Six Secrets has become The Brief: Spy agencies brief people in power. We brief you. Each week weāll bring you one story that matters, plus a few that donāt!
Your Brief for May 16, 2024: A trip inside a black hole, a Renaissance codebreaker, Google's Project Astra and more!
News
Google's Project Astra
Soon we may all have virtual assistants doing our bidding! Siri and Alexa have never been incredibly useful, but Google is convinced that the next generation of AI bots will take hold. Alphabet, owner of Google, recently unveiled a new AI agent that works in real time to answer questions across video, audio, and text. The new multimodal assistant identifies objects, can tell you where you left something, and can respond to its environment in real time providing insight on what it sees or is asked about. Pretty impressive! Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind and leader of their AI efforts, showed off an early version of Astra this week at the companyās annual conference, Google I/O. Part of a series of plays to showcase a new AI-centric vision for Google and cement the company in the AI race. A flawless demonstration video showed the software identifying a speaker, recognising the Kingās Cross area of London, reviewing code, finding missing glasses and more!
Science
Astronomical Marvels
Did you miss the solar eclipse in April? What about the Northern Lights display that took place last week? If so, donāt worry; NASA has announced that a potentially once in a lifetime astronomical event is just around the corner and it comes in the form of an exploding star!
Expected to take place sometime before September 2024 and visible with the naked eye, the event is known as a nova or nova explosion and occurs approximately once every 80 years or so. Located 3,000 light years from Earth the Corona Borealis, a small constellation in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere, is home to the soon to explode white dwarf star known as T Coronae Borealis.
Itās not possible to predict when any or all nova explosions will take place but William J Cooke, NASAās meteoroid environment program manager, noted there are roughly 10 novas known to recur, meaning they periodically erupt, and T Coronae Borealis is āa prime exampleā of what's called a ārecurrent novaā. Mathematical calculations and records of previous events are used to determine when such a star may next erupt. Stars can also be seen dimming in the lead up to a nova. T Coronae Borealis started dimming back in March 2023 and has not experienced an explosion since 1946! Maybe donāt miss this oneā¦
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Itās 2007 and Iraq is in a state of chaos. Factions of armed insurgents clash with Coalition forces and the USA is busy looking for a quick and clean exit strategy from the war. Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location a short helicopter ride from Baghdad, 32 Year-old Egyptian American CIA officer Joseph Assad finds himself in a military detention center sitting face to face with one of the most powerful terrorists in Iraq. He is in the midst of executing a plan that could potentially bring an end to the terror - an idea so crazy it just might work.
Sat across from him is a man known as Abu Walid, his real name redacted by the CIA, the most senior Sunni insurgent leader in Iraq. A powerful and dangerous man, Walid commands the second largest terrorist group after Al Qaeda and is one of the top ten most wanted terrorists at the time. Not one to be messed with!
So how did Assad end up here? He decided he would try to communicate with Abu Walid and convince him to cease fire. If he could pull off his audacious plan he would have a significant impact on the war and make his mark in the CIA.
Join Joseph Assad himself on this week's podcast selection āTerror On The Lineā and discover what unfolded following his fateful meeting in this recently declassified, never before told story; a True Spies exclusive!
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Film
North By Northwest
What happens when you are being chased by crafty spies? Let's find out! Directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1959, North by Northwest serves up a thrilling cocktail of mistaken identity, espionage, and suspense.
Cary Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, an unsuspecting advertising executive who finds himself mistaken for a government agent, framed for murder, and thrust into a mission across America. Thornhill is being actively hunted by a group of deadly spies, part of a mysterious organization, as he attempts to stop them smuggling government secrets out of the country on a microfilm.
Hold on to your seat as Thornhill navigates a series of heart-pounding scenarios, from narrowly escaping a deadly crop-dusting plane in a deserted corn field to a lethal showdown on the granite faces of Mount Rushmore! The film features a masterful score composed by Bernard Herrmann which beautifully highlights the suspense and tension in the plot. Fun fact, the film was the first ever feature to make use of kinetic typography, an animation technique which mixes motion and text; groundbreaking for the time. North by Northwest is a must watch!
Technology
A Trip Inside A Black Hole
Ever wanted to know what it might be like to venture through a black hole? Well, the wait is overā¦
Through the use of a supercomputer, NASA scientists have released a video of what flying through a black hole could look like; that is if you were to survive of course! Due to the unknown nature of black holes it is currently difficult to predict what itās effects would be on an object, but studies and computing have enabled the scientists to predict what a black holeās impact on light may look like. The team have based the simulationās physics off of calculations from scientific papers of great acclaim . The 4-minute video is not only beautiful and technically stunning, but provides incredible visual insight into very complex physics. Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASAās Goddard Space Flight Center, who created the simulation, described itās two depicted scenarios as: āone where a cameraāa stand-in for a daring astronautājust misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.ā Watch the mesmerizing video here.
Puzzles
A Renaissance Codebreaker
From the Italian Renaissance came an iconic and talented codebreaker who is often referred to as the father of modern cryptography; a man by the name of Giovanni Soro. Stories dictate that there was no code Soro couldnāt break!
Soro lived and worked in Venice in the early 1500s, and in 1506 was employed by what was arguably the first secret service specialised in codebreaking! It was named the Council of Ten. There Soro ran the cryptanalysis operation in secret, helping to decipher messages captured from rival spies and training a new frontier of cryptographers for the Venetian government. A leader in the field, Soro was so effective at cracking the encrypted puzzles that he even brought the best out of his competitors. By 1510 many other courts had developed more sophisticated ciphers just to deal with the threat that was Soro!
His abilities did not go unnoticed and word of his talents spread fast. He was even hired by the Roman Catholic church to break codes they could not. It is reported that Pope Clement VII often sent encrypted messages to Soro to test their impenetrability. How cool is that! Giovanni Soro stood as Veniceās lead cryptanalyst for nearly 40 years and his work remains some of the earliest preserved successful examples of the field.
Ready to tackle a puzzle like the Venetian codebreaking secret service? Puzzle master Jeff Stillman has crafted the crossword āA Case Of Espionageā for you to solve.
How familiar are you with Dionne Warwickās hit song Walk On By? The track was written and composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in 1964 but its story was far from finished. The song has inspired countless iconic artists and passed through generations. Here are a few of our favorites!
In 1964 Aretha Franklin released her soulful rendition of the song; her powerful vocals are sure to give you goosebumps and make the hairs on your neck stand up. A superlative performance and recording, the song features heart melting vocals and harmonies that brilliantly capture the sorrow expressed in the lyrics. The pain in Franklinās tone is palpable.
In 1969 Isaac Hayes released his version as part of the album Hot Buttered Soul. Hayes transformed the song into a cinematic orchestral funk piece that is 12 minutes long. The track made the 2021 Rolling Stone Magazines 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list coming in at No. 312, but it tops our list!
In 1978 ,The Stranglers released their take, a six minute rock song featuring guitar and organ solos. A stark contrast to the previous three! Hugh Cornwallās gritty vocals give off a British punk attitude, a surprising but refreshing interpretation of the solemn lyrics.
In 2023 Doja Cat released her album Scarlet, its lead single titled Paint The Town Red. And what sample repeats through the entire song? None other than Dionne Warwickās Walk On By of course! The song has done staggering numbers, topping the charts in 19 countries including the UK and US. It made history becoming the first female rap song in Spotify history to top both the Global and US Top 50 Charts and it currently has over 1 billion streams!
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