Hi, friends. Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes.
Here are ten items worth your time this week:
🔍 1) Big scoop by my colleagues Brent Kendall and John McKinnon: Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google [WSJ]
“The Justice Department is gearing up for an antitrust investigation of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, a move that could present a major new layer of regulatory scrutiny for the search giant, according to people familiar with the matter.”
🛸 2) ‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects [NY Times]
“…the objects have gotten the attention of the Navy, which earlier this year sent out new classified guidance for how to report what the military calls unexplained aerial phenomena, or unidentified flying objects.”
🐝 3) The 2019 National Spelling Bee ended in an unprecedented 8-way tie [Vox] (Thanks, Mom!)
“Eight contestants exhausted the Spelling Bee’s dictionary over the course of an intense, three-hour final round.”
🥁 4) Is Lo-Fi House the First Genre of the Algorithm Age? [Vice]
“How YouTube’s related video algorithm helped shaped the strange rise of hazy acts like DJ Boring, DJ Seinfeld, and Ross From Friends.”
👓 5) Secret spectacles: The story of a migrant spy [BBC]
“…he intended to get himself smuggled on the desert migrant route to Europe, using a secret camera in his glasses to document the crimes of the smugglers.”
⚽ 6) How Football Leaks Is Exposing Corruption in European Soccer [New Yorker]
“While Rui Pinto sits in jail, his revelations are bringing down the sport’s most famous teams and players.”
✍️ 7) How to Get Every Email Returned [New York Times]
“In the course of doing research for a book on how people actually change their minds, and what gets them to say ‘yes’ rather than ‘no,’’ I was distressed to find that I knew much less about it than I thought I did.”
🍄 8) Repair Of Iconic ’60s Era Synthesizer Turns Into Long, Strange Trip For Engineer [KPIX5]
“He sprayed a cleaning solvent on it and started to push the dissolving crystal with his finger as he attempted to dislodge the residue and clean the area. About 45 minutes later, Curtis began to feel a little strange.”
🆒 9) A People Map of the US [The Pudding]
"…where city names are replaced by their most Wikipedia’ed resident: people born in, lived in, or connected to a place.
🦝 10) The Care and Keeping of Raccoon Dogs [The Atlantic] (Thanks, Anasuya!)
“Raccoon dogs, also called tanukis, look like supermodel raccoons with their lanky limbs, slender necks, and soulful eyes. But they’re actually wild canines, most closely related to foxes. ”
💡 Quote of the week:
“Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.” – Edward R. Murrow
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👊 Fist bump from New Delhi,
Newley