From Sign and Sight, most texts which accompany contemporary art production are so twisted and woolly that they could easily pass for self-parody — Christian Demand takes up a three hundred year old lament. To what culture does the concept of “cultural property” belong? Edward Rothstein investigates. Why John McCain’s poor academic record may be one of his strongest political assets (and more). The word "elite", once an accolade, has turned poisonous in American public life, as both the left and the right have twisted it into a code word meaning "not one of us". As a new study shows, at critical times our politicians' ability to take decisions has been seriously compromised — and then covered up. Is the ferocity of criticism for Henry Kissinger related to the fact that he is Jewish?, asks Niall Ferguson. Could methane trigger a climate doomsday within a human lifespan? Nick Poppy reviews A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry by Sharon Weinberger and Nathan Hodge. From Words Without Borders, a special issue on the global gourmet. From Prospect, most of the charges levelled against modern video games—that they stunt minds and spark addiction—are based on an outdated understanding of what gamers do when they sit down to play. From Radar, Paige Ferrari writes in defense of "Sex and the City" (and more on its classical allusions).