What is Code?
This article is 38,000 words long and is all about code. It’s a year old. It’s also a masterpiece.
Fear This Man
David Vincenzetti is the founder of Hacking Team, a cyber warfare outfit helping governments spy on people. A former employee describes him as “crazy and dangerous”.
A Natural History of Walter Rothschild
Beautifully written piece examining the life of a man who possessed a great fortune and an even greater interest in exotic animals. A man who “simply wanted to possess the world in all its endless variety.”
ELLE on Earth
A journalist secures an interview for ELLE with the legendary and secretive head designer at fashion house Comme des Garons. Things go very wrong.
The Concept of ‘Cat Face’
A longform look at machine learning and where Google have taken it since their acquisition of the British artificial intelligence company Deep Mind.
The Real Scandal Behind the Panama Papers
A Nobel prize winning economist describes his experience serving on a commission convened after the release of the Panama Papers.
The Religious Cult Secretly Running Japan
An article asserting that a religious organisation counting Japanese premier Shinzo Abe amongst its members is asserting its influence and may be looking to take Japan in a radically different direction.
Alan Rusbridger’s Guardian is on a suicide mission
There is more than a whiff of the hatchet job to the piece on The Guardian written by a self-described “friend of the paper” who has had a “falling out” with his erstwhile chum. There’s nothing like a bit of personal animosity to make for an interesting read. Beyond that though, it’s a case study of the dynamics of running one of the world’s largest media groups (and burning $45m a year in cash while doing so.).
Speak, Memory
When Belarusian entrepreneur Roman Mazurenko died, his friend built a memorial to him – a chatbot that uses an archive of his text messages to recreate his voice and identity.