The Browser daily newsletter [7 Jan 2012]

Daily Newsletter       7 January 2012  Best of the Moment Will We Be All Right In The End? David Runciman | LRB | 5 January 2012 Democracy is being tested severely in Europe. It's not looking that healthy in America. "The fear is that the political system we’ve relied on in the past might not be up to the task at hand, but it’s the only one we’ve got" Comments The Future Of Prediction Leon Neyfakh | Boston Globe | 1 January 2012 No point asking "experts" – their predictions are notoriously unreliable. But new technologies, able to analyse vast amounts of data, may yet produce an accurate forecasting machine. Question is, would we actually want to use it? Comments Schadenfreude Capitalism Harold James | Project Syndicate | 4 January 2012 "Today’s global economy is a riot of slipping economic models. And tomorrow the cacophony will be even louder." American, European capitalism seems flawed. Asian approach no better. So, is there a correct way to organise an economy? Comments Should We Erase Painful Memories? Alison Winter | Salon | 31 December 2011 Interesting topic, thoughtfully handled. If neuroscience let us perform "memory dampening", would it be ethical? People worry because our experiences seem central to personal identity. But so too did consciousness. Until anaesthesia Comments Following In Henry VIII's Footsteps Stephen Cooper | History Today | 5 January 2012 In 1533 the British parliament ruled that legal cases involving religion could no longer be appealed to the Vatican for final resolution. A useful precedent, if Britain decides to reject the supremacy of European Union law Comments How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body William Broad | NYT | 5 January 2012 "Yoga can lower blood pressure, make chemicals that act as antidepressants, even improve your sex life. But the yoga community long remained silent about its potential to inflict blinding pain." For many, it can do serious damage Comments FiveBooks Interview Gary Taubes on Dieting Sticking to your new year’s resolutions? Still digesting Christmas lunch? Ignore the conventional advice on losing weight, says the science writer – what constitutes a healthy diet needs to be drastically re-evaluated  Featured Special Report Time What is it? Why isn't it the same everywhere? Can we travel through time? Will there be an end to time? Read on to find out  Reader Recommendations  @polit2k: Simon Johnson | Ron Paul And The Banks t.co/IvkgexJZ @baselinescene #browsings #gfc2  Book of the Day The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene William Boyd says: “He gets the slightly desperate seediness of life so well. It’s a fantastically atmospheric and powerful read”  Video of the Day Zen Of Steve Jobs Graphic novel re-imagines phase in Jobs's life when he was fired from Apple and turned to Buddhism  Quote of the Day Daniel Gilbert, on happiness "A new house or a new spouse will make you happier, but not much and not for long. Very few experiences affect us for more than three months" | Homepage | Mobile Apps | RSS Feeds | Twitter | Facebook | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Having trouble reading this email? View it in your browser. You are receiving this email because you signed up for the Best of the Moment newsletter on thebrowser.com. Click here to unsubscribe The Browser Ltd, 106 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 6PF

Cheat Sheet - Ex-Romney Adviser Unleashes New Video Trashing Mitt

Today: Eurozone Unemployment Hits Record High, Book Reveals Tension Between Michelle, Rahm, Syria Blames Al Qaeda for Bombing January 07, 2012 EXCLUSIVE 1. Ex-Romney Adviser Unleashes New Video Trashing Mitt A pro-Newt-Gingrich super PAC has won a bidding war to fire the latest missile at Mitt Romney, scooping up an ex-Romney adviser's half-hour attack video blasting Mitt's work at Bain Capital. Peter J. Boyer has an exclusive look at the scathing film depicting Romney as a greedy, job-killing corporate raider "more ruthless than Wall Street." Read it at The Daily Beast JOBLESS 2. Eurozone Unemployment Hits Record High Unemployment rates are dropping in the U.S., but things are not looking so good over in Europe, where deep austerity cuts have severely hurt many countries in the eurozone. According to employment numbers released Friday by the EU's statistics agency, Eurostat, unemployment across the 17 eurozone countries has hit 16.4 million, or 10.3 percent—a new record since the establishment of the eurozone. Spain had the highest rate of unemployment, with 22.9 percent out of work, but Greece—the country whose austerity measures vote took down their own government and threatened to drown the whole EU—was not far behind with 18.8 percent. Germany remained the strongman of Europe, with its unemployment actually declining from 9.1 percent to 8.1 percent. Read it at Guardian JUICY 3. Book Reveals Tension Between Michelle, Rahm Nobody says no to Michelle Obama, except maybe Rahm Emanuel. According to The Obamas, a new book by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, Michelle wanted to sit in on Rahm's 7:30 a.m. staff meetings, but he rebuffed the idea. Kantor writes that Michelle wasn't thrilled about her husband's choice for chief of staff and as time wore on, the pair was increasingly at odds over how President Obama should approach policy issues like immigration and health-care reform. Rahm often took the tack that the president needed realistic legislative victories, while Michelle was more concerned with whether her husband was fulfilling the mission he set out to achieve. Read it at The New York Times ANTI-TERROR 4. Syria Blames Al Qaeda for Bombing The Syrian government blamed al Qaeda for Friday's deadly bombing that killed at least 11 people in a Damascus suburb. The Interior Ministry described the bombing as having "the fingerprints" of the terror network despite the deadly crackdown that Syrian security forces have taken against antigovernment protesters, who have been demonstrating on Fridays for months. Meanwhile, some Syrian officials blamed the Arab League. Human-rights activists also said on Saturday that security forces fired on protesters at sit-ins in two parts of the country, killing one and wounding at least 20 others. Read it at Guardian HOMECOMING 5. Deported Teen Reunites with Family A Texas teenager who was mistakenly deported to Colombia was reunited with her family Friday. Jakadrien Lorce Turner, 15, had run away from home more than a year ago and was arrested in April 2011 using the name Tika Cortez, an identity that tied her to a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from Colombia. She was deported in May, despite not even being fluent in Spanish. Jakadrien's family is now questioning how a minor could have been deported and why officials didn't do more to confirm her identity. For now, her family's attorney said that Jakadrien, who is pregnant, is "happy to be home" and her family is "ecstatic" to be reunited with her. Read it at Associated Press DOMESTIC Obama Kicks Off Jobs Initiative To stop foreign outsourcing. BLITZ Romney Looks to Lock Up Nomination By the end of the month. INTERCEPTED U.S. Rescues Captured Iranians Had been held by pirates for 45 days. JOURNALISM The Week's Best Reads From the split personality of Stephen Colbert to neurosis inside the Obama campaign. NUPTIALS Isaac Mizrahi Gets Married To boyfriend of six years. GET The Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from across the Web. You'll love the featured original stories on politics, entertainment, and more from The Daily Beast's diverse group of contributors. GET The Yes List Weekly cultural recommendations from The Daily Beast. Watch This Space: The Presidential Election Could Be Decided in NH by Mark McKinnon Scientology Insider Emails Attack on Church Finances by Janet Reitman Don Cheadle's a Smooth Operator in 'House of Lies' by Allison Samuels

ABOUT US | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBE Copyright 2011 The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC 555 W. 18th Street , New York NY 10011 Privacy Policy

If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, click here to view this email in your Web browser. To ensure delivery of these emails, please add thedailybeast@e2.thedailybeast.com to your address book. If you have changed your mind and no longer wish to receive these emails, or think you have received this message in error, you can safely unsubscribe here.