In "Information Idol", Gideon Haigh investigates Google, the company on a mission to "organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible", and finds that it may actually be making us stupid:

"The speed with which Google has attained ubiquity is as problematic as it is intoxicating. Perhaps no innovation has been assimilated so wholly, and with so little reflection on how it may change us."

Bridget Griffen-Foley, in "Some Velvet Mourning", appraises the media response to the death of Australia's richest man, Kerry Packer, and wonders whether nostalgia has outweighed reason.

John Button, in "Crouching Tiger", recalls his experiences in Vietnam and asks whether a country scarred by hundreds of years of conflict can continue its economic recovery.

In The Nation Reviewed, Robert Manne questions whether the world will survive global warming, Michelle Griffin visits outer-suburban sex supermarkets, Simon Leys reflects on words and how they gain their power, and Clare Barker finds that birdwatching is gaining popularity among young Sydney professionals.