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