Leigh Alexander:

No matter what else is happening, suddenly you're thinking about the phone. Don't reach for the phone, you scold yourself automatically, fixing your gaze with effort on the tear-filled eyes of the person who is telling you something important about their life. And then you feel deservedly awful about yourself. What on earth could be happening in your phone that is more important than this? Something must be wrong with you.

David Kilcillen:

People don't get pushed into rebellion by their ideology. They get pulled in by their social networks.

Philippe Verduyn et al:

Passive Facebook usage undermines affective well-being.

Simon Kuper:

One per centers today announce themselves not by their clothes or accents but by their networks. People pull out their smartphones over dinner not just because they are addicted, bored or keen to show their busyness but because the phone is the physical manifestation of their networks.

Gemalto:

Our network architecture is designed like a cross between an onion and an orange.

Nicholas Weaver:

The Internet is supposed to lose packets.

Tim Wu:

It has been a tough year for what once passed as conventional wisdom.

Scott Atran:

If you want to find out who's going to fight and die, if you want to break up a particular terrorist cell, find out what they're eating and how they dress. Plots never occur in mosques: you have to be quiet in a mosque. They occur in fast food places, soccer fields, picnics and barbeques.

AQ:

Underwear should be the normal type that people wear, not anything that shows you're a fundamentalist.

Jonathan Mahler:

How could different people see the same article of clothing so differently?