Wednesday, May 26, 2010

WEB BOHEMIAN (Wednesday, May 26, 2010)
(1)- NUMBERS – We hold an outsize belief we can gauge complex phenomena, measure outcomes and come up with compelling numerical evidence? But “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

(2)- EUROPE ENDS -- Goodbye to Europe as a high-ranking power, says Richard Haass in a column. The European project is failing, he writes. The euro could break apart. Greece is the immediate problem, but the sickness has spread much wider.

(3)- RUSSIAN JOKE – What is Communism? “Communism is the longest path from capitalism to capitalism.” This joke, in its exploitation of the ironies implicit in communism’s long decline, was only told after the Soviet Union’s collapse.

(4)- THE SUCCESS OF SUCCESS BOOKS -- Success begets success. Sociologists call this phenomenon the Matthew Effect, after the parable in the Gospel of Matthew saying, "For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance."

(5)- ORWELL LETTERS -- A compelling new book tells the life of George Orwell through the letters of the man himself , writes Simon Heffer.

(6)- STUDYING HUGH -- Two books examine Hefner’s own life and the life of common desire that he has produced: Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream; and Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America.

(7)- PSYCHIC SCAM – Psychic Nancy Marks of Colorado is accused of fraud after telling clients their "money [was] evil" and that she'd take their cursed cash so "the money would suffer" instead. Marks made at least $290,000 using this scam.

(8)- THIS IS BOSTON – Subway service in the middle of Boston is disrupted when Boston firefighters responded to the Downtown MBTA station after a report of noxious fumes, consistent with the release of some sort of pepper spray chemical.

(9)- CAFFINE REPORT – Caffeine may slow Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, according to Alexandre de Mendonca of the University of Lisbon and Rodrigo Cunha of the University of Coimbra, both in Portugal.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

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