A profile of April Bloomfield, chef at The Spotted Pig.

An interview with Douglas Hofstadter, who after winning the Pulitzer for Gödel, Escher, Bach retreated into the lab and published only sparingly in technical journals, on what it would mean if a program could generate humor and/or masterful compositions.

The bizarre tale of how the hiring of a reality TV contestant to greet high-end customers led to the firing of a successful CEO. Plus: a follow-up article.

New technology has historically been a friend to the porn industry, first VHS, then online DVD sales. But free streaming sites like YouPorn have sent the establishment into a tailspin, and due to anonymous domain registration, they don’t even know who their competition is. Will the internet kill porn?

On the religious revival underway in China.

Adapting from his book The Gun, Chivers traces how the design and proliferation of small arms, originating from both the Pentagon and the Russian army, rerouted the 20th century.

Notes on a summer spent aboard an industrial fishing boat off the Alaskan coast.

A profile of of Courtney Love.

In the feral communities of Russia’s Far East, tiger poaching is among the few lucrative pursuits. This is the story of a tiger who fought back.

The difference between a social network and a movie about a social network, and what it says about the Facebook generation.

A profile of Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson, published at the height of the controversy.

Anxiety, weight, general well-being—how the first nine months determine the rest of your life.

The perpetually underpaid author takes a moonlighting job with Demand Media, publisher of search-engine optimized articles with titles like “Hair Styles for Women Over 50 With Glasses”, absurdity ensues.

Part two of the history of the Educational Testing Service.

The first article in a two-part history of the Educational Testing Service, the institution behind the SAT.

A critique of Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for ‘Superman’.

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

When a boulder shifts and pins his hand, a climber on a solo trip is forced to do the unthinkable: amputate his own arm. A first-person account of the six-day ordeal, excerpted from Ralston’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

“I hate classical music: not the thing but the name. It traps a tenaciously living art in a theme park of the past. It cancels out the possibility that music in the spirit of Beethoven could still be created today.”

A single-page version of Shalhoup’s reporting on the Black Mafia Family, one of the largest cocaine empires in American history.

Booker winner Howard Jacobson on the bumper crop of sex worker memoirs and what they say about our understanding of paid sex.

Many experts believe it’s inevitable that in the coming decades, humans will figure out how to live considerably longer lives. It might not be a good thing.

Behind the scenes of Conan vs. Leno. An excerpt from The War for Late Night.

Nineteenth century Muslim-Christian hero Abd el-Kader, the “Algerian George Washington.”

Are we at war? The U.S. government’s evolving response to cyber security and its impact on privacy.