online archive
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.
