Hu Shuqin (Qingdao): A Relevance Theoretic Analysis of Verbal Humor in The Big Bang Theory. Neil Irwin interviews Robert Shiller: “When I look around I see a lot of foolishness, and I can’t believe it’s not important economically”. Justin Fox on what the Great Fama-Shiller Debate has taught us. From PopMatters, Jane Potthast on reconsidering aesthetic anachronism; and A. Bowdoin Van Riper on Hollywood, history, and the art of the Big Anachronism. Timothy B. Lee on how the Tea Party broke the Constitution: The American system of government requires compromise — and the tea party is making the GOP incapable of compromising. From Crime Library, a look at the most compelling crime photos of all time and the most famous murders of every US city; and no murders occurred in New York City last week. John Sides on how the electoral ramifications of the shutdown are far from clear: Democrats are excited and Republicans are gloomy — it's far too soon for either reaction. Nate Cohn on how the GOP can't survive without the Tea Party. Alex Howard on how the first Internet president produced the government’s biggest, highest-stakes Internet failure. Brad Plumer on why hitting the debt ceiling would be terrible even if we didn’t default. Felix Salmon on how the default has already begun: Every day that goes past is a day where trust and faith in the US government is evaporating — and once it has evaporated, it will never return.
