One hundred million acts of vanity
For #kony2012, Joseph Kony is just a MacGuffin; the real action is about us
Did Gaddafi give Sarkozy 50m euros?
France’s dealings in Africa have often been sordid but Libya had seemed a break from this tradition
Why the global warming skeptics are skeptical
It is politics, not science. Global warming skeptics fear opening the door to government regulation
Cultures of Independence, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2007
A scrap book, of sorts, of a cool, modernizing Cambodia in the 1960s that few realize ever existed
The China boom is over. That could be good
Will young Chinese respond to slower economic growth by going into the arts? Or politics?
Retna graf going up on the Deitch wall
It’s slow work but the graffiti artist Retna is dancing on the sidewalk along Houston St
The hidden sword behind the US-Egypt NGO debacle
The NGOs were operating illegally. The Egyptian regime likes it that way
Why is it so hard to get word out of Syria?
Homs is bad enough but what is happening right now in Aleppo, in Suweida, in Deir ez-Zur?
The New York Times opens up its photo morgue
The coolest thing? The backs of the prints. The most surprising? The site is on Tumblr
Arctic Monkeys still rock
They were young and massively hyped when they started. But there’s no denying they’re great
Did Yemen just have a revolution?
Ali Abdullah Saleh is out at last but it looks like the Saleh regime remains
Caught in the middle of a firefight in Syria
A terrifyingly close view of what it means to fight an irregular war in the middle of a city
Did the Renaissance invent individuality in portraiture?
Andrew Butterfield says yes; the Fayum portraits suggest no
Unseen Robert Frank photos at the New York Times
Promoting the New York Times on the eve of Robert Frank’s landmark book, ‘The Americans’
Romney has not gotten a job in a decade
It is a good thing Romney is rich because he is basically unemployable
The Atlantic opens our eyes to the American Civil War
The US Capitol building under construction and a country tearing itself apart
Weegee: self-promotion is his business
An exhibit at the ICP shows Weegee’s New York was gritty in the most unreal possible way
Ghost of Judith Miller returns to the NY Times
In the form of Ronen Bergman, whose cover story on Israel attacking Iran reads as propaganda
Ahmed Basiony and the cost of revolution
The protesters in Tahrir Square preached non-violence, but the Mubarak regime did not
One year on in Egypt: Art, Politics and Power
The Egyptian revolution happened in the middle of my Egypt novel and I didn’t know what to do about it
Transition: An International Review
Transition began in Uganda in 1961; by the late-1990s it was perhaps the finest magazine on earth
What the New York police are taught about Islam
Muslims are taking over the world. Run! No, fight! No, run!
Beirut Art Center at the New Museum in New York
Lebanese artists address how art is changed or destroyed by its display