How English became the weirdest major language in modern use.

An obituary for the baseball legend.

What happens when we’re tracked everywhere we go?

“A story is a kind of biopsy of human life.”

For decades, the artist’s Saturday Evening Post covers championed a retrograde view of America. This is the story of the politically turbulent 1960s, a singular painting, and Rockwell’s unlikely change of heart.

The price we pay for cheap meat.

How YouTube went from ubiquitous to profitable; and where it goes next.

Ricky Rodriguez was born in the role of the messiah. His father was David Berg, the leader of the polygamous/incestuous cult The Children of God, which published a book documenting his early life:

In 1982 a shop in Spain printed several thousand copies of a book that was then distributed to group members around the world. Bound in faux leather, illustrated with hundreds of photographs, the 762-page tome meticulously chronicled Ricky's young life and was intended as a child-rearing manual for families. Its title, The Story of Davidito, was stamped in gold. With its combination of earnest prose and unabashed child pornography, it is perhaps the most disturbing book ever published in the name of religion.

Eventually, he left the cult and found work as an electrician. But revenge called him back.

Perhaps you didn’t know that in addition to being a very funny writer, Kafka’s life yields a lot of comedy too.

On House Xtravaganza and the life and death of its house mother Angie Xtravaganza, one of the stars of the documentary Paris is Burning, which brought vogueing and New York City’s transgendered ball culture into the spotlight.

Last fall, when the deadliest blaze in America in a century blew through Northern California, thousands of people—including those in the tiny community of Helltown—were forced to flee. This is the story of four friends who stayed to fight.

The Los Angeles surgeon who can double your size for $13,000.

The daily deals company turned down a $6 billion offer from Google and went public. Now its stock is down 80% and its founder/CEO has been fired. On Groupon’s failed strategy and tenuous future.

“Okay,” I said. “What do you think is the percentage chance that I’m right?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Five percent?”

“Strong-arm methods, including murder, are common in the illicit narcotics traffic. After a major international narcotics ring was broken up last year, two of the- twenty-four defendants were murdered before completion of the trial. One was shot down in the Bronx; the burned body of the other was found near Rochester, New York. The business executive, factory worker, and housewife never encounter the seamy side, but this is what their bets are financing. Again I ask, Is this really the way the American people want it to be?”

It’s in Florida and it involves Marco Rubio, the 33-year-old preferred candidate of the Democratic establishment, and “the only member of Congress whose desk is decorated with a plaque that reads: I HAVE FLYING MONKEYS AND I’M NOT AFRAID TO USE THEM!”

The juvenile ward on Rikers Island is a world of constant violence fueled by gangs and, allegedly, encouraged and overseen by the guards.

In the era of cord-cutting and mobile viewing, ESPN is at the crossroads.

As the U.S. heads toward the winter, the country is going round in circles, making the same conceptual errors that have plagued it since spring.

This new strain of Republican is not one Wisconsin, nor the United States, has ever seen...The new Republicans are corporate wrecking crews, given a sledgehammer, a piece of legislation and a command to "make it fit."

A dispatch from Vermont, which is in the midst of what the governor calls a “full-blown heroin crisis.”

How the ski town of the super-rich is responding to global warming.

“Is he Socrates or Mengele?” On the late Jack Kevorkian.

One of the world’s most hazardous jobs is known for its intense pressure.

“The only thing I’m able to conclude after my trip here is that it’s incredibly difficult for a poor country to go about getting un-poor.”