Newsletter 864
Best of the Moment
Honey Laundering
Sabrina Buckwalter | Open | 7 December 2012
Lesser-known aspects of globalisation: Honey laundering. Wholesalers ship Chinese honey into US marked as Indian honey, to dodge tariffs. "It's obvious. India doesn't have the capacity to produce what they're shipping" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/honey-laundering)
How Crash Cover-Up Altered China’s Succession
Jonathan Ansfield | NYT | 4 December 2012
The more we learn about Chinese politics, the more interesting these faceless bureaucrats turn out to be. Here's a fine tale about how a top aide, by covering up his wild son's car-crash death, undermined his boss, the president Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/how-crash-cover-altered-china’s-succession)
Technology Will Replace 80% Of What Doctors Do
Vinod Khosla | Fortune | 4 December 2012
The future of medicine is fewer doctors and better care. Diagnosis and treatment planning will be done by computer not diagnostician (Dr Algorithm not Dr House) while humans hired for their empathic qualities will provide the care Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/technology-will-replace-80-what-doctors-do)
Confessions Of A Sniper: A Rebel Gunman In Aleppo And His Conscience
Rania Abouzeid | Time | 4 December 2012
"I think I’m unrecognizable now," the Sniper says. "I never really thought I’d kill someone." But since he defected, he has killed — 34 people who did not see his bullet coming, including, he suspects, his childhood friend Mohammad Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/syria-rebel-sniper-talks-about-revolution-and-his-disillusionment-timecom)
Deciphering The Tools Of Nature’s Zombies
Carl Zimmer | NYT | 5 December 2012
What makes a spider abandon its web and build a radically different one, or makes pond-living gammarids race to the surface instead of diving into the mud? The answer is that their brains have been hijacked by parasites. But how? Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/deciphering-tools-nature’s-zombies)
My Essential Guide To Good Sex Writing
Edmund White | Guardian | 6 December 2012
"Even careful writers begin to sound like porn soundtracks when they turn to sex writing... The anatomical vocabulary is hackneyed, [it's] impossible to visualise because full of ludicrously mixed metaphors, and given to bragging" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/my-essential-guide-good-sex-writing)
(http://www.amazon.com/Best-of-FiveBooks-2011-ebook/dp/B007GAM6RC?tag=thebro-21)
FiveBooks Interview
(http://thebrowser.com/interviews/michael-dirda-on-sherlock-holmes)
Michael Dirda on Sherlock Holmes
Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories and four novels starring his fictional sleuth. So where to start? The writer and lifelong Sherlockian gives us his personal choice of the best, and tells us more about their creator Read on (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/michael-dirda-on-sherlock-holmes)
Featured Special Report
(http://thebrowser.com/reports/sports-violence-problem)
Sport's Violence Problem
Nobody wants to take away the thrill and drama of the NFL or NHL, but is middle age dementia an acceptable price for ex-players to pay? Read on (http://thebrowser.com/reports/sports-violence-problem)
Reader Recommendations
@henrylf Nominees For The Newton Of #Neuroscience: NeuroDojo challenges Gary Marcus's @newyorker article #browsings t.co/oZPVoK8Q #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/balkan-trilogy-by-olivia-manning)
The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
Richard Beeston says (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/richard-beeston-on-spies-lies-and-foreign-correspondents) : "I think she was one of the very best novelists of the 20th century. These books were her best pieces." FiveBooks Archive (http://thebrowser.com/fivebooks/archive)
Video of the Day
Driving In Russia
(http://thebrowser.com/videos/driving-russia)
Take care out there, people!
More videos (http://thebrowser.com/videos)
Quote of the Day
Bryan Caplan, on policy (http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2011/04/top_40_things_i.html)
"Before you study public opinion, you wonder why policy isn't far better. After you study public opinion, you wonder why policy isn't far worse"
More quotes (http://thebrowser.com/quotations)