The discussion on why Apple is cheap was very useful. The debate brought into focus the possible causes for pessimism in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But maybe there is yet another explanation. The way the data was presented was as a difference between historic and projected…

Default The Hangover Part III It started as a challenge. A patently absurd challenge. Could one writer keep up with a real-life Wolf Pack—comic star Aziz Ansari, top chef David Chang, and LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy—as the hipster trinity partied through Tokyo, arguably the food capital of the…

Home Politics Kevin Drum Environment Tom Philpott Media and Culture Subscribe Donate No Country for Innocent Men How a rapist's confession forced Rick Perry, champion of Texas justice, to pardon a dead man. Illustration: Edel Rodriguez "Dear Mr. Cole," the letter began. "My name is Jerry Wayne…

Emil Robinson, Pink Book, 2011. Courtesy the artist and Waterhouse & Dodd . About a month ago, I had surgery. I am not sick, but the surgery was to reduce my risk of becoming sick in the future: a double mastectomy, a significant procedure for an otherwise healthy 31-year-old woman. I’d been…

L'Atlas, Cosmos. Courtesy of the artist and gallery nine5 . The letter on my desk was from a family, a husband and wife. They had written to me after reading a short news article I’d done about a 26-year-old convicted child molester who had been arrested that week and charged with raping a…

By Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times December 11, 2011 First of four parts Amber Dias couldn't be sure what was wrong with her little boy. Chase was a bright, loving 2 1/2-year-old. But he didn't talk much and rarely responded to his own name. He hated crowds and had a strange fascination with the…

Only 7.3 percent of all television shows make it to a second season. I actually have no idea if that’s true, because I don’t know anything about successful television shows. The only shows I’ve worked on have been canceled. Two years ago, at a friend’s recommendation, I created a Twitter feed called…

Float builders like Phoenix Decorating in Pasadena say some former clients can't justify the cost. Monica Almeida/The New York Times PASADENA, Calif. — With its peppy bands, whimsical floats and flood of flowers, the Rose Parade here has long been a symbol of the hopes of a New Year. But the…

DIRTY MONEY The evolving anti-laundering campaign could change the tone of the Mexican government's battle by striking at the heart of the cartels' financial empire, analysts say. Soldiers carry a table displaying stacks of seized U.S. dollars at a media… (Eduardo Verdugo, Associated…) Reporting…

The Waldorf School in Los Altos, Calif., eschews technology. Here, Bryn Perry reads on a desktop. Jim Wilson/The New York Times LOS ALTOS, Calif. — The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple,…

News & Culture Don't Let Your Desk Kill You: A GQ Get-off-Your-Ass Primer Go to the gym all you want. But the evidence is mounting that even the most herculean workouts won't save you from a sedentary day at the office. (We're talking heart attacks, persistent pudginess, even, um, rectal cancer.)…

veepstakes What Does Carly Fiorina Have on Ted Cruz? Dissecting a strange friendship between enemies. In Conversation Susan Sarandon Only Meddles in Little Things The stars and director of The Meddler talk to VF.com about how the film reflects real life. Rocket Man Elon Musk Wants to Go to Mars as…

Transcripts of military interviews from the investigation into the Haditha massacre were found at this trailer in a junkyard in Baghdad, which specializes in selling trailers and office supplies left over from American military base closings. Andrea Bruce for The New York Times BAGHDAD — One by one,…

Photograph by Harvard Law Record The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a case that raises a fundamental question: whether a physician can infringe a patent merely by using scientific research to inform her treatment decisions. Unfortunately, this issue was barely mentioned in…

Editor's note: We’re debuting a new feature this week in which we dive into the archives to showcase some of the best stories from issues past. To kick things off, we revisit this tale of a man, a ball, a hoop, a bench (and an alleged thread)—how a small, but beautiful trick illuminates the mind of…

News & Culture His Own Private Idaho Ten years ago, a man moved to Marsing, Idaho. He had a strange accent and didn't know much about cattle. The folks in Marsing were a little skeptical at first, but when he built a house and started a family, he earned his neighbors' acceptance. Last February,…

This is my first trip to Moscow, and Yuri Milner, the world’s most successful investor in social media, is taking me to his parents’ apartment, which he bills as a typical middle-class Moscow dwelling. It’s drab Soviet brick outside. The none-too-reliable-looking elevator is encircled by a crumbling…

As a teenager, I once had an opportunity to fly in a police helicopter over a major American city. Naively, I thought the experience might be uneventful. Perhaps there would be no crime between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. However, from the moment we were airborne, there was a fresh…

Illustration by Jesse Lenz (Photo: Imagine China/AP Images) B efore Paul Krugman joined the New York Times op-ed page, it was a genteel place. The classic pattern was to promote distinguished reporters to cushy sinecures as columnists. Because they were trained as reporters, not polemicists, they…

This article was taken from the December 2011 issue of Wiredmagazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print beforethey're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additionalcontent by subscribingonline . Kevin Xu, 35, was waiting nervously at Starbucks in Bangkok'sbusy Suvarnabhumi…

Nancy Luo didn’t expect an answer when she e-mailed Steve Jobs one Wednesday evening two summers ago. But less than a day later, an Apple emissary knocked on her door at the University of Chicago Hospitals. It was Aug. 25, 2010, the last day of a long heatwave in Chicago. Luo — a second-year…

If there were an urban myth that suburban homes are impervious to becoming cannon fodder, it just got busted. Two homes, a sidewalk and a van all took fire after a test for the show MythBusters went awry Tuesday and sent a cannonball out of a bomb range and into a nearby residential neighborhood in…

For the second week in a row, the Senate on Thursday voted down proposals to extend the payroll tax holiday through next year. In the case of the Democrats' proposal, Republicans objected to the "millionaires surtax" that would be used to pay for it. Ever since the idea of the surtax was introduced…

My name is Sivapuranam Thevaram, and my origins are in the northern parts of Sri Lanka. I usually identify myself as a Sri Lankan Tamil, strictly in that order. And that order is not negotiable. Equally significant, and not for negotiation, is the order of the two identifiers in my name: Sivapuranam…

Millions of Americans hoped President Obama would nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the consumer financial watchdog agency she had created. Instead, she was pushed aside. As Warren kicks off her run for Scott Brown’s Senate seat in Massachusetts, Suzanna Andrews charts the Harvard professor’s…

Photograph by melanie cook A decade ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that parents limit TV consumption by children under two years of age. The recommendations were based as much on common sense as science, because studies of media consumption and infant development were themselves…

Singapore != Tech Hub? The Fallacy of High Operating Costs in Singapore Case in point – a startup that raises US$10M in Silicon Valley and New York and spends it all on software engineer salaries will see anywhere between 40 – 50% of that money leak out of the value creation cycle in the form of…

A 2008 survey by Trinity College estimated there are about 25,000 committed Scientologists in the United States. As the study’s authors admit, their estimate could be off target. But even if the number of Scientologists were twice as large, Scientology would still be the smallest religion people…

We’ve covered how to effectively pitch your startup to the tech press before, and at the Future of Web Apps conference in London this month, entrepreneur and angel investor Dave McClure was in attendance to give his advice on how best to pitch to a venture capitalist. It was interesting to note some…