Peter Van Buren | Nation/TomDispatch | 16 August 2012 Lacerating critique by former US foreign service officer. "Once corruption and pure greed are strained out and the vanity projects crossed off, what's left is our desire for them to be like us." It doesn't work Comments Dan Ariely | Dan Ariely | 15 August 2012 On will power, and the difficulty of maintaining it. "When we become depleted, we’re not only more apt to make bad and/or dishonest choices, we’re also more likely to allow ourselves to be tempted to make them in the first place" Comments Clemency Burton-Hill | FT | 17 August 2012 "I always wrote music for my friends, but my focus was on playing the piano. I didn't think I'd be quite good enough to be a soloist, but I believed that if I worked hard enough, I could work as a teacher. Maybe even an accompanist" Comments Adam Benton | EvoAnth | 16 August 2012 Anthropologists speculate. "As co-operation became more and more important to survival, the beliefs which fostered this co-operation also became more and more important and as a result more and more common" Comments Kevin Sullivan | Washington Post | 15 August 2012 Interview with Iraqi farmer who hid Saddam Hussein in "spider hole" after US invasion. “He came here and he asked us for help and I said yes. In our Arab tribal tradition, and by Islamic law, when someone needs help, we help him” Comments Michael Bourne | Millions | 14 August 2012 What do literary agents do all day? Say no to writers, mostly. Michelle Brower sends out 18 rejection letters in 14 minutes. Scott Hoffman reckons the chance of getting on his list without an introduction at about 1 in 11,111 Comments |