Panama Was Inevitable
The fallout from The Panama Papers continues: The Icelandic prime minister has stepped down, politicians from the UK to Pakistan, Russia to Chile, have been implicated, and there’s even a Jackie Chan angle. The general response seems to be outrage, but why so surprised? Our view: Having the equivalent of the United States’ national debt hidden under the mattresses of the world’s wealthiest people is exactly what we should expect, given the incentives of our current economic system.
New Media, Old Habits
Best way to fight Periscope? Cut a deal with Periscope. Especially if Periscope is paying. Periscope’s parent Twitter announced yesterday that it is paying $10 million for the global rights to stream Thursday night NFL games. It’s potentially good for both Twitter (much-needed audience) and the NFL (a step toward monetizing viewers who were otherwise watching for free), although it could also lead us to the bad old days of the monoculture (Verge), when we were all watching the same thing at the same time. That’s certainly what Twitter hopes will be the case.
Business v. North Carolina Hits a Tipping Point?
It’s a modest move, but it may portend more. In response to North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law signed by Gov. Pat McCrory, PayPal has cancelled plans to open a 400-person operations center in Charlotte (re/code). Google Ventures is delaying investments, too, and it’s not just out-of-staters who are fighting back: As the New York Times notes, “Duke Energy, the state’s largest power company — for which the governor worked, mostly in human relations, for 29 years, including while he was mayor of Charlotte — has come out strongly against it.” How much longer will this ardently pro-business politician fight business?
Judge Protects Jury
In the ongoing dispute between Oracle and Google over Android and Java technologies, the two companies have agreed not to dig into the social media and search history of the jury (WSJ). While it’s become standard to do so, the tech giants were encouraged to restrain themselves by the judge, who likely figured they were capable of outlier feats of online research. His ultimatum: Accept the ban or share your research with the jurors you’re trying to sway. Not surprisingly, Oracle and Google demurred.
A Harem of Digital Assistants
Why are the defaults for digital assistants still all female? You get one guess. Nearly five years after the arrival of Siri (Atlantic), it’s still true.
Brigade Targets a More Responsive Democracy
In our debut Spotlight video profile of NewCos in their offices, Brigade CEO and founder Matt Mahan discusses how his company applies the social network model to provide everyone, from neophytes to political junkies, a space to talk politics.
Correction
In yesterday’s Daily, we calculated the value of Tesla pre-order deposits incorrectly. It is, in fact, $300 million. Sorry for the math mistake.
Photo: Walt Disney
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