Newsletter 349
[1]The Invisible Army
Links:
1. http://b.rw/lsV1Yd
Sarah Stillman | New Yorker | 6 June 2011
Horrifying investigation, recently ungated, into "third-country nationals"
working for US military in war zones. Employed by unscrupulous
subcontractors, they're lied to, abused, trapped in jobs that are more like
indentured labour [2]Comments
Links:
2. http://thebrowser.com/articles/invisible-army
[3]The Baby And The Baath Water
Links:
3. http://b.rw/iMVSAv
Adam Curtis | Medium And Message | 16 June 2011
How "an odd group of idealists and hard realists in the American government"
manipulated Syrian politics in 1947-49, intending to nurture democracy, but
instead setting in train upheavals that led to the Assad family dictatorship
[4]Comments
Links:
4. http://thebrowser.com/articles/baby-and-baath-water
[5]A Dirty Business
Links:
5. http://b.rw/ls6pbR
George Packer | New Yorker | 20 June 2011
Long piece on hedge fund Galleon and Preet Bharara, lawyer charged with
bringing Wall Street to heel. “When sophisticated business people begin to
adopt the methods of common criminals, we have no choice but to treat them
as such" [6]Comments
Links:
6. http://thebrowser.com/articles/dirty-business
[7]Can We Prevent The Next Bubble?
Links:
7. http://b.rw/jIyhWP
Jonah Lehrer | Frontal Cortex | 16 June 2011
Interesting question, investigated with a little history and some detailed
neuroscience. Conclusion: "Speculative bubbles are rooted in a very adaptive
learning mechanism, which is probably why they’re so hard to prevent"
[8]Comments
Links:
8. http://thebrowser.com/articles/can-we-prevent-next-bubble
[9]Arthur Phillips, Redux
Links:
9. http://b.rw/kaCiFR
Robert Birnbaum | Morning News | 16 June 2011
Novelist talks about the Brooklyn writer's life. Interesting and amusing
throughout. "It’s not like I lead an adventurous life of bullfighting. My
routine is to write, then walk the dogs." And a message for readers? "Buy my
book" [10]Comments
Links:
10. http://thebrowser.com/articles/arthur-phillips-redux
[11]Into The Heart Of The Ice
Links:
11. http://b.rw/lYUGC9
Bill Streever | WSJ | 18 June 2011
An Alaskan glacier from the inside. "Behind me, the entrance glows, sending
light ricocheting from the special blue of glacier walls. I am a different
person than I was this morning." Remember your lifesaving tools to get back
out [12]Comments
Links:
12. http://thebrowser.com/articles/heart-ice
FiveBooks Interview
[13]Jonny Steinberg on Identity in South Africa
Links:
13. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/jonny-steinberg-on-identity-south-africa
The journalist and author discusses five books with strikingly different
interpretations of what it means to be South African today, whether black or
white
Featured Topic
[14]Art
Links:
14. http://thebrowser.com/topics/art
What are the most influential art books? Is cow dung art? How political was
Picasso? What's the correct etiquette for a gallery opening? All this
answered and more
Reader Recommendations
@[15]prospect_uk On the day Wimbledon begins, Geoff Dyer considers the
beauty of tennis [16]t.co/DBeQNkY #[17]browsings
Links:
15. http://twitter.com/prospect_uk
16. http://t.co/DBeQNkY
17. http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=#browsings
Book of the Day
[18]Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
Links:
18. http://thebrowser.com/recommended/packing-mars-curious-science-life-void-by-mary-roach
[19]Deborah Blum says: "I really admire Mary Roach’s ability to take science
and make it both fascinating and accessible to people who wouldn’t normally
love science"
Links:
19. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/deborah-blum-on-science-society
Video of the Day
[20]Winning Is Easy
Links:
20. http://thebrowser.com/videos/winning-easy
Commercial for sports shoes. Never used. And you can see why. Altogether too
much
Quote of the Day
[21]Bertrand Russell, on the Bible
Links:
21. http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/05/02/unquote-342
“So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise
of intelligence”