From Swans, Michael Barker on elite philanthropy, SNCC, and the civil rights movement: A three-part review of the history of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. From Mental Floss, here is a brief history and future of the shopping cart. A look at how chemists help archaeologists to probe biblical history. Living the quantified life: Michael Agger on some of the most inspiring self-tracking projects. Christian Bale may kill someone yet: When a rage for authenticity meets a passionate fakery meets a workingman's attitude, you get this guy. A review of Incivility: The Rude Stranger in Everyday Life by Philip Smith, Timothy L. Phillips and Ryan D. King. Nicolas Pujol on freemium and the attributes of an emerging business model. The WikiLeaks cables suggest that President Obama’s diplomacy is a mixture of openness to negotiation, constantly escalating pressure and a series of deadlines. The Dark Lord of Coal Country: Don Blankenship grew up poor in the hollows of West Virginia, but as the richest and most powerful coal baron in Appalachia, he has destroyed the region's mountains, polluted its waters and overseen the worst mining disaster in 40 years. The Big Uneasy: James Surowiecki on the backlash against the Federal Reserve. How to create temperatures below absolute zero: Absolute zero sounds like an unbreachable limit, but there is a weird realm of negative temperatures that could reveal new states of matter.
