From Obit, two memoirs of loss try to answer grief's painful questions. A look at how dead people in 1700s were the first celebrities. In Great Britain it's as easy to open a lap dancing club as a coffee shop. This old house policy: Our government's approach to housing has grown nonsensical: encourage borrowing to keep homes expensive — it's time to rebuild. An interview with Sam Gosling, author of Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You. Don't count Drudge out: His demise is overreported once again. Adelle Waldman reads Proust in the park and delights in his spot-on sense of humour — "why didn't anyone tell me", she wonders. The crisis last time: Would democracy control the corporations, Adolf Augustus Berle asked in 1932, or would the corporations control democracy? A review of The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism by Geoff Nicholson. More on Planet Google by Randall Stross. An interview with Conor Foley, author of The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War.  There's a strong chance that South America could lose the 21st century, much as it lost the 20th. An article on Congo, pornography for misanthropes. An article on how to write about Africa — don't. Why can't Johnny jump tall buildings? Parents expect way too much from their kids. Where did all the female rappers go?

From ResetDOC, an interview with Valeria Fraschetti: “If the Mahatma were still alive he would be ashamed of us”; and is a Muslim Gandhi possible? Deprogramming Jihadists: The Saudi government is trying to rehabilitate violent Islamists by addressing their psychological needs; could therapy be the best sort of counterterrorism? A review of Globalising Hatred: The New Antisemitism by Denis MacShane. More on Terror and Consent by Philip Bobbitt. Catherine St Germans reminisces about her lifetime dedication to Manolo Blahnik. Kate Carraway on how she transformed her boyfriend into a booty call. Free education: Here's a brief guide to the burgeoning world of online video lectures. Listen up! Some of the best college radio shows in the country are right here. Scientists prove there really is a thin line between love and hate. From Dissent, why rising test scores may not equal increased student learning. Traditional publishing models aren’t working, but scholars should still resist a bit — and mourn what is being lost. The Fed's big experiment: America has embarked on one of the boldest ventures in the history of monetary economics. Is laissez-faire capitalism dead? The era of no government may be over. Capitalism hits the fan: The current crisis did not start with finance, and it won't end with finance. Jim Hightower on the five most wanted rip-off artists from Wall Street and Washington.

From Triple Canopy, has a 1953 portrait of Stalin been censored by Cooper Union in 2008? (and more) From Esquire, Ken Kurson in happy the stock market crashed. Getting hooked on sin: Daniel Lende explains what Colombian teenagers can teach neuroscientists about addiction. A review of Dexter Filkins' The Forever War. From TED, Irwin Redlener on how to survive a nuclear attack. From TNR, a review of Scrapbooks: An American History by Jessica Helfand. A review of The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair—A History of Fifty Years of Independence by Martin Meredith. From Scientific American, here are five ways brain scans mislead us; and does consumerism make us crazy? Our emotional well-being may be affected by our addiction to technology and the great amount of time we spend indoors. A review of Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective by Bas C. van Fraassen. An excerpt from Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery by Siddharth Kara. Banging for big bucks: An interview with Natalie McLennan, author of The Price: My Rise and Fall as Natalia. From Cafe Babel, an interview with Elie Barnavi: "Europe has lost her sex appeal and her men are weak". There are three words you will hardly ever hear a person in power use: "I don't know".

Menachem Mautner (Tel Aviv): From "Honor" to "Dignity": How Should a Liberal State Treat Non-Liberal Cultural Groups? The introduction to The Citizen and the Alien: Dilemmas of Contemporary Membership by Linda Bosniak. What’s a depression, Daddy? How talk of money is a language of love. The N-word is flourishing among Generation Hip-Hop Latinos: Why should we care now? A review of Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century by Chris Spannos. From banking to the climate, the wreckage of short-termism is stark, and the need for a 100-year committee is plain. Will there be blood: Will falling oil prices cause civil wars? James Gustave Speth on the specter that is haunting American environmentalism — the specter of failure. A review of American Rifle: A Biography by Alexander Rose. How costly is diversity? Introducing affirmative action causes a substantial increase in the number of female competitors. From MAA, a review of Mathematical Knowledge. From Taki's Magazine, James Kalb on the tyranny of tolerance. From FT, Philip Stephens on how globalisation and the new nationalism collide. A review of Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood. A review of Not in My Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy by Julie Burchill.  A review of Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba by Tom Gjelten.