online archive
5:00PM
MAR 14 2008
Being nice can ruin your life
From World Politics Review, an article on the United Nations' unscientific war on biotechnology. A review of The Age of Assassins: the Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin by Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky. A review of Tahmima Anam’s A Golden Age. A review of The Bluest State by Jon Keller. An article on the gruesome origins of 5 popular fairy tales. From In These Times, an article on The New Cartographers: What does it mean to map everything all the time? A review of The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Theasaurus by Joshua Kendall. More on The Race Card by by Richard Thompson Ford. A review of Soul of the World: Unlocking the Secrets of Time by Christopher Dewdney. More on Reagan's Disciple by Lou Cannon and Carl Cannon. The apostle of sprawl: Libertarian advocate of the suburbs Ronal O'Toole argues they speak to our deep need for privacy, space and security; might he have a point? Things Fall Into Place: Chinua Achebe remembers how he came to be the father of modern African literature. Being nice can ruin your life, according to the authors of two new books; their advice? Stop being so pathetic! Uplifting the “Dangerous Classes”: What Charles Loring Brace’s philanthropy can teach us today. An article on measuring the welfare gain from new goods, using the personal computer as an example.
1:00PM
MAR 14 2008
Every bus is a microcosm America
The internet has introduced a glut of critics — how do we find the best ones? Intelligent Life asks a group of writers and editors to choose their favourites. James Surowiecki on what microloans miss. A tutorial for the US presidential candidates: While it may be noisy, cramped, and crowded with voices that sound nothing like the candidates', every bus is a microcosm America — and a perfect place to really meet "the people". Jean-Paul Fitoussi on John Maynard Keynes and the end of (economic) history; and Brad DeLong on the end of the Age of Friedman. From Seed, a look at how hoarding nuclear secrets, even from enemies, can be downright dangerous; and can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built from a supercomputer? A review of The Nature of Normativity by Ralph Wedgwood. Read poetry, it's quite hard: Bring back the canon, on a series on great 20th-century poets. A review of Gertrude Himmelfarb's The Roads to Modernity. A review of The Socratic Paradox and Its Enemies by Roslyn Weiss. Research suggests politicians can come to believe what they tell voters, even if they start out being insincere. Ken Burns on how PBS offers an invaluable service that none of the other channels can deliver. Harvey Molotch’s course is called “The Urban Toilet,” and its syllabus reads almost like a parody of Allan Bloom’s worst nightmare.
9:00AM
MAR 14 2008
The geometry of music
From NPQ, an interview with Kishore Mahbubani on how Mao's Cultural Revolution paved the path for today's prosperity in China; and McCain is wrong: Olivier Roy on why Al-Qaeda is not a threat in Iraq if the US leaves. Recreational utopias as temporary paradise in a complicated world: Nice places to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there. The Los Angeles Times Magazine goes inside George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. The geometry of music: Music is an audible exploration of hyperdimensional geometries, according to new research. A review of The Dedalus Book of Literary Suicides: Dead Letters by Gary Lachman. A review of The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus by Joshua Kendall. A look at how journalism created the initial awareness of the nation's history. A review of books on meeting the evolutionary ancestors. Norma Clarke tells the story of one of the strangest patron-client relationships in literary history. A review of The Ethics of Care and Empathy by Michael Slote. Muse who milked the vile young King: A review of Badiou, Balibar, Ranciere: Re-thinking Emancipation by Nick Hewlett. How effective is disaster relief? Robert Glasser investigates. Time out of mind: The misguided notion that time is money actually costs us money, and it costs us time. A review of The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders.
