Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending October 11, 2014)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.
The Secret of These New Veggie Burgers: Plant Blood
(Note: this story is paywalled)
A clever approach to fake meat.
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor
The Planning Machine
Evgeny Morozov sees a connection between today’s big data obsessions and a failed cybernetics project in Socialist Chile.
—Brian Bergstein
The Overlooked History of African Technology
MIT offers postmodernist critique of African hunting technology.
—Antonio Regalado, senior editor, biomedicine
The NSA and Me
This piece by the legendary James Bamford, about the NSA’s threats to prosecute him in the 1980s, is incredible.
—Antonio Regalado
The Empire Reboots
Bill Gates is back to shaping Microsoft’s strategy thanks to his close relationship with the company’s new CEO, Satya Nadella.
—Tom Simonite, San Francisco bureau chief
Amazing Military Infographics
Paul Ford explores the mysterious and mesmeric world of easily Google-able military infographics.
—Will Knight, news and analysis editor
NASA Is Getting Serious About Space Hibernation
Who among us is ready for a big, fat 180-day nap?
—Kyanna Sutton, senior Web producer
Ebola Outbreak Could Cost West African Economy $32.6bn, World Bank Warns
The threat of Ebola has jumped to a new level with the risk of further economic depression in West Africa.
—J. Juniper Friedman, associate Web producer
Why Some Drone Makers Hate the Word ‘Drone’ and Want to Change It
Makers of those flying robots we’ve been hearing so much about have had enough of that word.
—Mike Orcutt, research editor