Newsletter 431

14 Sep 2011 • 3 min read

[1]The Browser
Links:
1. http://thebrowser.com

[5]What Is Philosophy?
Links:
5. http://b.rw/puFnw4

John Wilkins | Evolving Thoughts | 13 September 2011

Big question and surprisingly tricky to answer. Perhaps because its topics
cross disciplines and it doesn't use special methods or data. Is it best to
define philosophy as "what you do when the facts do not fix the solution"?
[6]Comments
Links:
6. http://thebrowser.com/articles/what-philosophy

[7]An Immune System Trained to Kill Cancer
Links:
7. http://b.rw/pat6qi

Denise Grady | NYT | 12 September 2011

Doctors in Philadelphia use a disabled form of HIV-1, the AIDS virus, to
carry cancer-fighting genes into the patients’ T-cells. And it works,
apparently, though they don't know exactly how. "Conceptually, it's very,
very big" [8]Comments
Links:
8. http://thebrowser.com/articles/immune-system-trained-kill-cancer

[9]How Google Translate Works
Links:
9. http://b.rw/o39e5M

David Bellos | Independent | 13 September 2011

Assumes most things have been said before. Uses books in "pivot" languages
to look for matches where, say, Icelandic and Farsi phrases appear to be
translations of the same English words. Harry Potter has its uses, after all
[10]Comments
Links:
10. http://thebrowser.com/articles/how-google-translate-works

[11]The Angry Genius Of Les Murray
Links:
11. http://b.rw/mSu4v2

JM Coetzee | NYRB | 13 September 2011

One fine writer dismantles another. While insisting throughout on Murray's
genius, Coetzee gently savages Murray's anti-modernism, his "defence of the
traditional ways of life", as a hokey mixture of self-deception and
self-interest [12]Comments
Links:
12. http://thebrowser.com/articles/angry-genius-les-murray

[13]The Strange Physics – And Singular Sights – Inside Black Holes
Links:
13. http://b.rw/nU8gHt

Steve Nadis | Discover | 12 September 2011

"As with Las Vegas, what happens in a black hole stays in a black hole."
Hence most view them as end point for scientific research. But not Andrew
Hamilton, who sees them as "an entrée to an extraordinary and unexplored
terrain" [14]Comments
Links:
14. http://thebrowser.com/articles/strange-physics-–-and-singular-sights-–-inside-black-holes

[15]The Ghost Sport
Links:
15. http://b.rw/rp1nMU

Paul Beston | City Journal | 13 September 2011

Few people today can name more than a couple of current boxers but there was
a time when boxing was central to American life. As this enjoyable and
informative history of the sport from John L Sullivan to Manny Pacquiao
shows [16]Comments
Links:
16. http://thebrowser.com/articles/ghost-sport

FiveBooks Interview

[17]Susan Gelman on Essentialism
Links:
17. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/susan-gelman-on-essentialism

Putting people and things into categories is something we all do. It’s a
useful shortcut but reveals biases. And it plays a role in everything from
ethnic violence to childhood development, as psychologist Susan Gelman
explains[18]Read on
Links:
18. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/susan-gelman-on-essentialism

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