Month: March 2017

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…

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Breaking 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…

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Who Wants to Have a Russian Book Club?

A legend floats around university English programs about two candidates vying for the same job. At a social event, someone introduces a game where you name a famous book that you’ve never read. If anyone else in the ground has read it, then they’re out. The point is to admit to having avoided the most…

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