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Saturday, November 3, 2012

The Browser daily newsletter [03 Nov 2012]

3 November 2012
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 Best of the Moment

Stockton, California: 'This Economy Is Garbage'

Aditya Chakrabortty | Guardian | 2 November 2012

What a slump looks like. "The local council's cash used to come from property and sales taxes; when those dried up, it rammed through cuts. Finally, this summer, officials ran out of services to shut, and declared the city bust" Comments

In Soviet Russia, Storm Weathers You

Julia Ioffe | New Republic | 31 October 2012

Returnee from Moscow sees Superstorm Sandy bringing out best in American government: working to inform, help, protect public. In Russia crises bring out worst in bureaucracy which is lazy, selfish, corrupt at the best of times Comments

Resurrection

Patrick Doyle | Boston | 30 October 2012

Portrait of Roman Catholic church in Boston from perspective of young man joining priesthood. Child-abuse scandal almost destroyed the church. Now the worst is over. The seminaries are filling up again. Respect is returning Comments

Why We Can't Solve Big Problems

Jason Pontin | MIT Technology Review | 24 October 2012

The public has lost its appetite for high-risk, big-ticket projects. Governments have lost their nerve. Silicon Valley has "ceased to be the funder of the future, and instead become a funder of features, widgets, irrelevances". Comments

Catastrophism

Steven Shapin | London Review Of Books | 30 October 2012

How Immanuel Velikovsky won millions of followers in the 1950s for his nutty theories mixing comets, religion and ancient history. He perfected "pseudoscience": All of the language and rituals of real science, none of the content Comments

Bradley Wiggins: 'Kids From Kilburn Aren't Supposed To Win The Tour'

Simon Hattenstone | Guardian | 2 November 2012

Interview with Tour de France winner. Typically down to earth, occasionally profane, thoroughly admirable. And a nice line in why he'd rather stay in Wigan than move to somewhere like Monaco. Arise, Sir Wiggo! Surely Comments

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