Must Reads: Snowden Docs' Digital Bodyguard, Drone Nation and More

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Micah Lee is the digital bodyguard who protects Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and other reporters working on the Snowden documents.

Image: Mashable, Wes Rowe

By Megan Hess2014-06-01 11:30:00 UTC

During the week, we consume words in snackable, tweetable bites. But on the weekends, we have the time to take a dive into the murkier, lengthier depths of the Internet and expand our attention spans beyond 140 characters. We can brew a cup of coffee and lie back with our iPads, laptops, smartphones and Kindles.

Since you're bound to miss a few things during the daily grind, we present to you, in our weekly installation of Mashable Must Reads, a curated list of can't-miss stories from around the web to read and reflect on. (You can find last week's must reads here).

Meet the Man Hired to Make Sure the Snowden Docs Aren't Hacked | Mashable

Last year, Glenn Greenwald found himself the keeper of tens of thousands of top-secret documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. They were documents he wasn't really supposed to have — documents that were making front page news around the world. But Greenwald wasn't really a security person. Enter Micah Lee, who protects the documents from the NSA and foreign spies as a digital bodyguard of sorts.

Micah Lee is the digital bodyguard who protects Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and other reporters working on the Snowden documents.

Image: Mashable, Wes Rowe

Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds | The Daily Beast

After the man identified as the killer in last weekend's UCSB shooting was found to be a misogynist, men's rights activist and author of a 140-page anti-women manifesto, a heated conversation about sexual assault converged around the hashtag #YesAllWomen. Amid the voices, an unexpected one came forward: that of a gaming nerd. Arthur Chu beautifully lays out the problems with entitlement in our culture and how men are taught to treat women like just another video game level to conquer.

Is the Tech Behind Hearing Loss Simulations Accurate Enough? | Mashable

Hearing loss simulators are available online, aiming to portray the experiences of hearing loss for parents, partners and friends of people with hearing impairments (plus the generally curious public). But how accurate are these simulations, and what goes into creating them? Are they even the best way to communicate hearing loss to those who hear normally?

Grayson Clamp, 3, of Charlotte, North Carolina, wears an auditory brain stem implant to hear while supplementing speech with sign language at the Carolina Center for Communicative Disorders Program facility in August 2013.

Image: Sarah D. Davis/Associated Press

Arcadia, a Love Story | Wired

How much does the perfect arcade cost? Everything you love. “This is not where I wanted to end up, just living in an arcade,” says Chris Kooluris, who turned his apartment into a 1980s arcade. His story is a surprisingly emotional one.

The Case for Reparations | The Atlantic

"Progress rests on a shaky foundation, and fault lines are everywhere." 250 years of slavery; 90 years of Jim Crow; 60 years of "separate but equal"; 35 years of racist housing policy. The ever-eloquent Ta-Nehisi Coates writes that until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole. Read it all, start to finish.

Ugly Win Over Azerbaijan Shows USA World Cup Team Has Some Work to Do | Mashable

Azerbaijan was supposed to be an easy practice match for the U.S. Men's National Team before the World Cup's lethal Group G. But what they ended up getting was a battle. Fortunately for the American team, Brazil 2014 doesn't kick off for another two-plus weeks, so there's still time — fleeting as it may be — to get ready.

Casey Proud, president of the San Francisco chapter of the American Outlaws, before the USA versus Azerbaijan soccer match at Candlestick Park on May 27, 2014.

Image: Sam Laird, Mashable

Sacrament | Aeon

"I make my wine into a stained-glass window, by holding it up to the light. I inspect its colour, swirl it around, and dunk my nose in for a deep inhale." Ross Andersen dissects the origins of wine, which is much more than a beverage; it's a mystical, sacred elixir that evokes old religion, even to the most secular among us. Also, "good reading on biodynamics and anthroposophy" isn't something you hear all that often. So cheers to that.

Don't have time to read them all now? In our Readlist below, export this week's must reads to your tablet to save for a time you have no distractions. Simply click the "read later" button alongside each story or click "export" to send the entire list of articles to your preferred device.

Topics: edward snowden, Gadgets, Gaming, glenn greenwald, Health & Fitness, Mashable Must Reads, NSA, soccer, Sports, U.S., US & World, World, world cup