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:
There are significant insights and tantalizing tidbits in this weighty three-part investigation (six months, 150 interviews) titled Planet Fox, an exploration of the history, familial dysfunction and extraordinary influence of the Murdoch media empire. Be warned: It is a long, long read. - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/03/magazine/rupert-murdoch-fox-news-trump.html
The Irish novelist Sally Rooney seems to have the unenviable task of carrying the mantle for millennials in her work, but this essay on her writing explains why she might be the logical voice of generational aspiration. - The New York Review of Books
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/04/18/sally-rooney-how-should-millennial-be/
Seattle Seahawks fans expect quarterback Russell Wilson to get one of those career-long zillion-dollar contracts any day now, but it’s a puzzle why such a gifted pivot doesn’t throw the ball far more often. - The Ringer
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
Bridge trouble south of the border: the U.S. under the Donald Trump regime is big on erecting walls but not so hot on fixing bridges. A new American Road & Transportation Builders Association report finds, among other things, that four out of 10 bridges in America need to be replaced or repaired and, if placed end-to-end, the length of structurally deficient bridges would stretch from Chicago to Houston, or around 1,100 miles. - American Road & Transportation Builders Association
https://artbabridgereport.org/
Will Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook face-lift result in the social media colossus becoming an investor in quality journalism and news content rather than continuing to be a monolithic, unaccountable curation parasite that promotes all manner of bilge and bollocks parading as reliable information? - Recode
Blow-drying restrictions! What's next for the rapidly unravelling land of Venezuela? - The Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/venezuelan-president-bans-blow-drys-in-the-evening-9t8ps7hc8?utm
Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor:
Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques is slated to perform his first spacewalk on April 8, when he’ll connect jumper cables for the Canadarm 2 while whirling around the Earth at 7.7 kilometres per second. He gives an engaging interview about his mission and life on the space station. - Global News
https://globalnews.ca/news/5124596/david-saint-jacques-astronaut-first-spacewalk/amp/
Novelist Richard North Patterson predicts that if the U.S. economy starts listing to starboard more acutely, Republicans will dump Trump quicksville. And they’ll do it by sliding Vice-President Mike Pence into his place. Patterson spills some swell alliteration on the veep:
“True, Pence is an obsequious toady, scheming sycophant, duplicitous dullard, expedient evangelical, and plutocrats’ puppet who will say or do anything to get ahead. But it doesn’t matter to the GOP donor elite that Pence is a terrible person – so is Trump and so, in some cases, are they (see, e.g., Robert Mercer, Steve Wynn, and Elliott Broidy). What counts is that nearly all of them share with Pence a common characteristic: gimlet-eyed self-devotion.” - the Bulwark
https://thebulwark.com/a-nation-turns-its-lonely-eyes-to-pence/
Glen Korstrom, reporter:
Sounds like a lot more could have been done after a Boeing 737 Max 8 in Lion Air’s fleet crashed last October. This investigation shows that secrecy could have been held above safety. Whether more transparency could have prevented the same model of plane in Ethiopian Airlines’ fleet from crashing earlier this year is an open question. - New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/world/asia/boeing-max-8-lion-air.html
With baseball around the corner I caught wind of this curious investment firm that provides hundreds of thousands of dollars to individual minor-league players in exchange for a tiny stake in that player’s lifetime baseball earnings. This good long-read story from last September highlights the low pay in the minor leagues and the logistics of investing in minor league baseball players as though they were technology start-ups. - Sports Illustrated
https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/09/04/michael-schwimer-big-league-advance-minor-league-baseball
Hayley Woodin, reporter:
In 2014, Narendra Modi was the “right man in the right place at the right time,” writes the director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s South Asia Program, Milan Vaishnav. If the election were merely about economic fundamentals, Prime Minister Modi would be “on the ropes” when nearly 900 million voters begin trekking to the polls next Thursday. But economic performance appears delinked from electoral outcomes. And five years later, he remains really popular. - Washington Post
It’s no April Fool’s joke. Burger King is rolling out the ‘Impossible Whopper’ – a meatless alternative custom-made by Impossible Foods. It’s not just a major coup for the latter, which now also has product in certain Red Robin locations: Burger King sees this as a big business opportunity. If the pilot goes well, meatless patties will be served at the fast-food chain’s 7,200 American locations. - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/technology/burger-king-impossible-whopper.html
Early investors made mad money through Lyft’s IPO late last week. The company’s contracted drivers did not. Drivers in good standing with 10,000 rides completed were offered a $1,000 cash bonus they could use to buy up to 14 shares of a company whose stock has now spent a few days trading below its IPO price. - Quartz
https://qz.com/1582407/the-lyft-ipo-wont-make-its-drivers-rich/
Nelson Bennett, reporter:
Forest fires are for the bees. Scientists have worried for some time now about declining bee populations. But it appears nature has a way of making the best of a bad situation. Researchers in Oregon have discovered that forest fires boost bee populations. They found greater abundance of bees in areas scored by forest fires, compared with forests that weren’t. - Oregon State University
https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/wild-bees-flock-forested-areas-affected-severe-fire
The second-hand economy. Buying something second-hand is one way to keep your carbon footprint lower, but it also saves you a lot of money. And Canadians appear to be quite thrifty. According to a report by Kijiji, the second-hand economy is worth $28 billion. - Global News
https://globalnews.ca/news/5122317/second-hand-shopping-is-a-28-5-billion-economy-in-canada-kijiji/
