Kickoff For April 29, 2019
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.
If you haven’t already done so, feel free to chime in on the future format of The Monday Kickoff. And, yes, I do listen to what the readers of this space have to say!
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Online Life
Free certificate authorities and the rise of the encrypted web, wherein we learn about the importance of securing websites with certificates, and how one of the most popular free certificate issuers works.
Digital guide to low tech, wherein designer Gauthier Roussilhe explains what he did to convert his website to something with a smaller digital ecological footprint.
Here are the data brokers quietly buying and selling your personal information, wherein we’re introduced to some of the companiesthat buy loads of our personal information, what they do with it, and what we can try to do to fight back.
Travel
A Three-Day Expedition To Walk Across Paris Entirely Underground, wherein we’re taken on a strange and fascinating journey under the City Of Lights, and get a feel for the strange sights and unexpected cameraderie beneath the city’s streets.
Where Not to Travel in 2019, or Ever, wherein Kate Harris explains why it’s not a good idea to take adventure travel to extremes and visit places that don’t want outsiders stepping into them.
Europe, the Very, Very Long Way, wherein Adam Weymouth recounts his long, arduous, and incredibly fulfilling trip from England to Turkey, all on foot.
Politics and Government
African countries should rethink how they use e-government platforms, wherein we learn that a number of countries on the continent are embracing digital government servics, but might not be using then as well as they could or should. There are lessons for governments elsewhere, too.
Among the Gilets Jaunes, wherein Jeremy Harding takes a close look at the French protest movement, its unlikely success, and where that success is taking those who don the yellow vest to agitate.
Geopolitics for the Left, wherein we learn that when it comes to foreign policy, the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. aren’t all that different, and really never have been.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.