In The News

3D Printing Comes Of Age

Nayan Chanda June 5, 2015
The first 3D printers were introduced in the 1980s. Rapid development combined with dropping cost has put these printers into general circulation – accessible to small businesses and artists through special orders, available for ongoing use and study in university workshops, small-town libraries and high schools. Innovations abound as students apply their imaginations. “The potential of this...

The Agency

Adrian Chen June 5, 2015
US companies, journalists and communities are being targeted with hoaxes about false disasters including fake videos and photographs over email and Twitter. Adrian Chen details a fake report of an explosion at a chemicals plant in Louisiana and describes a It was “a highly coordinated disinformation campaign, involving dozens of fake accounts that posted hundreds of tweets “fake screenshots from...

Muslims in Texas Walk a Fine Line After Garland Shooting

Manny Fernandez and Laurie Goodstein May 18, 2015
Muslim leaders in Texas pointedly ignored plans for a Dallas exhibition of Prophet Mohammed cartoons, but worried how free speech could devolve into hate speech that incites violence. Sure enough, two men storming the event with guns were shot and killed. An article in the New York Times describes how one leader pondered a “response that would walk a fine line: clearly condemning the extremists...

Tech Companies Struggle to Get World on Internet

Evelyn M. Rusli April 22, 2015
Two thirds of the world’s people still lack access to the internet. “The possibility of connecting those four billion people to the rest of the world has led to a big scramble by tech firms and helped fuel sky-high valuations for investors’ favorite apps and gadgets,” writes Evelyn Rusli for the Wall Street Journal. Yet the pace of getting people connected is slowing. “The hurdles include low...

China Halts New Policy on Tech for Banks

Paul Mozur and Jane Perlez April 20, 2015
China plans revisions on a policy that required foreign technology firms selling equipment to Chinese banks to turn over source code and other business secrets. The United States has accused hackers sponsored by the Chinese military of hacking corporate and government websites. China worries about surveillance installed with any US-made equipment. US officials anticipate the Chinese to encourage...

China Is Said to Use Powerful New Weapon to Censor Internet

Nicole Perlroth April 14, 2015
In March, China used a cyberweapon to redirect huge amounts of online traffic from Chinese search engine Baidu to targeted US websites. Rsearchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and University of Toronto have since suggested that the blitzes were orchestrated by a new weapon. “The Great Cannon, the researchers said in a report published on Friday, allows China to intercept foreign web...

Creative Self-Disruption

Mohamed A. El-Erian April 9, 2015
New businesses emerge and expand, disrupting established businesses with unprecedented speed: “companies like Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, and Uber exemplify a different kind of transformation: agile players invade other, seemingly unrelated industries and brilliantly exploit huge but previously unseen opportunities,” writes economist Mohamed A. El-Erian for Project Syndicate. “Central to these...