Miscellaneous: Village voice: To know what's happening around the world, you must ask the locals, the anthropologist Melissa Leach says. A review of Roman Satire by Daniel M. Hooley. Separated by Birth: Sister takes on sister in the debate over sibling IQ. An anti-evolutionary Christian extremist suspected of sending threatening letters to biology professors at the University of Colorado has gone on the lam. How we know where our lost keys are: In feature-based attention, neurons form the search patterns we use to find familiar objects in unexplored places. A review of Polytheism and Society in Ancient Athens by Robert Parker. Though he gave up a successful music career in favor of particle physics, Brian Cox can't seem to escape showbiz. A rising science communicator in the UK, he advised director Danny Boyle on the new sci-fi thriller, Sunshine. Fictional Reality: Sci-fi helped make the present; now it's obsolete.
The title of the newest book in Harvard University Press's I Tatti series, Ciceronian Controversies, will not seem self-evidently arousing to a large sector of the reading public. Math as a Civil Right: A longtime activist in the civil rights movement now teaches that mathematical literacy is the key to full participation in the country's economy. From Japan Focus, an article on Ruth Benedict's obituary for Japanese culture. A passion for order: Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus was an early information architect. He believed that every kind of plant and animal on Earth should be named and classified. Forecasting human behaviour carries big risks: Computerised forecasting techniques are certainly useful for stores, but flawed when it comes to complex human issues. A review of On the wealth of nations by PJ O'Rourke.
A man out of time: A review of Globalisation, terrorism and democracy by Eric Hobsbawm. A review of Practical Research Methods for Media and Cultural Studies: Making People Count by Máire Messenger Davies and Nick Mosdell. Cryptic species – animals that appear identical but are genetically quite distinct – may be much more widespread than previously thought. Max Blumenthal on Generation Chickenhawk: The Unauthorized College Republican Convention Tour. The case against summer: Despite its widespread appeal, the long summer break is one of the worst innovations in the history of education. It should be abolished. Is K–12 education really lagging badly, or have we "raised our sights"? Diane Ravitch answers the tough questions. The Technium and the 7th Kingdom: A talk with Kevin Kelly of Wired magazine. Making a monkey out of science: Scholarly debate was ripe for popular satire in the 19th century.
