From the Stacks: August 31, 2007

By Staff Utne.Com
Published on August 1, 2007

From the Stacks: August 31, 2007
By Staff, Utne.com

Utne Reader‘s library is abuzz with a steady flow of 1,500
magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, zines, and other lively
dispatches from the cultural front that are rarely found at big-box
bookstores, newsstands, or even online. So we share the highlights
(and occasional lowlights) of what’s landing in our library each
week in ‘From the Stacks.’ Check in every Friday for the latest
edition.

The
September/October issue of
Technology Review, published by MIT,
features the magazine?s annual list of ?35 Innovators Under 35.?
The brainy twenty- and thirtysomethings who ranked are doing
groundbreaking work in medicine, biotechnology, energy, and
software. You may recognize Tapan Parikh, the 33-year-old doctoral
student who’s working to bring mobile technology to developing
countries, and Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old CEO of the social
networking site Facebook. Also in the issue, Tufts University
philosophy professor Daniel Dennett examines the famous 1997 chess
match where Garry Kasparov lost to the IBM computer ‘Deep Blue.’
The machine’s victory over one of the world’s greatest chess minds
forced people to reconsider what it means to be human. Dennett
revisits the issue a decade later to find that the differences
between the ‘silicone machines’ that run computers and the ‘protein
machines’ that run people aren’t as big as people think. —
Eric Kelsey

The inaugural issue of the outdoor magazine
Wasatch Journal is all about Utah. The
magazine highlights local comings and goings, from Utah’s old-timey
music community to the giant rooftop garden of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints’ conference center. Author Melissa Bond
profiles the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run, a grueling but
popular ‘ultramarathon’ that runs contestants through Utah’s
Wasatch Mountains. Bond discovers that many of the participants
have taken to extreme running as a way to deal with personal
troubles. On the more artistic side, the magazine features debut
fiction from Joe Totten, poems by Garrett Alberico and Maria
Melendez, and an essay by O. Henry Award-winning author Rick Bass.
Eric Kelsey

The charming and upbeat New Moon devotes its pages to lively
stories, poetry, art, and opinion pieces by girls ages 8-14. The
September/October ‘Great Debate’ issue tackles important topics
including the influence of Barbie on body image and the pros and
cons of prisons. And Georgia Jacobson shares a short interview with
playwright Carolyn Gage, author of a controversial play dealing
with girls and homophobia. — Julie Dolan
?
Coltan
turns rivers to mud, encourages people to kill endangered species
for food, and funds devastating wars. No, the insidious coltan is
not some intergalactic super-villain, but rather a rare ore used to
make everything from cell phones to laptop computers. According to
an article in the Summer-Fall issue of Bear Deluxe, the escalating demand for
coltan continues to fuel the ongoing conflict in the Congo that has
killed some 4 million people since the mid-1990s. The
Portland-based magazine is a hip look into the creative arts and
the environment. Other highlights in the latest issue include a
profile of wetland rehabilitation efforts in the Gulf Coast and a
comic about tree-dwelling octopuses. — Brendan Mackie

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