online archive
6:00AM
JUN 17 2007
Political science, Marxism, academia and more
From the Journal of Public Deliberation, Alison Kadlec and Will Friedman (Public Agenda): Deliberative Democracy and the Problem of Power; David M. Ryfe (Nevada): Toward a Sociology of Deliberation; Peter Levine (Maryland) Rose Marie Nierras (Sussex): Activists’ Views of Deliberation; Renée A. Daugherty and Sue E. Williams (OSU): Applications of Public Deliberation: Themes Emerging from Twelve Personal Experiences Emanating from National Issues Forums Training.
Janette Hartz-Karp (Murdoch): How and Why Deliberative Democracy Enables Co-Intelligence and Brings Wisdom to Governance; Ted Becker (Auburn): How Deliberative Democracy May Keep Pseudo-Democracy, The New Rule by the Few, From Bungling Into Global Catastrophes; a review of Democracy as the Political Empowerment of the Citizen by Majid Behrouzi; a review of The Next Form of Democracy by Matt Leighninger; and a review of Saving Democracy: A Plan for Real Representation in America by Kevin O’Leary.
A new issue of Ephemera is out Immaterial and Affective Labour, including an introduction. From New & Letters, a review of The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx by Michael Löwy; and an excerpt from Reclaiming Marx's Capital: A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency by Andrew Kliman. The Makhno myth: Jason Yanowitz looks that the myth and reality surrounding an anarchist hero of the Russian civil war.
From Inside Higher Ed, the more you pursue a higher education, the more likely you are to abandon your faith? That’s what conventional wisdom holds. Beyond the Walls of the Secular Cathedral: An interview with Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain of Harvard. If today’s students are to become good citizens of the world, they’ll need to be able to argue effectively.
You don't need to donate to charity to feel all warm inside. Researchers have found that even when money is taken from some people involuntarily, they feel good about the transaction, as long as the funds go to a good cause. Paying taxes is a pleasurable duty: It seems people enjoy parting with money more than they let on, a new study shows that giving away cash triggers a physiological reward.
6:00AM
JUN 17 2007
Economics, sex and more
From The Little Magazine, an essay on Amartya Sen, economic exclusion and inclusive policy. From Philanthropy, a review of Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw; and an essay on Preparing for Disaster: Philanthropy and medicine in a post-9/11, post-Katrina, pre-pandemic world. Can we fix inequality without cutting the fortunes of the wealthy? Doubtful, says Robert Frank. Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. Eric Feezell helps a poor man figure out how to make the system work—by any means necessary.
From TNR, Clay Risen on GS TrUE, the private stock exchange that could revolutionize the U.S. financial system. Wal-Mart's Latest Ethics Controversy: An employee who scrupulously followed the company's own ethics guidelines may find herself out of a job. An interview with Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (and two reviews). The first chapter form The New Industrial State by John Kenneth Galbraith.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition—or do they? Tyler Cowen reviews Nassim Taleb's The Black Swan (and more and more and more). A review of Steven Landsburg’s More Sex Is Safer Sex.
From Nerve, from the History of Single Life, a look at the birth of the urban hipster. Why does open marriage work for some married couples and destroy others? The answer could be that for it to work you need to be in an extremely healthy relationship. An article on The Scientific Laws of Romance. If you think sex is kinky, wait till you see the alternatives. The most sought-after domain name on the web: A review of Sex.com by Kieran McCarthy. Here are 10 reasons free porn does not threaten the adult industry.
Blame it on the underpants: A review of Clean: a History of Personal Hygiene and Purity by Virginia Smith. Eternal youth is all in your head: You may not be able to relive your youth but part of your brain can. Mental illness and the price of free will: Are laws protecting the right to refuse psychiatric treatment doing more harm than good. An interview with Allan M. Brandt, author of The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America.
6:00AM
JUN 17 2007
The Middle East, the US and terrorism
From Perspectives on Politics, Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch (MIT): From Taboo to the Negotiable: The Israeli New Historians and the Changing Representation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem. An excerpt from Foxbats Over Dimona: The Soviets' Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War by Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez. A review of Tom Segev's 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East (and an interview). Is this the end of the Two-State Solution? The consequences and possibilities of the civil war in Gaza.
From The Nation, a review of The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasr; Reaching for Power: The Shi'a in the Modern Arab World by Yitzhak Nakash; Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic by Ray Takeyh; and Confronting Iran: The Failure of American Foreign Policy and the Next Great Conflict in the Middle East by Ali Ansari. What do liberal hawks actually want to do regarding Iran? Ezra Klein wants to know. For Liberal Internationalism: Now that neoconservative policies have led us into disaster, it's time to give liberal internationalism a chance.
Iraq's Founding Mother: A review of Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell (and more). Bush's blank check: Do we really need to spend more than a trillion dollars a year to defeat small groups of terrorist fanatics? The Enemy of My Enemy: Fred Kaplan on how Sunni insurgents can help us. Kidnapped in Iraq: A review of Friendly Fire by Giuliana Sgrena and The Jill Carroll Story. Hindsight's insight on Iraq: Accusations of hypocrisy and flip-flopping shouldn't obscure the facts. Timothy Stewart-Winter on Sam Greenlee's 1976 mass-market paperback novel Baghdad Blues, the book that should be on President Bush's reading list.
In Iraq and beyond, America's empire of permanent bases grows at an alarming pace. World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists. The Pentagon v. Peak Oil: How wars of the future may be fought just to run the machines that fight them.
From Wired, an article on a Portrait of the Modern Terrorist as an Idiot. A review of The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism by Matthew Carr (and an interview). A look at the trade secrets of an Iraq insurgency bomb technician.
6:00AM
JUN 17 2007
Technology and the internet
From The Guardian, a review of Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines to the Global Village by Richard Barbrook; and how we have been fooled by utopian visions of the future: Our expectations of technology are borne out of Cold War spin. The community-building projects of the digital world are celebrated for the abundance they make it possible to access and share; but what if the culture of a community only arises from jointly endured constraints? Tony Curzon Price explores a key paradox of the online age. Lost in cyberspace: The network society may ultimately lead to information overload, triviality, and loneliness. It's better in the flesh: Social networking sites don't foster meaningful communication. They are a complete waste of time. Is Wis.dm your next online obsession? Answer yes or no. This new social-networking site is based upon your responses to all kinds of questions.
From The Economist, a special section on technology, including an interview with Tom Standage, editor of Technology Quarterly. Genius and misfit aren’t synonyms, or are they? In Silicon Valley, where misfits rule, rejecting the received wisdom is commonly viewed as a path to creativity and wealth. A review of The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy by Andrew Keen (and more). An interview with David Weinberger, author of Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder.
From Business Week, Where Tech Got Its Start: The early quarters of tech giants like Hewlett-Packard and Apple could be must-see tourist spots for your grandkids. From Time, can Google get any bigger? We now use the #1 search engine as our main tool for navigating the web. But aside from search, Google still lags behind Yahoo! and MySpace. Private Parts, Public Streets: Google hits the streets. Will we get screwgled? From Wired, thanks to Google Earth's Street View, the paranoids don't seem so paranoid anymore; and researchers chart the internet's "Black Holes", the more than 10 percent of the internet that flickers out like a candle every day.
Law enforcement cannot stop spam with periodic high-profile busts, or with sentences greater than those received by rapists or murderers. Unfortunately, there's no quick fix, and we should search for something other than these symbolic incarcerations. Scamming the Spammers: Internet spammers are creative, but so are the people devoted to catching them. How many ways can you spell V1@gra? Spam mutates, and the Internet community mounts an immune response.
