From HIR, a special issue on failed states. From Nova, aliens from Earth: Is the hobbit, known scientifically as Homo floresiensis, a new human species? Former grifter Todd Robbins has made a career out of the art of deception; here are his lessons for how to avoid getting played for a sucker. More on Jim Holt's Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before. What’s really going on in the Gulf of Aden? It’s time for Somali Pirates 101. "I am the eternal altar boy": This year's Buchner-Prize laureate Josef Winkler on dung heaps, the fear of speechlessness and the elegance of John Paul II's coffin. Group think: The turn to online research is narrowing the range of modern scholarship, a new study suggests. Are Pentagon nerds developing packs of man-hunting killer robots? A review of The Age of Wonder: How the

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