Take some time this weekend to delve a bit deeper and enjoy these long reads.
Aircraft carriers in space – Chris Weuve (Foreign Policy)
Science fiction authors and moviemakers tend to gravitate towards historical models they — and their audience — understand. So, sometimes you end up with “submarines in space” — but a submarine is a vessel designed to hide under the water, which obscures your vision and forces you to use capricious sensors like sonar.
What Is Wrong with the American Way of War? – Antulio J Echevarria II (PRISM)
Our understanding of the American way of war begins in 1973 with the publication of historian Russell Weigley’s classic work, The American Way of War: A History of U.S. Military Strategy and Policy.1 Weigley maintained that after the Civil War, American military strategy essentially narrowed from the practice of two types, annihilation and attrition, to one, annihilation.
Jay-Z: King of America – Mark Binelli (Rolling Stone)
Despite a recent New York Post story, JAY-Z’S 99 PROBLEMS, which supposedly details how “even the world’s most successful hip-hop star isn’t immune to the Great Recession” — the scant evidence includes the fact that a Las Vegas branch of his 40/40 Club closed in 2008 — it still appears that, of those 99 problems, the chance of his Discover card being declined at Nobu ain’t one.
The Perplexing Role of Metrics in the Arts – Alexis Clements (Hyperallergic)
…the biggest issue around metrics, is that, when it comes down to it, it’s rarely entirely clear or consistent exactly how the numbers of collected, whether or not they’re valid, and, most especially, whether or not the numbers being used are really all that useful.
An economy that serves people and nature, not the other way around – Senator Christine Milne (Australian Press Club Address)
If economic growth as it is currently measured isn’t actually making us happier, healthier, cleverer or safer then it isn’t real growth. If we are growing our economy in defiance of physical limits, that isn’t real growth: it’s a confidence trick.
The Plot Against Occupy – Sabrina Rubin Erdely (Rolling Stone)
“The government has a responsibility to prevent harm,” says former FBI counterterrorism agent Michael German, now the senior policy counsel for the ACLU. “What they’re doing instead is manufacturing threatening events.”
Facebook’s plan to find its next billion users – Christopher Mims (Quartz)
…a roadmap for how the seeds of Facebook’s future growth – to two billion and beyond – have already been planted. In both cases, what matters is emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America: the striving, proto-middle class “next billion” whose first impression of the internet is often that it seems to consist entirely of a site called Facebook.
For Romney, wealth means both freedom and a trap – Ann Gerhart and Philip Rucker (Washington Post)
…the wealth intended to liberate Romney the politician instead has ensnared him. He hoped it would free him; for many voters, it now seems to define him.
The Spiritual Crisis of Zionism – Doctor Science (Obsidian Wings)
…the non-Orthodox majority of American Jews are finding Zionism-as-she-is-practiced less and less compatible with our beliefs about what we, as Jews, are called to do. American Jews are not becoming more secular, we are becoming more religious — but in a different way than Israeli Jews.
“The best TV show that’s ever been” – Brian Raftery (GQ)
So says Amy Poehler, and she isn’t alone in thinking Cheers is pretty much perfect. On the thirtieth anniversary of the show’s premiere, GQ sat down with just about everyone who made it and asked them about creating Sam and Diane, the birth of Norm!, Woody Harrelson’s one-night stands, and many other secrets of what became TV’s funniest guy show of all time.
How to Make Almost Anything – Neil Gershenfeld (Foreign Affairs)
A new digital revolution is coming, this time in fabrication. It draws on the same insights that led to the earlier digitizations of communication and computation, but now what is being programmed is the physical world rather than the virtual one. Digital fabrication will allow individuals to design and produce tangible objects on demand, wherever and whenever they need them. Widespread access to these technologies will challenge traditional models of business, aid, and education.
“It Smelled Something Like Pizza” – Farhad Manjoo (Slate)
Like many of Apple’s inventions, the iPhone began not with a vision, but with a problem. By 2005, the iPod had eclipsed the Mac as Apple’s largest source of revenue, but the music player that rescued Apple from the brink now faced a looming threat: The cellphone.
