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The Military Industrial Porn Complex
by John Feffer, Salon
Popular science magazines used to be aimed at the geeky wannabe inventor. Today, it's all about the glamour of war.

Simply Simpson
by Kevin Canfield, Slate
Why pop songwriting's not what it used to be.

The Height Gap
by Burkhard Bilger, New Yorker
Why Europeans are getting taller and taller — and Americans aren't.

Abridged Too Far
by Hilary Flower, Salon
I went to the library to get my daughter "The Wind in the Willows." What I found was a happy-face, Disney-esque conspiracy to rob the classics of children's lit of their drama, their passion and their soul.

News Reports For Ultra-Short Attentions
by Warren St. John, New York Times
Shepard Smith, the host of Fox News Channel's "Fox Report," regularly pulls in around 1.5 million viewers. Part of his technique is to edit out verbs.

Repair Man
by Pagan Kennedy, Boston Globe
Mahmood Rezaei-Kamalabad doesn't just fix cars at his Cambridge service center, he also maintains a mystical machine designed to soothe your soul.

It's Brash, It's British, It's Not PBS
by Caryn James, New York Times
From music to fashion to politics, British and American cultures crisscross faster than ever today. In the six years since it began, the American offshoot of the BBC has shrewdly exploited those crosscurrents.

Heart Of Darkness That Was Rwanda
by Lynne Duke, Washington Post
A decade after the massacre, new films revisit the horror.

The Human Factor
by Jim Holt, New York Times
Should the government put a price on your life?

Swan Song
by Julia Reed, New York Times
When I found out that La Cote Basque was closing its doors, I was sad — irrationally so, since it later occured to me that I hadn't actually eaten there in almost 14 years.

All Over The Maps
by Bryan Miller, New York Times
Oversize city maps, laminated maps, origami fold-out maps, variegated-highway maps, historical maps, topographic maps, where-the-stars-live maps — all feed my peculiar and unquenchable thirst to ascertain precisely where things are, and how to get there with the least physical exertion.

In Obscurity, The Tallest And Oldest New Yorker
by Corey Kilgannon, New York Times
There is a tulip tree that towers in relative obscurity in Alley Pond Park in northeast Queens. Tree experts call it the Queens Giant and say that, at 134 feet tall and as much as 450 years old, it is the tallest and oldest living thing in New York City.

At 100, A Magazine Has Blossomed Into A National Treasure
by Carol Stocker, Boston Globe
Publishing is a ferocious business nad most magazines don't survive five years, never mind 100. Boston-based Horticulture magazine, the country's oldest gardening magazine, has reached that landmark.

The Last Supper
by Brian Price, Legal Affairs
Last-meal requests were always released to the media exactly the way the state received them. But many of the meals that prisoners wanted were replaced with less expensive or more accessible alternatives, which forced me to be creative in honoring prisoners' wishes.

The Churn
by Katherine Boo, New Yorker
Creative destruction in a border town.

Too Much Rock Ruins The Soup
by Eric Asimov, New York Times
After a decade in which the central presence of music in the dining room has seemed to increase steadily, could it be that restaurants are finally turning down the volume?

The Essential Egg
by Emily Green, Los Angeles Times
Delivered in aningenious package, it's simply the world's most perfect food.

A Chinese Girl's Diary Builds A Bridge Out Of Rural Poverty
by Alan Riding, New York Times
The long road that brought Ma Yan to the Paris book fair this week began three years ago in the remote village of Zhang Jia Shu in Ningxia region of northern China.

What's The Magic Word In Book Sales? 'Clinton'
by Linton Weeks, Washington Post
Out of the White House for more than three years, Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, still generate great bookbuzz.

After Disaster, A Design For Living
by Adrian Tinniswood, New York Times
Of course there's a place for grandiose memorials; but let's not forget that in the aftermath of catastrophe there is also room for the common place. The real monument to the Great Fire of London is not a column with a flaming urn on top. It is London itself. In 300 years, I hope that New York, in talking of 9/11, will be able to say the same.

Of Drunken Elephans, Tipsy Fish And Scotch With A Twist
by Carol Kaesuk Yoon, New York Times
A small group of scientists has begun to explore the idea that the explanation for humanity's love of drink lies deep in the evolutionary past.

A Little Start-Up Entertains, One Story At A Time
by Dinitia Smith, New York Times
At a time when literary writing seems like a dying art, when little magazines are folding left and right, when publishers bemoan the sinking bottom line, here lies a spot of hope.

When A Dissertation Makes A Difference
by Brooke Kroeger, New York Times
As a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Devah Pager studied the difficulties of former prisoners trying to find work and, in the process, came up with a disturbing finding: it is easier for a white person with a felony conviction to get a job than for a black person whose record is clean.

Sounds Of Silence: First, Your Water Was Filtered. Now It's Your Life.
by Kate Zernike, New York Times
Given the uncertainty of terrorism and war, perhaps it's not surprising that people might look for ways to get away from it all. But is filtering the latest form of denial, the latest protective bubble we have blown for ourselves, or are we just becoming better editors of our life experience?

The Art Of Parking
by Steven Rosenberg, Boston Globe
The Zip Tower, which resembles a giant Pez dispenser, is Keith Moskow's latest award-winning entry. The proposed 51-foot-high mechanical parking garage would hold seven cars and combine old technology — hydraulic cranes that would raise and lower cars — with Zipcar, the Internet-driven car-sharing service.

Get Out Of My Namespace
by James Gleick, New York Times
The world is running out of names. The roster of possible names seems almost infinite, but the demand is even greater. With the rise of instantaneious communication, business spreading across the globe and the Internet annihilating geography, conflict is rampant in this realm of language and of intellecutal property. Rules are up for grabs. Laws regarding names have never been in such disarray.

Cruising The New Yangtze
by Drew Heikes, Los Angeles Times
Before long, this remote region will resemble other parts of contemporary China. But for now, it is a place of arresting and captivating contrasts. In a mere decade, the very old is being elbowed out by the very new in perhaps the most rapid modernization of a people in history. You can see it all from the deck of the luxurous ships that cruise the Yangtze. If you're willing to get your fingernails dirty, you can also touch, hear and smell it in villages and cities along the way.

The Economics Of Faking Orgasm
by Steven E. Landsburg, Slate
No, really.

Who Needs An Agent? You Do!
by Rachel Toor, Chronicle Of Higher Education
The real question is not why would anyone want an agent, but how could you expect to reach a broad audience without one?

It's A Guy Thing
by Candy Sagon, Washington Post
Memo to guys: Any poor schlub can take a woman to a swanky restaurant and slap down his credit card. If you really want to impress a woman, you should cook for her.

Cooking For One Discerning Diner: Yourself
by Nigella Lawson, New York Times
Company is sa great excuse to cook, but it's not the only one.

For The Ultimate Control Freak: Cook-It-Yourself
by David Shaw, Los Angeles Times
"Cook-it-yourself restaurants"? Boy, talk about an oxymoron — with the accent on the last two syllables.

Poe's Tortured Heart Still Beats In Today's Literature
by Nancy Pate, Orlando Sentinel
"Tim Burton and Clive Barker are unthinkable without him. You can feel Poe's imprint on everyone from Stephen King to Ruth Rendell to Joyce Carol Oates. We just carry him in our bloodstream, I think — part of our cultural DNA."

Drink Me
by Henry Petroski, Slate
How Americans came to have cup holders in their cars.

Times Regained
by Adam Gopnik, New Yorker
How the old Times Square was made new.

To Die In Los Angeles
by Benjamin Bycel, Los Angeles Times
For a hungry doctor, Mom's death was just an interruption between courses.

Golden Opportunity
by Charles P. Pierce, Boston Globe
When The Lion King opens in Boston this summer, the restored Opera House will be a bigger star than Simba — and will signal a new era for one of the city's most neglected neighborhoods.

Common Of Earthly Delights
by James Traub, New York Times
Times Square will turn 100 on April 8. And all the commemorations will inevitably raise a single question: What are we to make of this Times Square in light of all the other Times Squares?

East Of Easy Street
by Frank Ahrens, Washington Post
After years of suburban living, his new downtown neighborhood felt edgy, even dangerioius. Then it just began to feel like home.

Mr. Invisible And The Secret Mission To Hollywood
by John Hodgman, New York Times
For Kerry Conran, the question, as he put it, was "Could you be ambitious and make a film of some scope without ever leaving your room?"

In Tokyo, Lots To Eat For Very Little
by Elaine Louie, New York Times
In Tokyo, one of the most expensive cities in the world, it is possible to eat an entire meal, excluding liquor, for $25 a person. The secret? Follow the Japanese middle class.

You Want Me To Put My Shoes Where?
by Harvey Molotch, New York Times
As security concerns inject more checkpoints into our lives, the same questions of design arise.

Chess! What Is It Good For?
by Emma Young, The Guardian
War, say researchers in Sweden and Australia. They are using the game to improve understanding of real battles, where you can't always see what your opponent is up to.

When Culture Gets In The Way Of A Late-Night Coke
by Siddharth Srivastava, Straits Times
The familiar red-and-blue vending machines dot almost every road and public place in every city worth a mention. But India, it seems, has yet to grow up to such levels of consumer maturity.

At Poor Schools, Time Stops On The Library's Shelves
by Michael Winerip, New York Times
At a poor school, the library is often the last priority, and at Williams, it has been neglected for decades.

The Rude, The Bad And The Ugly
by David Shaw, Los Angeles Times
Have you ever gone to a restaurant with someone who behaved in a way that embrarrassed you? Yeah, me too.

The Networks' Expandable Hour
by Lisa de Moraes, Washington Post
Welcome to the brave new world of program scheduling in which a show that's supposed to end at 10 p.m. may end at 10:03.

The Perpetual Adolescent
by Joseph Epstein, Weekly Standard
Few are the restaurants that could any longer hope to stay in business if they required men to wear a jacket and tie.

Won Over By A Writers' Writer
by Alex Beam, Boston Globe
Charles Portis is the greatest writer you've never heard of. It's the curse of the "writers' writer."

Unhappy Birthday
by Eric Gibson, Wall Street Journal
Is it the literary Seuss, creator of charmingly anarchic, oddball characters whose adventures are recounted in ingenious nonsense verse? Or is it the Seuss of Hollywood and myriad product tie-ins who has been "interpreted" and marketed and theme-parked within an inch — maybe beyond — of his reputation?

Do Straight Guys Want To Read A Men's Shopping Magazine?
by Larry Smith, Salon
Do gay men? Does anyone? Should everyone? A close encounter with Cargo, the new Lucky for men.

The Terrazzo Jungle
by Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker
Fifty years ago, the mall was born. America would never be the same.

In Alaska, Getting There Is Half The Fun
by Bill Pennington, New York Times
In Alaska, to play something as routine as a basketball or volleyball game, hundreds of teams habitually crisscross a mammoth state on jets, marine ferries, vans and even caravans of snowmobiles.

The Golden Age Of Mediocrity
by Patrick J. Kiger, Los Angeles Times
We live in age peopled by more artistic geniuses than in any other moment in history, though the bar is set considerably lower than in the past.

Food Fighter
by Peggy Orenstein, New York Times
Alice Waters is taking her message of eating healthfully, organically and locally to middle schoolers in their lunchrooms. If she builds a better sloppy Joe, will they eat it?

In The Realm Of Jet Lag
by Pico Iyer, New York Times
Because jet lag is so much a part of my life now, I tell myself I will make the most of it; attend to it, enjoy its disruptions, as I would those of a geographically foreign place.

So Just For Laughs, Is The Sitcom Dying?
by Bruce Weber, New York Times
The network television comedies tend to be lame, and that the executives responsible for them are lacking in gamblers' nerve and a sense of adventure.

How's Choreography Recorded?
by Sean Rocha, Slate
Balanchine's pirouette, port de bras, plie — is there a way to write it down?

Moonstruck
by Jon Mooallem, Village Voice
Is poetic license enough of a reason to explore the empty frontier of outer space?

For Exercise In New York Futility, Push Button
by Michael Luo, New York Times
The city deactivated most of the pedestrian buttons long ago with the emergence of computer-controlled traffic signals, even as an unwitting public continued to push on.

At A Mountain Monastery, Old Texts Gain Digital Life
by Sarah Gauch, New York Times
A Greek Orthodox monk from Texas is working with some of the world's highest-resolution digital technology to help preserve Monastery of St. Catherine's 3,300 priceless and impressively intact ancient manuscripts.

The Case Of The Escaped Spirit
by Michelle Falkenstein, ARTnews
Artworks are damaged in ways you would never imagine — careless movers, overenthusiastic cleaning persons, neurotic pets. And then there was the broken Joseph Cornell box.

Who Cares What Critics Say?
by Jay Nordlinger, New Criterion
Standing up to public opinion is one thing a critic does; shaping it is another.

Not Peace, But A Sword
by William Safire, New York Times
Is art served by presenting the ancient divisiveness in blood-streaming media to the widest audiences in the history of drama?