Magazine tips

It is now generally agreed among biologists that another mass extinction is under way. Though it's difficult to put a precise figure on the losses, it is estimated that, if current trends continue, by the end of this century as many as half of earth's species will be gone.

Elizabeth Kolbert, "The Sixth Extinction,"
The New Yorker, May 25, 2009

"Nearly thirty per cent of Medicare's costs could be saved without negatively affecting health outcomes if spending in high- and medium-cost areas could be reduced to the level in low-cost areas," Peter Orszag, the President's budget director, has stated.

Most Americans would be delighted to have the quality of care found in places like Rochester, Minnesota, or Seattle, Washington, or Durham, North Carolina--all of which have world-class hospitals and costs that fall below the national average. If we brought the cost cure in the expensive places down to their level, Medicare's problems (indeed, almost all the federal government's budget problems for the next fifty years) would be solved.

Atul Gawande, "The Cost Conundrum,"
The New Yorker, June 1, 2009

See also, the nice little piece by Adam Kirsch in the May 11 New Yorker, "Back to Basics: How Gerard Manley Hopkins remade English Poetry"