Kickoff For December 14, 2020
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I’ve found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Ideas
Why Paper Maps Matter in the Digital Age, wherein Meredith Broussard discusses how technochauvanism influences us to believe that digital options are always better, even if there isn’t any evidence to prove it.
After the crisis, will we build economies that don’t cost the planet?, wherein Martin Wright looks at how the world can rebuild economies, post COVID, in more sustainable ways.
How to build a nuclear warning for 10,000 years’ time, wherein Martin Piesing explores the challenges of creating warnings at nuclear waste dump sites, warnings that will literally stand the test of time.
Crime
How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime, wherein we learn how European low enforcement rolled up a number of drug dealing operations by infiltrating the dealers’ supposedly secure communication infrastructure.
A Heist on Time and a Half: Inside The Most Corrupt Police Squad In The Nation, wherein we dip into the every cop’s a criminal file to discover how a squad of Baltimore police officers not only took down drug dealers but also kept some of their product and proceeds for themselves.
The Wildest Insurance Fraud Scheme Texas Has Ever Seen, wherein we learn about how a suspected arson at a regional airport revealed so much more about the shady dealings of a showy and equally shady businessman.
Arts and Literature
How I discovered classical music, wherein Daniel Johnson tells us about how he started listening to classical music as a teenager, and how his love for that kind of music continues to this day.
All Booked Up, wherein Dominic Halton takes a mildly-amusing look at the point (or not) of reading books.
Gordon’s (Still) Alive: Flash Gordon at 40, wherein Alexander Larman looks back at a hokey 1980s SF movies that became an unlikely cult classic.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.