From National Geographic, an article on the real price of gold. From Edge, a talk with Frank Wilczek on the Nobel Prize and after. With his reputation for romanticism and rambling and his love of gossip, Herodotus was dismissed by the serious thinkers of his day — yet his work is both entertaining and deeply moral. A look at 6 open letters that changed the world. A review of Presidential Command: Power, Leadership, and the Making of Foreign Policy from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush by Peter W. Rodman. Re-run: Why so many Americans under 30 are greeting a black president as old news? A review of Blubberland: The Dangers of Happiness by Elizabeth Farrelly. An interview with Daniel Tammet, author of Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind. Can political affirmative action reduce gender bias? Affirmative action and after: Now is the time to reconsider a policy that must eventually change, but simply replacing race with class isn’t the solution. Hilzoy on race since the 80s. The new film "Examined Life" pounds the pavement with major philosophers; Scott McLemee jogs to catch up. More on books by Allen Ginsberg. From Foreign Policy, the champions of Islamic finance — banking and investing based on the Koran — believe that if Islamic principles had been applied to Wall Street, the global economic crisis never would have happened.