Links
4 Stars
We just came across a great newsletter called ‘Links’ that recommends interesting reading from around the web. We’ve been working our way through their ‘best of’ lists from the last few years. Here are some great ‘new’ reads we discovered:
The Time I Built an ROV to Solve Missing Person Cases by Antti Suanto - The case seemed so mysterious that I was immediately drawn to it
Rootclaim $100,000 Lab Leak Debate by Scott Alexander - I watched 15 hours of COVID origins arguments so you don't have to
On the Importance of Staring Directly Into the Sun by Adam Mastroianni - There's something very weird about the timeline of scientific discoveries
The Third Magic by Noah Smith - A meditation on history, science, and AI
Cities And The Wealth Of Nations/The Question Of Separatism by Étienne Fortier-Dubois - On a coherent and deeply interesting philosophy of economics: one that favors the local scale, cities and small countries
The Crimes Behind the Seafood You Eat by Ian Urbina - China has invested heavily in an armada of far-flung fishing vessels, in part to extend its global influence. This maritime expansion has come at grave human cost.
Johnson & Johnson and a New War on Consumer Protection by Casey Cep - The company has spent billions on cases about one of its most popular products. As its executives try a brazen new legal strategy to stop the litigation, corporate America takes note.
The Haves and the Have-Yachts by Evan Osnos - Luxury ships attract outrage and political scrutiny. The ultra-rich are buying them in record numbers
The Dawn Of Everything by Erik Hoel - Political motivations for the revisiting the origin of human civilization
The Secretive Prisons That Keep Migrants Out of Europe by Ian Urbina - Tired of migrants arriving from Africa, the E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that captures them before they reach its shores, and sends them to brutal Libyan detention centers run by militias
Surviving the Crackdown in Xinjiang by Raffi Khatchadourian - As mass detentions and surveillance dominate the lives of China’s Uyghurs and Kazakhs, a woman struggles to free herself
Inside Xinjiang’s Prison State by Ben Mauk - Survivors of China’s campaign of persecution reveal the scope of the devastation
The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning - Wang Huning much prefers the shadows to the limelight
Beyond the !Kung by Manvir Singh - A grand research project created our origin myth that early human societies were all egalitarian, mobile and small-scale
What I Worked On by Paul Graham - How should I choose what to do?
The Twilight of the Iranian Revolution by Dexter Filkins - For decades, Ayatollah Khamenei has professed enmity with America. Now his regime is threatened from within the country.
Does Time Really Flow? by Natalie Wolchover - The laws of physics imply that the passage of time is an illusion. To avoid this conclusion, we might have to rethink the reality of infinitely precise numbers.
For more great links like these, head over to ‘Links’. Many thanks for Mark Isero of Article Club for the tip. If you have any other favourite sources, please let us know.