Martin Feldstein | Foreign Affairs | 15 December 2011 Outstanding essay on history of euro crisis, way forwards for single currency: "The eurozone is likely to continue with almost all its current members. The challenge now will be to change the economic behavior of those countries" Comments Jerrold Post | Foreign Policy | 20 December 2011 Ex-CIA analyst discusses Syrian leader's trajectory from moderniser to mass-murderer. Parallels with Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam. Both spent time in the West, enough to learn new ideas, but not enough for deep change Comments Michele Pridmore-Brown | LA Review of Books | 15 December 2011 How fathers shape their daughters. "The girlish power to redeem men has a long tradition. But the bar on committed or 'good-enough' fatherhood has risen radically in recent years, and especially so with respect to girls" Comments Anonymous | Economist | 17 December 2011 Super piece on science of pedestrian behaviour, how we negotiate space as we walk down busy pavements. “At low densities, behaviour is cognitive and strategic. At high density, it’s about mass movement and physical pressures" Comments Olivier Roy | World Policy Institute | 19 December 2011 Fine essay on religion, democracy. "It does not make sense to demand religious liberalism or theological reform or a preliminary secularization as a requirement for making religion compatible with democracy." Here's why Comments J.B.S. Haldane | Farnam Street | 20 December 2011 Republished, and still well worth a read. "For every type of animal there is an optimum size. The same is true for every human institution. The English invention of representative government made a democratic nation possible" Comments Charles Mann | Vanity Fair | 20 December 2011 Writer tests out US airport security. With a bit of help from expert Bruce Schneier. And a fake boarding pass. The verdict? Damning: "Not only is it not done right, but even if it was done right it would be the wrong thing to do" Comments Ian McEwan | Guardian | 16 December 2011 Wonderful, touching piece from McEwan remembering last weeks of his great friend. A writer, to the last: "His head would droop, his eyes close, then with superhuman effort he would drag himself awake to type another line" Comments | 
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