Search results for

Ecologist and "natural security expert" Rafe Sagarin thinks our systems for dealing with natural disasters and terrorist attacks need to be updated. The best place to turn for advice? Other organisms.

Gideon Lewis-Kraus didn't know what to do with his life, so he took three very long walks. In his new memoir, he describes his journeys in Spain, Japan and Ukraine. "The whole idea of pilgrimage is that you're hoping that you're going to rise to the occasion in some way," he says.

The end of the Civil War marked a pivotal moment for slaves in America, but newfound freedom arrived as a bittersweet victory. Longing to find their displaced families, freed slaves placed classified ads in newspapers. In his new novel, Leonard Pitts Jr. explores the chaos of the era through a love story.

Many judicial nominations remain stalled in the Senate, and it will take more than rhetoric to break the logjam. Conservative groups have traditionally lavished big money on judicial contests. But now Democratic lobbyist Robert Raben is pushing back. He has created a PAC to donate to senators who advance progressive nominees. It has only raised a pittance so far, but the idea is to bundle donations from lawyers all over the country and counteract some of that conservative money.

It's a rich week for fiction, with new novels from Ann Patchett and Jennifer Weiner, and a debut by Chad Harbach that marries a literary sensibility with a love of baseball — plus Jorie Graham's new poetry collection. In nonfiction, Erik Larson is back with the story of an American ambassador in Germany in 1933.

For the top brass of companies such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, talk of cyberweapons and cyberwar could be abstract. But at a classified security briefing in spring 2010, it suddenly became quite real. "We can turn your computer into a brick," government officials reportedly told the startled executives.

Big name medal winners in high-profile Olympic sports can count on support from sponsors. But not so for lesser known athletes. That's forced some of them to take an unorthodox approach to fundraising.

There is more information on the story of the al-Qaida plot to bomb an airplane heading to the United States. It turns out, the man who was supposed to be the bomber was working for an intelligence service.

It's been nearly two months since Sgt. Robert Bales was accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians. After that, U.S. forces essentially stopped carrying out operations in the area of the massacre. As a result, the Taliban has been able to plant more explosives.

Maurice Sendak, the well-known children's book author and illustrator, has died. He was 83. Sendak is widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are. Steve Inskeep has this remembrance.