[Link: www.slate.com...]
The paper clip is something of a fetish object in design circles. Its spare, machined aesthetic and its inexpensive ubiquity landed it a spot in MoMA's 2004 show Humble Masterpieces. This was a pedestal too high for design critic Michael Bierut, who responded with an essay called "To Hell with the Simple Paper Clip." He argued that designers praise supposedly unauthored objects like the paper clip because they're loath to choose between giving publicity to a competitor and egotistically touting their own designs. Bierut might be right about his colleagues' motives, but he's wrong about the paper clip: It's not all that simple.
Most everyday objects--like the key, or the book, or the phone--evolve over time in incremental ways, and the 20th century in particular revolutionized, streamlined, or technologized the vast majority of the things you hold in your hand over the course of an average day. But if you could step into an office in 1895--walking past horse-drawn buses and rows of wooden telephone switchboard cabinets--you might find a perfectly recognizable, shiny silver paper clip sitting on a desk. What was then a brand-new technology is now, well over a century later, likely to be in the same place, ready to perform the same tasks. Why did the paper clip find its form so quickly, and why has it stuck with us for so long?
[Link: www.bbc.co.uk...]
People in the Czech Republic are marking the seventieth anniversary of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most senior figures in Germany's Third Reich.
Heydrich - the overall head of security in Nazi Germany and a leading architect of the Final Solution - was killed by British-trained Czechoslovak parachutists in what was codenamed Operation Anthropoid, prompting terrible reprisals by Hitler.
[Link: www.slate.com...]
Does the government have the right to ask you when you leave for work in the morning? How long it takes you to get home? Whether you have a flush toilet? The answers to these questions are at the heart of an unexpected controversy about a government program most non-wonks have no idea even exists. To supplement the main decennial census, the Census Bureau conducts the annual American Community Survey. The objections to the ACS are a fascinating window on the radicalized post-2008 version Republican Party, a party that's gone beyond skepticism about the merits of particular government programs to a generalized belief that even the most useful public sector undertakings are an infringement of basic rights.
The census itself is, of course, mandated by the Constitution and used to do things like draw congressional districts. Since the Constitution calls for an "actual enumeration" (and because using statistical sampling instead would add voters to Democratic jurisdictions, and thus is a political nonstarter), the Census Bureau attempts to count every single American one by one.
[Link: www.cracked.com...]
The most underrated part of college is what you learn outside of the classroom. And no, we're not talking about the stuff your parents worry about ("Mom! I learned how to make a bong out of a dildo!"). We're talking about the bitter, cruel disappointment you feel when you find out how college actually works.
When it comes to lowering your expectations of the adult world, it doesn't get much better than finding out ...
[Link: www.theatlanticwire.com...]
In today's tour of state-sponsored propaganda: America has an inferiority complex with China, Syria overcomes its challenges and a propagandist reveals himself. We begin in China.
America's Inferiority Complex
Did you know America is privately envious of China's cultural superiority? If not, you're clearly not keeping up with The Global Times, one of China's state-run newspapers. This week, The Global Times is upset about an obscure State Department directive that's making it more difficult for Confucius Institues to operate in the United States. (Confucius Institutes are run by government-trained language instructors who teach foreigners Mandarin in some 380 locations throughout the U.S., but always avoid topics like the Dalai Lama or the Tiananmen Square Massacre ) Some of the griping about the directive is valid, especially concerning the renewal of visas for teachers at at the Confucius Centers. But in its typical ham-handed style, The Global Times makes a rather humorous but utterly serious extrapolation from the new policy in an editorial today titled "Why is Washington so scared of Confucius?":
The issue shows that the US' cultural confidence is not as strong as we thought. The promotion of Chinese language and culture by Confucius Institutes makes some Americans uneasy. Only culturally weak countries have such sensitivity.
Ah, you got us Global Times.
[Link: www.slate.com...]
Colin Powell has often been cited as among the most-admired leaders in America. Hence it's been news this week that he followed President Obama in endorsing same-sex marriage. But is Powell really a leader, much less one worthy of admiration? It's worth a glance back at his record in this election year as the nation discusses the attributes it seeks in a leader and contemplates what moral leadership really looks like.
Speaking on CNN Wednesday, Powell said he has "no problem" with same-sex marriage. Before he could utter another sentence on that subject, though, he defensively and dishonestly shirked responsibility for his critical role in enshrining a ban on openly gay military service into law. "It was the Congress that imposed 'don't ask, don't tell,' he said in response to Wolf Blitzer's questioning. Powell admitted it was his "recommendation" but passing the buck to Congress may be the dodge of the century. As the first African-American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a hero of the first Iraq war, and the highest-ranking officer in the country, Powell commanded immense moral authority on this issue. Indeed his was doubtlessly the single most important voice in the painful debate, and the voice most pointed to by the Congress he's now trying to blame.
[Link: www.theatlantic.com...]
When Glenn Beck "parted company" with Fox News in June of last year, he took his Glenn Beck-ness with him. He took his tears, and his chalkboards, and his patriotic unction. He took his world-historical sweep and his zodiac of personal demons. He took his edifying projects and his long-haul feuds, his hobbyhorses and hobgoblins. He took his face, his voice, the vials of his wrath, the quivering curds of his indignation--he took it all, and he left the network. Gone! There was no replacement for Glenn Beck. None was possible. The portal simply resealed itself, and there we were again--we the people, the watchers of Fox, back with the everyday lineup of guffers and bluffers.
Where did Glenn Beck go, on his nimbus of madness? To the Internet, that's where. In September 2011, mere months into his exile, Beck launched a Web TV network called GBTV. It was risky, very risky, a precipitous venture from a precipitous man. Dozens of new employees, millions of dollars invested--and what would it do to the brand? "Beck premiered today," crowed Keith Olbermann, "having lost about 90 percent of the audience he had at Fox!" And it was true: Beck was down from a daily average of 2.2 million Fox viewers to a hard core of 230,000 GBTV subscribers. But oh, the feeling that he might have blown it--this was champagne to Glenn Beck. It mingled strangely in his mind with a whiff of divine ordination. "I'm about to take on massive debt," he confided huskily during an October episode of The Glenn Beck Program on GBTV. "It seems absolutely crazy to me, and I'm not going to keep asking if that's right." We could feel the pressure of oncoming tears: his face was getting that glandular look. "I will listen and obey ... I have prayed and prayed and prayed for the answers that I'm going to give you today ... I'm a guy who is making crazy business moves right now. I left the biggest and best cable news network at the pintacle of news in the world!" That's right, folks, the pintacle. The pinnacle of the pentacle. It doesn't get any higher than that.
[Link: www.bbc.co.uk...]
The Pope's butler has been charged in connection with the Vatican's inquiry into a series of media leaks.
Vatican magistrates have named 46-year-old Paolo Gabriele as the suspect in their investigation, saying he illegally took confidential documents.
A series of leaks, dubbed Vatileaks, has revealed alleged corruption, mismanagement and internal conflicts.
Last month, Pope Benedict XVI set up a special commission of cardinals to find the source of the confidential memos.
Mr Gabriele is the pope's personal butler and assistant and one of very few laymen to have access to the Pope's private apartments.
[Link: www.theatlanticwire.com...]
To understand the nature of birtherism, it helps to look at the case of another cultural phenomenon that has far outlasted the climate it evolved from -- Donald Trump. You might be asking yourself, how is birtherism still a thing, more than a year after President Obama released his long-form birth certificate? But that question has it backwards. How could birtherism thrive without the birth certificate? Before it was released birthers were waiting for the ultimate evidentiary shoe to drop. All attention was focused on demanding that single piece of paper. Now that the birth certificate is printed in effing Obama campaign mugs, for crissakes, the birthers can detach themselves from facts altogether and freely follow every one of their paranoid inclinations on whatever path they lead. Each false headline or inaccurate scrap of promotional material can be endlessly examined. Existence of the birth certificate was is the only proof the conspiracy needs. Why would Obama release his birth certificate if there wasn't a controversy?
[Link: www.bbc.co.uk...]
The Vatican says it has detained a person suspected of leaking a series of confidential documents and letters to the media.
Reports citing unnamed sources said he was the Pope's personal butler.
The "Vatileaks" scandal, as it is known, has enraged the Holy See. The leaks have revealed alleged corruption, mismanagement and internal conflicts.
The Vatican said the person detained was being questioned by Vatican magistrates.
Last month, Pope Benedict XVI set up a special commission of cardinals to investigate the leaks.
"The inquiry carried out by Vatican police... allowed them to identify someone in possession of confidential documents," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists.
"This person is currently being questioned."
