Surveillance or Security in the NSA Report

December 30, 2013

Much commentary has already been generated by the report from the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies – widely referred to as “The NSA Report” – especially its recommendation that the NSA discontinue the controversial Section 215 program of collecting telephony metadata. We thought it worth pointing out that Susan Landau’s authoritative book on the subject, Surveillance or Security?, is cited in a footnote in the report at page 192, during a discussion of cryptography standards.

The Federal Reserve at 100

December 23, 2013

Today the Fed turns 100. On this day in 1913 President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act that created the U.S. central banking system. To mark its centennial, here is an excerpt from Inside the Fed in which Stephen Axilrod reflects on the institution’s image and credibility over the years:

These Drones Have a Mind of Their Own

December 10, 2013

David Gunkel, Professor in the Department of Communications at Northern Illinois University and author of The Machine Question, continues the discussion of Amazon’s plan for drone delivery by exploring the ethical questions it raises, and more. The following are comments from Dr. Gunkel:

Forecast: Sunny with Heavy Robot Smog

December 9, 2013

At the beginning of December, Amazon unveiled its plan to use delivery drones—called “Octocopters”—to fly packages to customers’ doorsteps. We asked Illah Nourbakhsh, Professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon and author of Robot Futures, to give us his perspective on this controversial proposal. He sent these thoughts:

Intervention Series I

December 3, 2013

Over the next few months we will be featuring selected works from Semiotext(e)’s Intervention Series. According to Semiotext(e), the Intervention Series “offers polemical texts by intellectual agitators. Short, engaged, and highly focused manifestos, essays, and critiques, these palm-sized salvos address a variety of political and cultural topics but share a passion for provocation, and allow for more immediate excursions in Semiotext(e)’s ongoing mission of intellectual activism”. The first post will feature the infamous The Coming Insurrection authored by The Invisible Committee.

FOMC

November 20, 2013

Today, the Federal Open Market Committee released the minutes from their last meeting. This monthly event is watched closely by many different people—ranging from Wall Street, Central Banks across the globe, and the Audit the Fed movement. For this occasion, Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, author of Deliberating American Monetary Policy explains that studying  the minutes of the FOMC is important, but to get a full understanding we must study the complete transcripts of the meeting.

Ten Minutes with Hilton Root

November 18, 2013

Here’s ten minutes with Hilton Root, author of Dynamics Among Nations.

Schizo-Culture Conference Anniversary

Associate Acquisitions Editor Marc Lowenthal guest blogs today to mark the anniversary of the “Schizo-Culture” conference that was held at Columbia University in 1975: