Invisibility in the Era of Surveillance
The Wikileaks dump yesterday raises a number of questions about privacy in the modern era of what some would call a surveillance state. Most specifically, The New Yorker examines 5 questions about the release. Coincidentally, at the same time, I’m working my way through Kevin Mitnick’s The Art of Invisibility: The World’s Most Famous Hacker…
continue readingBreaking Down the $65m Obama Book Deal
Whatever your politics might be, you gotta be impressed (or frightened) at the gargantuan book deal given to Barack and Michelle Obama. Vox deconstructs the deal and does some math. For example, according to the article, the #3 top seller of 2014 sold slightly more the than 500,000 copies. The Obamas will need to sell…
continue readingTales Book Tops in Service Industry Category
On Friday, Gawker insinuated that the back and forth of will-he-promote or won’t-he-promote discussion of Gay Talese’s new book was a publicity generator. If so, it certainly seems to be paying off. The book is currently the 3,360 ranked title on Amazon. But it is #1 in the Service Industries category. A work about a…
continue readingUmm, Well, Now this is Uncomfortable
Less than two weeks prior to publication, an attention grabbing account of a motel voyeur is being abandoned by the author. Gay Talese is a journalism giant. But evidently he overlooked a key detail of property ownership when documenting the story of Gerald Foos, a motel owner who spied on his guests. When the Washington…
continue readingThe British Guide to Good Sense Going Away
BOOK IDEA! Free to any Brit author who wants to take it and run with it! In recent days, the British people have dominated headlines around the globe. And whether you, dear reader, agree with their decisions, there can be no doubt that those folks know how to quit. First, there was Prime Minister David…
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