Slumburbia?
Following an Atlantic article of the slum-ification of suburbia, the New York Times explores the fate of housing developments in Southern California. From the conclusion:
Author: Will
Franchising the Heroin Industry
Here’s an amazing testament to the power of creative capitalism/a disturbing portrait of a burgeoning illegal drug trade.
Dissecting Machiavelli
Those following Rufus’s excellent “blogging the canon” series may also be interested in James Hanley’s chapter-by-chapter breakdown of The Prince.
Science Fiction Friday (II)
The ultimate guilty pleasure: Alyssa Rosenberg delves into the Star Wars expanded universe.
Science Fiction Friday
Because it’s my blog and I’ll post ephemera if I want to: The LA Times on Philip K. Dick and Orange County; io9 on the “soft” (ie not world-ending) apocalypse, which includes a shout-out...
“I had to get my book game back up”
An entertaining article on the reading habits of NBA players, international and homegrown alike. On a related note, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson distributes books to his players every season; here’s this year’s list.
Can blogging prevent plagiarism?
I completely missed the Daily Beast plagiarism scandal, but Michael Roston has an interesting post on how blogging norms prevent writers from inadvertently stealing.
Should we be capturing more terrorists?
On a practical level, Mark Thiessen’s case for capturing and torturing suspected terrorists in place of bombing them is pretty unpersuasive, mainly because he doesn’t have any proof that we lose a chance to...
Fixing the IPCC
In the wake of Climategate, Clive Crook has some choice words for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chance.
Required Reading
Sonny Bunch interviews Matt Labash (whose best work can be found here, here and here). A teaser:
Pundit Gossip
Too weird not to link to: Noted historian Niall Ferguson shacks up with militant atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Super Bowl Sunday
As an unaffiliated fan, I feel obligated to root for the Saints. Final prediction: 31-28 New Orleans.
Why did Avatar’s script suck?
James Cameron’s op-ed on space exploration in today’s Washington Post offers a clue. Favorite line: “So it could be said that rockets really run on dreams.” (All snark aside, I like Cameron’s enthusiasm for...
Prince Charles, Crunchy Conservative
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but Prince Charles’ nascent crunchy conservatism strikes me as emblematic of that movement’s worst features, from the vague noises about “harmony” and “natural order” to a near-total cluelessness about the...
