From GeoCurrents, Martin W. Lewis, Jake Coolidge, and Anne Fredell on the Demic Atlas Project: Toward a Non-State-Based Approach to Mapping Global Economic and Social Development. From Bookforum.com, Aaron Lake Smith on a dispatch from a dying Borders. To mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, The Chronicle Review asked a group of influential thinkers to reflect on some of the themes that were raised by those events and to meditate on their meaning, then and now. How Obama disappointed the world: As America's first black president, Barack Obama electrified an entire nation — but now that the nation is in crisis, he seems unable to connect with the people. Obama’s era of decline: Faced with a frightening national debt and deep Tea Party–driven divisions over taxes and entitlements, Obama will be defined by how he manages a new era of decline — and whether he can change the GOP. Peter Orszag on four ways Congress can upgrade our credit rating. Felix Salmon on the difference between S&P and Moody’s. Ezra Klein interviews Joseph Gagnon on what the Fed should do. Do austerity measures increase the risk of social chaos? Henry Farrell investigates. If we can’t afford those or if we become sick of strictly being that hassle to others, then looting works just as well as an expression of our own right to not give a shit about others — if purchasing power represents freedom, so then can looting. Why we need library rental fees: It's time to bring a beloved institution into the 21st century. Dangerous worlds: Ann Snitow on teaching film in prison. Chew, if you will, on Nicola Twilley’s disquisition on the problems caused by and ensuing from the proper (and also some improper) uses of chewing gum. Serious question: Did prehistory humans also draw dicks on things?
