Newsletter 849
Best of the Moment
Strategic Patience
Scott MacLeod | Cairo Review of Global Affairs | 20 November 2012
Interview with former US ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker. On military interventions: The question to ask is "How much 'unknown' are you willing to assume for the goals you seek or the dangers you wish to avert?" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/strategic-patience)
The Last Laughing Death
Jo Chandler | Global Mail | 13 November 2012
The Fore people of Papua New Guinea used to suffer from a mysterious "laughing death" disease they called kuru. Years of painstaking research concluded that it related to their practice of eating their dead Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/last-laughing-death)
Learning From Psychopaths
Maia Szalavitz | Time | 19 November 2012
Q&A with psychologist Kevin Dutton. You wouldn't blame a deaf person for failing to respond to unseen cries for help. What about if someone can be proven to be emotionally deaf? As a psychopath put it to Dutton Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/learning-psychopaths)
Camp Justice
Mattathias Schwartz | Slate | 20 November 2012
Scenes from the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial. "When you are killing people in Iraq, you said 'we have to do it'. We don’t like Saddam, this is the way to deal with Saddam. Same thing you are saying. Same language you use, I use" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/camp-justice)
Papyrus To Paper: Get Over It
Daniel Akst | LA Times | 19 November 2012
"You know what? I feel for you. We all do — my pals parchment, clay tablet, cave walls, the whole gang. Oh, we were all jealous of one another, of course we were, but when you came to town, it was clear we'd all go down together" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/papyrus-paper-get-over-it)
The Evolutionary Mystery Of Homosexuality
David Barash | Chronicle Review | 19 November 2012
"If homosexuals reproduce less than heterosexuals—and they do—then why has natural selection not operated against it?" The short answer is we don't have a proven explanation, but here are some promising possibilities Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/evolutionary-mystery-homosexuality)
(http://www.amazon.com/Best-of-FiveBooks-2011-ebook/dp/B007GAM6RC?tag=thebro-21)
FiveBooks Interview
(http://thebrowser.com/interviews/kwame-anthony-appiah-on-honour)
Kwame Anthony Appiah on Honour
The Princeton philosophy professor tells us about the meaning of honour, how it's won and lost, and what role it's had in the history of moral change Read on (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/kwame-anthony-appiah-on-honour)
Featured Special Report
(http://thebrowser.com/reports/petraeus-affair)
The Petraeus Affair
An affair with his biographer has cost the CIA director, David Petraeus, his job. Should it have done? Read on (http://thebrowser.com/reports/petraeus-affair)
Reader Recommendations
@polit2k (http://twitter.com/polit2k) The Feds Are Closing In on Steve Cohen t.co/DKARxhwI @NYMag (http://twitter.com/NYMag) #browsings (https://twitter.com/search?q=#browsings) More like this (http://thebrowser.com/browsings)
Book of the Day
Book of the Day (http://thebrowser.com/recommended/how-turn-your-parents-green-by-james-russell)
How to Turn Your Parents Green by James Russell
Alice Bell says (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/alice-bell-on-science-books-children) : “The main aim of this book is to interest children in the environment with the conceit that children get the environment in a way that parents don’t” FiveBooks Archive (http://thebrowser.com/fivebooks/archive)
Video of the Day
Dumb Ways To Die
(http://thebrowser.com/videos/dumb-ways-die)
We await the follow-up, on smart ways More videos (http://thebrowser.com/videos)
Quote of the Day
Adam Mars-Jones, on parody (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n22/adam-mars-jones/speak-for-yourself-matey)
"Parody can tell you everything about its target, except how people could have taken it seriously in the first place"
More quotes (http://thebrowser.com/quotations)