Browser Newsletter 1112
Best of the Moment
What’s Next For Apple
Eric Jackson & Horace Dediu | Asymco | 17th September 2013
Short, highly perceptive interview. "There is no absorption by mainstream observers of what makes Apple tick. It’s hiding in plain sight because what it is isn’t anything anyone can recognize. It’s the largest functional organization outside the US Army. Just describing it sounds medieval and it’s so far outside convention that it’s not something reasonable people are willing to believe actually exists"
No One Reads Kafka In Gitmo
Molly Crabapple | Medium | 16th September 2013
Notes and drawings from a visit to Guantanamo Bay prison. "In Guantanamo’s library, a Pashto version of The Principles of Democracy sits next to nine neat copies of The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook. According to the painfully nervous library tech, Milton, religious books are the most in demand. On the sailing magazines, Milton has sharpied out women’s bodies for reasons of cultural sensitivity"
Inside White House, A Head-Spinning Reversal On Syria
Adam Entous et al | Wall Street Journal | 15th September 2013
Terrific tick-tock. "An extraordinary 24 days in international diplomacy". Detailed account of behind-the-scenes manoeuvring as President Barack Obama veered first towards seeking Congressional approval for attacking Syria, then towards working with Russia on a peaceful deal to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons. "The U.S. stumbled into an international crisis and then stumbled out of it"
Congo’s Conflict Minerals
Jeffrey Gettleman | National Geographic | 16th September 2013
"Congo is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country and one of its richest on paper, with an embarrassment of diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper, tin, tantalum, you name it. But because of never ending war, it is one of the poorest and most traumatized nations in the world. Militia-controlled mines in eastern Congo have been feeding raw materials into the world’s biggest electronics and jewelry companies and at the same time feeding chaos"
Dancing With A Black Widow
Jackson Landers | New York Times | 16th September 2013
What it's like to be bitten by a venomous spider. "I lay on my back with my teeth clenched and my hands gripping the sides of a hospital bed. A crowd of strangers in white coats filled the tiny room. Waves of pain lapped from my abdomen into my chest as the venom worked its way toward my heart. An experimental antivenin drug was about to be injected into my bloodstream" (Metered paywall)
Video of the day: Wagner For Mayor
Thought for the day:
"The emotions I feel are no more meant to be shown in their unadulterated state than the inner organs by which we live" — Hannah Arendt