online archive
5:00PM
JUN 27 2008
Are you experienced?
From Newsweek, Mr. Obama’s Washington: He wants to change the culture there, but it's hard to fix a place you've never really known; and are you experienced? Why a US senator might not trump a state legislator. Larry Johnson's Strange Trip: How a onetime hero of the liberal blogosphere and the Democratic Party spread perhaps the most damaging anti-Obama smear of the primary. The float vote: If you want to know who'll pick the next president, just use the formula 4M + 2M. Laugh, if your death mask will allow it: A review of The Book of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley. A review of The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It by M. Gigi Durham. A review of Liberty's Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World by Michael I. Meyerson. Ivy League Slaves of New York: America’s best and brightest are unpacking their gilded diplomas and getting to work as assistants in New York’s media dens, pinching themselves at their good fortune — suckers! A review of The Emotional Construction of Morals by Jesse Prinz. Is there a new Washington Consensus? Dani Rodrik wants to know. Who's Africa's worst dictator? Hint: It's probably not Robert Mugabe. From Eyebrow Magazine, here's a defence of Robert Mugabe.
1:00PM
JUN 27 2008
How to write for the Web
From ProPublica, an article on Alhurra and America’s troubled effort to win Middle East hearts and minds (and more and more from The Washington Post). The New York Times goes inside a 9/11 mastermind’s interrogation. The effort to make this campaign about voters' unconscious fears of Obama has already begun — is Obama ready (for the GOP smear machine)?. An interview with historian Slawomir Cenckiewicz on evidence Lech Walesa was a Communist spy. More and more on Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut. The Hipster Handbook author Robert Lanham defends the Brooklyn neighborhood everyone loves to hate. From Nerve, more on the history of single life: Diamond engagement rings. A review of Casanova: Philosopher, Gambler, Lover, Priest by Ian Kelly. A review of Barbarians to Angels: The Dark Ages Reconsidered by Peter S. Wells. A look at how an individual genome changes over a lifetime. How smart is the octopus? Bright enough to do the moving-rock trick. How Darwin won the evolution race: The extraordinary story behind The Origin of Species. From Wired, a look at how English is evolving into a language we may not even understand. How to write for the Web: Caleb Crain explains it for you. Stopping Google: With one company now the world's chief gateway to information, some critics are hatching ways to fight its influence.
9:00AM
JUN 27 2008
Just one disaster away
James D. Ingram (New School): The Politics of Claude Lefort's Political: Between Liberalism and Radical Democracy. The Failed States Index 2008: Foreign Policy ranks the countries where state collapse may be just one disaster away; and where the Security Council fears to tread: Somalia is the most dangerous failed state on the planet, and even international troubleshooters are keeping their distance. Nixonland or The Age of Reagan? Rick Perlstein and Sean Wilentz try to figure out which president continues to have the stronger hold over our political culture. From American Diplomacy, an article on the new face of Central Asia. Encounter Books, the conservative publishing house run by Roger Kimball, will no longer send review copies to The New York Times. Is everything spinning out of control? The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. A review of Stop Me If You’ve Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes by Jim Holt. Kate Carraway has got one sex trick left, and she's saving it for marriage. The abusive exploitation of the human religious sentiment: Michael Burleigh as historian of “Political Religion”. Network Nation: The New Deal isn’t coming back; can Democrats find a fresher way? Is the matter in the universe arranged in a fractal pattern? Why internships in journalism are bad for young people, and bad for the industry.
