Wednesday morning articles
Tony Fadell Is Trying to Build the iPod of Crypto: The product guru made Ledger’s new hardware wallet—a tiny vault for digital cash—flashy and fun. Plus, with this gadget you’ll never get FTX’d. (Wired)
Bikeshare Roars Back From the Pandemic: The shared micromobility market has been resilient even as commuting patterns have shifted. But electric scooters have struggled — and costs are up for riders. (CityLab)
The Exceptionally American Problem of Rising Roadway Deaths: Why other rich nations have surpassed the U.S. in protecting pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. (New York Times)
A week in the life of Vladimir Putin: Putin is often portrayed in the Western media as something of a cartoon villain. But he’s also a skillful politician who has used the state-run media, a pliant bureaucracy and brutal repression to dominate Russian politics so totally that he appears to have no significant opposition. For many in the West, he’s a figure of derision, even hatred. But at home, he retains a bedrock of popular support, even amid the Ukraine fiasco. (Washington Post)
Secretive Gulf Family’s $300 Billion Fortune Is About More Than Oil: The Al Nahyan family owns Manchester City Football Club, a dozen or so palaces and invested big in SpaceX and Savage X Fenty. (Bloomberg)
A Psychologist Spent Five Years Studying World Cup Penalty Shootouts: Every job requires performance under pressure. Here’s what everybody can learn from the most tense few minutes in sports. (Wall Street Journal)
This TikTok star makes up to $100,000 a month by asking the super-rich about their cars: When Macdonald began asking car owners what they did for a living, the Tucson native had just graduated from the University of Arizona with a finance degree and drove a 2011 Chevrolet Impala. He moved to Dallas, where he was training to become a financial consultant with Charles Schwab, earning an annual base salary of $45,000. He wasn’t much of a car guy but was impressed by the Ferraris he would see around his new city and wondered how their owners could afford such extravagance. (Los Angeles Times)
So You Want to Be a TikTok Star: The social-media platform is transforming the music industry. Is that a good thing? (New Yorker)
China’s Brute Force Economics: Waking Up from the Dream of a Level Playing Field: The time has come for the United States and its allies to abandon the notion that competing on a level playing field with China’s state-led economy is possible and confront the reality of what she calls the country’s “brute force economics.” China’s tactics are not merely an assortment of cutthroat moves made by individual actors. Rather, they are features of Beijing’s long-term strategy and are backed up by the full force of the country’s party-state system, creating a challenge that Washington cannot afford to ignore. (Texas National Security Review)
How the Global Spyware Industry Spiraled Out of Control The market for commercial spyware — which allows governments to invade mobile phones and vacuum up data — is booming. Even the U.S. government is using it. (New York Times)
The quiet disappearance of the safe deposit box: Once revered as the safest way to store physical valuables, safe deposit boxes are now being phased out by major banks. The move is already starting to backfire. (The Hustle)
Life Is Hard. And That’s Good: When the going gets tough, the tough get philosophical. (Nautilus)
We’re in Denial About the True Cost of a Twitter Implosion: Elon Musk’s platform may be hell, but it’s also where huge amounts of reputational and social wealth are invested. All of that is in peril. (Wired)
Chris Hayes: Why I Want Twitter to Live: Unlike message boards that are segmented by interest (Reddit, for example), Twitter is a place where all kinds of perspectives and obscure expertise are instantly accessible and overlapping. (New York Times)
Planes, Trains and Automobiles at 35: An Oral History of One of the Most Beloved Road/Xmas Movies Ever Made: Starring Steve Martin and John Candy, the John Hughes road trip comedy had a nearly four-hour runtime at one point. Hear from cast, crew, and Hughes’ family about the classic. (Vanity Fair)