Karl Friston’s free energy principle might be the most all-encompassing idea since Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

A profile of the woman who wants to declutter the world.

An interview with Richard A. Epstein of the Hoover Institution.

The passengers of the Diamond Princess came for indulgence, relaxation and bottomless buffets. Then they found themselves trapped on a ship infected with a deadly virus.

On the public-health risks of the American prison system.

Gold mined in the jungles of Peru brought riches to three friends in Miami—but it also carried ruin.

The Texas Department of Transportation intends to spend $25 billion widening highways to fix traffic in Texas cities. What if we tore them down instead?

An excerpt from Darnielle’s debut novel, in which a disfigured man talks to maladjusted teens.

Perpetually reinvented through experimental chemistry, manufactured in Asian mills, packaged in foil with names like White Slut Concentrated and Charley Sheene for use as “hookah cleaner,” distributed in college town head shops, snorted and injected by hardened addicts and high school thrill seekers alike, bath salts may be the strangest and most volatile American drug craze since crack. And they’re (quasi) legal.

Birds like Roseate Spoonbills and Burrowing Owls are ending up in the stomachs of hungry pythons and nile monitors. Is it too late to stop them?

Pimp, brawler, Old Master.

Why the second Indiana Jones was so dark.

A glimpse into the overcrowded California State Prison, Los Angeles County.

When a writer’s daily routine gets out of control.

One morning, as I gobbled my doughnut and slurped my coffee, thinking to myself, "What a fantastic doughnut, what an amazing coffee," I realised that I had not just thought this but was actually saying aloud, "What a fantastic doughnut! What a totally fantastic experience!", and that this was attracting the attention of the other customers, one of whom turned to me and said, "You like the doughnuts, huh?"

Chaos and heroism during a Kentucky school shooting.

Beyond the fact that he lacked a pulse, little is known about the man found on an Adelaide beach in 1948.

Bruce Fleming is known for being a chauvinistic, egoistic loudmouth–but firing him has been a lot harder than the Pentagon thought.

In high school, I started to become like a local legend. A hood celebrity, if you will. And you really gotta understand how poppin’ New York City basketball was at that time. I’m playing against Stephon Marbury, Skip 2 My Lou, Alimoe (rest in peace), all these guys who would become household names, they were just kids from around the way. Man, even Cam’ron was super nice!!!

I knew all these guys from when we was little kids playing church basketball, and now all of a sudden we got Jay-Z, Puff, Dame Dash — all these guys are showing up to our games. That’s how insane New York City basketball was at that time.

How America is trying to fight terrorism in Africa without doing any of the actual fighting.

“Professional boxing is the only major American sport whose primary, and often murderous, energies are not coyly deflected by such artifacts as balls and pucks.”

A growing movement is seeking a deeper knowledge of themselves through tracking sleep, exercise, sex, food, location, productivity. Technology has made it possible—but hasn’t taught us how to interpret the findings.

In 1991, Edwin Debrow shot and killed a cab driver on the east side of San Antonio. He was twelve years old. Twenty-five years later, he is still in prison. Is that justice? And is there room for mercy?

An indecent proposal, a crime of passion, and legends of murder in an enclave of bohemian retirees.

Is being a war correspondent worth the risk?