I recently finished The Lost City of Z, David Grann's account of the British explorer Percy Fawcett's final journey in the Amazon basin, where Fawcett disappeared in 1925. Meticulously researched, staunchly reported and beautifully written, it covers the history of London's Royal Geographic Society, to which Percy belonged, and the 300-year quest for the mythical golden city, El Dorado, as well as the rubber trade and its effect on indigenous tribes who shoot six-foot arrows from seven-foot bows. And piranha, and electric eels and anacondas and poisonous insects that attack your eyes and maggots that fester under your skin and toothpick-sized parasite catfish that swim up your penis through [...]

Continuing reverberations in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, whose execution by the state of Texas is the subject of increasing controversy: Dorenda Brokofsky, a juror in the case who voted to convict Willingham, is now wracked by doubts about his guilt. More importantly, she probably shouldn't have been on the jury in the first place.

The Texas commission examining the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham-chronicled in a recent New Yorker piece by David Grann-has indefinitely postponed a session in which it was to hear a report which casts doubt on Willingham's conviction. The postponement is a result of Gov. Rick Perry's replacement of every member of the commission he is allowed to appoint. "If you've got a whole new investigation going forward, it makes a lot more sense to put the new people in now and let them start the full process, rather than bring people in there for a short period of time and then replace them," said Perry. "I think it [...]