J.R.McHale : Recommended:

+ [**Spying for the Sake of Spying**](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/anne-applebaum-spying-for-the-sake-of-spying/2013/10/31/170f7556-4250-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html): an Op-Ed in the Washington Post by **Anne Applebaum**, lauded author of “Gulag” and “Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956”:

> “But Bismarck couldn’t tap phones. We can. And that, as far as I can tell, explains why we were doing it. White House spokesman Jay Carney declared this week that the president is anxious to ensure ‘that we are not just collecting information because we can but because we should.’ Yet almost everything publicly known about the NSA to date indicates the opposite: The United States collects information because it can, whether or not it is moral to do so, violates the trust of allies or is a monumental waste of time and money.”

+ [**Senate Committee Votes in Favor of NSA Phone-Records Snooping**](http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/10/phone-snooping-approved/) at **Wired**, and [**Feinstein Releases Fake NSA Reform Bill, Actually Tries To Legalize Illegal NSA Bulk Data Collection**](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131031/12394625090/feinstein-releases-fake-nsa-reform-bill-actually-tries-to-legalize-illegal-nsa-bulk-data-collection.shtml) at **TechDirt**. The original sources: Senator Feinstein’s [**press release**](http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=3aa4ed70-e80b-4c2b-afd6-dc2e5bc75a7b) and her [**draft bill** (pdf)](http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs113th/113fisa_improvements.pdf) which has been approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

+ [**Want To Avoid Defaming Someone Online? Link To Your Sources**](http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/10/want-to-avoid-defaming-someone-online-link-to-your-sources-forbes-cross-post.htm): Law Professor **Eric Goldman** at the **Technology & Marketing Law Blog**. See also, his recent post on California’s new “do-not-track” law: [**How California’s New ‘Do-Not-Track’ Law Will Hurt Consumers**](http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/10/how_californias.htm).

+ [**Tech Companies Are Better Off Targeting Geezers Instead Of Youngsters**](http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-companies-are-better-off-targeting-silver-surfers-than-the-saturated-younger-poorer-market-gartner-2013-10) at **Business Insider**.

+ [**Finally, a Bill to End Patent Trolling; Bipartisan Bill has Most of What Reformers Want—and a Real Chance of Passing**](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/10/its-finally-here-a-bill-to-end-patent-trolling/): at **ArsTechnica**.

####General Interest

+ [**The 50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel**](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/innovations-list/309536/) ranked by a panel of scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers and historians of technology – **The Atlantic** (via [**kottke**](http://kottke.org/13/10/50-greatest-innovations-since-the-wheel)).

+ [**Memo to Workers: The Boss Is Watching; Tracking Technology Shakes Up the Workplace**](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303672404579151440488919138): **The Wall Street Journal**.
+ [**Who Made that Coffee Lid?**](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/magazine/who-made-that-coffee-lid.html?_r=0): **New York Times Magazine**.

+ [**How to Succeed as an Author: Give up on Writing; The Rancid Smell of 21st Century Literary Success**](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115016/publishing-back-so-long-successful-authors-give-writing): **Lionel Shriver** in the **New Republic**.