Boris Gershman (American): The Economic Origins of the Evil Eye Belief. Dilara Uskup (Chicago): The Damnation of Women, the Redemption of Black Folk. From Bad Subjects, a special issue on the political, social, and cultural aspects of craft and folk art. Liar liar pants on fire, political honesty: Sarang Shah on the importance of being truthy. Out of the deep: From Atlantis to Noah’s Ark, we have long been drawn to stories of submerged lands — what lies beneath the flood myths? Pakistan’s earthquake was so violent it created this new island in the Indian Ocean. From The New Criterion, Kenneth Minogue on the self-interested society: Societies are all imperfect, but self-interested societies fare far better than any of their counterparts; and William Logan is against aesthetics: Part of the burden of being a critic means that you should reject Aesthetic Statements. Can this couple work it out? Iain McGilchrist on science vs. humanities. Stephen G. Gilles and Nelson Lund on insurance as gun control: A liability insurance mandate for firearm owners may pass constitutional muster, but its effect on violent crime would be modest. The Brooklyn Quarterly blog is live. Could Occupy Wall Street fund a nonviolent militia with $1 million? Someone tell Ted Cruz the Obamacare War is over. Jacob Barnett, boy genius: Diagnosed with severe autism as a child, Barnett is now 15 and one of the world’s most promising physicists.
