archive

The most important trends

Dennis Baron (Illinois): Should Everybody Write? The Destabilizing Technologies of Communication. From Zenit, priestly celibacy is not psychologically dangerous, and in fact, sexual behavior based on "anything goes" is what is truly destructive to the personality. Tim Worstall on how megachurches would profit from temple prostitution. From Time, a special section on 10 Ideas for the Next 10 Years: A thinker's guide to the most important trends of the new decade. Dr. Helen interviews Ed Hudgins on A Year of Going Galt: Private happiness without public penalty? From Vanity Fair, the late-night war among Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and David Letterman is an Oedipal conflict: pretender, contender, and defender — but none has the elusive quality that made Johnny Carson king. The Great Sperm Race: "Sizing Up Sperm" uses real people to represent 250 million sperm on their marathon quest to be first to reach a single egg. An interview with Terry Eagleton on The Task of the Critic. A review of The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford. From Vice, an interview with Joe Kittinger, the guy who jumped out of a balloon at 102,800 feet. From World Hum, Robert Reid on a short history of spring break; and tourism is not a four-letter word: On travel snobbery — and why paying 30 bucks to get pummeled by a guy named Mustafa isn't such a bad thing. The space program we almost had: An interview with Megan Prelinger, author of Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957-1962.

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