A writer’s chance meeting with his idol.

The Barden family today.

On cushy jobs in web development, deeply un-cushy opportunities in writing, and our assumptions about the value of labor.

On film comedy’s silent beginnings.

On writer James Agee.

On “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez,who terrorized Los Angeles and San Francisco through a string of over 30 home invasion murders starting in 1984 and ending when he was recognized and apprehended by an angry mob.

An essay on raising birds.

A portrait of the Somali capital.

On Ephemerisle, a “floating festival of radical self-reliance,” and other attempts at creating an island utopia.

Tracing a secretive cyber-war’s battles and casualties.

Montaous Walton couldn’t throw, catch or hit. But he wanted to be a ballplayer. And with the help of the internet, the media, and an ambitious young agent, that’s what he briefly became.

Their religion prohibits lawsuits. The energy companies know it.