Along similar lines, I also like Tamas Farkas, Guido Moretti, Sandro del Prete and Shigeo Fukuda.
Completely unrelated, here's a Slashdot review of a book about schools and computers, 'The Flickering Mind.' As for the author's opinion, suffice it to say he also wrote an Atlantic article called 'The Computer Delusion.'
Via mefi, here's an LA Weekly article about the people behind the Vaults of Erowid. Also syrup, and an are-you-on-drugs quiz, and Bob Marley's 'Legend.' Pretty druggy couple of days on Metafilter.
And here are cockeyed.com's 'How Much Is Inside Stuff?' features (amazing Herbalife report, too), and a couple other geeky sites--deuceofclubs.com and wirehedmag.com. Thanks, Simon.