Mattis makes an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, says the Taliban’s interested in talks to end the more than 16-year-old war.

Trump visits California, not his favorite place, judging by his tweets. Too bad he’s looking at his silly wall, not a real border problem like sewage.

Because Pat Robertson saw political "wiggle room" and seized it—why socialists should follow the evangelical blueprint.

Trump's military parade will cost enough to feed every homeless vet for two weeks.

Schools struggle over how to accommodate students who want to walk out on Wednesday to honor the Parkland dead.

Photographer Nan Goldin led a protest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art over its OxyContin connections.

The fastest-growing pay gap isn't between men and women, but white women and women of color.

Knitting patterns are already code. Feed them to neural nets and you get in-jokes “on the edge of knittability.”

A pretty fascinating story from inside Reddit's "Policy Update War Room" about its efforts to fix the toxic web.

How a popular Washington blogger became an indie magazine publisher in the desert.

A series of illustrations by Mikyung Lee show various female landscapes in the desert (some NSFW).

As the fingers reach the keys, sound and touch seem to fuse into one. The keyboard has ceased to be a mere function for hammers to strike strings, and has become a precious horizontal artifact to caress. This is music of the piano as much as for the piano. A nice essay by pianist Stephen Hough about Debussy and what made him “the first ‘modern’ composer.”

Parking is so difficult at Tesla offices—it’s Elon Musk's personal "nightmare"—employees nap in their cars to hold a space.

Upwards of 100 members of Congress sleep in their offices, using them as rent-free personal residences.

Ksenia Shestakovskaia, porno-décor aficionado, chooses her favorite, "most hardcore" homes on Airbnb.

A brief portrait of Elizabeth Friedlander, one of the first women to design a typeface.

"Lifestyle vintners," wealthy people who own wineries, aren't just destroying Northern California—they're ruining wine.

A map of The Big Lebowski's key filming locations around Los Angeles.