Web Reads: Shoes that make a pointe

Shoe shopping. In a series of short videos, the Royal Ballet shows how important and individual are a dancer’s pointe shoes. One video shows how cobblers hand craft them. Another shows how dancers customize them to fit their feet and the demands of a particular ballet. Another video from the Australian Ballet has three female dancers talk about their shoes, their shoe-tailoring routines, and their feet.

Berlin history. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, The Atlantic has a collection of photos, including many taken during its first phase as a 3-foot high, barbed-wire fence.

No Allah for you. Malaysian law now forbids non-Muslims from using the word Allah to refer to God. The New York Times explains Christians make up 10 percent of the population and live under severe constraints: “The government’s National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs deliberated on the issue of whether non-Muslims have the right to use the word Allah and issued a fatwa. ‘The conference decided that the word Allah is a sacred word specific only to the religion and followers of Islam and it cannot be used or made to be similar with religions other than Islam,’ said the fatwa, which was posted on the government’s ‘e-fatwa’ website.”

Conservative professions. It’s no surprise that some professions—entertainment and journalism, for instance—are liberal, judging by political giving. What professions are conservative? These charts depict the political giving of various professions.

On liberty. Many libertarians support gay marriage and and liberty. But how far should liberty extend to those who oppose gay marriage? The October 2014 issue of the online journal Cato Unbound explores that question through essays by Kevin Vallier, Maggie Garrett, and Michael Shermer (who writes that “religion should retreat from public life just as it has from scientific inquiry, and for the same reasons.” ) One essay is by Notre Dame professor Patrick J. Deneen, who writes from a thoughtful Christian perspective.