From Wired, a guide to hoaxes: How to give and take a joke. Fear of a Mouse Planet: What Disney’s acquisition of Marvel means for the house of ideas (and more). As the Internet becomes a jukebox for every imaginable type of video, producers and advertisers are discovering that users will watch for more than two minutes at a time. The first chapter from Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk by James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer. A review of Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer (and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more). David Segal on the kinship between talk radio and rap: The two forms share more than you think — just don’t tell the practitioners. The Craziest Town Hall Ever: What happens when ultra-religious neocon Michele Bachmann co-hosts a town-hall meeting with anti-authority libertarian Ron Paul? David Weigel on how the fear of fascism and the "gay agenda" dominates the “How to Take Back America” conference (and more). An interview with Mike Rogers, the man who outs closeted right-wing politicians. Sex, flies and videotape: Muslim creationist, cult leader, Dawkins' nemesis, messiah — Halil Arda tracks down the real Harun Yahya. Keyboards, codes and the search for optimality: In biology, as in technology, we should not confuse persistence with perfection. Popular fairy tales and folk stories are more ancient than was previously thought, according research by biologists (and more).
