Nelson Mandela Dies At Age of 95
South Africa's Nelson Mandela, former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has died of illness at the age of 95.Display Large Image: NoShow Right Sidebar: YesShow Left Sidebar: Yes
View ArticleAssad’s Poison Pill May Help Him Survive the Civil War
Initially perceived as President Bashar Assad’s worst blunder in Syria’s civil war, the use of chemical weapons by his army last summer increasingly looks like his ticket to military victory and the...
View ArticleMerry Christmas! Join the Breadline!
This holiday season, Congress is preparing to give Americans a big lump of coal, economically speaking.The Great Recession technically ended in the summer of 2009, but millions of Americans are still...
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Going to That Great Cocktail Lounge in the Sky
I know middle-aged men who still dress in suit-and-tie for a flight, even if it’s a hop from New York to Boston and has nothing to do with business. They are an ever-more rare breed: Though the Wall...
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Photo Essay: Storms Hammer Europe
Mother Nature took aim at Europe this week, battering Scotland, England, Germany, Sweden and the surrounding region with strong winds, heavy rain, tidal surges and snow. Public transportation has been...
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Two Numbers: Bitcoins From Heaven
Bitcoin has made a pretty penny for speculators. Since it first traded on May 21, 2010, the virtual currency has increased more than 400,000 times in value. In the past year alone it jumped from $10 to...
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Soccer Punch: How Qatar Came to Host the 2022 World Cup
It is possible to view the prospect of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with concern, even horror. It is also possible to admire the drive and single-mindedness the emirate has shown in pursuing its dream...
View ArticleTigers, Tigers, Burning Bright: College Football Could Use a Few More Team Names
The University of Alabama won the previous two national championships in college football, demonstrating that in this sport it is possible to repeat. In fact, in terms of mascot names at the Football...
View ArticleGadget Lust: The Sharpest Knife in the Drawer
The second thing I learned in cooking school, after how to hold a knife, was how to sharpen one. My chef-instructor told us with a glint of malicious glee in his eye that a sharp knife leaves a...
View ArticlePolitical Football: May The Best Teams Play in the BCS
When Ohio State takes the field Saturday evening for the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis, the Buckeyes will gaze upon each end zone with relief. It will be the first time in a week that Urban...
View ArticleDoctors Without Borders (For the Rest of Us)
U.S. health care is like movie theater popcorn – ridiculously overpriced and nothing special compared to what you can get elsewhere. We put up with it because we’re captive.But thanks to Obamacare and...
View ArticleTrue-Life Drama: The Women of Syria Play the Women of Troy
In the summer of 1992, Charlotte Eagar, a writer and classics scholar, was listening to a radio production of the Euripides antiwar play The Trojan Women on the BBC.At the time, Eagar was working...
View ArticleDiagnosing Disease With the Touch of a Button
They might not have electricity or running water, but some of the world’s poorest communities might soon have a way of quickly diagnosing diseases on the spot.With a drop of blood or saliva, iPad-sized...
View ArticleItalian Towns Battle Over Odysseus
Where did the Greek myths take place? Where was Odysseus bewitched and seduced by Circe, the sorceress who turned men into pigs and made Odysseus her sex slave? It is not just a game for classical...
View ArticleInside Russia, Detroits Proliferate
In the former Russian timber town of Vydrino on the shore of Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia, life is so slow residents joke that carrying plastic bags filled with trash to the garbage truck is a...
View ArticleNew York City’s War On Artists
Robert Lederman has been arrested 41 times for selling his watercolors. The first time he was collared, in the winter of 1984, he had just broken up with his wife and was sleeping in a cardboard box in...
View ArticleSerpico on Stop-and-Frisk, Snowden, And the Dalai Lama
“Do you just talk?” Frank Serpico says, cutting off my attempts to chat him up as he holds court at this organic grocery where, on a near-daily basis, he gossips with fellow Hudson Valley locals while...
View ArticleFighting for the Good, Green Land
Aldo Leopold once shot a wolf. As he approached the dying animal, he saw “a fierce green fire in her eyes,” which convinced him that he had erred deeply in his understanding of nature. As the noted...
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Instagramming Typhoon Haiyan
Typhoon Haiyan devastated the city of Tacloban in the Philippines after it struck on November 8. When I arrived there at the end of the month, the scene remained overwhelming: Houses were piles of...
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Today in Tabs: Our Incredible Journey
Like a resident of Night Vale, I'm both proud and terrified to announce that Today in Tabs is going to be syndicated by the new Newsweek.com. After a couple of rough years, Newsweek.com was bought by...
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