Machines can make many things better, and for less. Louis Vuitton has been caught pulling the wool—a very fine and delicately woven wool, no doubt—over the eyes of consumers. Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority this week demanded that the luxury company cease and desist with ads that imply their products are made by hand. The glossy [...]
Archive for May, 2010
Pocketbooks, Cars and the Mystique of the Handmade
Posted in Living on May 28, 2010 | Comments Off
A GOP Oil Trap
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on May 28, 2010 | Comments Off
Panicked Republicans risk future energy development. With oil now lapping the Louisiana shore, a political oil panic is beginning to wash over the GOP. Somewhere, Rahm Emanuel is wondering if the Gulf spill is another crisis he won’t have to let go to waste. Start with Sarah Palin, who spent most of 2008 rapping Democrats [...]
He Was Supposed to Be Competent
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on May 28, 2010 | Comments Off
The spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy. I don’t see how the president’s position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the president’s [...]
This Is Not a Weed
Posted in Living on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off
Plants that spontaneously grow in the city are marvels of adaptation. What can we learn from them? What makes a plant worth our admiration? Peter Del Tredici, a senior research scientist at the Arnold Arboretum, walks up a short grassy hill near the South Street Gate and points to what he considers to be the [...]
Saved by the crown
Posted in Politics on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off
What monarchs offer modern democracy The tumultuous past two months in world politics have brought a surprise with them: Suddenly, monarchy seems relevant again. In Belgium, where the fragile government constantly is on the verge of collapse, King Albert II has been essential in trying to prevent its dissolution, mediating between leading politicians and pushing [...]
Uncommon knowledge
Posted in Uncommon knowledge, tagged May 23 2010 on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off
Beware of chivalry People generally think of discrimination as a manifestation of negative attitudes about another social group. Yet, in the case of gender discrimination, it can also be motivated by ostensibly benevolent attitudes, with the aim of protecting women. Though perhaps not as offensive as hostile sexism, new research finds that benevolent sexism can [...]
Getting ‘untracked’
Posted in The Word, tagged May 23 2010 on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off
The surprisingly deep history of a bit of jock-talk IN THE FIRST playoff game against the Celtics last Sunday, the Orlando Magic “finally got untracked” only in the last quarter, the Globe’s Frank Dell’Apa wrote. That untracked is standard usage in sports reporting, but it still puzzles readers who look at it closely. Tom Fitzpatrick [...]
Executive honor
Posted in Other on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off
Can an ‘MBA oath’ fix what’s wrong with business? The portrait of the American business world that has emerged from the financial crisis is rife with unapologetic amorality. Mortgage bankers encouraged people to take out home loans they couldn’t afford, distinguished investment houses peddled deals to their clients that they themselves wouldn’t consider investing in, [...]
Fraught
Posted in On Language, tagged May 23 2010 on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off
W.F. Young asks: “Long ago I developed the expectation that on encountering the word fraught, I’d find it associated with a prepositional phrase, ‘with [something].’ Now, in old age, I find that expectation dashed, often. Can you say what it was based on and anything about when, how or by whom it was undercut?” Here [...]
Read More Than Respected
Posted in Literature on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off
His writing was widely loved. Critics begrudged him his popularity. Over the course of a literary career that spanned an astonishing eight decades, Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) wrote some of the 20th century’s best-loved novels (e.g., “Of Human Bondage”), a cluster of hit plays in London’s West End (“The Constant Wife”), ground-breaking travel books (“The Gentleman [...]
Yes, the Gulf Spill Is Obama’s Katrina
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off
Where was the White House plan, and why has it been so slow to make decisions? As President Obama prepares to return to the Gulf Coast Friday, he is receiving increasing criticism for his handling of the oil spill. For good reason: Since the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up on April 20, a lethargic Team [...]
A New Age of Reform
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off
The mood in the country suggests the U.S. may be at the start of an era of political and economic reform. With incumbents toppling and party establishments cracking, there is talk of November being a “reform” election. Don’t be fooled: There is political reform and there is Political Reform. Political reform with a small “r” [...]
The wrecking of Venezuela
Posted in Politics, tagged Venezuela on May 25, 2010 | Comments Off
Venezuelans are starting to fall out of love with their president. Will they be allowed to vote him out of power? WITH his bellicose bombast, theatrical gestures and dodgy jokes, Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president for the past 11 years, has turned himself into one of the world’s most recognisable and controversial rulers. His fans salute [...]
Genetically Engineered Distortions
Posted in Health on May 24, 2010 | Comments Off
A REPORT by the National Research Council last month gave ammunition to both sides in the debate over the cultivation of genetically engineered crops. More than 80 percent of the corn, soybeans and cotton grown in the United States is genetically engineered, and the report details the “long and impressive list of benefits” that has [...]
The Aliens Among Us
Posted in Other on May 24, 2010 | Comments Off
FOR centuries, speculation about the existence of life elsewhere in the universe was the preserve of philosophers and theologians. Then, 50 years ago last month, the question entered the scientific sphere when a young American astronomer named Frank Drake began sweeping the skies with a radio telescope in hopes of picking up a signal from [...]
A wild, wild place
Posted in History on May 24, 2010 | Comments Off
A master storyteller retells one of America’s greatest military adventures The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. By Nathaniel Philbrick. Viking; 466 pages; $30. The Bodley Head; £20. REINFORCEMENTS arrived too late at the site of the bloodiest military defeat suffered by whites in their settlement of the American [...]
The Lamest Show on Earth
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Law on May 24, 2010 | Comments Off
Senator walks into a bar. Bartender asks, ‘Why the long speech?’ Barring the unexpected, the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court will be confirmed. The tradition, and a good one it is, based on mutual respect, compromise and acknowledgment of philosophical differences, is that conservative presidents [...]
A Friendship for the Pages
Posted in Literature on May 24, 2010 | Comments Off
Christopher Hitchens, James Fenton and Martin Amis (l-r) in 1979. Martin Amis says his new novel, “The Pregnant Widow,” isn’t remotely autobiographical, but members of his circle will instantly recognize Nicholas, the protagonist’s older brother. A sandy-haired freakishly articulate leftist who’s fond of word play and more interested in politics than sex, Nicholas resembles a [...]
The fruits of weakness
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion on May 23, 2010 | Comments Off
It is perfectly obvious that Iran’s latest uranium maneuver, brokered by Brazil and Turkey, is a ruse. Iran retains more than enough enriched uranium to make a bomb. And it continues enriching at an accelerated pace and to a greater purity (20 percent). Which is why the French foreign ministry immediately declared that the trumpeted [...]
Invasion of the Full-Body Scanners
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Living on May 23, 2010 | Comments Off
My wife and I often experience the same things differently, but few as strikingly as the 3-D body scans we had in New York clothing stores. Mine took place in the Brooks Brothers flagship store on Madison Avenue. I undressed in a fitting room, donned a colored undergarment called scanwear, entered a dark booth, and [...]
The Eyes Have It
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Living on May 23, 2010 | Comments Off
In the post-privacy era, we all know too much about one another. This column is about privacy, a common enough topic but one to which I don’t think we’re paying enough attention. As a culture we may be losing it at a greater clip than we’re noticing, and that loss will have implications both political [...]
What Blumenthal might have learned from the war zone
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on May 23, 2010 | Comments Off
I have a thing for Marines, always have. It began a long time ago when I watched my older brother amble away in the night toward his barracks at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. I cried myself dry that evening, thinking that I might not see him again, knowing that the next morning he was [...]
Can Obama save his Afghanistan surge?
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Politics on May 23, 2010 | Comments Off
The countless red carpets rolled out for Hamid Karzai in Washington this week could not disguise an ugly emerging reality: So far, Barack Obama’s surge in Afghanistan isn’t working. Yes, it’s early. As the president pointed out at his White House news conference with Karzai, only slightly more than half of the reinforcements he ordered [...]
Tough on Wrinkles, Soft on Sales
Posted in Economy and business on May 22, 2010 | Comments Off
Japanese cosmetics companies are known as some of the most technically advanced in the world, with promises of creams and emulsions that use rare ingredients to stop wrinkles and create a flawless complexion. But these days, they are finding one problem tough to conquer: the U.S. market. Shu Uemura, a Japanese beauty brand that’s best-known [...]
The Police and Immigration: New York’s Experience
Posted in Law on May 21, 2010 | Comments Off
A spouse may be reluctant to report abuse if she fears that the consequence will be deportation for the father of her children. Arizona’s new immigration law has been roundly criticized for encroaching on the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration laws. It requires police to demand documentation from an individual when they have a [...]
Chuck Schumer vs. Free Speech
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on May 21, 2010 | Comments Off
The ‘Disclose’ Act would make election law even more incomprehensible and subject to selective enforcement for political gain. Editor’s note: The following article is co-authored by former Federal Election Commissioners Joan Aikens, Lee Ann Elliott, Thomas Josefiak, David Mason, Bradley Smith, Hans A. von Spakovsky, Michael Toner and Darryl R. Wold: As former commissioners on [...]
The best books about Thailand
Posted in Other on May 21, 2010 | Comments Off
Simon Long is Asia editor for The Economist, a London-based position he’s held since 2006. He joined the paper in 1995 as South-East Asia correspondent, based in Bangkok. In 1999 he became the Finance and Economics editor, and in 2001 a writer for Global Agenda, The Economist‘s daily online news section (now called News Analysis). [...]
A step closer to sanctions
Posted in Conflicts and wars on May 21, 2010 | Comments Off
America announces a deal with Russia and China, but the world is divided on how to deal with Iran TWO leaders from two big regional powers, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, took a risk in travelling to Iran and negotiating over the country’s contentious nuclear programme. Surpassing [...]
Life in the Third Realm
Posted in Natural sciences on May 21, 2010 | Comments Off
Archaea were first found in areas like Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park, where fissures and volcanic heat created hot springs. It’s that time of the month again. Yes: it’s time for Life-form of the Month. In case you’ve forgotten, this coming Saturday is International Day for Biological Diversity, a day of celebrations and [...]
Quants
Posted in Language, tagged May 16 2010 on May 21, 2010 | Comments Off
For the uninitiated, financial writing can sometimes sound like science fiction. Take this sentence from “The Quants,” a new book by the Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Patterson: “To the quants, beta is bad, alpha is good.” Out of context, that could easily be mistaken for dialogue from the “Star Trek” franchise. In fact, the [...]
