From The Toronto Star, Conrad Black's beloved paper National Post posed as an underdog, but always served Canada's elite interests; a look at why Black would have been treated more fairly by Canada's legal system, lawyers believe; and it's an ugly question but must be asked: If her Conrad lands in prison what will Barbara Amiel Black do? By turns fierce and fragile, this journalist turned socialite has always been tough to pin down. But, at her darkest hour, don't bet she won't stand. Here's what every American should know about Conrad Black and his trial. Christopher Hitchens on Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Lords A-Creeping: You thought Conrad Black was bad? Meet the real degenerates of Britain's ruling class. A review of The Lady Upstairs: Dorothy Schiff and The New York Post by Marilyn Nissenson.

From Wired, did Assignment Zero fail? A look back, and lessons learned. The Washington Post launches of LoudounExtra.com, an experiment in hyperlocal media. Today's news world is a political junkie's oyster. Cable TV offers CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and C-SPAN. The Washington Post, BBC online, The Note and many, many more news Web sites are only a click away. But that's where they remain for many Americans. Decades into the "information age," the public is as uninformed as before the rise of cable television and the Internet. Here's the bottom line: If you want consistent artistic bang for your buck, skip the movies, forget the theatre and turn off your TV set. Instead, read a book. More specifically, read a novel. More specifically still, read the kind of novel that publishers call "trade fiction".

A look at how Second Life literati create book world. Given all the talk about the future of book publishing, that brings to mind a question: Do e-books have a smell? From Salon, a review of Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe; Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-Mail Overload by Mark Hurst; and Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet - Better, Faster, Easier by Mark Frauenfelder. Data Center in a Box: A shipping container stuffed with servers could usher in the era of cloud computing. Even Better Than The Real Thing: Sweatshop gamers, virtual terrorists, avatar porn, and other tales from the digital frontier.

From Business Week, Bloggers Bring in the Big Bucks: How a personal obsession can turn into a popular favorite and maybe even a full-time job; a look at how top bloggers earn money; and an interview with Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-hour Workweek. Blah Blogs Morph into Useful Resources: At what point does a blog become an online specialty magazine, a news service, an information conglomerator, a collaborative wiki created by devotees, or an annotated archive of rare audio or video?  Happy Blogiversary: It's been 10 years since the blog was born. Love them or hate them, they've roiled presidential campaigns and given everyman a global soapbox. Twelve commentators on what blogs mean to them.

From The New Yorker, Days of Rage: An article on the challenges for the Pakistan's future. Feasting on the mother's corpse: Libyan author Ibrahim al-Koni on the curse of oil riches for a desert culture. The biggest nuclear threat from Iran is not from an attack but from an accident, says Iranian-born Najmedin Meshkati, an expert in nuclear safety at USC, and international sanctions are only increasing the risk. From The Globalist, an article on Tunisia as an Arab women's rights leader (and part 2). A review of Manifesto: Together Facing a New Totalitarianism. Last Rites in the Holy Land? The world's most ancient Christian communities are fleeing their birthplace. The Kurdish Question: Can Turkey learn to live with an increasingly powerful Iraqi Kurdistan across the border? 

Terrifying house raids; random checkpoint shootings; speeding convoys that wipe out anyone in their path. Interviews with 50 US war veterans back from Iraq reveal the terrible daily brutality they inflicted on innocent civilians (and part 2 and part 3). Few politicians have spent much time talking about one of the biggest US headaches in Iraq: how to deal with the spiralling population of Iraqi detainees in US hands. A US army officer puts "solution to Iraq war" on eBay. From National Journal, Baghdad, Surged: The "surge" in U.S. forces was meant to slow the paralyzing cycle of violence threatening to engulf Iraq, but determining how effective the troop buildup has been is more an art than a science. You call that progress? Fred Kaplan on the outrageous White House report on Iraq.

John Gunther Dean is a retired United States diplomat whose trenchant views on American policy in the middle east won him enmity in high places. A review of The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth About Global Corruption by John Perkins. Money and the military: Since 2005, annual military spending worldwide has topped $1 trillion, which is more than 2.5% of the global gross domestic product. Laurent Zecchini reports that as weapons sales rise, disarmament is becoming more and more irrelevant. The first lady never expected to be spending so much time on foreign affairs: An interview with Laura Bush. 

The latest figures indicate the antiwar Republican Ron Paul is receiving more donations from employees of the US military than any other Republican candidate. The Ron Paul Movement: The libertarian longshot won't win the presidency, but that isn't the only prize on the table. It is now clear that for John McCain, victory simply means not quitting — in Iraq and on the campaign trail. He's a prisoner of this war, too.  Are Christian conservatives trying to Swift-boat Mitt Romney in the service of Fred Thompson?  What does it take? There is not one leading presidential candidate with a lot of Washington experience. A review of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation by Drew Westen. Strategists as Stars: Political consultants become stars, but do they make or break a candidate?

A review of Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency by Nigel Hamilton (and more). A review of Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful And Controversial Vice President by Stephen F. Hayes. Outsourcing Justice? That's obscene: Alberto Gonzales's Justice Department has put a privatized eye on American morality. Architect of Torture: Nat Hentoff on John Yoo, the Berkeley professor who gave a president a license to (all but) kill. Will John Roberts ever get better? Jeffrey Rosen investigates. A review of The Supreme Court Opinions of Clarence Thomas, 1991-2006: A Conservative's Perspective by by Henry Mark Holzer. In Defense of the 9th Circuit: Why the federal appeals court from the Left Coast doesn't deserve its bad rap. 

A review of Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed the Course of American History by Marc Leepson. A review of Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900 by Jack Beatty. An interview with Andro Linklater, author of The Fabric of America: How Our Borders and Boundaries Shaped the Country and Forged Our National Identity. A review of Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion by David Gelernter. A review of The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger With Mexico and Canada by Jerome Corsi.

The genes that build America: From the discovery that presidential hopeful Barack Obama is descended from white slave owners to the realisation that the majority of black Americans have European ancestors, a boom in "recreational genetics" is forcing America to redefine its roots. Paul Harris pieces together the DNA jigsaw of what it really means to be born in the USA. Are immigrants and refugees people of color? The American context demands an understanding of the country’s racial history and hierarchy. The Reality of Race: Is the problem that white people don't know or don't care? How racism hurts — literally: Warning: Exposure to racist remarks may cause strokes, heart attacks, or other serious health problems. A review of Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City by Mary Pattillo (and more).

A review of Healthy Cities: The Intersection of Urban Planning, Law and Health by James A. Kushner. Making McMansion Owners Pay: One Colorado county tries a novel capitalist approach to containing the spread of monster houses. Land of the overworked and tired: We're taking fewer vacations so the Joneses won't get too far ahead of us. The Richest of the Rich, proud of a new Gilded Age: Today’s titans often see themselves as pillars of a new age of prosperity, one in which their successes and philanthropy have made government less important. Some uncharitable thoughts on millionaire generosity: A review of The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class.

From Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews, a review of The Philosophers of the Ancient World: An A-Z Guide; a review of Classics and the Uses of Reception by Charles Martindale and Richard F. Thomas; a review of Archaeology and the Emergence of Greece by Anthony Snodgrass, a review of Pity and Power in Ancient Athens; a review of Thucydides and the Philosophical Origins of History by Darien Shanske; and a review of Julius Caesar: the People's Dictator by Luciano Canfora. A review of The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy. Timothy L. S. Sprigge on The History of Western Philosophy, in verse. An interview with Edward Craig, author of Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. A review of The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of a Universe by Michael Frayn. 

From Canadian Journal of Sociology, a review of The Illusion of Cultural Identity by Jean-François Bayart; a review of Social Performance: Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and Ritual; a review of It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics by Francesca Polletta; a review of Why? by Charles Tilly; and a review of Youth, Globalization, and the Law. A review of Justice as Integrity: Tolerance and the Moral Momentum of Law by David Fagelson. Kenan Malik reviews Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia by John Gray (and more and more and more). A review of Smoot's Ear: The Measure of Humanity by Robert Tavernor.

Holocaust historian Saul Friedlander says his crusade to keep history alive is not just a professional imperative, it's highly personal. In the run-up to a debate in London, the American warrior against Holocaust denial Deborah Lipstadt explains why she’s opposed to censoring deniers. Bad Apples and Bad Barrels: Lessons in evil from Stanford to Abu Ghraib. From The Nation, Harvard's Humanitarian Hawks: Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights doesn't officially favor the war in Iraq, so why is it helping Gen. David Patraeus devise a counter-insurgency doctrine? The president of Eastern Michigan University was fired, months after top university officials were accused of covering up the rape and slaying of a student by publicly ruling out foul play. The first new Catholic university in the United States in 40 years, Ave Maria University, will open next month, the creation of Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza. 

From American, what's the best way for businesses to help fix education? Stop backing a system that doesn't work, smash the regulations, and support the entrepreneurs who will shake things up; and No Hesitations: A child of violence and poverty, Roland Fryer of Harvard goes where other economists fear to tread. Inner-City Futurism: A new kind of high school in Chicago's inner city will train its students for high-tech, high-pay manufacturing. School diversity based on income segregates some: Recent experiments show how hard it can be to balance academic success and socioeconomic and racial diversity. A review of The Schooled Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Education by Scott Davies and Neil Guppy.