Chinese city is world's fireworks capital

LIUYANG, China — The Lunar New Year is fast approaching in China, and that means big business for fireworks sellers like Liu...

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Apple Should, And Will, Make a Smartwatch

It isn’t a matter of “if” Apple creates a smartwatch, but rather “when.” And “why.”Moving into the hot “wearables” market with a smartwatch would allow Apple to compete against upstarts like Pebble and seasoned stalwarts like Sony and capitalize on a trend that is sweeping the industry — as shown by the vast number of “wearable” computing devices seen at CES this year. Companies like...

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Well: Think Like a Doctor: A Confused and Terrified Patient

The Challenge: Can you solve the mystery of a middle-aged man recovering from a serious illness who suddenly becomes frightened and confused?Every month the Diagnosis column of The New York Times Magazine asks Well readers to sift through a difficult case and solve a diagnostic riddle. Below you will find a summary of a case involving a 55-year-old man well on his way to recovering from a series of...

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DealBook: Ireland to Liquidate Anglo Irish Bank

LONDON – The Irish government passed emergency legislation on Thursday to liquidate Anglo Irish Bank, one of the country’s largest financial institutions.The legislation, which was signed into law after an all-night parliamentary session, came after negotiations with the European Central Bank over swapping so-called promissory notes, which were used to bail out the Irish lender in 2009, for long-term...

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Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid shot dead outside home

The Unified Democratic Nationalist Party says Chokri Belaid was shot as he left his house in the capital Tunis. Witnesses...

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Karen Russell's <em>Vampires in the Lemon Grove</em> Is a Darkly Surreal Treat

Karen Russell is one of America’s most lauded young writers. Her first novel, Swamplandia!, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and has been optioned by HBO. Her fiction combines a literary sensibility with a generous helping of the weird and surreal, which has made her popular with both literary magazines and fantasy and science fiction fans. This cross-genre approach is one that she sees in the...

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Ipswich Journal: Paul Mason Is One-Third the Man He Used to Be

Paul Nixon PhotographyPaul Mason in 2012, two years after gastric bypass surgery stripped him of the unofficial title of “the world’s fattest man.” IPSWICH, England — Who knows what the worst moment was for Paul Mason — there were so many awful milestones, as he grew fatter and fatter — but a good bet might be when he became too vast to leave his room. To get him to the hospital for a hernia operation,...

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DealBook: Debevoise & Plimpton Drops Trusts and Estates Practice

Last month, the nation’s leading trusts and estates lawyers convened at a Florida resort to discuss the latest in estate planning.Between lectures and workshops, some of the lawyers exchanged whispers about an unsettling piece of gossip: Debevoise & Plimpton, the prominent white-shoe law firm, was eliminating its trusts and estates practice.Debevoise’s decision surprised members of the trusts...

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Friends, investigators seek answers in killing of O.C. couple

They met in college, two highly regarded basketball players who seemed to have the same winning touch on the court and off.After...

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Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell

An excerpt from Exploding the Phoneby Phil Lapsley“Locke spent the next twenty-four hours in what felt like a scene from a 1940s detective movie: a barren room with nothing more than a wooden table, a chair for him, two chairs for his interrogators, and a bare lightbulb dangling from the ceiling. Sitting across from him, the FBI agent and the telephone security man worked hard to get him to...

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