Refreshed at 0900GMT ThursdayWriting Worth Reading | July 29, 2010
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Best of the Moment

Low Tricks And High Finance
Tim Congdon | TLS | 28 July 2010
City economist's fine, critical review of Niall Ferguson's biography of Sigmund Warburg. Says Ferguson overstates Warburg's achievements. Full of insights about how financial institutions operate
A Girls’ Guide To Saudi Arabia
Maureen Dowd | Vanity Fair | August 2010
Exactly the piece you'd expect from Maureen Dowd in Saudi Arabia. Shrewd, sarcastic, superficial, full of odd factoids and jibes against Islamist misogyny. And very funny
Mine Shaft's Dark Secrets Of Death
Luo Jieqi | Caixin | 28 July 2010
From China, a terrific, convoluted, murder-and-extortion story in which seemingly everybody, possibly excepting the corpse, is double-crossing. Even the crime scene, a coal mine, is illegal
Ever-Curious Cellist
David Mermelstein | WSJ | 29 July 2010
Delightful interview with a charming, clever, Yo-Yo Ma. "My job as a performer is to make something memorable. If I do something nice but forgettable, it needn't have happened"
Top Secret America: A Bust
Richard Posner | New Republic | 29 July 2010
Withering dismissal of WP's "Secret America" series. "Will impress only naïve readers who have failed to realize that the US government and its major components are huge"
Was Cardinal Newman A Saint?
Anthony Kenny | TLS | 28 July 2010
Beautiful essay on 19th-century religious thinker and writer. His attempts to reconcile Church of England with its Roman Catholic heritage failed, but both churches honour his memory
Cable Ready
Jason Zasky | Failure | 28 July 2010
Story of epic struggle to lay first transatlantic cable. Finally completed in 1866 after years of problems, many avoidable. Narrator enjoys setbacks too much to be entirely reliable, but a good read
Two Stories Of Doomed Love
Michael Schaub | NPR | 28 July 2010
Excerpt from new Gary Shteyngart novel, preceded by short review. Absurdist humour, satire combine in vision of US as cash-strapped police state all but owned by China, at war with Venezuela
On Immodesty And Lust
Lisa Wade | Jezebel | 28 July 2010
Survey reports, in some detail, on what young American Christian men think about women. Results suggest a pernicious asymmetry between men and women, not far from rationale for the burqa
United Mistakes Of America
Kathryn Schulz | NYT Blogs | 28 July 2010
We tend to despise or deny our mistakes, disparage those of others. Succinct essay suggests we'd do better to embrace American founding fathers' view that errors are inevitable, should be tolerated
The Writing On Pompeii's Walls
Kristin Ohlson | Smithsonian | 27 July 2010
Studying ancient graffiti leads to some surprising discoveries, among them that Nero was more popular than generally supposed. Walls also used to display wit, declarations of love and appreciative remarks by visitors
Celebrity Biographer Reveals All
Tim Adams | 25 July 2010
Wonderfully straight-faced comic portrait of Michael Munn, hack writer and amateur actor, who claims intimate friendships with stars from Olivier to Burton by way of Steve McQueen
Imagining Prisons
Ashley Makar | Killing The Buddha | 26 July 2010
Wide-ranging conversation about history and purpose of American penal system, punishment, torture, with Caleb Smith, Yale professor. Interesting—and depressing— throughout
Obama's Legacy: Afghanistan
Garry Wills | NYR Blog | 27 July 2010
Short, bitter account of dinner given by Obama for Wills and eight other historians. They said Afghan war was another Vietnam. Obama said "realistic solution" was possible
Stop Worrying And Love the Flow
Peggy Nelson | Nieman Storyboard | 23 July 2010
Of course we should take cellphone calls in the middle of dinner. We're part of a global networked conversation, not just the one going on at table. Note the risqué first paragraph
No Graveyard Of Empires
Christian Caryl | Foreign Policy | 26 July 2010
Popular wisdom gets history of Afghanistan back to front. For centuries it has been a cradle of empires, a land for conquerors. It chewed up Brits and Soviets, but Brits came back
The Forgotten American
Roger Cohen | NYT | 26 July 2010
Furkan Dogan was shot dead by Israeli forces on a Turkish vessel in international waters. What would have happened if an American called Michael Sandler had been killed by a Palestinian gunman in the West Bank?
A History Of Folly
Simon Jenkins | Guardian | 27 July 2010
Documents published by Wikileaks not so much sensational as relentless. Afghan war can't be about making Britain safer or about oil, drugs, Iran or Pakistan, because in each case it's making matters worse
Rise Of The Caring Industry
Ronald Dworkin | Policy Review | June 2010
America has 30 times as many clinical psychologists as it did 50 years ago, and as many more diverse therapists. Why? Are Americans suffering from an onrush of mental fragility?
The Scales Fall
Elizabeth Kolbert | New Yorker | 27 July 2010
Industrial fishing is destroying successive species. Cod, halibut, haddock, swordfish, marlin, skate all rare. Bluefin tuna may soon be extinct. Is no regulatory solution possible?
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Browsings

28 July 2010

Aaron David Miller, on Middle East peace:
One of the most enduring myths surrounding Arab-Israeli diplomacy is that direct negotiations provide the key to successful peacemaking. They don't
Stephen Walt, on realism:
Realists understand that military power is a crude instrument and that governing alien societies is a costly business
Michio Kaku, on technology:
In the next 10 years, I predict that computer power will be so powerful that you will have the internet in your contact lenses and when you blink you will be online. When you are talking to somebody, you will be able to see their face

27 July 2010

Issandr El Amrani, on Egypt:
Its problem is not that it teeters on the brink of an abyss but that it is too complacent, too certain of a rescue. Just as financial institutions assured of a bailout can eschew necessary reforms, so can political systems

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