First Derivative [60]

first Derivative [60]

4.2.2018

I have finals at the end of this week so I'm sending fD out a bit earlier than usual. Enjoy! As always, just reply to this email with any questions or if you want to chat about any of the pieces. -TK
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The American cloud (Aeon)
by Venkatesh Rao
Wow. h/t to reader GJB—TK

The Spy Who Came Home (NYer)
by Ben Taub
Really great story of a former CIA officer, now police officer, looking at the conventional wisdom in counter-terrorism and neighborhood policing, their similarities and dissimilarities, and what leads to failure or success—TK

ICE held an American man in custody for 1,273 days. He’s not the only one who had to prove his citizenship (LA Times)
by Paige St. John and Joel Rubin
“The wrongful arrests account for a small fraction… But the detentions of U.S. citizens amount to an unsettling type of collateral damage in the government’s effort to remove undocumented or unwanted immigrants.”

How Facebook Helps Shady Advertisers Pollute the Internet (Bloomberg)
by Zeke Faux
“Affiliates say Facebook has sent mixed signals over the years. Their accounts would get banned, but company salespeople would also come to their meetups and parties and encourage them to buy more ads” Worth a read—TK

Silicon Valley Can’t Be Trusted With Our History (Buzzfeed News)
by Evan Hill
“In the summer of 2017, observers of the Syrian Civil War realized that YouTube was removing dozens of channels and tens of thousands of videos documenting the conflict… Not only were the deleted videos a resource for journalists and a public chronicle of the violence, they were potential evidence for war crimes trials.”

State of Conflict (Chronicle of Higher Education)
by Steve Kolowich
A good read, covering an incident and its aftermath that’s representative of the bigger currents running through the campus and statehouse—TK

Breakdown of Stocks-Bonds Link Leaves Investors Nowhere to Hide (Bloomberg)
by Liz McCormick
In a flight-to-security where should investors land?—TK

The Passion of Jordan Peterson (Esquire)
by Wesley Yang
“Increasingly one hears that the problem menacing the world today is not the excesses of masculinity, but masculinity itself. That masculinity itself must — and can — be eradicated. Peterson proposes an alternative hypothesis: ‘When softness and harmlessness become the only consciously acceptable virtues, then hardness and dominance will start to exert an unconscious fascination.’”

Inside the Competitive, Corrupt World of Russian Intelligence (Cipher Brief)
by Levi Maxey
“The Kremlin employs various often overlapping and competitive security and intelligence services to create multiple sources of intelligence, encourage risk-taking and keep a wary eye on each other.”

The American Who Accidentally Became a Chinese Movie Star (NYT)
by Mitch Moxley

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ABOUT fD

fD is a newsletter focusing on signal insights and deep trends in ideas, technology, politics, economics, foreign affairs, culture, philosophy, and more. The goal is to deliver content and analyses that matter beyond the present moment.

I hope you enjoy. Questions and comments always welcome (just respond to this email)—TK

EPHEMERA  

Three Kingdoms, a Chinese show based off the canonical ancient Chinese novel. Think Game of Thrones meets Hosue of Cards in ancient China