“A computer on every desk and in every home”

—Bill Gates

Scene: This really happened. It’s the early 1920s, and Harry Houdini is the world’s most celebrated magician. Right now, he’s sitting behind a closed curtain, having just escaped from one of his signature magical props, the Chinese Water Torture Cell. Moments ago, onstage before a live audience, his feet were locked into stocks fixed into a restraint brace, and he was hoisted upside-down, suspended in midair by his ankles. The brace fits on top of the Torture Cell proper, which is a sinister-looking device, a phone booth-size glass box reinforced with a steel framework and filled with water. 

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