Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending October 18, 2014)

Will Ads Become Next Net-Neutrality Battle?
An Israeli startup plans to help wireless carriers block online ads in an effort to negotiate a cut of Internet advertising revenues.
—Tom Simonite, San Francisco bureau chief

Why Kids Sext
The Atlantic looks at a fraught subject with nuance.
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor

Building the Largest Ship In the World, South Korea
A photographer for Wired U.K. documents the construction of an insanely gigantic container ship.
—Linda Lowenthal, copy chief

For $20 Million, a Coal Utility Bought an Ohio Town and a Clear Conscience
Life in an Ohio town that took $20 million from a coal utility in exchange for a free pass to pollute.
—Tom Simonite

Revealed: How Whisper App Tracks ‘Anonymous’ Users
How “anonymous” social network Whisper secretly tracks its users’ location.
—Tom Simonite

The Future of the Culture Wars Is Here, and It’s Gamergate
The editor in chief thought this a fair account and analysis of Gamergate.
—Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher

Can a Virtual Therapist Keep the Peace on the Way to Mars? NASA Wants to Find Out
I’ve always wondered how astronauts keep from going bonkers in those tight spaces.
—Nanette Byrnes, senior editor, Business Reports

F.B.I. Director Calls ‘Dark’ Devices a Hindrance to Crime Solving
Edward who? Federal law enforcement officials now claim they have too little access to our data, as this New York Times story spells out.
—David Talbot, chief correspondent

Solar Power Keeps Getting Cheaper — But Not for the Reasons You’d Expect
Module prices are no longer falling as they did between 2008 and 2012, but the cost of solar is still dropping. Vox explains why.
—Mike Orcutt, research editor

Video Friday: Pico Quadrotor, iRobot Control, and Android Metamorphosis
Penn State’s dragonfly-size drones fly in vaguely ominous, precise formation.
—Kevin Bullis, senior editor, materials

What Scientists Really Do
Why do so many in the public reject science? An interesting perspective.
—David Rotman, editor

Maybe Better If You Don’t Read This Story on Public WiFi
It isn’t a secret that public wi-fi has security issues, but this piece shows just how much a hacker learned about his fellow coffee shop patrons in a matter of minutes.
—Kristin Majcher, special projects editor

Steve Ballmer’s New Life With the Clippers
A feature on my favorite crazy-man CEO of all time.
—Will Knight, news and analysis editor

Finding a Video Poker Bug Made These Guys Rich—Then Vegas Made Them Pay
An interesting story about the a software bug in the most popular slot machine in Vegas.
—Will Knight

Riding with the Stars: Passenger Privacy in the NYC Taxicab Dataset
How to track celebrities by de-anonymizing New York taxi data.
—Will Knight