From The New York Times Magazine, a special issue on the science of living a healthy life. Barca Lounging: Meet Lionel Messi, the best soccer player in the world (thanks to the ineffable genius of his teammates). The first chapter from Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India by Pranab Bardhan. Jennifer McDonald on the war on cliche (that’s such a cliche). The Joy of -ext: Sexting, chexting, drexting and the rise of a salacious suffix. From The Guardian, a series on the great dynasties of the world. Sorry Google, but Facebook is the Web's most important company now. The Rise of Decline: Experts say things are collapsing — maybe they’re not collapsing fast enough. A review of The Oxford Book of Parodies. Ministry of Silly Wars: Lawrence Osborne on Britain in Central Asia. Maurice Manning reviews Coal Mountain Elementary by Mark Nowak, with photographs by Ian Teh and Mark Nowak. A review of Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee (and more and more and more). From Critical Mass, a new series on websites dedicated to book reviewing online. When it comes to the slave trade, all guilt is not equal: Michael Gomez challenges the argument by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that Africans were equally responsible for the trade in humans, therefore complicating reparations. Two radically different environmental messages are taking shape in the world today — does it matter which one we choose? It's not just greater affluence that leads to freedom and happiness, but the combination of greater wealth with relative economic equality; freer, happier societies reflect the old adage of a rising tide that lifts all boats. From Telos, Alexander I. Stingl on the virtualization of health and illness in the age of biological citizenship.
