Life, Health, Etc.

Out of the Office

Kalefa Sanneh/The New Yorker - Crawford's book arrives just as a vague sense of dissatisfaction with the demands and rewards of the modern economy is coalescing into something like a movement. In 1998, the sociologist Richard Sennett published "The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism," in which he saw soul-destroying consequences in our new work habits--endless hours spent at flexible jobs, performing abstract tasks on computer screens. Last year, in "The Craftsman" (Yale; $18), Sennett suggested that skilled labor could be a way to resist corporate mediocrity. The environmentalist writer Bill McKibben proposed something similar in "Deep Economy," which condemned the ruinous effects of endless economic expansion and urged readers to live smaller, simpler, more local lives. This artisanal revival has been particularly pronounced among foodies, thanks in part to the writer Michael Pollan, who helped popularize an American variant of the Italian culinary-agrarian movement known as Slow Food.

Lettuce In the Garden With Worms

Nicholas Kristof/NYTimes - Over the years, though, I've become nostalgic for an occasional bug in my salad, for an apple that feels as if it were designed by God rather than by a committee. More broadly, it has become clear that the same factors that impelled me toward factory-produced meat and vegetables -- cheap, predictable food -- also resulted in a profoundly unhealthy American diet.

What is the Monkey Sphere?

David Wong/Cracked.com - What do monkeys have to do with war, oppression, crime, racism and even e-mail spam? You'll see that all of the random ass-headed cruelty of the world will suddenly make perfect sense once we go Inside the Monkeysphere.

American and International Politics

Is More Care Better Care

Jonathan Skinner/NYTimes - For the last three decades, John Wennberg and his Dartmouth colleagues have documented regional variation in Medicare spending and a puzzling lack of association between spending and better health outcomes. Regions that spend more on medical care don't necessarily have sicker people, and they don't get better results. It isn't clear what benefit they are receiving for all the money they're spending.

In Poll, Wide Support for Government Run Health

Kevin Sack and Marjorie Connelly/NYTimes - It is not clear how fully the public understands the complexities of the government plan proposal, and the poll results indicate that those who said they were following the debate were somewhat less supportive. But they clearly indicate growing confidence in the government's ability to manage health care. Half of those questioned said they thought government would be better at providing medical coverage than private insurers, up from 30 percent in polls conducted in 2007. Nearly 60 percent said Washington would have more success in holding down costs, up from 47 percent.

American and Global Economy

Europe Lags as U.S. Economy Shows Signs of Recovery

Nelson D. Schwartz/NYTimes - There remains a significant risk that deficit spending in the United States could lead to inflation in the long run. Concern over the deficit has already led to a sharp rise in interest rates in the last month. A continued rise could threaten any American recovery. And while its growth is expected to be muted for years, Europe will not be burdened by as much debt as the United States, having avoided big stimulus spending.

America's Sea of Red Ink Was Years in the Making

David Leonhardt/NYTimes - There are two basic truths about the enormous deficits that the federal government will run in the coming years. The first is that President Obama's agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying. The second is that Mr. Obama does not have a realistic plan for eliminating the deficit, despite what his advisers have suggested.

Fixing the Global Financial System

by Alice Rivlin and Sidney Winter/YouTube -- Emeritus Professor Sidney Winter, the Michael Crouch Visiting Professor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Australian School of Business, in conversation with renowned US economist Dr Alice M. Rivlin.

Economy Shows Cracks in European Union

by Steven Erlanger/NYTimes - The union of 27 countries is the world's most formidable economic bloc, incorporating 491 million people in an integrated market that produces nearly a third more than the United States.