Newsletter 831
Best of the Moment
Stockton, California: 'This Economy Is Garbage'
Aditya Chakrabortty | Guardian | 2 November 2012
What a slump looks like. "The local council's cash used to come from property and sales taxes; when those dried up, it rammed through cuts. Finally, this summer, officials ran out of services to shut, and declared the city bust" Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/stockton-california-economy-garbage)
In Soviet Russia, Storm Weathers You
Julia Ioffe | New Republic | 31 October 2012
Returnee from Moscow sees Superstorm Sandy bringing out best in American government: working to inform, help, protect public. In Russia crises bring out worst in bureaucracy which is lazy, selfish, corrupt at the best of times Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/soviet-russia-storm-weathers-you)
Resurrection
Patrick Doyle | Boston | 30 October 2012
Portrait of Roman Catholic church in Boston from perspective of young man joining priesthood. Child-abuse scandal almost destroyed the church. Now the worst is over. The seminaries are filling up again. Respect is returning Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/resurrection)
Why We Can't Solve Big Problems
Jason Pontin | MIT Technology Review | 24 October 2012
The public has lost its appetite for high-risk, big-ticket projects. Governments have lost their nerve. Silicon Valley has "ceased to be the funder of the future, and instead become a funder of features, widgets, irrelevances". Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/why-we-cant-solve-big-problems)
Catastrophism
Steven Shapin | London Review Of Books | 30 October 2012
How Immanuel Velikovsky won millions of followers in the 1950s for his nutty theories mixing comets, religion and ancient history. He perfected "pseudoscience": All of the language and rituals of real science, none of the content Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/catastrophism)
Bradley Wiggins: 'Kids From Kilburn Aren't Supposed To Win The Tour'
Simon Hattenstone | Guardian | 2 November 2012
Interview with Tour de France winner. Typically down to earth, occasionally profane, thoroughly admirable. And a nice line in why he'd rather stay in Wigan than move to somewhere like Monaco. Arise, Sir Wiggo! Surely Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/bradley-wiggins-kids-kilburn-arent-supposed-win-tour)
(http://www.amazon.com/Best-of-FiveBooks-2011-ebook/dp/B007GAM6RC?tag=thebro-21)
FiveBooks Interview
(https://thebrowser.com/interviews/ilan-kelman-on-disaster-diplomacy)
Ilan Kelman on Disaster Diplomacy
The perception that disasters are isolated events beyond our control is simply not true; we – governments and others – have a greater role in creating them than we wish to acknowledge, says the disaster research expert Read on (https://thebrowser.com/interviews/ilan-kelman-on-disaster-diplomacy)
Featured Special Report
(https://thebrowser.com/reports/paying-election)
Paying for the US Election
How much is Romney vs Obama 2012 going to cost? Who's paying? And what do they expect in return? Read on (https://thebrowser.com/reports/paying-election)
Reader Recommendations
@polit2k (http://twitter.com/polit2k) Scoop Dupes t.co/gAYOjL3m | Paul Krugman | NYT via @delong (http://twitter.com/delong) #browsings (http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=#browsings) #election2012 (http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=#election2012) #polls (http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=#polls) #scoops (http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=#scoops) More like this (http://thebrowser.com/browsings)
Book of the Day
Book of the Day (https://thebrowser.com/recommended/sacred-and-secular-religion-and-politics-worldwide-by-pippa-norris-ronald-inglehart)
Sacred and Secular by Pippa Norris, Ronald Inglehart
Anthony Gottlieb says (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/anthony-gottlieb-on-god) : “In America, you need God, because nobody else is going to help you.” FiveBooks Archive (http://thebrowser.com/fivebooks/archive)
Video of the Day
MIT Chomsky Style
(https://thebrowser.com/videos/mit-chomsky-style)
The rest you can take or leave. But at 3'20" you get Chomsky More videos (http://thebrowser.com/videos)
Quote of the Day
Karl Lagerfeld, on himself (http://karllagerfeldquotes.tumblr.com/post/12510673296/im-very-much-down-to-earth-just-not-this-earth)
"I'm very down to earth, just not this earth"
More quotes (http://thebrowser.com/quotations)