Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending March 7, 2014)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.
The Indian Sanitary Pad Revolutionary
This story of an Indian man’s obsessive quest to develop a less expensive sanitary napkin must be read to be believed.
—Linda Lowenthal, copy chief
German Companies Take Back the Power (WSJ paywall)
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on how German companies are increasingly going off the grid and generating their own electricity.
—Mike Orcutt, research editor
A Vast Hidden Surveillance Network Runs Across America, Powered by the Repo Industry
Police surveillance isn’t the only issue; the practice of repo men using license-plate scanners to find possible targets is mushrooming, and feeding into national databases revealing the location of cars and their owners.
—David Talbot, chief correspondent
The Face Behind Bitcoin
This Newsweek story on Bitcoin’s Satoshi Nakamoto is funny, weird, and well-written (though possibly untrue).
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor
When State-of-the-Art Is Second Best
Pressure-sensitive robotic hands and other recent advances in prosthetic technology are exciting, but for many amputees, low-tech options are still the best fit.
—Susan Young, biomedicine editor
Privacy at Peril: From One Tweet, a Full-blown Hack
An interesting tale about how easily our lives can be “hacked” by anyone who’s starting with just a little online information, much of which we put on the Web ourselves.
—Rachel Metz, IT editor, Web & social media
Wired’s Guide to Music in 2014
The March 2014 issue of Wired magazine offers a guide to grooving out.
—J. Juniper Friedman, editorial assistant
The Newsonomics of Newsweek’s Pricey Relaunch
Don’t miss this Nieman Journalism Lab analysis of Newsweek’s print relaunch and its risky new revenue strategy.
—Kyanna Sutton, senior Web producer