A stunning archaeological find is not only providing a window into a 3,500 year old society, but also challenging founding principles underpinning our views of how Western civilisation developed.
The author describes his “sordid double life” in Hackmud, a new online multiplayer game set in a dystopian future. The game itself is inaccessible in that you play the role of an AI, it is text based and you can only play by coding scripts, and yet the piece draws you in, painting a vivid picture of a lawless digital outpost, where no one is to be trusted, and everyone is on the make.
A long look at the infamous online marketplace for illegal goods, starting with a DEA raid on a grandpa in Utah who had just taken receipt of $27,000 of cocaine. http://www.bit.ly/wired-silkroad
An archival interview of John le Carré covers his life, writing career and the world of spycraft he depicts in his novels.
The ‘Mystery of the Hollywood Head’ was one of the first cases where US law enforcement tested a radical new interrogation technique, first developed in the military.
A gripping read on a devastating global cyber attack that affected millions around the world and nearly wiped out the shipping giant Maersk’s entire IT operations. They survived only due to an accident of fate, and the virus went on to cause an estimated $10bn of damage worldwide.
Russian national Maria Butina has recently been indicted on conspiracy charges in the US. She appears to have spent years cultivating contacts amongst Republican lawmakers, particularly focused around the issue of gun rights.
The story of the much-feted healthcare startup where things went very sour. http://bit.ly/wired-theranos
Though it is currently the 7th most visited site in the world (and 4th in the US), it’s easy to underestimate the sheer scale of Reddit, the self-styled “front page of the internet”. That scale, and its anarchic traits, have made it the front line in figuring out what is acceptable online behaviour. This insightful and often darkly funny piece meets the people trying to draw the lines.
An assessment of the Trump administration’s assault on the Justice department, “the least tyrant-proof part of the government”, by a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution.