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December 2014

Features

Look Both Ways

With driverless cars zooming toward us, it’s time to remember the first American automotive revolution

Clive Thompson

Bully for Baristas

A half-century before Starbucks, Teddy Roosevelt’s family imported coffee culture to the United States

Jancee Dunn

The Controversial Afterlife of King Tut

A frenzy of conflicting scientific analyses have made the famous pharaoh more mysterious than ever

By Matthew Shaer

Photographs by David Degner

The Lions of the Trees

The fate of the lion-tailed macaque, found in just one small pocket in India, is tied to its disappearing habitat

Trisha Gupta, Photographs by Anup Shah & Fiona Rogers

Massacre at Sand Creek

Hundreds of women and children were coming towards us, and getting on their knees for mercy

Tony Horwitz

Raw Material

Thomas Hart Benton and America’s modern era

Paul Theroux

Ninja Warrior

Built for stealth, the shadowy SR-71 was the height of cold war spycraft

Andrew Chaikin

The Mystery of Mount Baldy

When a boy suddenly disappeared into a sand dune, a scientist embarked on a quest to find out where he went

Ariel Sabar

Departments

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Discussion

From our readers

Phenomena

Reindeer Games

The very shiny life of a 75-yearold marketing gimmick

Phenomena

Life, Interrupted

A painter celebrates the places we ignore

Phenomena

The Mark of Zero

Deep in the jungle, an intrepid scholar locates a symbol of power and mystery

Phenomena

Rules of Thumb

Evolving ideas about our most important digit

Phenomena

Unsafe Passage

A man, a plan, a controversial new canal through Central America

Phenomena

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Questions from our readers

Fast Forward

Twin Stars

Scott and Mark Kelly, the only twins to have traveled in space, are embarking on a mission to help NASA prepare for Mars