From Human Ecology Review, Joanne Vining and Melinda S. Merrick (Illinois) and Emily A. Price (Utah State): The Distinction between Humans and Nature: Human Perceptions of Connectedness to Nature and Elements of the Natural and Unnatural; and Jerry Williams (Stephen F. Austin): Thinking as Natural: Another Look at Human Exemptionalism; and reflections on Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. From NYRB, Michael Dirda reviews the work of Paul Auster. From Plenty, Christian Lander on stuff environmentalists like (and part 2). Though obviously not anti-intellectual, by Obama's own account he is a pragmatist, not strongly bound to any "isms". Life after bankruptcy: The age of privatisation is over; politics not the market is responsible for promoting the common good — philosopher Jurgen Habemas talks to Thomas Assheuer about the necessity of an international world order. From Utne, a series on “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World”. An interview with Neal Stephenson: "I'm choosing to be left behind". A look at how death is a hot topic among writers these days. An article on the Center for American Progress, the ideas factory in Obama's Washington. A review of The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule by Thomas Frank. A review of Becoming Beside Ourselves: The Alphabet, Ghosts, and Distributed Human Being by Brian Rotman.
