Cass Sunstein (Harvard): The Storrs Lectures: Behavioral Economics and Paternalism. From the Journal of Critical Realism, a series of book reviews. Simon Doonan on the eight worst things about the art world. The introduction to Facing Fear: The History of an Emotion in Global Perspective. Why are mean people so hot? It's not that meanies are more physically attractive than everyone else — they're just very good at fooling us. Colin Burrow reviews Literary Names: Personal Names in English Literature by Alastair Fowler. Sarah Scire interviews Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking (and more and more). Depressive realism: An excerpt from the introduction to Anti-Matter: Michel Houellebecq and Depressive Realism by Ben Jeffery. Kevin Drum on a dictionary update: Serious vs. Unserious. No land ho: Frank Jacobs on Sandy Island and the age of un-discovery. Is the Harappan civilisation 2000 years older? Marc Herman on how someone successfully explained Egypt’s politics! Brian Tashman on how unhinged rhetoric sank a disabilities rights treaty in the Senate. Former Microsoft exec decides to just sell weed instead — fair enough.
