A new issue of the Caucasian Review of International Affairs is out. An interview with Nigar Hasan-Zadeh on books on Azerbaijan. A review of A Little War That Shook the World: Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West by Ronald Asmus. Panic in Georgia after a mock news broadcast (and more). Chronicles of a Soviet Capitalist: Twenty years later, Georgian writer Irakli Iosebashvili recalls the pursuit of money in the years immediately after the Iron Curtain came down (and part 2). Post-Soviet integration: Sergei Markedonov assesses the performance of the Commonwealth of Independent States (and part 2). Christopher Marsh and Nikolas K. Gvosdev on the persistence of Eurasia. An article on the evolution of Russia, as seen from McDonald’s. From FP, an artile on Dagestan, Russia's most overlooked hot spot. A fairy tale of the Soviet monolith: Ex-Soviets confuse the memory of their innocent youth for their nation's utopian vision. Perestroika Lost: Mikhail Gobachev on how Russia must regain the freedoms lost over the last 25 years to “shock therapy” and the iron grip of Russian leaders who opted for a more radical version of reform. The Russian Navy revitalized: Moscow will use sea power in its quest for greater world influence. From LRB, Keith Gessen reviews The Quality of Freedom: Khodorkovsky, Putin and the Yukos Affair by Richard Sakwa. Maxim Trudolyubov on Russia's new media paradox. Who is Russia's top intellectual? Throughout Russian and Soviet history, the intellectual has played a central and hugely influential role in society — today, that has changed. From THES, a review of Zhivago's Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia by Vladislav Zubok (and more). A review of Stalin in Russian Satire, 1917-1991 by Karen L. Ryan. An interview with Ian Christie on books on Russian cinema.
From FT, lessons from the collapse of Bear Stearns: Never again will bankers be able to argue that what is good for Citigroup is good for America, or what is good for RBS is good for the UK; and the truth about speculators — they are doing God’s work: Speculation is to financial markets what claptrap is to the political system, absolutely crucial. What if?: The book gives way to the download, and solitary reading transforms into virtual conversations. Benjamin Kunkel remembers Giovanni Arrighi. Girls Just Want to Have Fun: An article on polyandry in Malaysia. Can't Wait 'Til Tax Day: It's a heretical thought, but would people pay more taxes if they could designate where a portion of their money went? Life returns to an eerie Chernobyl: In the radioactive realm at ground zero of history's worst nuclear disaster, nature reclaims its territory — and a few defiant old folks are calling it home again (and part 2). Library of Congress curator Mark Dimunation is on a worldwide mission to find exact copies of the books that belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Reconstructing a Lost Library: George Wythe’s "legacie" to President Thomas Jefferson. From JASSS, reviews of books on networks and complexity. Not tonight, honey: An excerpt from Sexy Orchids Make Lousy Lovers & Other Unusual Relationships by Marty Crump. Hampton Stevens on the short and brutal life of a Nascar engine. Smart debt, dumb debt: Because we never face up to how much we need government to do, there is a pathetic quality to our discussion of big deficits. It's not our debt that's unsustainable, it's our politics. Luc Foisneau on the French philosophers eclipsed by rationalism. Algebra in Wonderland: The other-worldly events in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland can be interpreted as satire on 19th-century advances in mathematics (and more).
From Human Life Review, an essay on Abortion: Conscience, Crisis, and the Church. The right to hate Angie Jackson's choice: An abortion-rights pioneer (who was excommunicated by the Catholic Church) says this isn't what she fought for (and more). Former Bryan Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson’s abrupt change from pro-choice activist to pro-life spokesperson turned her into a talk show sensation — but is her story true? Hitler as a "pro-life" poster child: Activists in Poland equate terminating a pregnancy with Nazism. "Abortion changes you": A dishonest antiabortion campaign premieres in New York City's subway. The film Maafa 21, which anti-abortion activists are screening to black audiences across the country, tries to link reproductive rights to eugenics — but it’s wrong. Controversial Georgia billboard campaign links abortion to race, says black children "endangered". From Slate, William Saletan and on the selective crusade against black women's abortions and on the pro-life case for pregnancy termination. Beyond Privacy: Reproductive rights advocates are fighting state-level abortion restrictions with creative litigation — and winning. The trouble with protesting the Tim Tebow ad: all most people see is pro-choicers trying to shut up a brave mother and her son. Why do male pro-lifers speak their minds while pro-choice guys stay silent? A review of Dispatches From the Abortion Wars by Carole Joffe. By Representative Bart Stupak's logic, the government is "subsidizing abortion" by building roads, developing medicine and providing childcare. Why Stupak is wrong: The Senate bill doesn't fund abortions — here's why he thinks it does. A brain scanning technology called MEG is being used to track the function of unborn babies' brains as they grow inside the womb until after they've been born.
Stefan Huster (RUB): Cognitive Limits and the Beginning of Life: An Objection against the Identity Argument. From Forward, Devra Ferst on how Curious George fought the Nazis; and Tuli Kupferberg is Yiddish-speaking 60’s rebel, an unrepentant anarcho-pacifist at 86. Rule of Law, Misrule of Men: Elaine Scarry on why we must prosecute Bush administration officials. Horse power: A review of Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814 by Dominic Lieven (and more). Nicole Rudick reviews Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic. Jonathan Rauch on the decline of a parent: Millions of middle-aged Americans are silently struggling to cope with a crisis that needs to be plucked from the realm of the personal and brought into full public view. Literary history is littered with old friends like Anna Ford and Martin Amis feuding by letter. With their afternoon tea, brogue accents, and fields of diddle-dee, just who do the Falklands Islanders think they are? Fantastic Man has been hugely influential on the men’s magazine market — can its new sister The Gentlewoman have a similar effect? An interview with Nancy Abelmann, author of The Intimate University: Korean American Students and the Problems of Segregation. A review of The Cultural Capital of Asian American Studies: Autonomy and Representation in the University by Mark Chiang (and more). The History of the Honey Trap: Five lessons for would-be James Bonds and Bond girls — and the men and women who would resist them. The Venus Project is a future design for humanity and the Planet Earth that rests on the foundations of compassion, freedom, unbridled technological innovation, education and the transition from a monetary-based economy and into a resource-based one.
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From The Space Review, Jeff Foust on the exoplanet explosion. Looking for life in the shadows: The search for a second Earth gets serious. The first chapter from How to Find a Habitable Planet by James Kasting. At a Cambridge alien conference, scientists warn of an invisible Earth and hostile ETs. What if the aliens decide they don’t like us? Hello ET, we come in peace: The advantages of advertising our existence to the universe outweigh the risks. Do you speak alien? Stephen Battersby on exolanguage. What aliens really look like: Portrait gallerys of the most common Alien sightings around the world. Extraterrestial Ethics: What obligations do we owe to the various life forms we send there, or those we might discover? According to Michael Mautner, Research Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University, seeding the universe with life is not just an option, it’s our moral obligation. What aliens look like: Will they be super-smart predators, glass-veined acid-dwellers or giant microbial blobs? A look at why extra-terrestrials are likely to possess human foibles such as greed, violence and a tendency to exploit others' resources. From the National Catholic Reporter, the Truth is out there; extraterrestrials, probably not (and a response). Aliens can't hear us: Fainter broadcasting signals and digital switchover mean Earth will soon be undetectable to extraterrestrials. As SETI approaches its 50th anniversary, three books tackle the question of why we have not yet found evidence of alien intelligence. The man who'll welcome aliens: Jon Ronson meets Paul Davies, the scientist with an awesome responsibility. A review of The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone In The Universe? by Paul Davies (and more).
A new issue of Economic Sociology is out. David M. Levy (CSPC) and Sandra J. Peart (Jepson): Economists, Crises and Cartoons. From the latest issue of Regulation, Richard B. McKenzie writes In Defense of Monopoly: Market power fosters creative destruction; and Richard A. Epstein on Takings Law Made Hard: A novel property rights challenge is a constitutional morass. America's Nastiest CEO: Think business journalists are too timid? Look what happens when you go after a struggling firm. An excerpt from The Devil’s Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers by Vicky Ward. Seth Hettena reviews The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (and more and more and more and more and more). A look at 5 economic collapses more ridiculous than this one. Will the Senate keep subsidizing Wall Street to the tune of billions of dollars a year? James Surowiecki on private equity’s egregious tax loophole. From The New Yorker, Larissa MacFarquhar on how Paul Krugman found politics. A review of The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism by Joyce Appleby (and more and more). The fable of market meritocracy: Markets don't reward smart people — they reward value. How far would you go for 5 cents? Charging a nickel for every bag at the grocery store has created "a behavioral economist's dream". The first chapter form The Calculus of Selfishness by Karl Sigmund. Financial crises always spark interest in marginal critics of the system; one that’s attracted interest on the left is Ellen Brown, who’s got a book and a website called Web of Debt (and part 2). The success of the stimulus bill is noteworthy as another is weighed. Richard Posner on the real danger of debt: The United States is deep in the red — and doesn't have the political tools to get out.
From the inaugural issue of The Evolutionary Review, Brian Boyd on the origins of comics. From New Scientist, beyond torture: A special section on the future of interrogation. It seems that what our present day plight calls for is not so much a Robber Baron revival as a new golden age of muckraking. Louis Hartz was wrong: While we did not inherit a European feudalism, we have made an American one. Was structuralism, the big idea of Claude Levi-Strauss, more cult than science? Apostolos Doxiadis, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna — the team behind the bestselling graphic novel Logicomix — investigate. Underwear as Outerwear: Women have been flaunting their underwear for so long now we raise nary an eyebrow at the sighting of a g-string; but men were displaying their undies long before women even raised their hemlines. It’s tempting, in surveying the history of podiatry, to focus only on the grandeur. The Age of Concrete: Tall structures like Dubai’s Burj Khalifa provide remarkable insights about the aspirations of the societies that created them. Responsibility for the illegal brutality inflicted on CIA and Guantanamo detainees cannot be limited to Yoo and Bybee; the essential lesson must be that torture and cruel treatment are not policy options — even when a lawyer is willing to write an opinion blessing illegality. From Moment, an article on the true story of Jews and Freemasons. If you can’t move your face, can you still act with it? How plastic surgery has caused acting to be more stilted, stylized, and masklike. Leon Wieseltier is in search of the sublime in Washington, D.C. Is the pope his brother's keeper? Benedict XVI reeling from fallout of a growing priest abuse scandal in Germany that involves his brother.
From The New Yorker, Timothy Geithner’s financial plan is working — and making him very unpopular. Is Geithner a courageous public servant doing the right thing, or have his years as a player in global finance made him loath to change an industry that needs fundamental reform? From The New York Times Magazine, Rahm Emmanuel was chosen as White House chief of staff because he could make things happen — what happened? (and more and more at The Washington Post and more at The New Yorker and more at The New Republic). Mark Schmitt on the case against the case against Rahm. Rahm Emanuel can thank the president for the attention he's getting. Unready for his close-up? Rahm Emanuel does not — repeat: does not — control the media. From Democracy, a special section on "The Liberal Moment: What Happened?", with contributions by Michael Sandel, Danielle Allen, William Galston, Martha Nussbaum and more. When Democrats take power, paranoia blooms: Ignorant, frightened people are notoriously easy to fool — enter Glenn Beck (the new Abbie Hoffman) and a host of other fast-talkers. No, we’re not a broken people: How to overcome an acute sense of defeatism. Kim R. Holmes (Heritage): Beware Our Rousseauian Imaginer in Chief. David Brooks on how Barack Obama never has been what political partisans make him out to be. Hate Sells: Matt Pressman on why liberal magazines are suffering under Obama. Beyond pale, male and stale: Why legacy progressive media must reinvent themselves to remain relevant. A review of The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President by Taylor Branch. More and more and more and more and more and more on Ken Gormley's The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr.
Eric Lawrence, John Sides, and Henry Farrell (GWU): Self-Segregation or Deliberation? Blog Readership, Participation, and Polarization in American Politics. A snake had just slithered into a sauropod's nesting ground, looking for dinner, but a sudden landslide enveloped and killed all involved, as stunning fossils show. Lawyers, Terror & Torture: Liz Cheney's witch hunt against lawyers who represented Guantanamo detainees is a new low. The rock star professor: Who is Farish Noor, this man who gives attention-grabbing quotes on controversial subjects and writes books that make politicians sit up and take notice? Greek Mess, Global Mess: The blame game over Greece's crisis misses the bigger problem — what is happening is a world-wide game of chicken. Ulysses S. Grant deserves his spot on the $50 bill and among our greatest presidents. Dirty tricks of the egg and sperm race: You might think the battle of the sexes is over once mating occurs — but it's just shifted to a new, microscopic arena. An ongoing battle between Rupert Murdoch, Silvio Berlusconi and Muammar al-Gaddafi involves adult television programming, an ultraviolent war film, and lots of money and bitterness flying around. From GQ, Hello, America: An interview with Rielle Hunter. Too much practice: William H. Willimon has second thoughts on a theological movement. The Liveliest Mind in New York: Tony Judt’s dazzling, cantankerous brain is one of New York’s great treasures — now, two years into a devastating battle with ALS, it is all he has left (and his latest at NYRB: Girls! Girls! Girls!). The Penguin story is a great publishing story but its latest campaign is less a celebration of a world-changing event and more a part of the ongoing battle for market share among the major publishers.
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From Antiquity, a review essay on human origins, a not so modest affair. Studies of hominid fossils, like 4.4-million-year-old "Ardi," are changing ideas about human origins. An independent team has found that Darwinius masillae, hyped last year as the eighth wonder of the world, is not our ancestor. A look at how DNA evidence tells "global story" of human history. From Scientific American, a panel of scientists challenges what it is to be distinctly human and retraces the evolutionary steps that bipedal apes made to attain human traits; research suggests early humans used brain power, innovation and teamwork to dominate the planet; and what can past climate change reveal about human adaptation? An interview with Rick Potts, the Smithsonian anthropologist who turned heads in scientific circles when he proposed that climate change was the driving force in human evolution. Human culture, an evolutionary force: Biologists are finding evidence that culture has been interacting with genes to shape human evolution. Move Over Darwin: Rachel Armstrong on systems evolution and bio feminism. Eric Michael Johnson (UBC): Deconstructing Social Darwinism. Cachet of the Cutthroat: Social Darwinism isn't only morally wrong; it doesn't even perform the function it claims to perform — fostering real competition. From RSA Journal, Franz de Waal on how bad biology killed the economy: An unnatural culture of greed and fear has brought the global economy to its knees — we need to start playing to our pro-social strengths (and Edward Dolnick reviews The Age of Empathy by Frans de Waal; and more and more); and David Sloan Wilson on policymaking the Darwinist way: We need to shed our prehistoric policymaking practices and turn to evolution for guidance.