From Vanity Fair, the media criticisms of Barack Obama’s style — too cool, too detached, too professorial — echo past complaints about another young president, John F. Kennedy, but though a sound-bite-hungry punditocracy craves Oval Office theatrics, the rest of America may not care. A new "superbug" has surfaced that has the potential to make even the most minor infections untreatable — how worried should you be? Nuclear fall in: John Horgan on why he's becoming a pro-nuke nut. The new morning-after pill: Is Ella birth control or abortion? Novel Ideas: Statesmen once looked to great works of literature to help them understand the world — no longer (and a review of Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order by Charles Hill). From Wishtank Edu, Paul Grobstein on Diversity and Deviance: A biological perspective; Garrett Heany on The Chess Analogy: Positional decision making in a changing world; and an interview with The Yes Men. How much is enough? Lawrence Wittner on America's runaway military spending. South America gave up its dictator habit two decades ago, which is why the inauguration of Suriname's President-elect, former dictator Desi Bouterse, is raising tropical concerns. From Big Think, Michael Stone explains his scale of evil. What has become of genius? In the early 21st century, talent appears to be on the increase, genius on the decrease. Have editors and writers always hated each other?
