For 110 days and across two seas and three oceans, crews stalked a fugitive fishing ship considered the world’s most notorious poacher. By Ian Urbina.

Bich Ha and Huei Hann Pan were classic examples of the Canadian immigrant success story. Hann was raised and educated in Vietnam and moved to Canada as a political refugee in 1979. Bich (pronounced “Bick”) came separately, also a refugee. They married in Toronto and lived in Scarborough. They had two kids, Jennifer, in 1986, and Felix, three years later, and found jobs at the Aurora-based auto parts manufacturer Magna International...

Why do archaeological fraudsters work so hard to deceive us? Because bad science makes for good stories

Opposition to racism used to be a political stance. Now it has every marking of a religion, with both good and deleterious effects on American society. By John McWhorter.

At A Baseball Game In 1978, The Writer Who Almost Wasn't. By Haruki Murakami.

This is not a typical blog piece, though nothing about me is typical, so it fits appropriately. I have been hesitant to write anything about my life that is deeply personal, because that requires an incredible willingness on behalf of the writer to be vulnerable and honest. However, I am always up for a challenge....

Invited to the U.S., foreign workers find a nightmare. By Jessica Garrison, Ken Bensinger and Jeremy Singer-Vine.

On May 6, Jon Krakauer arrived in Missoula, Montana, to attend what was billed as a “public forum” about his new book, “Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town.” In the book, Krakauer presents the stories of multiple rape victims and their struggles to find justice through different judicial systems, including the University of Montana’s University Court. Several of the alleged rapists were members of the university’s football team, the Grizzlies... By Brendan Fitzgerald.

A 25-year-old Ohio woman goes missing for eight days. When her body is finally found, a tiny Appalachian town is rocked by shocking secrets of infidelity, polygamy and cold-blooded murder. By Alison Stine.

My hilarious, heartbreaking, triumphant season with the American Football League of China. By Christopher Beam. (2014)

In 1971 the British army took 14 men to a secret location in rural Co Derry and subjected them to a horrific interrogation from which they have never recovered. By Susan McKay.

The “Tim Hunt, misogynist scientist” narrative has been falling apart piece by piece over the past month. By Cathy Young.

There is another way. It will not satisfy those who wish that we would all unquestioningly accept that sexuality is, simply, a natural phenomenon, nor will it placate those who wish to identify the LGBT community as a symptom and cause of moral ills. Yet it is more accurate as a description of the biology of sexuality and its social nature. Desire might be biologically driven, but it moves on tracks laid forth by human culture.

A prodigy grows up to become one of the greatest mathematicians in the world. By Gareth Cook.

When Paul Newman died, in 2008, he left his Newman's Own food empire, and the charitable foundation it supports, in the hands of his adviser Robert Forrester. But, his eldest daughter says the family believes their father's principles are being betrayed. By Mark Seal.

The line for lawyers and family members to get into Lefortovo prison starts to form around five in the morning. The building, on a quiet street just east of Moscow’s Third Ring Road, now officially belongs to the Ministry of Justice, but it’s still informally known as the prison of the F.S.B., a successor agency to the K.G.B. Early on June 16, 2014, one of the prisoners awaiting visitors was Boris Kolesnikov, a general who had been the deputy head of the...

At a remote military base in the Pacific Northwest, Navy sonar technicians hear a confounding sound. It is the voice of a whale, but one that sings at a frequency—52 hertz—never before heard by scientists, and inaudible to other members of its species. The whale seems to be alone in the Pacific Ocean, unable to communicate with its kind... By Leslie Jameson. (August, 2014)

Radiation. Government conspiracy. Mass hysteria. There are plenty of theories as to why the residents of a tiny Kazakh mining region keep falling asleep for days at a time, but no answers. BuzzFeed News spends a week there and tries to stay awake. By Sarah A. Topol.

The country has invested billions in Ecuador and elsewhere, using its economic clout to win diplomatic allies and secure natural resources around the world.

In the world of right-wing extremism, how do you tell who is dangerous? By Ashley Powers.