Copyright, John McCain, Las Vegas, Drawing, Espionage
The Walking Lawsuit Factory
Justin Peters | Slate | 24th May 2018
America’s most litigious lawyer is a 29-year-old New Yorker called Richard Liebowitz who sues media firms on a daily basis for using photographs without copyright clearance, demanding damages of up to $150,000 for a picture that might have earned $100 on a good day. Photographers love him. “He essentially offers them: I will sue for you, I don’t care how innocuous the infringement, I don’t care how innocuous the photograph, I will bring that lawsuit for you and get you money” (5,800 words)
John McCain, Prisoner Of War
John McCain | US News | 28th January 2008
First published in 1973, John McCain’s account of his imprisonment and torture in Vietnam. “I looked at my knee. It was about the size, shape and color of a football. I remembered that when I was a flying instructor a fellow had ejected from his plane and broken his thigh. He had gone into shock, the blood had pooled in his leg, and he died, which came as quite a surprise to us — a man dying of a broken leg. Then I realized that a very similar thing was happening to me” (12,200 words)
What Happened In Vegas
Amanda Fortini | California Sunday | 22nd May 2018
On the aftermath of last year’s Las Vegas mass shooting, the worst in modern American history, which left 58 dead. Las Vegas would rather you didn’t think about it. “The recovery has been remarkable. Mandalay Bay is as vibrant, inviting and busy as ever. We continue to host major events and conventions and happily accommodate the influx of guests and visitors that come with them. Every day is a stunning display of our dedication to sharing joy and happiness with everyone we serve” (7,600 words)
The Doctor As Draftsman
Jerry Saltz | Vulture | 13th March 2018
“Santiago Ramón y Cajal is the only Nobel Prize winner in history — physiology and medicine, 1906 — to be a truly great artist. As with Michelangelo, Cajal revels in the deep wonders of the human body. But where the Renaissance master goes sensual, macro, and dynamic, the Spaniard zeros in, mapping the miraculously microscopic. The closest art equivalent to Cajal’s drawings are Leonardo’s weather and water deluges. Da Vinci saw the world outside. Cajal gives us the forces at work within us” (1,090 words)
Numbers Stations
Maris Goldmanis | War On The Rocks | 24th May 2018
“Numbers stations have been in existence since World War I. Over the years they have attracted sporadic interest from journalists, video game designers, and filmmakers. These stations are not signals from aliens or mind control devices, nor are they dead relics of the Cold War — rather, these stations are part of the sophisticated work of intelligence agencies and militaries, and they are very much still on the air. This article will explain what they are, how to listen to them, and why they matter” (1,760 words)
Video of the day Five Levels Of Harmony
What to expect:
Jacob Collier talks about the idea of harmony with five very different interlocutors (15’41”)
Thought for the day
What’s real and what’s true aren’t necessarily the same
Salman Rushdie
Podcast Burden Of Proof | Revisionist History
Malcolm Gladwell investigates what is known, and what should be done, about football injuries
(35m 25s)