Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.
1. 5 reasons Condi Rice will not be Mitt Romney’s VP pick
By Blake Hounshell | Passport :: Foreign Policy | July 13
“As Red State’s Eric Erickson colorfully put it, ‘I don’t know who is hitting the crack rock tonight in the rumor mill, but bull shiitake mushrooms.'”
2. The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama
By Tom Junod | Esquire | August 2012
“But no president has ever waged war by killing enemies one by one, targeting them individually for execution, wherever they are.”
3. Asteroid Crashes Likely Source Of Water On Earth, Scientists Say
Space.com | July 12
“The results contradict prevailing theories, which hold that most of our planet’s water originated in the outer solar system and was delivered by comets or asteroids that coalesced beyond Jupiter’s orbit, then migrated inward.”
4. Onward Southern Soldiers
By Traci Nichols-Belt and Gordon T. Belt | Disunion :: The New York Times | July 6
“Among the many reasons for the war lasting as long as it did, one of the most critical, and most often overlooked, is the role that this particular brand of faith played in the mind of the average soldier.”
5. How the West shaped China’s hidden battle of ideas
By Mukul Devichand | BBC Magazine | July 8
“A battle of ideas is under way in China before a Communist Party Congress in the autumn that will appoint a new generation of leaders. For outsiders, it is strikingly familiar — Left v. Right. That’s because while China exports just about everything else, it still imports policy ideas.”
6. Who Made That Cigarette Filter?
By Pagan Kennedy | The New York Times Magazine | July 6
“In the 1960s, Philip Morris scientists noticed that mouthpieces shed tiny fibers that could be inhaled into the lungs. The industry called it ‘fallout.’ ”
7. What if he’d made it earlier?
By David Runciman | London Review of Books | July 5
“Lyndon Johnson always believed he would be president.”
8. Q&A: Literary Agent Anna Stein
By Jamie Quatro | Ploughsares | July 5
“What do you look for in a first-time writer? In the manuscript itself? What does a good query letter look like?”
9. Rereading: The Go-Between by LP Hartley
By Ali Smith | The Guardian | June 17
“A story of lost innocence, hypocrisy and Britishness — but LP Hartley’s masterpiece can also be read as a sophisticated gay novel”
10. Ukraine Famine
Witness :: BBC News | April 29
“In the 1930s, a combination of bad weather and Soviet policy led to a devastating famine in Ukraine.”
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TUNES
My soundtrack for today included:
1. LOOKIN’ AT ME Mase
2. GANGSTA ZONE Daddy Yankee & Snoop Dogg
3. TRUTH OR DARE N.E.R.D.
4. COME TO ME Diddy
5. P.I.M.P. 50 Cent
6. SOMEBODY’S GOTTA DIE Notorious B.I.G.
7. CAN’T DENY IT Fabolous & Nate Dogg
8. THE POWER OF GOD LL Cool J
9. GET UR FREAK ON Missy Elliott
10. LET ME BLOW YA MIND Eve
Tell your friends!
stillness of heart 