Rhino Poaching, Outer Banks, Fashion, Islamic State, Teaching

In The Clutches Of Rhino Poachers

Bartholomäus Grill | Der Spiegel | 12th March 2015

Spiegel reporter tracks down Mozambique's top rhino poacher to a village inside the Limpopo national park. The interview does not go well. "A short time ago I was taken hostage. Now I'm speeding through the bush in a pick-up truck driven by the boss of a criminal gang, his underlings hooting and hollering in the back. I am convinced that they will stop at the next clearing and beat me to death like a dog" (2,950 words)

Slip Sliding Away

Mac McClelland | Audubon | 12th March 2015

Climate-change scientists predict that within a century rising sea levels will submerge most of the Outer Banks, an idyllic 200-mile chain of sandy islands off the coast of North Carolina. But there is no long-term planning under way for that catastrophe. Developers are still building mansions on the beaches. Rich people are still buying them. Few believe what the scientists say. Even if they did believe, what could they do? (4,550 words)

Idle Threads

Ann Friedman | Baffler | 9th March 2015

Discussion of women, clothes, and the fashion industry, drawing on recent books by Sheila Heti, Emily Spivack and Maureen Callahan. "The social contract underlying the fashion system remains intact: every consumer believes that every choice she makes is an authentic expression of her true self. That’s even, or perhaps especially, true if what she’s trying to express is that she doesn’t really care about the clothes she puts on" (3,690 words)

The Ideology Of The Islamic State

Cole Bunzel | Brookings | 11th March 2015

Scholarly but highly readable — and highly terrifying — account of the history, politics and religious doctrines of Islamic State. "The division between supporters of Islamic State and supporters of al-Qaeda might appear to be a positive development; this is not the case. This competition is a testament to the increasing political salience of jihadism globally. Jihadism has become a movement capable of sustaining such division" (PDF) (24,000 words)

The Revolution In Teaching

Ian Leslie | Guardian | 11th March 2015

Profile of Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like A Champion, who says he has a simple way to train better school-teachers. He videotapes top teachers in the classroom, analyses their behaviour in minute detail, and extracts the techniques that produce results: a pause here, a bit of body-language there. He doesn't claim his list — 62 moves so far — is definitive; only that it works robustly. Which, if true, is a big deal for education (6,100 words)

Video of the day: Nightingale And Canary

What to expect: Australian artist Andy Thomas creates abstract digital forms that react to sound (2'30")

Thought for the day

Inevitabilities in history never work out. It’s always something else
Orhan Pamuk (http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113948/orhan-pamuk-interview-taksim-square-erdogan-literature)