[A Pleasurable Headache] always be a chameleon
Nowt but the links this week.
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How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream
Despite going against my better nature and deciding against pursuing journalism as a degree, Seymour Hersh remains one of my all time heroes.
It looks like he will be taking to Substack for the foreseeable future, and his first post/story is an absolute doozy. In the piece, Hersh claims that the Nord Stream explosion in September 2022 was a deliberate act of sabotage by elements of the U.S Navy (with the assistance from the Norwegian armed forces too).
In the piece Hersh alleges that divers from U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Centre planted remote explosives on the pipeline in June of 2022, using the cover of a military exercise in the area. The charges were then remotely detonated months later in September.
The piece is full of details, as well as speculating on motive, using quotes on the apparent ‘disaster’ from officials to bolster the claims.
One detail that stuck out for me when Hersh discusses the Norwegian assistance is this paragraph (emphasis mine):
“In return, the Norwegian government angered liberals and some moderates in its parliament last November by passing the Supplementary Defense Cooperation Agreement (SDCA). Under the new deal, the U.S. legal system would have jurisdiction in certain “agreed areas” in the North over American soldiers accused of crimes off base, as well as over those Norwegian citizens accused or suspected of interfering with the work at the base.“
Amazing.
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Meanwhile, here in Britain…
The Tory PPE corruption scandal is so vast, and so immoral it’s almost impossible to put into words.
— Another Angry Voice (@Angry_Voice) February 8, 2023
This data visualisation from @sophie_e_hill really puts it into perspective.https://t.co/etG1OBevf0
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The State of Social Media (As It Pertains To Writers In Particular)
Chuck Wendig on the current state of social media and how it pertains to forging a career/brand as a writer, especially in terms of traction, followers, etc.
TLDR: It ain’t good.
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I Still Loathe The Concept of “Careers”
https://buttondown.email/charliejane/archive/i-still-loathe-the-concept-of-careers/
If you’re not reading Charlie Jane Anders’ newsletter already I highly recommend it.
“My favorite creators have always been chameleons, reinventing themselves and sweeping you away with their latest off-kilter brainwave. Part of me just wants to make it harder and harder for anybody to sum up quickly who I am and what I do, which I know is a nightmare for marketing purposes.”
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The Case For Digital Minimalism
“In shifting users’ focus away from their phones, products like this herald a change in users’ relationships with themselves and one another: a world in which the quality of everyone’s attention is improved. Indeed, this fantasy recently became reality at a small private high school in Massachusetts, where administrators banned smartphones, instead giving each student a Light Phone. In a video explaining the shift, Buxton School students describe how their initial resistance to the policy gave way to appreciation. Some faculty also highlighted the positive impact not of the Light Phone’s presence, but of the smartphone’s absence. “I see a huge, huge change in anxiety and depression amongst the kids,” said an instructor. “They’re more confident too.”
I love the idea of this, but the Light Phone is still $300 and only available in the U.S. I suppose there’s always the old school style Nokia phones that are making a comeback.
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I’m off to drink my bodyweight in coffee. See you in two!