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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Browser daily newsletter [21 Dec 2011]

21 December 2011

 Best of the Moment

On Being The Right Size

J.B.S. Haldane | Farnham Street | 20 December 2011

Republished, and still well worth a read. "For every type of animal there is an optimum size. The same is true for every human institution. The English invention of representative government made a democratic nation possible" Comments

Opening A Bar In Baghdad

Joshua Bearman | Atlantic | 20 December 2011

James, a British ex-paratrooper, opened the Baghdad Country Club in 2006. It was inside the Green Zone, so local security wasn't too bad. But you needed strong nerves for the morning drive through Sadr City to pick up beer Comments

Chuck Berry Goddamn!

Luke Dittrich | Esquire | 20 December 2011

Still performing aged 85. "Watching Chuck Berry play here is a little like watching Einstein, if Einstein had decided to spend his last years in a makeshift replica of his old patent office, retranscribing the theories of his youth" Comments

Smoke Screening

Charles Mann | Vanity Fair | 20 December 2011

Writer tests out US airport security. With a bit of help from expert Bruce Schneier. And a fake boarding pass. The verdict? Damning: "Not only is it not done right, but even if it was done right it would be the wrong thing to do" Comments

The Plague

David Shulman | Boston Review | 19 December 2011

Israeli activists try to stop settlers driving Palestinians out of South Hebron village. "Its inhabitants include scattered chickens, sheep, a donkey, camels. No electricity, no running water, no phones, no money, no hope" Comments

Leiter Reports

Richard Marshall | 3AM Magazine | 19 December 2011

Terrific, wide-ranging interview with Brian Leiter, philosopher and left-leaning public intellectual. "The idea that Marxism should be reduced to moralistic sermons is, well, depressing, an admission of intellectual defeat" Comments

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