“Every page of writing is the result of a thousand tiny decisions and desperate acts of will.”
Life is fragile and filled with mysteries - 7 7 1980
The story begins in 1983, when a Soviet defector revealed to the French DGSE that the Soviets had bugged the French embassy in Moscow. The French found the bugs. Shortly after the NSA started to check the office and comms equipment used in the American embassy in Moscow.
Time for a thread on one of my favorite examples of creative intelligence gathering
AN ODYSSEY LIKE NO OTHER: Remember Odysseus? Took him 10 years to make it home to Ithaca from the Trojan War and he was the only one of his mates to make it. Being the sole survivor was one thing Greek king had in common with the lone sperm cell from your father that helped make you you. You
But the Cyclopes in “The Odyssey” were nothing compared to the giant challenges faced by sperm cells seeking to fertilize an egg and start the creation of a new human being. You need not agree with everything in this HillFaith post to appreciate the incredible complexity of becoming a baby human, as depicted by the Nucleus Medical Media and evolutionary biologist Jonathan McLatchie.
Back in 1980 social media meant something totally different …: The New Information World Order.
Meta has decided to launch its own social media app in a direct challenge to Twitter. The WSJ writes: “Let the battle begin. Facebook parent Meta Platforms on Wednesday announced the launch of Threads, a stand-alone microblogging app that takes direct aim at Twitter as user unrest in that platform has grown since Elon Musk took the company over in October.”
The rise of social media as a news source and opinion shaper is eating away at the influence of traditional media platforms. Fewer people, mostly oldsters, still watch TV. Already, “almost half of Americans use social media as a news source, according to the Pew Research Center.” With the 2024 elections right around the corner, Musk’s acquisition of Twitter cannot go unanswered.
But the phenomenon is larger than just confirming the increasing importance of social media for news. Many separate pieces are moving toward what might be called a new information system that will have far more potential impact than the old tube. Social media, AI and even crypto are converging in as yet poorly understood ways to comprise an emerging environment.
All the players are still trying to build silos though, which do no favors to the free flow of information that the internet originally promoted.
