archive

Underwhelmed by the result

Vincenzo Atella and Joanna Kopinska (Rome II): Body Weight of Italians: The Weight of Education. Denis Stearns (Seattle): On (Cr)edibility: Why Food in the United States May Never be Safe. Are you smarter than a middle schooler? New site tracks science misconceptions. From Butterflies and Wheels, Joshua Leach on the postmodern interpretation of witchcraft. An interview with Harlan Lane, co-author with Richard C. Pillard and Ulf Hedberg of People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry. Love in bookstores: Browsing customers often circle each other like timid sharks. A legendary think tank shows its age: New York's Century Foundation has lost money and stature. A Month of Tweeting: Aaron Belz on how the internet discovered poetic economy. Students of advice-column history (and blog history) would do well to honor one of the founding fathers of the form, John Dunton, and marvel at how he both educated a curious nation and managed to make the Athenian Mercury a pretty sensational publication not just profitable but also semi-respectable. Kevin W. Saunders on his book Degradation: What the History of Obscenity Tells Us about Hate Speech. Laura Turner Garrison on the myth of universal humor. TurtleLeaks: How the U.N. made sure that the Arab Spring didn't reach Western Sahara. Atlas Shrunk: Ayn Rand's magnum opus took 54 years to put on the screen; Scott McLemee is underwhelmed by the result. Conservatainment: Peter Suderman on the perennial right-wing plot to seize Hollywood from liberals. The first chapter from Making Volunteers: Civic Life after Welfare's End by Nina Eliasoph. A brief guide to dictator lit: When not tyrannising their people, it seems despots such as Colonel Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein like to turn their hand to writing books.