The virtues of reintroducing risk into childrens’ playtime and other news and views for Sunday 23 March

• When one New Zealand school tossed its playground rules and let students risk injury, the results were surprising
• Why low-calorie liquor is doomed – “”People don’t drink alcohol for health and wellness reasons,” says Spiros Malandrakis, a senior alcoholic drinks analyst with the consultancy Euromonitor. “Sometimes with marketers, navel gazing can become so much of a problem that you forget about how people go out and drink.”
• The Return of Terror: Violence Rocks Iraq as Elections Approach
• The Secret Auden – “W.H. Auden had a secret life that his closest friends knew little or nothing about. Everything about it was generous and honorable. He kept it secret because he would have been ashamed to have been praised for it.”
• The Unwisdom of Crowds

 – Why people-powered revolutions are overrated – “… a successful street revolution, like any revolution, is never guaranteed to leave anything positive in its aftermath—or anything at all… a successful street revolution, like any revolution, is never guaranteed to leave anything positive in its aftermath—or anything at all.”
• Russian Defiance Is Seen as a Confidence Builder for Syria’s Government
• Arthur Sinodinos and the surreal world of Australian Water