Time, July 2 A technology piece explores “life-hacking,” a movement to find “the best ways to crank through e-mail, sabotage spam, boost productivity and in general be happier.” Techno-geeks and the efficiency-obsessed have rallied behind the concept, sharing “actionable nuggets on subjects that range from workplace negotiations to travel planning” through blogs and podcasts. Typical life-hacking tips include having workers stand during meetings so they’ll be less likely to digress, and limiting e-mail checks to once an hour. … A cover story lionizes JFK’s legacy and explores its application to contemporary politics. Kennedy, a “politically complex man whose speeches often brandished arrows as well as olive branches,” butted heads with his hawkish joint chiefs of staff and the CIA throughout his presidency. But the president managed to avoid heating up the Cold War by “combining rhetoric that was alternately tough and conciliatory with aggressive backdoor diplomacy.” The piece argues that Kennedy’s deft peacekeeping maneuvers made him “a man ahead of his time.”— K.E.
Economist, June 23
The cover story details the Hamas takeover of Gaza that many Palestinians fear will sound the “death-knell” for hopes of Palestinian statehood. As Israel and the United States view it, the takeover could provide an opportunity for the Fatah party to isolate extremist Hamas and regain power lost in the last election. But for Palestinians, “permanent separation between a chaotic, violent Gaza Strip and a more prosperous West Bank seems a real possibility.”… A commentary on Michael Bloomberg’s leaving the GOP contemplates the prospect of his presidential bid as a third-party candidate. The “pragmatic centrist” would be a serious contender in an America “sick of ideologues and party hacks.” But the New York City mayor’s effect on the presidential race is difficult to predict, because he could draw either the Democrats “who cannot abide Hillary Clinton” or the “country-club Republicans tired of religiosity and incompetence.“—M.S.
Sports Illustrated, June 25 An article looks at golfer Angel Cabrera’s surprise victory over Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open. For the past decade, Cabrera has been “an extremely talented underachiever … who had never mastered the art of winning.” But the piece chalks up Cabrera’s win to Woods’ poor play—“this Open is destined to be remembered as a tournament that Woods let get away.”… The cover story examines the inner dynamics of the San Antonio Spurs. Although the Spurs are now a bona-fide dynasty, their “collective sin” is blandness, due in part to owner Peter Holt’s protective leadership ethos—decisions are discussed freely within the Spurs “family” but rarely without. And the players exist in a fraternal “Never Never Land … drawing on [a] bunker mentality bonhomie.”… An article paints Scottish tennis player Andy Murray as the savior of British tennis. The foul-mouthed, irreverent Murray is expected to be “the first-week story” at Wimbledon next week, carrying “the expectations of an entire nation on his relatively scrawny shoulders.”— K.E.
Vanity Fair, July
In a special Africa issue, Sebastian Junger examines Chinese economic interests in war-torn African nations. Unlike European and American governments, China’s dire natural-resource needs have made it more willing to loan money to Africa’s corrupt governments to tap into oil reserves—“the tragedy in Darfur—and perhaps a future tragedy in Chad—is fueled by China’s reliance on brutal regimes for access to oil.” But, Junger contends, if Western countries stopped blocking China out of other oil markets, then perhaps the country would not rely on and protect violent governments.… A science piece claims that “every person alive today can trace his or her ancestry back to Africa.” Shared genetic markers help people figure out who their ancestors were, and “the farther back in time and the closer to Africa we get, the more markers we all share.”… Bono, who was the “first-ever” guest editor of the “first-ever” Africa issue, writes in his editor’s letter that he is “flat out of hyperbole” to describe Annie Leibovitz’s 20 cover photographs and deems the issue nothing less than “historic.”—K.E.
New York, June 25
The cover story posits that Steve Jobs has peaked and is headed for a fall. Thanks to the iPod, Apple is now a “consumer-electronics powerhouse.” But there are three major problems with the nerd king’s newest creation, the iPhone: It’s expensive ($499 to $599); there’s no keyboard, which won’t please e-mail addicts; and there’s no removable battery. If the iPhone disappoints, Jobs’ “reputation will take a precipitous tumble: from unerring visionary to just another overreaching mogul.”… An article catalogs the latest scientific research on “gay traits.” Statistically, gay men and lesbians are more likely than heterosexuals to be left-handed or ambidextrous; gay men are more likely to have counterclockwise hair-whorl patterns than straight men; and lesbians’ “ears function more like men’s.” Researchers have also discovered that many of us have a pretty sophisticated gaydar: A study “found that 75 percent of gay men sounded gay to a general audience.” These random observations have some scientists wondering if gay men and lesbians are really “a third and a fourth sex.”— J.L.
Harper’s, July A report unveils the hidden role of lobbyists in gaining support in Washington for oppressive regimes. In a tradition that extends back to representing the Nazi government in the 1930s, U.S. lobbying firms are “the crucial conduit” into Washington for “pariah regimes” like “neo-Stalinist” Turkmenistan and Equatorial Guinea. One former lobbyist says that for a dictatorship, having Beltway representation is like “the secret handshake that gets you into the lodge.” … An opinion essay profiles the Bush administration’s concept of “lawfare”—the attempt to “gain a moral advantage over your enemy in the court of world opinion” and a “legal advantage in national and international tribunals.” To Bush-aligned lawfare theorists, lawyers who represent alleged terrorists and human rights organizations that appeal for Guantánamo detainees’ rights under the Geneva conventions “might as well be terrorists themselves.” The administration’s lawfare doctrine undercuts the long tradition of English and American jurisprudence and demonstrates “the degree to which [the administration] has effectively declared war on the rule of law itself,” according to the piece.— M.S.
New York Times Magazine, June 24 An article examines a repatriation dispute between the Peruvian government and Yale University over artifacts discovered by faculty member Hiram Bingham at Machu Picchu in the early 1900s. Peruvian archaeologists and government officials claim the artifacts rightfully belong in Peru, and the dispute has escalated into a “bitter custody battle” that includes an investigation into original contracts between Bingham and the Peruvian government. Yale recently proposed a compromise that would send museum-quality artifacts back to Peru and keep the research collection in New Haven. … A piece speculates about whether a $75 million “democracy fund” that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requested “to advance the cause of a more democratic Iran” might be backfiring. Because of the fund’s high profile, the Iranian government sees it as “just one more element in an elaborate Bush administration regime-change stratagem.” Rather than subtly undermining the regime, the fund has led to vicious reprisals against anyone suspected of association with U.S.-backed democracy efforts.— D.S.
Newsweek, June 25
A cover story suggests that the Hamas party’s takeover of Gaza casts further doubt on the Bush prescription of “cure-all elections” to divided regions of the Middle East. The fact that radical Islamists continue to gain power in places like Gaza, Iraq, and Lebanon is a “historic rebuff” to the Bush government, as “those places where Washington has most actively and directly pushed for elections … are today the most fractionalized, chaotic and violent in the region.” America, a nation of “crummy imperialists,” has overreached in Gaza, and its next administration must learn that it cannot force democracy but only serve as “a guiding hand behind an international system that is disposed to democracy and open markets.”… Gay Talese revisits the family of Bill Bonanno, son of New York mafioso Joe Bonanno and the subject of his 1971 mob-family portrait, Honor Thy Father. Talese traces the lives of Bill Bonanno’s now-grown four children, who witnessed the turmoil and violence of the crime family’s decline in the ‘60s. Even today they grapple with their infamous last name. “You have to try twice as hard to be good,” said one. “You have to be better than everybody else. The world won’t give you a second chance because of your name.”— K.E.
Weekly Standard, June 25 The Summer Reading issue doesn’t skimp on praise: A tardy review of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union declares that Michael Chabon is “the best writer of English prose in this country, and the most interesting novelist of his generation.”Hermione Lee’s long-anticipated Edith Wharton: A Biography is “as compulsively readable and as coherent in all its parts as Wharton’s best novels.” The runt of the litter is Elmore Leonard’s Up in Honey’s Room, which is too slow. Although Leonard’s die-hard fans “will and should” purchase the novel, first-timers would be better off with past works such as Get Shorty and Pagan Babies. … Ten years after the United Kingdom ceded Hong Kong to the Chinese, an article examines the territory’s political climate. On the one hand, Hong Kongers lack certain democratic staples such as universal suffrage. The mainland government controls the electoral system, and pro-Beijing candidates always win the general election. On the other hand, Hong Kongers enjoy an independent judiciary, right of assembly, freedom of religion, and little economic regulation. “In a small corner of this totalitarian system,” the author concludes, “a dim light of freedom still flickers.”— J.L.
Atlantic, July/August The cover story examines China’s manufacturing sector. Outsourcing to Chinese factories has provided jobs for millions of workers and has been good for American companies, too—Chinese workers who make $1,000 a year are helping American “designers, marketers, engineers, and retailers making $1,000 a week (and up) earn even more.” Still, Americans should “be wary about eventual effects” of China’s influence, as integration of the two economies means “further strain on the already weakened sense of fellow feeling and shared opportunity that allows a society as diverse and unequal as America’s to cohere.”… An article explores secularization in America and growing religious sentiment in Europe. Traditionally, “American politics is driven by faith-based disputes,” while “European debates take place under a canopy of unbelief.” But a backlash against the religious right in America, and a new class of European Muslims and more “assertive” Catholics, may close the “religious gulf between the continents.” These trends, though, “shouldn’t be exaggerated,” as American secularists are “an embattled minority, while Europeans remain strongly invested in prevented faith from intruding into politics.”— K.E.
