EWK

A Conversation On: Crime Scene Forensics

If only the real world worked like it does on CSI.

THE LAZARUS FILE
by Matthew McGough | The Atlantic | June 2011

In 1986, a young nurse named Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in Los Angeles. Police pinned down no suspects, and the case gradually went cold. It took 23 years—and revolutionary breakthroughs in forensic science­—before LAPD detectives could finally assemble the pieces of the puzzle. When they did, they found themselves facing one of the unlikeliest murder suspects in the city’s history.

BEYOND C.S.I.: THE RISE OF COMPUTATIONAL FORENSICS
by Sargur Srihari | IEEE Spectrum | December 2010

On 6 May 2004, a Portland, Oregon, lawyer named Brandon Mayfield was arrested for his alleged involvement in the terrorist bombings of four commuter trains in Madrid. The attacks killed 191 people and injured 2000 others. But Mayfield had never been to Spain, and his passport at the time was expired. The sole evidence against him was a partial fingerprint found on a plastic bag in a van used by the bombers. The FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System had identified Mayfield as a possible match, and three FBI fingerprint experts as well as an outside analyst confirmed the identification.

A Conversation On: Death Races

There are ultra-endurance events, then there are these two crazy things.

THE DEATH RACE
by Mark Jenkins | Outside | November 2010

It’s June 26, I’m 17 hours into the Death Race, and, all in all, I’m still feeling pretty strong. A barbwire gash on my head has coated one side of my face with blood, but as I told the medic in my best Monty Python falsetto, “It’s a mere flesh wound.” My back no longer feels as if the vertebrae are being crushed, but the pain in my knees is definitely worse. It’s not raining (at the moment), and my one-person pit crew—stalwart wife, Sue—is running alongside me, pushing peach slices into my slack-jawed mouth. I know I can finish this race. What I don’t know is that this is the last time I’ll feel good for a month.

THE IMMORTAL HORIZON
by Leslie Jamison | The Believer | May 2011

On the western edge of Frozen Head State Park, just before dawn, a man in a rust brown trench coat blows a giant conch shell. Runners stir in their tents. They fill their water pouches. They tape their blisters. They eat thousand-calorie breakfasts: Pop-Tarts and candy bars and geriatric energy drinks. Some of them pray. Others ready their fanny packs. The man in the trench coat sits in an ergonomic lawn chair beside a famous yellow gate, holding a cigarette. He calls the two-minute warning.

A Conversation On: Matt Taibbi vs Wall St

Goldman Sachs really pisses Matt Taibbi off. 7 longreads published in Rolling Stone in chronological order. Go.

WALL STREET’S BAILOUT HUSTLE
by Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone | February 2010

Goldman Sachs and other big banks aren’t just pocketing the trillions we gave them to rescue the economy — they’re re-creating the conditions for another crash

LOOTING MAIN STREET
by Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone | March 2010

How the nation’s biggest banks are ripping off American cities with the same predatory deals that brought down Greece

WALL STREET’S NAKED SWINDLE
by Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone | April 2010

A scheme to flood the market with counterfiet stocks helped kill Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers – and the feds have yet to bust the culprits

THE GREAT AMERICAN BUBBLE MACHINE
by Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone | April 2010

From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression – and they’re about to do it again

WHY ISN’T WALL STREET IN JAIL?
by Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone | February 2011

Financial crooks brought down the world’s economy – but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF WALL STREET
by Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone | April 2011

Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?

THE PEOPLE VS. GOLDMAN SACHS
by Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone | May 2011

A Senate Committee has laid out the evidence. Now the Justice Department should bring criminal charges

Did I miss any?

A Conversation On: Anthrax After 9/11

Two profiles, one each on the suspects the FBI thought was the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks post-9/11. I did a lot of head shaking at the ineptitude on display. You will, too.

THE WRONG MAN
by David Freed | The Atlantic | May 2010

In the fall of 2001, a nation reeling from the horror of 9/11 was rocked by a series of deadly anthrax attacks. As the pressure to find a culprit mounted, the FBI, abetted by the media, found one. The wrong one. This is the story of how federal authorities blew the biggest anti-terror investigation of the past decade—and nearly destroyed an innocent man. Here, for the first time, the falsely accused, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, speaks out about his ordeal.

ANTHRAX REDUX: DID THE FEDS NAB THE WRONG GUY?
by Noah Shachtman | Wired | March 2011

But things are not always as clear-cut as they may seem in an FBI presentation. Two years later, sitting in her office overlooking West Baltimore, Fraser-Liggett concedes she has reservations. 

Update: Algorithmic Trading

An update to the Algorithmic Trading conversation.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN MICROSECONDS
by Donald MacKenzie | London Review of Books | May 2011

What goes on in stock markets appears quite different when viewed on different timescales. Look at a whole day’s trading, and market participants can usually tell you a plausible story about how the arrival of news has changed traders’ perceptions of the prospects for a company or the entire economy and pushed share prices up or down. Look at trading activity on a scale of milliseconds, however, and things seem quite different.

A Conversation On: The Kill Team

Two takes on the same story. Not surprising is how each outlet approached this topic.

THE KILL TEAM
by Mark Boal | Rolling Stone | March 2011

Early last year, after six hard months soldiering in Afghanistan, a group of American infantrymen reached a momentous decision: It was finally time to kill a haji.

Among the men of Bravo Company, the notion of killing an Afghan civilian had been the subject of countless conversations, during lunchtime chats and late-night bull sessions. For weeks, they had weighed the ethics of bagging “savages” and debated the probability of getting caught. Some of them agonized over the idea; others were gung-ho from the start. But not long after the New Year, as winter descended on the arid plains of Kandahar Province, they agreed to stop talking and actually pull the trigger.

A BEAST IN THE HEART OF EVERY FIGHTING MAN
by Luke Mogelson | New York Times | April 2011

“Ask them, ‘Do they understand why we shot this dude?’ ” the lieutenant told his interpreter. During their last patrol to Qualaday, soldiers in the platoon had attacked Mullah Allah Dad with rifles and a fragmentation grenade that blew off the lower halves of his legs and badly disfigured his face. The soldiers claimed that Allah Dad was trying to throw a grenade at them. Two days after the killing, however, a company commander attended a council during which the district leader announced that people believed the incident had been staged and that the Americans had planted the grenade in order to justify a murder.

A Conversation On: Donald Trump

And what his net worth might be.

WHAT’S HE REALLY WORTH?
by Timothy O’Brien | New York Times | October 2005

For decades, Donald Trump, America’s most effervescent rich guy, has made his wealth a matter of public discourse. But sometimes his riches are hard to find.

PRESIDENT TRUMP? ‘I’M VERY SERIOUS’
by Sheelah Kolhatkar | Businessweek | April 2011

Donald Trump may or may not run for the White House, but he has already reached his preferred destination: the center of attention.