From Green Anarchy, an essay by John Zerzan on silence. A review of The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine by Benjamin Wallace (and an excerpt). A review of Reflections of a Wine Merchant by Neal I. Rosenthal. Music's literary side: Songwriter  Joe Henry reflects on a lifetime's worth of reading—and its influence on his music. Words, words, words: Michael Kinsley on a brilliant new way for measuring the productivity of journalists. From TLS, a review of State of The Nation: British Theatre Since 1945 by Michael Billington; a review of books on Stonehenge; and a review of books on the lives of naturalists; and a review of Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon and The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu (and an excerpt at Bookforum). As geeks become chic in all levels of society, an unlikely subset is starting to roar — meet the nerd girls: they're smart, they're techie and they're hot. With celebrity-crazy blogs like Dlisted and Oh No They Didn't growing in prominence and touting an anarchic and egalitarian spirit, has gossip become the ruling media from of our era? Triumph of the Pill: Why brain doping on campus is no cause for concern. From Cracked, a look at the 9 most devastating insults from around the world.

From History of Intellectual Culture, Carl Spadoni (McMaster): How to Make a Souffle; or, What Historians of the Book Need to Know about Bibliography. A review of The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. A review of Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis (and more at Bookforum). A review of Amis & Son: Two Literary Generations by Neil Powell (and more). One of the most reassuring things about Obama is that Austan Goolsbee has been with him since his Senate campaign in 2004. The End of Summer Vacation: A workplace crisis that Obama and McCain could actually fix. Everything you always didn't want to know about porn: A review of Chuck Palahniuk's Snuff (and more). The Britney Spears Problem: Tracking who's hot and who's not presents an algorithmic challenge. It must be galling to live next door to the world's best schools, so it goes for Sweden, which must gaze at Finland's classrooms forlornly. More on Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American World (and an interview and more). Imagine a nuclear fuel that produces 70% less toxic waste and nothing a rogue state can use to make a bomb — but is it too good to be true? A review of Howard Zinn: A Radical American Vision by Davis E. Joyce. Are bloggers journalists? Let’s ask Thomas Jefferson. Ben e-mails, George does business?

From Discover, an article on the beautiful mind of Freeman Dyson. From First Principles, what is an appropriate curriculum for our students? China's SAT: If the SAT lasted two days, covered everything you'd ever studied, and decided your future. How about a cap-and-trade dividend? Robert Reich wants to know. Can Wal-Mart save local newspapers? Craigslist, take note: It takes one monolithic villain to beat another. Some argue that it's time to legally recognize the bond of friendship so that some of the rights and privileges restricted to family would be given to friends. Breaking news: Life as a poet not lucrative!!! From Standpoint, an interview with Jung Chang and Jon Halliday and Simon Sebag Montefiore on the two communist dictators who were responsible for up to 100 million deaths. An article on the history of vibrators. Despite popular myth, anti-Americanism in Europe isn’t on the rise. What statistics don't tell us: The bad news about the good news about terrorism. Rick Perlstein reviews The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s by G. Calvin Mackenzie and Robert S. Weisbrot. Under George Bush, red states were red and blue states were blue; this year the map could be drenched in purple. The best poverty-fighting bet: The Google IPO event of the nonprofit world. A review of The Hamburger: A History by Josh Ozersky (and more and more).