online archive
5:00PM
AUG 27 2008
Everything is connected
From the International Journal of the Commons, Derek Armitage (WLU): Governance and the Commons in a Multi-Level World. From Monthly Review, an article on the myth of the tragedy of the commons. A review of The Prisoners' Dilemma: Political Economy and Punishment in Contemporary Democracies by Nicola Lacey. From n+1, take it to the street: Class clash on Seventh Avenue. A profile of LP presidential candidate Bob Barr, the master of a curious universe. A review of Everything is Connected: The Power of Music by Daniel Barenboim and Music at the Limits by Edward Said. Feeding the Beast: In order to weaken federal agencies, the Bush administration has expanded them to the point of collapse. Is it so outlandish to suggest that we sell the right to live in the United States? Gary Becker wants to know. A review of Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders by Jason Riley. Bent Flyvbjerg promotes a cure for billion-dollar cost overruns in government megaprojects: Use past boondoggles as a baseline. A review of Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb. A review of High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families by Peter Gosselin. Scientists sequence Neanderthal DNA and find no evidence of ancestral interbreeding with our long-lost cousins.
1:00PM
AUG 27 2008
The case of beauty
From Evolutionary Psychology, Menelaos Apostolou (Warwick): Parent-Offspring Conflict over Mating: The Case of Beauty; David M. Buss (UT- Austin) and Todd K. Shackelford (FAU): Attractive Women Want it All: Good Genes, Economic Investment, Parenting Proclivities, and Emotional Commitment; and a review of Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters by Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa. Krzysztof Koscinski (AMU): Facial attractiveness: General patterns of facial preferences. Una Gustafsson and Fredrik Bjorklund (Lund): Women Self-Stereotype with Feminine Stereotypical Traits Under Stereotype Threats. Betsey A. Stevenson and Justin Wolfers (Penn): Paradox of Declining Female Happiness. Daniel L. Chen (Harvard): Does Forbidding Sexual Harassment Exacerbate Gender Inequality? From Islamica, an interview with Samuel Huntington; a review of books on political Islam; and an article on the American Muslim community's "Obama" problem: How do you root for a candidate who doesn't want you to root for him? Jonathan Chait on the right's silly obsession with the Obama "cult". A review of Christianity and American Democracy by Hugh Heclo. A review of Muscular Christianity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Worlds. A review of Nietzsche: A Guide for the Perplexed by R. Kevin Hill. More on Victor Stenger's God: The Failed Hypothesis.
9:00AM
AUG 27 2008
Judging a book by its cover
From TNR, Paul Berman on the death of 1989: The vast, frightening fallout of Russia's invasion of Georgia; and the Kosovo Card: Ruth Wedgwood on the moral and legal fallacies of Russia's pretense for invading Georgia. From PUP, the introduction to Because of Race: How Americans Debate Harm and Opportunity in Our Schools by Mica Pollock; the introduction to Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life by David E. Campbell; and the introduction to The Welfare State Nobody Knows: Debunking Myths about U.S. Social Policy by Christopher Howard. From Rolling Stone, Sean Wilentz on How Bush Destroyed the Republican Party (and a video). Lifehacking for candidates: The pros give productivity advice to the presidential hopefuls. From Mute, Giovanni Arrighi invokes the political economy of Adam Smith to claim that China's labour intensive mode of production is the future of capitalism — it's also the past, argues Daniel Berchenko. A review of Judging a Book by Its Cover: Fans, Publishers, Designers, and the Marketing of Fiction. More on John Allen Paulos' Irreligion. A blueprint for good: A new movement aims to change the world through free architecture. They mean business. A review of Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality by Charles Murray (and more and more from Inside Higher Ed).
