Newsletter 476

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

[5]Has America Become an Oligarchy?
Links:
5. http://b.rw/rObVTu

Thomas Schulz | Spiegel | 28 October 2011

"Economists and political scientists believe the US has entered a new Gilded
Age, a period of systematic inequality dominated by a new class of
super-rich." Fine essay looks at the state of US society, politics and the
economy [6]Comments
Links:
6. http://thebrowser.com/articles/has-america-become-oligarchy

[7]Thoughts On Steve Jobs, The Book
Links:
7. http://b.rw/sfOWR1

Steven Berlin Johnson | Steven Berlin Johnson | 28 October 2011

If you haven't read the biography, here's the cheat-sheet. It's a worthy
memorial. Lucky Isaacson was there to write it. Apple boss an egomaniac, but
saw need for collaborators: "Another John Lennon, always looking for
McCartneys" [8]Comments
Links:
8. http://thebrowser.com/articles/thoughts-steve-jobs-book

[9]The Movie Set That Ate Itself
Links:
9. http://b.rw/tlh7nM

Michael Idov | GQ | 27 October 2011

Unmissable story of a most bizarre film project. A cast of thousands. Many
living full-time in a nightmare vision of 1950's Moscow. A totalitarian
society, under the control of a deranged director. Where the cameras are
always on [10]Comments
Links:
10. http://thebrowser.com/articles/movie-set-ate-itself

[11]The Joyful Side Of Translation
Links:
11. http://b.rw/unoayf

Adam Thirlwell | NYT | 28 October 2011

Review of "dazzlingly inventive" book by David Bellos, translator of Kadare,
Perec. Problems of translation overstated. Often no one-to-one equivalence
of words across languages. But usage is what matters. That translates
[12]Comments
Links:
12. http://thebrowser.com/articles/joyful-side-translation

[13]Alaska’s Billion Dollar Mountain
Links:
13. http://b.rw/tCCxhY

Daniel Grushkin | Businessweek | 27 October 2011

How Jim McKenzie acquired the mining rights to a mountain of rare earths
worth billions. "I didn’t think I’d get into the minerals business. It looks
like I orchestrated this brilliant move, right? But it’s just inadvertent
luck” [14]Comments
Links:
14. http://thebrowser.com/articles/alaska’s-billion-dollar-mountain

[15]Is Self-Knowledge Overrated?
Links:
15. http://b.rw/spu2lC

Jonah Lehrer | New Yorker | 25 October 2011

Lehrer reviews new title by influential psychologist Daniel Kahneman:
"Although we’d always seen ourselves as rational creatures, it turns out
human reason is rather feeble, easily overwhelmed by ancient instincts and
lazy biases" [16]Comments
Links:
16. http://thebrowser.com/articles/self-knowledge-overrated

FiveBooks Interview

[17]Mark Thoma on Econometrics
Links:
17. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/mark-thoma-on-econometrics

It’s a discipline popular with the Nobel prize committee and mysterious to
most of the rest of us. So we asked an econometrician to explain what he
does, and why there’s such a battle of ideas (and models) in economics
[18]Read on
Links:
18. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/mark-thoma-on-econometrics