Is Willmoore Kendall’s constitutional morality still possible?
Cyrus should be counted among history’s greatest men.
Lamenting the death of the
Our culture is dominated by efforts to score points and win arguments. But do we really talk anymore?
There was once a time when strangers talked to one another, sometimes eagerly. “In past eras, daily life made it necessary for individuals to engage with others different from themselves,” Paula Marantz Cohen explains. In those moments of unpredictability and serendipity, we confronted difference. There were no smartphones, message boards, or online factions. Maybe because life moved at a slower pace, and every interaction wasn’t so freighted with political meaning, we had the opportunity to recognize our full humanity. Nowadays, she argues, we are sectarian and “self-soothing,” having fallen out of such practice. What we need is to return to the basics: to brush up on the art of conversation.
A succession battle involving a fight for the patronage of Sarah Jessica Parker threatens to stop the presses at a Greenwich Village newspaper.
An entomologist races to find them before they disappear.
Caterpillars are to lepidoptera—butterflies and moths—what grubs are to beetles and maggots are to flies; they are larvae. Even among nature lovers, larvae tend to be unloved. For every ten butterfly fanciers, there are approximately zero caterpillar enthusiasts. The reason for this will, to most, seem obvious. The worm in the apple is usually a caterpillar.
Pompeii is a vast archaeological site in southern Italy’s Campania region, near the coast of the Bay of Naples. Once a thriving and sophisticated Roman city, Pompeii was buried under meters of ash and pumice after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The preserved site features excavated ruins of streets and houses that visitors can freely explore..
Oxford Review of Books (Spring 2023) – This issue includes reviews of the latest releases from Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, and Jon Fosse, interviews with Brian Dillon and the Know Your Enemy Podcast. Our writers explore the politics of pension reform in France, Hollywood’s obsession with sequels, and the shifting linguistic landscape of Taiwan (among countless great articles!) as well as a Q+A with writer Alex Niven and Academic Nigel Biggar.
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NOBODY HAS EVER seen the economy. We can see specific markets, but my local farmers’ market looks very different from the Diamond District in Manhattan and even the street stalls I frequented in East London.
Markets are institutions with more or less physical infrastructures, but “the market” (like “the economy”) is an abstraction, no more fixed or certain than “the Left” or “nature.” If “the economy” and “the market” are often described as though they were things out there in the world to be measured and monitored while other abstractions (such as “beauty” and “joy”) are not, that tells us as much about ways of thinking as it does about the workings of the world.
Powered by this insight, the history of economic thought (and related “new histories of capitalism”) has grown over the past 20 years to become one of the most lively and popular historical subfields.
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The recent controversy over Jacob Soll’s new book Free Market: The History of an Idea (2022) reveals just how attached some people are to their economic ideologies (no surprise there) and to their ideas about who gets to have “economic thoughts.”
In a sweeping text that ranges across 2,500 years in barely 250 pages, Soll argues that, for centuries, “free” markets were understood as existing only where strong, moral governments liberated trade from domination by selfish, moneyed merchants. Markets had to be set free—they were not born that way—and the danger has always lurked of commerce being recaptured to enrich the few rather than benefit the many.
This is a loosely “antitrust” way of describing market freedom, and it might have barely registered at all had Soll attributed it chiefly to Louis Brandeis, Frances Perkins (secretary of labor under FDR), or even Machiavelli. But by invoking the name “Adam Smith,” Soll seems to have violated the holy of holies.
0:15 These ‘robo-boots’ may improve balance – They provide a super-quick blast of assistance to your muscles helping you to stay upright. Scientists asked a healthy participant to stand on a moving floor wearing the exo-boots. Then ‘pulled the rug’ out from under them. They programmed the boots to work using the same delay as human reflexes or artificially faster than humanly possible. The exo-boots only improved balance when they worked faster than our natural response. It means that, one day, wearable exoskeletons could deploy lightning-quick reflexes to help people with balance impairment.
1:35 This new telescope could help explain dark energy – A new space telescope is being launched by the European Space Agency to help scientists build a 3D map of the universe by photographing billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light years away – across more than a third of the sky. Around 95% of the universe is ‘dark matter’ or ‘dark energy’ which doesn’t fit into our cosmological models. The super-sensitive telescope will effectively enable us to look back in time to how distant galaxies looked 10 billion years ago and to see how dark energy accelerated the expansion of the universe.
3:10 How to build earthquake proof buildings – When an earthquake strikes, it creates horizontal forces that shake the building from left to right. Concrete is very strong when compressed, but it has little flexibility, and when stretched, as it is during an earthquake, it’s liable to crack. So to create earthquake resistant buildings, designers add a flexible steel skeleton known as rebar. The steel is elastic and springs the building back into shape. Sometimes, when tension is too high, the steel may warp permanently. This is advantageous, though, because it keeps the building upright, enabling people to escape. There are other ways to make earthquake resistant buildings. Watch the video to learn more.
4:34 Climate doom is a dangerous myth – It’s the most common false claim about climate change, especially among young people. Some experts believe it’s more damaging than climate denialism. In fact, scientists say, it’s not too late to arrest global warming. Global temperatures will stabilize a few years after we reach net zero and the belief that it’s pointless trying to stop climate change only leads to inaction. Making it as unhelpful as denying climate change altogether.
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The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
Barron’s Magazine – March 13, 2023:
Inflation and higher interest rates brought an end to rah-rah returns for growth stocks. Advisors are adjusting by buying more bonds and shifting their focus away from once-sexy stock sectors.
Larger financial institutions have different funding sources and are subject to much tighter regulation.
It could take five to 10 years for an EV to pay off financially compared with a gasoline-powered car. Here’s what to know if you’re thinking of going electric.
Kellogg, Johnson & Johnson, Crane, and BorgWarner are planning to hive off a chunk of their businesses in 2023. What investors need to know.
The New York Times Book Review – March 12, 2023:
In Jenny Jackson’s debut novel, “Pineapple Street,” readers get a tour of a world they might learn not to envy by the end of the book.
Watch for reality-bending explorations of time and space, a Western horror novel from Victor LaValle and new fiction from Han Kang. Plus: Tom Hanks (yes, that Tom Hanks) releases his debut novel.
A new book by Joel Warner traces the fate of the parchment on which the infamous author wrote “120 Days of Sodom,” a trail involving scholars, aristocrats and thieves — and lots of money.
March 9, 2023: The Lightship L1 was tightly engineered for zero emissions, for comfort, and built to last. We started with aero principles to create a near-zero range loss for EVs and lower costs at the gas pump. From the battery and solar roof down to appliances, every decision was about ease of use.
And of course, relaxing just outside nature’s door. Kick back with plenty of room to gather and stow it all away in smart storage solutions. Add the bonus of powering your home or charging your EV, and this is unlike any travel trailer you’ve ever had.
The New York Times Magazine – March 12, 2023:
How the downfall of one intelligence agent revealed the astonishing depth of Chinese industrial espionage.
Oscar campaigns are often run by professional strategists, essentially a specialized breed of publicist. Their job begins as early as a year before the awards, sometimes before a film is even shot. They advise on which festival a film should premiere at, shape a campaign platform and hope that the film gains enough momentum to propel it into awards season.
Much of the cathedral’s restoration, projected to be completed in 2024, will address these large holes. They affect not just the structure of the building, but also something that cannot be seen: the acoustics. “Notre Dame has lost about 20 percent of its acoustics,” says Mylène Pardoen, who is the co-director of the acoustics team working on Notre Dame — under the aegis of the French Ministry of Culture and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (C.N.R.S.), a research organization from whose ranks specialists have been drawn for the restoration. The holes caused a measurable decline in the glorious resonances that gave the building its unique sound.
Boomers Daily 