Pull an all-nighter

It’s the end of the term and you’re up late. Everything is eerily quiet. You look out your window. The darkness is endless. You know he’s out there, the Sand Man. He’s stalking you. Tempting you. Asking you to relinquish your dreams for his.

Time is running out

Inspired after meeting people on the 2004 campaign trail, John and Teresa Heinz Kerry wrote This Moment on Earth in hopes of restoring a traditional sense of responsibility for environmental stewardship.

So there’s water on Mars

Evidence for water on Mars is mounting. Last week a broken wheel on NASA’s Spirit Rover upturned Martian soil with a 90 percent concentration of silica, which scientists believe required water to produce.

Sleeping Beauty

After Dark is the latest work of fiction from award-winning Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Translated from Japanese by Jay Rubin, After Dark is a novella that offers glimpses into the lives of a handful of seemingly unrelated characters.

The one-way bearing of souls

It is late afternoon and you are an American on the streets of Lahore, Pakistan. Perhaps you are lost. Maybe you are seeking the perfect cup of tea. Perhaps that is your excuse if anyone should ask. A Pakistani man approaches you.

Viscous beauties

Whenever I see pictures of the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, I can’t help myself. I wish I had been there. I wish I could have seen it, up close, in person. It’s gruesome, I know.

Considering aliens

May 11 marks the anniversary of one of the most famous U.F.O. sightings in U.S. history. In 1950 in McMinnville, Ore., farmer Paul Trent and his wife Evelyn were doing their evening chores when they saw “a large, metallic-looking, disc-shaped object hovering silently in the sky.”

Angelica

What causes us to believe one person but not another? When someone has convinced us that great horrors exist, can our opinions be altered?

Beauty the barbaric

No one is naturally beautiful. That is, no one except for men. Men are naturally beautiful. They must be. With a haircut, a shave and some deodorant (if we’re lucky), they’re done. That’s all they have to do.