Category: Newley’s Notes

Sent as a newsletter June 19, 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 Hong Kong vanity plate for the finance buffs and economic historians out there: September 15, 2008.

Yes, that’s the day Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

My WSJ latest:

I’ve had a couple of stories out since my last dispatch, both touching on Hong Kong and big tech.

The first, earlier this month: 32 YouTube Videos Cited as Court Is Asked to Ban ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ Protest Anthem <– Free link

The lede:

Government officials in the financial center are seeking a court order to block the dissemination online of a popular pro-democracy song, the first major legal challenge to U.S. tech companies such as Google over politically sensitive content on their platforms.

And the second, out last week: American Tech Giants Are Slowly Cutting Off Hong Kong Internet Users. <– Free link

It began:

Bit by bit, American tech giants are shutting out users in Hong Kong, where moves by authorities to thwart online dissent are shifting the target from individuals to platforms such as Google’s YouTube.

As they say: watch this space.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) How a graduate student at the College of Charleston discovered the largest known slave auction in the U.S.

2) One of Saturn’s moons contains all of the elements needed for life.

3) More and more research shows that, even compared to other lifestyle factors, ample exercise is the key to longevity.

4) A profile of YouTuber Mr. Beast – real name: Jimmy Donaldson – whose philanthropic stunts have gained him more than 150 million subscribers.

5) South Florida is home to a new dialect of English.

6) A look at the company culture and corporate performance of Dr. Bronner’s, which clocked $170 million in revenue last year.

7) Dozens of the world’s most popular self-help books, boiled down to 11 core teachings.

8) Big rain + big snowfall this year = amazing waterfalls in Yosemite.

9) RIP, Cormac McCarthy.

10) Here is a lovely story about an over–80 soccer league in Tokyo.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“He’ll keep doing this until you give him belly rubs.”

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Quote of the week:

“People who think they have writer’s block don’t have writer’s block. They have fear of bad writing. If you show me all your bad writing, sooner or later you’re going to have to show me some good writing.” – Seth Godin

•••

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter April 5, 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:

Today marks one week since my WSJ colleague Evan Gershkovich was detained in Russia.

He is accused of espionage. The Journal vehemently denies the charges. President Biden, news organizations, rights groups and more are demanding his release.

His lawyers have now met with him in prison, our editor in chief, Emma Tucker, said in a note to staff yesterday.

“Evan’s health is good, and he is grateful for the outpouring of support from around the world,” she wrote.

“We continue to call for his immediate release,” and beyond legal avenues we’re working with the White House, State Department and relevant U.S. government officials, she said.

Please take a moment to read this excellent profile of Evan by my colleagues Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw: Evan Gershkovich Loved Russia, the Country That Turned on Him.

That story, like all of our updates and his previous reporting, are free to read. And we’ve set up a landing page for all of our coverage.

If you post about his situation on social media, please use the hashtag #IStandWithEvan, as I – and many others – have been doing on Twitter.

Editor’s note:

Newley’s Notes will fall silent for few weeks. See you in May!

My WSJ latest:

My latest, an exclusive out last Wednesday: YouTube Looking Into Gandhi’s Claim Political Videos in India Suppressed

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to criminal charges for allegedly paying hush money during his 2016 campaign, marking the first time a former president has faced criminal charges.

2) An unprecedented housing phenomenon is taking shape in the U.S.: home prices are falling in the West and rising in the East.

3) Alibaba news: the online shopping titan is splitting into six independent companies that could pursue individual IPOs. (Oh, and co-founder Jack Ma reappeared in China after about a year overseas.)

4) “The Case for Banning Children from Social Media.”

5) Pets aren’t just great companions; they promote familial health, too: Children with dogs and cats in the house are less likely to develop food allergies.

6) The latest vending machine offering in Japan: bear meat.

7) Here’s a website that shows you random overhead photos of airports.

8) Variety reports that the next season of one of my favorite TV shows, “The White Lotus,” may be set in one of my favorite countries: Thailand.

9) The trailer for the new Wes Anderson movie, “Asteroid City,” starring Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson and many more, is out.

10) Video: the most popular song each month since January 1980.

•••

Dog-related video of the week:

“Good boy trying to steal food from TV”

•••

Quote of the week:

“Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years.” – Unknown

•••

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter March 26, 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:

An apartment building here in Hong Kong. I love the textures.

My WSJ latest:

I’ve had three stories out since my last dispatch.

From March 6, with my colleague Jeff Horwitz: YouTube, Facebook and Instagram Gave Platforms to Indian Cow-Protection Vigilante

From March 10, with Jeff and colleagues Salvador Rodriguez and Sam Schechner: Meta Plans New Layoffs That Could Match Last Year’s in Scope

And from March 13, with my colleagues Raffaele Huang and Clarence Leong: Asian Startups’ Confidence in U.S. Banking Wanes After SVB Panic

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew was grilled by U.S. lawmakers over matters such as where data on users in the U.S. is stored, who can access it, and more.

2) The AI revolution has begun, Bill Gates writes, arguing that new tools like ChatGPT could be as disruptive as mobile phones and the internet.

3) Following the guilty verdict in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial earlier this month, the New Yorker’s James Lasdun sums up what he calls a “fittingly theatrical spectacle.”

4) Gordon Moore, who co-founded Intel and posited that the number of transistors in a computer chip doubles about every two years, a theory known as Moore’s Law, died at the age of 94.

5) Related: For The Atlantic, Virginia Heffernan visits Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor maker.

6) Interview with tech visionary Kevin Kelly, who was an editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and founding editor of Wired (and whose “Cool Tools” podcast I have listened to for years).

7) Artvee allows you to search for and download artwork that’s in the public domain.

8) “Instagram face” as “an instrument of class distinction.”

9) For the first time ever in March Madness, all the number one seeds lost before the Elite Eight, setting up a final four featuring Florida Atlantic, San Diego State, Miami and UConn.

10) Mental heath break: imagining U.S. presidents as professional wrestlers.

•••

Dog-related video of the week:

An excellent dog-on-the-pitch moment.

•••

Quote of the week:

“People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

•••

What’s new with you? Hit reply to send me tips, queries, random comments, and videos of dogs who just wanna be part of the action.

•••

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter Monday, February 27. Not on my email 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:

From our Tuesday page one: I loved this photo of President Biden and Ukraine’s President Zelensky in Kyiv. By Evan Vucci of the Associated Press.

My WSJ latest:

My newest story, out Tuesday with my colleague Raffaele Huang: Meta in Talks to Reboot China Business With VR Headsets

It began:

Tencent Holdings Ltd. is in talks to sell Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.’s popular virtual-reality headset in China, home to the world’s biggest pool of internet users.

Tencent, China’s biggest videogame company, has proposed to Meta that it become the exclusive seller of Meta’s Quest 2 headsets in China, people familiar with the discussion said. Tencent has also sought to publish Chinese versions of existing videogames for the device, they said.

The discussions, which began in recent months, are still at an early stage and a deal might not be reached, some of the people said.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) In a new report, the U.S. Energy Department said it has determined that Covid began due to a lab leak, highlighting “how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin,” my colleagues Michael R. Gordon and Warren P. Strobel report.

2) Friday marked one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. Now it’s a war that the U.S. and allies are all-in on helping Ukraine win, writes my colleague Yaroslav Trofimov.

3) Excellent investigation by Reuters: how used sneakers that Dow Inc. and the Singapore government said were being recycled into playgrounds wound up being sold in Indonesia.

4) Author Neal Stephenson, who pioneered the concept of the metaverse, talks about the future virtual reality.

5) Several news publishers in the U.S. dropped the “Dilbert” comic strip following creator Scott Adams’s comments about Black people.

6) Sci-fi magazines are getting swamped with AI-generated submissions.

7) Why Ho Chi Minh City is Southeast Asia’s newest hotspot for startups.

8) HistoryMaps uses maps, timelines, graphics and more to illuminate the past visually.

9) I have three words for you: Human Dog Bed.

10) Goat-related video of the week: “Apparently goats love tomatoes.” Bonus link: metal music version.

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Dog-related video of the week:

“this husky was supposed to learn how to swim, but discovered that she could just float instead.”

•••

Quote of the week:

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

•••

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter Monday, February 13. Not on my email 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 misty Hong Kong, seen from Victoria Harbour last night.

My WSJ latest:

My newest story, an exclusive out Wednesday: Guns Offered for Sale in Facebook Groups Devoted to Religious Extremists in India

It begins:

Facebook users have offered for sale on the platform handguns, rifles, shotguns and bullets to members of a forum devoted to an extremist Hindu organization with a history of violence in India.

Eight posts, some of which had been up since April, caught the eye of Raqib Hameed Naik, the founder of a group that monitors attacks against religious minorities in India. He began reporting them to Meta Platforms Inc. in late January as contravening the company’s publicly stated policy that prohibits private individuals from buying or selling firearms or ammunition on Facebook platforms.

Facebook declined to remove them, saying the posts didn’t violate the company’s rules, according to responses from the company that The Wall Street Journal reviewed.

After the Journal inquired about the posts, Facebook on Tuesday removed them, saying they ran afoul of the company’s policies.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) The Pentagon says it’s shot down four flying objects over the U.S. That comes after the downing last week, off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, what the government called a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon.

2) In recent hours China has fired back (sorry) by saying the U.S. has sent balloons into its airspace more than ten times over the last year, though it didn’t offer evidence.

3) Beyoncé won a Grammy for best dance/electronica album for “Renaissance,” breaking the record for the most Grammy wins – 32– in history.

4) LeBron James became the NBA’s all-time highest scorer, surpassing the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

5) How Microsoft’s Bing search engine is harnessing AI and, just maybe, poised to challenge Google.

6) Fun travelogue: What it’s like to ride an Amtrak train 43 hours from Chicago to Los Angeles.

7) RIP Bob Born, the candy company executive who gave the world Peeps.

8) Twitter thread: “Portraits famous photographers have taken of their partners.”

9) I was unaware there’s a new – and popular – “Night Court” reboot, complete with John Larroquette.

10) What did Earth look like hundreds of millions of years ago? Check out this interactive globe.

•••

Dog-related video of the week:

“It’s fun.”

•••

Quote of the week:

“Change before you have to.” – Jack Welch

•••

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter Monday, January 30. Not on my email 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 Hong Kong streetscape.

My WSJ latest:

My latest story, out Wednesday: Musk’s Twitter Reinstates Hindu Nationalist Accounts That Disparage Muslims

It began:

Twitter Inc. under Elon Musk has reinstated several previously suspended Hindu nationalist accounts that were popular in India, one of its largest markets by users, with human-rights groups saying the move has spurred a resurgence of divisive religious material on the platform.

Some of the accounts that were suspended had been reported for posting hate speech aimed at religious minorities in India, according to groups that reported them. Upon their return in recent weeks, some have tweeted material denigrating Muslims and others.

The tweets include a debunked video that the person who posted it claimed showed a Muslim cleric spitting on rice before serving it to others, another calling Pakistani Muslims “rectums,” and a retweet of a user who called the Quran “the source of all evil.”

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) I’ve mentioned in NN a few times the Murdaugh saga in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, which I find transfixing given, among other reasons, the time I spent growing up in the region. As you may have seen, the trial of Alex Murdaugh, accused of killing his wife and son, began last week in the small town of Walterboro. My WSJ colleague Valerie Bauerlein has been all over the case – indeed, she’s writing a book about it – and had a story out last week about jury selection and opening arguments. Follow her on Twitter here and find her WSJ dispatches here.

2) For a fresh longread, there’s “The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders,” by James Lasdun, in last week’s New Yorker.

3) There are also several podcasts about the saga, including the Charleston Post and Courier’s “Understand Murdaugh,” journalist Mandy Matney’s “Murdaugh Murders,” and “The Murdaugh Murders, Money & Mystery,” from WCIV ABC News 4 in Charleston.

4) And for the truly obsessed: ABC News, among others, is live-streaming the court proceedings on YouTube. (And for the truly, truly obsessed, there’s even a Reddit subreddit, r/MurdaughFamilyMurders.)

5) In other news: here’s an eye-opening Bloomberg Businessweek story by Ashlee Vance about a wealthy, 45-year-old software entreprenuer who spends $2 million a year to try to reverse the aging process. It includes this amazing sentence: “He wants to have the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, tendons, teeth, skin, hair, bladder, penis and rectum of an 18-year-old.”

6) “Decoding the Hype About AI”: Arvind Narayanan, a computer science professor at Princeton, speaks with The Markup’s Julia Angwin.

7) Dana Gioia – music critic, author, all around brilliant guy – outlines his eight top techniques for judging someone’s character.

8) Procrastinating scribes in Tokyo, take note: Manuscript Writing Cafe, made for working writers, features an owner who checks in on your progress a couple times an hour.

9) Wonders of Street View: click the “random” button in the upper right to see one remarkable scene caught on Google after another.

10) Think you’re a good judge of when a photo was taken? Try your hand with the Chronophoto game.

•••

Dog-related video of the week:

Police puppy gets interviewed

•••

Quote of the week:

“I always work at the edge of what I understand.” – Brian Eno

•••

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter Sunday, December 25. Not on my email list? Enter your address here.

Hi friends,

Merry Christmas!

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.

Administrative note NN will be away until after the new year. I’ll see you again in 2023, friends!

Image of the week, above:

A recent Hong Kong sunset. People seriously don’t understand how beautiful this city is.

My WSJ latest:

My last story of 2022, out a couple weeks ago, before I departed on holiday: Google Faces Pressure in Hong Kong Over Search Results for National Anthem

It began:

Google is under fire from officials and legislators in Hong Kong over a pro-democracy song that is showing up in search results for the national anthem, raising tensions between American tech giants and authorities as Beijing tries to spread patriotism in the city.

As they say: Watch this space.

Here are my top 10 new things of 2022:

1) Book: “Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control, ” by Josh Chin and Liza Lin. A deeply reported, downright frightening work by my WSJ colleagues that shows the extent to which Beijing has siphoned up data on its citizens in order to influence their behavior. A must-read for anyone who’s interested in digital privacy or China (or both), and a cautionary tale for people everywhere given the extent to which governments and corporations around the world increasingly have access to our electronic details.

2) Movie: “Top Gun: Maverick.” If you don’t like this feel-good, adrenaline-packed masterwork that — best of all — doesn’t take itself too seriously, well, I can’t be your friend. Because it probably means you don’t love America hard enough.

3) Album: “Cruel Country,” by Wilco. The band, which was once known as alt-country and then morphed into much more, riffs on…country music in this double album.

4) TV series: “Somebody Somewhere.” Shines a light on the unique people in small town America who are often ignored. And a special shout-out to the magnificent “Better Call Saul” — could it even be better than “Breaking Bad?” It just might be — which ended this year.

5) Podcast: “The Eastern Oregon Connection.” Given my roots in Pendleton, Oregon, I have loved this straightforward show: Locals Ryan Smith and Shannon Hartley interview interesting people from the community and surrounding region — farmers, coaches, physical therapists, entrepreneurs and more. That’s it! There should be more podcasts like this one.

6) Best gadget: I’m going to fudge a bit here as the Fujifilm X100V came out in 2020, but I only got it this year. It’s a compact camera with a prime lens that captures beautiful images. It is also a gorgeous machine itself. (I took the sunset pic above using my modest iPhone 12, though.)

7) Best web service: Maybe it’s recency bias, and it’s been around for some time, but 2022 saw growing adoption of Mastodon after Elon Musk took over Twitter. I was skeptical at first that it could work at scale, and Twitter still has massive network effects, but I think Mastodon now represents a legitimate Twitter alternative. (I’m @newley@journa.host, by the way.)

8) Related — best Mastodon iOS app: Metatext. Simple, clean, open source.

9) Best save: Emi Martinez saves with his left foot (from 1:28 in the video) in extra time to preserve the 3-3 draw for Argentina and get them to penalties in the best World Cup final match of all time….

10) …During which Leo Messi scored the year’s best goal: an outrageously nonchalant penalty (from 0:28 in the video) under unthinkable pressure. Epic.

•••

Dog-related video of the week:

Dogs at a shelter getting to pick Christmas presents

•••

Quote of the week:

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” — Carol Burnett

•••

What’s new with you? Hit reply to send me tips, queries, random comments, and videos of excited canines.

•••

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter Monday, December 5. Not on my email list? Enter your address 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:

Once again, for Thanksgiving, I made my Aunt Cece’s world-famous pecan pie.

And once again, it did not disappoint.

My WSJ latest:

I had two stories out last week, both about Twitter.

The first, with my colleague Selina Cheng, on Wednesday: Twitter Becomes Stage for China Protests Despite Ban by Beijing.

The lede:

Twitter is banned in China, but it is proving a critical platform for getting videos and images of protests occurring across the nation out to the rest of the world.

One Twitter user we profiled, who goes by Li Laoshi, or Teacher Li, had about 760,000 followers at that point, more than three times the number before the demonstrations began. The count has now surpassed 818,000.

And the second story, a spot news piece out Friday with my colleague Sarah Needleman: Kanye West Suspended From Twitter After Swastika Tweet. It began:

Twitter Inc. again suspended Kanye West’s account after the musician and designer posted a swastika in a tweet that the social-media platform’s owner, Elon Musk, said violated its rules.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) The U.S. lost to the Netherlands 3–1 in the World Cup round of 16. Yes, we made it out of a tough group and were beaten by a much stronger team with more seasoned players and a more storied footballing history. But some avoidable defensive mistakes cost us the game. Still, with World Cup 2026 in the U.S., Canada and Mexico – and one of the youngest teams at this year’s competition – I’m optimistic about our future.

2) One bright spot for U.S. Men’s National Team fans, and goalkeepers everywhere: Matt Turner. He walked on at Fairfield University and once gave up a goal so bad it went viral, but has since made it to MLS and the Premier League. He had a great tournament.

3) For an entertaining summation of the U.S. performance and thoughts on where the team goes from here, check out this Men in Blazers podcast episode.

4) Elsewhere: The Financial Times’s 25 most influential women of 2022.

5) How solar engineering could help mitigate climate change.

6) Happy birthday to Jonathan, the world’s oldest tortoise, who just turned 190.

7) Why are streetlights in the U.S., Canada and Ireland turning purple?

8) Here’s a collection of obsolete sounds.

9) The tastiest apples, ranked.

10) And now for something completely bizarre: “Cocaine Bear” is a real movie. Here is the trailer.

•••

Dog-related video of the week:

“Thanksgiving at Michigan Animal Rescue League ”

•••

Quote of the week:

“No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.” – Daniel Kahneman

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter Sunday, November 22. Not on my email list? Enter your address 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:

Another excellent vanity plate, spotted here in Hong Kong. If you work hard, as the saying goes, you gotta…

My WSJ latest:

My latest, out Wednesday: Facebook Parent Meta Sees Executive Exodus in India

It begins:

Three of Meta Platforms Inc.’s top executives in India have departed the company in recent weeks, with the Facebook parent changing the country’s reporting structure amid its first broad global restructuring, according to people familiar with the matter.

They were: India head Ajit Mohan; the head of WhatsApp in India, Abhijit Bose; and Rajiv Aggarwal, Meta India’s public policy director.

The story included the exclusive tidbit that India’s office, which long reported to HQ in Menlo Park, California, will now report to Meta’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore. (That was later confirmed in a statement from Meta announcing the new India head, Sandhya Devanathan.)

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) The World Cup is here! Ecuador defeated hosts Qatar 2–0 in the opening match yesterday. And England just demolished Iran 6–2.

2) More on the World Cup: My WSJ colleagues have the inside story of how (chaotically) and why (a late decision by the Qatari royal family) the tournament’s last-minute beer ban came to be.

3) And finally: Qatar are a controversial World Cup host. England footballing great turned TV presenter Gary Lineker kicked off the BBC’s coverage of the event with a sober rundown of some of the issues.

4) The latest on Twitter: Elon Musk has reinstated Former President Trump’s account, but it’s unclear if Trump will return, given his commitment to his own social media platform, Truth Social.

5) The FTX débâcle, simplified, by economist Alex Tabarrok.

6) Here’s a New York Times travel piece on the revitalization of Bangkok’s Charoen Krung Road, which runs along the Chao Phraya River.

7) How “Love Is Blind,” over the course of three seasons, went from a “sociological fairy tale to a reality TV nightmare.”

8) Soundprint is “like Yelp, but for noise” – an app that helps you find quiet bars, restaurants, and other places.

9) Podcast of the week: Ken Burns talks to Tyler Cowen about making documentaries, why he’s lived in the same small New Hampshire town for decades, and why he loves quilts.

10) This is the best 12-second compilation of panda fails you will see this week. (Thanks, Anasuya!)

•••

Dog-related video of the week:

“There are some Wonderful people in this world”

•••

Quote of the week:

“It’s faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley