Links 11/6/15

Politics: 

Edward Snowden with an op-ed for the NY Times in the wake of the USA Freedom Act: 

Privately, there were moments when I worried that we might have put our privileged lives at risk for nothing — that the public would react with indifference, or practiced cynicism, to the revelations.

Never have I been so grateful to have been so wrong.

Two years on, the difference is profound. In a single month, the N.S.A.’s invasive call-tracking program was declared unlawful by the courts and disowned by Congress. After a White House-appointed oversight board investigation found that this program had not stopped a single terrorist attack, even the president who once defended its propriety and criticized its disclosure has now ordered it terminated.

This is the power of an informed public. 

New York Times: Edward Snowden: The World Says No to Surveillance, June 4, 2015

The New York Times with a captivating report on a Russian "troll agency" which engages in "highly coordinated disinformation campaign[s]".

The NDAA incentivizes commercial innovation by removing barriers to new entrants into the defense market. By adopting commercial buying practices, the bill makes it easier for non-traditional firms to do business with the Pentagon. The bill ensures businesses are not forced to cede intellectual property developed at their own expense to the government. Rapid acquisition authorities are expanded to cut through red tape and better support U.S. military operations around the world and address cybersecurity concerns. 

Wired: Sen. McCain: How to Get Silicon Valley to Help the Pentagon, June 10, 2015

Foreign Policy with some theories on why advances in technology has not delivered more democracy.

Vox EU with an analysis on the effectiveness of migration policy that aim to attract highly skilled migrants. 

Norway will divest part of its massive sovereign wealth fund from fossil fuels.

An analysis on the outcome of the recent Turkish elections, in which President Erdoğan failed to get the absolute majority he would have required to make sweeping changes to the Turkish constitution and his own executive powers. 

On Greece.

Pop Culture: 

Ursula K. Le Guin's 2014 acceptance speech when she was awarded the National Book Foundation’s medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

51 TV writers on the favourite thing they've ever written. 

Bros Watch PLL Too interview Troian Bellisario. Also Pretty Little Liars is pretty much the best show currently on TV (in addition to Orphan Black), just saying, and accomplishing astounding things in its sixth season. 

Sarah Waters on writing The Paying Guests.