The brain as mindless obsession: An excerpt from Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation by Charles Barber. The end of the critic? There was a time when they were our arbiters of culture; those days are gone. A review of Bondage of the Mind: How Old Testament Fundamentalism Shackles the Mind and Enslaves the Spirit by RD Gold. Might the worst be over for Africa? David Warsh investigates. A look at why Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan's early mentor, would have been proud. For all their invincibility at chess and prowess in calculus, robots using neural networks have performed miserably in duplicating the behaviour of higher organisms such as mammals. A review of A Conservative History of the American Left by Daniel J. Flynn. A review of Bastard Tongues: A Trailblazing Linguist Finds Clues to Our Common Humanity in the World's Lowliest Languages by Derek Bickerton (and more). Inner-city muse: With his fourth novel set on America’s mean streets, Richard Price lays claim to the title of urban laureate. From The Smart Set, class struggles, identity, democratization, and postmodernism — they're all tied up in the shopping bag; and gold-beater skin, English raincoat, French letter: There were many historic names for the condom, and just as many origin myths. A review of Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture by James Bowman.
