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A weekly circular of writing worthy of attention. 
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Journal 203
 
A photograph of Bagheria Station, in Sicily

Bagheria Station, Sicily by Conca D'Oro

This week — allegations of infiltration at Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg's notebook, the source material for the hit film Hustlers, and Italy's malaise.

If you only read one thing — The New Yorker on the oldest person who ever lived is worth the time.

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Was Jeanne Calment the Oldest Person Who Ever Lived—or a Fraud? | The New Yorker | Life

Jeanne Calment was 122 years of age when she died in France in 1997, and the oldest person in the world. It was only some years after her death that people started to question whether 1875 was in fact the year of her birth, and suggesting that the woman who claimed to be Jeanne Calment was in fact her daughter Yvonne. This is a fascinating story of gerontology (including such alarming nuggets as the the Gompertz law which states that "the mortality rate for adult humans roughly doubles with every additional eight years of age") and social history.

bit.ly/ny-calment

How Saudi Arabia Infiltrated Twitter | Buzzfeed News | Politics

The extraordinary allegations presented in this story suggest that two Twitter employees used privileged access to internal systems to identify private user information and share it with the Saudi state.

bit.ly/buzzfeed-twitter

A Search for the Source of Italy's Malaise | Der Spiegel | Society

A look at Italy, where research suggests inhabitants have a lower degree of satisfaction with the status quo than their peers across a broad range of opinions and indicators, from antipathy for membership of the EU, concerns about loneliness and fear of unemployment to a declining birth rate, and an increasing number of academics leaving the country.

bit.ly/spiegel-italy

Inside Mark Zuckerberg's Lost Notebook | Wired | Business

An author writing a book on Facebook (Facebook: The Inside Story) gets access to a 17-page section of Mark Zuckerberg's early notebooks, entitled “Book of Change.”

bit.ly/wired-change

The Hustlers at Scores | The Cut | Life

This 2015 story of dancers at a New York strip club conning customers has been turned into a hit 2019 film starring Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu.

bit.ly/cut-hustlers

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