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Best of the Moment
Too Much Information
Ian Leslie | Aeon | 7th August 2013
On privacy, human nature, and internet sharing. Our instincts haven't yet evolved to incorporate Facebook. "Over time, we will probably get smarter about online sharing. But right now, we’re pretty stupid about it. Perhaps this is because, at some primal level, we don’t really believe in the internet. Humans evolved their instinct for privacy in a world where words and acts disappeared the moment they were spoken or made"
Take Back Your Pregnancy
Emily Oster | Wall Street Journal | 9th August 2013
Economist challenges the conventional wisdoms of pregnancy. For example: coffee. "We know that nausea is a sign of a healthy pregnancy, but (as in my case) it also causes women to avoid coffee. This means that the pregnant women who drink a lot of coffee also are more likely to be the ones who aren't experiencing nausea. So here we may well be mistaking a correlation for an underlying cause"
David Moyes And Glasgow Football
Simon Kuper | Askmen | 9th August 2013
Matt Busby was from Glasgow; as is Alex Ferguson; and their successor as Manchester United manager, David Moyes. Bill Shankly, Jock Stein, Kenny Dalglish — also Glaswegians. The only English manager with comparable chops was Brian Clough. Why has Glasgow bred such superb managers? "Scots have a better understanding of soccer. It’s more to do with personality. They tell it to you straight, and players respond to that"
Lunch With The FT: Emile Simpson
John Thornhill | Financial Times | 9th August 2013
Interview with the 30-year-old ex-Gurkha acclaimed as the new Clausewitz (http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1239841.ece) when his book on military strategy, War From The Ground Up, appeared in April. Clausewitz saw war as an interstate activity that was polarised, decisive, and finite. Simpson saw after three tours with the British army in Afghanistan that modern warfare need be none of those things. Armies compete not so much for territories as for "strategic audiences"
Video of the day: "Her", by Spike Jonze
Thought for the day:
"A book that can be summarized should not be written as a book" — NassimTaleb