American Life
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Can Wikipedia sustain itself?
The online people-first encyclopedia struggles to meet the demands its own success created. (Boston Review)
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“Going Rogue”
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose campaign for vice president stirred a mix of major media commentary, has released her first book. (Salon)
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Urban forests
On the trail of heritage trees living amidst concrete jungles. (Utne Reader)
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A turning point for eminent domain?
New London, Connecticut, now has a wasteland where a neighborhood once stood, with no businesses or jobs to show for it. (Washington Examiner)
Global Challenges
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Yes we can?
An examination on how we can solve some of the world’s most challenging problems. (Slate)
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Up In Smoke
Tobacco and nicotine use is spreading across Africa, compounding other public health problems on the continent. (Scientific American)
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Policy making protesters
How activists and protesters will use different approaches at the COP-15 meeting on climate change from ones used by protesters in Seattle in 1999. (The Nation)
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A Fundamental Problem
Around the world, the shrill voice of unbending extremism may be fading into reality. (Boston Globe)
International Relations
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Did the people really win?
Or did Mikhail Gorbachev let go? Historians note how easily the Cold War could have kept going.(Boston Globe Ideas)
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Huntsman works crowd of 1.3 billion
U.S. ambassador to China Jim Huntsman puts political skill to work building support for President Obama’s agenda there. (Newsweek)
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From critic to cabinet member
How one of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s toughest critics became a part of his government. (NS) (The Atlantic)
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Looking back on Vietnam
Reexamining the legacies of the Vietnam War and how they can be applied to international relations challenges today. (Armed Forces Journal)
Economy
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The new plantations
A global farmland grab is underway. Governments may be facilitating the deals, but the landowners are corporations. (Grain)
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The high cost of useless gifts
Western economies have been plagued for decades with wasteful gift-giving. It’s like throwing away $25 billion a year Globe and Mail)
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Doom whitewashed
A whistleblower claims the U.S. has encouraged the International Energy Agency to underplay looming oil shortages. (The Guardian)
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Will Atlas Shrug?
What is driving the recent resurgence in popularity of Ayn Rand and her controversial anti-Socialism novel Atlas Shrugged?(Reason)
Climate Change
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Dancing the Copenhagen two-step
Danish PM Rasmussen: settle for a binding political accord at Copenhagen first, and negotiate over specifics later. (Independent / UK)
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The Big Melt
Greenland’s ice sheet is disappearing faster than ever, losing 1.5 trillion tons since the year 2000. (Spiegel)
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Valuing trees
A new U.N. study puts a value on the services nature provides. It’s a lot more than we think. (Newsweek)
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The plastic plague
The “Pacific garbage patch” of plastic trash has doubled in size each decade, and is now twice the size of Texas. (New York Times)
