Newsletter 297
[1]Of Mines And Men
Links:
1. http://b.rw/j3mS3l
Scott Johnson | Guernica | 27 April 2011
Angola's economy booms, thanks to oil revenues and Chinese investment.
Angolans don't much like Chinese, and vice versa, but business is business.
Country still a mess after 30 years of civil war, but the Chinese can hack
it [2]Comments
Links:
2. http://thebrowser.com/articles/mines-and-men
[3]How To Make Your Lie Go Mainstream
Links:
3. http://b.rw/kNtCPU
Matt Honan | Mother Jones | 27 April 2011
Handy flowchart. Get media attention for your crazy idea in 26 easy steps.
"Are the facts on your side? No problem. Facts aren't finite. We'll make
some more". And if somebody else has better facts? Then "teach the
controversy" [4]Comments
Links:
4. http://thebrowser.com/articles/how-make-your-lie-go-mainstream
[5]Preservation Of Self Is True Measure Of Elite's Genius
Links:
5. http://b.rw/iMtKjE
Fintan O'Toole | Irish Times | 26 April 2011
Many of Ireland's banking and governing elite emerged from the recent
economic crisis financially well-off and, all things considered, with
reputations intact. In fact, key government officials were actually
promoted. Impressive [6]Comments
Links:
6. http://thebrowser.com/articles/preservation-self-true-measure-elites-genius
[7]Archives And Alligators
Links:
7. http://b.rw/mR2oy1
Stephen Ennis | TLS | 27 April 2011
Well into the 1970s Ted Hughes was selling manuscripts of his poems for
nominal sums to meet pressing cash needs. Today his archive, bought by an
American university, is probably worth millions. A short history of a
booming market [8]Comments
Links:
8. http://thebrowser.com/articles/archives-and-alligators
[9]Why Addictions Are Hard To Forget
Links:
9. http://b.rw/iBTPhx
Nina Bai | Scientific American | 27 April 2011
Research on mice backs up "growing consensus in the addiction field that
addiction is a learning and memory disorder". Alcoholics and hard drug users
suffer from subconsious reward-based conditioning - a sort of Pavlovian
response [10]Comments
Links:
10. http://thebrowser.com/articles/why-addictions-are-hard-forget
[11]The Bloody Crossroads
Links:
11. http://b.rw/kfOMdF
Aman Sethi | Caravan | 27 April 2011
Epic read on India's Maoist insurgency and the (mostly ineffective) ways the
country's security forces try to deal with them. Story focuses on one
village hit particularly hard by fighting factions. Great first-hand report
[12]Comments
Links:
12. http://thebrowser.com/articles/bloody-crossroads
FiveBooks Interview
[13]Carl Zimmer on The Strangeness of Life
Links:
13. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/carl-zimmer-on-strangeness-life
Journalist, author and award-winning blogger discusses the strangeness of
life, from viruses to manipulative flatworms
Featured Topic
[14]Espionage
Links:
14. http://thebrowser.com/topics/espionage
The irresistible subject - spies. Who are they? What do they really do? Are
today's spies that different from the heroes of the Cold War? Read on to
find out
Reader Recommendations
_@CorbinHiar_ “The big greedy bastards against the big greedy bastards.” –
anonymous Senator on the swipe fees debate [15]ow.ly/4IYVb [16]#browsings
Links:
15. http://ow.ly/4IYVb
16. https://twitter.com/search?q=#browsings
Book of the Day
[17]Conversations with Kennedy by Benjamin C. Bradlee
Links:
17. http://thebrowser.com/recommended/conversations-kennedy-by-benjamin-c-bradlee
_[18]David Nasaw_ says: “With Bradlee, you really get a sense of the Kennedy
administration and of Kennedy’s personality that you don’t get anywhere
else”
Links:
18. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/david-nasaw-on-kennedys
Video of the Day
[19]Existential Star Wars
Links:
19. http://thebrowser.com/videos/existential-star-wars
Film by George Lucas, dialogue by Jean-Paul Sartre
Quote of the Day
[20]Alan Blinder, on economists
Links:
20. http://crookedtimber.org/2011/03/17/a-simple-model-of-disagreement-among-economists
"Economists have the least influence on policy where they know the most
and are most agreed. They have the most influence on policy where they
know the least and disagree most"