online archive
5:00PM
JUN 16 2008
Reading is a personal act
From The Atlantic Monthly, Robert D. Kaplan on what Rumsfeld got right; with the Chevy Volt, General Motors—battered, struggling for profitability, fed up with being eclipsed by Toyota and the Prius—is out to reinvent the automobile, and itself; intrigued (and alarmed) by the new science of "neuromarketing", Jeffrey Goldberg peers into his own brain via an MRI machine and learns what he really thinks about Jimmy Carter, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bruce Springsteen, and Edie Falco; a look at why stop signs and speed limits endanger Americans; and the 11 1/2 Biggest Ideas of the Year: Here's a thumbnail intellectual history of the year. Candidate Paul is gone, but not really. Justin Raimondo on libertarianism’s divergent roads. Why she lost: An interview with Mark Penn, Hillary's message man. An article on learning to be Michelle Obama. If you really want to understand what this race is about, look at the two candidates' fathers. Comedians of clout: In a funny way, satirical takes can color perceptions of the presidential contenders. Is Keith Olbermann changing TV news? Peter Boyer investigates. In an ugly world, we need ugly newsreaders: The rise of the husky-voiced, coquettish female newsreader mirrors the decline of that "masculine" value, objectivity. Should we care about book reviews? Reading is a personal act — so why submit to the critical tyranny of the newspaper books pages?
1:00PM
JUN 16 2008
A cultural style of ceaseless babbling
From Cabinet, the most obvious differences between different animals are differences of size, but for some reason the zoologists have paid singularly little attention to them; and a special section on bones. Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard by Richard Brody argues the director is as dominant and influential as Picasso. From Vanity Fair, every successful society needs its Bohemia, a haven for the artists, exiles, and misfits who regenerate the culture; with the heart of New York’s West Village threatened by developers, London, Paris, and San Francisco have a message for Manhattan: Don’t do it! From n+1, from literature to advertising, we've developed a cultural style of ceaseless babbling; the hype cycle: The important thing is no longer what a song, movie, or book does to you; the big question is its relationship to its reputation; how much money does a writer need? Of course it depends; to the painful post-industrial syndromes of carpal tunnel, repetitive stress injury, and chronic eyestrain is added: Masturbator's Thumb; a review of books on Woman, the New Social Problem; and is Orhan Pamuk bad for the Turks? A 21st-century profile: Art for art’s sake, and for the US economy, too. Michael Wood reviews The Delighted States by Adam Thirlwell. We need these taxes: There are (relatively) painless ways to make it more fair — and reduce the deficit.
9:00AM
JUN 16 2008
Steps toward the perfect siesta
From The Global Spiral, a special issue on Transhumanism. For some fans online, Judge Alex Kosinski is on his way to becoming their favorite judge. The Court's new tilt: Everything we thought we knew about the Roberts court seems wrong. From Harper's, what did Anthony Kennedy mean by referring to a Constitution that can be “switched on and off at will” in Boumediene? He was taking dead aim at the notion of a state of exception, a notion that lies in the thinking of Carl Schmitt. A review of The Hitler Salute: On the Meaning of a Gesture by Tilman Allert. From Doublethink, an article on the end of anti-Semitism and other tales: What constitutes legitimate criticism of Israel? A review of Seyla Benhabib's Another Cosmopolitanism: Hospitality, Sovereignty, and Democratic Iterations. A review of Richard Rorty: The Making of an American Philosopher by Neil Gross. A conversation about a conversation: Ian McEwan talks with Steven Pinker — or does he? The midday snooze has gained new scientific respect; view the steps toward the perfect siesta. Nicole Rudick reviews Chemises by Malick Sidibe. What does gay look like? Science keeps trying to figure that out. A look at how gay couples find marriage is a mixed bag. Because Wilde's worth it: Dorian Gray reimagined as a gay aftershave model for our times? From The Root, how come there are so few brothers on the diamond?
