The Atlantic

The Astonishing Tale of the Man Mueller Calls “Person A”

Straight from the pages of a Cold War thriller, this is the story of Konstantin Kilimnik, the long time right-hand man to Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign Chairman. Kilimnik is now believed to have been an asset of Russian intelligence for a significant portion of his career as a consultant to a range of figures in international politics and business. Robert Mueller’s enquiry charged him on June 8th with two charges relating to obstruction of justice. For more on his former boss Manafort, see these from previous Journal editions (bit.ly/atlantic-manafort & bit.ly/slate-manafort).

Why Earth’s History Appears So Miraculous

An ambitious piece looking at observer selection effect – where a data set’s composition or properties are correlated with the very existence of its observer. The first example the piece calls on is an analysis of planes returning from WWII bombing raids with the goal of identifying which areas of the fuselage to reinforce, but it rapidly expands in scope to extinction events for our world, and our universe.

Did Jesus Have a Wife?

A hotly contested papyrus that refers to Jesus’ wife sent shockwaves through academic circles when it was discovered. Questions rapidly arose as to its authenticity, and investigations ended up in some very unexpected places. http://www.bit.ly/atlantic-jesus

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.

The Patriarchy Hates the Moon

The story of man’s uneasy relationship with the moon, culminating in planned nuclear attacks on it by both Soviet and American governments during the Cold War. http://www.bit.ly/atlantic-moon

When Your Child Is a Psychopath

A look at what can be done for children that display traits commonly associated with psychopaths. They do not feel the wrong of actions, though they might intellectually understand them – they Òknow the words but not the musicÓ. http://www.bit.ly/atlantic-psychopath

Al Franken, That Photo, and Trusting the Women

This eloquent piece looks at the sexual harassment allegations against Senator Al Franken and uses them as a springboard to examine humanity’s long history of identifying trustworthiness as a male trait and duplicity as its female counterpart – via Aristotle, Galen, Jezebel, Cassandra, Hamlet and others.