Cure-alls and Remedies
This CSM piece gives an excellent background on the British-Iranian conflict that lead to the capture of British soldiers last week. The big mystery is why Iran would give the UK/US a clear casus belli like this, when we’re so clearly itching for a fight. It’s not like they couldn’t guess what sort of reaction…
A while back I posted some links to photos of life in Tehran. I just figured out how to make Microsoft OneNote grab my favorite picture from Flickr, so I thought I’d share it: I love the summer greens mixed with the bright grays and blues of a metropolis. The child in the center says…
I’ve been distracted by travel… first I went to the Arendt Circle in Louisvlle, Kentucky, then to Pennsylvania where I selected a site for my wedding! I volunteered to become the Arendt Circle’s webmaster, which means my online time will be further divided between setting up a website for them, my time on metafilter, and…
Big Llama wants tort reform for llama activities .
Just pulled this off Metafilter . A St. John’s grad turned interrogator speaks about what he did to innocents in Iraq: Confessions of a Torturer . There goes Martha Nussbaum’s thesis that the study of the liberal arts will cultivate an ethical sensibility, right out the window. That said, Mr. Lagouranis has a lot more…
Crooked Timber challenges us to discover the best first paragraphs of academic texts . They provide this example: “Affluence breeds impatience and impatience undermines well-being. This is the core of my argument. For detail and evidence, go directly to the chapters; for implications, to the conclusion, which also has chapter summaries.” (Avner Offer, The Challenge…
My family likes the business self-help section of the bookstore. When I was an an awkward adolescent, my father made me read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and How to Win Friends and Influence People . Seriously. I’m not a big fan of this kind of thing; I think it’s a bit of…
Things look pretty normal in Iran these days. Check out this Flickr blog of quotidian shots of Persian life .
The Boston Globe has a long story about the shift in marriage rates for educated women . It looks like: 1. “The median age for a first marriage nationally is now 25.5 for women and 27 for men. It is even higher for those with graduate degrees. In Massachusetts, the median age at first marriage…
Alan Dugan’s off-putting rhythm and his messianic carpentry metaphor makes love a labor of suffering and still finds room for a partner. I enjoy the way he manages to build a love poem out of his self-obsession and his undirected fury… even though I don’t experience love that way, I recognize the power of the…