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Idea of the Week: Open vs. Closed→
On The Business Pages this week, Tim Wu has a story about the open-versus-closed debate in the technology industry. Here’s a look at the metric Wu developed for assessing the “openness” of companies, and see whether Wu’s theory proves true when applied to Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft: http://nyr.kr/W7Pv9G
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You’ll Love Her! She’s Crazy!
“Most educated people can name half a dozen poets who are more famous for their messy lives and deaths than for their poems… The narratives endure because they align with the popular understanding of what it is to be an artist.”
Sarah Manguso writes about Sylvia Plath, who died fifty years ago today, and looks at the changing way we talk about mental illness: http://nyr.kr/1576DDa
Photograph: Contrasto/Redux.
(Source: newyorker.com)
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Ray Kurzweil’s Dubious New Theory of Mind
Scientist Gary Marcus:
Kurzweil suggests that his conclusions are “inescapable” and that the principles he espouses can be used “to vastly extend the power of our own intelligence.”
That would be big news. But does the book deliver?
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Cartoon of the night by Julia Suits. For more: http://nyr.kr/V2zjFt
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Junot Diaz and Dinaw Mengestu Win MacArthur Grants→
Congratulations to the New Yorker contributors Junot Díaz and Dinaw Mengestu on being awarded MacArthur “genius” grants this week. Díaz has published thirteen stories in the magazine, and Mengestu was included in 20 Under 40, The New Yorker’s 2010 selection of young fiction writers. Here are links to stories we’ve run by these two distinguished writers, along with Q. & A.s they’ve done with their editors about their work.
Junot Díaz:
“How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)”
“The Sun, the Moon, the Stars”
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”
Q. & A. about “The Pura Principle”
“The Cheater’s Guide to Love” Q .& A. about “The Cheater’s Guide to Love”
Dinaw Mengetsu:
Photographs courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
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A genius cartoon of the day. Don’t forget to enter this week’s caption contest: http://nyr.kr/r46had
