A crackling piece from 2000, recounting the author’s experience attending the birthday party of a “global pariah”. Sample guest – a Bulgarian MP who has brought him a sniper rifle as a present. The 17 subsequent years of Iraq’s history make for a dark prism through which to read the story.
When he wasn’t satisfied with the answers to his questions about his son’s death in police custody, a preacher in Louisiana decided to investigate himself.
The Paris Review interviews a master of political biography, whose epic work on President Lyndon Johnson has only reached the start of his Presidency after four volumes. Caro eloquently described his philosophy on biography at a round table with Kurt Vonnegut in 1999 – “I realized that what I wanted to do was to use biography as a means of illuminating the times and the great forces that shape the times – particularly political power.”
A look at the illegal trade in exotic animals.
An insight into the odd existence of former presidents, viewed through the prism of Bill Clinton’s current role in Hillary’s campaign and his potential part in any future administration.
A look at an unflinchingly brutal fungal parasite that invades the abdomens of cicadas, turning them into “flying saltshakers of death” when they then fly around releasing spores from the fungus on to their brethren on the ground. The cicadas’ obliviousness to the catastrophic loss of their bottoms is perhaps explained by the fact that the fungus has been found to contain psychedelics and amphetamines.
The dizzying, multi-layered story of a huge pearl that has been at the centre of elaborate hoaxes, claims and counter-claims, and havoc in the lives of those connected to it for over 80 years. http://bit.ly/atlantic-pearl
A story looking at the sheer complexity and scale involved in designing the floating cities that make up modern cruise ships. http://bit.ly/wired-cruise
A look at social media’s “black market” for influence in the form of followers and some of its intended and unintended consequences.
A look at the new credit scoring tools available in China, made possible by deep integration of services around a small handful of companies, and reaching into almost every part of daily life. As one user succinctly puts it – “If your friends are all high-score people, it’s good for you. If you have some bad-credit people as friends, it’s not nice.”