What we’re reading (2/24)
“The Cost Of Nuclear War In Space” (DealBook). “Putting a weapon into orbit is not just a military threat. It’s also a risk to the space economy — and the one on the ground. There is a little-known but fast-growing industry that insures satellites, but it doesn’t provide insurance against nuclear arms.”
“Indexing The Information Age” (Aeon). “One weekend in March 1995, a group of librarians and web technologists found themselves in Dublin, Ohio, arguing over what single label should be used to designate a person responsible for the intellectual content of any file that could be found on the world wide web. Many were in favour of using something generic and all-inclusive, such as ‘responsible agent’, but others argued for the label of ‘author’ as the most fundamental and intuitive way to describe the individual creating a document or work. The group then had to decide what to do about the roles of non-authors who also contributed to any given work, like editors and illustrators, without unnecessarily expanding the list. New labels were proposed, and the conversation started over.”
“Husband Who Eavesdropped On Wife’s Work Calls Pleads Guilty To Insider Trading” (Wall Street Journal). “Interruptions from young children and the neighbor’s noisy yard work are just some of the perils of remote work. For Tyler Loudon, it led to federal regulators charging him with securities fraud. The Houston resident pleaded guilty this week to insider trading after overhearing his wife, a former BP executive, discuss a planned acquisition while she was working from home. Loudon made $1.76 million trading shares based on the details he heard, according to charges filed Thursday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
“Material Non-Public Information About One Company Is Material Non-Public Information About All Companies” (Dealbreaker). “The debate over what, exactly, is insider trading rages on…Now, however, the SEC is making arguably its most avant-garde, boundary-bending insider-trading argument yet, arguably even more so than its recent failed attempt to show insider trading requires no evidence of having insider information: That trading one stock when in possession of inside dirt on another is insider-trading.”
“Why Don’t Nations Buy And Sell Territory More?” (Marginal Revolution). “Egypt has agreed to a $35bn deal with the United Arab Emirates to develop the town of Ras el-Hekma town on its northwestern coast, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced on Friday after weeks of speculations. Madbouly said at a news conference, which was attended by Egyptian and Emirati officials, that Egypt will receive an advance amount of $15bn in the coming week, and another $20bn within two months. The deal is the largest foreign direct investment in an urban development project in the country’s modern history, the prime minister said. It is a partnership between the Egyptian government and an Emirati consortium led by ADQ, he said.”
