Juan Cole on how Zoroastrianism influences the worldview of Iran's leadership. Homage to Hasselhoff: Philipp Kohlhofer on trying to be German in South L.A. Figuring out the media’s one-percent rule: An interview with Joachim Blunck, a career media/entertainment professional who’s had his hands in alternative newspapers, Rupert Murdoch’s start-up Fox channel, film and web design. A man of darkness and dreams: An article on the undeniable brilliance, and underlying torment, of fashion star Alexander McQueen. Pavor Nocturnus: An interview with Mike Bremner on night terrors. Lessons from eastern Europe's flat tax: A theory in the US is reality in Bulgaria and elsewhere in the region — does it work? Seven ideas to beat the crisis: From bovine meditation to organic bird buffets, Der Spiegel brings you seven strange business ideas that should never have worked but did. Autopsy entertainment makes painfully clear that no amount of Twitter and Prozac, Friending and Unfriending, Outplacement and Outsourcing, Bail Outs and Stimulus, Surges and Drones, Mii and Wii, Nunchuck and Netois can save us. An interview with Peter Kuznick on Oliver Stone's secret history. Scariest forum on the Internet?: The University of Chicago Press launches Chicago Manual of Style Online forum for wordsmiths — at least, those brave enough to post. A review of Grimoires: A History of Magic Books by Owen Davies and The Religion of Fools? Superstition Past and Present. The introduction to The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism by Pascal Bruckner. Living with the crazy, fearless young men who risk life and limb to document Burma's genocide. A review of The Lost Origins of the Essay by John D'agata. Here are the best ideas generated at Slate's live discussion about "The Efficient Life".
