archive

Tiny bytes of information

From Edge, an interview with Frank Schirrmacher on the Age of the Informavore (and more). The internet is killing storytelling: Narratives are a staple of every culture the world over — they are disappearing in an online blizzard of tiny bytes of information. From The New Yorker, in an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe? Seymour Hersh investigates.  In the 1970s, Stuart Hample was a struggling cartoonist — then he hit on the idea of turning the angst-ridden life of his favourite standup comedian, Woody Allen, into a comic strip. For Munch, summer nights were a miasma of heartache, melancholy, and unrequited love — how does drinking the new Edvard Munch Premium Aquavit compare? Claude Levi-Strauss’s two-part harmonies: In trying to understand the work of the French anthropologist, look for pairs of opposites common to all human societies. Why is no one talking about mental health care reform?: A review of Danger to Self: On the Front Line with an ER Psychiatrist by Paul Linde; Doctoring the Mind: Is Our Current Treatment of Mental Illness Really Any Good? by Richard P. Bentall; and Healing the Broken Mind: Transforming America's Failed Mental Health System by Timothy Kelly. Bad music in public spaces: With more and more hotels, restaurants, and retailers adopting music as a branding device, Travel & Leisure sounds off on how their choices speak volumes. From Der Spiegel, here's the story of "Operation Orchard": How Israel destroyed Syria's Al Kibar Nuclear Reactor. An article on Monthly Review at 60: Six decades of campaigning for "social and ecological revolution".