What We’re Reading

Preeti Aroon

Physics for Future Presidents. Physics Professor Richard A. Muller writes that everyone expects the U.S. president to know the difference between Sunni and Shiite. But knowing physics will lead them to understand that a nuclear attack isn’t the greatest danger posed by terrorists and that getting the United States to “go green” shouldn’t be the focus in halting global warming. If you don’t have time to read the book, check out the List that Muller wrote for FP: “Five Physics Lessons for Obama.”

Jerome Chen

“The End.” In Portfolio, Michael Lewis, author of Liar’s Poker, retraces the path of a brave hedge fund manager, Steve Eisman, who bet against the subprime mortgage mania. Eisman, as Lewis tells it, was a voice of reason that fought the delusions of Wall Street. And though his warnings fell on deaf ears, he profited handsomely from the industry’s downfall.

Elizabeth Dickinson

Michel Agier’s On the Margins of the World, recently translated from the original French, takes an anthropological look at what it means to be a refugee today. While noting there is literally a nation of refugees (nearly 50 million people), Agier’s most profound conclusion is about all humans: that how we “quarantine” the world’s victims exposes our own alarming insecurity.

Rebecca Frankel

“End of an Aura.” In The Economist, Ann Wroe reminisces about George W. Bush’s most telling attribute — his nostrils. While able to “sniff out WMD in Iraq as snappily as hot dogs at a football game” they could not “smell the putrid mud that covered the ninth ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina passed.” Alas, the nose did not know very much at all.

Joshua Keating

Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy by Michael Soussan. A dark and surprisingly funny insider’s account of the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.

David Kenner

The Times Online reports that U.S. Army is testing a “throwable robot,” named Dragon Runner, designed to be thrown into caves or buildings for reconnaissance before soldiers enter. The robots, which are controlled with a laptop at distances of up to 800 meters, transmit back video and audio recordings of their journey.