online archive
12:00PM
JUN 18 2007
Philosophy, science and religion and economics
From The Chronicle, remembering Richard Rorty: The pragmatist philosopher who died this month may have been soft-spoken, but he caused more than his share of scholarly brawls. Slate asks a number of philosophers and intellectuals to share reminiscences of Dick Rorty, personal and otherwise. A review of The Meaning of Life by Terry Eagleton. In a speech, President JF Kennedy said that if only Karl Marx "had remained a foreign correspondent, history might have been different". How wrong he was, argues Christopher Hitchens. Much of Marx's writing during his years as a hack was a passionate defence of the values that were to inform his political philosophy.
From The Global Spiral, Basarab Nicolescu (ICTRS): Transdisciplinarity as Methodological Framework for Going Beyond the Science-Religion Debate; Mark Sagoff (Maryland): Is an Environmental Ethic Compatible with Biological Science?; Jean L. Kristeller (ISU): Quiet Mind, Meditative Mind and Emerging Wisdom: A Transtheoretical Model of the Wisdom Process; David Allan Larrabee (ESU): A Reductionism Based Challenge to Strong Emergence; Michael Ruse reviews Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by E. O. Wilson; and a review of Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief by Huston Smith.
From Scientific American, should science speak to faith? Lawrence M. Krauss and Richard Dawkins exchange their views on how scientists ought to approach religion and its followers. From TNR, Jerry Coyne reviews The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael J. Behe. A review of Negotiating Darwin: The Vatican Confronts Evolution, 1877–1902. For weeks, the physics world has been buzzing with rumors juicier — at least in context — than any Washington scandal: Researchers at Fermilab's Tevatron particle collider may have made one of the biggest scientific discoveries in decades, the Higgs boson, sometimes dubbed the "God particle". Biology's Big Bang: What physics was to the 20th century, biology will be to the 21st—and RNA will be a vital part of it.
A new study suggests that the so-called Goldilocks planet is too hot to be like Earth, but astronomers have uncovered another, cooler option. Can studying the red deserts of Mars, the thick atmosphere of Venus, and the methane seas of Titan help us to predict our own planet's climatic future? An Earth Without People: A new way to examine humanity's impact on the environment is to consider how the world would fare if all the people disappeared.
Michael Shermer on the prospects for Homo economicus: A new fMRI study debunks the myth that we are rational-utility money maximizers. From The Economist, a review of The Myth of the Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan. A look at how George Mason University economists practice their own brand of "Freakonomics".
12:00PM
JUN 18 2007
The Iraq War, terrorism and law, ideology, religion and feminism
From The American Interest, it is obvious that a military can only fight well on behalf of a society in which it believes. But a society which believes that little is worth fighting for cannot, in the end, field an effective military. Obvious as this is, we seem to have forgotten it; and U.S. Army General David H. Petraeus on the debate concerning the relationship between the Services and the civilian academy. The War Inside: Troops are returning from the battlefield with psychological wounds, but the mental-health system that serves them makes healing difficult.
From The New Yorker, The General’s Report: Sy Hersh on how Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties. From TAP, a look at how the military commissions obscure Gitmo's real purpose. Shankar Vedantam on why torture keeps pace with Enlightenment. Philippe Sands discovers the legal equivalent of outer space in Clive Stafford Smith's survey of Guantánamo, Bad Men: Guantánamo Bay and the Secret Prison.
A review of Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas by Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher. Jeffrey Toobin on how the Supreme Court, no less than the Presidency, will be on the ballot next November. Did we always care about voting rights? Brian K. Landsberg investigates. Did the Federalist Society have a hand in attorney firings? The right-wing lawyers' group is the casting couch for the federal judiciary—and may have been, newly released documents indicate, for the Justice Department too.
From The New Individualist, here's a guided tour through the chaotic, crumbling conservative landscape and Dr. Hudgins’s 12-Step Cure for Big-Government Conservatism; a review of Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher. A review of Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys. A review of Freedom's Power: The True Force of Liberalism by Paul Starr. The people's party? A review of Comrades: A World History of Communism by Robert Service. Communism's grim toll: Despite its bloody and failed history, it still holds sway in some nations.
A review of The Political Teachings of Jesus by Tod Lindberg. The first chapter form The Secular Bible Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously by Jacques Berlinerblau. Slim, portable gift book for atheists: Carlin Romano reviews The Atheist's Bible, ed. by Joan Konner. Edward Skidelsky reviews In Defence of Atheism by Michel Onfray tr by Jeremy Leggatt and God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens (and more and more). How to be a successful atheist priest: The secret life of Jean Meslier, unsung Enlightenment hero.
A review of Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement by Tanya Erzen. Transexual finds sexism in feminism: A review of Whipping Girl A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano. From The Humanist, don't give up your day job: An interview with Leslie Bennetts, author of The Feminine Mistake. A review of The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine. A review of Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause and I Feel Bad About My Neck, and Other Thoughts about Being a Woman by Nora Ephron.
12:00PM
JUN 18 2007
Global issues, Russia, the Middle East and American politics
From Foreign Policy, a look at the World’s Most Powerful Crime Syndicates. How Dr Chan intends to defend the planet from pandemics: The new powers vested in the WHO's boss should, in theory, cut the risk of killer diseases raging round the world. Megacities, mega dreams for a connected world: Cities such as Bombay present many strange paradoxes, linking challenge with opportunity. Home on the Rainforest: Programs like carbon ranching represent the world’s best hope to save vanishing tropical forests and avert global climate catastrophe. A review of How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor by Erik S. Reinert.
From Human Rights & Human Welfare, a series of essays on Human Rights in Russia and the former Soviet Republics. From The Liberal, a series of essays on Russia in the age of Putin, and on 27th February 2007, you could not buy the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta in Moscow for love nor money – something unheard of since the heady days of perestroika. The reason for the furor? During the row over weaponry that thundered on during the G8 summit at Heiligendamm, Vladimir Putin took a leaf out of his own book, Judo: History, Theory, Practice. A review of First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Reinventing Russia: Russian Nationalism and the Soviet State, 1953-1991. A review of Death of a Dissident: the Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB by Alex Goldfarb. From Exile, what's a gopnik? They're the last males on planet earth who can get away with wearing those 20s-style leather gangster caps without looking like drama school fags rehearsing for a musical.
Immanuel Wallerstein on a missile defense shield: Crazy idea or rational objective? Policing the undergoverned spaces: The Americans are intensifying their hunt for al-Qaeda in the Sahara and beyond. Hamas may find it needs its enemy: Two Palestines could emerge. But don’t write off the chances for unity (and a comparison of the two territories). Should we simply ignore the Mideast? Niall Ferguson on why the Mideast matters. More troops, more troubles: Candidates who call for beefing up our armed forces to deter terrorism show a profound misunderstanding of the Mideast.
From TNR, a look at why America doesn't need to hear from Mike Gravel; and Bill Richardson v. his resumé: The New Mexico governor is running for president on his experience. That might not be such a great idea. Hillary Studies: Two new books about Clinton add to the canon, but do little to illuminate who she really is as she eyes the White House (and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more). An interview with Bay Buchanan, author of The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton (and a review). What Women See When They See Hillary: Some of the same feminists who loved Hillary as First Lady are now fiercely opposing her bid for the White House. For the male candidate, sports equal machismo, but there is no playbook for a woman running for president. It has got to be Al Gore: If he is as serious about climate change as he says he is, he has to run for the US presidency.
12:00PM
JUN 18 2007
Shakespeare, writers and writing, pop culture and art
From The New Criterion, Anthony Daniels discovers what ails Shakespeare’s King Lear. Old man redeemed: Ian McKellen takes a quieter, eventually wiser King Lear on tour (and an interview). Tiny Ninja Shakespeare! When it comes to quotability, no one, but no one, beats the Bard.
Salman Rushdie has been made knight, Buckingham Palace announced yesterday, a reward for abandoning the anti-establishment stance he once espoused. Britain's most formidable literary couple: A new Pinter revival has opened to rave reviews, while his wife Antonia Fraser continues to write bestselling biographies. How did a working-class divorcee and a Catholic aristocrat become Britain's formidable literary couple? Kingsley Amis never quite caught on with Americans. Why not? asks Michael Dirda. Beyond Wives and Lovers: In a new book Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England, the literary scholar Sharon Marcus maps out the complex geography of Victorian womanhood. The secret world of E M Forster: The novelist's letters reveal his private passions He is famous for stories that feature clashes between class and culture. But, says Zareer Masani, there is another theme to one of his most famous works: his own, unrequited, homosexual passions.
The Harder They Write: Caribbean literature is a concept in flux at Jamaica's Calabash International Literary Festival, writes Carlin Romano. Notes from a small island: Daniel Trilling discovers a thriving literary scene between the mountains and the Caribbean. He drew upon the horrors of his captivity in a Japanese concentration camp to spin mesmerizing tales of adventure in the Far East. Meet James Clavell, the man who gave us Shogun. A Red-Envelope Day: Artist and author Nathan Huang looks at how a Chinese New Year tradition in his family came to an end.
From n+1, Whatever Minutes: How we've developed a cultural style of ceaseless babbling. Better than famous: A review of The Big Book of Pop Culture: A How-to Guide for Young Artists by Hal Niedzviecki. Peter Blake was paid only £200 for the Sgt Pepper album cover in 1967 and has never made much money since. But meeting the grandfather of British pop art in the cabinet of curiosities that is his studio, Lynn Barber decides he is certainly a national treasure. Fade Out: Popular music, like other media, has fragmented, and the day of the rock star as broad cultural icon is behind us. The Boys in the Band Are in AARP: The classic American midlife crisis has found a new outlet: garage-band rock ’n’ roll.
Even as an occasional endeavor, the arts have the power to transform lives, so go ahead and sue me: Just liking books is fine. Peer-to-peer book reviews fill a niche: Social-networking websites that connect people through their taste in literature are gaining in popularity – and publishers are starting to take notice. We live in the Internet age, and one of the things we love about the Internet is its ability to connect people to each other, right? Maybe instead of always doing it themselves, artists could do it with others once in a while. Social software is ready for business, but is business ready for social software? Companies of all kinds are figuring out which tools work and how to use them.
