Good Reads: from a new media chapter, to telescopic contacts, to Doritos tacos
A new hope for legacy media?
Why did Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos buy The Washington Post with $250 million of his own money? That鈥檚 the question many have asked Henry Blodget, editor of , a prominent blog that has Mr. Bezos among its investors. Mr. Blodget does not claim to have any inside information on Bezos鈥檚 decision, but writes with the insight of having worked with him for many years.
According to Blodget, Bezos loves the long game. He invests in projects that interest him, not ones that will turn a quick profit. With a reported net worth of $25 billion, Bezos can afford to throw around a lot of cash 鈥� and he does. He poured $42 million into a massive atomic clock designed to keep time for 10,000 years. He funded a mission to find and recover Apollo 11鈥檚 engines from the bottom of the ocean. He regularly invests Amazon鈥檚 profits into new long-term ventures, such as the Kindle e-book reader or the company鈥檚 new TV and movie studio.
鈥淪o, anyone rooting for the Washington Post to transform into a successful digital business should be thrilled that Jeff Bezos is buying it,鈥� he writes. 鈥淎nyone hoping the Washington Post will never change, meanwhile, should find some other status quo to cling to. The status quo at the Post is dying with or without Bezos.鈥�
That鈥檚 a language pet peeve, literally
Bob Garfield hates when people misuse the word 鈥渓iterally.鈥� On the , he griped to cohost Mike Vuolo that people often use the word to mean its exact opposite 鈥� and this literally makes his brain explode.
Mr. Garfield assumed that this is a modern corruption of language, something that metastasized within his lifetime. But as Mr. Vuolo points out, people have used 鈥渓iterally鈥� in a metaphorical or hyperbolic way for more than 150 years. Charles Dickens鈥檚 book 鈥淣icholas Nickleby,鈥� published in 1839, contains the line: 鈥� 鈥楲ift him out,鈥� said Squeers, after he had literally feasted his eyes in silence upon the culprit.鈥� Similar usages appear in F. Scott Fitzgerald鈥檚 鈥淭he Great Gatsby鈥� and James Joyce鈥檚 鈥淒ubliners.鈥�
The rest of the episode explores why language pet peeves bother people so 鈥� and why the joke may be on them.
Bionic eyewear offers superhero vision
Telescopic vision may now be within reach. An international team of researchers have designed a contact lens that can switch between normal sight and 2.8-power magnification. The US military鈥檚 research division funded the project, hoping to equip soldiers with superhuman sight. But the scientists behind the technology say in their journal article that it could also help people with vision problems. At this stage, the 鈥渓ens doesn鈥檛 work on its own,鈥� writes Amanda Kooser on . 鈥淚t needs to be paired with a modified set of 3D television glasses. A polarizing filter allows the switch between telescopic and regular vision.鈥�
How will you escape?
In San Francisco, 11 people were trapped in a room for an hour, clawing at the walls for a way out. This wasn鈥檛 a crisis situation 鈥� it was a game. A Japanese company named Scrap has introduced one of America鈥檚 first 鈥渞eal escape games.鈥� Volunteers lock themselves inside a 30-by-30-foot room littered with clues and logic puzzles. Participants must upend furniture, find hints, crack codes, and hunt for a way to escape before the timer runs out.
鈥淭he good news: The game is a blast,鈥� writes Sara Breselor in Wired鈥檚 print magazine. 鈥淭he bad news: It鈥檚 almost impossible. A whiteboard in the foyer outside our room displays the number of teams that have been locked inside (293) and the number that have escaped (7).鈥�
Innovation at Taco Bell
As Taco Bell鈥檚 50th anniversary approached, chief executive Greg Creed challenged his employees: Make the company seem young again by reinventing the crunchy taco. The result, writes Austin Carr in print magazine, became a fast-food phenomenon.
Taco Bell鈥檚 team of 鈥渇ood innovation experts鈥� conceived of a taco dusted with the same powder that gives Doritos chips their unique flavor. The munchy mega-brands united, and Taco Bell鈥檚 young-male demographic went wild. The company credits its Doritos Locos Taco with generating 450 million taco sales, boosting company sales by 13 percent, and pushing the chain to hire 15,000 new employees.
But the quest for binge-food perfection took years to complete. 鈥淚n April 2009, this crazy idea began with a trip to Home Depot, where staffers bought a paint-spray gun to blast Doritos flavoring onto a taco,鈥� writes Mr. Carr. The initial recipe flopped. 鈥淔or the first group of testers, the combination of Doritos with Taco Bell鈥檚 shells was neither punchy nor zesty; it was just a displeasing taste mush.鈥� Food engineers worked day and night before they eventually nailed the manufacturing process.
Taco Bell鈥檚 next food experiment: breakfast waffle tacos.
