Hi, friends. Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes.
🇮🇹 Anasuya and I are back in Delhi after an exceptional ten-day-long family holiday in Italy.
I’ve been posting some photos on my Instagram feed (@Newley), with more to come. We were in Rome for a few days, then spent a week in Cernobbio, next to Lake Como.
The food.
The mountains.
The water.
The colors.
The people.
The history.
The art.
💯 One word: wow.
On to this week’s NN…
Here are ten items worth your time this week:
🚀 1) The Nation Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 [WSJ]
“In a hundred different ways this week, people nationwide celebrated the moon voyage that climaxed on July 20, 1969, when Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked on another world.”
🌕 Bonus explanatory video: Apollo 11: The Complete Descent.
📉 2) Netflix stock sinks after U.S. subscriber loss [Axios]
“Analysts weren’t expecting the streaming giant to lose subscribers, especially since rival streaming services, like HBO Max, Disney + and NBCUniversal’s new service, aren’t expected to launch for another year or so. ”
🥵 3) As FaceApp Goes Viral, So Do Concerns About Privacy, Russia Ties [WSJ]
“FaceApp is raising alarms in particular because it is encouraging people to share information that companies or individuals typically find difficult to obtain quickly on a large scale, said Micah Hoffman, principal investigator at Spotlight Infosec LLC, a cybersecurity and open-source intelligence firm in Rockville, Md.”
🗣 4) Have We Hit Peak Podcast? [NY Times]
“There are now upward of 700,000 podcasts, according to the podcast production and hosting service Blubrry, with between 2,000 and 3,000 new shows launching each month.”
📡 5) Disneyland Makes Surveillance Palatable – and Profitable [Bloomberg]
“At a time when Facebook Inc., Google and myriad other technology companies are getting hammered over consumer privacy issues, Disney is running the happiest police state on earth.”
🎤 6) Fired Over Too Much Tupac? A Rap-Loving Bureaucrat From Iowa Says He Hopes Not [NPR]
“I’m a 66-year-old white guy from the Midwest who likes rap music, who likes Tupac!” he says.
☢️ 7) Toxic lake in Russia’s Siberia becomes selfie sensation [AP]
“The lake is blue…due to a chemical reaction between toxic waste elements from a local power station. Environmentalists are warning people against coming into contact with the water.”
👏 8) Apple Teases 230 New Emoji in Celebration of World Emoji Day [TIME]
“This upcoming collection will have a large focus on inclusion and accessibility. Some of the upcoming emoji will include people who use hearing aids, wheelchairs, guide dogs and people with prosthetic limbs.”
🐦 9) The 2019 Audubon Photography Awards: Winners [Audubon]
“Birds make fascinating subjects, as the winners and honorable mentions of this year’s contest, our 10th, make clear.”
❄️ 10) Ladies and gents, I present to you a Shiba Inu wearing a sweater tracking through snow [Reddit]
💡 Quote of the week:
"Read, learn, work it up, go to the literature. Information is control.” – Joan Didion
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👊 Fist bump from New Delhi – and happy summer!
Newley