In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.
1) The Return Of The Anonymous Internet. Social networks put identity at the center of our online lives. Is it too late to turn back?
2) How Edward Snowden went from loyal NSA contractor to whistleblower
"He grew up under the giant shadow of one government agency in particular. From his mother's front door, it takes 15 minutes to drive there. Half-hidden by trees is a big, green, cube-shaped building. An entrance sign off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway reads: "NSA next right. Employees only." The Puzzle Palace employs 40,000 people. It is the largest hirer of mathematicians in the US.
For Snowden, the likelihood of joining was slim. In his early 20s, his focus was on computers. To him, the internet was "the most important invention in all human history". He chatted online to people "with all sorts of views I would never have encountered on my own". He wasn't only a nerd: he kept fit, practiced kung fu and, according to one entry on Ars, "dated Asian girls".
The 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq prompted Snowden to think seriously about a career in the military. "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression," he has said."
3) Narrative.ly's a platform devoted to untold human stories, have put together a collection of unsolved mysteries this week. (via Dan from Now I Know, another really great email newsletter)
"At scenes like this, for so long my place had always been among the reporters, asking the questions, gathering facts and taking down quotes before rushing off to make deadline. Now I stood on the other side of the podium watching the journalists scribble notes as we pleaded for the killer to come forward. This time there would be no moving on to the next story. I wouldn’t write about this for the next day’s paper. I would live it for years to come, because grief has no deadline."
4) The Olympics start tonight!! Here's the full schedule. Also, how to watch the Olympics if you're a cord cutter. I'm using an digital antenna, this is the one I have.
A GIF Guide to Figure Skaters' Jumps at the Olympics
5) Fashion and/or sex. A primer in the history of looking the part.
"Perhaps the pants worn by Barbara Stanwyck or Rita Hayworths’s shoulder pads were never intended to lure Fred MacMurray or Glenn Ford, but to bewitch other women with their ballsy, take-charge drag. After World War II came the baby boom, when all the GIs got home and down to bedroom business, and it was no coincidence that fashion suddenly emphasized the heroic breast, with Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren, and Diana Dors starring as Venus. Yeah, the human body has its own fashion trends. Remember curvy supermodels? If you’re under 30 you might not recall the era of pre-interchangeable fashion models. Designers, apparently, want all the applause at the end of the show. Still, sex always seems to be trying to make a comeback in fashion, but often under new guises."
Bonus: Motorbike Girl Gangs. Photo by Photograph: Hassan Hajjaj/Taymour Grahne Gallery, NY