Compare and contrast with Fukuyama's view.

We’ve removed Saddam Hussein, established a democratic government in Iraq, and transformed the dynamics of the Middle East. "Muscular idealism is the new American realism."

The New Realism, by Victor Davis Hanson

The U.S. government could go a long way toward building understanding in the Middle East by backing the study of Arabic.

Learn it, love it, speak it.

"Do as I say, not as I do" works much better when they can understand the words you're speaking.

Speaking Their Language, by Peter Berkowitz

"PetaCache may help scientists change the way they think about exploring new ideas. It will allow a physicist with a sudden new idea, an 'I wonder if...' moment, to quickly begin exploring that new idea."

PetaCache: Accelerating Data-Intensive Applications

Don't get too friendly with your staff.

Organizations may have become flatter, but leaders still need social distance in order to take the big-picture view. Here are ways to combine friendship with leadership.

Managing Social Distance in 'Flat' Companies

Dating clubs, credit cards, and video games are all examples of multi-sided markets, where firms need to get two or more distinct groups of customers on the same platform. Professor Andrei Hagiu discusses this new field of business research -- and why it matters to you.

New Research Explores Multi-Sided Markets

Know your enemy.

When President Bush speaks derisively about advocates of "cutting and running" from Iraq, he has in mind people like Nir Rosen, a journalist whose reporting has led him to the conclusion that U.S. withdrawal is the best policy. Rosen recently explained to FP why leaving Iraq is the best option, why Moktada al-Sadr is the only man who can keep Iraq together, and why Iran and the United States are natural allies.

How's that for contrarian?

Seven Questions: What Next for Iraq?

Nerds are people, too.

Most of us picture mathematicians laboring before a chalkboard, scribbling numbers and obscure symbols as they mutter unintelligibly. This lighthearted (but realistic) sneak-peak into the everyday world of mathematicians turns that stereotype on its head.Most people have little idea what mathematicians do or how they think. It s often difficult to see how their seemingly arcane and esoteric work applies to our own everyday lives. But mathematics also holds a special allure for many people. We are drawn to its inherent beauty and fascinated by its complexity but often intimidated by its presumed difficulty.

The Secret Life of Numbers opens our eyes to the joys of mathematics, introducing us to the charming, often whimsical side, of the discipline. Divided into several parts, the book looks at interesting and largely unknown historical tidbits, introduces the largerthan- life practitioners of mathematics through the ages, profiles some of the most significant unsolved conjectures, and describes problems and puzzles that have already been solved. Rounding out the table of contents is a host of mathematical miscellany all of which add up to 50 fun, sometimes cheeky, shorttakes on the field.

Chock full of stories, anecdotes, and entertaining vignettes, The Secret Life of Numbers shows us how mathematics really does affect almost every aspect of life from the law to geography, elections to botany and we come to appreciate the delight and gratification that mathematics holds for all of us.

The Secret Life of Numbers: 50 Easy Pieces on How Mathematicians Work and Think

Robots, androids, and bionic people pervade popular culture, from classics like Frankenstein and R.U.R. to modern tales such as The Six Million Dollar Man, The Terminator, and A.I. Our fascination is obvious and the technology is quickly moving from books and films to real life.

I never noticed this book before, but it was named to Library Journal's Best Sci-Tech Books for General Readers list for 2004.

Digital People: From Bionic Humans to Androids

Don't click through if you're avoiding first-episode spoilers.

I mean, did you see it coming?

Metaphysical Mobsters - The new, ruminative season of The Sopranos

For the innocent listener who hasn't been convinced by the noisy claims and special pleading for the artistic significance of jazz improvisation, Miles Davis' My Funny Valentine is one of the most persuasive arguments. With this recording, Davis was never to be captured playing again with such virtuosic command of varied emotional detail. It is hard to imagine another rhythm section improvising with more adventurous looseness and equal sensitivity to each moment of the music, and it is equally difficult to imagine another young tenor saxophonist, unaware of the tempo and rhythmic freedom that was going to rise about him, responding with more ease, formal beauty, and eloquence than what we hear from George Coleman on selection after selection. It was, as they say in the business, "One of those nights."

Miles Davis, Romantic Hero