Newsletter 292

[1]Predicting The Improbable
Links:
1. http://b.rw/fTIZIY

Claus Bjørn Jørgensen et al | Vox | 22 April 2011

Gamblers with a "system" for picking lottery numbers tend to lose more than
those who do it at random. Not because their systems are worse than random,
but because they over-estimate their chances of winning, and buy more
tickets [2]Comments
Links:
2. http://thebrowser.com/articles/predicting-improbable

[3]Message To American Atheists
Links:
3. http://b.rw/i2z8pD

Christopher Hitchens | Richard Dawkins Foundation | 22 April 2011

Beautifully turned letter of apology for absence. "Nothing would have kept
me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice)
which in turn is due to a long argument I am having with the specter of
death" [4]Comments
Links:
4. http://thebrowser.com/articles/message-american-atheists

[5]Art In The Time of War
Links:
5. http://b.rw/dGQkkT

Richard Evans | National Interest | 20 April 2011

On the looting of artworks. It's been going on since Jason and the Argonauts
grabbed the Golden Fleece. It's clearly a condemnable crime—except when
one's country does it. Ask France about Napoleon. Or Britain about Lord
Elgin [6]Comments
Links:
6. http://thebrowser.com/articles/art-time-war

[7]The Really Smart Phone
Links:
7. http://b.rw/fl511v

Robert Lee Hotz | WSJ | 23 April 2011

Data from mobile phone use gives "a god's-eye view of human behaviour".
Patterns of human dynamics invisible by other means. You have it with you
all day. Service providers know who you're calling, when, where, how long,
how often [8]Comments
Links:
8. http://thebrowser.com/articles/really-smart-phone

[9]China Misunderstood
Links:
9. http://b.rw/eakNNI

Ian Thompson | NYRB | 22 April 2011

Ai Weiwei was a fine artist who morphed into a dissident. Westerners
lionised him as he confronted China's government over the Beijing Olympics,
the Sichuan earthquake. But did he, or we, understand how badly it was bound
to end? [10]Comments
Links:
10. http://thebrowser.com/articles/china-misunderstood

[11]Israel, Extraordinary Rendition, And The Strange Case Of Dirar Abu Sisi
Links:
11. http://b.rw/epGeHt

Richard Silverstein | Truthout | 21 April 2011

On a cold February night in Ukraine a Palestinian civil engineer was pulled
out of his bunk on the sleeper train to Kiev and spirited away to Israel.
Blogger who broke the story gives fullest account yet of what happened, and
why [12]Comments
Links:
12. http://thebrowser.com/articles/israel-extraordinary-rendition-and-strange-case-dirar-abu-sisi

FiveBooks Interview

[13]Timothy Garton Ash on The History of the Present
Links:
13. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/timothy-garton-ash-on-history-present

Historian and journalist Timothy Garton Ash describes the "mongrel genre"
between reportage and scholarship and says using the historian’s tools to
analyse the present is a vital undertaking