From Public Space, a special issue on sex and mercy; and Desmond Manderson (McGill): Desert Island Disks: Ten Reveries on Inter-Disciplinary Pedagogy in Law. English is coming: A look the adverse side-effects of the growing dominance of English. From FT, a review of books on India. From Ny Tid, there is a light in the darkness of Belarus — a Belarusian university in exile provides future generations with internationally approved degrees and the ability to think independently. Critics say Afghanistan can’t be saved, but a new push from America and Kabul could work. A look at the 5 most retarded wars ever. The world needs a coordinated response to the current economic crisis, in which each country commits to undertake stimulus that's appropriate to the size of its economy and to its position in the global balance of trade. Don't get depressed: A writer's guide to surviving the recession. Here are 20 things you didn't know about television. Are Hollywood and the Internet killing reading? Diane Ravitch investigates. A review of Wittgenstein and Reason. A review of Alexander Waugh’s The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War (and more and more and more; and more from Bookforum). More on We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land by Jimmy Carter. An interview with Gene Healy, author of The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power. 

From Dissent, Kevin Mattson remembers John Patrick Diggins; we cannot urge President Obama into a role of transformational leadership — we have to help him by building a transformational electorate; and after the stimulus: now what? A review of Stephen A. Marglin's The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community. From Business Week, an article on debunking six social media myths. Green cities, brown suburbs: To save the planet, build more skyscrapers — especially in California. A review of Lori Anne Ferrell's The Bible and the People. Words of warning: 2,500 languages under threat worldwide as migrants head for city. The guides to life that lead nowhere: Where is the book on how to give up self-help books? From American Sexuality, "Melville Unfolding" and beyond: Looking at culture, sexuality, and the fluid text; and an article on sex, romance, and companionship: Can all three exist in one? relationship? Very little house on the prairie: An article on a new vogue for little living. An interview with Jerry Coyne, author of Why Evolution Is True. Scientists have debunked the myth that one in 10 children are illegimate without their legal father's knowledge. Is patriotism a subconscious way for humans to avoid disease? An interview with Burton A. Weisbrod, author of Mission and Money: Understanding the University.

From Gender Forum, Jennifer Esposito and Bettina Love (GSU): The Black Lesbians are White and the Studs are Femmes: A Cultural Studies Analysis of "The L Word"; Magda Romanska (Emerson): Performing the Covenant: Akedah and the Origins of Masculinity; a review of Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS by Marc Epprecht; and a review of Deborah Clarke's Driving Women: Fiction and Automobile Culture in Twentieth-Century America. A review of Film, Politics & Education: Cinematic Pedagogy Across the Disciplines. Mrs. H.E. Wilson, mogul? The curious new history of an American literary original. From Bookforum, William Giraldi reviews Laish by Aharon Appelfeld. Research suggests that university students who download a podcast lecture achieve substantially higher exam results than those who attend the lecture in person. A review of The Art and Politics of Science by Harold Varmus (and an excerpt). Do those who demonstrated against Salman Rushdie have any regrets? An interview with Karen J. Greenberg, author of The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days. Is economic recovery even possible on a planet headed for environmental collapse? The Killing in Room 515: Three weeks after fatally stabbing his neighbor, Melvin Earl Parker is back in his apartment.

From Krisis, Albrecht Wellmer (FUB): Rereading Rorty; "the state is a limitation on human existence": An interview with Simon Critchley (and a review of Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance); Regina Kreide (Goethe): Power and Powerlessness of Human Rights: The International Discourse on Human Rights; Ernst van den Hemel (Amsterdam): Included but not Belonging: Badiou and Ranciere on Human Rights; a review of Lynn Hunt's Inventing Human Rights: A History; a review of Rainer Forst's Das Recht auf Rechtfertigung; and a review of Pheng Cheah's Inhuman Conditions: On Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights. From The University Bookman, error has no rights: A review of Orestes Brownson: American Religious Weathervane by Patrick W. Carey; the witness revisited: An article on Whittaker Chambers and American conservatism; a review of Powers of the Mind: The Reinvention of Liberal Learning in America by Donald N. Levine; and a review of Dante: The Poet, The Political Thinker, The Man by Barbara Reynolds. A review of The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power by David Sanger (and an interview). Center stage for the twenty-first century: Robert Kaplan on power plays in the Indian Ocean. Are social networking sites really infantilising our teenagers?