Suchergebnisse

Different media allocation rules of varying complexity and data needs were developed from the same profit maximization principle. The benefits of using a complex allocation rule could then be critically examined. The analysis indicates that the benefits of complexity could be over‐estimated; the conditions under which some simple rules are expected to perform well are suggested.Résumé

Abstract
Helium's material form is unstable, moving from gas to liquid under temperature. Lighter than air, it evades the immediacy of perception. Thinking through helium offers an approach to the entanglement of forms of matter that makes movement the locus. Helium shifts an understanding of "between" to one of motion, of phase shifts and plasticity rather than difference, in which the durability of matter—and of the human—withdraws.

Abstract
In this experimental essay authors and friends Jessica Ruffin and Simone Stirner explore the question of friendship through a dialogic exchange, engaging with friendship as a theoretical concept alongside their own personal histories and relationships. Emails exchanged beneath and between the dialogue lay bare the various registers of friendship and collaboration.

Going through a protracted period of transition since the end of the Cold War, the world order in the making is neither what was nor what it is yet to become. It is in "the middle of the future."To get our bearings in this uncertain transition, we explore the two grand post‐Cold War narratives—"The End of History" as posited by Francis Fukuyama and "The Clash of Civilizations" posited by the late Samuel Huntington. Mikhail Gorbachev looks back at his policies that brought the old order to collapse. The British philosopher John Gray critiques the supposed "universality" of liberalism and, with Homi Bhabha, sees a world of hybrid identities and localized cultures. The Singaporean theorist Kishore Mahbubani peels away the "veneer" of Western dominance. Amartya Sen, the economist and Nobel laureate, assesses whether democratic India or autocratic China is better at building "human capacity" in their societies.

On April 2, 2005, a month-and-a half after arriving in Iraq, I was in combat for the first time. We were pounded with mortars, rockets, grenades, vehicle-borne explosives, and smallarms fire for nearly two hours. After the fighting stopped, I interrogated a few of the Iraqis who were picked up by Marines during the attack. After I wrote my reports for the night, I went to the chow hall, ate breakfast, and walked back to my bunk. I lay down and slept like a baby. I slept well every night I was in Iraq. I easily shrugged off every issue that complicated my life: problems with girls, disagreements with superiors, arguments with friends. I would grow angry about the situation in Iraq from time to time, but my anger never affected my work, and I never lost any sleep over it. But when I returned to the United States, things were different.

An Iraq war veteran discusses his frustration in returning to civilian life in terms of US popular alienation from the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan attributed in large part to the military-civilian cultural divide. Adapted from the source document.