online archive
5:00PM
MAR 13 2008
The modern definition of death is wrong
A review of Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear by Dan Gardner and Panicology by Simon Briscoe and Hugh Aldersey-Williams. How do you make a terrorist talk? An interview with Jack Cloonan on how to break a terrorist. Bernard-Henri Lévy on what George W. Bush has that Nicolas Sarkozy does not. Foreign Policy surveys more than 3,400 active and retired officers at the highest levels of command about the state of the U.S. military. Some doctors suggest that the modern definition of death is wrong — and that the mistake is costing lives. More on Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason. A review of God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre by Richard Grant. Philip Jenkins on home-grown terrorism: Current political conditions are conducive to violent domestic extremism. An article on how a tiny West African country became the world's first narco state. A review of Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker. A review of The Founding Act of Modern Ethical Life: Hegel's Critique of Kant's Moral and Political Philosophy by Ido Geiger. More on Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal. From The Spectator, Martin Rowson just doesn’t buy the ideology that comes with God — even a personal appearance by the Almighty wouldn’t do the trick.
1:00PM
MAR 13 2008
Managing government isn’t sexy
From Al-Ahram, Europe, with its history of conflict, has embraced unity while the Arab world, despite its cultural homogeneity, remains divided — why? In light of recent scandals, we will now require arrest records and stool samples from all autobiographers — and can someone fact-check the Gospels? A review of Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey: A Biography by Alberto Manguel. A review of Propitious Esculent: The Potato in World History by John Reader. An interview with Karli Cerankowski, member of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. From American Heritage, an article on the miserable life, death and immortality of Hank Williams. A review of Guilty Robots, Happy Dogs: The Question of Alien Minds by David McFarland. From The Observer, meet Brian, Master of the Omniverse. From Cafe Babel, a special issue on European arts and the city. An affair of states: Managing government isn't sexy, but it can get results. A review of This Is Civilisation by Matthew Collings. A review of The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn by Solomon Volkov. It is one of the most seismic changes the world has ever seen; across the globe there is an unstoppable march to the cities, powered by new economic realities — but what kind of lives are we creating? An article on celebrating the semicolon in a most unlikely location.
9:00AM
MAR 13 2008
It’s hard to tell them apart
From Open Democracy, Tom Nairn on globalisation and nationalism: the new deal. From Good, a series of articles on Skid Row. From New Scientist, an article on the "male" military surgeon who wasn't. From Nerve, more on the history of single life: Love and money. We think we see people as individuals, but gender is like a contact lens permanently affixed to the eye. Here are 99 problems with the Bush administration: A look at the biggest losers under our current president. What happened when abstinence advocates invaded a hearing on the Hill about comprehensive sex ed. Obamanomics: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are such economic twins, it's hard to tell them apart; why his approach has the edge. A review of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery. Malte Faber (Heidelberg): How to be an Ecological Economist. Book lovers ask, what’s Seattle’s secret? From Wired, a look at how drugs and body modifications may create a second Enlightenment. In the Name of Dov: An American Apparel model's defense of the controversial CEO. It’s time for journal essays to replace books as the dominant mode of scholarly communication, writes Lindsay Waters. A review of The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History by Gordon Wood. The history of literary fakers stretches far, far back; here are some of the past few decades’ most notorious examples.
