Newsletter 742
[1]All of our Best of the Moment article recommendations, plus
FiveBooks interviews and other selected content from thebrower.com
Links:
1. http://thebrowser.com
[6]I Will Put Up With Even This Circus For That Bob Beamon Moment
Links:
6. http://b.rw/N7An6R
Kenan Malik | Pandaemonium | 26 July 2012
Malik is sceptical about the Olympics as an instrument of social good
or tool of economic development. And he dislikes the "militarisation"
and censorship. But still. It's all about those moments of supreme
athletic achievement [7]Comments
Links:
7. http://thebrowser.com/articles/i-will-put-even-circus-bob-beamon-moment
[8]Turning The Tables On Russia's Power Elite – The Story Behind The
Magnitsky Act
Links:
8. http://b.rw/N7DBXW
Bill Browder | Open Democracy | 25 July 2012
Get past the opening few paragraphs and this is a fascinating, shocking
account about the price of doing business in Russia and tangling with
oligarchs and the Kremlin. Written by investment fund boss who's
exposed huge corruption [9]Comments
Links:
9. http://thebrowser.com/articles/turning-tables-russias-power-elite-–-story-behind-magnitsky-act
[10]Microsoft’s Lost Decade
Links:
10. http://b.rw/QjvRUN
Kurt Eichenwald | Vanity Fair | 25 July 2012
Compelling, if harsh, takedown of the technology giant – "a high-tech
equivalent of a Detroit car-maker" – and its CEO Steve Ballmer. The
iPhone alone now generates more revenue than all of Microsoft. What
went wrong? [11]Comments
Links:
11. http://thebrowser.com/articles/microsoft’s-lost-decade
[12]Moral Enhancement
Links:
12. http://b.rw/OoKnKY
Julian Savulescu & Ingmar Persson | Philosophy Now | 22 July 2012
The case for moral bioenhancement. "We have radically transformed our
social and natural environments by technology, while our moral
dispositions have remained unchanged. We must now consider applying
technology to our own nature" [13]Comments
Links:
13. http://thebrowser.com/articles/moral-enhancement
[14]The European Dis-Union
Links:
14. http://b.rw/OoM9Mi
Ivan Krastev | Eurozine / Transit | 26 July 2012
Lessons for European politicians from collapse of Soviet Union. "The
German poet-dissident Wolf Biermann wrote many years ago: 'I can only
love what I am also free to leave.' Today's European policy-makers have
forgotten this truth" [15]Comments
Links:
15. http://thebrowser.com/articles/european-dis-union
[16]Very Superstitious
Links:
16. http://b.rw/MlP6wj
Colin Dickey | Lapham's Quarterly | 19 July 2012
While we wait for science to catch up, we still cling to magic because
it's the only way we can tell ourselves that the world makes sense.
Perhaps this explains why a belief in sympathetic magic continues in
our hyperrationalist age [17]Comments
Links:
17. http://thebrowser.com/articles/very-superstitious
FiveBooks Interview
[18]David Runciman on London Olympic History
Links:
18. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/david-runciman-on-london-olympic-history
As the Olympics open, David Runciman looks back at the two previous
times that the Games have been staged in London and finds that the
thrift of today looks modest compared with austerities of the past
[19]Read on
Links:
19. http://thebrowser.com/interviews/david-runciman-on-london-olympic-history
Featured Special Report
[20]Drone Warfare
Links:
20. http://thebrowser.com/reports/drone-warfare
Should we worry about war conducted by remote control? Are there
ethical considerations? Will we become accustomed to unmanned warfare
in the future? What if a hacker took control of an army? It's all here
[21]Read on
Links:
21. http://thebrowser.com/reports/drone-warfare
Reader Recommendations