From The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert reviews Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely and Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler. Can we teach people to be happy? Anthony Seldon and Frank Furedi debate. Halle Berry uses hair extensions, so does Angelina Jolie: Much of the hair they end up with comes from women who offer up their locks to Hindu gods in Indian temples. From Foreign Policy, the US Military Index surveys more than 3,400 active and retired officers at the highest levels of command about the state of the U.S. military — they see a force stretched dangerously thin and a country ill-prepared for the next fight; and was Fidel good for Cuba? A debate between Carlos Alberto Montaner and Ignacio Ramonet. Glenn Greenwald on Mark Steyn and the fun and excitement of civilization wars (fought from afar). An the winner is: Alan Wolfe on the coming religious peace. Which are the most popular conspiracy theories? Research suggests human culture is subject to natural selection, but that there's no easy answers in evolution of human language. Wired goes inside the bizarre world of Japanese pickup schools. On foreign policy, McCain's off his rocker, and the Dems should call him on it. Is PBS still necessary? From Edge, a conversation with Drew Endy on engineering biology.
