1. Trucks Will Drive Themselves Before Cars – Compelling arguments for automated trucking.
2. Uber is Valued at $17 Billion – The start-up transportation company raised money at a valuation of $17 billion
3. Welcome to Baku – A look at the rapidly developing capital of Azerbaijan.
4. No Exit – The struggles of a Silicon Valley startup.
1. The Coup in Thailand – Several factions are vying for power: The establishment civil services, the billionaire, the military, and an eccentric prince.
2. UKIP Wins EU elections in the UK – The UK Independence Party takes first place in European elections. Will the UK exit the EU?
3. A Tale of Two Brothers – One is rich and has a moat while the other is a journalist. Interesting essay.
3. How Virtual Reality Became Reality – A look at how the Oculus Rift came to be.
4. The Quantum Computer Revolution – Has D-Wave created the first commercial quantum computer?
1. $23,215 For Health Insurance – For 23k you can buy a new car, or health insurance for a year for a family of four.
2. Why are Japanese Homes Disposable? – What’s wrong with living in newer homes? Seems nice to me.
3. No soap, no Shampoo, no Problem – Imagine rubbing bacteria on yourself rather than washing them off.
4. Parking Spots in Beijing Cost $160,000 – The cost of parking spots in Beijing are higher than the price of most cars!
5. Richard Garfield: King of Cards – A talk with the creator of Magic: The Gathering. Good games should force players to take part in their design (MTG and D&D)
1. 3D Ice Cubes Let Your Scotch Cool Down in Style – Finally, a practical use for 3D printers!
2. Lessons From the World’s Best Public School – Shanghai public schools trump the rest. Can America compete?
3. 2013 Was a Record Shattering Year for Solar – America now has enough installed solar to power 1.7 million homes.
4. Here’s Japan’s Latest Trend: Zentai – Charlie from Its Always Sunny in Philly was ahead of the curve.
5. Ray Kurzweil Does Not Understand the Brain – This guy always seemed nutty to me. But nutty optimism is better than pessimism.
6. The Cheapest House in Vancouver – Listed at $600k and it went over asking…
7. Americans Will Burn Less Oil 25 Years From Now – Natural resource pessimists are wrong again.
8. The Mystery of Go – Another article about the East Asian board game computers can’t figure out.
9. China Fact of the Day – China produced more cement in 2011 and 2012 than the US did in the entire 20th century.
1. The End of Food – Soylent Green, a meal replacement slurry hopes to streamline how we eat.
2. The Surprising Resilience of AOL – 2.42 million people still pay for AOL dialup service…
3. How Munich Germany switched to Linux – Its a real wonder to me why more institutions haven’t done this already.
1. What Unsustainable Growth Looks Like – The rapid growth of Herbalife, Groupon, masks an unsustainable business model.
2. Wow This is Doge – The dog from the doge meme was in a kill shelter, but was rescued. This is the full story of doge!
3. Annual State-Local Tax Burden Rankings – Wyoming and Alaska have the smallest tax burden. Nevada aint’t bad.
4. 40 Maps That Explain the Middle East – For all you mapheads out there!
5. A Materialist Account of a Ludic Century – The transcript of a talk discussing the gamifcation of the world in the 21st century.
6. The Conjuring of The Mirage – The story of how Steven Wynn changed the Las Vegas Strip forever.
1. A Reporter Publishes a Fake Study – Apparently there are a lot of nonsense scientific journals willing to publish for a fee.
2. Dark Souls Review on Slate – What would you do with 100 hours?
3. Coffee is Getting too Expensive for Starbucks – Who knew coffee prices are up 90% this year so far?
1. Yours to Cut Out and Keep – A $1 paper microscope with 2100x magnification! We’ll be seeing these in every science class.
2. The AV Club Reviews Zelda – A modern review of the classic GameBoy title Link’s Awakening.
3. A Game About People Who Pretend to be Airplanes – Scroll down and watch the video for some epic action.
4. The Elder Scrolls Online Reviewed – A review by PCGamer for TESO, a MMORPG with a $200 million budget. I’ll wait for F2P.
5. San Francisco’s Housing Crisis Explained – A very, very, VERY long article on San Francisco’s housing and other woes.
6. Oculus Rift Helps Terminal Woman Take One Last Stroll – The non-gaming applications for the Oculus Rift keep growing.
7. How Paperbacks Transformed the Way Americans Read – Before ebooks, paperbacks shook up the stodgy publishing industry.
1. A New Look at Kowloon Walled City – An interesting place in an interesting city. It was the most densely populated place in the world.
3. The Fallacy of Android First – Looks like Google still has a lot of work ahead in unifying the Android experience.
4. Primer: Shaders – Just what is a shader? Learn what your GPU is doing in this primer.
5. The Fifth Protocol – Will cryptocurrencies power all machine-to-machine resource distributions?
6. SK Hynix Develops 128GB RAM – This single stick of DDR4 RAM is greater than all the RAM in every computer I’ve ever owned.
7. In Search of Baai – The inspirational story of a ‘lost boy’ of South Sudan.
8. Vermont Wants to Bring Single Payer to America – Will the Green Mountain state be the start of rational healthcare in the USA?
9. Trailer Parks Lure Wall Street Investors – Two Wall Street types get into the trailer park real estate business. Interesting read.
10. The Short Guide to Capital in the 21st Century – Don’t want to read a nearly 700 page tomb on economics? Here’s the short version.
1. The Secret Life of a Food Stamp – Part 1 in a series about the SNAP program.
2. Black Gold – Short piece on the recent US oil and gas drilling boom. Texas produces 34.4% of domestic oil!
3. Top 5 Most Memorable Events in MMORPG History – I didn’t experience any of these, but I’ve played all of the games mentioned.
4. Centuries of European Border Changes – In a 3 minute video.
5. The Electronic Holy War – An article about man vs machine in the ancient Chinese game of Go.
6. Social Progress Index 2014 – USA ranks #16, New Zealand is #1.Check out more info here.
7. This is a Generic Brand Video – YouTube clip, 2:49 long.
8. The Guilt of the Video Game Millionaires – Some people have it so rough! Good read.
9. WoW Warlords of Draenor Alpha Patch Notes – Big changes in store for the biggest of MMORPGs.