Economist , July 18
(posted
Saturday, July 18, 1998)
The
cover editorial welcomes the resignation of Japanese Prime
Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto but frets that his departure will hurt the Japanese
economy. Hashimoto deserved to go because he failed to reform the banking
system or to stop Japan's financial descent, but it will take time to choose a
new prime minister and even more time for the new leader to push through
reforms. ... An article notes an unpublicized cost of the General Motors
strike: It is delaying the launch of GM's new sport utility vehicle, the
GMT800. The new SUV is expected to be wildly profitable, but a delayed launch
will let GM's competitors get a head start. ... A story says companies
now eschew insurance, favoring predictive models that help manage risk.
Sometimes, a company can foresee insurance will be unnecessary: While an
earthquake in California snapped many telephone poles, the phone company made
back its losses as "worried families started calling relatives"--long
distance.
New
York Times Magazine , July 19
(posted
Thursday, July 16, 1998)
The cover
story profiles Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, whose excessive rationality is
good news for America. (Full disclosure:
Slate
's Jacob Weisberg
wrote the piece.) Rubin obsessively uses probabilities to weigh and reweigh the
risks and rewards of every decision. He judges decisions on their logic at the
time, not their eventual outcome--the antithesis of Washington-think. His
strategy on the Asian crisis has paid off, with no American crash in sight.
... A piece profiles Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert and heir to the News
Corp throne. A young (26) and tattooed bachelor, Lachlan seems an unlikely
media baron, but he manages to be simultaneously tough and charming. His taste,
like his dad's, runs to the tabloid.
Time and Newsweek , July 20
(posted
Tuesday, July 14, 1998)
Time 's cover package hypes online shopping, which is now efficient and
safe on sites such as Amazon.com, CDnow, and E*TRADE. But online shopping
hasn't made it yet: Amazon.com is worth $5 billion on the market but has lost
$30 million since 1995 and isn't close to turning a profit. ... A
Time story says transsexuals are gaining political clout. They
are demanding (and getting) anti-discrimination laws at the state level. Now
they wish gays and lesbians would stop excluding them from homosexual rights
campaigns.
Newsweek 's cover story examines the convergence of science and religion.
Scientists were once ostracized for holding religious beliefs but can now
worship without embarrassment. Religious people are finding evidence of God in
recent scientific discoveries. (Outcomes determined by "chaos" and the
randomness of radioactive decay are actually specific results chosen by God.)
... An article wonders what Hillary Clinton will do after she leaves the
White House. Publishers say her book career is more promising than her
husband's, and her lecture fees might approach $60,000 per speech. (She'll need
the dough to cover her legal expenses--see The Nation , below.)
... A story reports on haggling over ownership of the Zapruder film of
JFK's assassination. The government wants to buy it for $3 million. The
Zapruder family is demanding $18 million, wanting no "blood money" but figuring
it could fetch $70 million on the open market. The family says that Abraham
Zapruder, after witnessing tragedy through his lens, "never looked through a
camera again."
U.S.
News & World Report , July 20
(posted
Tuesday, July 14, 1998)
The
cosmology cover story wonders if there are other universes.
(Conclusion: maybe.) Through diagrams and interviews with physicists, the story
describes how separate universes could break away from ours (a bit like a soap
bubble dividing in two). One theory posits a "mother" universe--a forever
unchanging world from which "daughter" universes can grow. ... A
piece claims that corporate America now supports napping.
Companies offer dark, quiet nap rooms, reasoning that midday naps help workers
maintain focus.
The
New Yorker , July 20
(posted
Tuesday, July 14, 1998)
The issue
overshadowed by news of Tina Brown's departure as editor. A long story reports
on an evangelical American farmer and an Israeli rabbi who want to bring red
cows to Israel. An obscure biblical passage states that a perfectly red cow
must be sacrificed in order for the Messiah to return. (Red cows are plentiful
in the United States but quite rare in the Middle East.) Both Jews and
fundamentalist Christians support the shipment of cow embryos to Israel as a
means of accelerating the apocalypse. ... An article by newly appointed
editor David Remnick follows the story of two young Amish men caught selling
cocaine. The Amish allow a period of freedom before baptism, during which young
people drink, take drugs, and use machinery and electricity. The recent case
has the Amish community fretting over how to stop the encroachment of outside
society.
Vanity Fair , August 1998
(posted
Tuesday, July 14, 1998)
Part 2 of
a long article on the Reagans. The theme this time: Nancy as the power behind
the scenes. Nancy shaped the Cabinet, pushing her husband toward moderate
candidates over extremists, and she led the Reagans into Georgetown society.
Ronald is portrayed (against type) as tough and competent: At one private
summit meeting, he looked at Mikhail Gorbachev and said, "I just want to let
you know, there's no way you're going to win." ... More hype for Steven
Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan . The opening scene is "an overture of
pure cinema" and the climax an "almost unbearably thrilling firefight and
demonstration of peak-form filmmaking."
The
Nation , July 27
(posted
Tuesday, July 14, 1998)
The cover
story totes up the huge costs of Kenneth Starr's investigation for major
players and innocent bystanders alike. Even witnesses only tangentially
connected to the various Clinton scandals get called before juries again and
again, racking up monstrous legal fees and losing days of work. The Clintons
alone owe lawyers $3.5 million. The Park Service policeman who found Vincent
Foster's body has incurred $200,000 in legal expenses.
--Seth
Stevenson
