Giraffe Edition 26
More Engaging Copy For The Ten Commandments
David Tate | McSweeney's | 23rd July 2014
What Moses might have got if God had outsourced the job to Upworthy: "This Little Girl Bore False Witness and the Results Will Shock You" (120 words)
Money Talks: The Language Of Finance
John Lanchester | New Yorker | 28th July 2014
Financial language baffles outsiders with its jargon and density. Such opacity is not necessarily sinister: sometimes words are complicated because reality is complicated. But we should make a special effort to understand. "Incomprehension is a form of consent. If we allow ourselves not to understand this language, we are signing off on the prospect of an ever-widening gap between the rich and everyone else" (3,500 words)
The Raw Material Of Wealth
Ricardo Hausmann | Project Syndicate | 28th July 2014
Poor countries that export raw materials may think their best way to riches lies with blocking the exports and processing the raw materials themselves, as South Africa has done. But that's a very narrow view, and may be a trap. Finland didn't get rich by processing its timber. It got rich by building machines to process the timber, then applying the machine-building skills in new fields of tech and engineering (1,050 words)
Short Stories Everyone Should Read
George Saunders | O Magazine | 1st July 2014
If an alien beams you up and asks what it's like to be human, hand it some short stories to read. "Short stories are the deep, encoded crystallizations of all human knowledge. They are rarefied, dense meaning machines, shedding light on the most pressing of life's dilemmas. By reading a thoughtfully selected set of them, our alien could, in a few hours, learn everything he needs to know about the way we live" (1,200 words)
You Are Not Too Late
Kevin Kelly | Medium | 27th July 2014
Imagine being an online entrepreneur in 1985, when nothing had been invented and every dotcom name was available for free. Paradise. But come 2044, we're likely to feel the same about 2014: All the great stuff of the future is still to be invented. Barriers to innovation are lower than ever. "The last 30 years has created a marvellous starting point, a solid platform to build truly great things. You are not too late" (760 words)
Video of the day: Children In Gaza
What to expect: British television commentary, with shocking pictures of injured children
Thought for the day
"Economists put decimal points in their forecasts to show that they have a sense of humour"
— William Gilmore Simms