The Tyler Cowen

1. Understanding Breivik, both as an individual as well as a member of a resurgent radical right that is growing in Europe.
2. Such beautiful presentation of such meaningless data. This one too.
3. Electron microscopic fine art of food. Via The Awesomer.

The Tyler Cowen

1. Philosophy prioritized by usefulness. Via The Browser.
2. Things are heating up. Via Marginal Revolution.
3. Gender imbalances in foreign policy.
4. Mostly German volunteers but beautiful nonetheless. Via Infosthetics.
   

The Tyler Cowen

Well, they got Osama, effectively covering our normal internet watering holes in a deluge of redundancy. But here are some nice things (only one of which is about Mr. Bin Laden).

1. Redneck carrier landing. Via The Awesomer.
   
2. Just the facts regarding Bin Laden.
3. Realists being realists. Numbers 7 and 8 are important bits of fresh air. But it is worth remembering that, without a degree of wishful thinking, nothing would ever get done. In other words, we need to think some good will come of an action for us to take that action in the first place.

The Tyler Cowen - Global Affairs Edition

We're back after some sun on the beaches of Puerto Galera. There is a lot of news to catch up on and articles to recommend. As such, we're breaking today's edition of links into pieces. The Global Affairs Edition summarizes the best writing of the past five days on global issues.

1. Great insight on North Korea from Russia. I need to dig deeper into the Cheonan incident. 
2. Pacifism. Via Marginal Revolution. 
3. The resurgence of the veil and the broader implications of Islamism not as a religious force but a socio-political one.
4. Another article questioning the widely-accepted connection between prosperity and democratization. I still think they're conflating revolution and democratization. 
5. A sweepingly comprehensive overview of The Arab Spring. Ranging from a summary of the Tunisian tipping point to the historical comparisons to Communism and 'Common Sense' to the role of technology in revolutions. The picture it paints for the Middle East's future is not a rosy one but it is far more realistic than most analyses which look only forward. As always, a Maslow's Pyramid understanding of what's needed strikes me as the most obvious. 

"The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products -- principally from America -- are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character."

The Tyler Cowen

1. Portal Kombat. Via Joystiq.
   
2. Transiency. Via Marginal Revolution.
3. Simple but effective infographics. Also via Marginal Revolution.
4. Sexist assholes getting taken to task.

Uncodified Spiritual Musings

One of the potential pratfalls of being an agnostic, atheist, or otherwise uninterested in the matters spiritual is that one rarely has the philosophical workout of clarifying or redefining the basic tenets of their belief (or disbelief). After having a brief spurt in college as a starry-eyed undergrad ready to conquer the world, I'm finding the hodge-podge design of my spiritual architecture is extremely sketchy. Catalyst for dusting off my description / explanation is a newfound friendship with a charming but totally religious kid of roughly undergraduate age. When she dives into some insane explanation of God or story about missionaries or something else, I internally scoff at the very idea of such literal and active belief. But I can't communicate this disdain. Not for lack of tact but, literally, for lack of vocabulary.

So, though it may smack of juvenile theologism, I'm using this space to stretch the articulate legs on my spiritual structure. Those uninterested in the implicitly self-absorbed ramblings of one's personal belief system need not read further.

The Tyler Cowen

1. People freaking out.
   
2. Great read about the laying of the first trans-Atlantic cable from Wired via The Browser. 
3. Two Nords rocking their faces off to Smooth Criminal. Via The Awesomer.
   
4. As though I wasn't already careening toward a metaphysical meltdown, here a terrifying summary of scientific discoveries vis a vis the brain and how malleable our reality is. Also via The Browser. 

Morality

Ronald Dworkin (leave it alone...just leave that joke alone) writes an excellent essay on morality and ethics here. In it, he attempts to unpack what we mean by the 'good life' by understanding the concept through the twin but separate frames of morality and ethics and arrive at a concrete definition by merging the two. Being at a particularly shaky point in my life at the moment, lost amid the buffeting waves of second-guessing and what-ifs, Dworkin's essay hit the spot. Before attempting to codify my own topsy-turvy morals and ethics, I should understand the foundations of what I'm attempting to organize.