From Left Curve, an essay on the conditions of anti-capitalist art: Radical cultural practices and the capitalist art system. From Osteuropa, an article on perpetrators, victims, and art: The National Socialists' campaign of pillage. The story of humanity: A review of Creation: Artists, Gods, and Origins by Peter Conrad (and more). An interview with Jonathan Ree on philosophy as an art. Back to the Figure: Rather than choosing between abstraction and representation, contemporary artists are embracing both—and creating something new in the process. Borrowing from nature: Architects believe that biologically inspired designs can help to reduce the environmental impact of buildings. From scrap to showhome: Architects are using everything from abandoned jumbo jets to torn-down highways and shipping containers to create unusual recycled residences. Architecture for a better Muslim world: A prize is awarded to a number of very different, socially relevant buildings: a showcase university, a market and a school made of bamboo and mud.

From The Hindu, a review of The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India’s Future by Martha C. Nussbaum. Viewing India’s down and out: Slum tourism is a way for travelers to taste the exotica of squalor. Recalling the “liberation” of Goa: Looking back, some of the reactions to the “invasion” of Goa, both Indian and Western, are amusing and bewildering. A review of The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain by Nicholas B. Dirks. The siege of the Red Mosque, which religious parties say killed over a thousand people, drove a wedge between moderate and militant Islam that could be fatal for the Musharraf presidency. Pakistan on the Brink: Six years after the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration encourages more strife in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pervez Musharraf is wobbling, and his political adversaries are moving in for the kill. But Pakistan’s former leaders are hardly the democratic saviors they present themselves to be. Finger on the trigger: If Pakistan falls, Jihadis will have the bomb.

National Journal explores a number of ways that the 2008 presidential election is different. So long, white boy: Could 2008 be the year that Democrats finally admit an old sweetheart is never coming back, and stop pandering to the white male voter? Democrats are scrambling for a new paradigm. Maybe they don't need one: A review of The Argument by Matt Bai (and more). Tyranny of the tiny minority: Here's how progressives can counter the GOP's obstruction strategy. Learning from Bush's mistakes: Fred Kaplan on how a prewar conversation can help us pick the next president. A review of The Bluest State: How Democrats Created the Massachusetts Blueprint for American Political Disaster by Jon Keller. Masters of their domain: Silicon Valley conservatives are trying to build the right-wing MoveOn from the top down.

From The Wilson Quarterly, the route to the top may remain even more difficult than it is for men, but the decision that women face now is whether they want to enter—and perhaps hope to alter—the demolition derby. Most of the hand-wringing over the glass ceiling focuses on the primarily male boards of listed companies. This narrow view of what constitutes power and influence ignores the increasing number of women taking alternative routes to the top. Leading ladies: Maverick women were among the pioneers of cinema. But their power waned as the Hollywood studio system took hold. Eighty years later, women are back on top and are again calling the shots. Mom, the next corporate titan: Hungry for talent, big companies have started to pursue women who have dropped out of the workforce. This could redefine the whole notion of a career. In our post-feminist Western world, women are supposed to be able to have it all. So why are so many dissatisfied? The problem may lie within women themselves.

From Cafe Babel, a series of articles on European military life. How ballads created Finland, opera made Belgium, and fairy stories unified Germany: A review of National Thought in Europe: A cultural history by Joep Leerssen. Expansion without enlargement: In order to protect its core, the EU is creating a buffer zone at its periphery. But these states are perceived as a source of problems as much as a solution. Population Wars: Why Europe's demography is more complicated than you may think. An interview with Bernard-Henri Levy on whether the French think too much. Let’s not go Dutch: How the Netherlands lost a national hero and got amnesty in return. Egalitarian capital of cool: Every experience in the Dutch capital is primarily an aesthetic one, even your choice of bicycle. Farewell to Freetown: Christiania, Copenhagen's last bastion of hippydom, is finally to close after nearly 40 years. What is the future for dissent in Denmark now?

From Taki’s Top Drawer, the world is coming home to Weaverville: An article on sex, politics and Gnosticism; and Justin Raimondo reviews The Color of Fascism: Lawrence Dennis, Racial Passing, and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism in the United States by Gerald Horne. From Democratiya, a review of Look Homeward, America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists by Bill Kauffman. Conservatism turned upside down: A look back at Murray Rothbard's The Betrayal of the American Right. A quarter century after her death, and half a century after the publication of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand is back. Floating Utopias: An article on the degraded imagination of the libertarian seasteaders. Two interviews with John Dean, author of Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches by John W. Dean, and a look at the rise of authoritarian conservatism (and more). In the fever swamp of the radical wingnuts: To truly appreciate what the sleek spinmeisters at the top of the right-wing echo chamber are saying, you've got to dig into the crazies that dwell at the bottom.

David Eldridge (Hull): Hollywood Censors History. From American Heritage, an article on Charlie Chaplin: Banned from America. A review of A Shadow of Red: Communism and the Blacklist in Radio and Television by David Everitt. One nation, under another God: Why have moviemakers not imagined America under Islamist control? Because it might look too attractive to some in the audience. Minister of Fear: Michael Haneke has built a career out of making violent movies with an unexpected victim — the audience. What are “Hollywood values”? What, if anything, is the message Hollywood lefties are trying to get across? An interview with John Waters on the mainstreaming of gay culture: "I had more fun when it was illegal to be gay”.

Greg Lastowka (Rutgers): Google's Law. Google taught me how to cut my own hair: In the Internet era, the most accessible information is the most valuable. From Business Week, a look at the 25 most influential people on the Web. Here's a timeline of some great books in nerd history: A review of Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them and American Nerd: The Story of My People. An oracle for our time, part man, part machine: When the human brain mates with the computer’s, we get the automation of judgment. The introduction to When Computers Were Human by David Alan Grier. A review of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams. As the 6-year-old Wikipedia project begins shifting from adding articles to pruning them back, arguments ensue, and it isn't pretty. Just ask its founder — and victim. An interview with the creators of Digg, StumbleUpon and Netvibes on Web 2.0's future. A look at the 8 most needlessly detailed wikipedia entries.

From Law and Contemporary Problems, who pays? who benefits? A special issue on distributional issues in health care. The scientist and the stairmaster: Why most of us believe that exercise makes us thinner—and why we're wrong. Do we really know what makes us healthy? Much of what we’re told about diet, lifestyle and disease is based on epidemiologic studies. What if it is just bad science? Scientists do the numbers: Coffee is good for you — no, it's bad. Epidemiological studies can come up with some crazy results, causing some critics to wonder if they're really worthwhile. Chemical waste is as much to blame for cancer as smoking: A review of The Secret History of the War on Cancer by Devra Davis. A review of The Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World's Most Troubled Drug Culture by Richard DeGrandpre. What allergies are telling us: A review of Allergy: The History of a Modern Malady by Mark Jackson and Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes by Gregg Mitman.

From The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh on the Administration’s plan for Iran (and an interview with Der Spiegel). David Letterman: It's kind of hard to tell Iran, US presidents apart. The Usual Suspect: Mearsheimer and Walt's The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is not an act of scholarship, but an act of anti-Semitic intimidation. (and more). A review of The State of the American Empire: How the USA Shapes the World by Stephen Burman. From TNR, should there be a "War on Terror"? Philip H. Gordon debates Reuel Marc Gerecht. From TAC, a review of World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism by Norman Podhoretz. An interview with Leonard Cole, author of Terror: How Israel Has Coped and What America Can Learn. The Constitution in Peril: The war on terror didn't start as an attack on Americans' rights, but several new books argue that's exactly what happened. War and Terror, Inc.: It turns out that in the new world order, you can make a boatload of money in the process.