The Economist: July 10th-16th, 2010 Issue

"Can anything perk up Europe?" Re-phrased, can the European Union make the short-term changes necessary to survive in the long-run, let alone take back preeminence as a world entity? With the largest economy in the world, the EU has been put in a place to make tough political decision by the global recession of 2008-2009 if it wants to avoid collapse. In contrast, China has created an extremely successful banking system and under its current model, only one thing can "guarantee its demise: success". In both cases, government will need to make significant changes if they are to achieve long-term prosperity.

The Economist: Weekly Perspective - July 3rd, 2010

I've had a subscription to The Economist ever since the beginning of my freshman year. In addition to my other sources of worldly information, The Economist offers a much higher-level perspective and insight than I have been able to find anywhere else. Maybe it's because I'm enthralled with real world economics that I regard it so highly; I loved Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, and can't wait to read their follow-ups. But while it delves deeply into some of the most important economic issues facing us today, your average high school graduate should be able to comprehend many of the articles that it addresses without any additional study of economics.

LADY GAGA at the Boston Garden: July 2nd

It all began on a drive out to UMASS Lowell for a Student Alumni conference in early February of this year. Aaron Horvitz, our current SAA president, was driving six of us out to UMASS when he saw a billboard for the Lady Gaga concert coming to Boston in July. In a way that only he can proclaim in his forever-exuberant personality, he said, “We’re going to that.” Now If anyone knows Aaron, he’s not one to back down from a challenge. So when someone doubted that he could get tickets to the show, we heard his all too familiar retort, “Say I won’t.” What can I say; Aaron is a man of his word.

 

WIRED: Monthly Perspectives - July 2010

WIRED Magazine: the quirky, tech geek periodical that often takes a superficial subjective perspective of cool and innovative technology and gives us a drill down into the underlying mechanics of how it works. WIRED manages to teach us something we never would have thought we could understand without the textbook drone and bore that is usually associated with learning something new. Let's just say, it's only July 1st, well July 2nd by the time this will be posted, and I've already ripped through the entire July article of WIRED.