‘Papers, Please’ Almost Gave Me a Nervous Breakdown
This story originally appeared on Sept. 18, 2013. “Papers, Please,” I said. The man slid his passport, work permit, immunization records and entry permit across my desk. I took them and looked them over, hunting for discrepancies. His passport was expired. I denied him entry into the country. He... Read more
What ‘Tales From the Crypt’ Taught Us About Illustrating War
This story originally appeared on Aug. 21, 2013. Comic shops are full of war stories. The Unknown Soldier is a bleak book about a haunted man with a face wrapped in bandages waging a lone war against the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group. The Pride of Baghdad tells... Read more
I Watched China’s ‘Top Gun’ So You Don’t Have To
This story originally appeared on Oct. 30, 2013. The Chinese government wants to take you into the danger zone. In 2011 Beijing released Sky Fighters, China’s answer to Top Gun. Like Top Gun, it’s about fighter pilots waging aerial war for their country. But that’s where the comparison ends. Made... Read more
The U.S. Air Force Has a Brony Squadron
This story originally appeared on July 24, 2013. In July 2014, word hit the Internet that an Air Force unit training to fly America’s most advanced military aircraft are wearing a patch inspired by the television show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Now the Air Force has confirmed... Read more
The Finnish Military Shows How to Treat Soldiers the Right Way
The Finnish Defense Forces does several things differently from the militaries of the United States and most of Europe. It’s partly due to circumstance. Universal male conscription — deriving from a history of very bloody wars with Russia and a principle of neutrality — means that most Finnish men... Read more
War Reporters Are Nothing Without Their Fixers
We were already roaring down the road when the young man called to me over his shoulder. There was a woman seated between us on the motorbike and with the distance, his accent, the rushing air and the engine noise, it took a moment for me to decipher what... Read more
The Air Force Can’t Quit NASCAR
This story originally appeared on Feb. 29, 2016. America’s most famous auto raceway looms large between a beach and a mall not far from the airport in Daytona Beach, eastern Florida’s self-styled “Spring Break Capital of the World.” From a distance, the Daytona International Speedway’s 10,000 red, white and... Read more
I Got My Hands on a Bootleg of Iran’s Weird Drone Movie
This story originally appeared on Sept. 17, 2014. Mohajer is a 1990 movie about the final days of the 1980s Iran-Iraq War and the early days of killer drones. It’s a strange and amazing film that fetishizes unmanned aerial vehicles and kills off—I mean, martyrs—pretty much every one of... Read more
Weather Command!

Weather Command!

WIB culture September 12, 2017

This story originally appeared on Nov. 26, 2013. Mark Twain once quipped, “Everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” But what if we could change the weather at will? That’s the sort of huge dream we once dreamed during the 20th century, when our technological... Read more
Movies to Help Donald Trump Understand Nuclear War
U.S. president Ronald Reagan sat down to watch a movie on Oct. 10, 1983 and he didn’t much for care for what he saw. “I ran the tape of the movie ABC is running on the air on Nov. 20,” Reagan wrote in his diary that day. “It’s called... Read more