Newsletter 843
Best of the Moment
Be Persuasive. Be Brave. Be Arrested (If Necessary)
Jeremy Grantham | Nature | 14 November 2012
A resource crisis exacerbated by global warming is looming, says Grantham. Politicians and the public do not appreciate the seriousness of the issue. Scientists are good at measuring change, but they're not doing enough to stop it Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/be-persuasive-be-brave-be-arrested-if-necessary)
So Long, Mitt
Benjamin Wallace-Wells | New York | 11 November 2012
"Now, just a week after Romney seemed poised to become president, there is no segment of the Republican Party that could be called Romneyist." In the end, he offered not a philosophy, but the capacities of just one man, himself Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/so-long-mitt)
The Petraeus Illusion
Jon Lee Anderson | New Yorker | 13 November 2012
On the rise and fall of a myth. "Petraeus’s downfall is only as great as we choose to make it. He was an exceptional military officer, and he helped steer a turnaround in Iraq. But his lionization has been craven and boundless" Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/petraeus-illusion)
I Lived A CIA Conspiracy Theory
Chuck Klosterman | Grantland | 13 November 2012
Further twist in already tangled Petraeus story. In July the NYT published an agony-column letter from a cuckolded husband describing exactly the circumstances of the Petraeus-Broadwell affair. Was it real? The agony-uncle explains Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/i-lived-cia-conspiracy-theory)
Why Online Education Works
Alex Tabarrok | Cato Unbound | 12 November 2012
Higher education ripe for disruption. Expensive, exclusive. "Oxford in 2012 teaches students in ways remarkably similar to Oxford in 1096." Online teaching delivers better product to more people more cheaply. Like film vs theatre Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/why-online-education-works)
Restaurant Review: Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar
Pete Wells | NYT | 13 November 2012
No stars for TV chef's new venture in Times Square. "Somewhere within, is there a long refrigerated tunnel that servers have to pass through to make sure that the French fries, already limp and oil-sogged, are also served cold?" Comments (https://thebrowser.com/articles/restaurant-review-guy’s-american-kitchen-bar)
(http://www.amazon.com/Best-of-FiveBooks-2011-ebook/dp/B007GAM6RC?tag=thebro-21)
FiveBooks Interview
(https://thebrowser.com/interviews/lorraine-adams-on-truth-behind-headlines)
Lorraine Adams on The Truth Behind the Headlines
Why do huge stories sometimes go unreported? Our news media are good at promulgating conventional wisdom but find it much more difficult to deal with evidence that contradicts it, says the former Washington Post reporter Read on (https://thebrowser.com/interviews/lorraine-adams-on-truth-behind-headlines)
Featured Special Report
(https://thebrowser.com/reports/david-foster-wallace)
David Foster Wallace
In memory of one of America's finest modern fiction writers Read on (https://thebrowser.com/reports/david-foster-wallace)
Reader Recommendations
@charliedevereux (http://twitter.com/charliedevereux) “My computer was arrested before me” Great story on The Hackers of Damascus t.co/2HLq5kM9 via @BW (http://twitter.com/BW) #browsings (http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=#browsings) #longreads (http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=#longreads)
More like this (http://thebrowser.com/browsings)
Book of the Day
Book of the Day (https://thebrowser.com/recommended/goodbye-all-by-robert-graves)
Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves
Wade Davis says (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/wade-davis-on-legacies-world-war-one) : “Of all the memoirs it is the most accessible, the best written and in many ways the most poignant of the memoirs that came from the soldiers”
FiveBooks Archive (http://thebrowser.com/fivebooks/archive)
Video of the Day
Open Letter to President Obama
(https://thebrowser.com/videos/open-letter-president-obama)
Dear Mr President, Do you know anything about physics? More videos (http://thebrowser.com/videos)
Quote of the Day
Robert Mankoff, on scandals (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/cartoonists/2012/11/four-star-sex-scandal.html)
"As a general rule, anything that is embarrassing to one person will be funny to others"
More quotes (http://thebrowser.com/quotations)