From ProPublica, an article on Alhurra and America’s troubled effort to win Middle East hearts and minds (and more and more from The Washington Post). The New York Times goes inside a 9/11 mastermind’s interrogation. The effort to make this campaign about voters' unconscious fears of Obama has already begun — is Obama ready (for the GOP smear machine)?. An interview with historian Slawomir Cenckiewicz on evidence Lech Walesa was a Communist spy. More and more on Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut. The Hipster Handbook author Robert Lanham defends the Brooklyn neighborhood everyone loves to hate. From Nerve, more on the history of single life: Diamond engagement rings. A review of Casanova: Philosopher, Gambler, Lover, Priest by Ian Kelly. A review of Barbarians to Angels: The Dark Ages Reconsidered by Peter S. Wells. A look at how an individual genome changes over a lifetime. How smart is the octopus? Bright enough to do the moving-rock trick. How Darwin won the evolution race: The extraordinary story behind The Origin of Species. From Wired, a look at how English is evolving into a language we may not even understand. How to write for the Web: Caleb Crain explains it for you. Stopping Google: With one company now the world's chief gateway to information, some critics are hatching ways to fight its influence.
