Samuel Moyn (Columbia): From Antiwar Politics to Antitorture Politics. The end of cheap coffee: Why the diner staple is about to become a luxury. A review of Empire of Liberty: Power, Desire, and Freedom by Anthony Bogues. The sea causes some of our worst natural disasters — and the sea doesn't want us to forget it. John Quiggin on the erosion of the EU. How much do individuals matter in politics? Joshua Tucker on Kim Jong Il and Vaclav Havel. The geography of poverty: Carl Lee and Danny Dorling examine the reality of life in a society which surrounds those in poverty with commodities they can never afford to own. In recent times some have suggested that we have witnessed the rise of the "precariat" — Esme Choonara disagrees. An interview with Charles Fishman, author of The Big Thirst. From Ducts, all this happened, more or less. Why euphemism is integral to modern warfare: The arms trade relies on business-speak and foggy language. An interview with Peter Carruthers, author of The Opacity of Mind: An Integrative Theory of Self-Knowledge. A book salon on The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses by Paul Koudounaris (and more). Studies of plant perception help us understand what it means to be a plant, of course, but also what it means to be us. Patent trolls may have bled companies for half a trillion dollars in the past two decades, a new study finds — here’s how all that money disappeared. Julia Galef on how rationality can make your life more awesome. Libertarian economist Daniel B. Klein retracts a swipe at the left — after discovering that our political leanings leave us more biased than we think. The introduction to Against Massacre: Humanitarian Interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815-1914 by Davide Rodogno.
