Last week, I wrote about Chernobyl, and the exclusion zone surrounding it. You might be surprised to hear that you can enter the exclusion zone and visit Chernobyl yourself (in fact, Chernobyl’s other three reactors were kept running, with the last one being shut down in 2000). And then a (now deleted) tweet went viral, showing four Instagram posts from people posing at some place in the exclusion zone, suggesting that influencers were going there en-masse in order to gain followers. Of course, the internet outrage machine immediately went into high gear.

But, as so often when something outrageous goes viral, not much added up: Of the four accounts, three don’t really qualify as influencers due to low follower numbers. One of the photos probably wasn’t even taken at Chernobyl. And since the tweet conveniently cropped out the captions, people never saw the somber reflections on the catastrophe two of the posters wrote below their photos. As so often, viral outrage trumped fact-checking on social media, generating millions of clicks for social media companies.

And in a way, Instagram is just one of the many ways we document our lives today. Previously, photos would have been taken, but few people would ever see them. Nowadays, anyone can get their photo in front of millions, sometimes whether they want to or not. And social norms change. Today, selfies are normal, but a decade ago, you would have looked silly for doing them. Posing for photos is also normal, especially for younger people. They know their photos will be public, and no one wants to look silly in public.

It’s still no excuse for rude or disrespectful behavior, but it’s hard to denounce someone for doing what is normal to them, even if it is at a place where a tragedy happened. And the next time you stumble across a tweet or post that just gets you outraged, remember that it was probably designed to do so. The more outrageous, the less accurate and truthful it probably is.

Broken Blockchains

Bitcoin was supposed to offer a currency controlled by no bank or state, allowing liberal use of it to trade or purchase goods. Even Facebook is getting into the game with Libra. Since then, a lot more cryptocurrencies have sprung up, offering advanced features such as smart contracts¹. The use of “crypto” would imply the security a blockchain offers. But now they are getting hacked.

Sniffing out wealth

Rich people are rich. Just how rich can be surprisingly difficult to determine. The richer someone is, the more their wealth is spread out among different assets — and it’s not like they want everyone to easily find out how much they own, lest they have to pay taxes on it. That’s where Gabriel Zucman comes in: He’s the foremost expert on finding the money the super-rich have stashed away. In the process, he’s revealed that the wealth gap is even worse than previously known: The Wealth Detective Who Finds the Hidden Money of the Super Rich.

Boaty McBoatface’s doomsday science report

When the Natural Environment Research Council inadvisedly decided to ask the Internet to name their newest research vessel, no one but themselves was really surprised when the auspicious name “Boaty McBoatface” won the competition. While the Council eventually decided that this name was not fitting enough and instead named it after Sir David Attenborough, it did honor the Internet’s wishes by naming one of the boats autonomous submarines “Boaty McBoatface”. And so everyone was amused, and went on with their day. But Boaty was built for science, and it has gathered the data behind a major climate change discovery on its maiden outing. Unfortunately, the news is not good, revealing how increasing winds are cooling off the oceans, amplifying rising sea levels.

How does Air Traffic Control work?

When you’re traveling via plane, your biggest worries are probably around making it to the airport on time, whether your flight has any delays, and how cramped the seats are. What you usually don’t notice is the work of air traffic controllers making sure your flight can get to where it wants to with as little delay as possible: How Air Traffic Control Works (YouTube).

📖 Weekly Longreads 📚

“Surrounded by civil war and one of Africa’s deadliest diseases, he stayed to save thousands”: Forgotten man, forgotten disease — Aniru Conteh and the battle against Lassa fever.

🦄 Unicorn Chaser 🦄

Sushi Masters Explain the Art of Omakase (YouTube)