In a provocative new study, a pair of Nobel prize-winning economists, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, urge the adoption of new assessment tools that incorporate a broader concern for human welfare than just economic growth (and more and more). Measuring what matters: Man does not live by GDP alone, and new report urges statisticians to capture what people do live by. Do not discount what you cannot measure: Bogus measures add nothing to our understanding — they attempt to compress complex problems and analyses into single observations. GDP is not the be-all and end-all of our existence; it talks of value added to economies but has little to say about anything else. The cult of GDP: Economists search for a new definition of well-being; and just how important is growth to an economy, and does it actually make people any happier? Gross Domestic Happiness: Why the French want to redefine economic growth. This is the greatest good: We have only one true yardstick with which to measure society's progress — happiness. A review of The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being by Daniel M. Haybron. Are we really so miserable?: Antidepressant use has doubled, and anxiety is at a troubling high. Blame TV, Big Pharma — and possibly yourself. Getting better at life: How much self-criticism is too much? What are the qualities which really help people cope when times are hard, and which would you wish for a grandchild? A review of You Are Really Rich, You Just Don’t Know It Yet by Steve Henry.

A new issue of Open Letters Monthly is out. From FDR to Barack Obama, James Morone’s revelatory history of presidents and healthcare policy lays out some basic rules. No Exit: Michelle Cottle on the never-ending lunacy of Betsy McCaughey. From Baghdad — frightening reports of gay pogroms, where homosexual men are targeted, tortured, slayed; from New York — a scurry to find those same men before they are killed, and shepherd them to safety. Jack Shafer on how Conde Nast is like General Motors. The Polanski case and a Gallic shrug: In France, which worships a privileged class of aesthetes and philosophers, moral tension has arisen — and moral luck shouldn't exist, but it does, and Roman Polanski's may have run out. Private Tudors: Wendy Lesser reviews Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (which won the 2009 Booker prize for her fictionalised life of Thomas Cromwell; and more and more). The Nobel prize system needs an overhaul — that's the conclusion of a group of scientists brought together to debate the future of the prizes (and more). Here are the winners of the Ig Nobels, or Igs, which celebrate research that "cannot, or should not, be repeated". Science confirms the obvious: It takes real proof to back up even the simplest theories; these 10 studies show that the obvious can have not-so-obvious implications. The Fear Factor: Michael Specter on dangerous rumors about the flu vaccine. An interview with Sam Tanenhaus on conservatism and editing The New York Times Book Review. Here's an article on how to fake your way through the 2009 baseball playoffs.

Larry Neale and Rebekah Russell-Bennett (QUT): What Value Do Users Derive from Social Networking Applications? From Gelf, Caroline McCarthy balances covering the richness of social media with public socializing in her own right. Social-networking sites can be a career boon — if you don't annoy people in the process. Available all the time: An article on etiquette for the social networking age. On popular Web sites devoted to social networking, innovative verbs have been springing up to describe equally innovative forms of interaction. Why Gen-Y Johnny can't read nonverbal cues: An emphasis on social networking puts younger people at a face-to-face disadvantage. What's the optimal number of Facebook friends? A look at how Facebook can ruin your friendships. The Facebook divorce: Couples are broadcasting their breakups online while friends — and lawyers! — watch in amazement and horror. Facebook exodus: Why some Facebook members are moving on. From The Root, an article on the Facebook/MySpace divide: It’s not as deep as you may think; and MySpace to Facebook = White Flight, or is a new study a reminder that the Internet is not a uniform public space? Danah Boyd on how Facebook and MySpace users are clearly divided along class lines. A dispute over Facebook's geography settings has riled Israeli settlers and spurred a Syrian boycott of the site. We’ve all spent so much time and effort being worried about formal surveillance — all those street and lobby cameras — that we’re in danger of forgetting how much we cooperate in surveilling and being surveilled online.

A love affair with Israel: After visiting Israel, Daniel Strumberg spent the next six years volunteering for the Israeli army in hopes of becoming a soldier. Jay Michaelson on how he's losing his love for Israel. Why are Jews Liberals? can join What’s the Matter with Kansas in the False Consciousness shelf of your local bookstore or library (and more and more). Judith Miller on Columbia's decision to award tenure to Joseph Massad, a controversial anti-Israel professor. Another New York summer has passed: gone are the Jews for Jesus. A review of The Religious Enlightenment: Protestants, Jews, and Catholics from London to Vienna by David Jan Sorkin. From the inaugural Isaiah Berlin Memorial Lecture at Oxford, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz on the paganisation of Western culture. In a packed Sydney Opera House studio, Cardinal George Pell confronted the myth of modern atheism in the first ever Festival of Dangerous Ideas. A review of A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch (and more and more). From TNR, a review of Caritas in Veritate by Pope Benedict XVI (which George Weigel thinks that some liberal virus has infected). An interview with James Schall, author of The Mind That Is Catholic. Where's the sex?: The Church's booklet for married spouses replaces excitement with sack cloth and ashes. Deal Hudson on Newt Gingrich and the Pope. The Gingriches' new film "Rediscovering God in America II" tries not to emphasize a Christian America. Politics as religion in America: Conservatism has been converted into a religious belief, and now compromise doesn't have a prayer.