Dead Rats Press lapsus calami : the ultimate workout

short rats read 2010

• "'Damn Right,' I said" (a review of Decision Point "‘by’ George W. Bush (or by ‘George W. Bush’)" as the reviewer writes -- a post-modern reading of the book: "Decision Points flaunts its postmodernity by blurring the distinction between fiction and non-fiction. That is to say, the parts that are not outright lies – particularly the accounts of Hurricane Katrina and the lead-up to the Iraq War – are the sunnier halves of half-truths.") by Eliot Weinberger, London Review of Books 6JAN11 (12/29/10)
• "Escape Route: The Surprising Potential of a Prison Library" by Avi Steinberg, The Boston Globe 26DEC10 (12/29/10)
• "The Efficiency Dilemma" [abstract] (the Jevons paradox states basically that instead of efficiency actually reducing energy consumption, it increases it by making it more inexpensive and therefore more prevalent) by David Owen, The New Yorker 20/27DEC10 (12/23/10)
• "The Doomsday Strain" [abstract] (considerations of virus and the potential for another zoonoses pandemic with special consideration to Central Africa and Cameroon specifically; follows Nathan Wolfe, director of Global Viral Forecasting) by Michael Specter, The New Yorker 20/27DEC10 (12/23/10)
• "Quashed Quotatoes" (notes on a new "translation" of Joyce's Finnegan's Wake) by Michael Wood, London Review of Books 16DEC10 (12/11/10)
• "The Truth Wears off" [abstract] (Does the scientific method really work? Explores the "disturbing" data that suggests initial experiments conform to beliefs more than reality -- the role of randomness.) by Jonah Lehrer, The New Yorker 13DEC10 (12/7/10)
• "I'll Be Waiting" by Raymond Chandler, Library of America (Story of the Week) (12/7/10)
• "My OK, Your OK: A History of the Word Fails to Fully Appreciate Its Ambiguity": OK: The Improbably Story of America's Greatest Word by Allen Metcalf reviewed by Juliet Lapidos, Slate 1DEC10 (12/1/10)
• "Short Cuts" (explores the Tea Party's infatuation with Frédéric Bastiat) by Christopher Prendergast, London Review of Books 2DEC10 (11/29/10)
• "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted" (and exploration of weak-tie [social networking] connections as opposed to strong-tie [civil rights movement] connections and why the former will not bring the same kind of change to the status quo as the latter) by Malcolm Galdwell, The New Yorker 4OCT10 (11/22/10)
• "Hunting the Deceitful Turkey" by Mark Twain, Library of America (Story of the Week) (11/22/10)
• "Typo Analysis: The Evolving Narrative Hidden in a Classic Style Guide" (An exploration of the examples given in the Chicago Manual of Style) by Ed Park, Bookforum DEC/JAN10/11 (11/21/10)
• "The Shadow Scholar: The Man Who Writes Your Students' Papers Tells His Story" (An employee of an online company that sells original essays for college students writes about his experience and it's meaning for education.) by Ed Dante (pseudonym), The Chronicle of Higher Education 12NOV10 (11/17/10)
• "Truth Lies Here" ("But the dislodging of fact from the pedestal it had safely occupied for centuries makes the recent disturbances in politics and the media feel like symptoms of a larger epistemological, even civilizational, rot.") by Michael Hirschorn, The Atlantic NOV10 (11/3/10)
• "Armed for a Fight": The Gun by C.J. Chivers reviewed by Andrew Exum, The Wilson Quarterly AUTUMN2010 (10/27/10)
• "The Last Patrol" (embedded journalist goes with 82nd Airborne Division 2 Charlie into the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan) by Brian Mockenhaupt, The Atlantic NOV10 (10/22/10)
• "No-Brainer?": The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr and Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky reviewed by Edward Tenner, The Wilson Quarterly AUTUMN2010 (10/22/10)
• "Later: What Does Procrastination Tell Us about Ourselves?" (Extended book review of The Thief of Time -- essays by various authors about procrastination) by James Surowiecki, The New Yorker 11OCT10 (10/22/10)
• "The Web's Random Logic" [abstract] (the random things one finds while browsing the web for information -- Radium, McKinley's crazed assassin and more) by Jeff Porter, The Wilson Quarterly AUTUMN2010 (10/21/10)
• "Why Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol" by Satoshi Kanazawa, Psychology Today 10OCT10 (10/15/10)
• "Talent Grab" [abstract] ("four models to guide the way [people] interact with one another: communal sharing, equality matching, market pricing, and authority ranking" pg. 89) by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker 11OCT10 (10/11/10)
• "Where Stephen King and Aurthur Conan Doyle Found Their Inspiration." A review of Edgar Allen Poe's work (the poetry is overwrought, the novel is contrived, but the short stories are sublime). Reviewed by Doug Brown, powells.com 9OCT10 (10/9/10)
• "Tribute and Farewell": Nox by Anne Carson reviewed by Abigail Deutsch, Open Letters (powells.com) 6OCT10 (10/8/10)
• "The Corrupt Culture of Big-time College Athletics": Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity by Ken Armstrong reviewed by Jeff Baker, The Oregonian (powells.com) 7OCT10 (10/7/10)
• "Schoolwork" by Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker 22SEPT10 (9/22/10)
• "The Salon" [excerpt] by Jonathan Lethem, Zoetrope All-Story Spring2010 (9/18/10)
• "From the Pencil Zone: Robert Walser's Masterworklets" (the life and writing of of Robert Walser): The Microscripts by Robert Walser reviewed by Rivka Galchen, Harper's (powells.com) 17SEPT10 (9/17/10)
• "The Mastermind: Who is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?"[abstract] (a look at the 9/11 terror attacks and contemporary terrorism with KSM as a central figure: is the terrorist network, and Al Qaeda, really as sophisticated as they are made out to be? does it matter?), The New Yorker 13SEPT10 (9/8/10)
• "Prison without Walls" (the future of monitoring systems instead of jail for nonviolent offenders to teach them positive habits instead of the other way around) by Graeme Wood, The Atlantic SEPT10 (9/8/10)
• "Living with a Nuclear Iran" (Kissinger's Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy [1957] and its relevance to Iran) by Robert D. Kaplan, The Atlantic SEPT10 (9/7/10)
• "The Point of No Return" [abstract] (Iran's Nuclear Ambitions) by Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic SEPT10 (9/7/10)
• "Sleeping with Weapons" [abstract] (about John Lurie) by Tad Friend, The New Yorker 16AUG10 (8/13/10)
• "Zero Grounds" (The Park51 mosque) by Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker 16AUG10 (8/13/10)
• "After the Crackdown: Talking to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—and the opposition—about Iran today" by Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker 16AUG10 (8/13/10)
• "Pulse of the People": Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character by Claude S. Fisher reviewed by Daniel Walker Howe, Wilson Quarterly (powells.com) 10AUG10 (8/12/10)
• "China Miéville Takes Comic Con" by Alex Brown, tor.com 04AUG10 (8/5/10)
• "All-Star Alcoholics" by Richard English, Modern Drunkard Magazine Vol. 6, No. 5, Issue 55 (7/22/10)
• "The Next Empire" (China's African full-court press) by Howard W. French, The Atlantic MAY10 (7/22/10)
• "Letter from Yanji: Nothing Left" [abstract] (North Korea and Currency Reform) by Barbara Demick, The New Yorker 12/19JULY10 (7/21/10)
• "Not Crushed, Merely Ignored: Tariq Ali on the Recent Killings in Kashmir" by Tariq Ali, London Review of Books 22July10 (7/15/10)
• "Islam's Political Problems": The Flight of the Intellectuals by Paul Berman reviewed by Jay Tolson, Powells.com (7/13/10)
• "Well, Isn't that Special?": From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time by Sean Carroll reviewed by David Lindley, Powells.com (7/8/10)
• "Homegrown Cartel" by Jeffrey Wright, SA Current 07JUNE10 (7/8/10)
• "Paths of Progress": The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today by Ted Conover reviewed by Steven Lagerfeld, Powells.com (7/1/10)
• "The Entire Northern Side Was Covered with Fire" by Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 14/21JUNE10 (6/30/10)
• "The Cure that Killed": The Arsenic Century by James C. Whorton reviewed by Colin Fleming, Powells.com (6/29/10)
• "The Last Stand of Free Town" by Porter Fox, The Believer JUNE10 (6/10/10)
• "Cultivated Hysteria: The Noir Novels of David Peace": Occupied City by David Peace reviewed by Evelyn Toynton, Powells.com (5/28/10)
• "Silver or Lead" (La Familia in Mexico - Abstract) by William Finnegan, The New Yorker 31MAY10 (5/27/10)
• "The Strange Case of the Disappearing Penis" by Frank Burus, Psychology Today APRIL10, (5/15/10)
• "Intellectual Horsepower": First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process by Robert D. Richardson reviewed by Nikolai Slivka, Powells.com (5/13/10)
• "Murder City": Murder City by Charles Bowden reviewed by Oscar Villalon, Powells.com (5/13/10)
• "A Dry Spillover" by Jeffery Wright, The Current 12MAY10 (5/12/10)
• "Disengaged" by Jen Knox, Shortstoryamerica.com (5/7/10)
• "Incident in Dodge City" [abstract] by Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker 10MAY10 (5/6/10)
• "Pandora's Briefcase" by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker 10MAY10 (5/6/10)
• "Why a Positive Result on a Medical Test Doesn't Necessarily Mean You're Sick": The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow reviewed by Doug Brown, Powells.com (5/1/10)
• "A Word by any Other Name": Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary by Christian Kay reviewed by Sarah L. Courteau, The Wilson Quarterly (4/28/10)
• "Terrorism Studies" by Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker 26APR10 (4/22/10)
• "Publish or Perish" by Ken Auletta, The New Yorker 26APR10 (4/21/10)
• "The Kids Are All White": Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead by Frank Meeink reviewed by Gerry Donaghy, Powells.com (4/17/10)
• "Doppelganger in Disguise": The Confessions of Edward Day by Valerie Martin reviewed by Dan Petrelli, Rain Taxi (4/9/10)
• "Plot in the Modern Novel" by J. Arthur Honeywell in Essentials of the Theory of Fiction (3/31/10)
• "The Dream of Reason" by Jeffrey Ford in Extraordinary Engines (3/31/10)
• "I.D." by Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker published 29MAR10 (3/31/10)
• "The Trespasser" in American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell (3/26/10)
• "World Class Club": Five to Rule Them All by David L. Bosco reviewed by Rahul Chandran, The Wilson Quarterly (3/26/10)
• "Dark Possibilities": American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell reviewed by Matthew Jakubowski, Rain Taxi (3/26/10)
• "Porn, Addiction and the Black Market" by Greg Harman, San Antonio Current (3/24/10)
• "Delice" by Holly Newstein, in The New Dead (3/20/10)
• "The Wind Cries Mary" by Brian Keene, in The New Dead (3/20/10)
• "Among Us" by Amiee Bender, in The New Dead (3/20/10)
• "Closure, Limited" by Max Brooks, in The New Dead (3/20/10)
• "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead" by Joe Hill, in The New Dead (3/20/10)
• "Lithium Dreams" (abstract) by Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker (3/20/10)
• "Kathleen Dean Moore's Essays Distill the Solace of Nature": Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature by Kathleen Dean Moore reviewed by Joseph Bednarik, Powells.com Review-a-Day (3/19/10)
• "Hocus Bogus": Hocus Bogus by Emile Ajar reviewed by M. A. Orthofer, Powells.com Review-a-Day (3/19/10)
• "Red v. Yellow" by Joshua Kurlantzick, London Review of Books (3/18/10)
• "Unhappy Yemen" by Tariq Ali, London Review of Books (3/18/10)
• "Coyote v. Acme" by Ian Fraizer
• "Walking through Walls: Marina Abramović's Performance Art" by Judith Thurman, New Yorker (3/4/10)
• "Some Strange Experience: The Reminiscences of a Ghost-Seer, Being the Result of a Chat on the Kitchen-Stairs" by Lafcadio Hearn, Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings (2/26/10)
• "Going to the Tigers" by Robert Cohen, The Believer (2/24/10)
• "The Architectural Pattern of a Literary Artifact: A Lacanian Reading of Balzac's "Jesus-Christ En Flandre" by Roland A. Campagne, Studies in Short Fiction (2/22/10)
• "America's Namesake": The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name by Toby Lester reviewed by Felipe Fernández- Armesto, The Wilson Quarterly (2/19/10)
• "Not Only Connected": Concerning E.M. Forster by Frank Kermode reviewed by Brooke Allen, The New Criterion (2/19/10)
• "The Gods of French Philosophy": Pocket Pantheon: Figures of Postwar Philosophy by Alain Badiou reviewed by W.C. Bamberger, Rain Taxi (2/18/10)
• "193" by Skip Hollandsworth, Texas Monthly (2/16/10)
• "Drinking Games" by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker (2/13/10)
• "The Trafficker" by Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker (2/5/10)
• "Living on the Edge": The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050 by Joel Kotkin reviewed by Tom Vanderbilt, The Wilson Quarterly (2/4/10)
• "What Happens There" by John D'Agata, The Believer (2/3/10)
• "Heavy Artillery" by George Saunders, The New Yorker (1/27/10)
• "The Iceman" by Jill Lepore, The New Yorker (1/27/10)
• "Udder Madness" by Woody Allen, The New Yorker (1/14/10)
• "The Sure Thing: How Entrepreneurs Really Succeed" by Malcolm Galdwell, The New Yorker (1/14/10)
• "Human Traffic": The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe reviewed by Ted Conover, The Nation (1/14/10)
• "Physics & Pixie Dust": Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World by Eugenie Samuel Reich reviewed by David Kaiser, American Scientist (1/14/10)
• "Can a Paper Mill Save a Forest?" by Nicholson Baker, McSweeney's 33 - The San Francisco Panorama (1/1/10)
• "Dissertations on His Dudeness": The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies edited by Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe reviewed by Dwight Garner, NYTimes (1/5/10)
• Battling to the End: Conversations with Benoit Chantre (Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture) by Rene Girard reviewed by Cynthia L. Haven, San Francisco Chronicle (1/6/10)
• "Night" by Tony Judt, New York Review of Books (Vol. 57 No. 1) (1/6/10)
• "This is English, Rules are Optional": The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of 'Proper' English from Shakespeare to 'South Park'" by Jack Lynch reviewed by Neil Genzlinger, NYTimes (1/6/10)
• "Shalom on the Range: In Search of the American Crypto-Jew" by Theodore Ross, Harper's (1/8/10)