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:
This week’s issue is its annual examination of technology, and amid much futurism is its the accessible piece, a grounded look at how robots have entered our lives and how we are learning to love them. - The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/26/learning-to-love-robots
It isn’t often that a profile of a director might make you want to see his latest film, but this deep sketch of Yorgos Lanthimos ensure I will see The Favourite. - The New York TImes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/magazine/yorgos-lanthimoss-director-favourite.html
It has something to do with a video depicting a Chinese woman using chopsticks to eat pizza and spaghetti, but whether it was social media pressure, government intervention, or company self-preservation, Dolce & Gabbana’s annual massive fashion show in Shanghai was cancelled. An overview explains the fashion faux pas. - Quartz
https://qz.com/quartzy/1472004/dolce-gabbana-is-being-accused-of-racism-in-china/
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
Dead fish fuel to the rescue: cruise ships set to harness the power of seafood biogas to keep business afloat. - The Guardian
What’s your city’s road safety rating? - International Transport Forum
https://www.itf-oecd.org/safer-city-streets-global-benchmarking-urban-road-safety
Emma Crawford Hampel, online editor:
How climate change is causing our world to shrink: “In the face of our environmental deterioration, it’s now reasonable to ask whether the human game has begun to falter—perhaps even to play itself out.” Habitable spaces are diminishing as extreme weather takes its toll; rising water levels that cause shorelines to retreat and destructive wildfires are just two examples. - The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/26/how-extreme-weather-is-shrinking-the-planet
Tyler Orton, reporter:
B.C. Technology Report Card 2018: The province has made a notable leap relative to other jurisdictions across the country since the last report card was issued in 2016. The latest analysis dives into everything from job growth to revenue growth. It also takes the time to break down some of the more problematic issues facing the tech economy, including lack of R&D funding and the ongoing talent crunch. - BC Tech Association
http://www.wearebctech.com/2018-bc-technology-report-card
Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor:
Today (November 22), a lot of the news sites I read are more or less in sleep mode because of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, so I have instead been looking at Suetonius’ The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. At the moment I am on Volume IV, which gives the lowdown on Caligula. What strikes me most about reading up on the crimes, follies and misfortunes of the Roman Empire under this particularly notorious dictator is that the experience is uncomfortably very much like reading about the crimes, follies and misfortunes that are the bread and butter of a typical news cycle in the year 2018. - Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6400
Nelson Bennett, reporter:
Encana, an oil company founded and built in Canada, has essentially “exported itself” to the U.S., where 60% of its business now resides, says the company’s founder. “A great national energy champion is leaving Canada, thanks to Trudeau,” says former Encana CEO Gwyn Morgan. - National Post
The government of Alberta is making more than $2 billion in subsidies available to the oil and gas industry in an effort to use some of Alberta’s stranded oil and gas to build petrochemical plants. - CBC https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-energy-diversification-programs-2-1-billion-1.4913265
One of the coolest science stories this week is about a tiny airplane that flies using “ionized wind” for propulsion. The plane, inspired by Star Trek, uses a battery and high-voltage charge to generate an ionized field that pulls the plane through the air. It’s a bit like creating a magnet out of air molecules that pulls the plane through the air. - The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/21/first-ever-plane-with-no-moving-parts-takes-flight
Glen Korstrom, reporter
Interesting op-ed, written by Adam Morton, a visiting emeritus professor at UBC, discusses the consequences if humans were to colonize another planet.
