From Contexts, an article on the annual rankings of universities and their programs. You think math gives you anxiety? A review of Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity by Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor and Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung by Arthur I. Miller (and more and more and more). A review of A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form by Paul Lockhart. Building a Temple to Math: Glen Whitney is on a quest to give the field of mathematics the museum it deserves. A review of Militant Modernism by Owen Hatherley. Gangs of D.C.: Power is sexy in the nation's capital. A review of Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown by Jennifer Scanlon (and more and more and more and more; and more from Bookforum). The age of expeditions is over: Times have moved on since the days of colonial exploration, and so should the way the Royal Geographical Society funds and organises its research. Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. Good and powerful ideas have a tendency to spread wildly and destructively; Alec Ryrie ponders the many ways Darwinism has been used and abused and feels just a bit queasy.

From Frontline, a special episode on the business of bribes. The debt threat at Reader's Digest: A $2 billion burden from its private-equity takeover has put the 87-year-old icon in a financial jam. A review of Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia by John Garrard and Carol Garrard. A review of Greed: Why We Can't Help Ourselves by Richard Girling. More and more and more on Richard Posner's A Failure of Capitalism. A review of Why Democracies Need an Unlovable Press by Michael Schudson. A review of What Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought by Keith E. Stanovich (and an interview). In Man vs. Virus, the win goes to the swift. When black people don't perform as well on standardized tests, what should be done? John McWhorter investigates. When bullying leads to suicide: Confining notions of how a black man should look and act can have dangerous consequences. Donna Seaman reviews The Girl with Brown Fur: Tales and Stories by Stacey Levine. Backstory: A look at why we love prequels. Dark Sugar: An article on the decline and fall of high-fructose corn syrup. Rather than asking “Is free will compatible with determinism?” we should be asking “Is free will compatible with what modern science tells us about the universe?”

From The Guardian, are there any causes you think you should be prepared to die for? A debate. 5 sexual taboos we’re so over: Why can’t society shake these played-out, painfully damaging sexual stereotypes? A Degree in English: In this modern age, the function of Latin on diplomas is to overawe, not delight. A review of Ten Moral Paradoxes by Saul Smilansky. A review of The Religious Case Against Belief by James P. Carse and A Secular Age by Charles Taylor. A review of The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West by Tom Holland (and more). Save the Presses: OK Internet, just try replacing newspapers in these situations. A review of The Crisis of Islamic Civilization by Ali A Allawi (and more). Magic and the brain: Teller reveals the neuroscience of illusion. It’s hard to look at the end of the Encarta experiment without the free and much larger Wikipedia springing immediately to mind. An excerpt from Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe by Gillian Tett. Are humans cruel to be kind? John Whitfield wonders. A review of Marketing Ethics by George G. Brenkert. A review of The Birthright Lottery: Citizenship and Global Inequality by Ayelet Shachar.

From National Geographic, a special report on The Global Food Crisis: The end of plenty. Life After People became the most-watched programme in the history of the History Channel — why? A review of The Long Life by Helen Small. A review of Stanley Cavell, Cora Diamond, John McDowell, Ian Hacking, and Cary Wolf's Philosophy and Animal Life and Stephen Mulhall's The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy. From TED, Sean Gourley on the mathematics of war. As the recession blows a gale, the world’s most expensive cruise ship nears completion. From JBooks.com, a review of Why Faith Matters by David J. Wolpe. A review of The People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story by Diana Butler Bass (and more). Ali Eteraz on how Pakistan is already an Islamic state. An interview with John Lewis, author of Nothing Less Than Victory: The Will to Fight and the Lessons of History. If we, as women, are destined by our biology to be in charge of the home kitchen, why are there so few of us in charge of the restaurant kitchen? How to land a rich man: Apparently the entire feminist movement was some sort of hoax. A review of Mill by Wendy Donner and Richard Fumerton. A review of The Ethics of Genetic Engineering by Roberta M. Berry.