Weekly Digest Of Must-Read Articles (10.08)

Every week we meticulously browse through a large variety of articles to choose the 10 most interesting pieces you shouldn’t miss on any occasion. This week you’ll find out the unexpected benefits of self-driving cars, figure out why yelling is a destructive social practice, learn why clean digital signage screens are more than aesthetics. Here goes our weekly digest of 10 articles we’d like you to like.

The World Is Complex. Measuring Charity Has to Be Too. - Wired

"One of the reasons philanthropists sometimes fail to measure what really matters is that the global political economy primarily seeks what is efficient and scalable. Unfortunately, efficiency and scalability are not the same as a healthy system. In fact, many things that grow quickly and without constraints are far from healthy - consider cancer. Because of our belief in markets, we tend to accept that an economy has to be growing for society to be healthy - but this notion is misguided, particularly when it comes to things we consider social goods." Read the article.

The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News. - The New Yorker

"People have been trying to outsmart one another on Internet forums for as long as there have been Internet forums. Still, Hacker News has an unusually wide influence. Landing a blog post or personal project on the front page is a badge of honor for many technologists, and the site has become a regional export: ninety per cent of its traffic comes from outside the Bay Area, and a third of its users are in Europe." Read the article.

The Decline of Yelling. - The New Yorker

"In the nineteen-seventies, the American psychologist Arthur Janov published “The Primal Scream,” a wildly popular (and later broadly derided) self-help book that suggested that reliving childhood traumas - and screaming through them - could free a person from his neuroses. In 1971, Janov told reporters, “In the future, there will be no need for a field called psychology,” because primal therapy would cure “80 per cent of all ailments.” Janov was not quite as prescient a thinker as he’d hoped, but the idea that yelling is a pretty good way of relieving tension has endured." Read the article.

Ronald Reagan’s Long-Hidden Racist Conversation With Richard Nixon. - The Atlantic

"The day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China, then - California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States. “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said. “Yeah,” Nixon interjected. Reagan forged ahead with his complaint: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries - damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Nixon gave a huge laugh." Read the article.

How Jaywalking Could Jam Up the Era of Self-Driving Cars. - The New York Times

"In New York, the unwritten rule is plain: Cross the street whenever and wherever - just don’t get hit. It’s a practice that separates New Yorkers from tourists, who innocently wait at the corner for the walk symbol. But if pedestrians know they’ll never be run over, jaywalking could explode, grinding traffic to a halt.

One solution, suggested by an automotive industry official, is gates at each corner, which would periodically open to allow pedestrians to cross." Read the article.

Why AWS gains big storage efficiencies with E8 acquisition. - Techcrunch

"When AWS bought Israeli storage startup E8 yesterday, it might have felt like a minor move on its face, but AWS was looking, as it always does, to find an edge and reduce the costs of operations in its data centers. It was also very likely looking forward to the next phase of cloud computing. Reports have pegged the deal at between $50 and $60 million." Read the article.

Tom Milner On Why Clean Screens Are More Than Just An Aesthetics Issue. - Sixteen:Nine

"Much of the focus in this industry is on the hardware and software used to put digital signage networks together, and increasingly, mercifully, on content and creative.

Not that much attention gets paid to the service side of the business - installing screens and fixing devices when things go wrong. Even less attention is paid to keeping the hardware clean." Read the article.

U.S. Teachers and Firefighters Are Funding Rise of China Tech Firms. - Bloomberg

"China has become a rising power in technologies like artificial intelligence and facial-recognition software, helping fuel a trade dispute with the U.S. that escalated again over the past week with tit-for-tat measures from Washington and Beijing. Yet a large chunk of the capital behind China’s success can be traced back to U.S. funds that manage money for Texas teachers, San Francisco firefighters, Minnesota policemen and Louisiana judges." Read the article.

Samsung delivers OOH cell phone charging. - Digital Signage Today

"The cell phone and display manufacturer partnered with OOH advertising company JCDecaux Singapore, a subsidiary of JCDecaux, to craft displays to allow users to charge their phones at multiple bus stations in Singapore.

The main purpose of the display was to advertise the Wireless PowerShare feature of the Samsung Electronics Galaxy S10+, which allows users to share power between phones by simply putting phones on top of each other." Read the article.

How to Engage Instagram Followers with Copy So They Love Your Brand and Buy Your Products. - Copyhackers

"Instagram users spend $65 on average per purchase (more than on Facebook), and the ‘gram has seen a 115% increase in engagement since 2012. What does that mean for your eCommerce business?" Read the article.