📜 The oldest government in history

Plus: Encounters with SpaceX fans who uprooted their lives and moved to Starbase, Why Do So Many Kids Need Glasses Now? and more…

Today’s pick

The oldest government in history. America has always been governed by a class of political leaders older than the population. This has largely been the case going back to the early 1800s, when the median age of American was about 17 years old — and the median age of a member… (Annie Fu / Business Insider)

Walter Hickey @WaltHickey

not gonna lie the first time I generated this data and chart it was so jaw dropping I immediately checked to confirm it was right businessinsider.com/gerontocracy-u…

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Encounters with SpaceX fans who uprooted their lives and moved to Starbase. The first time Anthony Gomez saw one of SpaceX's Starship prototypes take flight, he watched it on a projector. He was far away from the humid Texas coast, where the actual launch was taking place. Instead, he was sitting in his house in Florida… (Loren Grush / The Verge)

Loren Grush @lorengrush

Coinciding with the @verge's big redesign today, you can read my last piece for the website. Back in April we spent some time around Starbase to capture what it's like when you move next door to a rocket facility

theverge.comEncounters with SpaceX fans who uprooted their lives and moved to StarbaseTrying to understand the people who feel “trapped on Earth” and would like to live on Mars

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Why Do So Many Kids Need Glasses Now? A decade into her optometry career, Marina Su began noticing something unusual about the kids in her New York City practice. More of them were requiring glasses, and at younger and younger ages. Many of these kids had parents who had perfect vision… (Sarah Zhang / The Atlantic)

Sarah Zhang @sarahzhang

Over the past century, humans have been slowly losing our distance vision. My latest @TheAtlantic feature is about the rise of myopia, especially in kids. 1/x

theatlantic.comThe Myopia GenerationWhy do so many kids need glasses now?

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Apple plans new spots for ads in App Store by the end of the year. Apple is planning to release new ad 'placements' as soon as the holiday season of this year. The new ad units represent a significant expansion in Apple's advertising inventory, which is focused on its App Store. The expansion comes as Apple's… (Kif Leswing / CNBC)

Reed Albergotti @ReedAlbergotti

Apple is starting to promote its new advertising offerings. This will no doubt raise a lot of eyebrows in the ad tech world. Apple effectively cleared the way when it implemented new privacy policies last year. Good scoop from @kifleswing

cnbc.comApple plans to sell ads in new spots in the App Store by year-endThe expansion comes as Apple’s advertising business is under increasing scrutiny.

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Twitter Cared More About Growth Than Spies Infiltrating Company, Whistleblower Tells Congress. Peiter ‘Mudge' Zatko, the former Twitter whistleblower who claimed last month the company was guilty of “egregious” security lapses, told Congress that company leadership failed to take action against spies on its payroll. In… (Thomas Brewster / Forbes)

Thomas Brewster @iblametom

NEW - Indian, Chinese and Saudi Arabian spies allegedly made it onto Twitter's workforce and, according to @dotMudge testimony, Twitter barely cared. FBI warned on China, says Sen Grassley. Sen @RonWyden says he's deeply troubled by the revelations.

forbes.comTwitter Cared More About Growth Than Spies Infiltrating Company, Whistle-Blower Tells CongressA whistle-blower says that warnings about foreign intelligence agents on its staff went unheeded, as leadership cared more about growth.

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— Jose Montes de Oca

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