online archive
12:00PM
JUL 25 2007
Academia, psychology, animals and evolution
From The Chronicle, echoes of McCarthyism: Will the Roberts Supreme Court protect academic freedom? Mark C. Rahdert says recent rulings aren't encouraging; after Virginia Tech: Disagreements over policies on guns and mental health complicate legislative efforts to protect students on college campuses; and ready for our close-up: When campuses become film sets, Hollywood deals put college ideals in compromising. Stalin good, Putin better? An article on politics, education, and indoctrination. Laurence Musgrove wants professors to feel the emotions that drew them to teaching and learning — and emotions generally.
A review of Rediscovering Empathy: Agency, Folk Psychology, and the Human Sciences by Karsten R. Stueber. My bad! A look at why we feel guilt in the first place. Obituary: Albert Ellis. Mastering Your Own Mind: Distracted? Angry? Envious? There's growing evidence that attention, emotion regulation—even love—are skills that can be trained through the practice of meditation. Perhaps it's time for you to become a high-performance user of your own brain. A review of A System Architecture Approach to the Brain: From Neurons to Consciousness by L. Andrew Coward. A look at how culture influences brain cells: Brain's mirror neurons swayed by ethnicity and culture. A review of Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious by Gerd Gigerenzer.
A review of Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved by Frans de Waal, Robert Wright, Christine M. Korsgaard, Philip Kitcher, and Peter Singer. A review of Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership by Martha C. Nussbaum. Bringing Moos and Oinks into the Food Debate: Animal rights activists move from the margin to the mainstream.
Some genitals fit, but what of the duck? Biologists who study genitalia, however, say even evolution doesn't always point to the most obvious explanation behind behavior or physiology. Bonobos are celebrated as peace-loving, matriarchal, and sexually liberated. Are they? Freeman Dyson on how the era of Darwinian evolution is over. What Finnish grandmothers reveal about human evolution: Biologist Virpi Lummaa's work reveals that humans may be the best subject to study for evolutionary effects across generations. Will DNA turn Madoc myth into reality? The search is on for evidence supporting the idea a Welsh prince settled in the Americas around 1170.
12:00PM
JUL 25 2007
City life, the environment and sex
A new issue of The Next American City is out, including an article on doing away with Town and Gown; employees once owed their souls to the company store. Elizabeth A. Evitts begins a journey through industrial history in Baltimore and finds that—though the corporation has changed radically—today’s employees still do; and articles on Satellite Chinatown and Wyoming Metropolis? Despite an influential theory that cities can reverse sinking fortunes by becoming hip magnets for the educated class, the stolid and uncool appeal of the suburbs still rules in the US. A review of Nearest Thing to Heaven: The Empire State Building and American Dreams by Mark Kingwell.
From American Heritage, The Outsider: How Robert McNamara changed the automobile industry. Why black cars are taking over the world: A century after Henry Ford's famous diktat that his customers could have any colour they liked, as long as it was black, it turns out the old boy might have been on to something. Me and my love machine: What does your car say about you? A new steer on the psychology of driving. A Jaundiced Eye: A look at why humans don't deserve automobiles.
Air travel is becoming as controversial as wearing a fur coat or smoking during pregnancy. And there's no question that airplanes contribute to global warming. But do we really need to feel horribly guilty about flying? Does American exceptionalism compel the United States to address climate change? An excerpt from Power and Superpower: Global Leadership and Exceptionalism in the 21st Century (and part 2). How to Hit the Trifecta: A broad energy tax would accomplish a rare policy trifecta, curbing U.S. energy consumption, reducing pollution, and providing a reliable new source of revenue. A review of With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change by Fred Pearce.
Sex is suicide: Got it? You'll flirt and flaunt it. But the human drive to mate could be killing our planet and ultimately our species. A paper, “Why Humans Have Sex,” describes both frequently endorsed reasons for having intercourse and the common themes that unify them. A review of Impotence: A Cultural History by Angus McLaren (and an interview). Eternally virginal: Rehymenisation surgery is the lastest example of an ancient obsession with totemic purity. A review of Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women, and the World by Liza Mundy.
12:00PM
JUL 25 2007
Israel, the Middle East and American foreign policy
From Haaretz, a review of Post-Zionism, Post-Holocaust: Three Essays on Denial, Repression and Delegitimation of Israel by Elhanan Yakira. A review of Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine by Joel Kovel. A review of 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East by Tom Segev. The Apostate: David Remnick on how a Zionist politician lost faith in the future. Judith Miller interviews Shimon Peres, Israel's new president, on Iran's nuclear program—and his own. Counter Tourism: Two women are stirring up anger and passions by leading trips to the West Bank that show young Jews what an Israel-sponsored outing won't. A review of Married to Another Man: Israel's Dilemma in Palestine by Ghada Karmi and Son of the Cypresses: Memories, Reflections, and Regrets from a Political Life by Meron Benvenisti. A review of The Last Resistance by Jacqueline Rose. Shlomo Avineri on Palestine as a failed state. Getting Hezbollah to behave: The best way to contain Hezbollah may be to give it some of what it says it wants.
From Asia Times, an article on the world's worst suicide bombers. An interview with Yossi Melman, coauthor of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran. A war the Pentagon can’t win: Send the CIA after Al Qaeda in Pakistan. Bush's incompetence gives al-Qaida new life: The White House hints at military action as the terror organization regroups in northern Pakistan and the Musharraf government begins to wobble.
Iraq’s Medical Meltdown: The bombings are only the beginning of the story. What comes next for Iraq’s wounded is a frightening descent into a rapidly crumbling health-care system. The Improbable Missionary: An interview with Josh Rushing, former U.S. Military spokesman — now Al Jazeera military analyst — about bridging Arab and Western cultures and who really skews the news out of Iraq. Foreign Policy interviews former top Bush political advisor Matthew Dowd about why a party once deeply loyal to U.S. President George W. Bush is now coming apart at the seams.
The war dominates foreign-policy discussions but America must renew its attention to broader global issues: Joseph Nye reviews Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy Against Global Terror by Ian Shapiro; Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson; Security First: for a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy by Amitai Etzioni; and The Silence of the Rational Center: Why American Foreign Policy Is Failing by Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke; and a review of books on why counterterrorism efforts must be handled delicately. American exceptionalism has served as a foundation both for isolationism — and for unilateralism: An excerpt from Power and Superpower: Global Leadership and Exceptionalism in the 21st Century by David p. Forsyth (and part 2).
12:00PM
JUL 25 2007
International literature, books and magazines and more
From Magyar Lettre Internationale, a man looks at photographs of his youth in pre-war Budapest. Above all he remembers his love, the seductive Jolika. Yet memory is tainted by sorrow as it becomes clear that this is a story of loss and displacement. The patriarch of Muscovite conceptualism: The Russian artist and writer Dimitri Prigov is dead. Erich Klein, his friend and German translator, remembers one of the most important poets of the late and post-Soviet era. From The Hindu, better known for his Civil Society initiatives, Vithal Rajan’s literary works also show his empathy for the human condition. Made in China, read worldwide: A new generation of Chinese novelists is creating a publishing sensation abroad. Literary Follies: Hong Kong's competing literati count their coups. Open Letter is the University of Rochester's new publishing house. A trade-oriented press, Open Letter will publish twelve works of international literature every year.
The art of doing nothing: People read fewer challenging books because they have no time digest them - - this summer holiday take some time to not read. A novel idea: New authors should follow in the footsteps of many musicians and self publish - - it's got to be better than playing games with publishers. Let us now praise editors: They may be invisible and their art unsung. But in the age of blogging, editors are needed more than ever. Web Noir: When writing for online magazines, crime doesn’t always pay—but it can earn you a fashionable T-shirt. Matthew Baldwin investigates the current era of crime fiction on the web and the magazines that are making new voices heard. You thought Arthur was gone for good? The indie magazine beloved for its music coverage and antiwar politics will resume publishing this summer.
Business 2.0 magazine, a seven-year-old Time Inc. publication that covers start-ups, technology trends and changes in the new economy, might publish its final issue in September. From The Economist, a review of The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (and What to Do About It) by Michael E. Raynor and Unstoppable: Finding Hidden Assets to Renew the Core and Fuel Profitable Growth by Chris Zook. An excerpt from Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (and more). Can you get rich by working four hours a week? A review of The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.
