That is right now’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s happening on the earth of know-how.
Erik Prince desires to promote you a “safe” smartphone that’s too good to be true
Erik Prince’s pitch to traders was easy, however definitely formidable: pay simply €5 million and remedy the largest cybersecurity and privateness plagues of our day.
The American billionaire—finest recognized for founding the infamous personal navy agency Blackwater—was pushing Unplugged, a smartphone startup promising “free speech, privateness, and safety” untethered from dominant tech giants like Apple and Google.
However these daring claims are undercut by a beforehand unreported pitch deck obtained by MIT Expertise Overview. It’s a messy mixture of not possible claims, meaningless buzzwords, and outright fiction.
Virtually each try and construct this sort of telephone has failed. This strive is prone to be no totally different. Learn the complete story.
—Patrick Howell O’Neill
Ring’s new TV present is a superb however ominous viral advertising ploy
Footage from Ring’s digital camera gadgets, which clients set up to guard their houses, regulate deliveries, and see or work together with who’s on the door, has change into a standard sight throughout social media in recent times.
Such movies will underpin new TV present Ring Nation when it begins subsequent month, that includes humorous animals, marriage proposals, and heartwarming neighborhood interactions.
In addition to an prolonged viral advertising marketing campaign, it’s a intelligent try and launder the picture of Ring—an organization that has been repeatedly criticized for its often-lax method to buyer information, and particularly for permitting legislation enforcement to entry consumer movies with out consent. Learn the complete story.
—Eileen Guo & Abby Ohlheiser
The struggle for “Instagram face”
By magnificence filters, platforms like Instagram are serving to customers obtain more and more narrowing magnificence requirements—although solely within the digital world—at a stunningly speedy tempo. There’s proof that extreme use of those filters on-line has dangerous results on psychological well being, particularly for younger women.
“Instagram face” is a acknowledged aesthetic template: ethnically ambiguous and that includes the flawless pores and skin, large eyes, full lips, small nostril, and completely contoured curves made accessible largely by filters. And whereas Instagram has banned filters that encourage cosmetic surgery, huge demand for magnificence augmentation on social media is complicating issues. Learn the complete story.
—Tate Ryan-Mosley
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you right now’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 The US is making an attempt to get extra monkeypox vaccines
By shifting manufacturing to Michigan and splitting present doses into fifths. (WP $)
+ It desires to supply 50,0000 vaccines for Pleasure occasions throughout the nation. (CNBC)
+ All the pieces you should know concerning the monkeypox vaccines. (MIT Expertise Overview)
2 A Chicago metropolis sensor venture has gone world
It tracked the whole lot from air high quality to flooding. (MIT Expertise Overview)
three How a predatory CEO’s web fame allowed him to cover in plain sight
Dan Worth used social media to shamelessly rehabilitate his picture and management the narrative round his actions. (NYT $)
+ Worth has resigned from his firm, Gravity Funds. (WP $)
four An Apple safety flaw leaves gadgets weak to hacking
Hackers may seize full admin entry to iPhones, iPads and Macs if customers fail to replace to the most recent software program. (The Verge)
5 Google staff urged the corporate to cease amassing abortion information
The union can be asking Alphabet to stop its political lobbying post-Roe. (The Guardian)
+ An adtech agency that reveals journeys to abortion clinics has attracted the ire of the FTC. (WP $)
+ It’s nonetheless unclear how employer insurance policies protecting staff’ abortions will work. (The Atlantic $)
+ Large Tech stays silent on questions on information privateness in a post-Roe US. (MIT Expertise Overview)
6 What getting again to nature can train us concerning the future 
A ‘hunter-gatherer’ angle may turn out to be useful because the local weather disaster intensifies. (Neo.Life)
+ Bioacoustics is a helpful, if restricted, approach to regulate wildlife. (Quick Firm $)
7 Google’s quantum laptop has been cracked
By an algorithm operating on a regular machine. (New Scientist $)
eight How a lot meat ought to we eat? 
We must be each lowering our consumption and farming extra sustainably. (Knowable Journal)
+ Giving up simply half your hamburgers can actually assist the local weather. (MIT Expertise Overview)
9 Meet the musicians connecting with followers over electronic mail
Neglect TikTok and Instagram, Substack’s the place it’s at lately. (The Guardian)
10 TikTokers are stealing automobiles now
The Kia Boyz development has fueled a automotive crime wave throughout the US. (NY Magazine $)
+ The platform has reversed its resolution to ban the hashtag schizophrenia. (Enter)
Quote of the day
“Individuals are begging for monkeypox vaccines, and we’ve simply pissed off the one producer.”
—An nameless well being official describes how the Biden administration’s resolution to separate monkeypox vaccines into fifths didn’t go down properly with its maker, Bavarian Nordic, to the Washington Publish.
The large story
Inside Singapore’s large wager on vertical farming
October 2020
It’s taken many years for Singapore to get up and notice that—so far as meals goes—it is without doubt one of the most weak nations on the earth.
This threat merely hadn’t occurred to authorities again within the 1970s, once they ripped up the crops of tapioca, candy potatoes, and greens flourishing throughout greater than 15,000 hectares of the nation’s land and changed them with high-rise workplace buildings and condos. The main focus again then was finance, telecoms, and electronics, not meals.
However whereas this technique efficiently swelled Singapore’s economic system (it’s now the fourth richest nation on the earth, per capita), it left the nation with solely 600 hectares of farmland. Consequently, the nation has pinned its hopes on know-how, with high-output city farms hailed as its finest wager. However vertical farming will not be with out its skeptics. Learn the complete story.
—Megan Tatum
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre occasions. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Who doesn’t love the Seaside Boys?
+ The evocado is a extra environmentally pleasant avocado, apparently.
+ A terrific query—why *do* so many bikes find yourself on the backside of canals and lakes?
+ Right here’s a short have a look at simply a number of the strange creatures lurking within the ocean depths.
+ How wonderful does the world canine browsing championship look? (thanks Charlotte!)
