Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending August 23, 2014)

A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.

August 21, 2014

Seeds of Doubt
The New Yorker’s Michael Specter picks up where David Rotman left off in our January cover story and challenges the opposition to genetically modified foods.
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor

Delivery Start-Ups Are Back Like It’s 1999
An interesting piece about the business models, or lack thereof, behind the latest rash of product-delivery apps and services.
—Will Knight, news and analysis editor

The Ivy League, Mental Illness, and the Meaning of Life
A worthwhile read on some potential pitfalls of an elite education.
—Kyanna Sutton, senior Web producer

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How Much Should You Know About How Facebook Works?
A coauthor of the Facebook study that attempted—successfully—to manipulate the emotions of users argues that it is impossible for people to expect informed consent about such experiments.
—Tom Simonite, senior editor, IT

Cities Are Making Spiders Grow Bigger and Multiply Faster
These spiders are living it up in Sydney, Australia.
—J. Juniper Friedman, associate Web producer

Look at What Two Years on Mars Did to the Curiosity Rover
I like the use of the image sliders that the Verge is experimenting with here.
Joyce Chen, director of communications, MIT enterprise forum global

Twitter: From Free Speech Champion to Selective Censor?
In the wake of the release of a horrific video from Iraq, Twitter once again blurred the line between platform and publisher.
—Mike Orcutt, research editor

A Place Beyond Words: The Literature of Alzheimer’s
How fiction writers struggle to capture the experience of dementia.
—Linda Lowenthal, copy chief

Arrogance Is Good: In Defense of Silicon Valley
Do you have to be an asshole to change the world?
—Linda Lowenthal

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