Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
It’s time to celebrate everyone’s favorite ratio. Pi Day (3/14, in some countries at least) will be marked with NASA’s pi challenge, bakery discounts on pie, and MIT handing out acceptance letters. Mathematicians care about pi because “it puts infinity within reach.”
China flirts with the TPP. Chinese delegates will attend a ministerial-level meeting on the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Chile, but the country has not changed its position on the trade agreement. With the TPP all but dead in the water, China hopes to push its own rival Asia-Pacific pact.
SpaceX launches a commercial communications satellite. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the EchoStar 23 satellite is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:34 am ET (1:34 pm HK). A live webcast of the 2.5 hour mission is available here.
While you were sleeping
Scotland called for a second independence referendum, before Brexit. First minister Nicola Sturgeon said the vote was needed to protect Scottish interests, and would ideally be held by early 2019. But first she needs approval from UK parliament, and prime minister Theresa May is staunchly opposed.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer got a $23 million severance package. Mayer failed to deliver on her promise to turn the company around, but she’ll still walk away with a handsome payout. The internet giant is shedding the tattered remnants of its business as it becomes a holding company for Alibaba shares.
Intel bet $15 billion on autonomous cars. The company acquired Israeli startup Mobileye at a hefty premium, as it tries to get in on the next big wave of computing. Mobileye has deals with carmakers including Nissan and VW—but also suffered an ugly break-up with Tesla.
Japan is sending its largest warship through the South China Sea. The tour, sure to antagonize China, would be Tokyo’s biggest show of force in the region since World War II. The Izumo helicopter carrier will deploy in May, with stops in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.
The numbers came in for the Republican health care plan. The nonpartisan congressional budget office concluded that 24 million fewer Americans would have health insurance within the next decade under the GOP proposal, resulting in a savings of $337 billion. Health care premiums would rise sharply until 2018, after which they would decrease—because bare-bones insurance plans would cover fewer health costs.
Quartz obsession interlude
Cassie Werber on the end of an era of American global domination of language: “With the election of Donald Trump as US president, however, the country’s rhetoric has become decidedly more isolationist. Murphy asks both whether its words and its culture will flow so freely abroad as before, and whether the rest of the world will be as receptive to them.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Preet Bharara is no hero. The recently fired US attorney for New York was tough on corrupt politicians, but he was soft on Wall Street.
Progressive economics will not defeat the extreme right. Robust social welfare programs are not enough to tamp down xenophobia.
South Korea’s protest culture is nothing to envy. It shows that that Koreans strongly distrust their leaders and institutions.
Surprising discoveries
Robots with emotions are creepier than those without. Researchers have detected an “uncanny valley of the mind” that may influence future designs.
A man in Las Vegas has been charged with attempting to murder a mannequin. Police set up a sting operation after the brutal killings of two homeless men.
Dogs are surprisingly good liars. A clever study exposed their ability to deceive people to increase the likelihood they would get a treat.
NASA found an Indian lunar probe that had been missing for years. The search used techniques that will be useful to track dangerous space junk.
A DNA computer has a trillion siblings and replicates itself to make a decision. It could explore solutions exponentially faster than modern computer processors.
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