Far from a highly organized federal investigation, the hunt for DPR begins by resembling a keystone cop’s episode as various individuals from different federal law enforcement agencies (DEA, DHS, FBI, IRS, etc.) jump on the case, buy drugs, arrest low-level dealers and drug buyers, and follow leads in pursuit of the Silk Road kingpin. First, it tracks Ross Ulbricht, a twenty-something libertarian who created the Silk Road, grew it from a cottage website to a multi-million-dollar illegal marketplace and transformed himself from naïve grad school dropout to criminal overlord DPR.Īdditionally, American Kingpin follows the federal investigation, arrest, and conviction of DPR, weaving this thread throughout the entire book. At a deeper level, however, American Kingpin follows two stories. American Kingpin is about the rise and fall of the Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR), the criminal head of the notorious, illicit online marketplace, the Silk Road, where drugs, guns, and even human body parts were available for sale anonymously. American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road doesn’t qualify as a “must read” for all cybersecurity professionals, but it is a very interesting and entertaining book.
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The novel centers on Marcos, a slaughterhouse worker whose life is in shambles. In spite of this, it’s clear that the heads understand what is happening to them pregnant heads must have their limbs removed so that they do not induce their own miscarriages. Called “special meat” or “head”-as in “heads of cattle”-these individuals have their vocal cords removed and are raised outside of mainstream society so that they never learn to speak. Society has stripped certain humans of their rights in Tender Is the Flesh, to such an extent that it is now illegal to even refer to them as human. Tender Is the Flesh is an absolutely riveting read, provided you can stomach the constant dehumanization and gore. It goes without saying that fans of literary fiction and horror will find a lot to love here. The meatpacking industry has shifted to processing human flesh, and most people seem to have gotten used to the new normal by the time the novel opens.īazterrica’s slim book explores what makes us human…and reveals just how easily we can neglect and abandon members of our own species. In the aftermath of the pandemic, society has normalized and subsidized cannibalism. Some people have chosen to go vegan, if only because they can’t stomach the mainstream alternative. Tender Is the Flesh imagines a possible near future in which a zoonotic virus has forced humanity to find protein sources besides animal flesh. Each idea is derived from a set of circumstances and from previously developed ideas to solve a specific problem. One of my favorite characteristics of Code is that nothing comes from a vacuum. Starting with the idea of communication and building upward, Code takes readers through a series of creations and revisions to model major steps in the development of computers and their components. Petzold states in the preface, Code is “a unique journey through the evolution of the digital technologies that define the modern age.” So, how computers work? Yes, but so much more! Code is not special because of its subject but rather because of how it weaves together the many and varied pieces that compose the topic.Ĭode takes its structure from the very object it seeks to explain: a computer. Spencer Farley, who was a member of the Carnac team and is now a member of the Don’t Panic Labs team, shares his thoughts on the book Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold.Īs Mr. These interns were placed into four separate teams, with each team tasked to develop a product based around a specific need. This summer we hosted 23 interns at the Don’t Panic Labs office. With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a heroine for the ages-a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come. I may not be anyone’s idea of the shining hero, but I’m going to make it out of this place alive, and I’m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.Īlthough I’m giving serious consideration to just one. The school itself certainly does.īut the Scholomance isn’t getting what it wants from me. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.Īt least, that’s what the world expects me to do. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that’s crawled out of the drains. I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. The Scholomance, inspired by a real Romanian legend, is not the cosy. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans. This new novel from Naomi Novik might be described as the anti Magic School story. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.Įveryone loves Orion Lake. From the New York Times bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic. More than that, his long-awaited final year in law school promises to deliver a crucial puzzle piece of the Great Plan immigrant: a degree from a prestigious university.īut a year is more than the sum of its parts, and en route to the future, the present must be lived through and even the past must be survived in this “hilarious and heartbreaking” (Adam Smyer, author of Knucklehead) intersection of pre- and post-1994 Rwanda, colonial and post-independence Windhoek, Paris and Brussels in the 70s, Nairobi public schools, and the racially charged streets of Cape Town. Soon he will leave the confines of his family life for the cosmopolitan city of Cape Town, where loyal friends, hormone-saturated parties, adventurous conquests, and race controversies await. One might as well start with Séraphin: playlist-maker, nerd-jock hybrid, self-appointed merchant of cool, Rwandan, stifled and living in Namibia. The most one can do is make some sort of start and then work toward some kind of ending. Nobody ever makes it to the start of a story, not even the people in it. “Meet the future of African literature” ( Mukoma Wa Ngugi, author of Nairobi Heat) with this “gorgeous, wildly funny, and, above all, profoundly moving and humane” (Peter Orner, author of Am I Alone Here) coming-of-age tale following a young man who is forced to flee his homeland of Rwanda and make sense of his reality. |