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Facebook’s ugly snapshot on future of Instagram

Mark Zuckerberg is starting to suck Facebook Inc.’s eponymous product dry as far as rapid growth is concerned. Next target: Instagram. That might explain the departure of Instagram co-founders. Six years after Zuckerberg acquired their then 13-person startup for $715 million, the photo-sharing app has become Facebook’s most important source of growth. Zuckerberg has subsequently assumed a more hands-on role, ...

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Climate change could cost even more than we think

The potential costs of climate change, already the subject of heated debate, may actually be understated. It’s not just the potential disruptions to weather systems, agriculture and coastal cities; it’s that we may respond to those problems in stupid and destructive ways. As the philosopher and cartoon character Pogo said: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Consider ...

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Gig-economy workers are the modern proletariat

Karl Marx defined the proletariat as labourers “unencumbered by any means of production” who were increasingly impoverished by the rise of machines. In that classic form, Marx’s favourite class doesn’t really exist in the rich world today, except in the so-called gig economy. Reports from the International Labour Organization and the JPMorgan Chase Institute describe the plight of different kinds ...

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