A new issue of The Futurist is out. Otto F. Von Feigenblatt (Nova Southeastern): Forgiveness and Culture: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue. Li Wei (HET): The Functions and Use of Greetings. Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. Tyranny of the alphabet: A new study explores how your last name influences how fast you buy stuff. Monica L. Smith on her book A Prehistory of Ordinary People. If heaven is more than harps and halos, what is it? Prison Economics: Ben Paynter on how fish and coffee become cash. Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code: Is the apparent randomness of the scratch ticket just a facade, a mathematical lie? A review of How To Write A Sentence: And How To Read One by Stanley Fish. What's popular with one group can go virtually unnoticed by another — how we came to live in "a culture of many cultures". What do your shoes say about you? More than you think — they hint at your class, job, where you live and even how you spend your leisure time. A review of Eurocentrism by Samir Amin. Are we hard-wired to continuously connect? Justin Bieber found teenybop perfection with an insolent naturalness, a shimmer of religious transcendence, and a mastery of social media — can he make the moment last? Joshua Cooper Ramo argues that in an era defined by instability, society must remain imminently flexible and turn disruption into a force for good. Can the Fernando Valley Racing Pigeon Club reverse their sport's decline? Ideas of the Century: Bhikhu Parekh on cultural pluralism. Long regarded as lowly “dirt,” soil is gaining attention as a vital natural resource. A review of A-hole-ol-o-gy: The Cheat Sheet by Chris Illuminati. Know how you worry about what to do if you’re about to be attacked by a crocodile in the afterlife?
