Author: Newley

Sent as an email newsletter December 13, 2020. Not a Newley’s Notes subscriber yet? Get it here.

👋 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.

🙌 Photo of the week, above: from a recent Hong Kong expedition. Here’s a paw-sitevly paw-some high five from Ginger, straight to you.

On to this week’s NN.

Here are ten items worth your time this week:

1) 🩺 Covid–19 vaccine update: Here we go! The FDA on Friday authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech shot. Health-care workers, people in nursing homes and long term care could be the first to get it, followed by essential workers and others. The general population may receive it in the spring or summer, by which time other vaccines may also be approved.

2) ⚖️ Big news out Wednesday: Facebook Hit With Antitrust Lawsuits by FTC, State Attorneys General. The lede from my WSJ colleagues Brent Kendall and John D. McKinnon: “The Federal Trade Commission and 46 states sued Facebook Inc. on Wednesday, accusing the social-media giant of buying and freezing out small startups to choke competition.”

3) 🎸 The great Bob Dylan has sold his entire publishing catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group for what is likely “hundreds of millions of dollars – rivaled in value and influence only by the Beatles,” my colleague Anne Steele writes. (Yes, the lede of the story is: “Bob Dylan is tangled up in green.”)

4) 🌵 Austin, Texas is seeing an influx of new residents as companies and workers relocate during the pandemic. The cost of living is lower, there’s no state income tax, the weather is warm, there’s space for social distancing, and there’s a ton of low-cost housing. (Among those moving to the Lone Star State: none other than Elon Musk.)

5) 🚢 A four-day cruise? To nowhere? During a pandemic? A Royal Caribbean vessel returned to shores in Singapore after someone on board…tested positive for Covid–19. (The company told guests it would give them a “future cruise credit for the value of one day’s worth of cruise fare paid to be used on a future sailing.”) Oh, and: it looks like result may have been a false positive.

6) 🎧 Gadget alert: Apple’s releasing over-the-ear, noise canceling headphones called AirPods Max. They cost $549 and go on sale December 15.

7) 🏢 In “Why Do We Still Love “The Office”?, Sarah Larson writes in the New Yorker that ”Though it ended seven years ago,“ it it still among Netflix’s most popular shows. And ”this year two of the most popular podcasts on iTunes and Spotify were ‘Office’ podcasts, hosted by former cast members," she writes.

8) 🍗 Headline of the week: “Love me tenders: Why KFC is pushing a sexy Colonel Sanders movie”. Please enjoy the trailer, starring Mario Lopez, aka “Saved by the Bell”’s A.C. Slater.

9) 👩‍🍳 Tweet of the week: “Nigella Lawson saying ‘Microwave’ like this has made my Christmas already.”

10) 🐶 Canine-related longread of the week, by Jeff MacGregor in Smithsonian Magazine: “The New Science of Our Ancient Bond With Dogs.” (Thanks, Anasuya!)

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🐕 Dog-related video of the week: “Huskie puppy doesn’t quite get the howling thing.”

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📕 What I’m Reading

I finished “The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet,” by James Griffiths, and have now turned to something altogether different: Nina Teicholz’s 2014 bestseller, “The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.”

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💡 Quote of the week:

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days.” – Annie Dillard

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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as an email newsletter December 6, 2020. Not a Newley’s Notes subscriber yet? Get it here.

👋 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.

🐶 Photo of the week, above: spotted yesterday in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

On to this week’s NN.

Here are ten items worth your time this week:

1) 💉 Covid–19 vaccine news: Moderna, you may have seen, has asked regulators in Europe and the U.S. to okay its shot. “The timing keeps the vaccine on track to become possibly the second to go into use in the U.S. by year’s end – after one already under regulatory review from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE – with inoculation available to the general public likely in spring or summer,” my colleague Peter Loftus reported Monday.

👏 There will undoubtedly be roadblocks ahead, but let’s remember: this is good news!

2) 💻 Big news in the world of artificial intelligence: Prominent AI Researcher Says Google Fired Her After Dispute Over Her Work, Impolitic Email. My colleague Rob Copeland has the story. And from MIT Technology Review: We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of Google. Here’s what it says.

3) 😔 In last week’s NN I pointed to an article about the death of Zappos co-founder Tony Hsieh. Now, Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans, writing in Forbes, have the apparent back story: “…while he directly (by the tens of thousands) and indirectly (by the millions) delivered on making other people smile, Hsieh was privately coping with issues of mental health and addiction.”

4) 🎙 The Philadelphia Inquirer talks to Marie Siravo, owner of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, about how Rudy Giuliani’s press conference thrust her small business into the global limelight.

5) 📖 Book publishing news: The new chief executive of Barnes & Noble is employing a new tactic to try to boost sales in an age of Amazon: giving local B&N managers more power to select titles they sell, rather than New York book buyers making the decisions, my colleague Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports.

6) 📰 Irish photographer Noel Bowler has been photographing newspaper newsrooms around the world, from The WSJ (New York) to The Sun (London) to Le Monde (Paris) and more. More info is available on his Kickstarter page, where he says he is documenting the “physical space and the structural layers that have formed the foundation of our modern press.”

7) 📸 And another powerful photo essay: “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation,” by Richard Frishman in the New York Times. More info is available on his website.

8) 🎨 Wow, wow, wow: “Hailed as ‘the Sistine Chapel of the ancients’, archaeologists have found tens of thousands of paintings of animals and humans created up to 12,500 years ago across cliff faces that stretch across nearly eight miles in Colombia.” Click through for photos.

9) 📱 “On Wednesday, EU lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution arguing that individuals have a fundamental ‘right to disconnect.’”

10) ʕ·͡ᴥ·ʔ Headline of the week: “Adelaide family returns home to find koala perched on Christmas tree in lounge room.” Yes, there are photos, and even a video.

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🐶 Dog related video of the week: Boy meets his dog after it was lost for 2 weeks.

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📕 What I’m Reading

I’ve almost finished “The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet,” by James Griffiths. And in the meantime (as I often read a few books at a time), I’ve been racing through a classic Thomas Harris thriller I can’t believe I’d never read, despite seeing the film: “The Silence of the Lambs.” It is so, so good.

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💡 Quote of the week:

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost

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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as an email newsletter Sunday, November 29. Not a Newley’s Notes subscriber yet? Get it here.

👋 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.

🦃 I hope you had an excellent Thanksgiving! We had a fun one here in Hong Kong.

Photo of the week, above: preparing my Aunt Cece’s world famous South Carolina pecan pie. The back story on the tradition, along with the recipe, are in this 2014 story I wrote.

🐕 Also pictured: my sous chef, Ginger.

On to this week’s NN.

Here are ten items worth your time this week:

1) ⚽ RIP Diego Maradona, one of the best soccer players – some argue the best – to have ever laced up a pair of boots. He was just 60 years old. Should you ever doubt that beauty exists in what often feels like an ugly world, just watch his legendary goal for Argentina in the 1986 world cup. (Sorry, England fans.)

🇦🇷 For more on Maradona, check out his 2005 autobiography, titled (with his customary humility) “El Diego: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Footballer.”

2) 📺 Speaking of soccer, have you been watching “Ted Lasso?” No, seriously. It’s worth a watch.

3) 😔 Tony Hsieh, co-founder of pioneering e-commerce startup Zappos, died at age 46 following a house fire in Connecticut.

4) 🦠 Emma Graham-Harrison and Robin McKie, writing in The Guardian: “Nearly a year after doctors identified the first cases of a worrying new disease in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the country appears to be stepping up a campaign to question the origins of the global Covid–19 pandemic.”

5) 📰 “In interviews with over a half-dozen various former Drudge associates, about half suggested that the site may no longer be under his control.” That’s Armin Rosen, writing at Tablet about Matt Drudge and the Drudge Report.

6) 😄 Singaporean activist Jolovan Wham has been charged with holding an illegal public protest. He stood outside a police station displaying a smiley face drawn on a piece of cardboard.

7) 🚁 Wim Zwijnenburg at Bellingcat: “Are Emirati Armed Drones Supporting Ethiopia from an Eritrean Air Base?”

8) 👽 Officials surveying bighorn sheep in remote Utah happened upon something strange: a mysterious metal monolith 10 to 12 feet tall. It is probably (hopefully? fingers crossed?) a work of art.

🚨 Update, just discovered as I was about to hit send on this edition of NN: THE THING HAS NOW DISAPPEARED.

9) 🍺 Busch has a new (non-alcoholic) beer for dogs, called “Busch Dog Brew,” that’s made with vegetables and pork broth. More info is here. (Thanks, Tim M.!)

10) 🎨 Artvee aggregates artwork from museums that is in the public domain and available to download, searchable by artist or type of work.

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🐶 Dog related video of the week: “Someone is waiting inside!”

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📕 What I’m Reading

I finished “How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers.” Though brief, it contained some compelling insights.

Now I’ve moved on to “The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet,” by James Griffiths. (Thanks for the recommendation, Patrick N.!)

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💡 Quote of the week:

“In general, I feel if you can’t say it clearly you don’t understand it yourself.” – John Rogers Searle

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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as an email newsletter Sunday, November 22. Not a Newley’s Notes subscriber yet? Get it here.

👋 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.

Photo of the week, above: Out and about with Ginger here in Hong Kong.

On to this week’s NN.

Here are ten items worth your time this week:

🦠 1) Hospitals Know What’s Coming [The Atlantic]

💉 2) Moderna and Pfizer Are Reinventing Vaccines, Starting With Covid [WSJ]

💊 3) Amazon Launches Online Pharmacy [WSJ]

😔 4) Jan Morris, Celebrated Writer of Place and History, Is Dead at 94 – [New York Times] Sad news. I recently read and loved her 1997 book “Hong Kong.”

✏️ 5) The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done – [Cal Newport, author of the excellent “Deep Work,” writing in the New Yorker.]

⚽ 6) Gio Reyna is primed for his USMNT debut. And he’s only 17. [Washington Post] Thanks, Duncle!

🧠 7) My daughter was a creative genius, and then we bought her an iPhone [Stephanie Gruner Buckley, writing at Medium]

🏠 8) Zillow Surfing Is the Escape We All Need Right Now [New York Times]

🍺 9) Waffle House Is Getting an Official Beer – and It Smells Like Bacon [Food & Wine] Thanks, Andrew!

🎧 10) Why Is The Obscure B-Side “Harness Your Hopes” Pavement’s Top Song On Spotify? It’s Complicated. [Stereogum]

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🐕 Dog related video of the week: “A True leap of faith.” [Reddit]

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📕 What I’m Reading

I’ve seen people raving online about a slim book that came out in 2017 called “How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers,” and am diving in. Stay tuned.

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💡 Quote of the week:

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” – Jack Handey

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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as an email newsletter Monday, November 9. Not a Newley’s Notes subscriber yet? Get it here.

👋 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.

🇺🇸 Photo of the day, above: Today’s WSJ front page. The headline: “Biden Charts New Course.”

More on that below.

🚨 Breaking: A new story out just this morning U.S. time: Pfizer’s Covid–19 Vaccine Proves 90% Effective in Latest Trials.

“A vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech proved better than expected at protecting people from Covid–19 in a pivotal study, a milestone in the hunt for shots that can stop the global pandemic.”

🤞 “The vaccine proved to be more than 90% effective in the first 94 subjects who were infected by the new coronavirus and developed at least one symptom…”

💬 Meanwhile, in non-political news, I had a brief story out Friday. The headline: Facebook’s WhatsApp Gets Green Light to Expand Mobile Payments in India. It begins:

Regulators in India granted Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp permission to expand its digital payments service, a win for the company after a delay of nearly three years in its largest market by users.

🔮 BUT: As I note, they’re limited to 20 million users. That’s a lot, yes, but they have a staggering 400 million people on the platform in India, so it’s only about 5% of their user base. Reminder: Facebook has big plans for India, and back in April said they’re plowing $5.7 billion – their biggest foreign investment ever – into a partnership with a mobile operator owned by India’s richest man.

On to this week’s NN.

🗞 1) So: We have a president-elect! My colleague Scott Austin created a fantastic Twitter thread featuring newspaper front pages, ranging from Biden’s hometown paper (“Mr. President”) to Scranton’s Times-Tribune (“Made in Pa.”) to a paper in Stockholm (“You’re Fired”) to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (“After Long Week, a New President”) and many more.

🎧 2) “He had one message that was at the core of his candidacy. And that was the country is in search of unity and a return to some sense of normalcy and stability.” My DC-based colleague Sabrina Siddiqui, who covered the Biden campaign, joined our The Journal podcast to explain how he won.

★ 3) I really like this map, “Purple States of America.” Rather than the familiar red and blue states, it shows in a more nuanced fashion how people voted.

» 4) FiveThirtyEight: Biden Is Projected To Be The President-Elect. Here’s How It All Went Down. “In our era of political polarization, competitive elections are the norm and our country remains deeply divided,” Sarah Frostenson writes. “Trump might not have won a second term, but the question of where the country heads next is an open one.”

✴️ 5) Buzzfeed News: “…one figure in particular was credited with flipping Pennsylvania — the myth, the legend, the one-and-only Gritty.”

❓6) The Philadelphia Inquirer: "No, not that Four Seasons: How Team Trump’s news conference ended up at a Northeast Philly landscaping firm. (And speaking of Four Seasons – and Gritty – there exists a T-shirt of said business, with Gritty riding a tractor.)

😷 7) Axios’s Hans Nichols: “Joe Biden plans Monday to name a 12-member task force to combat and contain the spread of the coronavirus, sources tell Axios.”

🗣 8) The Verge’s Adi Robertson: “Trump will lose his Twitter ‘public interest’ protections in January.”

📱 9) What does Biden’s win mean for Silicon Valley? “D.C’s spotlight will brighten on privacy, surveillance and hate speech online,” Axios’s Ina Fried writes. “These issues animate Democrats, and Biden has already pledged a task force to study ties between online harassment and real-world extremism, violence and abuse. ”

🐕 10) Dog-related video of the week: Here is Champ & Major Biden’s video debut! – yes, those are Joe and Jill Biden’s pups. Major, who the Bidens got in 2018 from the Delaware Human Association, will be the White House’s first rescue dog. You can follow the doggie duo on Twitter here. (Thanks, Anasuya and Mike W.!)

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💡 Quote of the week:

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” – Seneca

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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley