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Articles

An Energy-Generating Beaver Dam

Thinking small to end the era of big dams

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In This One

In this one he’ll only have one daughter and no other child. In this one he’ll be divorced and his ex-wife will live in California. In this one he’ll live…

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New Books

Hell hath no fury like a Hitchcock scorned. After the fat man with the famous profile signed Tippi Hedren to a seven-year contract and put her through what was then…

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Findings

Paleontologists noticed that a 48-million-year-old fossil was of an insect eaten by a lizard eaten by a snake. A western desert tarantula fought its way out of a Sonoran Desert…

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In The Hollow

The changing face of Appalachia—and its role in the presidential race

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Letters

War of Words Tom Wolfe paints a florid and darkly conspiratorial picture of a decade-old discussion in linguistics, in which my colleagues and I are assigned the role of bad…

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Psychedelic Trap

Driving into Cleveland on a warm July Saturday to secure my press credentials for the Republican National Convention, I get a text from a friend in California, a guy in…

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Harper’s Index

Number of countries that offer citizenship in return for an investment commitment : 23 Factor by which the average fee charged by migrant smugglers has increased since January : 3 Percentage of global refugees…

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A Joyful Noise

By Nicholson Baker, from Substitute, an account of his experiences as a substitute teacher in Maine public schools in 2014. The book was published last month by Blue Rider Press.…

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The Furniture Tester

By Mónica de la Torre, from The Happy End/All Welcome, a collection of poetry that will be published in December by Ugly Duckling Presse. De la Torre is the author…

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Amo Ergo Sum

From a conversation with Bina48, a robot that was created by Hanson Robotics for Martine Rothblatt, the CEO of United Therapeutics, as a clone of her wife, Bina Rothblatt. The…

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Faux Paws

From mistaken reports of animals in distress, compiled over the past year by an animal-rescue shelter in Guernsey.

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Town Criers

From a village board meeting held in June in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Tykables, a company that serves adult-baby diaper lovers, opened a storefront in the village two months earlier. Arlene…

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Nothing to be Done

From a letter written in 1973 by Samuel Beckett to Estelle Parsons, an actress who had requested his thoughts on staging Waiting for Godot with Shelley Winters. The letter appears…

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Glasnost Half Full

From the transcript of a staff meeting at RBC, a media company based in Moscow, in July. An audio recording of the meeting was leaked to Meduza, a Russian-language news…

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Ispy

From a list of 4,432 scenes and objects that Apple's Photos app is able to recognize and classify.

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The Pet

By Roger Lewinter, from Story of Love in Solitude, a collection of short fiction that was published this month by New Directions. Lewinter, who lives in Switzerland, is the author…

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The Hamilton Cult

Has the celebrated musical eclipsed the man himself?

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Held Back

Battling for the fate of a school district

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Class Struggle

I n every city there is a district which is called “tough” — a district which decent people, afraid of insult or theft, shun in both daylight and darkness. It…

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Division Street

Chances are that you are living the good life, at least in the most fundamental sense. You have the liberty to leave your home and the security of a home…

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November 2016

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