Weekly newsletter 85

A selection of our best article links of the week, plus featured FiveBooks interviews, videos, quotations and more.
(http://thebrowser.com)

Weekly Newsletter

Best of the Week

The Insourcing Boom

Charles Fishman | Atlantic | 30 November 2012

After years of offshore production, General Electric is moving much of its appliance manufacturing back to the United States. Here is why it makes business sense to do so, and why others are beginning to follow suit Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/insourcing-boom)

Basketball Diaries, Afghanistan

Peretz Partensky | n+1 | 5 December 2012

Gorgeous long read. Triumphs and tragedies of young American coaching pickup basketball team in Jalalabad. Starts well. Team thrives, gets invited to tournament in Kabul. Then the problems start. Small ones first, lethal ones later Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/basketball-diaries-afghanistan)

Heiress: The Rise Of Elisabeth Murdoch

Ken Auletta | New Yorker | 3 December 2012

"She combines the best of her brothers in one package. The brains of James and the heart of Lachlan.” Successful TV producer. Built her own company. Rich. Glamorous husband. But the wrong sex to run News Corp, apparently Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/heiress-rise-elisabeth-murdoch)

How The North Dakota Fracking Boom Shook A Family

James William Gibson | Guardian | 4 December 2012

Many farmers and ranchers own only surface rights to their property, not subsurface mineral rights. So what happens when the oil prospectors turn up? On this account, there's little you can do to stop them ruining your life Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/how-north-dakota-fracking-boom-shook-family)

Chris Hughes Is About To Turn 100

Carl Swanson | New York | 2 December 2012

Actually, he's 29, though he seems a lot older. And mega-rich from Facebook. Which enabled him to buy the New Republic this year, after failing to buy the New York Review of Books. "He radiates opportunity in an era of disruption" Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/chris-hughes-about-turn-100)

The Debtor Prisoner's Dilemma

Harold James | Project Syndicate | 4 December 2012

Argentina thought it had got out from under huge debts by devaluing and defaulting, but a recent US court ruling favoured holdout creditors. It's a dramatic raising of the stakes. What happens when unpayable debts can't be erased? Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/debtor-prisoners-dilemma)

Hitler’s Logical Holocaust

Timothy Snyder | NYRB | 3 December 2012

Review of recent Holocaust books. Focus on Poland and the Baltics. Murder of Jews on Hitler's agenda from 1933, but he needed a lawless place to carry it out. When Germany grabbed Lithuania from Russia in 1941 he got his chance Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/hitler’s-logical-holocaust)

Remains Of The Day

Matt Mendelsohn | Washingtonian | 28 November 2012

A husband who died. Another who turned out to be gay. And a wife who never imagined she'd be so happy. A wedding photographer sets out to learn what happened to the couples who hired him for their big day (h/t @longform) Comments (http://thebrowser.com/articles/remains-day)
(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)

(http://thebrowser.com/reports/steve-jobss-legacy)

Steve Jobs's Legacy

He was a giant of American business, driving Apple to become the most valuable company in the world. But how should we remember Steve Jobs?   Read on (http://thebrowser.com/reports/steve-jobss-legacy)

Reader Recommendations

@polit2k RT @robertcottrell: Latest global racket: Honey laundering (no typo): t.co/7VGSbByM #browsings (https://twitter.com/search?q=#browsings) More like this (http://thebrowser.com/browsings)

Book of the Week

Book of the Day (http://thebrowser.com/recommended/gourmet-by-lu-wenfu)

The Gourmet  by Lu Wenfu

Fuchsia Dunlop says (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/fuschia-dunlop-on-chinese-food) : “It's a delightfully witty and humorous story by a Suzhou-born writer and a kind of allegory for how difficult it is to build an ideal world through ideology” FiveBooks Archive (http://thebrowser.com/fivebooks)

Quote of the Week

Susan Sontag, on principles (http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/12/05/susan-sontag-on-courage-and-resistance)

“Principles invite us to do something about the morass of contradictions in which we function morally”

More quotes (http://thebrowser.com/quotations)