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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Moonwalking with Einstein

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer. For the most part, Joshua is a recognized freelance writer appearing in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Esquire, Slate, Outside, and the New York Times.

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer

Joshua wrote a story regarding the US Memory Championship. He was so moved by the event, he spent the next year training to compete. Therefore this book reveals Joshua’s year long effort to learn mnemonics and memory palaces.

His book certainly conveys how you can sharpen your memory skills based upon techniques used by participants in the competition. Pretty cool insights.

Joshua’s abilities was certainly enhanced by interviewing contestants who befriended him. Above all, the memory palace chapter was a wonderful introduction into learning how you can create deep lasting memories regarding any topic.

At the same time, techniques to memorize complex mathematics was brilliant, yet a technique that I would struggle with in attempting to master. Yet, if there is a will – there is a way.

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Cyberinfrastructure Education Network Ransomware Reading Technology

HBO’s The Perfect Weapon

In 2020 HBO released the documentary The Perfect Weapon based upon the best-selling book by David Sanger a New York Times national security correspondent. The book was a fantastic review of cyber attacks conducted by Russia, China and other countries deemed hostile to the US and the West. Accordingly, this documentary reveals how cyber war began. This is certainly the primary strategy today for nation state attacks. This documentary is also available on Amazon Prime.

Stuxnet, known as the cyber attack “Olympic Games” was an original US/Israel joint cyber attack. The concern was understanding the risk to a nuclear war in the Middle East in supporting Israel’s defense. The Bush Administration chose to invoke a new type of warfare.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: The Early Years

Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941-1960 by Ronald Spector. This is the first in a series by the United States Army’s Center of Military History regarding the Vietnam War. This publication provides a critical appraisal of America’s initial steps across Indochina.

In the early 1950s most Americans could not find Vietnam on a map. Ronald documents how lacking any plan for Indochina would eventually draw America into a generational confrontation.

However, The Early Years clearly provides an understanding of events pushing America towards Indochina prior to World War II.

Churchill’s March 1946 famous “Iron Curtain” speech (Full PDF) at Westminister College in Truman’s home state of Missouri set the stage. On April 24, 1950 NSC memorandum 64 identifies a new US position to contain communism across Indochina.

This US position was further solidified by President Eisenhower in 1953 with NSC 162/2. These efforts document well known mistakes and large policy shifts that resulted in our long war in Vietnam. The lessons certainly remain important to this day.

I can quote many sections of this book at length. Yes, this book is that well written. Stumbling right out of the gate, Truman viewed Indochina in an emerging Cold War confrontation.

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Education

’21 summer reading

My summer reading will certainly be an exciting selection of my favorite authors. How many people count an economist or recognized authors who have recently moved to podcasting to continue telling powerful stories?

I cannot recall anticipating three new releases by my favorite authors (plus Dan Heath’s Upstream) all at once. A short preview of each book is below:

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Cyberinfrastructure Education Globalization Innovation Network Reading Technology

Latest Read: This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends

This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth. Nicole covers cybersecurity and digital espionage for The New York Times. Certainly this is one of the more anticipated books addressing a new cyber arms race. More than ever before, it is imperative to understand how a global market for Zero Day exploits began and today how it is certainly tipping the scales.

This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends The Cyberweapons Arms Race

Quite frankly, Nicole’s reporting will stun readers. This book will also surprise long time IT professionals.

As it seems so often in life, by chance, a ‘stumbling’ idea took hold. Initially a company in 2003 began buying exploits from hackers for as little as $75. Fast forward to today, a good iOS zero day commands over $3 million dollars.

Nicole begins her reporting role at the NYTimes by reviewing secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden and Glen Greenwald.

This of course revealing the illegal spying on American citizens by the Bush Administration. At the same time, this project was tapping phone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Guardian obtained copies via Greenwald who passed a copy to the NYTimes. This proved to be her introduction to the cyber world.

In addition, Nicole retells the hard lessons from Soviet spying (actually from within the US embassy) in Moscow back in the 1950s. This reveals a good baseline to today’s advanced attacks including the resources and dedication necessary to carry them out.

Cyber weapons for Board rooms

Chapter One’s Closet of Secrets is certainly mandatory reading for organizational leaders. It will become very apparent that organizations must reconsider their outdated understanding of information security. One cannot walk away from this book ignoring an often repeated message: your organization has already been hacked, or your organization does not yet realize it has been hacked. Thus, Nicole makes the case in her interviews with hackers that every computer, phone, network, or storage drive has been compromised.

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