2) Along side a link could be its ranking based on say only the top 50 users. This would let people explicitly see what the majority vs. the "elite rationalists" thought - an interesting barometer of community rationality.

I wouldn't do this. The top 50 users by karma score are more likely to be members who make a lot of comments than "elite rationalists".

The controversy meter and using recent votes are good ideas (I wouldn't split it, use only the recent votes).