* “If Women Wrote Men the Way Men Write Women,” hilarious and much better than the title makes it sound.
* “Seattle skyline is tops in construction cranes — more than any other U.S. city.” Pretty cool.
* “If corporate money controls American politics, how did the Republican Party – the reputed party of business – manage to nominate a candidate whom almost no one in Big Business supports?” An excellent and mostly unasked question. Many people’s assumptions, including mine, are being revised this year. In 2010 I wrote a post about things I’ve been wrong about.
* “Canada’s cities call for $12.7-billion federal fix for housing crisis;” bizarrely, the word “supply” never increases, yet supply limits are likely making the rent too damn high.
* Penelope Trunk: Does feminism fail because women lie to each other about work?
* Is the Stigma of Having a Baby Outside of Marriage Disappearing? If so, is it due to celebrity influence? A perhaps important point for novelists.
* The audacious plan to bring back supersonic flight.
* “Here’s what happened when I challenged the PC campus culture at NYU,” or, how at least one university is encouraging students to become the thought police. Bizarre.
* “Forget fees: Dyson opens Britain’s first degree where students get paid,” an underrated idea.
* Charter schools that work, and why they work. Charter schools are oddly both overrated and underrated, but perhaps their biggest advantage over conventional school district setups is that bad ones can be closed and good ones can be replicated. Conventional public schools just shamble on, sometimes for decades, like zombie banks.
* “Donald Trump’s success reveals a frightening weakness in American democracy,” which is among the best pieces I’ve read on the election.
* “History Tells Us What Will Happen Next With Brexit And Trump,” distressing but also accurate:
My background is archaeology, so also history and anthropology. It leads me to look at big historical patterns. My theory is that most peoples’ perspective of history is limited to the experience communicated by their parents and grandparents, so 50-100 years. To go beyond that you have to read, study and learn to untangle the propaganda that is inevitable in all telling of history.
Students are endlessly surprised when I say that it’s difficult to really know anything without reading. Most don’t believe, I think. If nothing else, this year demonstrates the utter failure in teaching and professing history, or the learning of it by the general population.
* “Russia and the Threat to Liberal Democracy: How Vladimir Putin is making the world safe for autocracy.” File under, “Headlines I never thought I’d see.”
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