From New Scientist, a look at how warfare shaped human evolution. As a recession looms and junk profits boom, a study sheds new light on what makes us fat; the real enemy is corn. An interview with Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success (and more and more and more and more and more and more and an interview and an excerpt on why Asian children are better at maths). Jacob Weisberg on why Obama should fill his Cabinet with geniuses. From pickin’ cotton to pickin’ presidents: Strange Maps on the same segment of the southern US at different times but with a similar pattern. A review of X-Rated!: The Power of Mythic Symbolism in Popular Culture by Marcel Danesi. Cynthia Crossen on a book in need of a good editor. A review of From the Kitchen to the Parlor: Language and Becoming in African American Women’s Hair Care by Lanita Jacobs-Huey. From Dissent, in Puntin's Russia, many intellectuals have turned toward a new emotionalism — one that has "rejected the worst aspects of postmodernism". From Salon, Walter Shapiro talks to Bill Ayers, the ex-Weather Underground member turned Republican talking point. A threat to its reputation for erudition: National Review faces the twin challenges of re-energizing the conservative movement while trying to stay relevant. Harold Meyerson writes to Roger Ailes: "I'm writing to apologize".
