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:
I’m reading The Milkman, the originally structured (no characters, for instance) winner of the Man Booker Prize. This profile of Irish author Anna Burns and her physical struggle to write makes the book’s creation all that more astonishing. - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/books/anna-burns-interview-booker-prize-milkman-no-bones.html
Former Seattle Seahawks defensive star Michael Bennett, now with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, has taken up the mantle of leadership for social change in the NFL. His onfield aggression is a mask for his reflective, conscientious agency. - The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/17/michael-bennetts-political-football
Ellen is at a crossroads, wondering whether to continue her successful daytime talk show and what the next chapter holds. While this profile doesn’t necessary conclude much about where she’s going, she shares much about the dilemma. - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/arts/television/ellen-degeneres.html
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
More Brexit benefits for Brits: leaving the EU’s electricity market could cost consumers big time. - UK ERC
http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/news/elecxit-could-cost-270-million-a-year.html?utm_source=
Climate change cultivating idiocracy; this could explain the current low performance bar in high public office. - The Independent
Ramp up the fake news machinery: survey finds more Americans now get their news from social media than newspapers. - CNBC
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/10/social-media-more-popular-than-newspapers-for-news-pew.html
Anna Liczmanska, editorial researcher:
Some interesting insights into the state of the fight against climate change. - CleanTechnica, Drax
https://www.drax.com/energy-policy/global-electricity-go-next/
Hayley Woodin, reporter:
Your apps know where you were last night, and they sell that data. Yes, it is generally anonymized. But this investigation reveals that data collection is often so precise that individuals can easily be identified by their routines, where they work, where they sleep. - The New York Times
Glen Korstrom, reporter:
With the 38th anniversary of John Lennon’s death on December 8, it was a good time to reflect on his life and to read this piece from 2010, when a longread about John’s last interview was first published. - Rolling Stone
Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor:
Time magazine’s story accompanying its issue naming murdered and persecuted journalists as its ‘Person of the Year’ is an eloquent defence of facts in this era’s total war on truth. Excerpt:
“The old-school despot embraced censorship. The modern despot, finding that more difficult, foments mistrust of credible fact, thrives on the confusion loosed by social media and fashions the illusion of legitimacy from supplicants.” - Time
http://time.com/person-of-the-year-2018-the-guardians/
Some nice reporting here on the Huawei mess, by Glacier’s Jeremy Hainsworth, shedding light on questions about potential security risks posed by the Chinese telecom giant’s technology - Glacier Media
Nelson Bennett, reporter:
Sweden has just 1% of the world’s working forests, but provides 10% of the world market for lumber, pulp and paper and has doubled its forest assets over the last 100 years. How does Sweden do it? As B.C. tackles the problem of a shrinking timber supply, it would be worth looking at Sweden’s forestry management policies. - World Economic Forum
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/swedens-forests-have-been-growing-for-100-years
Google defies New Zealand publication ban and emails the name of an accused killer whose name is supposed to be protected by a court-ordered publication ban. All traditional media respected the ban, Google didn’t. - The Guardian
This Inverse story about the “deep biosphere” offers a fascinating look at a whole ecosystem deep underground that we are only beginning to understand. Bacteria and archaea can live deep underground and beneath the ocean floor, thriving on things like methane and hydrogen, and can live in extreme heat or cold for thousands of years. Is it possible that life did not evolve from organisms living in the ocean, rather rather from deep underground? - Inverse
https://www.inverse.com/article/51731-underground-ecosystem-agu-report
