[Aug 31] Science - technology - politics: From Reconstruction, a special issue on Postmodern Science, including an editorial, essays on Portals to Knowledge and on Chaos Theory, and a review of Concepts of the Self. An interview with Barry Mazur, author of Imagining Numbers (particularly the square root of minus fifteen). Peter Turchin outlines mathematical formulae for history's grandest narratives: the rise and fall of great civilisations. Carl Zimmer on how the history of chromosomes may shape the future of diseases. Some of science's biggest names have not only dabbled in, but been entirely convinced by, the world of the seance. From First Monday, an article on the unacknowledged convergence of open source, open access, and open science. From Great Britain, publishers make last stand against open access, and the government is dealing in deceit when it allows public money to be wasted on alternative remedies. A study finds most published research findings may be false. Scientists at the EPA and other agencies find their work questioned not only by industry, but by their own government. Republicans accused of witch-hunt against climate change scientists. A look at why Intelligent Design has no place in the science curriculum. And is there Intelligent Spaghetti out there?

[Aug 30] Empire: From Daedalus, Robin Blackburn (Essex): Emancipation & empire, from Cromwell to Karl Rove; Akira Iriye (Harvard): Beyond imperialism: the new internationalism; Molly Greene (Princeton): The Ottoman Experience; Niall Ferguson (Harvard): The unconscious colossus: limits of (& alternatives to) American empire; Anthony Padgen (UCLA): Imperialism, liberalism & the quest for perpetual peace; Kenneth Pomeranz (UC-Irvine): Empire & 'civilizing' missions, past & present; and Jack Snyder (Columbia): Empire: a blunt tool for democratization

[Aug 29] Religion and conservatism: From Asia Times, a review of The Myth of Islamic Tolerance. An article on Muslims and the future of Europe. Articles on Rushdie and Islam, and on religion, morality, and sheep. A review of books on Benedict XVI. A review of Religion on Trial: How the Supreme Court trends threaten Freedom of Conscience in America. Meet Randy Barnett, American law professor and right-wing libertarian and guru to the Tory favourite. Roger Scruton remembers Maurice Cowling. A review of books on the evolution of modern conservatism. Mona Charen on two conservative books not to be missed. Richard Brookhiser reviews 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. A new Captain America series aimed at young conservatives envisions a dark liberal dystopia. And here is the undercurrent of four ethical philosophies, summarized in one article for your convenience

[Weekend 2e] Media and more: From The Progressive, an interview with Al Franken. An article on the Romenesko effect. Thanks to new media, we have all become the messengers - but what are we saying? On magazine advertising: The cover models may not be fatter, but the issues are. You cool kids are all wearing those zany slogan T-shirts? How quaint. Al Gore's Current is not a joke: It actually lives up to its billing as a slick, commercial cable network. A review of Bad News. An article on Sports Illustrated and the tabloidization of American media. Do you eat Pop-Tarts? Play Tony Hawk? You’re funding the funders of the right. Google wants to be your best friend on your computer. And why Yahoo! will be the center of the million-channel universe

[Weekend] From Commentary, Charles Murray on The Inequality Taboo. Ronald Fryer brings mathematical economics to stubborn racial issues. Now seems the ideal time to honestly address black intellectualism. More from Legal Affairs: Cass Sunstein on how the Supreme Court has always thwarted presidents who demand unlimited legal power in wartime, but Congress has shirked its constitutional duties and floundered in the war on terror, and more on President Bush's powergrab, which has a long Republican pedigree. The “radical middle” is more than a politics: It has its own sensibility, its own psychology. A look at how contemporary social work theory nurtured the new authoritarianism. An article on violence, participation and civil society in the age of bellicosity. An interview with Peter Whybrow, author of American Mania: When More is Not Enough. From The Spectator, Thomas Fleming on why America is not a Christian country. Purpose - Driven Rick Warren goes to Rwanda, Alan Wolfe reports. And from The Bulletin, Exxon Mobil quietly agrees with predictions of peak oil, and an article on the death and life of the Office of Technology Assessment

[Aug 26] From Open Democracy, Gilles Kepel on Europe's answer to Londonistan, Adam Chmielewski on why the EU must raise its sights and detach itself from the United States, and on five seminal events in the first four years of a long war. A review of Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization. A review of Simon Schama's Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution. From The Weekly Standard, Christopher Hitchens reviews Bevan, the other Welsh Wizard. From CT, an interview with Richard Land, author of Imagine! A God-Blessed America: How It Could Happen and What It Would Look Like. The Parable of Jesus and the Rubber Chicken: What if Christ spoke at a GOP fund-raiser? From Legal Affairs, a look at how political appointees to the Justice Department's civil rights division are driving career lawyers to retirement, a debate on assisted suicide, and an article on King James I of Michigan. And an article on using computer models to identify important American jurisprudence 

[Aug 25] A study finds the passage of time can distort how people remember their feelings after the 9/11 attacks. From Open Democracy, a product of the global culture, modern radical Islam is the shadow of what it opposes, and the core fact about Hizb-ut-Tahrir is that it is a party of theocrats not democrats. Can the Human Rights Act threaten Britain's ability to fight terrorism? A debate. Karen Armstrong on how it is both wrong and dangerous to believe that literal truth can be found in religious texts. From Chronicles, small steps in the direction of reverence and beauty can make people hungry for more. Will Europe’s youth bring it back to Christendom? More on A History of the Jews in the Modern World. An article on the semantics of "good" & "evil". More on changing the world without taking power. Todd Gitlin on the Art of Protest: Make it personal. From MR, an article on Carmageddon and Karl Marx. An article on Capitalism vs. Communism: Lessons from history. A review of  The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela. From TCS, Arnold Kling on incumbent politicians vs. the long tail, and on libertarian basics. And green groups see potent tool in economics

[Aug 24] Health care issues: From the Journal of Social Science, Nikolaos Dritsakis (Macedonia): Health Expenditures and Gross Domestic Product: An Empirical Analysis for Member-Countries of European Union with Cointegration Analysis pdf. From The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell on the moral-hazard myth: The bad idea behind our failed health-care system. From TNR, an article on healthcare and choice (and response). Everyone wants to untangle the medical malpractice mess - but balancing justice and medicine may be a risky procedure. It's the simple things, but some hospitals don't do them-- then again, medical studies are often wrong. Katrina vanden Heuvel on August's Big Pharma scandals. France considers smoking ban. There is every reason to think self-interest will increase the supply of organ donors. And from Free Inquiry, Peter Singer on decisions about death, Nat Hentoff on the legacy of Terri Schiavo, and Wendy Kaminer on genealogy and promiscuity

[Aug 23] International Affairs: From Foreign Affairs, an article on China's search for stability with America, and can democracy stop terrorism? From Foreign Policy, an article on the spoils of Gaza, a look at how We Always Forget, and is terrorism good for fighting crime? From The National Interest, Robert Copper on Imperial Liberalism, and an essay on the Imperialism of the Fittest. From The Bulletin, a look at The World According to Bolton. A new issue of Peace, Conflict and Development is out. Buzzflash interviews Larry Diamond, author of Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq. A study shows some types of military interventions can slow or stop genocide. From The New York Times Magazine, a cover story on oil and geopolitics. A review of James Howard Kunstler's The Long Emergency. From Open Democracy, Fred Halliday recalls the incidents that marked the Cold War era and resonate in the next; and an interview with Jacqueline Rose, author of The Question of Zion. And from Dissent, an article on Israel and UN Reform

[Aug 22] Scenes from a Mall--America: A review of 1491. Fundamentalist zealots dreaming of a New World Order, sexual repression, scary old blokes with beards. So what’s new? A review of New York Burning. A review of White Savage: William Johnson and the invention of America. Christopher Hitchens reviews books on America's pirate wars. Philadelphia 1787 vs. Baghdad 2005: Fred Kaplan on Bush's lousy analogy. More on War Powers. Peter Singer on being un-American about animals. William Saletan on KKK vs. KFC: The difference between blacks and animals. What's wrong with kids today? It all starts with their 'parents'. Can aimless summer fun still sell in the age of hyperscheduled kids and achievement-oriented parents? How did the American movie business, which was born in New York City in the 1890's, wind up in LA? The Endless Night: Hanging out in cars with boys, and girls. From The Nation, an article on Justice Sunday II: Preaching justice, slaying demons. And from Newsweek, a cover story on Spirituality in America

[Weekend] On science: The latest edition of Edge is out, on Gödel, and on science and common sense. A review of books on Gödel. From Canada, a look at the international string theory conference Strings05. A review of Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near. On the largest and most detailed computer simulation of the history of the universe. Scientists are trying to reconstruct a living organism down to every last molecule. An interview with J. Craig Venter on the future of genetics. The emerging field of medical geology explores the health impacts of our natural habitat. On strange science: A look at science that isn't very scientific. And a physicist in the US has proposed a new way of quantifying the scientific output of individual scientists

[Aug 19] From FT, a review of Joschka Fisher's Die Ruckkehr der Geschichte; Ian Buruma on winning the peace; on how some of the responsibility for defending our values must lie with the urbanists and architects; and more on Joel Kotkin's The City: A Global History. For jihadist, read anarchist: Repression did little to stop anarchist violence, but eventually the world moved on and the movement withered. An interview with Olivier Roy. Mick Hume on how the meaning of tolerance has mutated in recent years. More on A History of the Jews in the Modern World. From TAC, as the Right’s popularity has grown, its intellectual challenge to the Left has diminished, and on Bush vs. Benedict: Catholic neoconservatives grapple with their church’s Just War tradition. Lee Harris on why 'theology is a simple muddle'. Mark Noll on what is a personal relationship with Jesus. Darwinism implies that the only eternal life we have is in the recycling of our atoms. George Monbiot finds that comforting. From Counterpunch, Alexander Cockburn on a Short, Meat-Oriented History of the World, From Eden to the Mattole. And from MR, The New Model Army of Clowns: From Rize to the G8 Zaps, clowning asserts a radical imagination of resistance

[Aug 18] History book reviews: A review of The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant: The true history of the tablets of Moses. A review of Malory: The Life and Times of King Arthur's Chronicler. A review of Gold & Gilt, Pots & Pins: Possessions and People in Medieval Britain. A review of 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West (and more). More and more on 1491. A review of Ivan the Terrible: First Tsar of Russia. A review of Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of the American Conscience. A review of How to Rent a Negro. A review of Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream. And a review of Salt: A World History

[Aug 17] Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and George Downs on an open economy, a closed society. From Three Monkeys Online, an interview with Paul Kingsnorth on globalisation; on the Bologna Train Station Bombing, twenty-five years later, and an introduction to Pope Benedict XVI. From Counterpunch, a look at the unmitigated gall of Dinesh D'Souza (and more on The Controversialist). An interview with James Snyder Jr., author of The Conservative Mind. Against Iraq, the Patriot Act and Bush-era conservatism? Meet Christopher Hitchens' other half. A review of War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution. A review of Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy. The military has acquired the charisma of the sacred. And the cult of the warrior, like any other religious cult, changes the character of public life. A review of The Iranian Labyrinth: Journeys Through Theocratic Iran and Its Furies. More on Divided by God. We pay a high price for the current predilection for defining people primarily by their religions. And on the launch of a religious jokes contest: Which joke do you think is the funniest? Which is offensive?

[Aug 16] From In These Times, Slavoj Zizek on giving Iranian nukes a chance. A look at what Al-Qaeda really wants. An article on the publication of Messages to the World, a compendium of Osama bin Laden's communiqués from 1994 to 2004. Given access to a means to exterminate our enemy, we'll take it. There are good reasons for refraining from this hasty renaming of phenomena which often are neither "new", nor "war". Naomi Klein on terrorism's greatest recruitment tool. A review of Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil. A review of books on North Korea. An interview with Clyde Prestowitz, author of Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East. From Alternet, an interview with Douglas Massey, author of Return of the "L" Word: A Liberal Vision for the New Century. More on A Short History of Progress. A review of How Capitalism Saved America: the Untold History Of Our Country, from the Pilgrims to the Present. On the Wal-Mart thought-police: Sometimes “family values” just means censorship. Ross Douthat on how intelligent design hurts conservatives. And on Megachurch madness: The persecution of Christians in America and other themes of “Justice Sunday II”

http://www.politicaltheory.info/2005/august.htm