A new issue of Journal of Social History is out. Why recent bad economic news means it’s time for working less. The case for not-quite-so-high-speed rail: The bad news is that Republicans have torpedoed plans for American bullet trains — the good news is that the Obama administration is quietly building a slower, but potentially much better, rail system. The Utopian inaugurates a series of utopias, written by today’s most interesting philosophers, social scientists, politicians and writers — first up is Alastair Campbell. “It’s too bad. And I don’t mean it’s too bad like 'screw ’em'": Embattled Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein just can’t understand how he got cast as the Dr. Evil of Wall Street. What motivates extremists? Eric Hoffer's 168-page classic The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements has some answers. Paul Boghossian on the maze of moral relativism: Why rejecting the idea of right and wrong is more difficult than it seems. James Surowiecki on why we don’t need a debt ceiling (and more by Felix Salmon). A look at how the killings in Norway spotlight anti-Muslim thought in the US. Offense taken: The left-right political split is an instantiation of the split between idealism and realism, that has coalesced into a contrast — a false, absolute, contrast — between thought and action. From Skeptic, a review of Paranormality: Why We See What Isn’t There by Richard Wiseman; skepticism’s oldest debate: Daniel Loxton on a prehistory of “DBAD”, 1838–2010; and an attempted ambush interview turns into a lesson in patternicity and numerology. Stunt Amendment: The Balanced Budget Amendment shows Republicans to be more interested in politics than policy (and more). This American Life on Intellectual Ventures and the war over software patents.
