A man’s love of pigeons leads him to build a Ponzi scheme out of birds.

She’s 80 now, working 13 hour days, and still won’t take so much as a reporter’s hand to cross the stream.

Joseph Mitchell used composites in his non-fiction, invented characters and added flourishes to his facts. Does it matter?

Kidnappers in Mexico have changed their business model from retail to wholesale—instead of extorting a handful of rich families, they are targeting thousands of undocumented migrants.

The last all-male clubs in Britain are contemplating admitting women. But a significant proportion of their members still want to preserve the spaces as male-only.

How an eccentric industrialist bought Atlantic City’s shuttered Revel casino at a firesale price with a goal to turn it into a “life-extension facility.”

A gender studies professor, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, decides to take control of her death.

Worried about being kidnapped while on a business trip? A man in Florida teaches courses on how to avoid it.

One man’s quest to witness the “Bison Cull” in Yellowstone National Park.

From equipment that doesn’t fit to an ill-equipped VA medical system.

How an up-and-coming Boston surgeon became best known for leaving a patient on the operating table while he skipped out to cash a check.

On a U.S. soldier burned to the verge of death and the virtual-reality video game doctors used as treatment when he came home.

An artifact from the height of the uproar:

Behind the tawdriest of headlines, there's a woman I wouldn't mind bringing home to mom.

A writer’s trip home to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the racetrack inextricably linked with the histories of his family and his hometown.

On conspiracy theories in sports, from the ‘85 NBA draft lottery to Michael Phelps’ gold medal performance in the 100-meter butterfly.

A college president on the bizarre experience of being informed by NBC News that he had hired a war criminal to teach French.

Both the Chinese government and private matchmakers are laboring to unite people who lost spouses and children in the earthquake.

In the wake of 9/11, terrorist networks moved their recruitment and training efforts online, giving birth to Jihad-geeks like Irhabi_007.

The Great Recession meant great things for Nick Popovich, who gets paid by banks to take planes back from hard-up millionaires.

Inside the real lives of people who came early to intentionally provoking, confusing, and generally screwing with strangers online.

Foreign policy as architecture; how embassies went from lavish social hubs to reinforced strongholds.

Why did a veteran BBC on-air personality confess on camera to a mercy killing he did not commit?

An 18-month investigation proves reveals how easy it is to get away with murder in Baltimore.

You watch your best friend jump off a bridge trying to end his life. What do you do? Vino Richemond jumped in after him.

On Ayn Rand becoming a cult hero to Wall Street insiders and others items that make Matt Taibbi angry.