Niva Elkin-Koren (Haifa): The Changing Nature of Books and the Uneasy Case for Copyright. From Pathways, economic divisions and political polarization in Red and Blue America: To hear pundits tell it, the well-to-do are increasingly likely to "vote blue" — Andrew Gelman examines the data and finds it just ain't so; and taxing the poor: Katherine S. Newman and Rourke L. O'Brien show that many Southern states are making poverty worse because of their regressive tax policies; Esra Burak talks with Maurice Lim, head of the Family Independence Initiative, about his radically different approach to helping families achieve self-sufficiency. Porn is here to stay, so we would do well to make it better, rather than waste time trying to make it disappear — this is true of both the content and, importantly, the marketing of porn. A review of The Political Thought of Xenophon. More and more on John J. Mearsheimer's Why Leaders Lie. Dana Milbank on Hurricane Irene and the benefits of Big Government. We can't teach students to love reading: The idea that many teachers hold today, that one of the purposes of education is to do just that, is largely alien to the history of education (and a response). Mental abacus does away with words: The technique used by some to do complex mental calculations seems to free mathematics from its dependence on language. While saving the world’s threatened languages may seem informed more by nostalgia than need, federally funded researchers say each tongue may include unique concepts with practical value. The introduction to How Many Languages Do We Need? The Economics of Linguistic Diversity by Victor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber. Growing numbers of children take up musical instruments — but do they get a step up in life, or does relentless practising put youngsters off music for ever?
