Alexander Styhre (CUT): The Production of Informational Objects in Innovation Work: Pharmaceutical Reason and the Individuation of Illnesses. From Essays in Philosophy, Jessica B. Payson (Binghamton): Moral Dilemmas and Collective Responsibilities; Joseph Levine (UMass): Collective Responsibility and the Individual; and a review of Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers? by Zygmunt Bauman. A classicist in a class of her own: Delightful don Mary Beard, whose lively blog is read by thousands, is to host a TV series about Pompeii — and it's likely to inspire a new generation of Latin lovers. A review of A History of Murder: Personal Violence in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present by Pieter Spierenburg. Jenna Krajeski reviews The King by Rebecca Wolff. An interview with Jonathan Safran Foer. Space, the designer's frontier: NASA needs to inspire us again — how about starting with the logo? Skeptics of the World, Unite! We're awash in conspiracy theories — and that's not a good thing. A review of Be Very Afraid: The Cultural Response to Terror, Pandemics, Environmental Devastation, Nuclear Annihilation, and Other Threats by Robert Wuthnow and How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don't Always Match the Facts by David Ropeik. More and more on Kissing the Mask by William T. Vollmann. Judging and Personality: What does a judge’s biography tell us? David Grann, if his last two volumes of nonfiction are any indication, doesn’t have what you might call an abiding interest in the lives of everyday people. For Niall Ferguson, apparently, social services for the elderly are not worth the money, but there is no limit to the value of the “order” imposed by the U.S. empire. The first phase of the National Journal counteroffensive against Politico is now under way.
