Economist Redux #4: January 2015

OK, so I'll admit that I'm falling a bit behind; quarterly planning at work has killed me a bit, as has some fun ski trips up to the arid hills of Tahoe. Let's get down to business though; you guys are here for reposts of Economist articles, and I would hate to disappoint.

• An article about freedom of speech resonated with me. A good friend of mine from college was routinely attacked for making similar claims, but I tend to agree with the notion that attempts to regulate speech are often misguided. 
• Having finished the Twilight of the Elite last year, not much in either of these articles about dangers of meritocracy really surprised me, although the specific quantification of the degree to which associative mating actually increases inequality (25%) was interesting to me. Generally just a good thing to keep a mental note of.
• Apparently we're going to be able to save the fishies with big data! Hooray! 
• An interesting take on how to use low oil prices as a way to impose a carbon tax and reduce subsidies for alternative energies in one fell swoop. I need to read more about carbon taxes, but the more I hear, the more it sounds pretty awesome!
• Close to home, this was a relatively hawkish take on some of the risks that counterterrorism agencies face when dealing with more independent, commando-style attacks.
• I've actually worked on this a bit professionally, and it would be interesting to see if the President's ideas about data sharing for cyber security take off. It really could be a powerful way to combat persistent cyber threats.
• This article makes some pretty optimistic claims that even with low oil prices, innovation in the energy space is improving the lot of people everywhere! In particular, some of the stories about specific technological improvements in efficiency and production were pretty inspiring. 
• Interesting take on BP, specifically from the perspective of whether it could get eaten up by another big oil company now that crude prices are low, even though management has done a pretty good job with the company.
• Similar article about McDonald's - the downsides of being the biggest fast food company in an era of healthy food and more diversity at the slightly higher end of the market makes this a particularly tough time. 
• Really interesting article about bitcoin mining - did you know that mining for bitcoins takes more electricity than 130,000 US homes? Especially given the recent volatility, it also has some interesting parallels with the oil industry right now.
• Some cool thoughts about platform companies and the complex economics of trying to balance supply and demand, as well as some of the more traditional areas of ad optimization and whatnot. 
• Maybe things will be better in Congress than the Economist thinks, but I won't be holding my breath. This article has a particularly depressing juxtaposition of the workers fixing up the physical capital building and the people who end up working inside it.
• Crazy article about some dude who basically had the job of running a wild future think-tank for the Pentagon. Sounds like he either crushed it or sucked, but in either case, it's probably classified. 

And that's it. Here's to increased consistency in upcoming weeks!