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DECEMBER 2010

EDITOR'S NOTE

Escape Key

It’s part of our contemporary condition to feel simultaneously blessed and cursed by technology.
By James Bennet   Share    

FEATURES

Dirty Coal, Clean Future

To environmentalists, clean coal is an insulting oxymoron. But because coal so dominates the world economy, any meaningful effort to arrest climate change will require using dirty coal in more-sustainable ways. Quiet collaboration between American and Chinese businesses and scientists is pointing the way.
By James Fallows   Share    
VIDEO: James Fallows flies his plane over West Virginia coal country and discusses the coming transformation.

The Danger of Cosmic Genius

The physicist Freeman Dyson has reshaped thinking in fields from math to astrophysics to medicine. Yet he is also one of the world's foremost global-warming skeptics. How could someone as smart as Dyson be so wrong about the environment? A cautionary tale about science and faith.
By Kenneth Brower   Share    
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Thirty years of Atlantic articles on climate change, clean tech, and Freeman Dyson.

The Drone Wars

In Pakistan, the CIA's remote-controlled bombing campaign heats up.
By Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann   Share    

“God Help You. You're on Dialysis.”

Shockingly error-prone and brutally expensive, our federally funded system of dialysis care is failing. A year-long investigation reveals why—and what may lie ahead for health-care reform.
By Robin Fields/ProPublica   Share    

Your Child Left Behind

A new ranking shows that even privileged kids in our best public-school systems do poorly compared with their peers in other countries.
By Amanda Ripley   Share    
MULTIMEDIA: An interactive graphic rates the U.S. education system against the rest of the world.

A Matter of Degrees

U.S. universities are still on top, but Asia is rising.
By Emily Quanbeck   Share    
POLL: The Atlantic asked 30 university and college presidents about tenure, student preparedness, and other hot issues.

DISPATCHES

The Battle of Rio

With the 2016 Olympics looming, the city’s embattled police invade the favelas.
By Brett Forrest   Share    

Tabloid Feminist

An antidiscrimination icon finds a new frontier in trash culture.
By Ben Wallace-Wells   Share    

Deal With a Dictator

Getting supplies to Afghanistan may be worth cozying up to Uzbekistan—for now.
By Joshua Kucera   Share    

Playing Doctor

How to spin pharmaceutical research
By Carl Elliott   Share    

Bringing the Coffin Industry Back From the Dead

How barcodes and touch screens are resuscitating a casket factory
By Ben Austen   Share    

My Year at Sea

Recalling the splendid isolation of travel by freighter
By Christopher Buckley   Share    

Take the Data Out of Dating

Online matchmaking is getting better at telling us whom we ought to like—and that's not good.
By Alexis Madrigal   Share    

BOOKS

Books of the Year 2010

The Atlantic's literary and national editor selects the best in a crowded field.
By Benjamin Schwarz   Share    
RUNNERS UP: See 15 additional picks by The Atlantic’s books editor

The Frugal Divorcée

How to survive—and even thrive—in the new age of austerity
By Sandra Tsing Loh   Share    

Cover to Cover

Bill Bryson brings it all back home; England's gilded monuments; and more
Share    

COLUMNS

Paging Dr. Luddite

Information technology is on the brink of revolutionizing health care— if physicians will only let it.
By Megan McArdle   Share    

The Tragedy of the Talk Show Host

Miscast in the age of viral humor, the late-night star remains eternally freaky—and oddly reassuring.
By James Parker   Share    

POETRY

Wave

By Alan Shapiro   Share    

Fox

By Ellen Bryant Voigt   Share    

GALLERY

GPS

By Seymour Chwast   Share    

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

By Guy Billout   Share    
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