Wes Phillips

RadioShack, the second-rate phone store that used to sell electronics, just fired 400 employees by email. Classy, no? But here's my question: Considering that the last five times I tried to buy basic computer supplies at RadioShack (yes, I'm a slow learner, but it is just around the corner), the employees treated me as if I were asking for unobtainium, are the 400 people who've been let go capable of accessing an email account to find out they've been made redundant?

Michael Chabon's rant about the imposition of predetermined boundaries and contours, of a formulary of play—and why Sid in Toy Story wasn't necessarily a Norman Bates in the making.

Since most seven-year-olds can think better than the average evil overlord, maybe evil overlords should hire more seven-year-olds to design their diabolical contraptions. Or they could use this random generator. Hit refresh for a new set of talking points.

Nor, it turns out, has it been extinct for 11 million years.

Louis Menand's reviewhttp://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/07/09/070709crbo_books…; of The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Politics is an interesting read—possibly more interesting than the book itself. However, back in 2004, Gene Weingarten covered the same questions, getting up close and personal with Ted Prus, a non-voter who "just doesn't give a rat's ass."

Devising tests that distinguish whether ravens solve problems through logic or instinct ain't easy.

Want one!