Eric Bain-Selbo (WKU): The Politics of the Romanticization of Popular Culture, or, Going Ga-Ga Over Pop Culture: A Critical Theory Assessment.
From Harvard Business Review, an article on Gillette's strange history with the razor and blade strategy; a look at why companies should insist that employees take naps; and if you're a caring and empathic guy, but you've noticed that you're a lot more likely to come home from work with a headache than a promotion, chances are you've been banging into a glass ceiling—the same glass ceiling that stops women from rising to the C suite.
A review of the current state of the field of the Evolution of Colour Categories, and some lovely renditions of the humble color wheel. What is there to say in the face of color, a visual phenomenon that so often seems to elude linguistic expression? A lot, it turns out, in the right hands, especially when approached by slant, ambush, or asymptote—the following six books make such an approach. What colors do Internet companies prefer for their logos? You might assume that they run the spectrum equally, but you’d be wrong. Why pink?, asks Ophelia Deroy, who then explains why color matters. New research finds that how we feel about a color depends on our relationship with that particular shade.
Today, a principal tenet of geology is that a vast majority of the world’s oil arose not from lumbering beasts on land but tiny organisms at sea. An article on Nigeria as the oil pollution capital of the world. Mud and butterflies: Why do Swallowtails and Sulphurs swarm Alberta’s oil rigs? From the Center on Contemporary Conflict, James E. McGinley's "Oil and Conflict: Fatal Attraction? A Correlational Examination of Oil Resources and Armed Conflict." Journey to Extreme Oil: Big Oil's future lies in such forbidding places as Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East. The Gulf at the gas station: Can we calculate the true cost of our dependence on oil? How to ruin OPEC's birthday: The Middle Eastern oil cartel celebrates its 50th anniversary—here's how to keep it from running our lives for another half-century. When people think of OPEC, thoughts of rich Middle Eastern oil sheiks in robes immediately come to mind—but how accurate is that picture? A. F. Alhajji on an inconvenient truth about OPEC. Why are we still prospecting for oil when we can’t afford to use existing reserves? George Monbiot wants to know.
From The Boston Globe, an article on Marty Peretz and his unique place at the nexus of academe, media, and politics.
