From The New Yorker, how worried should we be about everyday chemicals? by Jerome Groopman wants to know; and the real cause of the Gulf disaster? Our insatiable appetite for oil — we must look for it in ever more remote places, and extract it in ever riskier ways. This is not a weed: Plants that spontaneously grow in the city are marvels of adaptation — what can we learn from them? From New York, Obama is from Mars, Wall Street is from Venus: John Heilemann psychoanalyzes one of America’s most dysfunctional relationships. A review of The Finger: A Handbook by Angus Trumble. Andrew Martin reviews The Gin Closet by Leslie Jamison. From The Chronicle, Nicolaus Mills on Richard Blumenthal, liberal guilt, and Vietnam: Obfuscation has only made the left less effective in remedying the inequalities of military service. The Last Pop Star: Lady Gaga is simultaneously embodying and eviscerating Pop. Do the archives of the Royal Navy include volume after gilt-edged volume detailing secret encounters between Her Majesty’s warships and horrifying sea creatures? From LRB, is this the end of the UK? David Runciman wants to know; and Eric Hobsbawm on his days as a Jazz critic. Wrestling with Death: The revival of August Wilson’s Fences looks at control and illusion. Alma Guillermoprieto on Father Maciel, John Paul II, and the Vatican Sex Crisis. An interview with Bruce Sterling, one of the original cyberpunks, blogger of Wired.com’s “Beyond the Beyond”. The war on gangs, now globalized, runs roughshod over the ordinary checks on the criminal justice system. History, not politics: Acclaimed historian Jonathan Spence delivers a Jefferson Lecture with an unusually narrow focus. A look at why global warming "skeptics" refuse to believe scientists. A review of The Dangerous Book of Heroes by Conn Iggulden.
