Category: Newley’s Notes

Sent as a newsletter September 12, 2023. Not on my list? Sign up 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.

Image of the week, above:

Spotted on a red Ferrari here in Hong Kong: NO SLEEP. (Thanks, Anasuya!)

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) Hong Kong was hit last week by mammoth downpours that seeped into subway stations and submerged cars.

2) Artificial intelligence tool ChatGPP outperformed Wharton M.B.A. students in creating new business ideas, two professors write in the WSJ <– Free link

3) The inside story, from the New York Times’s Jim Stewart, of how Mattel hit it big with its blockbuster “Barbie” film.

4) Reverse-engineering Egyptian mummifying balms.

5) The wreck of a schooner that went down in 1881 has been found in Lake Michigan.

6) A look at words that are the same, or nearly so, in every language.

7) A pean to home espresso machines.

8) The utterly wild docu-series “How To With John Wilson” has come to an end after three seasons.

9) Podcast episode of the week, touching on ambition, happiness, and indie rock: “Does anyone actually like their job?”

10) A Florida man was arrested while attempting to “sail” to London – in a floating hamster wheel. (Thanks, Mike S.!)

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Dog-related video of the week:

“Leaving work on Friday…”

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Quote of the week:

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” – Kurt Vonnegut

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What’s new with you? Hit reply to send me tips, queries, random comments, and videos of fearless canines bounding into the unknown.

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Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter September 4, 2023. Not on my list? Join 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.

Image of the week, above:

A license plate spotted here in Hong Kong. (Thanks, Anasuya!)

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) The WSJ has an exclusive excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s new autobiography of Elon Musk featuring the inside story of Musk’s purchase of Twitter. <– free link

2) RIP Jimmy Buffett, who died Friday at the age of 76, leaving behind not just a musical legacy but a business empire that made him a billionaire. <– free link

3) Early humans in Africa nearly went extinct some 900,000 years ago, dwindling in number to only about 1,280.

4) So…we might need to rethink some of our basic assumptions about the universe.

5) Longread of the week, in The New Yorker: Do we misunderstand the reason we dream?

6) A masterwork of obsession: “The Mystery of the Bloomfield Bridge.”

7) Here are some gorgeous 360-degree views of sights around the world.

8) The 25 best TV episodes from the past 25 years.

9) Photo essay: the world’s longest yard sale, running from Georgia to Michigan.

10) Fun video: changing English accents on the fly.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“Bebe Backpack.”

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Quote of the week:

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer

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Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter August 28, 2023. Not on my list? Join 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.

Image of the week, above:

Spotted on the MTR here in steamy Hong Kong: a guy wearing what appears to be a Japanese fan jacket to keep cool.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) Trump’s mug shot has triggered a merchandising boom, from (yes) mugs to shot glasses to tee shirts, my WSJ colleagues report. <— free link

2) On the downfall of Yevgeny Prigozhin: “a killer on the make, hired by other, more powerful killers to commit more of the same, at larger scale, is ultimately offed by those same killers.“

3) How product review site Wirecutter has changed: "The internet of 2023 is not the internet of 2011, nor are the products, nor are the consumers.”

4) RIP Bob Barker, host of “The Price is Right.” He was 99.

5) A profile of Avi Loeb, the controversial Harvard astrophysicist and proponent of searching for extraterrestrial life.

6) LinkedIn is cool now. (Follow me here!)

7) A new accent is emerging among workers in Antarctica.

8) Trigger warning: may be angst-inducing: The Sounds of Space.

9) A New York City park for retired playground animals contains dolphins, an elephant, an aardvark, a camel and a frog.

10) Best 4th of July ever: Launching beat-up cars off a 300-foot cliff in Alaska.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“He's diggin his career in irrigation…“

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Quote of the week:

“Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask, and that's what separates the people who do things from the people who just dream about them.” — Steve Jobs

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Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter August 21, 2023. Not on my list? Join 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.

Image of the week, above:

Don Juan out and about here in Hong Kong. (Thanks, Anasuya!)

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) An important story by my WSJ colleagues Lingling Wei and Stella Yifan Xie: Is China’s economic model broken? <— free link

2) A win for (human) artists: AI-generated art can’t be copyrighted, a U.S. district court judge ruled.

3) Americans are sad and mean due to a lack of “moral education,” David Brooks writes.

4) Newly created tech unicorns are more and more scarce.

5) ️ Reddit thread: “What’s your best advice from your profession?”

6) “Casual restaurant chains, like Olive Garden and Applebee’s, have the largest positive impact on cross-class encounters through both scale and their diversity of visitors.”

7) Those popular blue-light blocking glasses…might not do anything.

8) “The Most Iconic Hip-Hop Sample of Every Year (1973-2023).”

9) Timeguessr: see an image, try to guess the location and time.

10) Please enjoy the kids top 25 in the USA Mullet Championship.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“Dashing Doxie”

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Quote of the week:

“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” — Abraham Maslow

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter August 14, 2023. Not on my list? Join 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.

Image of the week, above:

A recent sunset here in Hong Kong.

My WSJ latest:

I had a story out Wednesday with my colleague Tripti Lahiri. The headline: Meta, Alphabet and Other Tech Firms Face New Data Rules in India. <— free link

And the lede:

India’s Parliament on Wednesday passed a data-protection bill years in the making that the government says is needed to regulate tech companies and protect citizens, but that rights groups say gives New Delhi too much power.

I discussed on the story on Wednesday’s WSJ What’s News podcast.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) In Ecuador, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated — and now his friend, a prominent investigative journalist, is running in his stead. <— free link

2) Scientists at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are making gains in achieving nuclear fusion.

3) How two Canadian men discovered they’d been switched at birth 67 years ago.

4) For the first time since 1951, Oregonians can pump their own gas.

5) “This is an embarrassment, it is a cultural crisis for the German people”: Germany can’t make its trains run on time. <– free link

6) The 50 best book covers of the year.

7) Here’s a gallery of gorgeous vintage calculators.

8) Adding to my “to watch” list: “Telemarketers,” a new HBO docu-series.

9) This website lets you listen to Wikipedia edits as they’re being made.

10) In which a man pays $14,000 to transform himself into a Collie.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“Run.”

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Quote of the week:

“With all the tribulations and evils of life, if you could see them in a large perspective, you’d probably find some reason or excuse for them. You’d adjust yourself to them, and you’d learn to be happy even in this world.” — Will Durant

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Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter July 31, 2023. Not on my list? Subscribe 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.

Image of the week, above:

Your faithful correspondent as a Ken doll. Via the endlessly entertaining BaiRBIE.me, a website that lets you upload photos to be transformed into Barbie or Ken. (Via EC.)

My WSJ latest:

I had two stories out last week.

The first, out Wednesday: Meta’s Threads Isn’t Labeling Propaganda Accounts From Russia, China State Media <– free link.

It begins:

State-backed news outlets from Russia and other authoritarian governments have rushed to join Meta Platforms’ new Threads microblogging service, posting propaganda such as a fake video purporting to show President Biden in a store perusing books on dementia.

Unlike on Facebook and Instagram, their verified accounts on Threads aren’t labeled as state-controlled media, raising questions over how the Facebook parent intends to police content on its Twitter rival that launched this month. Twitter, now being rebranded as X, in 2020 began applying labels to state-run news organizations; under Elon Musk, it removed them in April.

After inquiring about the Biden video, the post began showing a label describing it as “False information.” In a statement after the story was published, a spokesman said the labels would be added soon. (As of today the labels remain absent.)

And the second story, from Friday: Hong Kong Loses Court Bid to Ban Protest Song Appearing on Google <– free link.

The lede:

A judge rejected a government bid to ban the dissemination online of a popular pro-democracy song, dealing a blow to Hong Kong’s efforts to extend a national-security crackdown to online platforms such as Google.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) SHOT – file under “I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about”: Scientists have revived 46,000-year-old Siberian parasitic worms.

2) CHASER – also cool, no doubt: Magma under the earth appears to be causing a “gravity hole” in the Indian Ocean.

3) The “excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters” after Covid vaccines became available to all adults in Ohio and Florida.

4) A look at some the world’s last remaining Internet cafes.

5) A lack of unsupervised free play time is ruining kids’ mental health.

6) What artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT can teach us about good writing…

7) …And how AI could change the way corporations are organized.

8) All foster children in California will now be able to attend a state university or community college for free.

9) My90sTV is a website that lets you watch TV from that decade, by year. You’re welcome.

10) RIP Sinéad O’Connor. She was 56.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“am trapped fren”

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Quote of the week:

“Character – the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life – is the source from which self-respect springs.” — Joan Didion

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Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter July 22, 2023. Not on my list? Subscribe 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.

Image of the week, above:

Rainy Hong Kong, seen from above. I like the colors.

My WSJ latest:

I helped out with this story, just out: Elon Musk Replaces Twitter’s Blue Bird With an ‘X’ <– free link. It begins:

Elon Musk rolled out a new X logo on Twitter after saying its signature blue bird will fly away.

Early Monday, the Twitter website started showing the new X logo in its upper-left corner, where Twitter’s blue bird once perched. Musk had overnight changed his profile photo, as well as that of the official Twitter account, to the new “X” logo.

And:

Musk has spoken before about his ambition to use Twitter as the foundation of a vision that he has described as “X.com” and an “everything app.” In March Musk said that he thought it was possible for his company “to become the biggest financial institution in the world.” He has cited as a model WeChat, a popular Chinese app that is used for everything from messaging to mobile payments to business services.

As they say: stay tuned.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) “Barbie” made $155 million on its opening weekend, making it the biggest movie of the year.

2) On “Oppenheimer” and that Palm Pilot.

3) Also: Christopher Nolan’s films, ranked.

4) Tech pioneer and musician Jaron Lanier on what his musical instruments have taught him.

5) An interesting trend in crowded, hot Singapore: “Microgyms.”

6) Why Oregon’s effort to decriminalize drugs is failing.

7) Video: antique pencil sharpeners.

8) How Shakespeare’s plays were originally pronounced.

9) A timeline of the far future.

10) Lionel Messi made his debut for MLS side Inter Miami, coming on in the 54th minute and…well, just watch.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“Golden Retrievers celebrating their 155th anniversary in Scotland as a species.” Backstory is here. Thanks, Anasuya!

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Quote of the week:

“Doubt can only be removed by action.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter July 18, 2023. Not on my list? Join 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.

Image of the week, above:

The powerful poster for a book festival that took place in Kyiv last month. Created by Art Studio Agrafka.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week

1) Huge news in Singapore, long known for its efficient government: Antigraft officials are investigating the transport minister.

2) Meta’s Threads is getting a lot of attention, but people might be running out of time for yet another social media platform.

3) A deep look at Guam, its people, and the territory’s strategic importance for the U.S. military as tensions with China rise.

4) Quitting Apple’s ecosystem is neither easy nor cheap.

5) Otters are straight up stealing surfboards in California.

6) Las Vegas’s new $2 billion, 366-foot-tall, 1.2 million-LED orb/theater is bonkers‘.

7) In which a New Yorker writer commissions an AI bot to try to do his job.

8) Related: “How to Use AI to Do Stuff: An Opinionated Guide.”

9) Excellent video from this year’s Finish Hobbyhorse Championships.

10) Go to Wilby.me/surprise to visit a random Web 1.0 website.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“Clever dog uses hot dog bun as bait to snatch fish out of water.”

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Quote of the week:

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace.” — Milan Kundera, RIP

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Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter July 3, 2023. Not on my list? Sign up 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.

Image of the week, above:

A recent sunset here in Hong Kong.

My WSJ latest:

Just out, a story with my colleague Raffaele Huang: Zuckerberg’s Quest to Re-Enter China Faces Challenge: His Own Words <– Free link

The story begins:

HONG KONG—Mark Zuckerberg in late 2021 had a question for those working on Meta Platforms’ strategy for its virtual-reality headset: If Apple can sell iPhones in China, and Tesla can sell cars, why can’t we sell our devices there?

The question, posed on a video call, led to a push by Meta to restart its China business by selling its Quest headsets in the country, according to a person familiar with the matter, more than a decade after Facebook was blocked there.

The company held discussions with several Chinese tech companies and has made progress with videogame powerhouse Tencent Holdings, people familiar with the matter said. But the effort faces challenges, in part because Chinese executives worry that Zuckerberg isn’t seen as friendly to China, according to people familiar with the matter.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) In last week’s NN I pointed to several stories about Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against Putin. For more, check out this excellent WSJ documentary, available on YouTube: “Inside Prigozhin’s Wagner, Russia’s Secret War Company.”

2) People may fear mass layoffs, but artificial intelligence just represents another another wave of automation, writes tech analyst Benedict Evans.

3) Here are the winners of this year’s Audubon Photography Awards.

4) Is that a pizza depicted in a fresco from 79 A.D. that was recently discovered in Pompeii?

5) Here’s a beautiful collection of street sign lettering in India.

6) With crime, open drug use, and housing prices all rising, Portland, Oregon is losing its residents.

7) The signature dishes at the world’s 150 most legendary restaurants.

8) What after work time was like for young people before cellphones.

9) Everything you always wanted to know about amazing Japanese convenience stores.

10) Extreme food, Taiwan edition: crocodile ramen.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“Sailor the Touchdown Dog Sets Record for the Longest Catch at a Live Sporting Event” (Thanks, Anasuya!)

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Quote of the week:

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” – William James

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Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley