From the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Thomas Kalinowski (Ewha Womans): Regulating International Finance and the Evolving Imbalance of Capitalisms since the 1970s; and Fritz W. Scharpf (Max Planck): Monetary Union, Fiscal Crisis and the Preemption of Democracy. From Mute, in the elegant and obscure Letters Journal, an anonymous collective traverses the black hole of nihilism to elude capitalism's all-encompassing ability to swallow resistance; placing the cross-hair of analysis over the postmodern notion that everything is language, Speculative Realism is a philosophy that instead considers the relations between objects; and thanks to the pervasive logic of cybernetics and the planetary roll-out of digital networks, feedback has come to determine the behaviour of post-war capitalism and culture — Benedict Seymour considers the uncomfortable parallels between the avant-garde and post-Fordist harnessing of "free inputs" within networks of production. A review of Worst Ideas Ever: A Celebration of Embarrassment by Daniel B. Kline and Jason Tomaszewski. Too young to wed: Cynthia Gorney on the secret world of child brides. The Tale of the Big Computer: From 1966 Stockholm to 2011 New York City and into possible futures — a vision and an investigation. From the Annals of Improbable Research, here is a first-hand reportage of Altman’s orgasm. Does health coverage make people healthier? Sometimes, less is more: A growing movement among US healthcare professionals is arguing that medical treatment can cause more harm than good. Actually, we have too much health insurance. A look at why scientists and journalists don’t always play well together. The Beauty of Maps: What cartographic creativity has to do with the limitations of copyright law.
