The U.S. has seen an increase in National Parks visitors in recent years, as well as an outdoor climbing boom. At Denali National Park, that also means a surge in less experienced climbers: “more summit chasers, fewer wilderness seekers.” In this story for Insider, Kelsey Vlamis recounts the experience of four climbers attempting to summit […]
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Posted inQuotes
How a Hacker Named P4x Took Down North Korea’s Internet
North Korea hacked him. Things got personal.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Not-Quite-Redemption of South Africa’s Infamous Ultra-Marathon Cheats
In 1999, twin brothers in South Africa cheated in the Comrades, an ultra-marathon. They did it by swapping clothes in a portable toilet halfway through the race. Their actions stunned the country, and their names became synonymous with deceit. But why did they do it? It’s hard, sometimes, not to read everything that happens in […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
From Aardvark to Woke: Inside The Oxford English Dictionary
Pippa Bailey explores the fascinating business of defining a word. The Oxford English Dictionary remains, in many ways, a Victorian phenomenon, born in an era of remarkable innovation: of railways and steelworks, anthropology and anaesthesia, Charleses Dickens and Darwin. It is difficult, now, when the thought of consulting a paper dictionary seems so analogue, to […]
Posted inNewsletter
Walking on Faith and the Week’s Top 5
“Most people here were trying to find a way to live with events that could have broken their lives: absence, illness, loss, death. How could I fault them for something I also wanted, which was to wring meaning from things that have none?” “Why was I stumbling alongside this mass of the devout?” This is […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
How a Ticket from Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls Debut Became Priceless
“Every ticket can tell you a story. I’m someone who’s about relationships and experiences. And that’s what tickets are to me.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Highway Star
“Jess told me later that it was rare to see her model of truck with a set forward axle, which helps pull heavy loads. ‘It’s a unicorn truck,’ she said, grinning.”
Posted inUncategorized
10 Short Stories, The Power of Music, and Our Top 5
“I always admired how my father could play so delicately with such brutal hands. They were rough, mired with patches of psoriasis, calloused from playing the charango and the guitar, and scarred, scarred all over.” I have fond memories of playing the violin when I was a child, and over the years I’ve considered returning […]
Posted inFeature
True Crime, Jersey Shore Style
How I (possibly) solved a cold case on my summer vacation.
Posted inUncategorized
Fit to Be Tied (and the Week’s Top 5)
“When most of us build or buy a home, we carefully appraise the neighborhood. In Malibu the neighborhood is fire. Fire that revisits the coastal mountains several times a decade. In the past sixty years, ten of these frequent events have turned into all-consuming firestorms.” Welcome to 2025, friends. Peter here. As it does all too often, […]
