USA - Leonid Mamchenkov

Citizenfour

It’s been a long while (almost two years in fact), since I posted a movie review. It’s not that I haven’t seen any good movies in this period, but more of the fact that I tend to sound repetitive when I write these. Watch that, this one is awesome, etc.

Last night I’ve watched “Citizenfour“, and I have to say I’m shaken by that documentary. And I’m not a privacy or security freak, and I was somewhat familiar with Edward Snowden’s story. This film, while portraying his personality, is not so much about him, as it is about the state of affairs.

As a non-US citizen, I have very little interest in what the US government is doing. I don’t particularly care if someone is recording my Internet traffic, Google searches, or the phone calls I make. I’m not worried about ending up “on the list”, or anything like that.

But not everyone is like that. I do understand how government surveillance can be used, how data can be analyzed, and how pressure can be applied. And I do share the point of view that the balance of power between the government and the people is way off (and not only in the US), and that we are beyond the point of any meaningful individual resistance. It’s just that I don’t do anything about it, and Edward Snowden did.

For me personally, quite a few things were new in this film. It was interesting to learn about the variety of NSA and CIA programs, the depth of their rich, and the technology that is in place already. Some of it does sound like science fiction future, but is in fact very possible. The stuff about security access in the NSA, drone video feeds, data gathering, analysis and search, with real time notifications, etc – all that was insightful.

The other side to the movie that I found interesting was the whole process that was used to expose these documents. There is in fact no framework as to how such things can be done, what should and shouldn’t be published, how things can be verified, etc. The move to remove his own bias and pass on the responsibility onto the journalists was interesting.

Overall, I think that the more people see this movie, the better. The issues raised are very important and we should know about them. It doesn’t only affect criminals or terrorists or Americans. It affects everyone. In particular everyone who has a phone, or a computer with an Internet connection, or a credit card. After all, there are 1,200,000 people on the US watch lists, and from what I understand, this list is growing fast.

The Secrets of the FBI by Ronald Kessler

“The Secrets of the FBI” is the second audio book by Ronald Kessler that I’ve listened to. I enjoyed it much more than “In the President’s Secret Service“. This one covers the history of the FBI in much more detail, and provides both insider’s perspective and a bird’s eye view of how the FBI was created, evolved and got the where it is now.

One thing that I found very interesting was how much an impact each of the directors had on the development of the FBI, and how different these were. Also, descriptions of technology evolution in the FBI were particularly interesting to me. The state of the computeres by the 9/11 was especially depressing. I nearly couldn’t believe what I was hearing…

Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in law enforcement history, government projects, and special tactical units.

In the President’s Secret Service by Ronald Kessler

Now that I drive plenty on a daily basis, I have a lot of time to listen to audio books. I don’t have the routine or taste worked out yet, so my picks are rather random. One of the first things that got onto my radar was “Inside the President’s Secret Service” by Ronald Kessler.

I do have a fascination with all kinds of special forces and units, so that was a quick pick. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t go into too much detail of the Secret Service training (maybe because it is a Secret Service), but it does cover a bit of history and provides a bit of insight into what kind of a job a Secret Service agent has. The rest of the book is dedicated to the different presidents and their families – how are they in real life, when the cameras aren’t rolling. I don’t know how much of these are actually true, but it was still interesting to listen to and “compare notes”. There were also some funny anecdotes in there.

As far as recommendations go, I wouldn’t suggest this book, unless you are completely out of ideas for anything else. There are better ones.

A Brief History of Beer Gardens

Unlike the ales that constituted all the world’s beer before the middle of the nineteenth century, the lager yeasts discovered in Bavaria at that time required a different type of fermentation. Ales — produced through the addition of top-fermenting yeast — ferment rapidly, at warm temperatures. Lagers, contrarily, depend on a slow, cool fermentation, ideally at temperatures between 45–56 degrees Fahrenheit. And after fermentation is complete, they need to be stored and aged for several months, at even cooler temperatures.

This was an era before refrigeration, however, so Bavarian brewers dug out large underground cellars for stashing the barrels while the beer “lagered.” To ensure fuller protection from the sun, they then scattered gravel over the ground and planted leafy chestnut and linden trees, which, as they grew, would provide ample shade from the sun.

Someone did the math. Shade, gravel, beer — all just off the banks of Munich’s Isar River, which provided an additional source of cooling for the beer. Put some tables and chairs outside, and start the taps. Beer garden culture was born.

Watching the SuperBowl (for the first time ever). …

Watching the SuperBowl (for the first time ever). This is even more boring than golf and soccer. 1 hour 30 minutes into it, 25 minutes of the game time. Nothing spectacular so far. Falling asleep.