From the latest issue of Theoretical & Applied Ethics, a special issue in bioethics. Carl L. Palmer (Notre Dame): Political Socialization and Group-Centrism. What defines a meme? James Gleick on how our world is a place where information can behave like human genes and ideas can replicate, mutate and evolve (and more and more and more and more on The Information). Scott McLemee reviews Transforming Terror: Remembering the Soul of the World. An article on Obama conspiracy theorists even more insane than you think. Thou Shalt (Sometimes) Kill: Bin Laden's killing has divided Christians — while Americans celebrated, liberal Europeans felt unease, but they're the ones who may need to take another look at the Bible. Fighting Words: A professor proposes adding certain terms to everyday e-mails as a political protest. Economic chaos, religious hysteria and depraved morals “all lie just under the surface” — but it’s a good thing: Parag Khanna argues in his new book that the world has entered a new Middle Ages which could give rise to a kind of enlightened colonialism (and more). The right-wing network behind the war on unions: Inspired by Ronald Reagan and funded by the right's richest donors, a web of free-market think tanks has fueled the nationwide attack on workers' rights. A review of Mathematics of Life: Unlocking the Secrets of Existence by Ian Stewart. A review of The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn by Suleiman Osman. Sex, drugs, and American jurisprudence: Susan Reid on the medicalization of pleasure. From Vanity Fair, the mid-90s saw Goldman Sachs in crisis as a future U.S. senator and a future Treasury secretary vied for control; William D. Cohan tells how the long knives came out and today’s Goldman was born. A review of Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty by Simon Baron-Cohen.
