Worth learning!
Month: May 2019
The Atomic-Bomb Guinea Pigs: U.S. Veterans Break the Forced Silence – The Atlantic
After the tests, the soldiers, many of whom were traumatized, were sworn to an oath of secrecy. Breaking it even to talk among themselves was considered treason, punishable by a $10,000 fine and 10 or more years in prison.
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/590299/atomic-soldiers/
In Baltimore and Beyond, a Stolen N.S.A. Tool Wreaks Havoc – The New York Times
Last year, Microsoft, along with Google and Facebook, joined 50 countries in signing on to a similar call by French President Emmanuel Macron — the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace — to end “malicious cyber activities in peacetime.”
Notably absent from the signatories were the world’s most aggressive cyberactors: China, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Russia — and the United States.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/us/nsa-hacking-tool-baltimore.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Soviets Tried So, So Hard to Eliminate the Plague – The Atlantic
“Local authorities would say, ‘It’s eradicated’ or ‘We don’t have an outbreak.’ Because they ignored the outbreak, it would spread to other republics of the Soviet Union,” says Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley, a biodefense researcher now at George Mason University who also coauthored the CNS reports on the Soviet anti-plague system. When the plague broke out on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, for example, Kazakh scientists would try to contact their colleagues across the border, who were kept from telling the truth. But, says Ben Ouagrham-Gormley,“if they were told the colleague was on vacation, most of the time that meant he was out in the field responding to the outbreak.”
The selfish case for saving bees: it’s how to save ourselves | Alison Benjamin | Opinion | The Guardian
These crucial pollinators keep our world alive. Yes, they are under threat – but all is not lost
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/18/saving-bees-save-ourselves-pollinators
Insubordination Is Good for the Workplace – The Atlantic
Workplaces function better, business ethicists point out, when they make room for a certain amount of defiance. “I think you always have to make independent judgments about orders that come down to you,” University of California, Berkeley, psychology professor Charlan Nemeth said in an email. Nemeth, author of the 2018 book In Praise of Troublemakers, added that “people who speak up are often those most loyal to the organization.”
Treadmills Were Meant to Be Atonement Machines | JSTOR Daily
https://daily.jstor.org/treadmills-were-meant-to-be-atonement-machines/
America’s favorite piece of workout equipment was developed as a device for forced labor in British prisons. It was banned as cruel and inhumane by 1900.
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