Afternoon Reading List 07.08.13.

The hut in the Philippines where the Internet started — Once upon a time, the Internet didn’t exist. Instead of Googling everything, people actually had to know things. The origins of the web can be traced in part back to a hut in the village of Leyte in the Philippines in 1945. As The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal writes, it was there that the young Navy radar technician Doug Engelbart picked up an issue of LIFE magazine and read an article titled “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush, a science icon of the time, that presented Bush’s vision for a system to improve human understanding of the world (the article originally appeared in The Atlantic, Madrigal is sure to note). Engelbart, who died last week, went on, inspired by Bush’s essay, to work on groundbreaking technology that inspired generations of scientists. He invented the computer mouse and demonstrated what could happen when computers communicate with each other, showing hypertext links, video conferencing and hypertext links more than a decade before IBM released the first personal computer. Why you should read it: Because you can, by just clicking the link. Engelbart was a major force in the early development of the personal computer and the web and worked hard so that doing that would be possible. Rupert Murdoch is a happy guy — Rupert Murdoch has not just owned the news, but he's being the subject of it lately as he and Wendi Deng have filed for divorce. But he’s not upset about it. As Michael Wolff wrote in his column for the Guardian, Murdoch is “happier than he’s ever been.” Those close to the media tycoon say Wendi is “a terrible person” and that she spends money and parties out of control, among other accusations. Murdoch also apparently believed that Wendi would upstage him after his death and that she “doesn’t deserve to be my widow.” Ouch. He believes he’ll be around for another decade. Why you should read it: It’s an interesting look at Murdoch in the present. He’s had a storied past, and this piece looks into what may be ahead for the media mogul. Fox News dominates Gallup poll — According to a recent Gallup poll, Fox News is king. In his WaPo blog, Erik Wemple reports on the findings of the polls, which asked 2,000 adults across the country, “Thinking about various sources of news available today, what would you say is your main source of news about current events in the U.S. and around the world?” The highest response, given by 26 percent of respondents, was “television.” After that was “Internet” with 18 percent. In third place, above “newspaper” and “radio,” was Fox News at 8 percent. CNN, at 7 percent, also ranked higher than “newspaper” and “radio,” which were at 6 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Wemple labeled MSNBC the “big loser” for only earning 1 percent of the responses. Why you should read it: Wemple accompanies his post with a few charts from the poll, which show some important stats for those in the news industry.

Fishbowl

Afternoon Reading List 07.08.13.

Austin Price

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Austin Price