From TLS, an article on John Ashbery, a poet for our times; and Byron, Shelley and Miss Havisham: How a British Prime Minister may have provided the inspiration for one of Charles Dickens's most enduring characters. Roger Kimball on how 1968's corrosive influence still harms both the left and the right. What bees and dented cars can teach about what it means to be poor — and the flaws of economics. Cuckoo for Switzerland: A small country with a skilled workforce, booming exports, and enormous prosperity has become the envy of Europe. Students of virginity: In the Ivy League, abstinence is a) philosophical, b) research-based, c) an outgrowth of feminism, d) sexy and fun, e) all of the above. The first chapter from Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk by James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer. A review of Folk Psychological Narratives: The Sociocultural Basis of Understanding Reasons by Daniel D. Hutto. How did a handful of activists manage to shake up Beijing with “Genocide Olympics” T-shirts? From FT, an interview with Nassim Nicholas Taleb on randomness. Let's stop brutalizing our kids with years of drills on the proper formation of a cursive capital "S"—handwriting is a historical blip in the long history of writing technologies. A review of The Language of Liberal Constitutionalism by Howard Schweber.
