Economist, June 21 A special report declares that with oil prices at a record high and supplies dwindling, the next technological innovations will come in the realm of renewable energy. Venture-capital firms are bankrolling new ideas about creating green power. “There are lots of terawatts to play for and lots of money to be made. And if the planet happens to be saved on the way, that is all to the good.”… A piece highlights the plight of the Roma, who live poverty-stricken lives at the fringe of European society. The worst-off Roma live in Eastern Europe: “As eastern Europe prospered, the Roma fell further behind. Their surviving traditional skills (handicrafts, horsetrading) were out of date … even those wanting to work found few factories or offices willing to employ them.” Those who try to move to Western Europe often face hostility. Rioters torched Roma property last May in Naples, in what the Economist termed almost an “anti-Roma pogrom.”
Texas Monthly, July 2008
The cover story tries to reclaim the word cowboy, which, the author writes, is now “thrown around as a pejorative, hijacked by pundits and politicians to refer to arrogant, reckless types who go it alone.” The son of a Texas rancher, the author regales the reader with tales of workaday cowboys. A real cowboy is “a common man in an uncommon profession, giving more than he receives, living by a code of conduct his detractors will never understand.”… A soldier recounts his time in Iraq and the difficulty of readjusting to civilian life after five years in the military. Though he relished serving, he is conflicted on the war. “Most of the time it feels as though we’re simply fighting to find our way out of a war we shouldn’t have started to begin with, without looking like we’re giving up,” he writes.
New Scientist, June 21
The cover story wonders what the planet was like during the last “hothouse” period 100 million years ago, when the poles were so warm that dinosaurs roamed a lush Antarctica and crocodilians swam through a balmy Arctic Ocean. … An article reports on a study revealing that men who are just a bit narcissistic, psychopathic, and Machiavellian bed more women. “[B]eing just slightly evil could have an upside: a prolific sex life.” The study, conducted by surveying 200 college students, provides an evolutionary explanation for why these traits have persisted over time. … An article on the second generation of biofuels—made from inedible plant materials such as stalks and husks—wonders if they might be the green answer we’ve been searching for. First-generation biofuels made from corn and soybean are now blamed for pushing the prices of those commodities to record levels. “The corn required to fill an SUV tank with bioethanol just once could feed someone in Africa for a year.”
New York Times Magazine, June 22
The cover story profiles AMC’s sleeper hit Mad Men and its quirky creator, Matthew Weiner. Jerry Della Femina, an ad man who got his start during that period, said that the bigotry at Sterling Cooper was typical of the age: ” ‘Mad Men’ accurately reflects what went on,” Della Femina says. “The smoking, the prejudice and the bigotry. I interviewed at J. Walter Thompson for the Ford account and was told, ‘We don’t want your kind.’ It took me two years to figure out that he meant I wasn’t a WASP.”… An article by Clive Thompson wonders wheter Jim Rogers, CEO of coal behemoth Duke Energy, America’s No. 3 corporate emitter of greenhouse gases, might be the country’s top “green evangelist” for his work pushing for regulation of greenhouse gases. … Deborah Soloman interviews Florida governor and possible McCain veep pick Charlie Crist. In response to Soloman’s statement that his support of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions is not a typical Republican goal, Crist points to the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt: “Here’s a guy who founded our national parks system and obviously cared about the environment and preserving it.”
Time, June 30
David Von Drehle files a dispatch from the controversial $1.2 billion border fence between America and Mexico, which is sure to be an issue in the 2008 presidential election. The fence is effectively cutting down traffic in the border’s Yuma Sector, a 118-mile swath in Arizona and California, but some think it’s merely pushing would-be illegal immigrants to the neighboring Tucson Sector, now the border’s busiest. “Crossings didn’t stop—they moved,” he writes. … An article asks why high-school girls in the blue-collar Massachusetts town of Gloucester made a pact to get pregnant at the same time. By the end of last school year, 17 girls were pregnant, and the school nurse had administered 150 pregnancy tests. … A piece wonders whether the way to curb irresponsible underage drinking is to follow the European example and drink with your kids.
Must Read
Jon Lee Anderson was given unparalleled access to Hugo Chávez for his in-depth profile of the Venezuelan president in TheNew Yorker.
Must Skip
The Weekly Standard’s cover story comparing Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Frederick Douglass feels forced, and the piece ultimately reads like a high-school compare-and-contrast essay.
Best Politics of the Week
John Hellemann’s New York article on Hillary Clinton argues that she has emerged from her campaign a political heavyweight.
Best Culture of the Week
Alex Witchel’s behind-the-scene peek on AMC’s Mad Men in the New York Times’ Magazine leaves the reader aching for the start of the show’s second season.
Best Quoteon Tim Russert’s Inteviewing Technique:
John McCain, in David Remnick’s postscript on Russert in The New Yorker: “I hadn’t had so much fun since my last interrogation in prison camp.”
