7 stories to read this weekend 

I am going to take a mini-break from these lists for a few weeks, as I have to go searching for better and newer sources of reading satisfaction. As a result, the sharing is going to become erratic and I will post an occasional link or two on my personal blog.

• In conversation with Thomas Piketty, who discusses his new book, Capital in the Twenty First Century. This is a great one for the weekend. (Bonus reading: Review of Piketty’s book by Larry Summers.)
• Fascism is back in Europe, says Timothy Snyder in the New Republic, thanks to what’s happening in Ukraine. (Additional reading: Who can control the post-superpower capitalist world order?)
• How micro-manufacturing can empower the disenfranchised. Interesting argument!
• My day as a robot! Probably one of the most fun pieces you are going to read, thanks to the Boston Globe’s Leon Neyfakh who, well, was playing the robot.
• The rise of Nintendo: A story in 8 bits: We all know Nintendo is having problems, but before all that, it was the shizzle. Grantland has an excerpt from Console Wars, a forthcoming book by Blake Harris.
• John Maeda tells his story. And it is pretty amazing.
• Schooled: Cory Booker, Chris Christine and Mark Zuckerberg thought they could do magic with billions. Well, as a wise man once said, money doesn’t solve every problem.