1. Senators asking questions about how government agencies spoof cell towers to surveil people.

"Recent reports reveal that multiple government agencies - including the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency - are using planes equipped with International Mobile Subscriber Identity catching surveillance devices, also known as ‘dirtboxes,' to secretly collect data from Americans' cell phones. Dirtboxes act like cell phone towers, intercepting all nearby phone signals - including those in homes - to collect electronic information that can be used to identify the location and owner of each phone." [Email to Pocket]

2. A piece of my new novel, as created by the Fiction Generator.

"Riku Seven, even if no one person or organization made up that establishment.
You’ve heard of Riku. Riku controls everything. Emperors, ancient
conspiracies, gods, absurdly powerful student councils. Riku all under Riku’s
control. Riku can overlap with the man was kept Riku down and the man
was stuck Riku to the man."

3. Robo-fish help test evolutionary hypotheses.

"Computer simulations allow researchers to build huge populations of model organisms to which selection can be applied, but are not limited by the laws of physics. The behavior we were interested in here, which involves composite, flexible solids of varying stiffnesses bending in fluids, is difficult to accurately simulate with a computer; however, the number of generations that we wanted to be able to run to perform an evolutionary experiment would make building enough robots difficult. Rather than choose one method and be slave to its flaws, we did both: we created a physical simulation in our labat Vassar and collaborated with two groups at Lafayette College to develop a computer simulation of the same system. If both of these simulations came up with similar results, there is stronger evidence that the results were not simply due to flaws in simulation." [Email to Pocket]

4. Margaret Hamilton, lead software engineer, Project Apollo.

"It had long been tradition that operating calculating machines was 'women’s work'; it was thought to be just keypunching, like typing. Women programmed and operated the punchcard machines to produce calculations for the Manhattan Project. Despite the tendency of the project physicists to minimize their contribution, this was demanding work, much more than just moving cards from slot to slot — they were usually given requirements from the tech people, but often designed the approach and set up the calculations themselves." [Email to Pocket]

5. Huh. Peak Trade.

"As a result, the notion of 'peak trade' is being taken increasingly seriously. Cristina Constantinescu and Michele Ruta of the International Monetary Fund and Aaditya Mattoo of the World Bank argue that the slowdown in trade relative to GDP reflects the end of a rapid evolution of supply chains that yielded big gains in productivity. This innovation was made possible by the removal of trade barriers that followed the completion of the Uruguay Round in 1994 and the creation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), plus the integration into the world economy of China and the former Soviet bloc. In the absence of further trade deals or more big countries opening up, the evolution has slowed, causing a lasting slowdown in trade." [Email to Pocket]

You will have noticed a couple of additions to the newsletter. I am giving you some teaser text in the subject (thanks Ann F. for the suggestion) and also added an easy way to Pocket stories (thanks Jenna W. for that suggestion). Both are provisional, but I expect they'll become permanent changes. 
 

Today's 1957 American English Language Tip

coup. Coup means a blow, a stroke, & in English now usually a successful one. Coup d'état, a sudden & decisive stroke of state policy, spec. a violent or illegal change in government. Coup de grâce, a blow by which one mortally hurt or condemned is put out of his misery.

The Credits:  1. tester.senate.gov 2. fictiongenerator.com 3. robohub.com / @sabinehauert 4. medium.com / @justkelly_ok 5. economist.com

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