Rashmi Dyal-Chand (Northeastern): Useless Property. Norman Williams (Willamette): Reforming the Electoral College: Federalism, Majoritarianism, and the Perils of Sub-Constitutional Change. From n+1, we possess ever vaster quantities of mostly accurate facts, and not much sense of what to do with them — data data everywhere, and not a thought to think! Outside of a hedge fund or the CIA, there aren’t too many places where knowledge is power — much of the time, intellectually and politically, knowledge is powerlessness. From Vanity Fair, of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%: Joseph Stiglitz on how Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few — yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income, an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret. Spillovers from the Arab Revolts: Is Armenia next in line? The odd challenge for Detroit planners: City planners usually work on overseeing growth, but not in Detroit, where the population is declining. George Scialabba reviews Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq by John Dower. Geocurrents on the Economist’s “Shoe-Thrower’s Index” — a success? James Warren on the potentially revolutionary political role of fried chicken. From the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Charles Perrow on Fukushima, risk, and probability: Expect the unexpected. A government shutdown can mean a host of changes for the country, from a shuttered Smithsonian to an Internal Revenue Service that stops issuing refund checks. Bruce Grant is charmed and provoked by two posthumous books by British historian Tony Judt. The Link is Broken: An interview with globalisation expert David Held on the future of social justice.
