Give Me Something To Read

The End of the Beijing Consensus

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:01:50 -0500

Since China began undertaking economic reforms in 1978, its economy has grown at a rate of nearly ten percent a year, and its per-capita GDP is now twelve times greater than it was three decades ago. Many analysts attribute the country’s economic success to its unconventional approach to economic policy — a combination of mixed ownership, basic property rights, and heavy government intervention. Time magazine’s former foreign editor, Joshua Cooper Ramo, has even given it a name: the Beijing consensus.

Lawyers, Guns, and Money

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:31:51 -0500

Lawyers, Guns, and Money:

How big banks, powerful lobbyists, sneaky attorneys, and a host of businessmen funnel dirty cash into the US.

Pecking order

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:01:51 -0500

Pecking order:

Peter Lennox keeps chickens, and they have taught him a great deal about behaviour, ethics, evolution and the psychopathic nature of modern ‘efficiency’

Our world may be a giant hologram

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:01:53 -0500

Our world may be a giant hologram:

According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, GEO600 has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time - the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described and instead dissolves into “grains”, just as a newspaper photograph dissolves into dots as you zoom in. “It looks like GEO600 is being buffeted by the microscopic quantum convulsions of space-time,” says Hogan.

Crash Blossoms

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:31:51 -0500

Crash Blossoms:

In their quest for concision, writers of newspaper headlines are, like Robert Browning, inveterate sweepers away of little words, and the dust they kick up can lead to some amusing ambiguities.

Azzam the American

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:01:49 -0500

Azzam the American:

The making of an Al Qaeda homegrown.

Easy = True

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:01:50 -0500

Easy = True:

How ‘cognitive fluency’ shapes what we believe, how we invest, and who will become a supermodel

How to Survive a 35,000-Foot Fall

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:30:50 -0500

How to Survive a 35,000-Foot Fall:

You’re six miles up, alone and falling without a parachute. Though the odds are long, a small number of people have found themselves in similar situations—and lived to tell the tale. Here’s PM’s 120-mph, 35,000-ft, 3-minutes-to-impact survival guide.

The Quiet Revolution

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:00:53 -0500

The Quiet Revolution:

Obama has reinvented the state in more ways than you can imagine.

(Thanks, Heather)

Neighbors' Keeper

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:53:51 -0500

Neighbors' Keeper:

A woman feeds her community in Port-au-Prince.

China Battles the Information Barbarians

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:23:50 -0500

China Battles the Information Barbarians:

China often views the ideas of foreigners, from missionaries in the 17th century to 21st-century Internet entrepreneurs, as subversive imports. The tumultuous history behind the clash with Google.

Arab society's crunch points

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:53:50 -0500

Arab society's crunch points:

To understand Arab society, and indeed its politics, we have to understand Arab concepts of the family. The family is the basic molecule of society and, in many ways, a microcosm of the Arab state. It is the primary mechanism for social control – or, put another way, the point where liberty begins to be constrained.

Lady Gaga's Lessons for the Music Business

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:23:51 -0500

Lady Gaga's Lessons for the Music Business:

With digital dominance, business savvy, a niche-busting sound and 1,001 wardrobe changes, she is a new model for success

Postscript: J.D. Salinger

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:00:51 -0500

Postscript: J.D. Salinger:

J. D. Salinger has died. From 1946 to 1965, Salinger published thirteen stories in The New Yorker including such classics as “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters.” There will be much more to come online and in next week’s magazine, but for now, we are making twelve of his New Yorker stories available to all readers through our digital edition.

J. D. Salinger, Enigmatic Author, Dies at 91

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:30:51 -0500

J. D. Salinger, Enigmatic Author, Dies at 91:

J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died on Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91.

Before Martyrdom, Breakfast

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:00:51 -0500

Before Martyrdom, Breakfast:

Flagg Miller, of the U. of California at Davis, has listened to hundreds of audio tapes that once belonged to Osama bin Laden. It’s the everyday conversations among jihadis that he finds the most interesting.

The Myth of Campaign Finance Reform

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:33:51 -0500

The Myth of Campaign Finance Reform:

March 24, 2009, may go down as a turning point in the history of the campaign-finance reform debate in America. On that day, in the course of oral argument before the Supreme Court in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, United States deputy solicitor general Malcolm Stewart inadvertently revealed just how extreme our campaign-finance system has become.

For the Love of Culture

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:03:50 -0500

For the Love of Culture:

Google, copyright, and our future.

In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:30:51 -0500

In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits:

The door of a dry-cleaner-size storefront in an industrial park in Wareham, Massachusetts, an hour south of Boston, might not look like a portal to the future of American manufacturing, but it is. This is the headquarters of Local Motors, the first open source car company to reach production. Step inside and the office reveals itself as a mind-blowing example of the power of micro-factories.

Confronting Cholera: My Zimbabwe Diary

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:00:49 -0500

Confronting Cholera: My Zimbabwe Diary:

The following events took place in April 2009, when I was privileged enough to be invited by Oxfam America to learn about their programs abroad. Focusing primarily on the rampant Cholera epidemic, but also on the importance of sanitation systems and crumbling economies, the diary feels especially timely now, given the Haiti earthquake disaster. Now more than ever, Oxfam and other humanitarian organizations need regular folks’ help to keep the victims of these disasters safe from disease and death. — Emile Hirsch