By Christopher B. Daly 

It is heartwarming, I suppose, to think that the legacy media created fortunes that were big enough to fight over. Today’s Times brings word of a classic intergenerational brawl among the well-to-do, involving how to spread the wealth created by the Hudson News empire. Who knew that there was so much money to be made selling Vogue and Esquire in airport terminals?

In this case, I’m not actually sure whom to root for. (The news coverage would benefit from an infographic or two, beginning with a family tree.) It is a bench trial in New Jersey Superior Court, so pretty much anything goes. I guess I’ll side with Samantha Perelman, on the grounds that youth must be served. Besides, one of her attorneys is a former college classmate — Paul K. Rowe. Now a super-litigator, Rowe comes by his media credentials honestly: he was an editor of the Harvard Crimson.

By Christopher B. Daly 

Here are two maps that don’t just sit there. Both are interactive, so have a great time with them.

Here’s a gorgeous medieval map from “Future Tense,” via Slate. It shows the North Atlantic as envisioned by Scandinavian navigators who had to venture out there in small wooden boats. No wonder they saw monsters.

Here’s one from the Smithsonian that lets you superimpose a map of New York City from 1836 over one from today (or vice-versa).

By Christopher B. Daly

Although most of the stories about the NSA and the rise of the Surveillance State are individually demoralizing, I guess it is a good thing that there are so many of them. Many thanks to the NYTimes, the Guardian, WaPo, ProPublica, and everyone else who is helping to move the ball down the field.

Some recent coverage and comments:

–The Guardian calls on private engineers to “take back the Internet.” Can that even be done?

—ProPublica and the Times drop the latest bomb from Edward Snowden.

–A physicist serving in the House (how often do you get to type a phrase like that?) proposes a bill to ban the practice.

–Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper turns media critic, telling us that all these revelations are “not news.” (Nothing to see here. Move along, folks.)

Plus, more:

by Christopher B. Daly 

Why do we have to find out what our government is doing from newspapers?

(And while we are thinking about that, let’s give thanks to those papers that are big enough and tough enough and devoted enough to pry these secrets out of the government on behalf of all of us. A tip of the hat to the Post and the Times.)

Here’s the Post’s Thursday story. (Which includes a nice graphics package unpacking the “Black Budget,” which we were never supposed to see.)

Here’s today’s Times story.

Turns out, we spend more than $50 billion a year on spying (some of it illegally aimed at law-abiding American citizens).

By Christopher B. Daly

With the United States government poised on the brink of intervening militarily in the Mideast, this would be a good time (if it’s not too late) to study the history of the region. Too often, we go wading ashore or dropping bombs on countries that we know nothing about. We expect the people in those countries to be just like us, or else they better get ready to become just like us. Of course, they are not just like us, and they have no intention of changing.

One place to start is today’s op-ed by David Brooks, who (heaven help him) at least tries to do some homework before sounding off.

A much better place to go is the history of the region written by David Fromkin (a BU colleague). His 1989 history, A Peace to End All Peace, tells the sad tale of how the Great Powers carved up the Mideast at the end of World War I. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, European diplomats and bureaucrats drew lines in the sand ( actually, they drew lines on maps) and declared the results to be “nations,” even if the people drawing the lines had never been to those places. Ever since, those “nations” have been beset by internal conflicts, such as the one playing out in Syria, because they are made up of unnatural groupings of different peoples, many of whom have ancient hatreds and resentments of people who are supposed to be their countrymen.

If only a single high-ranking member of the George W. Bush administration had read Fromkin’s book, we might never have invaded Iraq. Now, we better hope that someone in the Obama administration has read the history.