Newsletter 880
Best of the Moment
The Right To Die Is The Right To Live
Lisa Carver | Vice | 18 December 2012
Mother of chronically ill 18-year-old boy, expected to die young, lets the boy take charge. He fires his doctors, stops his treatments. And gets better. Lifts weights. “There’s just too much negativity. I want to have some fun" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/right-die-right-live)
The World’s Worst War
Jeffrey Gettleman | NYT | 15 December 2012
Congo: The horror, the horror. "I met a pair of soldiers who had chained a chimpanzee to a corroded railway tie, leaving the animal in a pile of its own feces, staring up at us with rheumy eyes as the soldiers howled with laughter" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/world’s-worst-war)
Best Practices For Raising Kids? Look To Hunter-Gatherers
Jared Diamond | Newsweek | 17 December 2012
What can Western industrial societies learn from other ways of child-rearing? Diamond has worked with people from New Guinea and is struck by the emotional security, self-confidence, curiosity and autonomy of children there Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/best-practices-raising-kids-look-hunter-gatherers)
Who Can Still Afford State U?
Scott Thurm | WSJ | 14 December 2012
For generations of Americans, public universities offered an affordable option for earning a college degree. Not any more. States are spending their money on Medicaid and prisons. Soaring costs are transferred to students, parents Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/who-can-still-afford-state-u)
Syria: The Descent Into Holy War
Patrick Cockburn | Independent | 16 December 2012
"Some Syrians claim that the people against the regime remains the central feature of the uprising, but there is compelling evidence that the movement has slid towards sectarian Islamic fundamentalism intent on waging holy war" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/syria-descent-holy-war)
Google’s Gmail Outage Is A Sign of Things To Come
Stacey Higginbotham | Businessweek | 17 December 2012
Wonkish. But also interesting. Why Gmail goes down. "Most of the coders behind today’s popular websites and services are deploying their code when it’s ready—not at some pre-determined point when downtime may not be noticed" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/google’s-gmail-outage-sign-things-come)
(http://www.amazon.com/Best-of-FiveBooks-2011-ebook/dp/B007GAM6RC?tag=thebro-21)
FiveBooks Interview
(http://thebrowser.com/interviews/scott-turow-on-legal-novels)
Scott Turow on Legal Novels
The author tells us about his favourite novels with legal themes and the issues of justice, morality and human mess they bring to light Read on (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/scott-turow-on-legal-novels)
Featured Special Report
(http://thebrowser.com/reports/syria-revolts)
Conflict in Syria
The Syrian conflict is causing terrible destruction and loss of life. This report charts how protests against the Assad regime descended into a bitter war Read on (http://thebrowser.com/reports/syria-revolts)
Reader Recommendations
@polit2k (http://twitter.com/polit2k) "@economistmeg (http://twitter.com/economistmeg) : Great (but grim) piece on the social and economic situation in Greece by @MMQWalker (http://twitter.com/MMQWalker) t.co/jToEsVLi #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-pleasure-works-by-paul-bloom)
How Pleasure Works by Paul Bloom
Susan Gelman says (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/susan-gelman-on-essentialism) : “He says that we like what we like, not because of what it presents to our senses…but through our beliefs about what the item is” FiveBooks Archive (http://thebrowser.com/fivebooks/archive)
Video of the Day
Educate The Heart
(http://thebrowser.com/videos/educate-heart)
Script is schmaltz. Graphics are gorgeous More videos (http://thebrowser.com/videos)
Quote of the Day
Thomas Malone, on intelligence (http://edge.org/conversation/collective-intelligence)
"The most intelligent person is not the one who's best at doing any specific task, but it's the one who's best at picking up new things quickly"
More quotes (http://thebrowser.com/quotations)