Economist , Jan. 10 (posted Saturday, Jan. 10) Another cover editorial about the Asia crisis. This one disapproves of the International Monetary Fund's bailout. The recession it's supposed to prevent might never have happened, and rescuing financiers who make mistakes encourages them to make the same errors again. A 16-page package on tourism notes that it accounts for 10 percent of the world economy ($3.6 trillion per year). Big dilemma: how to prevent desirable vacation spots from being ruined. (Iraq's new tourism slogan: "From Nebuchadnezzar to Saddam Hussein, 2,400 years of peace and prosperity.") A story describes the latest Web-encryption device: digital watermarking. Subtle number patterns within digitized pictures and music let their owners bust bootleggers. Also, an article praises the ongoing Lunar Prospector mission. It's quick (22 months to develop) and cheap (only $63 million). The directive: Find water in the moon's polar craters. New Republic , Jan. 26 (posted Friday, Jan. 9) More Microsoft bashing. The cover story repeats the shopworn criticism that Microsoft is evil because its second-rate software crushes better programs. An article worries that Ted Turner's $1-billion donation will let him dictate U.N. policy. For instance, Turner's donation might fund projects to fight world hunger with buffalo meat (Turner owns 10 percent of all bison in the United States). Also, an essay bucks the trend by trashing Los Angeles' new Getty Museum: The art collection lacks any show-stoppers, and Richard Meier's entrance façade resembles "a prefab grain silo with lots of cutouts." Vanity Fair , February 1998 (posted Friday, Jan. 9) A profile argues that Al Gore secretly hates politics. His family bred him to be president, and he does his duty as a good son, but he'd rather be doing almost anything else. The piece reaffirms the cliché that Gore is a warm, funny guy behind his wooden exterior. An essay wishes the New York Times would ditch its new sections. "Dining In," "Fine Arts," etc., help advertisers more than readers, and make the paper unwieldy to read. Also, Vanity Fair dubs Brown University "Jet-Set Ivy." Super-rich, super-hip students (called "Euros," even when not European) drive Ferraris, wear Chanel, and hit Paris for weekends. Brown attracts the children of the rich and famous (Diana Ross, Kate Capshaw, Lamar Alexander, Itzhak Perlman), and its grads dominate the music and Web-publishing industries. New York Times Magazine , Jan. 11 (posted Thursday, Jan. 8) The cover story deplores local television news shows' obsession with titillation and ratings. Local news panders to viewers by showing crime and disaster footage, ignoring education and politics. Responsible conclusion: Local news should try to balance shocking video with serious stories. A conversation between Ralph Reed and George Stephanopoulos finds them agreeing that scandals don't hurt candidates, and partisanship annoys voters. Reed says he models himself after Martin Luther King Jr., while Stephanopoulos ridicules Al Gore for praising the sitcom character Ellen. ("It's not a moral issue, it's just stupid.") Also, a story asserts that the San Francisco 49ers' Steve Young is the best quarterback ever, statistically speaking. Young owns four of the 19 best-ever seasons for a quarterback, and is the highest-rated passer of all time. But 49ers fans will always love Joe Montana more. Time and Newsweek , Jan. 12 (posted Tuesday, Jan. 6) Time 's Jerry Seinfeld cover mourns the passing of Seinfeld . Inside are an exclusive interview with Seinfeld (he says he's not interested in money), a history of the show (it claims the 1992-93 season is the best), and a piece on NBC's now shaky future ( Seinfeld 's departure may end NBC's Thursday-night dominance). Conflict-of-interest watch: Seinfeld is a Time/Warner product. Newsweek counters by interviewing Larry David, Seinfeld 's co-creator and "dark genius." Newsweek, which did a cover story on Michael Kennedy and his siblings only six months ago, puts him on the cover again. The package offers thumbnail profiles of all RFK's children, as well as a schematic explaining ski football. Essays in both Newsweek and Time argue that Kennedy was a good man who will be unfairly remembered for sleeping with his kids' baby sitter. Time tracks the comeback of American Express. Hurt in the early '90s by no-fee credit-card competitors, Amex is back on the rise. Why? Better customer perks (like discounts and air miles), advertising geared toward younger consumers (including commercials featuring Jerry Seinfeld), and corporate downsizing. Newsweek wonders if VW's reintroduction of the Beetle will work. The new car is cute, but fans of the old Beetle hate the new front-mounted engine and high price (around $19,000). VW hopes nostalgia and slick marketing will sell the car. U.S. News & World Report , Jan. 12 (posted Tuesday, Jan. 6) The cover package is an ode to fat. Included: a claim that fat's OK for your body as long as you exercise; interviews with a chef and a nutritionist (both cautiously pro-fat); and a rundown of fatty cuisine in other cultures, including pâté de foie gras, crispy duck, and Ukrainian salted pork fat. Yum. (See Slate 's "Dialogue" on fat.) A story explains the publishing industry's new survival techniques. Huge advances are history, and better technology lets publishers ship books faster and track sales more closely. Also, U.S. News finds a vacation hotbed: Cuba. Fidel Castro has successfully boosted tourism to raise funds for his ailing country. While Americans can't legally go, the rest of the world flocks to Cuba's beaches, nightclubs, and prostitutes. The New Yorker , Jan. 12 (posted Tuesday, Jan. 6) A writer chronicles his own long bout with depression, a period when he couldn't eat and was afraid to stand up or shower. Medication, especially the anxiety-reliever Xanax, is much praised. Surprising fact: Psychosurgery is still performed on the desperately ill. "Cingulotomies" destroy centimeter-wide patches of brain tissue. The requisite Microsoft piece describes the economic theory behind the antitrust case. The market sometimes locks in an inferior high-tech product (e.g., MS-DOS) because the network advantages of using the inferior product (more available software) outweigh its technological disadvantages. This creates a monopoly. The theory, propounded by an economist named Brian Arthur, annoys classical economists because it denies the principle that the best product always wins. A story recounts the strange rivalry between top figure skaters Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski. The basic issue: Pre-adolescent skaters, who have the highest strength-to-size ratio, are the best jumpers. Breasts and hips hinder performance. The 17-year-old Kwan, who's been through puberty, is struggling in a way her 14-year-old rival isn't. Mother Jones , January 1998 (posted Tuesday, Dec. 30) The magazine's cover package takes on Microsoft. Bill Gates "pulls strings" in Washington and other world capitals, "cheats" by coercing software pirates into signing deals with the company, and "lies" about his business intentions, the magazine says. One article doubts that the government or any competitor can curb Microsoft, another alleges that the company intends to compile dossiers on all PC users, and a third reports on how the ad firm of Wieden & Kennedy transformed Microsoft's image from nerdy to cool. An article calls for cleaving 25 new states out of the nation's most populous states to restore representative democracy to the U.S. Senate. --Seth Stevenson