Weekly Digest

Life
A reflective week thanks to a funeral on Friday. Apart from that, mostly quiet and thankfully no travel.

Media
Taboo came to an end this week – strong series so hopefully another will appear at some point. SS-GB looked great but not much happened so expect much tonight. Looking forward to some Zelda next week and the new Switch.

Links

• Reflecting on one very, very strange year at Uber — Susan J. Fowler
  As most of you know, I left Uber in December and joined Stripe in January.
  I’ve gotten a lot of questions over the past couple of months about why I
  left and what my time at Uber was like. It’s a strange, fascinating, and
  slightly horrifying story that deserves to be told while it is still fresh
  in my mind, so here we go. 
  Uber are quite the disgusting company. Susan Fowlers brave post has exposed what many had suspected. The real question, is this reality at other tech firms as well never mind more traditional industries?
• An Open Letter to The Uber Board and Investors – Medium
  By now a staggering number of people recognize the name of Susan Fowler and have read some account of her experiences of sexism, sexual harassment and horrendous management at Uber. So what explains…
  Uber have a real problem which they haven’t really addressed almost a week after Fowlers blog post.
• 4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump – Medium
  Around 2005 or so a strange link started showing up in my old webcomic’s referral logs. This new site I didn’t understand. It was a bulletin board, but its system of navigation was opaque. Counter…
  A look into the strange world that got Trump elected.
• to the people I know who know Milo – Medium
  There are lots of people of my acquaintance who have known Milo for a long time, through his many shape-shifting phases. Many of them have pardoned him a range of sins and excesses —transgressions…
  Bobbie Johnson on Milo the shape shifter.
• On the Milo Bus With the Lost Boys of America’s New Right
  What happens when a movement of gamers recognizes they’re not players, but pawns?
  Laurie Penny on Milo and his entourage.
• Meet the 16-year-old Canadian girl who took down Milo Yiannopoulos – Vox
  How a 16 year old broke the story that ended Milo.
• The rise and fall of Milo Yiannopoulos – how a shallow actor played the bad guy for money | World news | The Guardian
  Like Donald Trump, Yiannopoulos grew out of a grotesque convergence of politics and the internet, and thrived by turning hate speech into showbusiness
  So we finally found there is a line that right wing American’s can’t cross, and that no amount of apologies and bullshit from Milo Yiannopoulos could talk his way out of it. I’m sure he’ll carry on in some way or another…just can’t help himself.
• Manifestos and Monopolies – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
  Thompson makes the case that Facebook shouldn’t be allowed to buy another network app although I think the social graph portability is more important.
• I Was a Muslim in the Trump White House—and I Lasted Eight Days – The Atlantic
  When President Obama left, I stayed on at the National Security Council in order to serve my country. I lasted eight days.
  Sobering.
• Why Nothing Works Anymore – The Atlantic
  Technology has its own purposes.
  Can too much tech makes things worse? Maybe.
• Post-Olympic Abandonment – A blog by TMD studio – Medium
  Bringing the Olympics to your country, whether in summer or winter, is a costly business. Just ask the recent hosts. The games set back Sochi $51 billion, London $11.6 billion and Beijing at least…
  So sad to see these great abandoned buildings and well played to London for bucking the trend. Brazil already looks to be a mess.
• Mexico’s sugar tax leads to fall in consumption for second year running | Society | The Guardian
  Health experts are watching the progress of the tax to see if it will lower the rates of obesity-related diseases and type 2 diabetes
  Can’t come soon enough to the UK although still don’t understand why it’s only on drinks.
• Bill Paxton, actor known for Aliens and Titanic, dies aged 61
  Game Over Man, Game Over! Sad to see Bill Paxton pass away today.
• Finding Radiohead’s most depressing song, with R | R-bloggers
  Radiohead is known for having some fairly maudlin songs, but of all of their tracks, which is the most depressing? Data scientist and R enthusiast Charlie
  You say depressing, I say best.