Good morning, Quartz readers!
It was a big week for the rule of law in America. Donald Trump was impeached in the House for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Wherever you are in the world and whatever you think of the proceedings, it was a victory for civilization. The fact that all of this happened is a testament to checks and balances, and the US Constitution’s framers probably would have been pleased to see them working so well.
The day of debates in the House was a marvel to behold. It was a 10-hour public showdown governed by rules of procedure, featuring learned, well-dressed, amply fed representatives in all their glory—people of many colors and creeds who all spoke as Americans and whose only weapons were words.
That’s cause for celebration.
First, and perhaps most importantly, because no shots were fired. It’s all just talk, thankfully, despite the right to bear arms. While that may seem dull to some who are accustomed to living in a peaceful and orderly society, where they can watch live-streams of their politicians droning on about ideals, it’s actually a real triumph.
The whole point of the Constitution is to provide a set of basic principles and rules, a guide to be applied over centuries in a changing society. And here it is, working, slowly, as the law does.
The system laid out in the Constitution is designed—unlike a Silicon Valley startup—to disrupt disruption. Justice mulls. She does not move fast and break things.
Often, she seems to get nothing done at all. But as long as the process is happening, she’s actually doing her thing. That is checks and balances. It’s not perfect, but it is what we have and it seems to be working. —Ephrat Livni
FIVE THINGS ON QUARTZ WE ESPECIALLY LIKED
A data scientist is developing a social fitbit. People who invest in relationships live longer, and are healthier and happier, but many of us leave relationships at the bottom of our to-do list. Jenny Anderson reports on the work of Sandy Pentland, head of the Human Dynamics group at MIT Media Lab, who thinks we could design our lives (and cities and workplaces) better if we knew just how little or much we were connecting to others.
Black moms have no choice but to hover. While helicopter or bulldozer parenting often refers to the protective behaviors of wealthy, white mothers, black parents in the US have a whole different set of reasons for intense parenting practices. As Dasia Moore writes, many feel a protective approach “is the only way to keep their kids safe in the face of systemic oppression.”
The world is running out of fresh water. And it’s becoming a major concern for corporate strategists and investors, as John Engen writes in a field guide for Quartz members. The numbers are staggering: 40,000 gallons of water to make a car; 3,000 for a smartphone; 1,800 for a pound of beef. But some entrepreneurs and investors see an opportunity. As one asset manager put it, “Investing in water today is like buying bonds in 1983.”
When maintaining airplanes is a dirty business. About half of Iran’s civilian aircraft are grounded, primarily because US sanctions forbid the country’s carriers from buying spare parts. A black market has thus sprung up, complete with exorbitant prices. Court documents obtained by Justin Rohrlich reveal a new case of smuggling, this one through an Indonesian businessman who allegedly sold $3 million worth of restricted aerospace components to Tehran-based Mahan Air.
Headphones are changing music. Increasingly, people listen to music by sticking tiny speakers directly in their ears. As Dan Kopf explains, the rise of headphones has led to more intimate vocal styles by artists like Billie Eilish and Selena Gomez, and new production techniques to make up for how poorly small speakers handle bass. Also, since no one else can hear what you are listening to, headphones make songs with more confessional lyrics more appealing.
QUARTZ MEMBERSHIP
Give the gift of Quartz. It can be daunting to shop for anyone with a wide variety of interests—cue Quartz membership, the perfect solution to your gifting headache. Our team of journalists go deep on a mosaic of topics, and deliver a field guide each week on the most important aspects of the future of business. Expand someone’s mind this holiday season with the gift of Quartz.
FIVE THINGS ELSEWHERE THAT MADE US SMARTER
What vanilla beans reveal about globalized commerce. For Bloomberg Businessweek, Monte Reel visits Madagascar, the dominant producer of the delicate, incredibly labor-intensive crop. At a hard-to-reach market, he watches buyers and sellers negotiate prices for the beans, which have been known to fetch $600 per kg one week and $20 or so the next. He observes the business with “a sustained appreciation for how incredibly wild global trade, at its most elemental level, actually is.”
Offering dumpster discoveries on Amazon. On YouTube you can watch people searching through trash for things to sell on Amazon. To test how easy it is, the Wall Street Journal sent reporters dumpster diving in New Jersey, then offered up their finds on a shop it started on the platform’s third-party marketplace. Turns out it’s a cinch, as evidenced by a tossed-out jar of Trader Joe’s lemon curd.
The worst is yet to come for oceans. An obscure UN agency in Jamaica, the International Seabed Authority, is close to completing the underwater Mining Code. Once it does, companies will begin extracting minerals from the ocean floor with gusto—and the consequences will be unimaginable, writes Wil S. Hylton in the Atlantic. Environmentalists aren’t the only ones worried. Genetic scientists are concerned about losing deep-sea species whose genes could be useful for medicine.
The spy in your pocket. Many smartphone users who shrug about privacy concerns might not realize just how easily their movements can be tracked—and linked to their identity. The New York Times received a file with over 50 billion location pings from phones in US cities, courtesy of a source within a location data company. As it notes, “If you could see the full trove, you might never use your phone the same way again.”
Tony Stark’s guide to augmenting humans. A new YouTube Originals series hosted by Stark, er, Robert Downey Jr., features a virtual toddler and a “copy” of will.i.am teasing the (far-off) prospect of creating artificial people. But what makes The Age of A.I. smart is its look at how artificial intelligence is helping humans be…human. Come for the robots, stay for real talk from two amputees, both musicians, using machine learning to enhance their residual limbs.
Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, plane parts, and good-as-new dumpster discoveries to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Weekend Brief was brought to you by Steve Mollman and John Keefe.