archive

Very real possibilities

Sean Aas (Frankfurt): You Didn't Build That: Equality and Productivity in a Complex Society. From The New Yorker, Amy Davidson on Obama’s Clapper mistake; and it appears that “Citizen Koch”, an embattled documentary about the influence of money on politics, which suffered a near-death experience after the public-television system withdrew its support, may survive after all. Need to use a 3-D printer? Try your local library — it's not just for books anymore. The International Olympic Committee forbids athletes to speak against Russian antigay laws. Joe Kloc on the definitive guide to NSA spy programs. Does technological growth make the 2nd Amendment redundant? Unease at Clinton Foundation over finances and ambitions. Autumn chaos: Here are five reasons why a government shutdown, default, or both, are very real possibilities. Geoffrey Clark reviews World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, ed. Peter Borscheid and Niels Viggo Haueter. Cass Sunstein on how the science of happiness recommends spending money on experiences rather than things, but it ignores finer distinctions. When a thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere? There’s a name for that — the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. Grumpy Grammarian John McWhorter on a Quixotic history of doomed efforts to fix spelling. John Arquilla on how chess explains the world and predicts the rise and fall of nations.