online archive
5:00PM
FEB 18 2008
The coming world of collaboration
From Re-Public, a special issue on the social web, including an essay on the spatial production of friendship, and "YourSpace is mytime, or, what is the lurking dog going to do – leave a comment?" From TED, Howard Rheingold talks about the coming world of collaboration, participatory media and collective action. How do we form preferences when we do not fully understand complex issues? We fall back on heuristics, and the most powerful of these is to find leaders with whom we feel cultural kinship — and then follow whatever they recommend. Forty years ago, Marylin Bender's The Beautiful People exposed the lives of the emerging Jet Set in all their profligate, trivial — yet gripping — glory. The Nation magazine’s Alaska cruise is The Love Boat for Policy Wonks. From The Weekly Standard, a review of books on the German way of war. From New York, a cover story on why kids lie. Taking Play Seriously: What can science tell us about why kids run and jump? The Smart Set is in praise of makeup (with a nod to Baudelaire). More on Counterknowledge. American? Maybe, but not "United States-ian": Some scholars believe North America is forging a unique culture; they call it "l'americanite". In oil-rich Mideast, shades of the Ivy League (and more). Global U: Andrew Ross questions the motives and assumptions behind the push by American universities to open campuses abroad.
1:00PM
FEB 18 2008
That’s not a monkey on your back
From the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Muriel Morisey (Temple): Flag Desecration, Religion and Patriotism; Laurie C. Kadoch (Vermont): So Help Me God: Reflections on Language, Thought, and the Rules of Evidence Remembered; and an essay on religious home-schools: That's not a monkey on your back, it's a compelling state interest. From the last issue of Paradigm: Journal of the Textbook Colloquium, an article on Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace: Comparative treatments in Soviet and post-Soviet textbooks; and textbook Reds? How East Germans look back on their classroom schoolbooks; coming apart: Americans recall their school history texts since the 1960s; and an essay on economics education as story telling. From Reset, a special issue on the Oriana Phenomenon, a sociological perspective. From TNR, Niall Ferguson and Amartya Sen debate imperial illusions. A review of Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World by Peter Chapman. A review of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel. A review of The Meaning of Sunglasses: A Guide to (Almost) All Things Fashionable by Hadley Freeman. The inaugural issue of Luna Park is now out. A review of The Fattening of America: How the Economy Makes Us Fat, If It Matters, and What to Do About It by Eric Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman.
9:00AM
FEB 18 2008
Take your work life to the next level
From Free Inquiry, can we survive? A look at the changes required to deal effectively with global warming. A review of The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters by Charles Perrow. From Wired, a look at the 14 grand engineering challenges of the 21st century. From Cafe Babel, pornography, defecation, plastination: today's aesthetic creations push disgust to the limits. The Joy of Sex has had a makeover, but what is there possibly left to know? Campus sexperts: Erotic magazines run by students at elite colleges have prospered, so why are they having less sex? Here are five ways to take your work life to the next level—and none of them require another student loan. How Harvard students perceive rednecks: The neural basis for prejudice. A review of Understanding Moore's Law: Four Decades of Innovation. The introduction to Embattled Garrisons: Comparative Base Politics and American Globalism by Kent E. Calder. EJ Dionne on faith and politics after the Religious Right (and more Souled Out by Dionne). Maverick vs. Iceman: Jonathan Chait on the cold calculations of the Straight Talker. Here's what Dems need to know about John McCain. A review of Disadvantage by Jonathan Wolff and Avner de-Shalit. A review of The Iliad: Structure, Myth, and Meaning by Bruce Louden.
