Readings & Viewings: March 30, 2018

Welcome to this week's Readings & Viewings, a collection of news, analysis and other interesting snippets we've spotted from around the world during the latest week for your reading pleasure.

This week the bearer of all the news has become the headline story in the news. The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal is still unfolding, and while we have found out a fair bit, there's much more under the surface that is yet to come to light. There are many questions still unanswered, with many fingers pointed squarely at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is yet to say much about abusing millions of people's privacy rights.

Trying to patch things up, Facebook has hastily announced changes to its privacy settings, in hopes that will put minds to ease. Now, privacy options can all be found in the one place, if you were wondering, rather than on 20 different screens.

First, the companies start deleting their social media accounts, then the users stop logging on, then the advertisers slowly disappear – or so the story may or may not go. Elon Musk has shut down every Facebook account connected to him and Tesla, and Playboy closed its books on the Book this week too.

Here is a roundup of the design features experts think Facebook should implement if it wants to come out of the woods, and out of the bear market it entered this week. The company has lost more than $100 billion in value since February.

After years of debate, investment leaders are finally conceding — Facebook isn't an ethical business. The company has been removed from BetaShares' ethical ETF, which is the biggest of its kind trading on the ASX.

Sexism, which Facebook has also been in trouble for enabling, has been the word on everyone's lips this year. Leaders in what seems like every industry have been called out for misdemeanours. The team behind messaging platform, Slack, believes there's still a lot more to uncover though, and is developing tools to find out if you subtly treat men and women differently.

Meanwhile, over at credit rating agency Moody's, Tesla has been downgraded to B3 for a shortfall in the manufacturing of Model 3 electric cars. As always, Musk is great at deflecting, with his swanky statements about Facebook this week mostly superseding any Tesla talk. Tesla's junk bond rating has also dropped to Caa1, one above default, and Moody's reckons Tesla is a high chance to face more downgrades.

Competition is revving up in the car yards, with everyone vying for the fast track. The smart ones, recognising the difficulty in navigating the twists and turns in the race ahead, have teamed up knowing they're probably better together. German giants Daimler and BMW have announced plans to collaborate and compete against major ride-sharing companies Uber and Didi. But they are yet to cross the final, and most important step, in sealing the deal.

It's probably high time to get that deal done. First it was Volkswagen, now BMW is feeling the heat on vehicle emissions.

The New York Times reports that Waymo will spend up to $US1 billion to purchase as many as 20,000 electric vehicles from Jaguar Land Rover for a self-driving ride-hailing service. Haven't heard of Waymo? You definitely know its parent company.

And over in London, they have launched their first self-drive train. While they have their transport sorted, housing seems to be a problem though – London's property slump is the worst it has been since the GFC.

As everyone else gets ticks of approval, California won't renew Uber's operating licence after its recent fatal self-driving crash. Could there be some favouritism going on here?

A little light-hearted now, Google has acquired a GIF platform – expect to see more of these turning up in your messages and emails.

via GIPHY

That deal was for an undisclosed amount, and it would most likely be an amount that would make your jaw drop. There is a GIF for that (see above). Google may have spent a little too much time playing with GIFs though, as The Wall Street Journal reports Oracle has just taken $US8.8 billion off Google for copyright infringement.  

Everywhere you look, there seems to be another sky-high valuation or deal taking place these days. This report puts recent valuations in perspective, zeroing in on a men's grooming startup that only launched to the public six months ago and already has a $US200 million valuation.

Dropbox has gone from the clouds to the stock market skyline. The company listed this week, initially short of its $US10 million circa 2014 valuation, but it quickly superseded that.

Crazy prices are just one of the reasons people are moving to Canada, according to one-time San Franciscan and Bulletproof Coffee CEO Dave Asprey.

America's oldest gunmaker Remington has filed for bankruptcy. Is Trump partly to blame?

To top it off, if things weren't already crazy enough in the States, there have apparently been UFO sightings over Arizona this week.

Eddie Lampert, the hedge fund manager who married Sears and Kmart, has given his first in-depth interview in 15 years. Like a script out of American Crime Story, this is a story that involves kidnapping, bankruptcy and reinvention.

How's this for a safe haven sale. Gold castings of Nelson Mandela's hands have been sold by a South African businessman for $US10 million in bitcoin.

You wouldn't hear of that on Twitter. The social network is the latest to ban cryptocurrency ads.

Another corporate tycoon of last century has passed away. Before you think of Blockbuster founder Wayne Huizenga as a poor old guy whose livelihood was crushed by the internet, remember he sold Blockbuster to Viacom for $8.4 billion in 1994 – that was three years before Netflix launched.

Want your children to be successful? Help cultivate these habits of 5000 genius kids studied for 45 years.

The world expert on the concept of grit, which successful people end up having in spades, has shared where her own personal grit came from.

Harvard Business Review puts to rest, hopefully once and for all, stereotypes about female founders.

IKEA is toying with the idea of doing meatless meatballs.

Hooters is competing with co-working space WeWork in Tokyo. 

And if you're feeling bad about all those chocolate eggs you've been eating, Nestle has announced it may have a solution – just in the nick of time – harnessing science to reduce the sugar in chocolate.

We say treat yourself every once in a while. Happy Easter!