People have long told stories about the animals around them. Some explain a creature’s appearance or habits; others use an animal to explore how people should treat one another, the land, or their food. These stories belong to distinct traditions, and many are still told today. From an antelope-like teacher of farming to a kangaroo […]

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Most people can identify bread, cake, fish, or a sandwich without legal assistance. Yet when taxes, contracts, copyrights, or conservation laws are involved, ordinary definitions can have expensive consequences. Courts have therefore faced questions resembling riddles: Is a tomato a fruit? Can a bumblebee be a fish? Is a superhero human? Their answers can appear […]

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The Earth does not always announce danger with a smoking volcano, a darkening funnel cloud, or an approaching hurricane. Some threats develop beneath ordinary streets, inside peaceful mountain lakes, or within soil that appears perfectly solid. By the time the landscape visibly changes, the process responsible may already be well underway. Many of these phenomena […]

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Dark fiction is filled with warrior princesses, violent encounters with beasts, gruesome executions, and bodies that refuse to surrender their secrets. Archaeology shows that history can produce stories every bit as unsettling. These remains include a prehistoric shark-attack victim, infants buried in a disused latrine, a religious ascetic encircled by iron, and one “skeleton” assembled […]

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Some historians and researchers argue that humanity is living through an unusually peaceful period. Yet that claim can overlook the many conflicts the world has experienced since 2000. Some of these wars began during the twentieth century but continued to shape the twenty-first. Others erupted more recently and remain unresolved. Together, they have produced mass […]

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If you commit a crime, then you must pay for it. That’s the way the law should work in every situation, so many storytellers hammer it home in their work. Books, movies, TV shows, and video games often craft a suitable comeuppance for each character’s mistakes. Not only does this choice provide satisfying closure for […]

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America’s Interstate Highway System looks almost inevitable today: a vast web of pavement carrying commuters, vacationers, truckers, and billions of dollars in freight. Follow the blue-and-red shields long enough, and the roads seem capable of leading almost anywhere. But this network did not emerge naturally from the landscape. It took decades of federal planning, political […]

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