Vindication for an awkward art.

Visiting his daughter in San Francisco, the author longs for food delivery in Manhattan.

In 1941, hundreds of Jedwabne’s Jews were massacred by their neighbors.

On the complex nature of a presidential second term and what Obama would do if he wins one.

The history of American whaling.

A profile of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who was sentenced to 50 years today after being convicted of committing crimes against humanity.

Growing up on B-movies.

How a surgical innovation allowed Dallas Weins to find a new face.

A profile of singer-songwriter Will Oldham.

He has settled into character as an uncanny troubadour, singing a sort of transfigured country music, and he has become, in his own subterranean way, a canonical figure. Johnny Cash covered him, Björk has championed him (she invited him to appear on the soundtrack of “Drawing Restraint 9”), and Madonna, he suspects, has quoted him (her song “Let It Will Be” seems to borrow from his “O Let It Be,” though he says, “I’m fully prepared to accept that it’s a coincidence”).

How Chief Justice John Roberts pulled off Citizens United.

A profile of Maurice Sendak.

On geoengineering, a high risk/high reward fix for global warming.

A profile of 22-year-old hacker George Hotz, who in 2007 became the first person to successfully unlock the iPhone. A few years later, he became the first person to successfully hack the Playstation 3. And, shortly thereafter, he became the first person to get sued by Sony for it.

The alchemy of predicting professional success, from quarterbacks to teachers.

On the relationship between Stanford and Silicon Valley.

Controversy over the alleged gold standard of forensic evidence.

A profile of environmental activist Van Jones.

An early profile of Lena Dunham.

The expansion of private-security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan is well known. But armed security personnel account for only about sixteen per cent of the over-all contracting force. The vast majority—more than sixty per cent of the total in Iraq—aren’t hired guns but hired hands. These workers, primarily from South Asia and Africa, often live in barbed-wire compounds on U.S. bases, eat at meagre chow halls, and host dance parties featuring Nepalese romance ballads and Ugandan church songs. A large number are employed by fly-by-night subcontractors who are financed by the American taxpayer but who often operate outside the law.

On living alone, which more people are doing today than ever before.

A history of the cell phone ringtone.

Many recent hip-hop songs make terrific ringtones because they already sound like ringtones. The polyphonic and master-tone versions of “Goodies,” by Ciara, for example, are nearly identical. Ringtones, it turns out, are inherently pop: musical expression distilled to one urgent, representative hook. As ringtones become part of our environment, they could push pop music toward new levels of concision, repetition, and catchiness.

On the empire built by “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade.

A father and his daughter’s brain tumor.

On the morality of procreation and the origins of birth control.

Is a serial killer on the loose in Wellfleet? An investigation.