Writing Worth Reading
Cyclists behave, get treated, as though they were pedestrians. They don't feel bound by traffic rules. Drivers don't respect them. They need to jump species barrier, behave as motorists
Reinsurance made fascinating. How Munich Re researches, prices global risk, including climate change. "What is the probability that Cologne's historic Old Town will be flooded a second time within the next year? Ten percent"
History of Saatchi & Saatchi. Founded 1970. Pioneered high-concept advertising. Bravura style. Built world's biggest agency, strongest brand. Over-reached by trying to buy Midland Bank
Female author tells how her publishers always want to package her books for female readers, regardless of content. If you want to write a serious novel for a general audience, it helps to be a man
Clever, funny, uplifting tribute to New Zealand doctor who pioneered modern research into premature childbirth. Did most of his work with sheep. Found, happily, it worked with humans too
Profile of Ryan Air boss, "shabby, crappy, cheap", and enjoyable as always. Passengers as cattle. "O'Leary will call you a cow, lick his chops, and explain how he plans to carve you up for dinner"
On Tony Blair's memoirs. "There have never been prime ministerial memoirs like this. It appears to be a book written in tune with all the most unpleasant and cynical marketing techniques of modern publishing"
Man Booker winner's view of literary prizes. They're stressful, distorting, demeaning, and wonderful to win. "It has made my sales soar and hugely boosted my royalties. It has cut me free"
Painstaking investigation into alleged illegal telephone tapping by Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, with British police turning a blind eye. Ex-editor at centre of storm now adviser to British PM
Psychologist, writer, talks about recovery from eye cancer. "I still have hallucinations of a low order. They tend to be in black and white—but when I smoke a little pot, they’re in colour"
Netanyahu won't make peace so US should go over his head to the Israeli people. But if there's an Israeli 'yes' to de-occupation gestating somewhere it'll still take US surgery to bring it out
Former prisoner in Arizona tells of gang violence, overflowing toilets, food green with mould. And a horrendous anecdote about an asthmatic cellmate and a cockroach
Interesting, little known story of how Darwin created a fully functioning, yet total artificial, ecosystem on Ascension Island. Could it have implications for future colonisation of Mars?
Obama's speech, trying to put a brave face on US combat troop withdrawals from Iraq, was "rare moment of dishonesty and disingenuousness". Other troops will stay, violence will continue, Iraq is a wreck
Remarkably moving piece of writing. US officer pays tribute to brave young interpreter who joined Americans after al-Qaeda beheaded two of his classmates. Spoiler: it doesn't end happily
In his memoirs, and in accompanying interview, ex-leader says he doesn't regret Iraq, does regret fox-hunting ban, and that Gordon Brown always had "zero emotional intelligence"
"Cyberspace, not so long ago, was a specific elsewhere, visited periodically. Now cyberspace has turned itself inside out, colonised the physical, making Google a central structural unit of the world"
Assassinatory, highly readable profile of right-wing heroine, portrayed throughout as mean, angry, mendacious, aggressive, cynical, borderline-unbalanced. And a bad mother
Beautiful, sad, photo-essay about near-deserted Japanese island, once home of country's last working coalmines. Twelve children in school built for 1,500. One restaurant. Lots, and lots, of rust
Short account of evolution of modern classical music. Atonality was promoted by governments and elites. Romantic tradition, infused by jazz, proved stronger. Minimalism tried to combine both, badly
![Gravestone_[1]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3373/4638685696_edb9c69e3b_s.jpg "Gravestone_[1]")
Eton and Oxford. Bought Caribbean island of Mustique. Walker for Princess Margaret. Child by Lucian Freud's mistress. Lost most of his money. Limbo-danced at Edinburgh festival
Glenn Beck channels anxiety among many white Americans that non-whites will soon outnumber them. Claims that Obama is Muslim, and foreign-born, are coded expressions of racial fear
Interview with Andrew Pettegree, historian, on cultural, commercial upheavals produced by first printed books. New market, new commodity. People had to get used to buying and selling them
What would happen if, instead of spare change, you handed a homeless person the means to shop for what they wanted? Toronto reporter buys pre-paid cards and finds out
Fascinating profile of Obama's appointee as head of National Institutes Of Health. A brilliant geneticist, and fervent Christian, caught in centre of culture war over stem-cell research
Quite a review. Biography of Samuel Steward, drug addict, masochist, philanderer, whose conquests included Rudolph Valentino, Lord Alfred Douglas, Thornton Wilder. Later, apparently, a Hell's Angel
Why is customer service so bad? Because it's a cost centre. Its effects are hard to measure. And companies care more about attracting new customers, than pleasing those they have
“The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide”, last published 1964, advised Afro-American drivers where they would be welcome to eat and stay in US, Canada, Mexico
Spiegel plays hardball. Great questions. Begins with stoning, then on to election-rigging, corruption, nuclear weapons. Mottaki dodges, blusters. All interviews should be like this
Periodic anthology of quotations, statistics, problems, reports, deriving from study of probability. Includes discussion of "Tuesday's boy", successor to Monty Hall as most-argument-provoking puzzle
Well-judged analysis of cricket betting scandal. No purpose served by abandoning Pakistan; compassion may be in short supply but they should be helped to recover
Sometimes, things are clearer viewed from a distance. US commentator says European integration has gone into reverse, driven by nationalism in general, Germany's in particular
Magisterial right-wing overview of recent American history: fantastic 50-year run to 1989, save for Vietnam. After that, decay. Sideswipes against lawyers forgivable from writer just out of jail
Choosing the first bottle of wine is simple: white, light, get it to the table fast. The second is the one that counts. It should be better than the first, interesting, unknown to your guests. Better to be guided by vintages than makers
Short, powerful reflection on technology, from veteran computer scientist, complaining that individual cognition is being turned into a commodity that Facebook and others can manipulate, trade
Interesting paradox of US tech industry is that there's both a shortage and a surplus of engineers. Former entrepreneur explains why, and throws in potentially useful career advice for techies too
What happened when writer renounced Hasidic Jewish upbringing. "The first time I danced publicly was exhilarating, I got drunk on half a Guinness and the first time I flirted with a boy I came on too strong"
On "altruistic punishment", or, strategies for dealing with people who cut into queues, sprawl out across two seats, accelerate on amber. It's not rational to frustrate them, but it's fun
Lucid argument against more US support to prop up Somali government, which is no use anyway. Main effect would be to radicalise country further, boosting extremist Al Shabab movement
Heer, hie, ha, hesh, co, xie, per, en, thir, le, lim, ler, lers ... For more than 150 years attempts have been made to coin one set of pronouns for both genders, but none has come near to catching on
Guaranteed to be the most interesting article about potash you will read this year. Surge in price of key fertiliser mineral signals rising Chinese demand for food, fear of world food shortage
At last, floods get blockbuster treatment. A month late, but a great story. All there. Human tragedy, infrastructural devastation, further undermining of government, geopolitical repercussions
Lots of sharp insights about Iraq, financial crash, US policy. Writer looks back at key predictions she got wrong. "I believed that the Fed and prudent fiscal policy had, to a large extent, tamed the business cycle"
First-class review-essay covering big new books on finance from Mallaby, Roubini, Reich, Quiggin. Tour d'horizon of current thinking on meltdown. Conclusion: we need to update Keynes, but we don't know how
When market demand for mortgage-backed securities ebbed, banks sold them to each other instead, booked profits, paid bonuses, issued more securities. Until bubble burst
Savouring the clichés of an axed British detective series. Born as gritty drama, it devolved into soap. With such lines as: "Juliet's just died, my husband's left me and I'm carrying a dead man's baby!"
Extracts from a Dictionary of Modern Life, after Samuel Johnson. Defines "Yummy Mummy" as "Hateful term of barb'd praise for a woman who has borne children yet not become a crone"
British government sliding into "mercantilism"—policies of soft protectionism and industrial planning, which please business lobbies, but frustrate competitive markets and free trade
Annual state budget: $11m—about equal to the budget for "High School Musical 3". Wages and salaries take $9.8m. Central bank governor gets $1,000 a year
Author tracks down ex-boyfriend. And his wife. "It's fascinating, if unsettling, to see the other forms that an ex-partner's desire can take." But does it help, and what if you're caught?
The man and the memoirs: a collection of essays, diaries and polemics portraying Britain's former...
Former prisoner in Arizona tells of gang violence, overflowing toilets, food green with mould. And a horrendous anecdote about an asthmatic cellmate and a cockroach
Assassinatory, highly readable profile of right-wing heroine, portrayed throughout as mean, angry, mendacious, aggressive, cynical, borderline-unbalanced. And a bad mother
Glenn Beck channels anxiety among many white Americans that non-whites will soon outnumber them. Claims that Obama is Muslim, and foreign-born, are coded expressions of racial fear
What would happen if, instead of spare change, you handed a homeless person the means to shop for what they wanted? Toronto reporter buys pre-paid cards and finds out
Stephen Moss, on public life in Britain
We have married the prurience and homophobia of the Christian era to a modern desire to know everything -- the worst of all worlds
Will Wilkinson, on Americanism
The conservative conception of American identity is so selective and so specific that it tends to suggest to its adherents that many (maybe even most) Americans aren't real Americans, or are Americans who betray real American ideals
Chris Blattman, on human rights
If I had to draw the veil of ignorance, not knowing what role or gender or nationality I would receive, I’d be much relieved by a world with human rights
Marriage has now taken the form of divorce: a prolonged and impassioned negotiation as to how things shall be divided
Daniel Levy, on Mideast peace prospects
George Mitchell keeps asking for 700 days, because that's what it took with Northern Ireland -- well he is at 600 now
Simon Jenkins, on the Iraq war
A catastrophe that did more than anything else to alienate Atlantic powers from the rest of the world and disqualify them as global policemen
Outstanding profile of Christopher "moot" Poole, and 4chan, his online community, where anonymity and lack of rules generates huge, rowdy traffic. Poole: "People deserve a place to be wrong"
Salman Khan quit hedge fund job to launch educational website. Makes video tutorials in a closet at home. They're short, simple, effective, viral. Bill Gates calls him "awesome"
Excellent, footnoted history of "Confidential", pioneering 1950s Hollywood gossip magazine which blazed cheesy trail of scandal and innuendo followed later by National Inquirer, TMZ etc
Tech writer who sold start-up to Yahoo gives spot-on inside diagnosis of Yahoo's implosion. Wanted to be media company, not tech company. Hired second-rate programmers. Fatal error
Wonderful. Crime reporter invites three Japanese gangsters to rate new Yakuza video-game. "I like that you can grab ashtrays or billboards and beat the crap out of the punks bothering you"
Great read. Retired Las Vegas weather-man turns to casino surveillance, spots a way of beating "The Price Is Right", inveigles himself and friends on to show, walks away with jackpot
How one man in Germany, experimenting with a typewriter, defined text messaging. It was going to be 128 characters, but he tweaked it
Breathtakingly honest account of marriage break-up: "I am a 47-year-old woman whose commitment to monogamy, at the very end, came unglues"
"Momentum on Doha Round", and nine more stories that appear repeatedly in newspapers but never get anywhere
