Jan. 1, 2011 | '"Let''s speak frankly," says Slavoj Žižek. "The left hates me even though I am supposed to be one of the leading communist intellectuals"'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'A nose for history. Napoleon''s cologne, the resurrected stench of a Viking latrine: Can odor offer a sense of the past? Take a whiff'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'If Leonardo da Vinci were alive today, he might produce a cookbook like Nathan Myhrvold''s 2,400-page, 50-pound, $625 tome'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'A woman walks into a male-dominated, money-losing start-up. Now Facebook turns a billion-dollar profit. What''s the lesson?'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | On the New York art scene, the avuncular, ubiquitous Irving Sandler is Herodotus, Livy, and Thucydides rolled into one... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Bribery is an art, and the art business in China - rife with forgeries, crooked scholars, corrupt auction houses - is brush-stroked by bribes... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Most Americans don''t want to be Rotarians or Kiwanians; they prefer to bowl alone. But civic groups are thriving - in authoritarian countries'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'In defense of Rihanna. Pop music might be superficial, misogynist, and stupid, but it isn''t to blame for our cultural slide into self-love'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Given real-time information about their actions, people change their own behavior. Technology makes feedback loops more effective than ever... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | At call centers in India, aspirants to the middle class study clips of Seinfeld. Trainers impart "international culture" â?? which is no culture at all... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Marc Howard has an interest in prisons and a passion for tennis. On the asphalt court at San Quentin, he learned about the humanity in both... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Effective, irresponsible populism: Western European leaders find blaming multiculturalism useful because it is both vague and misdirected... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Lip-syncing at his workstation on an Army base in Iraq, the Wikileaker downloaded top-secret data onto a CD marked "Lady Gaga"... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | The wages of sex selection. More than 160 million women are missing from Asia. Is Western-style feminism to blame?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Ice and immortality. What exactly happens to a brain when it''s pumped full of cryoprotectant chemicals and frozen at -124°C?'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Dan Savage is out to save marriage. His pitch: Monogamy destroys families; infidelity can save them... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Looking for love? There is powerful software for that. Still elusive is an algorithm for hiding bald spots and back fat... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Forget Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Much of America''s female power elite was groomed at a small, austere, obscure Catholic college'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Jorge Arbusto is a brilliant, freshly minted Ph.D. He is also an illegal immigrant in America. What''s his future? Probably a job in construction'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Beijing''s chattering class. China has 400 think tanks, where opinions vary from government-approved to government-approved'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'If a tumor can make you a pedophile, is that your fault or your biology''s? Wrong question, says David Eagleman. They are inseparable'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Boozing with the ancients. Nothing gives beer a bite like mugwort, dried doum-palm fruit, and liberal doses of hemp and poppy. Cheers... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Harun Yahya''s media empire spans the Muslim world. His message is clear and influential: Darwinism is a "satanic plot"'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'The collapse of the Soviet Union was startling, but today it''s clear that Russia is inching toward another perestroika moment'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Sex and pseudonyms. When Story of O appeared it sent a rush of blood to the nonthinking parts. The author had no shame - and no identity... more »