From Obit, death fascinates, death is fun to look at, especially violent death — especially if it happens to some other guy; and a look at how The Economist knows how to say goodbye. Snitch perverts, liars, scum, liberal hacks, media morons — Media Matters for America fights ire with fire. Stop the Journalismisms!: The media business is chock full of platitudes, most of them wrong. Kenya’s fixation with Barack Obama represents a form of escapism for an African country beset by political dysfunctionality. From LRB, a review of Memories of Eden: A Journey through Jewish Baghdad by Violette Shamash and Baghdad, Yesterday: The Making of an Arab Jew by Sasson Somekh; and I could sleep with all of them: A review of In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story by Andrea Weiss. The oldest conundrum: The red lights are going out all over Europe — but not elsewhere. What's with all the ugly people having sex? Esquire tracks the democratization of pornography to the mainstream.  An interview with Steven Novack on a future in which solar antennae are as easy to use as Saran Wrap — and almost as cheap. A review of Otto Neurath: the Language of the Global Polis by Nader Vossoughian. An article on the battle of the Caspian Sea. Faced with a horrific drug problem, Vancouver is trying a radical experiment: Let junkies be junkies.