Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web.
Kirk LaPointe, editor-in-chief:
Technology writer Farhad Manjoo examines a critical question about Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg: Despite the many pratfalls and privacy problems involving his platform, is he too big now to fail? - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/technology/mark-zuckerberg-facebook.html
Genealogy is now the second-largest search topic on the internet (you can guess the largest), and a new book examines our quest for identity and understanding through our lineage and families of origin. The book review will make anyone interested in one’s genes interested in the book. - London Review of Books
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n20/meehan-crist/race-doesnt-come-into-it
Hard to believe, but I’m actually reading a fictional book, too: Washington Black, the moving and eye-opening recent novel from Canada’s Esi Edugyan on a boy’s escape from slavery to become a free man.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/573017/washington-black-by-esi-edugyan/9780525521426/
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
And now for something positive on the environmental front: How about an energy-positive hotel? That’s one that generates more than optimistic vibes in the lobby. In a remote area of northern Norway, it’s a hotel that aims to generate more energy than it uses. Could be one of the first of its kind. - The Telegraph
Also: more than energy might be blowing in the wind in the U.K. a Crown Estate Scotland report estimates that offshore wind power generation could support 17,000 jobs and generate £33.6 billion by 2050. - Clean Technica
Emma Crawford Hampel, online editor:
Not an article, but a cool animation showing the world’s GDP by country over time. It starts in 1961 and goes all the way to 2018. Interesting to watch China pulling up. I was surprised to see that France was, at one point in the 1960s, the world’s second-largest economy. - Visual Capitalist
http://www.visualcapitalist.com/animation-the-worlds-10-largest-economies-by-gdp-1960-today/
Hayley Woodin, reporter:
With Australia’s ratification, the CPTPP will come into force at the end of this year. Carlo Dade from the Canada West Foundation writes why the deal is a significant one for Western Canada. - The Calgary Herald
https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-finally-a-win-for-the-west
An über-cloud? Red Hat isn’t a household name, but it’s a rockstar company in the IT world. The Economist analyzes what IBM’s historic acquisition may mean for Big Blue. - The Economist
Nelson Bennett, reporter
In September, more than 200 academics called for a global no-growth economic movement to address climate change and income inequality. In this rebuttal, Bjorn Lomberg, author of the Skeptical Environmentalist – who argues that climate change policies like carbon taxes will have minimal impact on driving emissions down – says a no-growth policy is “a recipe for misery.” The most prosperous nations are the ones most able to address things like pollution, he argue, and that the solution to climate change will come from technology. - Bjorn Lomberg, Project Syndicate
Have we really wiped out 60% of all animals on earth since 1970? That conclusion of the Word Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet report https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/living-planet-report-2018 was widely reported in the world press. The Atlantic digs into the findings and concludes that the report’s findings have been mischaracterized. - The Atlantic
Tyler Orton, reporter:
After Angela Merkel, who will lead Germany — and Europe? The longtime German chancellor has no strong successors among European leaders to carry on her vision for a more united continent. -The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/after-angela-merkel-who-will-lead-germanyand-europe
Glen Korstrom, reporter:
Cannabis-sector investors might be wise to check out this October report by credit-rating agency DBRS, which gives the Canadian cannabis industry a non-investment grade, B rating. It also said that the credit-risk profiles of licensed producers could improve significantly as the sector stabilizes.
DBRS expects LPs to have unpredictable cash flow from operations and net losses.
Here’s a link to sign in and get the report. - DBRS
https://www.dbrs.com/research/334514/canadas-cannabis-sector-high-ratings-not-just-yet
Indigenous Tourism BC released its annual tourism-performance audit. Some stats look impressive, such as a 33% jump in the number of Indigenous-owned, tourism-related businesses. The report then notes that many of those new businesses are retail operations, such as gas stations, that service the tourist and non-tourist sectors. That made it hard to determine how many businesses really make it their core mission to provide Indigenous-tourism experiences. Still an interesting report that provides metrics for the province as a whole and its regions. - Indigenous Tourism BC
https://www.indigenousbc.com/drive/uploads/2018/10/REPORT-ITBC-Audit-2012-2017_FINAL.pdf
Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor:
The times would seem to demand some laughs; the New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz abides. The latest Borowitz Report headline: “Americans Would Feel Safer if a Huge Caravan of Angry White Men Left the Country.” The photo illustrating the story: a close-up of some Trump supporters at one of the U.S. president’s rallies. – The New Yorker
