How the Pentagon makes “Koch Industries look like an organic farm” when it comes to toxic water contamination.

How to understand the real-world value of things that are worth nothing and everything at once.

A profile of Michelle Lyons, who viewed 278 executions as both a local reporter and a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

A look inside Google’s Ground Truth.

On the 1,600-year-old text that suggests that Jesus, long believed to be celibate, was a married man.

How a Tulsa preacher used direct mail to create the American religious right.

In 1945, a fire tore through the home of George and Jennie Sodder. Four children escaped; five vanished.

An internet pioneer loses hope in the promise of web culture.

An interview on craft.

Searching for answers 40 years after a Brooklyn man threw acid in the face of his 4-year-old neighbor.

A profile of the deadliest sniper in American history, who was murdered last month by a fellow soldier.

The author visits Franklin County, Mississippi, where, according to census data, there are zero same-sex couples.

On “Operation Bambi,” the secret plan to oust “Today” show co-host Ann Curry.

The outing of a failed writer who spent years anonymously grinding axes on Wikipedia.

Women who left their careers to be stay-at-home mothers reflect on the decision ten years later.

A profile of lawyer Jacques Vergès, who died yesterday after decades spent defending war criminals, terrorists and dictators.

The lost dream of Korleone Young, a high school basketball star who skipped college and flamed out after only one NBA season.

On the assassination of a half-Palestinian, half-Jewish cultural revolutionary.

For 18 months, Coatesville, Penn., was besieged with an improbable number of arsons.  But who started the fires – and why?

A profile of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar during the 2004 Cannes International Film Festival.

“Radically brilliant. Absurdly ahead of its time. Ridiculously poorly planned.” An oral history of the National Sports Daily.

A profile of Jaron Lanier, virtual reality pioneer and the author of You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto.

A profile of Ken Robinson, who earned minor fame and more than a few enemies for the controversial way he “bought” his house:

The week after Robinson moved into the tan-sided home with a faux stone entrance and maroon shutters, he was soaring, an Internet hero a few levels shy of Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who last summer cracked a beer and left work on a plane's emergency slide. For $16, Robinson had filed paperwork with Denton County staking his claim to the abandoned home through an obscure Texas law called adverse possession. Ever since, curious visitors, beginner real estate investors and people who want an ultra-cheap home to fulfill their version of the American Dream have been knocking on his door for advice and a handshake.

How an Italian thug looted MGM, brought Credit Lyonnais to its knees, and made the Pope cry.

On H.H. Holmes “an old hand at corpse manipulation and insurance fraud,” who built a house of death in 1890s Chicago.