Four short links: 30 Aug 2021

CIA Marshall Plan funds, Monty Hall, BBSes, and Root of Proletariat

---

1. CIA received 5% of the $15B Marshall Plan funds. “The CIA used these funds to establish ‘front’ businesses in several European countries that were designed to further U.S. interests in the region.”
2. Monty Hall’s Problem - Even after watching thousands of Monty Hall problems play out, Monty Hall himself (the host of the TV game show “Let’s Make a Deal”) didn’t know the optimal strategy. (As revealed in a letter to Stanford CS professor)
3. Bulletin board systems (BBSes) began when I was 5. The first was in Chicago, started by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess on February 16, 1978. You really should watch Jason Scott’s BBS documentary.
   • 42 years ago, CBBS Chicago, the first online bulletin board system on the Internet was created
   • BBS: The Documentary
4. Proletarii – that is, people whose duty to the state was to ‘bear children’ as they did not have enough property to be classified as assidui, ‘the settled’ or ‘the landowning’. (THE ORIGIN OF EMPIRE by David Potter)

FIN