From The Economist, a special report on India. From Mute, copyleft in the current form keeps free software legally grounded – nothing more, but also nothing less. Obama's writing suggests a surprising lesson from Abraham Lincoln: Style matters. A review of books on happiness and wisdom through solitary living. An interview with Roland Huntford, author of Two Planks and a Passion: The dramatic history of skiing. Peter Berkowitz on how conservatives can unite around the Constitution. A review of Fakers: Hoaxers, Con Artists, Counterfeiters, and Other Great Pretenders by Paul Maliszewski. A review of Don’t Stop Believin’: How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life by Brian Raftery. What do Dubya, Blago, Bernie Madoff, and Roland Burris have in common? (Do you know the Spanish word "sinverguenza"?) A review of The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis by Maggie Black and Ben Fawcett. An evolving strategy: Rebuffed in the courtroom, critics of evolution head to the statehouse to see their views represented in the classroom. Absolutely sensational: A review of The Godfather of Tabloid: Generoso Pope Jr. and the National Enquirer by Jack Vitek and The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York by Patricia Cline Cohen, Timothy J. Gilfoyle, and Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz. 

From The Observer, a special report on the financial crisis: Reasons to be fearful. Iceland’s banking collapse is the biggest, relative to the size of an economy, that any country has ever suffered; there are lessons to be learnt beyond its shores. An interview with Eileen Myles, author of The Importance of Being Iceland. An uber language for the Zeitgeist: Seen from the other end of the dictionary the increasing use of German words in English is a surprise. I believe because it’s impossible: Memories lie because they build on memories; photographs lie more convincingly because they offer proof. Modern software has made manipulation of photographs easier to carry out and harder to uncover than ever before, but the technology also enables new methods of detecting doctored images. Twilight of the color photo: As printed snapshots vanish, we're losing more than shoe boxes full of mementos. Alan Brinkley on learning from FDR's mistakes. Here are the five rules that make college football great. With his reputation for romanticism and rambling and his love of gossip, Herodotus was dismissed by the serious thinkers of his day , yet his work is both entertaining and deeply moral. A review of Keith Yellin's Battle Exhortation: The Rhetoric of Combat Leadership. A review of Sex, Drugs & Chocolate: The Science of Pleasure by Paul Martin. More on Hubert's Freaks by Gregory Gibson.

From First Things, Richard John Neuhaus on causes beyond Left or Right; a review of The Nature of Biblical Criticism by John Barton; a review of The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer’s Odyssey by Edith Hall; a review of History Lesson: A Race Odyssey by Mary Lefkowitz; a review of Save the World on Your Own Time by Stanley Fish; and iPhones have consequences: More on Mark Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation. Of music, murder and shopping: It is time to turn to Darwin to explain human behaviour. From FT, a look at why 1958 changed our lives. Big Middle-Class Sister: We shouldn’t apologize for teaching poor kids how to move up in America. Here are surprising insights from the social sciences (and more). A review of The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange by Mark Barrowcliffe (and more). An article on 7 (stupid) people who sued the scientific method. The future is another country: A world of colleges without borders should benefit everyone, including students who stay at home. From Forward, no longer in power, free to talk, neocons seek to rewrite history. An interview with Guantanamo whistleblower Stephen Abraham (and part 2). A former MI6 agent, Alastair Crooke worked in varied trouble spots worldwide; now he has gone freelance as a go-between for the west and radical Islam’s political leaders. 

From First Principles, a symposium on contemporary conservatism (and part 2 and part 3). From New English Review, Theodore Dalrymple on Beauty and the Best; Nidra Poller on how peace is war by other means; and an essay on Jihad and the roots of Europe’s religious identity. An interview with Fr. James V. Schall on the openness of the Christian mind. An interview with Rev. Richard P. McBrien on life as a theologian, commentator — and lightning rod. An article on how to solve the Greek dispute over Macedonia's name. The Phosphorescent List: A modest invective against telling people what you want for Christmas. Sierra Leone and life on 70 cents a day: From a cradle of liberty to one of the poorest places on earth. An article on Panama's Darien Gap: The most dangerous (absence of a) road. The economic downturn is routinely billed as the most perilous since the Great Depression; what exactly does that mean? From The Economist, a special report on the sea, including a sea of troubles: Man is assaulting the oceans; they will smite him if he does not take care. A review of The Peculiar Life of Sundays by Stephen Miller. Why Obama really might decriminalize marijuana: The stoner community is clamoring to say it: "Yes we cannabis!" From The New York Times Magazine, a special issue on The Lives They Lived. Where aren't they now? 15 overlooked deaths of 2008.