Recommended from Around the Web (Week Ending January 10, 2015)
A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.
Genius Idea
This, by Nick Carlson, is how you annotate a story on Rap Genius. (You let your sources annotate.)
—Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher
People Around the World Are Voluntarily Submitting to China’s Great Firewall. Why?
How the rise of Chinese messaging app WeChat in the U.S. and elsewhere expands the reach of Chinese government censors.
—Tom Simonite, San Francisco bureau chief
A Teenager’s View on Social Media
A 19-year-old college student reports on how his peers use social media: Facebook’s out, Snapchat’s in, and no one can understand Twitter.
—Tom Simonite
5,200 Days in Space
What it’s really like to live and work on the International Space Station.
—Linda Lowenthal, copy chief
The Aggressive Nazi-Bred Cows That Caused Havoc on a Modern Farm
The disturbing—and ongoing—history of the misguided effort to revive the extinct auroch.
—Linda Lowenthal
Planet Hackers
A sign that geoengineering is becoming more of a mainstream topic.
—Brian Bergstein, deputy editor
Charlie Hebdo Murders Are No Excuse for Killing Online Freedom
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks, this was a nice wrap-up in Gigaom covering reactions and viewpoints regarding online censorship and surveillance.
—David Talbot, chief correspondent
Managing Conversations Online Is a Puzzle of Picking Platforms
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter—all have their place for online communication.
—J. Juniper Friedman, associate Web producer