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Sochi Is Running Out of Pillows
The Olympics officially kick off Friday. We imagine many a staffer and volunteer are scurrying around the Black Sea resort of Sochi, trying to prepare for the glamorous opening ceremony and making sure...
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The Only Banjo Player in Uzbekistan
Mention the banjo and Uzbekistan doesn’t immediately leap to mind. It’s the most American of instruments, so the former Soviet republic doesn’t jump out as a natural bluegrass backdrop. It’s not...
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Berlin’s Bizarre Beach Volleyball Obsession
There are no real ocean beaches in Berlin. There is no surfing, there are no palm trees and in the winter there is hardly any sun. But despite the bleak winter, the city is bananas about beach...
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Turkey’s Foreskin Wars
When my baby boy was taken into the operation room to be circumcised, he was only two days old. I distinctly remember how my heart was torn, and how I could not rid myself of doubt over whether I was...
View ArticleTeen Boy on YouTube: I Was Raped by a Man, And Here Are the Details
For 18 minutes, Justin Hand looks into the camera and recounts how he was raped. In two videos on YouTube titled “I Was Raped Last Sunday,” the 18-year-old Hand (he turns 19 next week) tells the story...
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Görliwood: Germany’s New Film Mecca
When Wes Anderson’s latest film premieres at the Berlin Film Festival this week, the world will be introduced to the fictitious Republic of Zubrowka. Like many recent film fictions, much of it was shot...
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Looking for Sushi, “European” food and a Hookah Lounge in Russia?
Just a half-hour drive from the Olympic village is a little taste of home for American, European, Japanese and Turkish Olympians. Sochi’s multicultural Pittsburgh Bar is named after the city of...
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The Grow Houses of the Holy Land
A border crackdown is making it tough to get a good bag of weed on the streets of Israel these days, and Israelis are starting to take matters into their own hands. More people are deciding to just...
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Sochi: I Want to Believe
The Winter Olympics at Sochi began today, and the feeling of national pride has been overwhelming. This is my country’s big moment, and I want the Olympics to go well. The event seems worth it, even...
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For Sochi Dogs, Killer Looks
In the weeks leading up to the Olympics, Sochi officials engaged in a systematic purging of the city’s stray dogs, cleansing streets once teeming with wandering mongrel packs by forcing them into...
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Inside Russia’s Media Crackdown
TV Rain, Russia’s only independent, privately owned television channel, is in serious crisis. The channel is the country’s main news outlet for a liberal alternative to the Kremlin-affiliated media,...
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Egypt’s Imprisoned Muslim Sisterhood
Amna Yasser was only 17 and in her last year of high school when she was arrested near Al Azhar University for protesting against the military coup in Egypt. Mareya el-Metwally Samaha was even...
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On the Front Line, Female Soldiers Lean in Harder
When Joy Bronson Smith got her wings in 1987, she was the only woman in a class of 30 navy pilots. In aviation officer school, she had slept in a room with three empty beds because there was no one...
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Beaten to Death in Ukraine: A Staggering List of Protester’s Injuries
Euromaidan activist Yuri Verbitsky’s cold, tortured body was found in a forest in Ukraine, where it had been dumped after assailants abducted him. Verbitsky had gone to Oleksandrivska Hospital in Kiev...
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Can Japanese Comics Cure Childhood Obesity?
A researcher at New York City’s Hunter College has come up with a new way to cure childhood obesity: Force kids to read long Japanese comic strips, or manga, about healthy eating. According to May May...
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Olympic Style: The Hot Domes of Sochi
The Winter Olympics are especially notable for hosting sports that seem like they were made up by your childhood neighbor—you know, the annoying one who wore capes and was always building forts? I...
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