* Pew finds electronic registration would trim two million deceased voters from U.S. rolls. * Groups hope to recycle the 25 million pounds of beads thrown at Mardi Gras every year. * Trustees may revive a 40-year-old "urban laboratory" in the Arizona desert as a retirement resort. * With
Some decisions are best made heedlessly, based on the chance for an epic story—and some people think like that all the time. A report on what it’s like to slide down a volcano on a piece of sheet metal at 55 mph.
* Governments begin to use lotteries to encourage good citizenship. * Travel agents routinely beat online sites for finding cheaper fares; if the agent has a horrible website, they're probably legit. * Long investigation into how iPhone apps use information stored in your address book. * Critique of journalism, PR, and attack
One of the things I love about America is how willing the public is to accept someone stepping back into the spotlight (most of the time) (athletes especially). Well, you be the judge.
* Roche issues an alert that a fake version of its cancer drug, without its active ingredient, is circulating in the U.S. * Document leak reveals a libertarian thinktank's strategy to discredit climate-change science. * The Colorado River rarely reaches the sea; now U.S. and Mexican officials are
* Homs shelled for the 10th day; Assad emboldened by Russia's UN tactics and arms supply. * Book alleges CIA used Kashmir earthquake to cover smuggling agents into Pakistan. * New James Joyce children's book published, but his foundation cries foul. * Graduate student mounts defense of secret habit: audiobooks.
* Monsanto found guilty in French court of poisoning a farmer with weedkiller. * Five places where Valentine's Day is forbidden. * We're all out of money, but not love: proposing National Love Day, the anti-Valentine's. * Until the 1930s, Taiwanese aborigines often would bestow their loved
Sometimes a book appears in your life and starts to pester you. The characters act like your friends. Events occur in the plot that reappear inside your home. It’s enough to drive a man to wonder which world is more real, until danger appears.
* In 12,000 words, James Fallows reviews Obama's first term. * Fantastic Economist summary of the Syrian situation. * State Department photographs show al-Assad's artillery pointed toward major protest centers. * The World Press Photo of the Year for 2011 shouldn't be used to illustrate news
This week we’re debuting a new microfeature series, “Husband, Father, Writer, War,” in which Nathan Deuel recounts what it’s like to be an American citizen, young father, and supportive husband while he and his family settle down in Lebanon.
