online archive
5:00PM
JUN 2 2008
Who gets the toughest coverage?
From Foreign Affairs, C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer (Minnesota): How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor. An interview with entomologist Hans Herren on a United Nations report calling for changes in how the world produces its food. Amartya Sen on how the global food problem is not being caused by a falling trend in world production, it is the result of accelerating demand. Forget the Large Hadron Collider: Here are the next 5 extreme research machines you need to know. Ma Jian is certainly not lacking in ambition, but in trying to create the Great Chinese Novel with Beijing Coma, he’s written the little man out of history. From TLS, a review of Doris Lessing's Alfred and Emily (and an interview at Bookforum). The world is not enough: Depending on where you stand, VS Naipaul is either a grand old man of letters or a grand old grump. Granta names Alex Clark as first female editor. Josh Patashnik on exposing the two biggest '08 myths. Candidates meet the press: Who gets the toughest coverage? From The Progressive, a look at why John McCain is a false moderate. Is Jim Webb too good for the vice presidency? Ezra Klein wants to know. A review of Standard Operating Procedure: A War Story by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris and Torture Team: Deception, Cruelty and the Compromise of Law by Philippe Sands (and more and more and more).
1:00PM
JUN 2 2008
A three hundred year old lament
From Sign and Sight, most texts which accompany contemporary art production are so twisted and woolly that they could easily pass for self-parody — Christian Demand takes up a three hundred year old lament. To what culture does the concept of “cultural property” belong? Edward Rothstein investigates. Why John McCain’s poor academic record may be one of his strongest political assets (and more). The word "elite", once an accolade, has turned poisonous in American public life, as both the left and the right have twisted it into a code word meaning "not one of us". As a new study shows, at critical times our politicians' ability to take decisions has been seriously compromised — and then covered up. Is the ferocity of criticism for Henry Kissinger related to the fact that he is Jewish?, asks Niall Ferguson. Could methane trigger a climate doomsday within a human lifespan? Nick Poppy reviews A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry by Sharon Weinberger and Nathan Hodge. From Words Without Borders, a special issue on the global gourmet. From Prospect, most of the charges levelled against modern video games—that they stunt minds and spark addiction—are based on an outdated understanding of what gamers do when they sit down to play. From Radar, Paige Ferrari writes in defense of "Sex and the City" (and more on its classical allusions).
9:00AM
JUN 2 2008
Face up to a multipolar world
From The National, where the grass is greener: A wanderer goes in search of the real Abu Dhabi; meet Eric Kuhne, the man who’s reshaping the Gulf; and does the taming of the Sands alter the essence of Arab identity? An elegy for the Empty Quarter. The point of the polls: David Runciman on the cattle-prod election. A review of Original Sin: A Cultural History by Alan Jacobs. From Plymouth Rock to Plato’s Retreat: The sexual revolution did not begin in 1963 — Scott McLemee looks at the unbuckled Puritans and listens to bawdy tales from the 1890s. From Wired, a special report in its 15th anniversary. How to properly apply the ad hominem: A new theory parses fair from unfair uses of personal criticism in rhetoric. Jesuits and Jesse James: An interview with Ron Hansen on his new novel, Exiles. From The New Yorker, the rebellion within: An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism. A review of Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy by Natan Sharansky. A review of The Atlantis Story: A Short History of Plato's Myth by Pierre Vidal-Naquet. A review of A History of Literary Theory and Criticism from Plato to the Present by M. A. R. Habib. From Doublethink, a look at how "The Runner" gets the Ivy League wrong. A league of democracies? The US should stick to reforming the UN – and face up to a multipolar world (and more).
