Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending October 4, 2013)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.
Climate Change Rescue in U.S. Makes Steyer Converge with Paulson
Fascinating story about the business impacts of climate change and former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson’s efforts to quantify them.
—Kevin Bullis, senior editor, energy
Snapchat’s Next Big Thing: “Stories” That Don’t Just Disappear
Snapchat’s new “Stories” feature gives a longer shelf life to formerly ephemeral snaps by indexing them in a feed friends can access for 24 hours. Should Facebook be afraid of the competition?
—Kyanna Sutton, senior Web producer
How to Make a Jedi Lightsaber
A funny post that puts the recent talk of lightsabers in perspective, by the Guardian’s excellent science scribe, Ian Sample.
—Will Knight, news and analysis editor
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Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?
A sometimes personal, sometimes depressing look at the hard-to-quantify issues that keep many women out of technical fields.
—Linda Lowenthal, copy chief
The Tech of Fashion: 10 Ways Technology Drives Tomorrow’s Fashion
Technology + fashion = A happy marriage.
—J. Juniper Friedman, editorial assistant
Welcome to the High-Tech Jail of the 21st Century
Grid security is important to national security. One of the most sophisticated smart grids in the United States—with fuel cells, pivoting solar panels, banks of batteries, and advanced communications technologies to run it all—can be found at the nation’s fifth-largest prison, where it saves $2.5 million a year.
—David Talbot, chief correspondent
How the Shutdown Is Devastating Biomedical Scientists and Killing Their Research
A sad look at how the U.S. government shutdown is affecting biomedical research, as told first-hand by an anonymous government scientist.
—Susan Young, biomedicine editor
The Woman Who Knows the NSA’s Secrets
Meet the Michigan blogger who has become an invaluable resource to experts trying to understand Edward Snowden’s leaks about NSA surveillance.
—Tom Simonite, senior editor, IT
”It Was the Biggest Game of Chicken I’ve Ever Seen.”
Find out how David Karp built online culture powerhouse Tumblr, and why he doesn’t know if it can make money.
—Tom Simonite
Inside the Fall of BlackBerry: How the Smartphone Inventor Failed to Adapt
Long inside look at BlackBerry’s missed opportunities to gain a foothold in the post-iPhone world.
—Tom Simonite
The Nacho Dorito
How Doritos are engineered so you can’t stop eating them. Remarkable science! Here’s a nugget from the article: “Licking the dust from the fingers in its pure form, without the chip to dilute the impact, sends an even larger flavor burst to the brain.”
—James Friedman, director of advertising sales
