The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign Policy Guru
A fascinating peek behind the scenes in the Obama White House, through a profile of one of his key speechwriters.
This Parasite Drugs Its Hosts With the Psychedelic Chemical in Shrooms
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.
Chasing the Pearl of Lao Tzu
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
The dizzying story of Symphony of the Seas, the largest and most ambitious cruise ship ever built
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
The Follower Factory
A look at social media’s “black market” for influence in the form of followers and some of its intended and unintended consequences.
Inside China’s Vast New Experiment in Social Ranking
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.”
Tragedy of the Common
Whilst tactics to save rare species on the verge of extinction are well established, we may be missing another even bigger issue – the massive reduction of numbers in common species – from the skylark, to the tortoise, to the vulture.
Touching Death: The Turbulent Life of One of America’s Last Snake-Handling Preachers
A look at the work of snake-handling preachers in Kentucky.
Inside Hillary Clinton’s Surreal Post-Election Life
A profile resulting from the first major interview with Hillary Clinton since her election defeat in November.