Saturday, June 16, 2012

The Browser daily newsletter [16 June 2012]

16 June 2012

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Best of the Moment

How Mapping Neurons Could Reveal How Experiences Affect Mental Wiring

Sebastian Seung | Wired UK | 14 June 2012

About the least sexy title imaginable, but a wonderful piece of science writing. On the connectome, the map of connections between neurons. What it might have to tell us about human behaviour, and why one mind differs from another Comments

Cocaine, Inc

Patrick Radden Keefe | NYT | 15 June 2012

If you find Mexican drug lords fascinating, this is the piece for you. Full story of Joaquín Guzmán, and the Sinaloa cartel: "In its longevity, profitability and scope, it might be the most successful criminal enterprise in history" Comments

Can Germany Come To The Euro Zone's Rescue?

Robert Samuelson | Washington Post | 11 June 2012

On the limits to what Germany can do in Europe – and why we may be expecting too much of Angela Merkel Comments

Assad’s Response To Syria Unrest Leaves His Own Sect Divided

Neil Macfarquhar | NYT | 9 June 2012

It’s a mistake to think that the Alawites in Syria are all unified behind Assad: As the violence worsens, more will become disillusioned Comments

The Vanishing

Bob Friel | Outside | 13 June 2012

They call it the Highway of Tears. It's a 450-mile stretch of road in northern British Columbia, running through stunning, rugged wilderness. Alberta to the Pacific. Where at least 18 women, some say many more, have disappeared Comments

The Mother Of All Girls' Books

Deborah Weisgall | American Prospect | 12 June 2012

"Little Women is brutal, a ferocious wolf dressed up in the curly white sermons and sentimental homilies of children’s stories. Despite references to a kind and loving father, its fundamental faith lies not in God but in books" Comments

FiveBooks Interview

Paul Theroux on Travelling

Travel is a leap in the dark, says Paul Theroux – and one that will leave you a different person at the other end. He recommends five travel books that inspired him, from Mark Twain at sea to VS Naipaul in India

Featured Special Report

Hackers

Cars, nuclear plants, computers, phones, webcams -- they all succumb to hackers in the end

Reader Recommendations

@rszbt RT @polit2k: Language, politics and debt | Fraser Nelson | The Spectator t.co/ZJCPSUhp #browsings #debt v #deficit #smokeandmirrors @frasernelson

Book of the Day

Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers by Martin Gardner

Dana Mackenzie says: “This book contains the columns that introduced the world to two of the most fascinating mathematical discoveries of the 1970s”

Video of the Day

Why Taxes Have To Be Raised On The Rich

"Trickle-down economics is bunk"

Quote of the Day

Milton Friedman, on capitalism

"The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that kind of a system"