Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending June 21, 2014)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.
The Disruption Machine
Jill Lepore challenges assumptions in the cult of disruptive innovation. (Clayton Christensen responds in an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek.)
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor
Assessing Fukushima Damage Without Eyes on the Inside
How to see through steel to assess Fukushima damage.
—Kevin Bullis, senior editor, energy
Google’s Balloon Internet Experiment, One Year Later
Google’s effort to spread wireless Internet access using high-altitude “Loon Balloons” is running tests in Brazil and may also be used to improve coverage inside the U.S.
—Tom Simonite, senior editor, IT
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It’s Complicated: Facebook’s History of Tracking You
A timeline of how Facebook’s ubiquitous Like button became a tool that can track your movements around the Web.
—Tom Simonite
Coder’s High
A provocative piece about the self-absorption that comes with writing code.
—Will Knight, news and analysis editor
Tim Cook, Making Apple His Own
A great profile of Apple CEO Tim Cook—though Cook declined to be interviewed.
—David Talbot, chief correspondent
The Universal Typeface Experiment
Contribute your own handwriting using your mobile smartphone, and the handwritten letters of all participants will be aggregated here to create a font that will be downloadable in August.
—Joyce Chen, director of communications, MIT Enterprise Forum
The World’s Ball
A fun interactive feature by the New York Times, detailing how the official soccer/football ball for the World Cup has changed over the years.
—Joyce Chen
The Human Heart and Its Rhythmic Magnificence
Everybody keep in time with the heart.
—J. Juniper Friedman, editorial assistant
We Can Code It!
This long-form piece argues that “computational thinking,” rather than knowing how to code per se, is what matters more in the tech world.
—Kyanna Sutton, senior Web producer
Data Doppelgängers and the Uncanny Valley of Personalization
Ever roll your eyes at targeted ads on Gmail or Facebook? The author of this essay asks, “Why do I take it so personally when personalization gets it wrong?”
—Kyanna Sutton
Pixel Perfect: The Story of Eboy
A look at the individuals behind the design studio Eboy. Their pixoramas are as impressive as they are mesmerizing.
—Colin Jaworski, assistant art director
