Newley Purnell

Sent as a newsletter on June 13, 2021. Want in? Join my email list.

👋 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 watercolor, done from a photo I took on a recent trip to Hong Kong’s Lamma Island.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 💰 “ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth – sometimes, even nothing.” [ProPublica]

2) 🦠 A Covid–19 report from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California says the Chinese lableak hypothesis is plausable. [WSJ]

3) 🚀 Jeff Bezos will be on his space company Blue Origin’s first flight carrying people to the edge of space. [TechCrunch]

4) 🍎 New Apple updates are coming this fall: FaceTime gets Zoom-like features, Macs get a low-power mode, Safari gets tab grouping, and more. [WSJ]

5) 💬 Authorities around the world busted hundreds of suspected criminals by secretly gaining access to an encrypted messaging platform used on mobile devices. [WSJ]

6) ⚽ Euro 2020 – that is, the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, being played a year late due to Covid – has kicked off! Favorites include Belgium, Italy, Portugal and – my pick to win – France. [Wikipedia]

7) 👀 End-times-related video of the week: a tour of a survivalist community living in underground bunkers in South Dakota. [Laughing Squid]

8) 🌲 Now out: winners of the BigPicture natural world photography contest; my favorite is number five, “Facing Reality.” [The Atlantic]

9) 💊 Longread of the week, by Erika Fry: “How Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway took on America’s health care system – and lost.” [Fortune]

10) 😢 Dog-related tearjerker of the week: An eight-year-old-boy in Virginia set up a stand to sell his Pokemon cards to fund treatment for his sick puppy, Bruce. Once word got out, people all over the country pitched in – and Bruce is now on the mend. [Washington Post]

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🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

🏀 “This dog can dunk.” [Reddit]

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💡 Quote of the week:

“No one can live happily who has regard to himself alone and transforms everything into a question of his own utility; you must live for your neighbor, if you would live for yourself.” – Seneca

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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter on June 6,2021. Didn’t arrive in your inbox? Join my email list.

👋 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 amazing Hong Kong vanity plate. Spotted by A.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 🇭🇰 Thousands of people here in Hong Kong marked the anniversary Friday of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre despite massive numbers of police on the streets [WSJ]

2) 🚨 Facebook said its suspension of Donald Trump’s accounts will run at least until January 2023. [WSJ]

3) 💻 Facing the prospect returning to the office, some workers in the U.S. are quitting instead. [Bloomberg]

4) 👀 Bigger pupils = higher intelligence? [Scientific American]

5) 🗣 Eunoia is a new website cataloging more than 500 untranslatable words from various languages. [Eunoia dot world]

6) 🌋 Mario David García Mansilla bakes a special kind of pizza: cooked on a volcano in Guatemala. [Atlas Obscura]

7) #️⃣ #Hashtags were cool, then they were uncool, and now young influencers are bringing ’em back. [LA Times]

8) ❓ Ask Reddit: “What is a simple, painful fact that people need to just get over and accept?” [Reddit]

9) 📹 Please enjoy this compendium of the best dumb internet videos of all time. [Polygon]

10) 🍴 “Roadrunner” is a new documentary about Anthony Bourdain out July 16. [YouTube]

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🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

🐕 “A hug is worth a thousand words.” [YouTube]

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📺 What I’ve Been Reading:

I’ve had a copy of Jonathan Haidt’s “The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” kicking around the house for some time, but had never opened it. I’m so glad I finally did. I’m not even finished and it already ranks among my favorite books about happiness – and what makes for a fulfilling life – that I’ve encountered. It is beautifully written, deeply researched, sharply argued, and highly comforting. More soon on its lessons, I’m sure.

💡 Quote of the week:

“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

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👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley

Sent as a newsletter on May 30,2021. Didn’t arrive in your inbox? Join my email list.

👋 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 watercolor from a Hong Kong waterfront.

Here are 10 items worth your time this week:

1) 🆕 I had three stories out this week. On Tuesday: Indian Police Visit Twitter’s Office After Politician’s Tweet Is Labeled as Misleading. The lede:

Indian police visited Twitter Inc.’s office in New Delhi to investigate the company’s labeling of tweets from a ruling party spokesman as misleading, the government’s latest move against U.S. tech platforms amid criticism over its handling of the pandemic.

2) 💬 On Wednesday: WhatsApp Says It Filed Suit in India to Prevent Tracing of Encrypted Messages. It began:

Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp said it filed a lawsuit in India to stop new government rules that would require the company to trace users’ encrypted messages, escalating a battle over online speech between American tech firms and the South Asian nation’s ruling party.

3) 🦠 And on Thursday: Facebook Ends Ban on Posts Asserting Covid–19 Was Man-Made. The lede:

Facebook Inc. has ended its ban on posts asserting Covid–19 was man-made or manufactured, a policy shift that reflects a deepening debate over the origins of the pandemic that was first identified in Wuhan, China, almost 18 months ago.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report.

4) 🇨🇳 Separately, a Covid-related must-read from my WSJ colleagues that contains deep and powerful reporting: The Wuhan Lab Leak Question: A Disused Chinese Mine Takes Center Stage.

5) 👉 People gathered Tuesday to mark one year since George Floyd died. [AP]

6) 🎬 In a move likely to strengthen its Prime Video service, Amazon is acquiring Hollywood studio MGM in a roughly $8.5 billion deal, its second-biggest acquisition after Whole Foods. [WSJ]

7) ⚽ Chelsea beat Manchester City in the Champion’s League final – and Hershey, Pennsylvania native Christian Pulisic became the first American man to play in and win the world’s most prestigious club tournament. [CBS Sports]

8) 📺 The 90s called, part 1: Here are the best parts of “Friends: The Reunion.” [AV Club]

9) 💥 The 90s called, part 2: “Johnny Knoxville’s Last Rodeo.” [GQ]

10) 🌝 Enjoy a collection of the best “super blood moon” photos. [The Guardian]

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🦴 Dog-related video of the week:

♥️ “Dog asks for dance with owner at his own wedding!” [Reddit/aww]

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📺 What I’ve Been Watching:

We recently went to a screening of “Minari,” an acclaimed film out last year about a Korean family that moves to Arkansas. Highly recommended. The trailer is here.

💡 Quote of the week:

“Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.” – William Shakespeare, “Troilus and Cressida.”

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🤗 What’s new with you? Hit reply to send me tips, queries, random comments, and videos of sweet dogs who just wanna join in dances.

👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,

Newley