Over the past 48-hours my recreational research project on privacy has exploded after a news site showed great interest in the piece. I've shifted the focus slightly from general privacy to outline the critical impact Snowden's leaks and mass surveillance have had on journalists and on the national voices of dissent, particularly among minorities.

Every day I find a new study publishing results demonstrating the "spiral of silence" which has resulted from the constant fear of being watched. Citizens are demonstrably self-censoring their speech in public, in private, and on social media, and even refraining from entering search phrases into google which they fear might arouse suspicion.

This is textbook Orwell, and I'm proud to bring this important story to my readers. I plan to contextualize the history of the matter with crypto-anarchism, the cypherpunk movement, and the importance of the right to individual privacy, as well as a resource guide to help journalists and other readers take measures to protect their own.

This is actually next on my todo list. I'm uber hyped to get to this, being a big cyberpunk fan.

Wanted some literary "comfort food" to wind down my evenings.

Christopher Hitchens - God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Christopher Hitchens - The Portable Atheist - Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

Jack Huberman - The Quotable Atheist--Ammunition for Non-Believers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....4,203,200_.jpg

Started reading this today. Consciousness is an endlessly fascinating topic and he has already made some very interesting points. It's also quite well written. Curious to see how he will arrive at his ultimate conclusion, which seems to be that qualia basically don't exist.

Just arrived at my door! The 1932 single-edition of Capital and Other Writings By Karl Marx by The Modern Library.

http://i.imgur.com/5aDrjopl.jpg

The 1887 3-volume first English translation of Das Kapital commands quite a price so I was happy to pick up a 1932 collection of its key chapters along with The Manifesto and Marx's Theory of History (as well as an essay by Lenin) for under $6.

http://i.imgur.com/qR1Nb1wl.jpg

The bookshop in San Dimas added a lo-luster Brodart book jacket to protect it as a courtesy.
Looking for a good collection of Chomsky's political philosophy next.

David Foster Wallace - Consider The Lobster (Essay collection)
Christopher Hitchens - Arguably (ridiculously thick book full of essays)
Franka 2 - the Masterpiece (a silly old European comic book. It's kind of for kids, but I'm trying to learn a few things from the subtly artful background illustrations. It's charming stuff.)
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/imag...er_dedraak.jpg

A MARVELOUS wedding gift from a beautiful and brilliant friend in Bristol arrived in the post today! I honestly couldn't think of a more perfect gift for two eccentric and eclectic oddballs!

Behold - a handsome library copy of a first edition hardcover of A Gaelic Lexicon for Finnegans Wake published by The University of California, Berkeley Press in 1967!

The copy we received is missing the dust jacket but the gold foil lettering on the spine is fantastic and the library markings and check out card are still intact adding wonderful character to the piece.

It will be fun to compare the Glossary to the Annotations from my John Hopkins University Press Lexicon as well!

http://i.imgur.com/PdCExgPl.jpg

I mean this in the best possible way, but you're gonna be an awesome old man. You're gonna be like Gandalf.

Thanks, Batty! That means a lot.

And my Jungian archetype walks the line between INTJ and INTP, placing me squarely betwixt Gandalf and Elrond.

That sentence is a nerd work of art.