What We’re Reading

Erica Alini

• The Economist’s special report on Iran proves that you can find compelling evidence to argue anything you want about the the Islamic Republic.

Preeti Aroon

• EnglishRussia.com

  Russian Cathedral for All Religions, on the English Russia blog. In a dream, Jesus Christ appeared before a Russian architect and healer and told him to build a cathedral to unify people of different religions. The result: a multicolored structure that seems to combine St. Basil’s Cathedral, Gaudí’s architectural style, and, well, Candyland.

Mike Boyer

• Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die, by Luke Dittrich in Esquire. In a small Texas town, Chris Hansen and Dateline’s “To Catch A Predator” dispense a little justice, Hollywood-style.

Christine Chen

• At War, At Home, At Risk, by Ayub Nuri, New York Times Magazine, July 29, 2007.  A 28-year-old Iraqi journalist writes about how he became a “fixer” for Western news organizations—first helping to arrange interviews and translate, then reporting on his own, each time putting his life on the line to tell the stories of his war-torn country.

Blake Hounshell

• Somebody Else. Have you ever wanted to disappear? Charles Nicholl reconstructs the lost years of Arthur Rimbaud, the  poetry prodigy who left France at the age of 25 to become a qat and weapons trader in Harar, Ethiopia.