joshuago’s Bookmarks

A graceful survey of the delicate balance the United States must maintain in Central Asia. The war in Afghanistan means that America needs a transit route across the region, but it means making deals with autocratic leaders. All is not lost, however, because partnership with the U.S. also means counterbalancing Russian, Chinese, and Iranian influence, and greater safety from pro-Taliban elements.

Apple has every right to push around its customers and media “partners” in pursuit of its business goals. What should bother us is the media companies’ willingness to cede so much of their authority to a company that has demonstrated its willingness to abuse it.

An inspiring and believable account of how hyper-local news became profitable for one Texas company.

The iPad is Steve Jobs' final victory over the company's co-founder Steve Wozniak. Centralized power and control in the pursuit of perfection completely won out over distributed tinkering and decentralized power.

When the ecosystem stops rewarding complexity, it is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.

Interview with a Nobel economist who says the health-care bill will cause serious damage, but that the American people can be trusted to vote for limited government in November. Discusses the counterbalancing effect of competing interest groups, in-built suspicion of markets, and the historical intellectual shift on the view of growth from one that was state-centered to one that's market-centered.

At 57, General David Petraeus has revolutionized the way America fights its wars, starting with the surge in Iraq and continuing into his current command, with responsibility for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Yemen. Charting Petraeus’s relentless challenge to the institution he reveres—the U.S. Army—and to himself, the author hears about the unceasing drive, groundbreaking methods, and darkest moments of a four-star rebel.

In large part, the HCR bill entrusts the task of devising cost-saving health-care innovation to local communities, rather than to the drug and device companies and the public and private insurers that have failed to do so. This is the way costs will come down—or not. That’s the one truly scary thing about health reform: far from being a government takeover, it counts on local communities and clinicians for success.

Both movement conservatism and political journalism are in crisis. The intellectual coherence and public credibility of each has been breaking down for a generation.

CPU of choice for mobile devices. Low licensing fee. Fungibility of processors between manufacturers. Closing performance gap with x86.