Jonah Lehrer | Guardian | 6 April 2012 "'It's just this sense that you got something to say.' What he felt was the itch of an imminent insight, the tickle of lyrics that needed to be written down. 'I found myself writing this song, this story, this long piece of vomit'" Comments Roger Scruton | American Enterprise Institute | 29 March 2012 Absorbing essay on decline of American cities, how to create thriving urban areas. "To plan or not to plan is a false choice. Instead, civic leaders should think in terms of fostering beauty through the use of aesthetic constraints" Comments Jay Soloman & Siobhan Gorman | WSJ | 4 April 2012 Profile of General Qasem Soleimani, boss of Iran's Qods Force—spies and special forces used for murder and skulduggery abroad. In charge of policy towards Syria, Iraq, Lebanon. "Evil genius." Shades of Le Carré's Karla Comments Rachel Giese | Walrus | 1 April 2012 Fine essay on medical error. "As the tools for healing proliferate, so do the difficulties in determining and executing correct diagnoses and treatments; each discovery creates new opportunities for mistakes, side effects, dangers" Comments Allan Little | BBC | 6 April 2012 A mere slip of a piece, and yet its commentary on war, and war reporting, is worth more than many longer ones. "May I ask you, I said, are you a Muslim or a Croat? And the answer he gave me still shames me as it echoes in my head" Comments Matthew Garrahan | FT | 6 April 2012 For once it lives up to its name. The only thing Larry David wants to talk about is lunch itself. Nuts are good in salad. Fruit too. But not cheese. “I’m anti-cheese in a salad. I don’t think the tastes are complementary" Comments |