The real cost of Colonial Pipeline’s $5M ransom

PLUS: In Defense of Snow Days, and more

View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions  05.14.21   IDEAS | 5-MINUTE READ In Defense of Snow Days BY DAVID ZWEIG Virtual school after a snowstorm is yet another kind of techno-solutionist slush that should be plowed away.   CHATTERBOX | 5-MINUTE READ Live Audio Apps Lure Creators With Money and Promises BY ARIELLE PARDES Talk is cheap, unless you're an in-demand content creator for platforms like Clubhouse and its many clones.   CHEMISTRY SET | 3-MINUTE READ Awesome, Hypnotic Photos of Swirling, Crystal Chemistry BY MEGHAN HERBST A new book goes micro to show the wonderful world of close-up chemical reactions.   TOUGH CALLS | 4-MINUTE READ Colonial Pipeline Paid a $5M Ransom—and Kept a Vicious Cycle Turning BY LILY HAY NEWMAN Stopping payments would go a long way to stopping ransomware. But the choice is never quite so easy.   PARTNER CONTENT The Most Important Business Story of Our Time The revealing and urgent narrative of how Amazon became one of the largest entities on the planet and a probing, detailed profile of its founder and the wealthiest person alive, Jeff Bezos. GET WIRED Stare the future right in the eye. Get 1 year of unlimited access to WIRED for less than $2 per month. Plus, get a free tote. Subscribe now.   IDEAS | 3-MINUTE READ Tech Companies Don't Need to Be Creepy to Make Money BY CLIVE THOMPSON The unlikely success of DuckDuckGo suggests a way to escape surveillance capitalism.   THE MONITOR | 3-MINUTE READ The Knives Out Sequel Seems Made for the Internet BY ANGELA WATERCUTTER And that's (mostly) a good thing.   ROUGHIN' IT The Best Camping Gear to Jump-Start Your Adventures BY ADRIENNE SO Enjoy nature with WIRED's favorite outdoor products and essentials.   DOT PHYSICS | 10-MINUTE READ Could You Really Climb the Spinning Ship's Cable in Stowaway? BY RHETT ALLAIN Anna Kendrick's rotating spacecraft cleverly uses cables and a counterweight to make artificial gravity. But scaling them would be harder than it looks     This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or Manage your newsletter subscriptions   Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.