From The Nation, two writers explore the perversion of our collective imagination and the ways that science and myth shape our understanding of spirituality: A review of Phantasmagoria by Marina Warner and Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination by Daniel B. Smith. An interview with Taner Edis, author of An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam. The introduction to The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook. The first chapter from A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel by Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal. How to write the best novel in the world, ever: First, you must believe you are the best writer in the world ... And then vanquish the green-eyed monster, status envy. The sweet taste of trash lit: Sometimes, you can't help yourself. It might be rubbish, but you just can't put it down.
A review of The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media by Paul Gillin. Changing the Terms of Debate: Seven people with experience in both new media and old answer the question: What would a real new-media debate look like? The $23 Million Boa: Despite her huge payday, Mediabistro mastermind Laurel Touby still stands outside the press-gang elite. From The New York Observer, how does Perez Hilton, a.k.a. Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., deal with the criticism of his bitchy eponymous gossip Web site? Customer Feedback 2.0 — Notes from Britannica’s electronic mailbag: "Your method is hard to understand. It is made by Geeks for Geeks". Take note: bloggers will change the world, and have already begun to do so.
Second Life's Real-World Problems: As this virtual colony grows, lawyers, tax men and troublemakers are crashing the party. Making Money in Second Life: Linden Lab's CFO John Zdanowski explains how the economy works in the virtual community. Virtual Depravity: How desperate are Second Life's cyber-lechers for a digital get-down? Radar investigates. The virtual generation: They are the most tech-savvy generation, finding expression and identity entwined in the real and virtual worlds. Jo Chandler steps into teenagers' symbiotic universes. Lifehacker 2.0: Millions of people are embracing the idea that life is as easily and productively modifiable as a Dell computer. A review of Core Memory: A Visual History of Vintage Computers by John Alderman.
