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  The Surveillance State You No Longer See The most effective surveillance state may not be one with a government camera mounted on every street corner. It may be one in which surveillance has become so thoroughly woven into ordinary life that we no longer recognize it as surveillance. You wake up carrying a phone that generates records about where it connects to the cellular network. You drive a modern automobile filled with computers and communications systems. You go to work, where employers maintain records about employees. You buy something with a credit card and create another transaction record. You deposit money at a bank. You order something online. You send an email. You search the Internet. You walk into a store covered by security cameras. Individually, each system can have a perfectly reasonable purpose. Together, they create something historically extraordinary: a society in which enormous portions of a person's life leave permanent or semi-permanent records in comput...

Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The Chemistry of Cat-Attracting Molecules Why Catnip Is Only the Beginning Most cat owners are familiar with the remarkable reaction some cats have to catnip. A cat may sniff the plant intensely, lick or chew it, rub its face against it, roll on the floor, and become unusually playful. The chemistry behind this behavior is much more complicated than simply "cats like catnip." Scientific research has demonstrated that domestic cats can respond to several different plants, including catnip (Nepeta cataria), silver vine (Actinidia polygama), valerian (Valeriana officinalis), and Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica). Even more interesting, cats do not necessarily respond to all of these plants equally. A cat that completely ignores catnip may respond strongly to silver vine or Tatarian honeysuckle. The explanation lies partly in the fascinating chemistry of volatile plant compounds known as iridoi...