Economist, Aug. 17
A special report shows how just an additional 80 cents per person annually can make a substantial difference in public health in Africa. While health care is severely underfunded, what resources are available are typically wasted on relatively uncommon diseases. By researching which diseases cause the greatest harm and implementing cost-effective solutions, a Canadian charity and the Tanzanian health ministry were able to cut infant mortality by 28 percent in two Tanzanian towns in one year.… A story predicts that computers may eventually use individual atoms to store data and perform calculations beyond the capabilities of the current binary system. Since subatomic quantum particles can be in two states at once, quantum computers could perform multiple operations in parallel rather than in sequence. A recent experiment increased the processing capability of the last quantum computing effort by a factor of 10.— D.R.
New York Times Magazine, Aug. 18 The cover story offers a nine-point plan to make globalization benefit the world’s poor. Highlights include: an increase in spending on social services and infrastructure, emphasizing technology transfer to developing countries, expanding short-term international migration, and giving debtor nations more freedom to determine their own economic policies. … A piece chronicles the National Football Leagues’ mandatory life-skills preparation camp for rookies. Some of next year’s Pro Bowlers are swayed by scare stories about STDs and crime, but many don’t get the message. … A story on Palestinian informers reveals where Israel gets much of its dirt on terrorist groups. Informants are bribed with money or elusive government permits, but they face harsh retaliation from vigilantes if they are suspected.— D.R. Time, Aug. 19 The cover story says bipolar disorder, once considered an adult affliction, is increasingly being diagnosed in kids as young as 2. Experts aren’t sure whether they’re just getting better at diagnosing manic depression in youths or if kids are more and more falling into the disorder because of school and family stress, recreational drug use, or perhaps genes that have become more aggressive in each generation. … An article trails a group of researchers into the forests of Africa, where male chimps recently have been observed to beat females with sticks. Scientists suggest these “wife beater” chimps may use sticks instead of stones because they intend only to hurt, but not seriously injure, the females. … A piece says Bush came into office selling himself as Latin America’s best friend and an opponent of bailouts but has pulled a switcheroo on both positions. The bailouts mark a “familiar pattern for the Bush team: resist, resist, resist—especially if Bill Clinton championed it—then relent when reality intrudes.”— J.F.
Newsweek, Aug. 19 The cover story offers five ways to fix 401(k)s: 1) Employees should be offered only a limited number of safe mutual funds in which to invest. 2) No investing heavily in the company’s stock. 3) No loans against your retirement plan. 4) Employees should receive independent investment advice from outside companies. 5) Everyone should be signed up automatically for 401(k)s. … An article traces the path many al-Qaida operatives used to slip out of Tora Bora and into Pakistan. While B-52s bombed a different escape route, al-Qaida soldiers were being ferried across the border 20 at a time by guides familiar with the region’s mountainous smuggling paths. Two men interviewed by the magazine—one a guide, the other a Taliban soldier—give plausible accounts of having seen Osama Bin Laden alive as late as February 2002.— J.F. U.S. News & World Report, Aug. 19 The magazine takes a bite into the trendy coverage on fat with a cover story on the obesity epidemic, its causes, and possible remedies. The piece gives lots of statistics—the average American consumes 20 to 33 teaspoons of sugar every day—and attributes much of the ignorance about the consequences of calories to the widespread belief that obesity is a “moral failing” rather than an environmental one. … A article looks at the implications of new best-seller A New Kind of Science, by physicist Stephen Wolfram, whom the piece calls an “erstwhile wonder boy.” The book argues that everything in the universe is a different manifestation of a simple computer program, known as a cellular automaton, that replicates unpredictable behavior. Although scientists have not dismissed Wolfram’s theory, it has not received much attention.— D.R.
The New Yorker, Aug. 19 and 26
The food issue. Bill Buford profiles Mario Batali, the celebrated New York chef and host of the cooking show Molto Mario. Buford ends up apprenticing in the kitchen of Batali’s restaurant Babbo, learning the tricks of the trade and coming to appreciate the pressure-cooker “small hot box of a work space” that is the restaurant kitchen. … A piece profiles David Karp, an eccentric food writer and sometime “provisioner” for specialty stores, who travels the world in search of the perfect fruit. This “fruit detective” in a pith helmet (to guard against falling fruit) says he’s “not a foodie” but a “fruitie.”… An article referees the debate about the safety of cheese made from unpasteurized milk. Mother Noella Marcellino is a cheese-making American nun studying for a Ph.D. in microbiology. The FDA declared that her old-fashioned wood barrel cheese was unhealthy, but when Mother Marcellino tried a stainless steel vat, her product actually had higher concentrations of E. coli bacteria.— J.F.
Texas Monthly, August 2002
A profile finds Ron Kirk, the black former mayor of Dallas, gunning for Texas’ open Senate seat. Back in Dallas, local black leaders thought Kirk cozied up too much to city’s (mostly white) business elite. But on the trail in Texas, being pro-business isn’t just an asset, it’s an imperative. Kirk’s dilemma: “Is his best chance to win the Senate race by running as a black politician or as a politician who, among other things, is black?”… At the other end of the spectrum is El Paso Mayor Ray Caballero, who has waged nonstop war against his city’s business leaders. S.C. Gwynne suggests that as much as El Paso biz leaders loathe Caballero, they don’t have the votes to beat him. … The cover story argues that the University of Texas has the coach, quarterback, and schedule to win this year’s college football national championship.— B.C.
