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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Browser daily newsletter [28 Nov 2012]

28 November 2012
We are developing a new platform which will supply a daily bundle of classic journalism specially formatted for reading on phones and tablets.  If you regularly use a handheld for reading, and if you would like to help us beta-test the platform, please email Robert Cottrell (robert@thebrowser.com). We'll be thrilled to have your advice, and we'll give beta testers a year's free access to the new platform when it's launched.

 Best of the Moment

Killer Swarms

John Arquilla | Foreign Policy | 26 November 2012

It wasn't the Russian winter that stopped Napoleon in 1812. It was guerilla warfare. Russians sent bands of Cossacks to harry French columns and supply lines. Classic instance of "swarming": Simultaneous attack from all sides Comments

Moral Machines

Gary Marcus | New Yorker | 27 November 2012

Google's driverless cars are legal in three states. Proof that we need machines which can make value judgements, not only technical ones. What if there's a choice between hitting an errant schoolbus, and plunging over a ravine? Comments

Great Actor Who Hated Acting

Fintan O'Toole | NYRB | 26 November 2012

Review of Richard Burton's "Diaries", narrative of dissipated genius. "If Burton’s soul was sold, the price he got for it—a feast of sex with the world’s most beautiful women, torrents of money—makes Faust look like a sucker" Comments

Derrida: A Biography

Terry Eagleton | Guardian | 14 November 2012

Review of Benoit Peeters's book, noteworthy for explaining deconstruction in half a paragraph. "It seizes on the out-of-place element in a system, and uses it to show how the system is never quite as stable as it imagines" Comments

Saving Diplomacy From Itself

Christina Odone | Foreign Policy | 26 November 2012

Profile of Carne Ross, former British diplomat who has reinvented himself as an "independent diplomat" for hire at the United Nations, advising politicians and unrecognised states. Clients include Kosovo, South Sudan, Polisario Comments

Great Oil Fallacy

John Quiggin | National Interest | 19 November 2012

Oil does matter to the US economy, but much less than it used to. At 4% of GDP, spending on oil roughly matches spending at hotels and restaurants. Oil politics shaped American global strategy in 1970s. Shouldn't do so now Comments

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