Thursday, July 14, 2005
WAS THE SUICIDE BOMBING A FORM OF PEDAGOGY? One of the bombers turns out to have been a teacher well-regarded for his helping attitude toward disabled children!! This account from Sky News in the U.K. conveys the latest findings and affords a rich set of linked articles.
AND THEN THERE WAS HASIB HUSSAIN...the bomber who once aspired to be an English cricketer. This brief biography was published today by the U.K. Independent.
BEHIND THE BOMBERS: JAMAATI ISLAM...which features a theology as regressive and an anti-western program as murderous as are found in its near-relative, Wahabbism. This brief article by Stephen Schwartz in the Weekly Standard is of prime importance.
ED KOCH ENDORSES SAM HUNTINGTON...the latter being the author of the "Clash of Civilizations" thesis. Whatever the former mayor of New York lacks in nuance he makes up in forceful clarity.
THE WASHINGTON POST REVIEWS WOODWARD'S LATEST BOOK...which, as you have heard by now, is about Deep Throat and why and how Woodward kept the secret. Considering that he is an editor of the Post it will be no great surprise that the review is commendatory...which, of course, doesn't mean that its judgments are wrong.
THE UNIVERSAL MAP (that is, the map of the universe!)...will be completed by 2008 if all goes according to plan. Here's the relevant info as supplied by SpaceRef.com. And afterwards, do we start mapping the other universes that current cosmology posits?
DID SIR CYRIL FAKE THE DATA? His research seemed to establish a very strong genetic component that determined level of intelligence. But after he was knighted and died, evidence of fraud was (or was it?) discovered. Here's an overview of the renewed debate.
HITLERIAN ALLOHISTORY...describes the alternative world that might have been IF Germany has won World War II. A new book that surveys the wide literature based on that counter-factual premise is reviewed here for the U.K. Telegraph.
ASK NOT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR HARVARD...ask, rather, what Harvard can do for you. The answer appears to be "plenty," according to a new book by a recent graduate...or, at least, according to this reviewer from Bethel University.
CAN THE ALUMNI CORRECT THE LEFT TILT OF THEIR ALMA MATER? The question was recently answered affirmatively at Dartmouth...and next on stage is Hamilton College where the project on "Gender, Society and Culture" has made the campus a major stop on the radical ranters tour. The report is from FIRE on whose advisory board the proprietor serves.
WHAT IS "THEORY" WORTH? The word is in quotes because that's the term that a gaggle of literary academics have used to designate the sort of post-mod, "nothing-really-means-what-you-thought-it-means" critical hustle that they have been performing for years. Now the super-anthology of "theory" has appeared and here's what one of its contributors has to say about the whole caper.
WHAT'S BEHIND CROP CIRCLES? Some playful perversity, considerable energy and some odd skills. All is explained here in fascinating detail provided at the invaluable "How Stuff Works" site.
THE MASTERS OF MEXICAN TRIO...are, and have long been, the Trio Los Panchos. These nine selections are representative of their subtle musicality...and the appended performances by Vikki Carr are, as well, surprisingly good.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
THE EXTENT OF MUSLIM DISAFFECTION IN THE U.K. is the focus of this story from the London Times. The hitherto unreleased government study of the problem is linked and makes for chilling reading.
ON THE MUSLIM STREET...in Bethnal Green, one gets a sense of the inevitability of what happened in London on 7/7 and of why it will happen again. This chilling report was published in the Knight-Ridder papers over the weekend.
"A GOVERNING IDEOLOGY WHOSE TIME HAS COME"...is Krauthammer's description of "mature" neo-conservatism. This remarkable essay should, indeed, garner many remarks and responses IF serious historico-political discourse is still possible.
THE EMERGENCE OF THE "BEIJING CONSENSUS"...and its coming struggle to replace the "Washington Consensus" are the preoccupations of this rather brilliant--but not unconfused--article in the Financial Times. Bonus item: the identification of the Chinese William Kristol!!
THE LIBERAL JUSTICES ATTACK ON PROPERTY RIGHTS...has astonished and dismayed many, among them John Fund of the Wall Street Journal who informs us here that a counter-reaction is spontaneously forming.
HOW DO DOGS SNIFF OUT BOMBS? Watching the police canines of London at work (after the fact!) revives that question. And here's how they are trained and controlled to do what they sometimes do successfully.
THE COMING OF THE POD(CAST)S...and what it all means for the future of radio. Since radio is our business, this article from the Philadelphia Inquirer was of inevitably high interest. And if you are a listener it will be for you, as well.
AN UNPUNISHED NUCLEAR SPY...who seemed to enjoy certain gender privileges, has quietly passed on, rich in years if not in wisdom, judgment or loyalty. Here she is as commemorated by the U.K. Economist.
WAS THIS THE WORLD'S GREATEST PHILOSOPHER? Well, at any rate, he was the world's greatest skeptic and Julian Baggini, writing with engaging enthusiasm in Scotland's Sunday Herald, makes a plausible case for the first proposition.
TAKING KINSEY ALL IN ALL...he was scientifically incompetent (possibly fraudulent) and morally tone-deaf. So says this essayist--prompted by the recent hagiographic biopic--in the current issue of City Journal.
A WEEKEND WITH BASHAR AND HIS "SMASHING" WIFE, ASMA: Everything you wanted to know about the most "glamorous couple" in old Damascus is not revealed in this New York Times article which, nevertheless, does provide some edification and some bitter laughs.
DE MORTIBUS NIL NISI BONUM...unless the negative stuff is amusing. That seems to be the applicable first principle in the obituary trade as does appear in this inevitably interesting account of the annual meeting of the International Association of Obituarists.
BRUCH, RAVEL, BRAHMS and MOZART AT LUGANO. This live broadacst from the Argerich Festival features a wonderful performance of Ravel's Don Quichotte a Dulcinee by Paul Morand as well as the Brahm's Quartet in F Minor for Piano and Strings.
