Good, Clean Fun With Strangers, the Return of the Hummer and More #Mustreads

Hello!

Here are some good things to read, brought to you by Re/code:

1. One very sick and/or very creative reporter has been messing with strangers nearby for months using a nifty trick with his iPhone. With the AirDrop feature, he has been sending the same picture of a sloth in a spacesuit to random people with iPhones nearby: Subway passengers, coworkers and even an Apple executive. Read the whole thing at the Verge.
2. Oil prices are falling because OPEC has decided oil prices should be low for a while, and we’re starting to see the return of the Hummer, the mid-2000s status icon and total embodiment of late-stage capitalism. The Washington Post explains why the time is right, again, for a truck that gets 10 miles per gallon.
3. David Shing, a.k.a. “Shingy,” is AOL’s in-house “Digital Prophet.” He gets paid six figures to figure out how AOL and brands can “win” in the world of online media. Here’s the picture of him riding a wrecking ball like Miley Cyrus that made him famous earlier this year, and here’s a humanizing profile of him from Business Insider’s Steve Kovach. The New Yorker, being the New Yorker, has a more arch take this week.
4. You probably heard about Obama’s big net neutrality announcement. To understand that story, you should read Re/code’s Amy Schatz’s report. And next you should read the Awl’s John Herrman on how the net neutrality “debate” is impossible for people to understand because of the insane politics of its language. Herrman: “Political language is garbage. No, that’s wrong: American Politics is the garbage, and its language is just the stink.” And while you’re at it, read some George Orwell.
5. Master of science fiction William Gibson is the subject of a fun interview in Salon, in which he says that the hackers he imagined in the ’80s are nothing like the ones of today, and how the weird, unsettling nature of Facebook and other social media giants was something he never would have predicted.

If you see any stories you’d like to send our way (or have any questions/comments about stories we’ve recommended), feel free to shoot an email to noah@recode.net.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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