Will artificial intelligence bring utopia or destruction?

“Missy (Misdemeanor) Elliott, the twenty-five-year-old hip-hop performer who is energetically redefining the boundaries of rap music, is a singer, a songwriter, an arranger, a producer, and a talent scout. Six months ago, few people outside the music industry had heard of her; six months from now, it will be necessary to pretend that you’ve known about Missy Elliott for years.”

On the history of political polls, which have become more influential and less reliable over time.

Thirty years ago, Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Soering fell in love as freshman at the University of Virginia. It was the same year Haysom’s parents were brutally murdered. Each says the other committed the crime.

On Ahmad Chalabi, the con man who pushed America to war. Chalabi died on Tuesday at the age of 71.

A profile of Henry Hook, the world’s best crossword puzzler, who died this week.

The ridiculousness of trying to rank the best restaurants in the world.

“What we’re doing in writing is not all that different from what we’ve been doing all our lives, i.e., using our personalities as a way of coping with life.”

A Syrian refugee’s epic escape route through Europe.

The real Henry David Thoreau.

The hectic life of Gloria Steinem.

The sudden emergence of Bernie Sanders.

A former prostitute turned arctivist and her taxi-driver husband go undercover in Iraq’s brothels.

The most successful songwriter of the last twenty years is a forty-four year old Swede, Max Martin.

The adventures and controversies of the avant-garde poet Kenneth Goldsmith, who believes plagiarism is an art form.

A profile of Business Insider CEO and editor-in-chief Henry Blodget.

The murder of Tayshana “Chicken” Murphy in the Harlem projects.

Ken Dornstein’s older brother died when a bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103. For the past three decades, he’s been obsessed with identifying who’s really responsible.

No contemporary artist has used natural history to tell the kind of stories that painter Walton Ford tells.

The family accused of funding the Pakistani Taliban.

A profile of Judy Clarke, who takes on the most heinous, notorious defendants in America, trying to save them from the death penalty. Until Dzokhar Tsarnaev, she usually succeeded.

The men who say they’ll try to save the once-bustling gambling resort town.

A new neighbor's arrival highlights old and quiet problems.

Visiting the treasures – bear skulls, footprints, an ancient emerald necklace – that surfaced with shipwrecks at Yenikapi in Turkey.