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CIA manual of trickery and deception resurfaces
Noah Shactman's cool Danger Room blog (from Wired) posted recently about the CIA's declassified Lost Magic Manual that has just resurfaced. In 1953, the CIA hired professional magician John Mulholland to adapt his techniques of stealth and misdirection to the craft of espionage. According to the BBC News, "the guide was part of a larger CIA programme, called [w:Project MKULTRA], aimed at countering the Soviet mind-control techniques of the Cold War era." The classified manuals were believed to have been destroyed in 1973, but Intelligence historian H. Keith Melton and retired CIA officer Robert Wallace discovered a copy in 2007 in the CIA Archives. The Boston Globe has a great visual summary of some of Mulholland’s best tricks. Get a copy from isbn.nu. A great addition to any library. In fact a bunch of them already have a copy!
At the height of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency paid $3,000 to renowned magician John Mulholland to write a manual on misdirection, concealment, and stagecraft. All known copies of the document — and a related paper, on conveying hidden signals — were believed to be destroyed in 1973. But recently, the manuals resurfaced, and have now been published as “The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception.” Topics include working a clandestine partner, slipping a pill into the drink of the unsuspecting, and “surreptitious removal of objects by women.”Continue reading
Weeding libraries. Hello, Grisham — So Long, Hemingway?
Hello, Grisham -- So Long, Hemingway? With Shelf Space Prized, Fairfax Libraries Cull Collections. Lisa Rein, Washington Post, January 2, 2007 This is probably the saddest, most telling story about libraries I've read in years. It all is pitched as 'strategic' and 'popular' and 'data-driven' as if it is inevitable and unavoidable, but the real reason is clearly stated in the article: these changes are "driven by a $2 million cut to the budget" and "...circulation, a sign of prestige and a potential bargaining chip for new funding." Once again it looks like libraries have correctly defined a problem and instituted a completely wrong solution :-| There's plenty of literature that says that building collections based solely on popularity doesn't work over the long run, but there are plenty of people (including I guess ALA president Leslie Burger) who, instead of being creative in highlighting their collections, would rather rely on some piece of software to tell them when a book hasn't checked out for 24 months. I also found the bit about "it's not here, but we can get it to you in a week" lame and dishearteningly parallel to the FDLP "shared collections" weeding plans (see for example, Govt Printing Office Draft guidelines for shared regionals (PDF), GODORT/AALL/SLA letter commenting on the draft, and ARL Draft support). I would agree that you don't need 40 shelf feet of books on tulips (unless you're the SF Botanical Garden or Longwood Gardens), but the public interest in much fiction and non-fiction (not to mention government documents) looks like a sine wave, not a long tail. Continue reading
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