News

Ratings inflation on Uber and elsewhere

Uber asks riders to give their drivers a rating of one to five stars at the end of each trip. But very few people make use of this full scale. That’s because it’s common knowledge among Uber’s users that drivers need to maintain a certain minimum rating to work, and that leaving anything less than five stars could jeopardize their status.

How Famine Under the Nazis Revealed the Cause of Celiac Disease

The lucid dreaming playbook: how to take charge of your dreams

Why and how GitLab abandoned Microsoft Azure for Google Cloud

More Power, Less Tower: AI May Make Aircraft Control Towers Obsolete

Beware the Tech the Oligarchs’ “Guaranteed Basic Income” Scam

A number of the reigning oligarchs—among them Mark Zuckerberg (net worth $64.1 billion), Elon Musk (net worth $20.8 billion), Richard Branson (net worth $5.1 billion) and Stewart Butterfield (net worth $1.6 billion)—are calling for a guaranteed basic income. It looks progressive. They couch their proposals in the moral language of caring for the destitute and the less fortunate.

Why Whales Got So Big

The first time I came face to face with a sea lion, I nearly screamed. I was snorkeling, and after a long time spent staring down at colorful corals, I looked up to see a gigantic bull, a couple of feet in front of my mask. Its eyes were opalescent.

Tesla has a problem and it’s not the model 3

Older Americans Are Hooked on Vitamins Despite Scarce Evidence They Work

Photonic communication comes to computer chips

Startup’s optoelectronic chips could reduce energy usage by up to 50 percent in data centers while increasing computing speeds.