Business, Spoken

WIRED
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Jul 3, 2018 • 8min

The Airbnb Challenger You've Never Heard of (by Name)

There is a travel story that Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, formerly called Priceline, likes to tell. While planning a recent family trip to Iceland, his wife wanted to check out “another site,” which Fogel carefully avoids naming, but is clearly Airbnb. The home rental she found there looked good, so she tried to book it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Jul 2, 2018 • 3min

Gaming Gets X-Rated–and Very Profitable

In the game Armor Blitz, players assemble an army of anime “tank girls.” When the game debuted on Google Play in November 2016, it grossed just $23,400 in six months, less than half its production cost. Then the same game relaunched on the adult-gaming platform Nutaku—now with the notable addition of hentai cartoon porn. Blitz went on to bank more than $160,000 in six months. The thriving erotic-gaming industry that originated in Japan is now going global. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Jul 2, 2018 • 4min

Andreessen Horowitz Lends Credence to Crypto With New Fund

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is bringing in its first female general partner, former federal prosecutor Katie Haun, to help manage a new $300 million fund dedicated to investing in cryptocurrency and blockchain-related projects. Andreessen Horowitz has long invested in cryptocurrency companies, including the digital-wallet company Coinbase and the game company Cryptokitties. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Jun 29, 2018 • 9min

Why Tech Worker Dissent Is Going Viral

Silicon Valley has a long and secretive history of building hardware and software for the military and law enforcement. In contrast, a recent wave of employee protests against some of those government contracts has been short, fast, and surprisingly public---tearing through corporate campuses, mailing lists, and message boards inside some of the world’s most powerful companies. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Jun 29, 2018 • 3min

A Plea for AI That Serves Humanity Instead of Replacing It

Sixty-two years ago this summer, Dartmouth professor John McCarthy coined the term artificial intelligence. Joi Ito, director of MIT’s Media Lab, has come to think it’s unhelpful. Talk of AI has become hard to avoid due to surging investment from companies hoping to profit from advances in machine learning. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Jun 28, 2018 • 7min

Apple Tries to Avoid Facebook's Mistakes With 2018 Midterms

Apple waded knee-deep into the muck of political news delivery Monday with the announcement of a special section in Apple News devoted to the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, which will determine whether Republicans hold onto their majorities in Congress. From now until November, you will see a little Midterm Elections 2018 banner above the curated Top Stories section of the app. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Jun 28, 2018 • 7min

In Upholding Trump's Travel Ban, the Supreme Court Harms Scientists

Hani Goodarzi is trying to cure cancer. At the new lab he runs at the University of California, San Francisco, he and his team try to understand the disease’s molecular processes, building on his research into disease metastasis. Important, life-saving work. He has grants to write, and bench work to oversee, but right now all he can think about is the pain President Donald Trump’s travel ban will cause students and postdocs from Iran, where he was born. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Jun 27, 2018 • 8min

Trump's Trade War Won't Hurt China. It Could Hurt US Tech

In the latest installment of the simmering trade war, the Trump administration reportedly plans to impose restrictions on Chinese investments in US technology companies and American technology exports to China. If implemented as rumored, any company with more than 25 percent Chinese ownership would be barred from investing in US companies that produce “industrially significant technology. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Jun 27, 2018 • 8min

The Red Hen and the Weaponization of Yelp

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced on Twitter Saturday that she and her family had been asked to leave the Red Hen, a small restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. The Red Hen's co-owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, reportedly asked Sanders to leave because of her involvement in Trump administration policies like separating migrant children from their parents. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Jun 26, 2018 • 13min

'ICE Is Everywhere': Using Library Science to Map the Separation Crisis

On Father’s Day, Alex Gil was IMing with his colleague Manan Ahmed when they decided they had to do something about children being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border. Since May, the US government had taken more than 2,300 kids away from their families as a result of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' new "zero tolerance" immigration policy, which calls for criminally prosecuting all people entering the country illegally. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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