Business and finance
Does a woolly mammoth need a lawyer? (Carl Zimmer). The often bizarre legal implications of the "de-extinction" movement, which aims to recreate extinct species through cloning or genetic engineering. A sample question: can you patent a mammoth?
Today, I live in the book (The Magazine). "[Ebooks are] a better way to have access to books for reading and studying, the library says. It’s the future. And it’s so very wrong." (Dislcosure: the author, Glenn Fleishman, is a regular contributor to Babbage).
Security risks of embedded systems (Bruce Schneier). Much like personal computers in the 1990s, embedded systems are full of holes. The Internet of Things risks becoming a black-hat hacker's playground.
How Netflix reverse engineered Hollywood (The Atlantic) Netflix's recommendation algorithm slices films into more than 75,000 micro-genres, like "Fight-the-System Political Love Triangle Mysteries" and "Chilling Action Movies About Royalty". Having picked Netflix's algorithm apart, Alexis Madrigal builds his own.
I am Sir David Attenborough. Ask me anything (David Attenborough). The zoologist and presenter of many of the BBC's flagship wildlife documentaries invites questions from Reddit's readers.
My despair is more than just an ornament (Scott Edelman). A sci-fi painting sells for $5.7m at auction. The trouble is, it looks an awful lot like the cover art for one of Isaac Asmiov's novels. When does homage become plagiarism?