5:00PM
MAY 14 2008
Why do New Yorkers seem rude?
From CT, a review of Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America by Matthew Avery Sutton; and a review essay on the art of biblical interpretation. A look at how Second Life affects real life. Taking your own life is a mortal sin, says the Catholic Church — unless you happen to be a bishop. Making a dictionary of Wapisiana – an indigenous language spoken in South America – was time-consuming, but not as dull as Samuel Johnson declared. From Literary Review, Michael Burleigh reviews The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Robert Kagan; a review of For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond by Ben Macintyre; and a review of The 60s Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade by Gerard DeGroot. A review of Why Truth Matters by Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom. From City Journal, Saul Bellow’s prophetic 1970 novel Mr. Sammler’s Planet captured New York’s unraveling and remains a cautionary tale. Why do New Yorkers seem rude? Joan Acocella has a few ideas. Resurrecting Leslie Fiedler, a high priest of pop culture: The legacy of the literature critic is born again in a new collection of his essays. A review of The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn by Solomon Volkov. Can the Bill James approach to numbers work in basketball?
1:00PM
MAY 14 2008
Things both goofy and grand
From Slate, a series of articles on procrastination. Pictionary: Why people are paying $2,600 for a dictionary with no definitions. The introduction to The China Diary of George H. W. Bush: The Making of a Global President (and an interview). Money doesn’t buy happiness, but success does — capitalism, moored in values of hard work, honesty, and fairness, is key. A review of Cuba: How the Workers & Peasants Made the Revolution by Chris Slee. Is time travel possible? Not all scientists agree but according to Einstein and quantum theory, time travel could be possible. This, from that: A new breed of tinkerers mix science and craft to make things both goofy and grand. A review of The Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul. Silver lining for Obama: A bruising primary season has had the unintended side effect of laying general-election groundwork. Will whites vote for him? John Judis on the political psychology of race. Google announces a free service that allow any Web site to become a social site (and more). Sean Wilentz on why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck. From Le Monde diplomatique, a review of The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from Its Ashes by Avraham Burg; and an article on the "ethnic cleansing" of Palestine: Are the Jews an invented people? Carlin Romano on Israeli history at 60: A history of contention over a contentious history.
9:00AM
MAY 14 2008
Humans, the strangest species
From LiveScience, a series of articles on humans, the strangest species. From Freezerbox, is legislation the answer to ending anorexia in the fashion industry?; and what is it with men and torture? Behind closed doors: An article on the secret consumption of sex. What will some of today's most well-known hip-hop artists be doing in 2035? Lil Wayne and Baby sitting in a tree: A gay hip-hop insider brings to light a hidden subculture of sex parties and closeted stars. Why is everyone so obsessed with Miley Cyrus, ''The Hills,'' ''Gossip Girl, and the like? It's a new teen age in entertainment. OMG: Teens are letting emoticons and other forms of chat-speak slip into their essays and homework. A review of The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein. From IHE, is the bachelor’s degree obsolete? Lefty Colorado University bid to endow a "conservative" chair leaves both sides uneasy. Steven Pinker on the stupidity of dignity: Conservative bioethics' latest, most dangerous ploy. Ronald Bailey on the genetics of ensoulment: What's an embryo and what's not? The Neural Buddhists: The cognitive revolution is not going to undermine faith in God but faith in the Bible. The human brain is a less-than-perfect device; Kludge explains how our minds work and sometimes don't (and more). The less you know, the more wisely you seem to choose: An article on the mental toolbox you use when the facts are scarce.
5:00PM
MAY 13 2008
When chick flicks get knocked up
From The New Yorker, an article on using simulation to treat a new generation of traumatized veterans; and a review of The End of Food by Paul Roberts. Why do some people continue to hold Rachel Carson responsible for millions of malaria deaths? John Quiggin and Tim Lambert want to know. A look at what condoms have to do with climate change. Jonathan Cohn on what really ails Medicare. When chick flicks get knocked up: Is the new fertility-movie genre feminist or conservative? A review of Bamboo Goalposts: One Man’s Quest to Teach the People’s Republic of China to Love Football by Rowan Simons. It's not them, it's us: Exposing three myths about the costs of private health insurance. An excerpt from Self-Concern: An Experiential Approach to What Matters in Survival by Raymond Martin. A review of Torture Team: Deception, Cruelty and the Compromise of Law by Philippe Sands. An excerpt from Standard Operating Procedure by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris. A review of The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of Aids by Elizabeth Pisani. The Queen of the New Age: How the publisher Louise Hay unified psychics, mindhealers, angel therapists and positive thinkers of all varieties into a self-help spirituality empire. Things fall apart: Is the post-9/11 imagination disintegrating? More on Superclass by David Rothkopf.
1:00PM
MAY 13 2008
What steampunk is about
From Quadrant, an article on diagnosing the new British disease; and a review of books on America as the new Rome. From Literary Review, a review of Alfred & Emily by Doris Lessing (and more, and an interview at Bookforum). Craig Newmark is capitalizing on his success to promote causes he holds dear. Technostalgia: An article on what steampunk is about. Their darkest dealings often go unreported and unnoticed, but from Nairobi to Sao Paulo, many urban gangs are becoming more sophisticated, more brutal, and more powerful than ever. Michael Kinsley on genetic discrimination: Unfair or natural? From US News, an article on ranking the politics of Supreme Court Justices. An interview with Robert Pollock on how The Wall Street Journal editorial page gets made. The Mysteries of the Suicide Tourist: Why the same things that attract millions of happy visitors to New York—the glamour, the skyline, the anonymity—also draw people from around the world to kill themselves here. The evolving Web of future wealth: The web of connections among goods and services in an economy may be the long-missing key to understanding how novel innovations and new wealth arise. From NYRB, Frank Rich on how to cover an election; a review of books on Churchill and his myths; a review of books on the rise of the Muslim terrorists; and a review of books on Iraq: Will we ever get out?
9:00AM
MAY 13 2008
This is the dumbest generation
From Doublethink, an article on the perils of keepin’ it real: From rappers to novelists to our very own lives, the cultural demand for authenticity has never been higher; and academia is the last vestige of the crush, but what does it really mean to have a thing for the prof? Here are 8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation. From Boston Review, an interview with Hans Blix on his new book, Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters; and an article on how urban decline is moving to the suburbs. From Canon, here is the conversation Ellen Killoran will never have with Chuck Klosterman. More on Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler. Can Israel survive for another 60 years? Perhaps, but not necessarily as a Jewish state. Ten thought experiments exploring the possibility of Hillary Clinton, nominee. From Cato Unbound, we all own stolen goods — and how defending property rights can help the world’s most oppressed people. Civilization's last chance: The planet is nearing a tipping point on climate change, and it gets much worse, fast. What's your baby's carbon footprint? 8lbs, 21 inches, and 3,800 diapers worth of planet-pummeling joy. From CJR, Ezra Klein on the future of reading and Amazon's Kindle. Who killed the sea lions? A salmon shortage, dead mammals — inside a maritime mystery.
5:00PM
MAY 12 2008
Humanity’s last rage
Jacob Levy (McGill): Not so Novus an Ordo: Constitutions without Social Contracts. Let Them Eat Arugula: Hillary sure has become a populist these last few weeks—a conservative populist. A review of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein (and an excerpt at Bookforum). More on The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement by Steven M. Teles. Land of the free? Liberty in America is not quite as revered as its leaders pretend. A review of Aristotle's Politics Today by Lenn E. Goodman and Robert B. Talisse. Has science made belief in God obsolete? An excerpt from The Big Questions in Science and Religion by Keith Ward. Radar goes inside the world's elite secret societies. A look at why a growing number of universities are offering co-ed rooms. From New Statesman, a special issue on 1968, including humanity's last rage: Peter Wilby wonders whether 1968 changed everything — or nothing at all; and more by Eric Hobsbawm and more by Noam Chomsky. 1958, the war of the intellectuals: Fifty years ago, American critics worried about the collapsing distinction among highbrow, middlebrow and lowbrow. Two Cornell psychologists found we have two separate systems for memories, which helps explain how we can "remember" things that never happened. Rules of abstraction: Two rival critics argue over Pollock and De Kooning.
1:00PM
MAY 12 2008
Scientists know better than you
From Scientific American, the economist has no clothes: Unscientific assumptions in economic theory are undermining efforts to solve environmental problems; and brother, can you spare me a planet? Robert Nadeau on mainstream economics and the environmental crisis. Scientists know better than you, even when they're wrong: Why fallible expertise trumps armchair science—an interview with Harry Collins. Should philosophy have something to say to non-philosophers? Should philosophy be pursued only by those trained in philosophy? Cogito poses some big questions to four British and US philosophers. US presidential elections are suspiciously like high school popularity contests, er, elections — it's not who you know, it's who knows you. In pursuing the convenience of a Web 2.0 world, we are consenting to being incorporated into a finely tuned marketing machine, with ever more subtly adapted gears, to our meet our needs — manufactured and otherwise. Game Google, help the world: Why search-engine optimization makes the Web a better place. From TED, Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world. Edward Rothstein on LSD, a mind-altering drug that altered a culture as well. Belles and tolls: Horse racing, like art and life, comes with tragedy built-in. War of the Babies: When modern warfare and demography square off, demography wins.
9:00AM
MAY 12 2008
Queering the underworld
From New Humanist, a review of The Book of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley; and Heidegger’s former disciple Emmanuel Levinas, a victim of Nazism, pioneered a humanism for the 21st century. From The Global Spiral, an essay on Emmanuel Levinas’ challenge to the modern European cultural identity. A review of Queering the Underworld: Slumming, Literature and the Undoing of Lesbian and Gay History by Scott Herring; and a review of Political Interventions: Social Science and Political Action by Pierre Bourdieu. From The Nation, from campus to courtroom, longstanding gains for women are being eroded everywhere you look; a review of The Rain Before It Falls by Jonathan Coe. Gary Becker, Myron Scholes, Michael Spence, Ed Phelps discuss the depth of the U.S. financial crisis, its effect on the rest of the world and the commodity price rises. From Vanity Fair, in 1935 oil tycoon H. L. Hunt created what would become a multi-billion-dollar trust for his descendants; a lawsuit by his free-spending great-grandson is shaking the foundations of that mighty family fortune; and the private follies of middle-aged male politicians are treated as weakness, perversion, corruption—anything but the real issue: human desire. Literary criticism could be one of our best tools for understanding the human condition, but first, it needs a radical change: embracing science.
5:00PM
MAY 9 2008
As smooth and lifeless as an iPhone
Martin O'Neill (Manchester): Liberty, Equality and Property-Owning Democracy; and Liberal Egalitarian Routes towards Economic Democracy. An interview with Catalan philosopher Xavier Rupert de Ventos: "The reactionary Celine is more interesting than the liberal Rawls". An interview with neoconservative Lawrence Kaplan: "I don't see anything good that has come from this war". The sexiest woman (barely) alive: The female ideal pushed by laddie magazines has become as smooth and lifeless as an iPhone. Here are 5 myths about the best (college) years of your life. An atheist goes undercover to join the flock of mad pastor John Hagee: An excerpt from Matt Taibbi's The Great Derangement. Meet Gus Puryear, Bush's latest villainous nominee for a lifetime judgeship. A review of Daniel J. Flynn’s A Conservative History of the American Left. Is Phyllis Schlafly worthy of an honorary doctorate by Washington U. in St. Louis? An interview with Denis Boyles, author Superior, Nebraska: The Common Sense Values of America’s Heartland. Will we ever get past the cultural wars of the 1960s? Ron Bailey wants to know. Is baseball a global sport? An article on America’s “national pastime” as global field and international sport. Fifty-four years after its publication, Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 transcends the framework within which it was placed.
