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Today in Slate: Bachmann Hits the Books; Plus, Could the Tabloid Phone-Hacking Scandal Happen Here?

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Today: July 8, 2011

Murdoch Pulls the Ultimate "Reverse Ferret"

Murdoch Pulls the Ultimate "Reverse Ferret"

The real meaning of the News of the World closure.

By Jack Shafer

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Couples Therapy

Couples Therapy

Why Barack Obama and John Boehner work so well together.

By John Dickerson

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Bachmann Hits the Books

Bachmann Hits the Books

Can dropping names like Ludwig von Mises, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Gore Vidal help establish her as an intellectual anti-Palin?

By Kate Julian

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The Obscure Clause in the Constitution That May Allow Obama To Raise the Debt Ceiling

The Obscure Clause in the Constitution That May Allow Obama To Raise the Debt Ceiling

Horrible Bosses: Sorry, You're Just Not Management Material

Horrible Bosses: Sorry, You're Just Not Management Material

This One Time, at Space Camp ...

This One Time, at Space Camp ...

Help! I Was Falsely Accused of Rape. How Should I Tell Future Girlfriends?

Help! I Was Falsely Accused of Rape. How Should I Tell Future Girlfriends?

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Culturebox: Project Nim

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Project Nim
A shattering documentary about a chimpanzee raised as a human.
By Dana Stevens
Posted Friday, July 8, 2011, at 3:23 PM ET

Project Nim. Click image to expand.Zookeeper isn't the only movie about talking animals opening this weekend. But the other one, Project Nim (Roadside Attractions), a documentary from James Marsh, director of the Academy Award-winning Man on Wire, isn't a heartwarming comedy about a group of furry beasts who use their newfound power of language to help their caretaker find love with Rosario Dawson. It's a gripping, unsentimental, at times unbearably sad real-life drama about an animal torn from his own world and stranded in the human one. I could wish Project Nim were a different movie--longer and more information-dense, with fewer poorly signposted re-enactments and self-conscious directorial flourishes. But I'll be forever grateful to this movie for introducing me to Nim's story, a tale so powerful and suggestive that it functions as a myth about the ever-mysterious relationship between human beings and animals. Are we more like them than we can ever know, or more different?

The early scenes of Project Nim focus on the likeness rather than the difference. In 1973, Herbert Terrace, a psychology professor at Columbia, devised an experiment to study language capabilities in primates. (His former colleagues describe Terrace as arrogant and vain, a characterization that's largely borne out by the archival footage and present-day interviews we see.) At a research center in Oklahoma, a screaming newborn chimpanzee was taken from his mother after she was knocked out by a tranquilizer dart--in essence, a violent kidnapping, which is re-enacted in a harrowing pre-credit sequence. From there the infant chimp--called Nim Chimpsky, a play on the name of influential linguist Noam Chomsky--was transferred to home of Stephanie LaFarge, a young mother who had been Terrace's student and lover. LaFarge occupied a gracious Upper West Side brownstone with her "rich hippie" poet husband, a Brady Bunch-style pack of young siblings, and a German shepherd.

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Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. E-mail her at slatemovies@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter.

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10 Reasons Why Believing in Sovereignty Matters -- July 8, 2011

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Faith and The Church

10 Reasons Why Believing in Sovereignty Matters
John Piper
Why does it matter whether we believe that God upholds and governs all thing? Ten reasons.
Read the full article here

Saints Among Us
Dr. James Emery White
There is a conclusion I have come to through all these many years as a pastor: a volunteer is a saint.
Read the full article here


Commentary

Worse Than Casey Anthony Walking Free
Chuck Colson
Do we demand justice at the price of due process? I hope not, and for purely biblical reasons.
Read the full article here


Movie Reviews

James Talks to the Animals in Zookeeper
Jeffrey Huston
In Zookeeper, a Dr. Doolittle meets Night at the Museum mash-up concept, Kevin James plays Griffin Keyes, the titular keeper of a big city zoo.
Read the full article here

Black Comedy Goes Bawdy in Horrible Bosses
Christa Banister
Despite its many comedic achievements, Horrible Bosses will probably still offend more than entertain because the writers routinely scrape the bottom of the barrel for laughs.
Read the full article here


Singles

Hindsight Helps Clarify Marital Status
Tim Laitinen
Even the hardiest contented single can struggle with this time of year—the summer wedding season—no matter how much we trust in God's sovereignty over our marital status.
Read the full article here




Today's Devotional

Deliver Us from Evil (from "Transformation Garden")
Don't assume you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! (Proverbs 3:7).
When I was growing up, the responsible adults in my life seemed to be constantly giving me pieces of advice.
Read the full article here


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