From TED, Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for "practical wisdom" as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy; beyond the crisis, mindboggling science and the arrival of Homo evolutis; Jill Tarter on why the search for alien intelligence matters. Orlando Figes' The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia is the latest victim of the Kremlin’s attempts to rehabilitate the Soviet Union. With the birth of Nadya Suleman's octuplets, we confront the virtues of motherhood, the ethics of fertility clinics and the myths we still concoct about childless women's worth. What invasive species are trying to tell us: Walking snakeheads, carnivorous snails, and the superpredator from the reef — the invasion has begun. An interview with Martin Jacques, former editor of Marxism Today. After spending half a century in an enclosed order, the former abbess of Stanbrook has just taken a year out at art school in East London.  An excerpt from The Sheikh’s Batmobile: In Pursuit of American Pop Culture in the Muslim World by Richard Poplak. Financial types say pay caps might spur the smartest bankers to jump ship, but there are few places to go. No hay mujeres: An article on Latin American women and gender equality. To practising physicists, the great equations of physics might seem obvious, logical and trivial — but to their discoverers that was far from true.

From Harvard Magzine, the Internet, by allowing like-minded individuals to self-segregate, has had a polarizing effect on democracy, suggests Cass Sunstein; Theda Skocpol and Suzanne Mettler on the crisis in access to higher education, and a strategy for moving beyond elite handouts for the lucky few; and a review of On Deep History and the Brain by Daniel Smail. From Bookforum, Joseph Donahue reviews The Veiled Suite: The Collected Poems by Agha Shahid Ali. A review of Richard Bourne's Lula of Brazil: The Story So Far. Roger Scruton on the defense of the West: How to respond to the Islamist challenge. The North Worth Saving: We need a paradigm shift in the West that would pave the way for a genuine Northern Alliance of Russia, Europe, and North America. From Dissent, Rafael Khachaturian on the specter of Russian nationalism. From The Nation, here's a taxonomy of Russian criminal tattoos. From Eat the State!, an interview with Paul Krassner, a would-be Dude from "The Big Lebowski" if The Dude had done something with his life (and more). From The Guardian, here's a history of the smiley face symbol, feelgood corporate logo, acid house icon and txt msg emoticon. A review of Remembering Our Childhood: How Memory Betrays Us by Karl Sabbagh. From Triple Canopy, an essay on the crisis of authenticity in the age of immanent tinkering.

From Three Monkeys Online, an interview with Chris Carlsson, author of Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant–Lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today!; an interview with John Tosh, author of Why History Matters; and Lady Chatterley's defendant: An article on Allen Lane and the paperback revolution. How much would you pay to save the planet? An article on the American press and the economics of climate change (and more). Life's Work: The surprising pleasure of the annual Social Security statement. Neanderthal rights: Ronald Bailey on the morality of resurrecting our closest evolutionary cousins. From Salon, why are we so nuts about our pets? Why bonding with animals isn't embarrassing, it's natural; and has pet ownership itself become an unaffordable luxury? Multiculturalism and diversity: A reply to Kenan Malik's "Mistaken Identity". Scheming, bribing, brown-nosing — parents of toddlers and teens alike confess the absurd measures they’ve taken to get their kids an elite early education. High seas ditherers: Conservatives who oppose the Law of the Sea treaty only help their own worst enemies. The story of Spice: The first synthetic cannabis-type drug is being offered for sale in high street ‘head shops. An interview with Nicholas L. Syrett, author of The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities.

Margarita Mauri (Barcelona): Iris Murdoch on Virtue. From The Washington Monthly, no return to normal: James K. Galbraith on why the economic crisis, and its solution, are bigger than you think. Does America face the risk of a fascist backlash? In Robert Crumb's world, everything appears tantalizingly available, all options are on the table, all bets are off (and from Bookforum, a review of David Kunzle’s Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Topffer and Rodolphe Topffer: The Complete Comic Strips). Divided we stand: An article on the problem with bipartisanship. What constitutes "kinky" is in the eye of the beholder: A review of The Other Side of Desire: Four Journeys Into the Far Realms of Lust and Longing by Daniel Bergner. A review of How 2 Take an Exam & Remake the World by Bertell Ollman. In our mile-a-minute society, many students rely on the magic of amphetamines to keep up with their studies — are they ultracompetitive alpha dogs, or mere cheaters? A review of Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative by Priscilla Wald. The science of murder: Someone killed Melissa Trotter and dumped her body in the Sam Houston National Forest, but according to six forensic experts, that someone was not Larry Swearingen. A review of The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers. An interview with Walden Bello on the World Social Forum.