Op: Pakistan’s problem isn’t too much water. It’s too little water—and one day it could cause a war.

In a Missouri prison, inmates find relief through quilting for charity.

Twenty-five percent of wrongful convictions involve false confessions. Interview with Innocence Project co-founder.

Praying beats positive thinking in preventing infidelity.

For men with virtual girlfriends, Atami, Japan, is the ultimate romantic getaway.

Jessa Crispin finds a life plan halfway between European sophistication and Kansan homemaking.

Long read: London tabloids exposed for pervasive cellphone hacking.

Human cadavers are the hidden, icky heroes of automobile safety.

Developer discusses challenges in putting people’s genetic data on their smartphones.

Sponsored contest: Be one of five folks to win an advance copy of Tom McCarthy’s C!

Times food critic on where and what to eat at the U.S. Open.

Before the Man Booker, I had trouble being recognised by a bookseller when I was standing next to a stack of my own books. Hilary Mantel on prizes.

TV writers explain how their table sessions lead to episodes.

Video: Piano versions of pop songs set to scenes from classic films.

Ten photos capturing moments of spontaneous badassery.

In Somalia’s civil war, pirate gangs aid both the government and the insurgents—and become a political force.

Researchers investigate the use of diabetes drug metformin for prevention of a broad spectrum of cancers.

Author Terry Pratchett discusses the shift to dictation, since a rare form of Alzheimer’s robbed his ability to write or type.

French comic flattens nation’s leaders with short jokes, loses his job for being too good at it.

Darwin’s geoengineered island provides ideas for colonization on Mars.

A filmmaker documents the New York accent, the dialect that went its own way 200 years ago.

With modern art and tight corsets, David Owen tries to rebrand folk dancing as sexy.

As Earl creeps northward, Long Islanders still remember the 1938 storm that devastated Westhampton.

Reporter breaks down the components of a legendary roadside burger.

Physicists prove Carlos’s legendary soccer kick wasn’t a fluke.

Video: Federer’s between-the-legs shots from this year’s U.S. Open and last year’s.

Fearing U.N. report charging it with mid-’90s genocide in Congo, Rwanda threatens to yank troops from Darfur.

Packer: Obama’s speech marked “a rare moment of dishonesty and disingenuousness.”

U.S. officer honors his teenage Iraqi interpreter “Roy.”

Long read: Profile of Sarah Palin, the North Star’s fist.

Devil desiring sandwiches from Glenn Beck supporters reports on sandwiches received.

Gibson: Google should issue children with free “training wheels” web identities.

Last Labrador Duck is seen in Elmira, New York. List of last occurrences.

Video: Nick Hornby on publishing and the universe, accompanied by Ben Folds and Pomplamoose.

Sponsored contest: Win a copy of Tom McCarthy’s new novel C.

C is for corruption: in Mexico, Brazil, and cricket the world over.

Cricket is like an arcane Russian nesting doll: a riddle inside a mystery, inside an enigma.

Op: “Tsar” implies callous aristocrat, so stop adding it to job titles.

Turkey’s banking dynasties and industrial heirs compete for best art collection.

Video: Federer fires a winner between his legs once again.

Chronicle (and defense) of New York’s gossip scene.

For your convenience: TMN’s Madlib gossip column template.

As some mosques invite F.B.I. agents to prayer services, Muslim leaders wonder if protection could be mistaken for surveillance.

It’s September, the numbers are in, and it was officially New York’s hottest summer.

N.A.S.A. recommends survival techniques for the Chilean miners: Make friends, but avoid cliques; allow privacy, but watch for loners.

Darius McCollum, who’s been commandeering subway trains since 1981, is arrested at the wheel of a Trailways bus.

Darius never curses. Excerpts from Jeff Tietz’s 2002 Harper’s profile of McCollum.

The new legal bounty: suing companies for marking products with expired patent numbers—a common malpractice.

Early-early-morning newscasts compete for advertising worms, as WPIX in New York resets its alarm to 4 a.m.

In 1980, 500 people collapsed without warning; people have debated the cause ever since.

As people age, they repeat the same stories because they forget who they told them to.

Related: Complaints about younger generations brew feelings of confidence.

Since giving the finger doesn’t mean much anymore, people are doing it more often.

Op: Now that McDonald’s offers free Wi-Fi, offering free Wi-Fi isn’t hip anymore.

Methods behind the making of tables of tide times and heights.

“World’s most high-profile climate change skeptic” to U-turn and advocate for spending $100 billion annually.

State Dept. spokesman taunts North Korea via Twitter.

Following her opposition to death-by-stoning, Iran calls Carla Bruni a prostitute.

Fierce Spiegel interview with Iran’s foreign minister.

Sponsored contest: Enter to win this week’s Tom McCarthy giveaway!

Spotlight finds the “Green Book,” travel guide for African-Americans that lasted 30 years.

Popular tourist destinations, in general, don’t develop in impoverished neighborhoods. Tourist visits Baltimore’s Poe House.

Paris Review editor Lorin Stein explains how the magazine does its author interviews.

Birnbaum v. Egan, Mitchell, Remnick.

Late to this comic, but still, “The American Dream.”

Pop science! Heavy drinkers live longer than teetotalers!

Just in case: TMN’s best hangover cures.

Tampa Bay Rays, Alan Cumming, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have decided to bring back plaid.

Instapaper for the commute: Memories of motorcycles I have ridden.

Never mind accidents, calling while driving harms relationships because of communication delays.

Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990; 20 years later, the U.S. withdraws forces from Iraq; who won?

“It doesn’t mean people just start running around and killing each other.” Houstonians are still conflicted about Katrina.

Despite scientists’ best efforts, bedbugs won’t transmit disease—the AIDS virus died in them, hepatitis B didn’t take.

Jezebel readers tell their worst masturbation stories.

From the attic: Non-Expert Eric Feezell guides a parent back from the shock of walking in on her son during a private moment.

A California beach community attracts creative “vandals” when it erects a surfer statue.

As logophiles mourn the O.E.D.’s print death, a comparison of the various online dictionaries.

How almanacs and calendars—not literature and Bibles—have saved the failing print market.

Originally used for sacrifice, perfume is the cornerstone of art, market, and culture.

Amidst war, India fights to save Afghanistan’s art.

Stories of panhandlers offered credit cards, and what they purchased.

There’s a genetic component to the willingness to take surveys.

Two days after last week’s anti-PowerPoint op-ed by a U.S. colonel, N.A.T.O. command sacked him.

Second Mexican border-state mayor assassinated in two weeks.

Op: Nationalism is killing the E.U., turning it into a union in name only.

Scientists fear humans are like the wooly mammoth: symbol of a climate that no longer exists.

Op: Women borrow drag queens’ art not simply to look like women but to feel like them.

Pro tennis players suggest Federer’s William Tell video is fake.

Politeness enforcement tactics, and a great queue-jumping story.

Alan Richman’s tactics for ordering wines in a restaurant; Alan Moore on “psychogeography,” or poetry.

Jacob Lambert on the danger of children’s books.

Related: TMN writers’ kids report on their summer reading (and what authors are paid).

Top 20 books from independent presses this fall.

Sponsored contest beginning tomorrow: This week, TMN is giving away 20 copies of Tom McCarthy’s C.

Thoughts about Bolaño while visiting a Chi-Chi’s in Belgium.

Slideshow of a 137-day decomposition (or not) of a Happy Meal.

Man completes San Francisco half-marathon while drinking a beer for every mile run.

Adam Clayton Powell IV takes aim at Charles Rangel, who usurped his father, who he mostly knew through letters.

O.E.D. signals a full move to the web—its latest print edition may be its last.

More frequent use of swear words indicates deception. How to tell when your boss is lying.

For struggling roadside attractions, it’s either gimmick it up or go home.

The future of Britain’s food costs is in question, with no end in sight to its disappearing wildlife.

The cinema is still, after several decades, the no. 1 place teens claim to be. Y.A. novelist Grace Dent reveals what she’s learned about her audience.

Researchers find people who feel clean judge others more harshly.

The misleading world of Atari 2600 box art: side-by-side comparisons to the on-screen games.

See also: Todd Levin’s “Consoles I Have Known,” a look back at a lifetime of video game systems.

History of a legendary mathematics award, and the notion of mathematician as romantic hero.

Agatha Christie’s family attacks Wikipedia for revealing famous twist endings.

Scientists discover a new Peruvian language on the back of a letter.

War consists largely of the endless tinkering with PowerPoint. Colonel’s take on two months of doing nothing in Afghanistan.

Long read: Afghanistan encounters with raw soldiers, small pieces of truth, bored gunners, and the Hash Monster.

Designer behind the Cordoba Initiative’s logo disappointed to see her mark missing from the mosque hubbub.

Early humans ate each other for both political and nutritional gain.

New data suggests squatting beats sitting: article on proper defecation techniques.

U.S. economy is the Pittsburgh Pirates: owners squatting on cash, refusing to hire new talent.

Face behind the latest Vampire Weekend album sues after seeing the cover.

TMN readers, what’s your hot jam of forever?

Survey conducted by Refrigeration News found 72 percent of respondents installing dummy thermostats.

All-access, non-exclusive profile of Kanye West based on Tweets and online photos.

Things we think Kanye would like: hungover owls; life in a world of logos.

Video: Jerry Stiller visits the real Costanza house in Queens.

French novelist Michel Houellebecq commits suicide in his new novel.

History of the failure to develop an English gender-neutral pronoun.

Summer of TMN books: Kakutani rave for Guilfoile’s “hectic, bloodstained” The Thousand.

Venezuela’s population is the same as Iraq’s, but its murder count is three times as high.

Potentially to blame for China’s epic traffic jam: King Coal.

Due to China’s hunger for vehicle ownership, a traffic jam was inevitable.

Hilarious response to a dermatologist telling the Times that e-readers will erase “stigmas associated with reading alone.”

Op: Neurophilosophy will not replace philosophy—questions about mind are not exhaustible by investigation of the brain.

Debate about mind versus brain complicates depression treatment.

Most people I know have problems with Internet addiction. The case for tossing your smartphone.

Editor (unsuccessfully) tries dating site based on book taste.

The cameraman just walks away, and you want to die. PEN/Ackerley nominee on losing literary prizes.

Explanation of how writers make money.

Royals historically pursued incest to behave like gods and protect assets.

Pictures by Barry Goldwater, amateur photographer.

Op: Hopper wasn’t a nostalgic painter, but a pessimistic one who conveyed silence and isolation.

Nearly 50 years after Hemingway’s suicide, A Moveable Feast remains “a masterpiece of malice.”

More in the summer of TMN books: Jessica Francis Kane on the time it took to write The Report. ]]> Afternoon Edition 2010-08-26T13:19:54-05:00