From Edge, George Dyson on the theory of games and economic misbehavior. From History Today, sex, scandals and celebrity were all part of a blame and shame culture that existed in the 18th century, one that often fed off the misfortune of women at the hands of men; Julie Peakman looks at how prostitutes, courtesans and ladies with injured reputations took up the pen in retaliation. The accidental hero of 1989: Twenty years after the wall fell, Mikhail Gorbachev is quietly celebrated in the west, but shunned in Moscow; yet in both places his reputation rests on his failure to reform the dying system in which he truly believed. A review of Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson (and more and more and more and more and more and more and more). Daniel Lyons on why it’s time to pony up: Good Web sites shouldn't be free. The Making of an Agent: After 16 weeks of action-packed exercises that will test them to the core, the recruits in Training Class No. 283 will pass into the elite ranks of the Secret Service — or leave humiliated. Scientists have found that evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful, while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors. More on The Meaning of Sarkozy by Alain Badiou (and more by Martin Puchner at Bookforum).
