Category: Recommended
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The Shameless Farce of Boris Johnson’s Attempt to Send Refugees to Rwanda | The New Yorker
The Shameless Farce of Boris Johnson’s Attempt to Send Refugees to Rwanda A plane was on the runway when the European Court of Human Rights interceded. Now Britain may leave the court. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-shameless-farce-of-boris-johnsons-attempt-to-send-refugees-to-rwanda The European court ruling prompted a wave of emergency appeals from the other six passengers. At around 10…
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China’s Surveillance State Is Growing. These Documents Reveal How. – The New York Times
Video: China’s Surveillance State Is Growing. These Documents Reveal How. A New York Times analysis of over 100,000 government bidding documents found that China’s ambition to collect digital and biological data from its citizens is more expansive and invasive than previously known. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000008314175/china-government-surveillance-data.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=World%20News A Times investigation analyzing over 100,000 government bidding documents found that…
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NFT Prices Drop as “Crypto Winter” Descends
NFT Prices Drop as “Crypto Winter” Descends Bloomberg reports that the popular Bored Ape NFTs saw a 25% decrease in average price along with other “blue-chip” tokens. via Hyperallergic: http://hyperallergic.com/740883/nft-prices-drop-as-crypto-winter-descends/ Referring to “expensive digital images of monkeys” as “100% based on greater fool theory,” Gates drove home the point that assets like NFTs are entirely…
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Saudi Arabia Astroturfs the Golf Course | The New Yorker
Saudi Arabia Astroturfs the Golf Course Mohammed bin Salman has bankrolled a new rival to the P.G.A. Tour. What’s behind it? via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/saudi-arabia-astroturfs-the-golf-course The clubs’ names were created by an advisory group of fourth-grade boys, apparently: Crushers, Fireballs, Hy Flyers, Iron Heads, Punch, Torque, Smash.
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The Rise of the Internet’s Creative Middle Class | The New Yorker
The Rise of the Internet’s Creative Middle Class Fourteen years ago, Kevin Kelly famously proposed that an artist could make a living online with a thousand true fans. Has time proved him correct? via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-rise-of-the-internets-creative-middle-class The recent history of the Internet, however, warns that we shouldn’t necessarily expect the endearingly homegrown nature…
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January 6th Hearings: Bill Barr Calls “Bullshit” on Trump’s Election Lies | The New Yorker
Bill Barr Calls “Bullshit” on Trump’s Election Lies On the second day of public hearings on the January 6th attack, the former Attorney General and other members of Trump’s inner circle revealed the extent of their hypocrisy. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/bill-barr-calls-bullshit-on-trumps-election-lies This made for compelling congressional testimony. I cannot think of any other instance…
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Opinion | Donald Trump, American Monster – The New York Times
Opinion | Donald Trump, American Monster (Published 2022) A man of pure narcissistic psychopathy feels no guilt and has no sense of the damage he does. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/11/opinion/trump-january-6.html The hearing drove home the fact that Trump was deadly serious about overthrowing the government. If his onetime lap dog Mike Pence was strung up on the…
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Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf Series Upends Genteel World of Golf – The New York Times
‘This Is Uncomfortable’: Saudi Arabia Upends Genteel World of Pro Golf By promising top players multimillion-dollar paydays, the kingdom moved beyond investing in a sport and made a play to control one. Then the PGA Tour struck back. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/sports/golf/liv-golf-pga-tour.html “If Saudi Arabia want to use the game of golf as a way for them…
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How Shanghai Residents Endured the COVID Lockdown | The New Yorker
How Shanghai Residents Endured the COVID Lockdown For more than two months, China’s financial hub, which is home to some twenty-five million people, came to a halt. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-shanghai-residents-endured-the-covid-lockdown just to clear the air, a municipal secretary told reporters, “We are not going into lockdown, and it is unnecessary to do a…
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How the Internet Turned Us Into Content Machines | The New Yorker
How the Internet Turned Us Into Content Machines Two new books examine how social media traps users in a brutal race to the bottom. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/how-the-internet-turned-us-into-content-machines The rise of social networks in the twenty-tens made this model only more dominant. Our digital posting became concentrated on a few all-encompassing platforms, which relied…
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The Surreal Case of a C.I.A. Hacker’s Revenge | The New Yorker
The Surreal Case of a C.I.A. Hacker’s Revenge A hot-headed coder is accused of exposing the agency’s hacking arsenal. Did he betray his country because he was pissed off at his colleagues? via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/13/the-surreal-case-of-a-cia-hackers-revenge One of the Nerf gunfighters was Joshua Schulte—his real name. A skinny Texan in his twenties, he had a…
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How Russia’s Wagner Group Is Expanding in Africa – The New York Times
Putin’s Shadow Soldiers: How the Wagner Group Is Expanding in Africa Best known for its mercenaries, the Wagner Group also mines diamonds, spreads disinformation and props up autocrats in an effort to grow Russia’s footprint. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/world/africa/wagner-group-africa.html But Wagner is far more than a simple guns-for-gold scheme. Operating through a sprawling web of shell companies,…
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Putin Ally Mines Gold and Plays Favorites in Sudan – The New York Times
‘From Russia With Love’: A Putin Ally Mines Gold and Plays Favorites in Sudan Backed by the Kremlin, the shadowy network known as the Wagner Group is getting rich in Sudan while helping the military to crush a democracy movement. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/05/world/africa/wagner-russia-sudan-gold-putin.html But Wagner is far more than a war machine in Africa, and a…
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The (No Longer) Secret World of Surf Spots – The New York Times
The (No Longer) Secret World of Surf Spots Publicizing certain surf spots, especially ones off the beaten path, is similar to violating the first rule of Fight Club. Instagram and some new surfers have threatened that reverence. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/06/sports/secret-surf-spots.html “One of the reasons I was drawn to remote, wild places is I was so sick…
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Two January 6th Defendants and the Consolidation of Right-Wing Extremism | The New Yorker
Two January 6th Defendants and the Consolidation of Right-Wing Extremism As Congress searches for accountability, Guy Reffitt and Jessica Watkins remain defiant. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/two-january-6th-defendants-and-the-consolidation-of-right-wing-extremism In the seventeen months since the insurrection, Cohen said, a unit of some nine hundred analysts had picked up on a number of disturbing patterns. “Anti-government militia, hard-core…
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Shootings, fires and an anti-tank missile: Peter R. de Vries and the battle to cover gangs in the Netherlands – Columbia Journalism Review
Shootings, fires, and an anti-tank missile: Peter R. de Vries and the battle to cover gangs in the Netherlands Nabil Bakkali, a thirty-year-old member of the Dutch-Moroccan mafia, was smoking hookah and playing pachisi with friends in a lounge in Utrecht in 2017 when a phone call interrupted their game. It was an associate of…
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The faces from China’s Uyghur detention camps
The faces from China’s Uyghur detention camps Thousands of photos from a data hack of police files, reveal the human cost of China’s Uyghur detention system. via BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/85qihtvw6e/the-faces-from-chinas-uyghur-detention-camps Thousands of photographs from the heart of China’s highly secretive system of mass incarceration in Xinjiang, as well as a shoot-to-kill policy for those who…
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The L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy-Gang Crisis | The New Yorker
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy-Gang Crisis Whistle-blowers say that a group called the Banditos functions as a shadow government within local law enforcement. The sheriff says there is no such gang in his department. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/06/the-la-county-sheriffs-deputy-gang-crisis According to a lawsuit filed by eight East L.A. deputies and the A.C.L.U., the Banditos gang…
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My students cheated… A lot • crumplab
Brief notes on the cheating behavior literature *May 26th, 2022*: some notes Link: https://crumplab.com/articles/blog/post_994_5_26_22_cheating/index.html The second midterm was supposed to start at 12:50 PM. I had it all set up and ready to go, which meant that students would be able to access the midterm online when the clock struck 12:50 PM. The group chat…
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The Rise and Fall of America’s Environmentalist Underground – The New York Times
The Rise and Fall of America’s Environmentalist Underground This year, one of the last fugitives of the Earth Liberation Front pleaded guilty to arson — at a moment when climate activists are again flirting with radical ideas. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/magazine/earth-liberation-front-joseph-mahmoud-dibee.html While Tubbs manned a police scanner in their getaway van, the rest of the team trudged…