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Friday, December 14, 2012

The Browser daily newsletter [14 Dec 2012]

14 December 2012

 Best of the Moment

Lottery Winner Jack Whittaker's Losing Ticket

David Samuels | Businessweek | 13 December 2012

In 2002, Jack Whittaker, a 55-year-old contractor from West Virginia, won $315m in the lottery. It got him into the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest amount of money won in a lottery. And it ruined his life Comments

Why Making Robots Is So Darn Hard

Gary Marcus | New Yorker | 13 December 2012

"Computer processors keep getting faster and faster. But the motors and actuators that move robots aren't improving nearly as fast. Battery technology, too, is key — moving quickly, but not quite keeping pace with Moore" Comments

How Older Parenthood Will Upend American Society

Judith Shulevitz | New Republic | 6 December 2012

We are having our children much later than we used to. Both men and women. And we are only very slowly becoming aware of the consequences Comments

Life Of A Writer, Reviewed

Dwight Garner | NYT | 4 December 2012

Richard Bradford gets savaged for his biography of Martin Amis. "Like watching a moose try to describe a leopard, using only its front hooves." If we ever publish "The Browser Anthology Of Hatchet Jobs", this will be in it Comments

More Notes On Humans And Animals

Justin Smith | Berfrois | 12 December 2012

Modern Western culture sets humanity above and apart from other animals in a way probably without historical precedent. "Animals, now conceptualized as pure commodities, exist entirely outside the bounds of moral community" Comments

17 Things I Learned From Reading The Economist's 'The World In 2013'

Mark Leibovich | NYT | 12 December 2012

Iran and the eurozone could, in different ways, blow up. But could's the operative word; not even those smart people at the Economist know for sure. They do think Castro's going to die though. And it'll be a big year for neutrinos Comments

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