Friday, December 30, 2016

Facebook Knows What You Did Last Summer

​Welcome to What We Learned This Week, a digest of the most curiously important facts from the past few days. This week: Facebook is watching you offline, a problem bigger than ISIS and our irrational fear of robots.
Digg Editions
Morning · Fri, Dec 30
A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE
WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK
Facebook Knows More About You Than You Think, And Other Facts
digg.com
​Welcome to What We Learned This Week, a digest of the most curiously important facts from the past few days. This week: Facebook is watching you offline, a problem bigger than ISIS and our irrational fear of robots.
A PHONE HOME
How China Built 'iPhone City'
nytimes.com
A hidden bounty of benefits for Foxconn's plant in Zhengzhou, the world's biggest iPhone factory, is central to the production of Apple's most profitable product.
MAKING PSYCHOS OF ALL OF US
A Blunt Conversation About Life Online With Bret Easton Ellis
huckmagazine.com
Movies are finished, the novel is dead and the internet is driving people insane. Welcome to the world of Bret Easton Ellis: a literary maverick who's brutally honest about the digital age.
SECURITY WE DIGG | SPONSORED
Online Privacy Has Never Felt More At Risk
privateinternetaccess.com
A VPN from Private Internet Access is the easiest way to secure your browser history and online identity. If 2016 has taught us anything, hopefully it's to be a smarter, safer internet user.
WHAT WENT WRONG HERE?
TIME TO PACK IT IN
The Rise And Fall Of Packard Bell
tedium.co
When it was a radio-maker, Packard Bell had a reputation for quality products. When a PC clone startup bought the name, that reputation fell apart — fast.
OPIATES: PROBABLY NOT FOR THE MASSES
How Over-The-Counter Opium Led To America's Landmark Food-And-Drug Law
timeline.com
Before Congress stepped in, medical fraud was everywhere in America. And while useless medicines were annoying, a greater risk to the public came from how many of these medicines used real and potent ingredients.
SMOOTH CRIMINALS
WATCH: We Can't Help But Be Impressed By This ATM Machine Heist
digg.com
While we can all agree that theft is bad, most of us have probably also enjoyed a heist movie. And this theft of an ATM machine in Texas — which includes a stolen construction vehicle driven out of the woods — wouldn't be out of place in a movie.
'WHAT IS GOING ON'
Behold: Everything Wrong With This No Good, Very Bad McMansion
mcmansionhell.com
We've highlighted McMansion Hell before, and it's our duty to highlight it again (because it's one of the best blogs on the internet right now). Here, the architecture critic behind the blog picks apart a very bad McMansion in Arkansas.
HERE'S TO A NEW YEAR
THAT SOUNDS JUST ABOUT RIGHT
The Last Place To Experience 2016 Will Be An Abandoned Island Full Of Bird Poop
atlasobscura.com
Nothing gold can stay. But if you want to squeeze just a little more out of 2016, we've got just the place for you to do it: Baker Island, a tiny, saucer-shaped atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
COMIN' AT YA FAST AND FURIOUS
The 52 Most Anticipated Movies Of 2017
filmschoolrejects.com
"John Wick," "Spider-Man" and "Star Wars." It's all happening in 2017.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
FILMED AT 150,000 FPS
Watch A Prince Rupert's Drop Shatter A Bullet
digg.com
Seeing the (glass) Prince Rupert's Drop obliterate a bullet is pretty cool, even if it ends up shattering itself after the impact.
IN THE NEWS
US Punishes Russia For Election Hacking, Ejecting Operatives And Imposing Sanctions
Putin Says He Won't Expel Us Diplomats From Russia In Tit-For-Tat Measure
Dashcam Video Appears To Show Cop Shooting Man In The Back In Fort Worth, Texas
Adnan Syed, From 'Serial' Podcast, Denied Release While Awaiting Retrial
Have a very happy New Year. Here's to 2017 being absolutely nothing like 2016!