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Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Browser daily newsletter [8 Dec 2012]

8 December 2012

 Best of the Moment

Amazon's Billion-Dollar Tax Shield

Tom Bergin | Reuters | 6 December 2012

After shining a light on the tax avoidance strategy of Starbucks (to some effect), Reuters turns the heat on Amazon. The online retail giant uses a complex strategy to ensure that its profits pile up in tax-friendly Luxembourg Comments

Is There An Egyptian Nation?

Shadi Hamid | Foreign Policy | 4 December 2012

Can Egyptians agree on what a modern nation state should be? Should it be ideologically neutral, or should it be an enforcer of morality, intent on creating virtuous families and virtuous individuals? Comments

The Folly Of Scientism

Austin Hughes | New Atlantis | 1 December 2012

"Is it really true that natural science provides a satisfying and reasonably complete account of everything we see, experience, and seek to understand — of every phenomenon in the universe?" Or is there still a role for philosophy? Comments

Gertler Gets Rich, Congo Stays Poor

Franz Wild et al | Bloomberg | 5 December 2012

Israeli diamond dealer Dan Gertler bankrolls Kabila family in their struggle to keep control of Congo. His reward: Cheap mining assets. So far he's made $2.5bn. He says he's investing in the country. Critics say he's looting it Comments

Ancient Adversaries

Gene Weingarten | Washington Post | 5 December 2012

Jeffrey MacDonald is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife and two daughters 42 years ago. But film-maker Errol Morris says MacDonald is innocent, and claims new DNA evidence. Did drug-addled hippies do it, after all? Comments

Thomas Bayes And Bayes’s Theorem

Shane Parrish | Farnham Street | 5 December 2012

Bayes's theorem teaches us to deal with new information by adjusting our expectations. "It a statement about how we learn. We learn through approximation, getting closer and closer to the truth as we gather more evidence" Comments

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