From TNR, here's what you need to know about the Georgia crisis (and more). Fred Kaplan on the Bush administration's feckless response to the Russian invasion of Georgia. The United States of cheap beer: Salon brings you an incomplete, biased guide to this great piss-beer nation (and more on PBR). Wikipedians meet in Alexandria for its largest gathering ever in meatspace; James Gleick discusses its vast and growing army of ever-clashing editors. Word War III: How a 17-year-old negotiated an Iranian truce (on Wikipedia). Why do we have such a hard time hearing good news from Baghdad? Christopher Hitchens wants to know. The world's biggest boondoggles: A look at some infamous public works projects and what went wrong. A review of Fleeced by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann. Sex and the semicolon: An article on the punctuation mark that makes men tremble. Here are surprising insights from the social sciences. In contrast to the right, Joseph Stiglitz says, the left has a coherent agenda, and it’s one that offers not only higher growth, but also social justice. From Scientific American, a special section on the science of Star Wars. Heather Mac Donald on the NYPD diaspora: Former New York cops bring cutting-edge, effective policing to beleaguered communities. The death of planned obsolescence: Why today's gadgets keep getting better (at least until the battery dies).
