May 12, 2015

• Another earthquake hits Nepal: With a magnitude of 7.3 and two weeks after a 7.8 quake killed more than 8,000.
• Jan Morris, who covered Edmund Hillary's 1953 climb, says it's time to end our unhealthy obsession with Mt. Everest.
• See also: An interactive graphic makes you feel how astonishingly high Mt. Everest really is.
• Main call-tracking program exposed by Snowden leak ruled illegal.
• Startups chase investors at TechCrunch Disrupt, though no one seems convinced it's worth it.
• Spending driven by vanity is projected to be a durable source of growth in developed and emerging markets.
• "[NFL] halftime segments were reportedly part of paid promotions under federal advertising contracts for the military."
• Clinton advisor who helped create our current wealth inequality proposes "rewriting" the rules to undo the damage.
• Underrepresentation of women and minorities in clinical trials contributes to gap in medical outcomes.
• Cuba's celebrated lung cancer vaccine is coming to the US—for decades the Castros prioritized biotech.
• San Francisco is getting a four-story beachfront monolith that gives you WiFi to raise skin cancer awareness.
• You can't buy land on the Moon, no military activities, and other laws of space.
• "What these bewildering scenarios have in common is a perception of Texas as a battlefield in a constant war."
• GM's ignition switch now attributed to 100 deaths; expect that number to rise as the coverup unravels.
• Suspicious of foreign funding, Modi may revoke Indian operations of Greenpeace, Ford Foundation among others.
• Panama Canal expansion will undercut the Port of Los Angeles's dominant position.
• David Simon on our criminal justice system's modern gulag.
• "Sesame Street's Oscar is all thinkable archetypes of the outsider, scrunched into the shape of a safe cartoon."