#james appelbaum

[lemon-drops-art]

Michael (right) wore a tuxedo top and khaki shorts to his brother's funeral. James (left), his "boyfriend", is terminally angry at Michael. His brother was too broke to get a casket any better than that. Michael is a professional brokie. We still love him. James doesn't, though.

[reviewvie]

A Quick Look - Mission: Impossible franchise

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Written by David Koepp & Robert Towne; Directed by Brian De Palma

Strengths: Classic; introduces Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Ving Rhames as Luther

Weaknesses: Effects are dated and a little cheesy

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Written by Robert Towne; Directed by John Woo

Strengths: Not many - Fast & Furious vibes

Weaknesses: Similar to Quantum of Solace for James Bond, the second film is by far the weakest

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci & J.J. Abrams; Directed by J.J. Abrams

Strengths: Grittier, with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a fantastic villain; introduces Simon Pegg as Benji

Weaknesses: Darker tone feels more Michael Bay/military than secret agent

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

Written by Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec; Directed by Brad Bird

Strengths: Best since the original, the franchise finds its new groove

Weaknesses: The story drags on just a little too long, and Luther is absent for most of the movie

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Strengths: Introduces Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, and Luther is back!

Weaknesses: Other than the airplane stunt, not as memorable as Ghost Protocol

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Strengths: The tone and soundtrack feel very Christopher Nolan

Weaknesses: Not as "fun" as previous entries, but pretty flawless as an action movie

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023)

Written by Christopher McQuarrie & Erik Jendresen; Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Strengths: Brings back the fun while raising the stakes

Weaknesses: The "villain" is not really a character, but Esai Morales as Gabriel fills the void as a menacing #2.

Do I need to watch them all before seeing Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning? (spoilers)

No. The first movie introduces Kittridge as IMF (Impossible Mission Force) director, who reappears many movies later as CIA director in Dead Reckoning. It's a nice callback but one that doesn't influence the story much.

The third movie introduces Hunt's wife, Julia, who is slowly removed from the story in subsequent films. By Dead Reckoning, Ilsa has replaced her as Ethan's love interest.

Bare minimum, you can start with Dead Reckoning and still enjoy the story. Otherwise start with Ghost Protocol. If you want to go further, 1 is obviously classic and 3 adds some context. 2 is very skip-able - only watch if you feel the need to see them all.

[uss-edsall]

With the end of the draft in 1973, any integral presence of the [conscientious objector] in the army is no longer a possibility. Even more tellingly, it has become almost incomprehensible to far too many Americans. The military authorities are probably pleased that this is so. While I am sincerely glad that, at present, young men and now women are spared the possibility of involuntary conscription into the military, I feel that this policy is not without its consequences, and its inevitable influence — or lack of influence — on our society. As Binyamin Appelbaum in his recent book The Economists’ Hour has stated, with the ending of the draft in 1973, “War, once an abnormal act of national purpose, has become a regular line of work.” I can’t help but wonder if this voluntary state of affairs is necessarily better for our society, culture, and for the men and women who now neither know nor are fully able to comprehend the meaning of this lost identity.

Duty to Serve, Duty to Conscience: The Story of Two Conscientious Objector Combat Medics during the Vietnam War, by James C. Kearney and William H. Clamurro

[leanstooneside]

Low blow (CREST)

- PM: DID

- MR. HOUSE

- ALEXANDRIA VA

- VIOLATION OF THE FOURTH AMENDMENT

- VIOLATION OF RULE 6E

- COUNSEL

- JURY

- DH: ALLOW

- DH: WAS

- NIGHT

- BREAK

- ISN€™T

- ACRONYM

- BOSTON

- JACOB APPELBAUM

- DH: ONE

- ATTORNEY€™S OFFICE

- PM: TRY€¦ HERE

- 1A

- DANIEL CLARK

- HERE

- FBI

- MORNING

- INFRINGE

- FUTURE

- SCREEN

- SEARCH WARRANT

- PM: AT

- OCCUPATION

- DAVID HOUSE GRAND JURY

- PM: OK€¦ WE€™RE

- ARE

- PM

- PM: IS

- PM: WERE

- PM: WHY

- HAIR

- FIRST AMENDMENT

- PM: WHERE

- AT

- UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

- BUILDS LOGO

- DAVID HOUSE

- LAWYER

- D.C. FIELD OFFICE JAMES FARMER

- QUESTION

- MAN

- HOUSE LEAVES

- STATEMENT

- DATE OF BIRTH

- IDENTIFYING

- EVERYONE

- TIME

- AGENTS

- PRIVACY

- BOSTON UNIVERSITY

- SIDE

- BREAKFAST

- DEBORAH CURTIS: EXHIBIT 1A

- INFORMATION

- ATTORNEYS

- COMPUTER SCIENCE

- YES

- INVOKE] [AUSAS

- CONSULT

- CHIEF OF ANTITERRORISM

- NAME

- GRAND JURY: DOJ COUNTERESPIONAGE SECTION: ATTORNEY PATRICK MURPHY * DOJ COUNTERESPIONAGE SECTION: ATTORNEY DEBORAH CURTIS * EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA: AUSA BOB WIECHERING EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA: AUSA TRACY MCCORMICK EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA: AUSA KAREN DUNN UNSPECIFIED NUMBER

- QUESTIONS

- ATTENTION

- ADDRESS

- CAMBRIDGE

- BW: LET€™S

- FBI AGENT

- JURY ROOM

- PERSON

- WIKILEAKS

- NATIONAL SECURITY UNIT

- HACKERSPACE

- DH: [WRITING] COULD

- PM: ISN€™T

- HOUSE

- PROCEEDINGS

- MATTER

- OXFORD SPA RESTAURANT

- JURY] [PETER KRUPP

- FRONTLINE PBS

- OKAY

- D. MASS PETER KRUPP

- WE€™D

- GRAND JURORS COURT STEGANOGRAPHER DAVID HOUSE

[gettothedancing]

Because I work for a right-of-center publication, that means talking to people all day long who fundamentally disagree with me about politics, and often much else. In some cases, I know that my views are repugnant to the person I’m talking to, and that if they knew what I thought they would openly despise me, maybe call me a bigot. Maybe worse.

But because my job is to report on the Democratic primary, the onus is on me to be generous and empathetic with Democratic voters. I want to know what they think, and why, and it doesn’t matter whether I agree with them. It actually doesn’t matter what I think at all, even if I find some of their views repugnant. That means I have to defer to them, I have to be respectful, I have to be patient.

The thing is, once you begin doing this, even for a little while, you find it’s easy. If you really listen and take people at their word, it’s not that hard to see where they’re coming from, how their experiences and circumstances inform their politics and worldview. Before long, being generous and empathetic toward them comes naturally, even if you still disagree with their politics.

[eintsein]

2021/01/27 🍵 had a pretty good and wholesome day today 😌

woke up at 7ish, cooked an omelette and tried the tea I got from my aunt (a type of green tea)

sketched some of the plants in my backyard and watched the birds play amongst the rocks

continued (and finished) developing part of the website for this student org I’m in

applied to a few more internships

learned ‘merry go round of life’ from howl’s moving castle on the piano

cooked nasu dengaku (miso glazed eggplant) for lunch

started reading ‘the midnight library’ by matt haig

finished a blog post that’s scheduled to be published later today (!!!!!)

went to the mall to buy a couple things for school

also bought some books on sale: 1) ‘the economists’ hour: how the false prophets of free markets fractured our society’ by binyamin appelbaum and 2) ‘aiq; how artificial intelligence works and how we can harness its power for a better world’ by nick polson and james scott

had afternoon tea with my mom

What’s one thing that made you smile today?

[billyburkefanpage]

Zoo cast

[unitedjusticecoalition]

Join me at the 2025 UJC Summit on Friday, May 30, 2025 in NYC! This year’s summit will unite the nation’s top advocates, experts, and changemakers to drive meaningful conversations and impact. 

Experience @unitedjusticecoalition’s powerful panel discussions, networking opportunities, and 40+ nonprofit organizations dedicated to justice reform. 

[livingcorner]

‘Paradise Lost’: How The Apple Became The Forbidden Fruit

Left: Title page of the first edition of Paradise Lost (1667). Right: William Blake, The Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808 (illustration of Milton’s Paradise Lost) Wikipedia hide caption

toggle caption

You're reading: ‘Paradise Lost’: How The Apple Became The Forbidden Fruit

Wikipedia

Left: Title page of the first edition of Paradise Lost (1667). Right: William Blake, The Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808 (illustration of Milton’s Paradise Lost)

Wikipedia

This month marks 350 years since John Milton sold his publisher the copyright of Paradise Lost for the sum of five pounds.

His great work dramatizes the oldest story in the Bible, whose principal characters we know only too well: God, Adam, Eve, Satan in the form of a talking snake — and an apple.

Except, of course, that Genesis never names the apple but simply refers to “the fruit.” To quote from the King James Bible:

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'”

“Fruit” is also the word Milton employs in the poem’s sonorous opening lines:

Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death into the World, and all our woe

Read more: Papergarden

But in the course of his over-10,000-line poem, Milton names the fruit twice, explicitly calling it an apple. So how did the apple become the guilty fruit that brought death into this world and all our woe?

The short and unexpected answer is: a Latin pun.

In order to explain, we have to go all the way back to the fourth century A.D., when Pope Damasus ordered his leading scholar of scripture, Jerome, to translate the Hebrew Bible into Latin. Jerome’s path-breaking, 15-year project, which resulted in the canonical Vulgate, used the Latin spoken by the common man. As it turned out, the Latin words for evil and apple are the same: malus.

In the Hebrew Bible, a generic term, peri, is used for the fruit hanging from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, explains Robert Appelbaum, who discusses the biblical provenance of the apple in his book Aguecheek’s Beef, Belch’s Hiccup, and Other Gastronomic Interjections.

“Peri could be absolutely any fruit,” he says. “Rabbinic commentators variously characterized it as a fig, a pomegranate, a grape, an apricot, a citron, or even wheat. Some commentators even thought of the forbidden fruit as a kind of wine, intoxicating to drink.”

A detail of Michelangelo’s fresco in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel depicting the Fall of Man and expulsion from the Garden of Eden Wikipedia hide caption

toggle caption

Wikipedia

A detail of Michelangelo’s fresco in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel depicting the Fall of Man and expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Wikipedia

When Jerome was translating the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” the word malus snaked in. A brilliant but controversial theologian, Jerome was known for his hot temper, but he obviously also had a rather cool sense of humor.

“Jerome had several options,” says Appelbaum, a professor of English literature at Sweden’s Uppsala University. “But he hit upon the idea of translating peri as malus, which in Latin has two very different meanings. As an adjective, malus means bad or evil. As a noun it seems to mean an apple, in our own sense of the word, coming from the very common tree now known officially as the Malus pumila. So Jerome came up with a very good pun.”

The story doesn’t end there. “To complicate things even more,” says Appelbaum, “the word malus in Jerome’s time, and for a long time after, could refer to any fleshy seed-bearing fruit. A pear was a kind of malus. So was the fig, the peach, and so forth.”

Which explains why Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco features a serpent coiled around a fig tree. But the apple began to dominate Fall artworks in Europe after the German artist Albrecht Dürer’s famous 1504 engraving depicted the First Couple counterpoised beside an apple tree. It became a template for future artists such as Lucas Cranach the Elder, whose luminous Adam and Eve painting is hung with apples that glow like rubies.

Eve giving Adam the forbidden fruit, by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Wikipedia hide caption

toggle caption

Wikipedia

Eve giving Adam the forbidden fruit, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Wikipedia

Milton, then, was only following cultural tradition. But he was a renowned Cambridge intellectual fluent in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, who served as secretary for foreign tongues to Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth. If anyone was aware of the malus pun, it would be him. And yet he chose to run it with it. Why?

Appelbaum says that Milton’s use of the term “apple” was ambiguous. “Even in Milton’s time the word had two meanings: either what was our common apple, or, again, any fleshy seed-bearing fruit. Milton probably had in mind an ambiguously named object with a variety of connotations as well as denotations, most but not all of them associating the idea of the apple with a kind of innocence, though also with a kind of intoxication, since hard apple cider was a common English drink.”

Read more: Feng Shui Tips For Luck And Wealth: 7 Ways To Use Elephant In Your Home Decor

It was only later readers of Milton, says Appelbaum, who thought of “apple” as “apple” and not any seed-bearing fruit. For them, the forbidden fruit became synonymous with the malus pumila. As a widely read canonical work, Paradise Lost was influential in cementing the role of apple in the Fall story.

But whether the forbidden fruit was an apple, fig, peach, pomegranate or something completely different, it is worth revisiting the temptation scene in Book 9 of Paradise Lost, both as an homage to Milton (who composed his masterpiece when he was blind, impoverished and in the doghouse for his regicidal politics) and simply to savor the sublime beauty of the language. Thomas Jefferson loved this poem. With its superfood dietary advice, celebration of the ‘self-help is the best help’ ideal, and presence of a snake-oil salesman, Paradise Lost is a quintessentially American story, although composed more than a century before the United States was founded.

What makes the temptation scene so absorbing and enjoyable is that, although written in archaic English, it is speckled with mundane details that make the reader stop in surprise.

Take, for instance, the serpent’s impeccably timed gustatory seduction. It takes place not at any old time of the day but at lunchtime:

“Mean while the hour of Noon drew on, and wak’d/ An eager appetite.”

What a canny and charmingly human detail. Milton builds on it by lingeringly conjuring the aroma of apples, knowing full well that an “ambrosial smell” can madden an empty stomach to action. The fruit’s “savorie odour,” rhapsodizes the snake, is more pleasing to the senses than the scent of the teats of an ewe or goat dropping with unsuckled milk at evening. Today’s Food Network impresarios, with their overblown praise and frantic similes, couldn’t dream up anything close to that peculiarly sensuous comparison.

It is easy to imagine the scene. Eve, curious, credulous and peckish, gazes longingly at the contraband “Ruddie and Gold” fruit while the unctuous snake-oil salesman murmurs his encouragement. Initially, she hangs back, suspicious of his “overpraising.” But soon she begins to cave: How can a fruit so “Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste,” be evil? Surely it is the opposite, its “sciental sap” must be the source of divine knowledge. The serpent must speak true.

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour

Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck’d, she eat:

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,

That all was lost.

But Eve is insensible to the cosmic disappointment her lunch has caused. Sated and intoxicated as if with wine, she bows low before “O Sovran, vertuous, precious of all Trees,” and hurries forth with “a bough of fairest fruit” to her beloved Adam, that he too might eat and aspire to godhead. Their shared meal, foreshadowed as it is by expulsion and doom, is a moving and poignant tableau of marital bliss.

Meanwhile, the serpent, its mission accomplished, slinks into the gloom. Satan heads eagerly toward a gathering of fellow devils, where he boasts that the Fall of Man has been wrought by something as ridiculous as “an apple.”

Except that it was a fig or a peach or a pear. An ancient Roman punned – and the apple myth was born.

Nina Martyris is a freelance journalist based in Knoxville, Tenn.

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden

source https://livingcorner.com.au/paradise-lost-how-the-apple-became-the-forbidden-fruit/

[geekcavepodcast]

Paramount Adapting “Kill Them All”

Kyle Starks graphic novel Kill Them All has been picked up by Paramount. James Coyne is writing the adaptation. Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec are producing.

Kill Them All finds a betrayed murderess and a former cop teaming up to take down a crime lord. To do so they must battle their way up a 15-story high-rise full of assassins, murderers, gang bosses, drug lords, and office assistants.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.

[reading-writing-revolution]

We have spread the feature stories in this special issue across three parts. In the first, “On the Forces That Pull Us Apart,” our ideas editor, Yoni Appelbaum (the author of our prescient March cover story calling for the president’s impeachment), dissects the exceptional challenges America faces as a unitary construct: He notes that no rich, stable democracy has made the demographic transition we are now experiencing. Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell diagnose the impact of social media on democratic practices and on our cognitive capacity itself. Tara Westover examines the rural-urban divide in the context of our national fracturing, and Jonathan Rauch and Ray La Raja argue that too much democracy is bad for democracy. “The left and the right, the elite and the non-elite, the urban and the rural—however you want to slice it up—they no longer see themselves reflected in the other person,” Tara Westover tells Jeffrey Goldberg. In Part 2, “Appeals to Our Better Nature,” Caitlin Flanagan goes directly at the most divisive and emotional issue of our time—abortion—and argues for mutual empathy; Tom Junod tells us how the legendary Mister Rogers, who was first his profile subject and later his friend, is misunderstood; and Andrew Ferguson asks whether the techniques of marriage counseling can be applied to the cause of national unity. In Part 3, “Reconciliation & Its Alternatives,” we feature Danielle Allen’s dazzling treatise, “The Road From Serfdom,” along with a call from James Mattis to remember and refine the principles of patriotism and national purpose. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the brilliant creator of Hamilton, makes the case for the indispensability of art in a polarized time. And Adam Serwer, one of the great chroniclers of the Trump era, offers a dissent to the idea that we should prize a return to civility, and argues against reconciliation as a substitute for truth-telling.

Fracture, Unity, and the Future of the American Idea - The Atlantic

[luditarebelde]

The exhibition title is taken from a term coined by Korean American artist Nam June Paik who is considered to be the founder of video art. Paik is credited with an early usage (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" in application to telecommunications: "The building of new electronic super highways will become an even huger enterprise. Assuming we connect New York with Los Angeles by means of an electronic telecommunication network that operates in strong transmission ranges, as well as with continental satellites, wave guides, bundled coaxial cable, and later also via laser beam fiber optics: the expenditure would be about the same as for a Moon landing, except that the benefits in term of by-products would be greater”. In the 1970s, Paik imagined a global community of viewers for what he called a Video Common Market which would disseminate videos freely. The Whitechapel Gallery in London presents this major exhibition bringing together over 100 works to show the impact of computer and Internet technologies on artists from 1966 to 2016. Arranged in reverse chronological order, Electronic Superhighway begins with works made at the arrival of the new millennium, and ends with Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T), an iconic, artistic moment that took place in 1966. Key moments in the history of art and the Internet emerge as the exhibition travels back in time. The exhibition runs from 29 January to 15 May 2016 featuring new and rarely seen multimedia works, together with film, painting, sculpture, photography and drawing. The full list of artists included in Electronic Superhighway (2016-1966) are: Jacob Appelbaum / Cory Arcangel / Roy Ascott / Jeremy Bailey / Judith Barry / Wafaa Bilal / Zach Blas / Olaf Breuning / James Bridle / Heath Bunting / Bureau of Inverse / Technology (B.I.T.) / Antoine Catala / Aristarkh Chernyshev / Petra Cortright / Vuk Ćosić / Douglas Coupland / CTG (Computer Technique Group) / Cybernetic Serendipity / Aleksandra Domanović / Constant Dullaart / Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) / Harun Farocki / Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige / Celia Hempton / Camille Henrot / Gary Hill / Ann Hirsch / Nancy Holt and Richard Serra / JODI / Eduardo Kac / Allan Kaprow / Hiroshi Kawano / Mahmoud Khaled / Oliver Laric / Jan Robert Leegte / Lynn Hershman Leeson / Olia Lialina /Tony Longson / Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / Jonas Lund / Jill Magid / Eva and Franco Mattes / Model Court / Vera Molnar / Mouchette (Martine Neddam) / Manfred Mohr / Jayson Musson / Frieder Nake / Joshua Nathanson / Katja Novitskova / Mendi + Keith Obadike / Albert Oehlen / Trevor Paglen / Nam June Paik / Jon Rafman / Evan Roth / Thomas Ruff / Alex Ruthner / Jacolby Satterwhite / Lillian F. Schwartz / Peter Sedgley / Taryn Simon / Frances Stark / Hito Steyerl / Sturtevant / Martine Syms / Thomson and Craighead / Ryan Trecartin / Amalia Ulman / Stan VanDerBeek / Steina and Woody Vasulka / Addie Wagenknecht / Lawrence Weiner / Ulla Wiggen / The Yes Men / Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. This video was created and produced by ARTtouchesART. It displays the work of the artists mentioned above on the track of The Chemical Brothers - 'Asleep from Day' featuring Hope Sandoval. This video is our tribute to the video art scene of the last 50 years.

[unitedjusticecoalition]

Join me at the 2025 UJC Summit on Friday, May 30, 2025 in NYC! This year’s summit will unite the nation’s top advocates, experts, and changemakers to drive meaningful conversations and impact. 

Experience @unitedjusticecoalition’s powerful panel discussions, networking opportunities, and 40+ nonprofit organizations dedicated to justice reform. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#5yrsago If you read Boing Boing, the NSA considers you a target for deep surveillance

The NSA says it only banks the communications of "targeted" individuals. Guess what? If you follow a search-engine link to Boing Boing's articles about Tor and Tails, you've been targeted. Cory Doctorow digs into Xkeyscore and the NSA's deep packet inspection rules.

In a shocking story on the German site Tagesschau (Google translate), Lena Kampf, Jacob Appelbaum and John Goetz report on the rules used by the NSA to decide who is a "target" for surveillance.

Since the start of the Snowden story in 2013, the NSA has stressed that while it may intercept nearly every Internet user's communications, it only "targets" a small fraction of those, whose traffic patterns reveal some basis for suspicion. Targets of NSA surveillance don't have their data flushed from the NSA's databases on a rolling 48-hour or 30-day basis, but are instead retained indefinitely.

The authors of the Tagesschau story have seen the "deep packet inspection" rules used to determine who is considered to be a legitimate target for deep surveillance, and the results are bizarre.

According to the story, the NSA targets anyone who searches for online articles about Tails -- like this one that we published in April, or this article for teens that I wrote in May -- or Tor (The Onion Router, which we've been posted about since 2004). Anyone who is determined to be using Tor is also targeted for long-term surveillance and retention.

Tor and Tails have been part of the mainstream discussion of online security, surveillance and privacy for years. It's nothing short of bizarre to place people under suspicion for searching for these terms.

More importantly, this shows that the NSA uses "targeted surveillance" in a way that beggars common sense. It's a dead certainty that people who heard the NSA's reassurances about "targeting" its surveillance on people who were doing something suspicious didn't understand that the NSA meant  people who'd looked up technical details about systems that are routinely discussed on the front page of every newspaper in the world.

But it's not the first time the NSA has deployed specialized, highly counterintuitive wordsmithing to play games with the public, the law and its oversight. From James Clapper's insistence that he didn't lie to Congress about spying on Americans because he was only intercepting all their data, but not looking at it all; to the internal wordgames on evidence in the original Prism leak in which the NSA claimed to have "direct access" to servers from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, etc, even though this "direct access" was a process by which the FBI would use secret warrants to request information from Internet giants without revealing that the data was destined for the NSA.  

I have known that this story was coming for some time now, having learned about its broad contours under embargo from a trusted source. Since then, I've discussed it in confidence with some of the technical experts who have worked on the full set of Snowden docs, and they were as shocked as I was.

One expert suggested that the NSA's intention here was to separate the sheep from the goats -- to split the entire population of the Internet into "people who have the technical know-how to be private" and "people who don't" and then capture all the communications from the first group.

Another expert said that s/he believed that this leak may come from a second source, not Edward Snowden, as s/he had not seen this in the original Snowden docs; and had seen other revelations that also appeared independent of the Snowden materials. If that's true, it's big news, as Snowden was the first person to ever leak docs from the NSA. The existence of a potential second source means that Snowden may have inspired some of his former colleagues to take a long, hard look at the agency's cavalier attitude to the law and decency.

Update: Bruce Schneier also believes there is a second leaker.

Update 2: Appelbaum and others have posted an excellent English language article expanding on this in Der Erste. -Cory Doctorow

https://boingboing.net/2014/07/03/if-you-read-boing-boing-the-n.html

[pilotseason2020]

LA BREA (ordered to pilot)

When a massive sinkhole mysteriously opens in Los Angeles, it tears a family in half, separating mother and son from father and daughter. When part of the family find themselves in an unexplainable primeval world, alongside a disparate group of strangers, they must work to survive and uncover the mystery of where they are and if there is a way back home. 

Cast (thus far)

Natalie Zea (Justified) as Claire Wolcott, a busy working mom who’s sometimes a little overprotective and just trying to hold it all together. (Feb 26)

Michael Raymond-James (Once Upon a Time) as Gavin Wolcott, Claire’s recently estranged husband. (Feb 20)

Zyra Gorecki (Chicago Fire) as Izzy Wolcott, Claire and Gavin’s daughter. Both character and actress are amputees. (Feb 20)

Caleb Ruminer (Finding Carter) as Josh Wolcott, Claire and Gavin’s son. (Feb 27)

Catherine Dent (The Shield) as Jessica Wolcott, Gavin’s older sister and a high-powered attorney. (Feb 27)

Karina Logue (Tell Me a Story) as Marybeth Hill, a police officer with strong opinions. (Feb 20)

Chiké Okonkwo (Being Mary Jane) as a troubled and suicidal survivor trapped underground. Based on the Pilot Preview, he may be named Ty Coleman. (Hollywood Reporter, Feb 27)

Jag Bal (The Romeo Section) as Scott Hasan, a well-meaning guy who is a survivor in the sinkhole. (Feb 27)

Angel Parker (Runaways) as a renowned geologist who is a leading expert on sinkholes. (Feb 27)

Jon Seda (Chicago P.D.) as Dr. Benjamin Glass, a former Navy Seal who knows how to take charge. (Mar 4)

Veronica St. Clair (Unbelievable) as Riley Glass, Dr. Glass’ daughter and a high achiever. (Feb 27)

Rita Angel Taylor (Sunnyside Up) as Lilly Castillo, Veronica’s much younger sister and Aaron’s other daughter. It is possible a mistake was made in the news release and that she is Benjamin’s other daughter/ Riley’s sister. (Mar 9)

Series Creator: David Appelbaum

Pilot Director: Thor Freudenthal

Producers: Avi Nir, David Appelbaum , Peter Traugott, Rachel Kaplan, Alon Shtruzman

Studios: Universal Television, Keshet Studios

Genre: Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Family

Primetimer Pilot Preview: “recommend”

This show follows in the tradition of NBC family genre shows, like “Heroes”, “Revolution”, and most recently “Manifest.”

[jkottke]

The Case for Impeaching Donald Trump

In the cover story for the March 2019 issue of The Atlantic, Yoni Appelbaum clearly and methodically lays out the case that Congress should begin the impeachment process against Donald Trump.

The oath of office is a president's promise to subordinate his private desires to the public interest, to serve the nation as a whole rather than any faction within it. Trump displays no evidence that he understands these obligations. To the contrary, he has routinely privileged his self-interest above the responsibilities of the presidency. He has failed to disclose or divest himself from his extensive financial interests, instead using the platform of the presidency to promote them. This has encouraged a wide array of actors, domestic and foreign, to seek to influence his decisions by funneling cash to properties such as Mar-a-Lago (the "Winter White House," as Trump has branded it) and his hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. Courts are now considering whether some of those payments violate the Constitution.

More troubling still, Trump has demanded that public officials put their loyalty to him ahead of their duty to the public. On his first full day in office, he ordered his press secretary to lie about the size of his inaugural crowd. He never forgave his first attorney general for failing to shut down investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and ultimately forced his resignation. "I need loyalty. I expect loyalty," Trump told his first FBI director, and then fired him when he refused to pledge it.

Trump has evinced little respect for the rule of law, attempting to have the Department of Justice launch criminal probes into his critics and political adversaries. He has repeatedly attacked both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. His efforts to mislead, impede, and shut down Mueller's investigation have now led the special counsel to consider whether the president obstructed justice.

Appelbaum's article has already swayed the impeachment opinions of James Fallows ("this piece...changed my mind") and Stewart Brand. This short video is a good overview of the piece (which you should read in full anyway):

This, for me, is the critical part of Appelbaum's argument (emphasis mine):

The fight over whether Trump should be removed from office is already raging, and distorting everything it touches. Activists are radicalizing in opposition to a president they regard as dangerous. Within the government, unelected bureaucrats who believe the president is acting unlawfully are disregarding his orders, or working to subvert his agenda. By denying the debate its proper outlet, Congress has succeeded only in intensifying its pressures. And by declining to tackle the question head-on, it has deprived itself of its primary means of reining in the chief executive.

With a newly seated Democratic majority, the House of Representatives can no longer dodge its constitutional duty. It must immediately open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and bring the debate out of the court of public opinion and into Congress, where it belongs.

Reading this, I was struck by a real sadness. What a massive waste of time the Trump presidency has been. America has urgent challenges to address on behalf of all of its citizens and they're just not getting much consideration. Instead, we've given the attention of the country over to a clown and a charlatan who wants nothing more than for everyone to adore and enrich him. Meanwhile, the US government and a populace bewitched by breaking news is stuck in traffic, gawking at this continually unfolding accident. And we somehow can't or won't act to remove him from the most powerful job in the world, this person that not even his supporters would trust to borrow their cars or water their plants while on vacation. What a shame and what a waste.

[vincentdelaplage]

CINÉ CINÉMA #cineserie #cinécinéma MISSION IMPOSSIBLE (Protocole Fantôme) SYNOPSIS Impliquée dans l'attentat terroriste du Kremlin, l'agence Mission Impossible (IMF) est totalement discréditée. Tandis que le président lance l'opération "Protocole Fantôme", Ethan Hunt, privé de ressources et de renfort, doit trouver le moyen de blanchir l'agence et de déjouer toute nouvelle tentative d'attentat. Mais pour compliquer encore la situation, l'agent doit s'engager dans cette mission avec une équipe de fugitifs d'IMF dont il n'a pas bien cerné les motivations… BANDE ANNONCE https://youtu.be/5it-rAnXzTU DETAILS 14 décembre 2011 en salle / 2h 13min / Action, Espionnage, Thriller De Brad Bird Par James D. Bissell, Josh Appelbaum Avec Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg Titre original Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol CRITIQUE Tout commence à Budapest, où l'un des collaborateurs de l'IMF se fait abattre par une tueuse blonde du nom de Moreau (Léa Seydoux). Elle lui a tiré dessus au moment où il s'était laissé distraire par un bip de son téléphone qui lui signalait l'approche d'une tueuse blonde. Ce sera tout au long du film un gag récurrent. Les gadgets sophistiqués qui permettent à Ethan Hunt et à ses camarades de pénétrer dans les espaces les mieux clos, de neutraliser les ennemis les plus coriaces, ont une propension à intervenir à contretemps, à bugger au moment décisif. Après l'assassinat de l'agent Hanaway, il faut extraire Ethan Hunt d'une prison russe où il purge une peine. Le régime alimentaire et sportif de l'administration pénitentiaire russe peut être cité en modèle. A 49 ans, Tom Cruise sort de sa cellule dans une forme éblouissante qui lui permet d'infiltrer, quelques heures après sa libération, les sous-sols du Kremlin. Comme d'habitude, il s'agit d'empêcher un savant fou de faire sauter la planète, tout en surmontant la méfiance spontanée des Russes à l'égard des agents de l'IMF. Comme l'opération au Kremlin s'est terminée par la destruction d'une bonne partie des bâtiments, cette méfiance se fait encore plus vive que d'ordinaire, au point que le président des Etats-Unis désavoue nos héros, désormais condamnés à vivre selon les termes du « protoc https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnl-miStBgv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=