Categories
Newley's Notes

NN 198: Amazing Oregon — Instagram’s War on Likes — ‘Hide the Pain Harold’ Dishes — Dubious Doggos

eastern_oregon

๐Ÿ‘‹ Hi, friends. Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.

๐Ÿ“ฌ Not a subscriber yet? Get it here.

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Anasuya and I are back in Delhi after a brief trip over the Diwali break to visit my dad, step-mom and siblings in…scenic Eastern Oregon!

๐Ÿ’ฏ It was a fantastic trip: chilly fall weather, stunning countryside landscapes, and – best of all – time to catch up with family and friends. I’ve been posting some photos on Instagram – I’m @Newley – with more to come.

๐Ÿ“ Let me tell you: going from Delhi (population 20 million or so) to Pendleton, Oregon (population about 16,000) is nothing if not eye-opening, in a good way!

Here are ten items worth your time this week:

โš–๏ธ 1) Facebook Feared WhatsApp Threat Ahead of 2014 Purchase, Documents Show [WSJ]

“In the months before acquiring WhatsApp in 2014, Facebook Inc. executives described the messaging service and others like it as a threat to the companyโ€™s core business, offering potential evidence to regulators in the U.S. and Europe that are pursuing antitrust probes into the social-networking company.”

๐Ÿ‘ 2) Instagram will test hiding likes in the US as soon as next week [The Verge]

“In tests that have rolled out so far, likes are hidden from public posts in the Feed, on the web, and in profiles. However, you should still be able to see how many likes a post gets โ€” itโ€™s only other people that wonโ€™t be able to. ”

๐Ÿ’ฝ 3) I Got Access to My Secret Consumer Score. Now You Can Get Yours, Too. [New York Times]

“Little-known companies are amassing your data โ€” like food orders and Airbnb messages โ€” and selling the analysis to clients. Hereโ€™s how to get a copy of what they have on you.”

๐Ÿ•ต๏ธ 4) Inside the Phone Company Secretly Run By Drug Traffickers [Vice]

“All over the world, in Dutch clubs like the one Kok frequented, or Australian biker hangouts and Mexican drug safe houses, there is an underground trade of custom-engineered phones. These phones typically run software for sending encrypted emails or messages, and use their own server infrastructure for routing communications.”

๐Ÿฆ 5) Viral Tweet About Apple Card Leads to Goldman Sachs Probe [Bloomberg News]

“A series of posts from David Heinemeier Hansson starting Thursday railed against the Apple Card for giving him 20 times the credit limit that his wife got.”

๐Ÿ“ฎ 6) In France, Elder Care Comes with the Mail [New Yorker]

“Every day except Sunday, postal workers inform the programโ€™s subscribers, through an app, if their elderly relatives are ‘well’: if they require assistance with groceries, home repairs, outings, or ‘other needs.’”

๐Ÿ˜‘ 7) Experience: my face became a meme [The Guardian]

“Nine years ago, I did a reverse image search on a photograph of me and was shocked to discover it had become a meme. People online thought my smile, combined with the look in my eyes, seemed terribly sad. They were calling me ‘Hide the Pain Harold.’

๐Ÿท 8) Useful infographic: a taste map of different types of wine [Reddit via WineFolly]

๐Ÿ”ญ 9) Mindblowing interactive: The Size of Space [Neal.fun/Neal Agarwal]

๐Ÿพ 10) Dog video of the week: Human what’s happening here. [Reddit/aww]

๐Ÿ’ก Quote of the week:

โ€œFor writers it is always said that the first twenty years of life contain the whole of experience – the rest is observation.โ€ – Graham Greene

What’s new with you? Hit reply to share your news or just say hi.

๐Ÿ‘Š Fist bump from New Delhi,

Newley

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *