Exploring the darkest corridors of the Internet.

An autopsy of the San Jose Mercury News.

A history of the fowl.

How smallpox went from eradicated disease to the ideal weapon of bioterrorists.

On the underground doctors unleashing the healing powers of hallucinogens.

On the new art of interrogation.

The billionaire founder of Renaissance Technologies turns to science.

How Fortnite became the Instagram of gaming.

The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America.

An oral history of the war in Afghanistan.

Inside the campaign of Joe Biden, “the least formidable front-runner ever.”

A conversation with the comedian.

JW: You’ve talked about how you’ve had to explain moral lessons to your daughters, but do it in an inarticulate, catchy way. It’s almost as though you’re writing material for them. What’s the place of morality and ethics in your comedy? I think those are questions people live with all the time, and I think there’s a lazy not answering of them now, everyone sheepishly goes, “Oh, I’m just not doing it, I’m not doing the right thing.” There are people that really live by doing the right thing, but I don’t know what that is, I’m really curious about that. I’m really curious about what people think they’re doing when they’re doing something evil, casually.

The Arctic permafrost is thawing, revealing millions of buried mammoth skeletons. But the rush for mammoth ivory could put elephants in danger all over again

Before ending up in Rikers, Jeremy Wilson — if that’s his real name — had portrayed himself as a Scottish-born DJ, a Cambridge-trained thespian, a Special Forces officer, a professor at MIT, an Apple executive, a soldier seeking asylum in Canada to escape anti-Semitic attacks in the United States, and an Irish mobster. Among others.

Colin Powell’s battle with the Bush administration.

On the Miss America pageant.

On the late singer Judee Sill, the virtual cemetery site Find a Grave, and memorials in the age of the Twitter RIP.

On the labor conditions behind branches of NYU, the Louvre, and the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi.

The British and Irish have coined some fabulous terms to describe nature and landscrape. “Doofers” is the Scots’ term for horse-shit; “clinkerbell” means icicle in Hampshire.

The death of a submissive man-pup and the scrotal silicone injection that killed him.

He pauses and glances around him. Just about everyone in the place is aware of him now. When he continues, the voice is still under control, but the eyes have become lasers. “I know that some of the press is out to get me. It’s ’cause I’m more intelligent than they are, I handle myself well, I’m wealthy and I’m black—and there ain’t nothin’ they can do about it.” He flashes his joyless smile

The Cleveland police are still adamant that they did nothing wrong in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

A Thanksgiving story about the limits of human empathy.

On the discovery of a billion dollars worth of artwork looted by Nazis in the cramped apartment of a Munich recluse.