better than the alternative; and that this confers not only prestige but a sort of pre-determined ascendency among a chosen few. This kind of sanctimonious thinking is the kind of toxic narrative that leads to the justification of wars between patriots of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS TECHNOLOGY Are Tech Giants Above The Law? A US federal court has ruled that the antitrust lawsuits that the Federal Trade Commission and 40 states had filed against Facebook failed to prove conclusively that the company is a de facto monopoly, rejecting the state lawsuits and giving the FTC 30 days to substantiate its arguments. As a result, Facebook shares are up 4%, pushing the company’s share price […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE TECHNOLOGY The 2 Things Needed For Crypto To Truly Change The World What do we need for crypto to really hit the big time? What does it take for crypto to turn into something nobody can live without, something invisible and universal that everyone just uses and nobody even thinks about anymore? All technological revolutions follow the same patterns. Over time, we go from a few smart […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK JOURNAL & RESEARCH Lessons From The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis In the mid-summer of 1997, much of East Asia was gripped by the Asian financial crisis. The crisis began in Thailand due to the mounting pressures of its exchange rate in the last quarter of 1996. The These mounting pressures arose from the increase of the already high current account deficits that engulfed the country at the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE TECHNOLOGY China’s Digital Currency Is About To Disrupt Money A lengthy article in The Wall Street Journal, China creates its own digital currency, a first for major economy, outlines the likely impact of Beijing’s initiative and the strategic possibilities it offers in terms of avoiding US blockades of its companies, how this will boost its role in international transactions, while allowing it to monitor its […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
JOURNAL & RESEARCH POLITICS The Politics Of Intellectual Property Introduction: This Article argues that we need a politics, or perhaps a political economy, of intellectual property. Using the controversy over copyright on the Net as a case-study and the history of the environmental movement as a comparison, it offers a couple of modest proposals about what such a politics might look like — what theoretical […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
STARTUPS TECHNOLOGY The Clubhouse Dilemma Clubhouse now has more than 12.7 million users and despite still being only available for iPhone (not unlike another massive adoption phenomenon of some years ago, Instagram) and has just announced a platform for successful content creators to better monetize what they do. At the same time, it is beginning to face significant competition not only […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS TECHNOLOGY The Unstoppable Growth Of The Freemium Economy At a Twitter event for analysts, the company presented its plans — previously disclosed to the SEC — to double its revenue by the end of 2023, with the goal of reaching 315 million monetizable daily users. The company, which is doing well in the wake of last year’s threat of a shareholder rebellion to replace CEO Jack Dorsey, has interesting plans for […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Did Ancient Scientists & Philosophers Believe In Aliens? Key Takeaway: In 17th-century Europe, there was a debate about the existence of life on other planets due to the transition from a Ptolemaic view to a Copernican view. This led to the idea that if we were more like other planets and moons close to us that revolved around the Sun, they were more […] Written by Philip Almond April 17, 2024April 17, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Building Blocks Of The Universe Key Takeaway: Peter Higgs, the creator of the Higgs boson, has died at the age of 94. Higgs, a great scientist in particle physics, discovered the Higgs boson in 1964 after reading a paper by American theoretical physicist Philip Anderson. This led to the development of the Standard Model, which explained how fundamental particles and […] Written by Harald Fox April 16, 2024April 16, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Proven 5 Steps To Psychological Wellness Key Takeaway: Wellness culture, which claims to provide happiness and meaning, has been criticized for its superficial focus on superficial aspects like candles and juice cleanses. Psychological research suggests that long-term wellbeing comes from a committed pursuit of both pleasure and meaning. Martin Seligman’s Perma model, which breaks wellbeing into five pillars: positive emotions, engagement, […] Written by Ben Gibson April 8, 2024April 8, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
When Will Quantum Computers Actually Become Practical? Key Takeaway: Quantum computing, which uses entanglement to represent information, has the potential to revolutionize everyday life. However, the development of quantum computers has been slow due to the need to demonstrate an advantage over classical computers. Only a few notable quantum algorithms have been developed, such as the BB84 protocol and Shor’s algorithm, which […] Written by Adam Lowe April 4, 2024April 4, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Predicting China’s Economy In 2024 Key Takeaway: China’s leaders have declared a GDP growth target of 5% in 2024, despite facing economic problems and a property crisis. The country’s rapid economic growth has been attributed to market incentives, cheap labor, infrastructure investment, exports, and foreign direct investment. However, none of these drivers are working effectively. The government’s determination to deflate […] Written by Hong Bo April 3, 2024April 3, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Future Of Human Computing Key Takeaway: Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk, aims to implant a brain-computer interface (BCI) in people’s brains, allowing them to control computers or phones by thought alone. This technology holds the promise of alleviating human suffering and allowing people with disabilities to regain lost capacities. However, the long-term aspirations of Neuralink include the ability to […] Written by Allan McCay April 2, 2024April 2, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Real Mystery Of Sand Dunes Key Takeaway: Sand dunes, primarily formed of quartz and feldspar grains, can also be formed from ash, snow, and gypsum. They can record a history of climate changes and can be enormous, with the largest being as tall as skyscrapers. Only a fifth of deserts are covered by sand dunes, and only about a fifth […] Written by David Thomas April 1, 2024April 1, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked