Free for ALL Friday!
It's Free for All Friday!
It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.
This week I have 8 articles for you. I’m trying something different: the world feels heavy right now, so I’m leading with the interesting but less-heavy stuff. I’ve put the others at the end so you can decide whether you have the bandwidth.
They Came to Spy on America. They Stayed to Coach Little League.
In the wake of the Cold War, some Soviet bloc spies decided their fake American lives weren’t so bad
Like other Warsaw Pact services, Czech intelligence was ultimately subordinate to Moscow. But the Czechs were considered particularly adept antagonists.
Their spy agencies hewed closely to the KGB, and their intelligence officers were tough to recruit... Indeed, Prague had notched notable victories against U.S. intelligence over the years.
In 1965, it sent two deep-cover operatives, Karel and Hana Koercher, to the U.S. to steep themselves in American culture. In 1972, Karel Koercher successfully found work as a CIA contractor — the only known instance of a foreign deep-cover spy successfully burrowing into the agency.
Working with the building’s landlord, the FBI placed an undercover counterintelligence agent in a rental unit neighboring the Czech spy’s own flat.
For over a year, this FBI agent lived under a fake name, with a fake job and a fake life story, and befriended his neighbor, the deep-cover spy. The two men, both in their 30s, would ride bikes around San Francisco together and go out for beers.
“We were all over that case,” said David Major, a former senior FBI counterintelligence agent. “Absolutely all over it.”
Link: Politico (Multiple reporters)
Why the Global Elite Gave Up on Spelling and Grammar
From Epstein’s associates to Jack Dorsey to David Ellison, the rich and powerful share a seeming disregard for proper English
Jack Dorsey’s memo last month laying off nearly half of Block’s staff was almost entirely in lowercase.
Paramount Skydance Chief David Ellison addressed Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav as “Daivd” over text last year while trying to strike a deal.
The famous hack at Sony Pictures revealed executives sending messages like “WE ALL HAVE TO SIT DOWNTTO TALK ABOUT TH NEXT DRAYFT.”
Then there are the Epstein files, which are riddled with egregious misspellings and lackluster punctuation by not just convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a college dropout, but also his Ivy League connections and wealthy friends...
Disregarding spelling and grammar in a written conversation can be a power move or a sign of friendliness, or perhaps both at the same time, said Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University.
Link: Wall Street Journal (Multiple reporters)
Trump Is Obsessed With These $145 Shoes—and Won’t Let Anyone Leave Without a Pair
The president has started doling out dress shoes to friends and advisers: ‘All the boys have them’
The hottest and most exclusive MAGA status symbol is a pair of leather oxfords. President Trump’s got you.
Trump has been gifting footwear to agency heads, lawmakers, White House advisers and VIPs.
“Did you get the shoes?” he asks at cabinet meetings. Some people have laced up in the Oval Office. During a lunch meeting in January, Trump suddenly pivoted to his “incredible” new shoes and gave Tucker Carlson a pair of brown wingtips.
“All the boys have them,” said a female White House official. Another joked, “It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them.” The shoe-salesman-in-chief is paying attention.
Trump has fallen in love with Florsheim, the American brand that’s been pairing comfort and style for more than a century. They’re also affordable: many cost $145...
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have some. So do Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung, deputy chief of staff James Blair and speechwriter Ross Worthington. Fox News personality Sean Hannity and Sen. Lindsey Graham each have a pair.
Link: Wall Street Journal (Alex Leary)
Who’s a Better Writer: A.I. or Humans? Take Our Quiz.
Artificial intelligence is already being used to write romance novels, academic papers and software applications. But how does A.I. stack up against some of the world’s best human writers?
Skeptics have argued that A.I. can never be truly creative, because it lacks the kind of worldly experiences humans have. But several recent studies have suggested that, in blind tests, many readers prefer A.I.-generated writing to human-authored works.
In this quiz, you’ll read five pairs of writing samples, representing a range of styles and genres. We asked A.I. to choose an existing piece of strong writing and then craft its own version using its own voice. For each pair, choose the sample you like better.
Passage 1: The boy asked his grandfather why the old church had no roof. The old man said weather and time and indifference. The boy asked if someone could fix it. The grandfather said yes. But no one would. Things were built and things fell down and mostly people just stepped over the rubble on their way to somewhere else.
Passage 2: It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be.
(You have to click through on this one if you’re interested to take the quiz.)
Link: New York Times (Multiple reporters)
MrBeast Is Getting Into Financial Services. Parents Should Pay Attention.
Beast Industries has acquired a banklike app for young people and could eventually offer a variety of financial services, including crypto
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, has 469 million YouTube subscribers and became famous giving away giant piles of money. Now he’s asking his followers—many of them teenagers—to entrust him with theirs. With the acquisition of Step, a financial app for young people, MrBeast has essentially become a banker. The app offers spending, savings and investment accounts. Those investing accounts are where teenagers could run into trouble: Beast Industries received a $200 million investment from a cryptocurrency platform, and the company’s vision includes introducing crypto trading to minors.
Link: New York Times (Tara Siegel Bernard, Ron Lieber)
Also …
Read Leaked Iran Terror Report Details That Trump Didn’t Want You to See - The White House suppressed an FBI/DHS intelligence report warning that Iran could launch assassination and bombing attacks on U.S. soil in retaliation for Trump’s war. The report details methods (firearms, stabbings, poisonings) and warns that “graphic imagery” from civilian casualties could mobilize extremists. After public backlash, the administration relented and plans to release it this week. Link: Daily Mail (Multiple reporters)
I Am Not, by Temperament, a Gambling Man - A Mormon dad accepted The Atlantic’s offer to stake him $10,000 to gamble on the NFL season for a reported story. What started as journalism became addiction: hiding in pantries to place bets, missing family events, staying up past midnight scrolling apps. He lost $9,891 and filed a gambling self-exclusion form. An important read on how normalized sports betting destroys lives. Link: The Atlantic (McKay Coppins)
Rosanna Arquette: ‘I Paid a Price for Saying No to Harvey Weinstein’ - The Desperately Seeking Susan actress recounts Weinstein’s assault attempt in the early 1990s and 20 years of career retaliation. She was denied profit participation in Pulp Fiction while everyone else got paid. She discusses the Epstein women (”I knew Virginia. I don’t think she killed herself”) and reflects on fame, motherhood, and surviving Hollywood. Link: The Times (Melissa Denes)
Wow! That AI vs human writing article was so fun! I ended up choosing half AI and half human. Very interesting, Bill - thanks for sharing!
On a similar note, what the heck about the elite eschewing proper grammar!?!? I'd never intentionally choose misspellings! That's so strange to me!
Changing $10K into $110 is fairly typical of gamblers, investors and even government. The returns are abysmal at best. The money game is rigged so that 20% take from the other 80% and of that 20% who win, only a few of them make the really big bucks. It can be no other way.