It could be worse (!!)

Kim Kardashian is speaking at a tech conference. Please let that glorious sentence sink in. Kim Kardashian is speaking at a tech conference, and she is billed lower than the CEO of Quixey (wtf is Quixey?), the CEO of Duolingo (meh) and some dude who does marketing for Apple (ha). Listen: You nerds were lucky enough to sucker one half of the #worldsmosttalkedaboutcouple into your boring-ass conference, at least have the decency to put her in the marquee spot. What is this life! Now, links:

1. The future of phone booths is ... terrifying, actually. In New York, abandoned booths are were being converted to hiding spots for Bluetooth-enabled "beacons," which track the location of passing smartphones. (In London, meanwhile, old phone booths are being turned into handy charging stations. THIS is why we can't have nice things.)

2. Who cares about the NSA when you have corporate data brokers? Companies like NewsBios compile detailed "dossiers" on journalists -- down to their suspected politics and level of self-esteem. If you think that's creepy, it could be worse (!!): There could one day be NewsBios for all of us. Gulp.

3. A casual chat with Sydney Leathers: D-list celebrity, Internet sex icon, and eternal human meme. If the Internet didn't exist, she imagines, no one would know who she is!

You can crash my pool party any time.

Pocketable: How Twitter, and a tsunami, changed our fundamental relationship to place. (4110 words/16 minutes)

Postscripts: Tinder for politics. Instagram for the '80s. Why lattes are linked to liberals and how bacon became a meme. Could you live in a world without food? Do you crave a return to the .edu days? The art of Twitter fiction. The ethics of video games. Stop the bullshit "experiments," for God's sake!

Until tomorrow,
@caitlindewey

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