Month: October 2002

Michael I. Niman wonders: “Was Paul Wellstone Murdered?” I often don’t agree with Andrew Sullivan, but he’s right: Niman’s claim is absolutely ridiculous.

Bananas as installation art.

Outside La Paz, Bolivia, “el camino de la muerte,” or the highway of death, has become a tourist attraction (New York Times; free registration required).

BBC News: “The enigma of Liverpool’s labyrinth: Tycoon Joseph Williamson dug a vast, bizarre network of tunnels under Liverpool almost 200 years ago. Were they the city’s first job creation scheme, a rich man’s whimsy or a shelter from the end of the world?”

David Brooks. Man, is he good. In his newest article, “Superiority Complex,” he examines the democratization of elitism in our country:

“‘Know thyself,’ the Greek sage advised. But of course this is nonsense. Truly happy people live by the maxim ‘Overrate thyself.’ They are raised by loving parents who slather them with praise. They stride through life with a confidence built on an amazing overestimation of their own abilities. And they settle into an old age made comfortable by the warm glow of self-satisfaction. Each of these people is a god of self-esteem, dwelling on a private Olympus.”

If you’re into social criticism, check out Brooks’s excellent book “Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There.”

Good news: Arts & Letters Daily is back. The site has been purchased by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

News.com: “Google, the world’s most popular search engine, has quietly deleted more than 100 controversial sites from some search result listings.”

This week’s New Yorker contains two fascinating articles. The first, by Jeffrey Goldberg, which, unfortuntely, isn’t posted on the magazine’s site, describes the increase in fundamental Islamic terrorist activity in the “Triple Frontier”–the border area shared by Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. The second article, Jerome Groopman’s “Dying Words,” is a sad, revealing look at various methods doctors use to break the worst kind of news to their patients.

“The American way of snacks.”

BBC News: “Plans are afoot to try and emulate the travels of a Chinese eunuch who is believed to have discovered America more than 70 years before Christopher Columbus.”