Kickoff For September 5, 2022
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I’ve found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Space
Elon Musk’s Plan to Send a Million Colonists to Mars by 2050 Is Pure Delusion, wherein George Dvorsky looks at the various challenges that are blocking the billionaire’s grand plan to put people on the Red Planet, and how humans aren’t up to overcoming those challenges.
The aircraft that will never fly on Earth, wherein we learn about the challenges that engineers face in creating flying machines that can operate in the atmospheres of Earth’s planetary neighbours.
Here Comes the Sun—to End Civilization, wherein we learn about coronal mass ejections, storms of charged particles pushed away from the sun, and how they can mess with us here on Earth.
Online Life
What Lies Beneath, wherein Laura Maw takes us into the horror architecture of the internet, where new is routinely bolted on to old and pages and links are dead (often without people realizing it).
Hell Is Ourselves, wherein Laurence Scott looks at how sites like Facebook and Twitter adapt what they present to us based on our online behaviours, and how both validating and disturbing that is.
The Victim Cloud, wherein Hannah Zeavin dives into digital scams, and looks at why far too many people fall for them.
Work
Everything’s a WeWork Now, wherein we learn about the post-pandemic resurgence of the co-working space, and how more companies are switching to those kind of flexible spaces as their offices.
The gig workers fighting back against the algorithms, wherein we learn how drivers and riders for app-based transportation services in Indonesia are banding together to protect and support each other.
Silicon Valley’s Horrible Bosses, wherein Charlie Warzel looks at the increasingly-prevalent management style of some tech CEOs — a style that’s high-handed, confrontational, controlling, and downright offensive.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.