What the Cossacks Can Do – Grantland
“The Cossacks can’t shoot anyone, because they aren’t carrying their guns. They can’t whip anyone, because they aren’t carrying their nagaikas, their horsewhips — leather braids as short and thick as a devil’s tail. They can inflict pain, no doubt; strong men need only fists. But they are not in Sochi to beat people up.”
Meet the 62-Year-Old Irishman Defending Your Online Privacy – Bloomberg
“Now, those tools are at the center of millions of people’s lives, helping them manage their information by cataloging reams of it. And Hawkes, a 62-year-old, white-haired politician, has become the first line of defense for privacy-conscious Europeans. Apple, Google, Facebook and LinkedIn are among the companies that have established their European headquarters in Ireland, helping them to attain some well-documented corporate tax benefits. In turn, that has given Hawkes unprecedented oversight on how the sensitive information of users is collected and stored.”
New surveillance technology can track everyone in an area for several hours at a time – Washington Post
“As Americans have grown increasingly comfortable with traditional surveillance cameras, a new, far more powerful generation is being quietly deployed that can track every vehicle and person across an area the size of a small city, for several hours at a time. Although these cameras can’t read license plates or see faces, they provide such a wealth of data that police, businesses and even private individuals can use them to help identify people and track their movements.”
Dave Brubeck Was The Macklemore Of 1954 – NPR
“Dave Brubeck was embarrassed. It was 1954, and he was pictured on the cover of Time magazine — only the second jazz musician ever to receive that particular mainstream media recognition. The chagrin came, he said, because he felt that his friend Duke Ellington — who was also interviewed for the magazine’s feature on jazz in the U.S. — deserved it more.”
A Normal Day in the Unusual Life of Michael Keaton – Esquire
“My original thought for Beetlejuice was Sammy Davis Jr. But then I met with Michael and he immediately started making the character. Blew me away. He’s a master improviser. And then when it came to Batman, I’d been meeting with these beefy action-hero types, then Michael arrives, working at the opposite pole from Beetlejuice. He comes in with this whole psychology, approaching it with an almost manic-depressive quality in mind. I thought: Now I get it. There’s a reason that guy dresses up like a bat. Those crazy blue eyes, peering out of that rubber cocoon. It’s a terrible thing to do to a good actor. Michael handled it with his eyes.”
Alex Owumi: I played basketball for Gaddafi – BBC
“In my first practice with my new team-mates there was a weird atmosphere. I asked the other international player on the team, Moustapha Niang from Senegal, “Why does everybody look so depressed?” And he explained it to me. “We’ve been losing,” he said. “They haven’t been getting paid, some of them are getting physically abused. If we don’t win our next game, some of these kids are going to get beat.””
How Long Have I Got Left? – The New York Times
“As soon as the CT scan was done, I began reviewing the images. The diagnosis was immediate: Masses matting the lungs and deforming the spine. Cancer. In my neurosurgical training, I had reviewed hundreds of scans for fellow doctors to see if surgery offered any hope. I’d scribble in the chart “Widely metastatic disease — no role for surgery,” and move on. But this scan was different: It was my own.”
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Photo courtesy of Neal Lantela.
