Articles
March 20, 2018
Cambridge Analytica: 87 Million Profiles
There is a scandal that is spreading through the headlines this week, and the scandal is the data: the profiles that were harvested, the campaigns that used them, the platform that did not notice. The revelations came in the middle of March: The Guardian and The Observer publishing the story on the 17th, Channel 4 airing the undercover footage, the whistleblower Christopher Wylie naming the operation. Cambridge Analytica took the data of about fifty million Facebook users through the thisisyourdigitallife app, the number later reported closer to eighty-seven million, and used it for the political targeting, the Trump campaign of 2016, the Brexit vote. The Cambridge Analytica story is the March 2018 story, and the story is the lesson: the trust that was broken.
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February 8, 2018
Falcon Heavy: The Big Rocket Flies
There is a launch that lit up the coast this week, and the launch was the rocket: the Falcon Heavy that lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on February 6, the pad 39A that once sent the Apollo missions, the most powerful operational rocket in the world. The numbers were the story: the twenty-seven Merlin engines, the five million pounds of thrust, the red Tesla Roadster in the payload fairing with the Starman mannequin in the driver's seat, the payload that Elon Musk chose for the first flight. The boosters came back, the two side cores landing together at the Cape, the center core missing the droneship, the live stream watched by the millions. The Falcon Heavy story is the February 2018 story, and the story is the lesson: the big rockets that fly again.
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January 23, 2018
The Crypto Crash of January: Bitcoin's First Correction
There is a fall that is spreading through the markets this month, and the fall is in the coins: the Bitcoin that hit the peak in December, the altcoins that followed it down, the mania that met its correction. The numbers tell the story: Bitcoin near $19,783 on December 17, the all-time high, and roughly $11,000 by late January, the drop of about forty percent in a single month. The total market cap fell from around $800 billion to around $500 billion, Ethereum down more than fifty percent, the buyers at the top feeling the burn, the sellers counting the losses. The crypto crash is the January 2018 story, and the story is the lesson: the bubbles that burst.
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January 5, 2018
Meltdown and Spectre: The Chips That Leak
There is a flaw that is spreading through the industry this week, and the flaw is in the chip: the processors that run the laptops and the servers and the phones, the design that nearly every modern computer shares, the secret that was found in the silicon. The disclosure came on January 3: Google Project Zero and the academic researchers publishing the details together, Intel and AMD and ARM confirming the exposure, Microsoft and Apple and the Linux distributions rushing the updates, the whole industry bracing, the patches arriving within days. The Meltdown and Spectre story is the January 2018 story, and the story is the lesson: the chips that leak.
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December 15, 2017
The Vote: Net Neutrality Falls
There is a vote that happened yesterday, and the vote is the reversal: the Federal Communications Commission that voted three to two along party lines to repeal the 2015 Open Internet Order, the broadband rules that classified the internet as a utility, the decision that Chairman Ajit Pai pushed through at the agency headquarters while the protesters gathered outside. The vote is the December story, and the story is the lesson: the argument between the internet service providers and the consumer advocates, the regulation that divided the country, the fight that is only beginning.
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November 30, 2017
Bitcoin at $10,000
There is a price that is making the headlines this week, and the price is ten thousand dollars: the level that bitcoin crossed for the first time, the milestone that the CoinDesk index passed on Tuesday and that CNBC put on the screen on Wednesday, the number that kept climbing through the evening. The price is the November story, and the story is the lesson: the digital currency that began the year near a thousand dollars, the rally that built through the months, the market that is now worth more than one hundred and sixty billion dollars and still climbing.
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October 19, 2017
#MeToo: The Reckoning at Work
There is a hashtag that is spreading through the conversation this week, and the hashtag is #MeToo: the two words that Alyssa Milano asked survivors to write as a reply to her tweet on October 15, the flood of responses that followed within hours, the twelve million posts that Facebook counted from more than four and a half million people in a single day. The hashtag is the October story, and the story is the lesson: the workplace where power is held and abused, the reporting systems that have failed for years, the leaders who must now answer for the culture they allowed.
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September 13, 2017
Equifax: 143 Million Records
There is a number that is spreading through the news this week, and the number is 143 million: the Americans whose personal data was exposed, the consumers whose names and Social Security numbers are now in the hands of criminals, the breach that Equifax disclosed on September 7 and that the country has been digesting ever since. The number is the September story, and the story is the lesson: the credit bureau that holds the records on nearly every adult in the country, the vulnerability that was known and never patched, the data that cannot be returned. Equifax disclosed the intrusion on the seventh, the stock fell through the week, and the questions grew by the day.
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August 11, 2017
The Memo: Google's Culture War
The memo is the story of the week, and the story is the leak: the internal document that became the public battle, the Google engineer who was fired, the debate that spilled from the company into the world. The memo is "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber", the roughly 3,000 words that James Damore wrote and circulated, the arguments about the gender gap in tech, the diversity programs that he criticized, the response that ended in dismissal on August 8. The memo is the August 2017 story, and the story is the question: how a company handles dissent on the inside, and how a leak turned an internal debate into a global one.
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July 31, 2017
Model 3: The Handover and the Ramp
The handover is the story of the week, and the story is the car: the Model 3 that Tesla delivered on July 28, the first 30 customer cars that left the Fremont factory, the sedan that the world had been waiting for since the reservations opened. The handover is the event: the stage inside the factory, the crowd of employees and owners, Elon Musk at the microphone, the cars that rolled out to the applause. The handover is the July 2017 story, and the story is the beginning: the 400,000 reservations that waited, the ramp that was just starting, the production hell that Musk said was coming.
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