From The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik reviews books on Samuel Johnson (and more); policing Afghanistan: An ethnic-minority force enters a Taliban stronghold; an article on Naomi Klein and the new new left; the only compelling argument the automakers can make at this late date is that they will not suffer alone; and James Surowiecki on Obama’s economic team. From New York, of all the villains to emerge in the financial crisis, none has been quite so reviled as Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld. UFO enthusiasts call on Obama to release X-Files. He's not black: Unless the one-drop rule still applies, our president-elect is not black. The Hillary Clinton of private schools: Michael Schaffer on what Sidwell Friends says about the Obamas. The gloom that has fallen over the book publishing industry is different from the mood in, say, home building — at least people know we’ll always need houses. A genius guide: An excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers (and more). In the unlikely event that Gladwell is stuck for an idea for his next book, perhaps he could tackle the notion of the elastic limit. An article on the dumb, dumb world of Malcolm Gladwell: A guru for the brain dead. From Samar, the terror of the aftermath: As the smoke lifts from Mumbai, skepticism must prevail over those conjectures which support the official state narrative. An article on Tristan da Cunha, the most remote place on Earth.
