love disease mapping, especially when the year is 1870 and the subject is malarial death in the united states.
will make time for ambiguity.
blog more tweet less.
would name my laundry detergent brand 'lady macbeth' if i ever got into that business.
skipped dinner..
..to get the most out of our fondue dessert cruise.
chopped the mane..
..a good harvest this year, apparently as thick as ever.
rhetorically asked: who's the best? i am convinced she was the best there ever will be. hard to believe that one fine day not too long ago, not too far away, she was performing for no cover.
read a mountain..
paul volcker’s warning. 'prepare for a dignified burial.'
does the past profitability of and the value added by the financial industry really now justify profits amounting to as much as 35 to 40 percent of all profits by all us corporations?
a less rosy picture of vietnam. 'a deepening disaster.'
the vietnamese firewall allows youngsters to consume plenty of porn but not amnesty international reports.
while burma, which is also brutally hard on dissidents, is subjected to great international pressure, vietnam receives billions of dollars' worth of foreign aid and investment.
while burma, which is also brutally hard on dissidents, is subjected to great international pressure, vietnam receives billions of dollars' worth of foreign aid and investment.
the map of where people could live would probably be radically redrawn.
not small probabilities of something nasty, but large probabilities of something catastrophic.
not small probabilities of something nasty, but large probabilities of something catastrophic.
mysterious human immortality at johns hopkins hospital.
she cut the sample into one-millimetre dice, dropped each tiny square onto a chicken blood clot in a test tube, and covered it with a few drops of the mixture of broths, salts, and umbilical cord blood that was the cells' experimental plat du jour.
they sent hela cells to texas, new york, amsterdam, india and chile, in cardboard boxes packed with sawdust, in the shirt-pockets of pilots and air stewards, and on one occasion, in the saddlebag of a mule.
to date it features in more than 60,000 scientific papers and its total biomass is reputed to be somewhere in the magnitude of one hundred empire state buildings.
they sent hela cells to texas, new york, amsterdam, india and chile, in cardboard boxes packed with sawdust, in the shirt-pockets of pilots and air stewards, and on one occasion, in the saddlebag of a mule.
to date it features in more than 60,000 scientific papers and its total biomass is reputed to be somewhere in the magnitude of one hundred empire state buildings.
omniprescence of social networks. 'the handful of people who walk about with digital cameras on their heads, so that they can put every part of every day online'
those of us who record our lives online, becoming the paparazzi to our own celebrity, are also creating, willy-nilly, an archive, where future acquaintances, government agents or curious historians can see what we did with our time.
myspace is the poor person's facebook.
'continuous partial attention' (cpa): along with a craving for fast entertainment, an 'always-on, anywhere, anytime, anyplace...sense of constant crisis'
you have zero privacy anyway: get over it.
the intermittent and unpredictable reward you get by checking your email, or your facebook page - perhaps there's a message for me! - resembles the intermittent, unpredictable reward of slot machines.
myspace is the poor person's facebook.
'continuous partial attention' (cpa): along with a craving for fast entertainment, an 'always-on, anywhere, anytime, anyplace...sense of constant crisis'
you have zero privacy anyway: get over it.
the intermittent and unpredictable reward you get by checking your email, or your facebook page - perhaps there's a message for me! - resembles the intermittent, unpredictable reward of slot machines.
korea.
pyongyang's diplomats have played a strikingly weak hand with remarkable skill.
had other things been equal, north korea might have followed a similar trajectory to north vietnam: national unification followed by a period of absolutist ideology, and then a mellowing.
had other things been equal, north korea might have followed a similar trajectory to north vietnam: national unification followed by a period of absolutist ideology, and then a mellowing.
scalia in the world.
a scalia opinion..is 'the jurisprudential equivalent of smashing a guitar on stage'.
'he loves killing unarmed animals,' clarence thomas says.
the first thing you've got to teach your kids is what my parents used to tell me all the time: 'you're not everybody else...we have our own standards and they aren't the standards of the world in all respects, and the sooner you learn that the better.'
'he loves killing unarmed animals,' clarence thomas says.
the first thing you've got to teach your kids is what my parents used to tell me all the time: 'you're not everybody else...we have our own standards and they aren't the standards of the world in all respects, and the sooner you learn that the better.'
(second article)
only a commitment to that doctrine, he argues, can prevent the supreme court from being a free-wheeling body that can read whatever it wants into an eighteenth-century document.
a mathematical physicist crosses into politics and philosophy.
since 1945 the dominating illusion has been nuclear weapons..it seems that nuclear weapons cannot be used for any sane military purpose. they are effective for destroying cities and for killing large numbers of people indiscriminately, and for nothing else.
to live in a universe full of inexhaustible mysteries, and to belong to a species destined for inexhaustible intellectual growth.
to live in a universe full of inexhaustible mysteries, and to belong to a species destined for inexhaustible intellectual growth.
the loyalties of the new generation of american jews.
for several decades, the jewish establishment has asked american jews to check their liberalism at zionism's door.
security justifies everything. the heads of aipac and the presidents' conference should ask themselves what israel's leaders would have to do or say to make them scream 'no.' .. if the line has not yet been crossed, where is the line?
save liberal democracy in the only jewish state on earth
security justifies everything. the heads of aipac and the presidents' conference should ask themselves what israel's leaders would have to do or say to make them scream 'no.' .. if the line has not yet been crossed, where is the line?
save liberal democracy in the only jewish state on earth
who wants an ipad?
here was a device that, sight unseen, large numbers of people wanted and believed they had to have, even without knowing precisely what it was or what it did.
there is something deeply satisfying about a 'real' book, a book made of pages bound between hard or soft covers..whose binding you can crack and fold..the ipad in contrast, celebrates and enables mental roving.
there is something deeply satisfying about a 'real' book, a book made of pages bound between hard or soft covers..whose binding you can crack and fold..the ipad in contrast, celebrates and enables mental roving.
a negative review of one of the best plays i have ever seen. and here's proof i was there.
williams's hunky male figures..provoked into a violent reaction by an intellectual superior.
'a man like that is someone to go out with-once-twice-three times when the devil is in you.'
conventionality is the end of existence
'a man like that is someone to go out with-once-twice-three times when the devil is in you.'
conventionality is the end of existence
american mealtime.
food in america has been more or less invisible
washington had succeeded in eliminating food as a political issue-an objective dear to most governments at least since the time of the french revolution
the advent of fast food (and cheap food in general) has, in effective, subsidized the decline of family incomes in america.
one sociologist calculated that people have ten times as many conversations at the farmers' market than they do in the supermarket.
the fact that the most humane and most environmentally sustainable choices frequently turn out to be the most delicious choices..is fortuitous to say the least; it is also a welcome challenge to the more dismal choices typically posed by environmentalism, which most of the time is asking us to give up things we like.
industrial food..has damaged family life and community by undermining the institution of the shared meal..the nurseries of democracy: the family meal.
the historical priority of the american labor movement has been to fight for money, while the european labor movement has fought for time
washington had succeeded in eliminating food as a political issue-an objective dear to most governments at least since the time of the french revolution
the advent of fast food (and cheap food in general) has, in effective, subsidized the decline of family incomes in america.
one sociologist calculated that people have ten times as many conversations at the farmers' market than they do in the supermarket.
the fact that the most humane and most environmentally sustainable choices frequently turn out to be the most delicious choices..is fortuitous to say the least; it is also a welcome challenge to the more dismal choices typically posed by environmentalism, which most of the time is asking us to give up things we like.
industrial food..has damaged family life and community by undermining the institution of the shared meal..the nurseries of democracy: the family meal.
the historical priority of the american labor movement has been to fight for money, while the european labor movement has fought for time
a readable account of the mortgage market.
goldman actually transferred its obligations to naive traders at aig, the insurance giant, by buying insurance far more cheaply from them to cover goldman's liability on the insurance it sold to burry.
an entire financial system was premised on their not knowing, and paying them for this talent.
these investments made no direct contribution to the real economy, while their failure and the resulting drying up of bank credit was ruinous for the real economy.
an entire financial system was premised on their not knowing, and paying them for this talent.
these investments made no direct contribution to the real economy, while their failure and the resulting drying up of bank credit was ruinous for the real economy.
prisoners of war.
us law permits the otherwise unlawful kidnapping of suspects elsewhere in the world.
the end of mubarak, as told from last may.
nowhere is the decline of the sunni arab world so acutely felt as in cairo 'the victorious', a mega-city much of which has turned into an enormous slum.
the government is also doing what it can to maintain the siege in gaza, concerned that if it opens its border crossing, israel might shut down all its crossing points and try to dump gaza in egypt's lap.
the muslim brothers..would prefer a malaysian muslim as president to a christian egyptian..until the day when the state falls into their hands like a rotten fruit, they prefer to avoid confrontation with it.
the government is also doing what it can to maintain the siege in gaza, concerned that if it opens its border crossing, israel might shut down all its crossing points and try to dump gaza in egypt's lap.
the muslim brothers..would prefer a malaysian muslim as president to a christian egyptian..until the day when the state falls into their hands like a rotten fruit, they prefer to avoid confrontation with it.
uprising in kyrgyrzstan.
attacks on journalists, often spectacularly brutal in nature, have silenced criticism and led newspapers once known for their investigative journalism to fill their pages with celebrity profiles and puzzle pages.
the wire!
what drugs have not destroyed, the war on them has.
the wire..was about the city. it is how we in the west live at the millennium, an urbanized species compacted together, sharing a common love, awe and fear of what we have rendered not only in baltimore or st louis or chicago, but in manchester or amsterdam or mexico city as well.
tomorrow ain't promised to no one.
a novel for television
the bureaucracy among the gangsters
the wire..was about the city. it is how we in the west live at the millennium, an urbanized species compacted together, sharing a common love, awe and fear of what we have rendered not only in baltimore or st louis or chicago, but in manchester or amsterdam or mexico city as well.
tomorrow ain't promised to no one.
a novel for television
the bureaucracy among the gangsters
navigating the northwest passage.
make no mistake they ate their shipmates.
the campaign vs. the presidency.
obama had 'lost control of the narrative.'..the hungry 'narrative' beast can seldom be commanded; inherently unstable, on the lookout for prey, it's always foraging.
the media echo chamber, which is always spoiling for a fight, doesn't reward prudence, and has no time for ambiguity.
the media echo chamber, which is always spoiling for a fight, doesn't reward prudence, and has no time for ambiguity.
a history of financial crises.
the united states is experiencing a 'garden-variety' severe financial crisis.
the nationalized curriculum.
educational research has been unhelpful..school experiments are very unlike laboratory experiments.
results of charter schools have been a disappointment to every disinterested observer.
results of charter schools have been a disappointment to every disinterested observer.
three by tony judt-
postwar possession.
my sons nudge their friends: dad grew up in poverty. not at all, i correct them: i grew up in austerity.
sixty years after churchill could offer only 'blood, toil, tears and sweat,' our very own war president..could think of nothing more to ask of us in the wake of september 11, 2001, than to continue shopping.
sixty years after churchill could offer only 'blood, toil, tears and sweat,' our very own war president..could think of nothing more to ask of us in the wake of september 11, 2001, than to continue shopping.
identities.
'are you tony judt? you really must stop writing these terrible things about israel!'
little more than a handful of memories of 'the old country': something like the pasta-and-st.-patrick's-day nostalgia.
jewishness became a secular attribute, externally attributed.
little more than a handful of memories of 'the old country': something like the pasta-and-st.-patrick's-day nostalgia.
jewishness became a secular attribute, externally attributed.
the american inland empire.
who could love present-day houston, phoenix, or charlotte? desolate heaps of office buildings and intersections, they bustle misleadingly from nine to five, before dying at dusk.
by far the best thing about america is its universities
by far the best thing about america is its universities
the state of iraqi refugees.
two million iraqis who remain in exile abroad.
the decimation of the middle class will affect iraq's recovery for years to come..what was once a middle-class society without democracy may, for some time to come, be a democracy without a middle class.
he began to receive written threats at his house; sometimes they were delivered by small children.
by 2006, more iraqis were applying for asylum worldwide than people of any other nationality.
the small city of sodertalje, southwest of stockholm..had taken in more iraqis than had the united states during the entire course of the war.
the decimation of the middle class will affect iraq's recovery for years to come..what was once a middle-class society without democracy may, for some time to come, be a democracy without a middle class.
he began to receive written threats at his house; sometimes they were delivered by small children.
by 2006, more iraqis were applying for asylum worldwide than people of any other nationality.
the small city of sodertalje, southwest of stockholm..had taken in more iraqis than had the united states during the entire course of the war.
proliferation.
last year alone more than 250 cases of unauthorized possession, theft, and loss of nuclear or other radioactive materials were reported to the international atomic energy's illicit tracking database.
worst case development money in ethiopia.
arguments against the citizens united vs. fec decision.
since 1907, when congress passed the tillman act..it had been accepted by the nation and the court that corporations, which are only fictitious persons created by law, do not have the same first amendment rights to political activity as real people do.
monopolies and near monopolies are just as destructive to the marketplace of ideas as they are to any other market.
monopolies and near monopolies are just as destructive to the marketplace of ideas as they are to any other market.
the modern declaration of war.
dick cheney reminded viewers..of the extraordinary authority conceded to american presidents since the invention of the bomb. 'he doesn't have to check with anybody,' said cheney.
the world of perpetual emergency
the preemptory rewriting of the united states constitution driven by the exigencies of nuclear weaponry.
promotions do not come to lowly analysts in offices without windows who tell presidents what everybody knows the president does not want to hear.
the world of perpetual emergency
the preemptory rewriting of the united states constitution driven by the exigencies of nuclear weaponry.
promotions do not come to lowly analysts in offices without windows who tell presidents what everybody knows the president does not want to hear.
human rights watch's amazing road trip through cuba.
people welcomed us into their homes, where they spoke frankly of their experiences.
taken to prison and given a three-year sentence for 'dangerousness.'
the emergence of a nascent blogosphere has been heralded as a sign that cuba is opening up, yet..an hour's use costs roughly one third of cubans' monthly wages
it is hard to think of a us policy with a longer track record of failure.
billboards line the roads outside havana with slogans like 'eight hours of blockade is equivalent to the materials required to repair 40 infant care centers.'
fidel castro..by casting himself as a latin american david besieged by a us goliath, he usurped the role of victim from his prisoners.
taken to prison and given a three-year sentence for 'dangerousness.'
the emergence of a nascent blogosphere has been heralded as a sign that cuba is opening up, yet..an hour's use costs roughly one third of cubans' monthly wages
it is hard to think of a us policy with a longer track record of failure.
billboards line the roads outside havana with slogans like 'eight hours of blockade is equivalent to the materials required to repair 40 infant care centers.'
fidel castro..by casting himself as a latin american david besieged by a us goliath, he usurped the role of victim from his prisoners.
central american ignition.
he..received his first death threat (from general molina himself, who wagged a finger at him and warned that cassocks were not bulletproof).
the feudal ignorance in which salvadoran campesinos were kept.
karol wojtyla had just been annointed pope at the time of romero's murder, and with the assistance of then-cardinal joseph ratzinger he was busy dismantling the progressive church of latin america, replacing liberation theology bishops with conservative ones
the feudal ignorance in which salvadoran campesinos were kept.
karol wojtyla had just been annointed pope at the time of romero's murder, and with the assistance of then-cardinal joseph ratzinger he was busy dismantling the progressive church of latin america, replacing liberation theology bishops with conservative ones
himalayas melting.
a 43 percent decrease in land mass covered with ice in these mountains..that in numerous and complex ways..affect asia's ten major rivers
more than one-sixth of the world's population live in the glacier- or snowmelt-fed river basins
more than one-sixth of the world's population live in the glacier- or snowmelt-fed river basins
our new populism.
anarchistic like the sixties, selfish like the eighties, contradicting neither, it is estranged, aimless, and as juvenile as our new century.
two classic american traits that have grown much more pronounced in recent decades: blanket distrust of institutions and an astonishing - and unwarranted - confidence in the self..every man a cincinnatus.
two classic american traits that have grown much more pronounced in recent decades: blanket distrust of institutions and an astonishing - and unwarranted - confidence in the self..every man a cincinnatus.
3/3/11