I criticized Google. It got me fired. That’s how corporate power works. – The Washington Post
For the last fifteen years, I’ve done my antimonopoly writing and research at a think tank in Washington named New America. This last June 27, my group published a statement praising the European Union for fining Google for violating antitrust law. Later that day I was told that Google — which provides substantial support to other programs at New America — said they wanted to sever all ties with the organization. Two days later I was told that the entire team of my Open Markets Program had to leave New America by September 1.

Uncovering Somalia’s forgotten music of the 1970s | Somalia | Al Jazeera
A trove of recordings that survived 'Africa's Dresden' is a window into how music once flourished under a dictatorship.

Brian Aldiss dies aged 92 | The Bookseller
Oh noes — “Extraordinary” science fiction writer Brian Aldiss died on Saturday (19th August) after celebrating his 92nd birthday the previous day.

About SCJS…
As a subset of Sephardic history, crypto-Judaic study relates to the identities, practices, and beliefs of Sephardic people who hid their Jewish origins while publicly practicing Catholicism. Crypto-Jews were found in Spain and Portugal, and their colonial dependencies, including New Spain (present-day Mexico and the American Southwest,) Italy, the Philippines, Macao, Goa, Central America. During the 20th century, a revival of interest in crypto-Judaic history surfaced in the American Southwest, Europe, North Africa, Greece and Turkey.

The state of the brand crackdown on media transparency – Digiday
“What the trend of brands [taking more ownership of media] is about is them being more involved in the whole process, from planning all the way through to execution and measurement,” he said. “In the past, advertisers would have automatically delegated all those tasks to their agencies, whereas now, media is too important as a matter of good business discipline.”