From Discover, Carl Zimmer on how Google is making us smarter: Humans are "natural-born cyborgs," and the Internet is our giant "extended mind". Who says the book business is dead? Now that the Kindle and other electronic readers are finally catching fire, publishing can start to rise from its ashes. From The Economist, the frat boy ships out: Few people will mourn the departure of the 43rd president; and George Bush has left a dismal legacy, but Barack Obama can do much to repair the damage. A review of books about the rise of Barack Obama. A reading list that shaped a president: Obama’s love of language and reading has helped him to communicate and shaped his sense of the world. From The Washington Monthly, contributors suggest what Obama should read: Twenty-five books the new president should have by his bedside. You can tell a lot about a tyrant from his bedside reading. Crack-smoking sociologist friends: A review of Disorientations: Art on the Margins of the Contemporary by Travis Jeppesen. A review of Schopenhauer by Robert Wicks. The age of mediocre banks: What happens when banks are too big to fail and too big to succeed. A see-through society: Micah Sifry on how the Web is opening up our democracy. Playboy's list of the most important people in sex from the past 55 years reminds Daniel Radosh why we still need America's smartest smut.
