Department Index
Explainer 2005:
Answers to your questions about the news.
If you'd like to sort this department listing by headline, author or date, please use the Slate search.
- How Do You Steal Gas From a Pipeline? To be safe, use a rubber mallet.
Dec. 30, 2005 - What's in a Plea Agreement? Does the government know what it's getting?
Dec. 29, 2005 - What Happens on Suicide Watch? How to keep people from killing themselves.
Dec. 28, 2005 - As the World Turns More Slowly? Why days are getting longer.
Dec. 28, 2005 - Is It Hard To Steal a Penguin? The motives and methods of zoo theft.
Dec. 23, 2005 - Do Giant Babies Grow Into Giant Adults? Birth size and its consequences.
Dec. 21, 2005 - When Did Strikes Become Illegal? And what do Taft, Hartley, Condon, and Wadlin have to do with it?
Dec. 20, 2005 - What Happens to Bad Scientists? Lock the labs, sequester the notebooks.
Dec. 16, 2005 - Get Your Hands Off My Medal! How to take gold from an athlete.
Dec. 16, 2005 - What's the Muslim Satan Like? Has he got a tail?
Dec. 14, 2005 - How Do You Start a Gang? Get some friends together and claim your turf.
Dec. 13, 2005 - Why Executions Happen at Midnight Capital punishment and the witching hour.
Dec. 13, 2005 - What's the "Missing Man" Formation? Your basic fingertip strong right, with a twist.
Dec. 9, 2005 - If You Shoot a Bomb, Will It Explode? What happens when a bullet hits dynamite.
Dec. 8, 2005 - How To Replace Tom DeLay A guide to congressional leadership elections.
Dec. 6, 2005 - Are Sonograms Dangerous? Mr. Cruise, get your hands off that ultrasound machine!
Dec. 5, 2005 - What's a Louis-Philippe Commode? Hint: It's not a toilet.
Dec. 2, 2005 - How Does a Governor Grant Clemency? With a signed note.
Nov. 30, 2005 - How the Building Crumbles Could bird poo have made a chunk of marble fall off the Supreme Court Building?
Nov. 29, 2005 - How Does Activated Carbon Work? What peach pits and molasses have to do with safe drinking water.
Nov. 29, 2005 - Laptops at the Airport, Part 2 Do you have to take out your computer at foreign airports?
Nov. 23, 2005 - What Makes Laptops So Dangerous? Why they get special attention at the airport.
Nov. 22, 2005 - What's in the Congressional Record? Anything your congressman wants.
Nov. 21, 2005 - What's a Senior Administration Official? Does the president's personal aide count?
Nov. 18, 2005 - How To Start Your Own Town Can you name it after yourself?
Nov. 17, 2005 - What Are Army Field Manuals? How-to guides for interrogation, laser injury prevention, and other useful skills.
Nov. 16, 2005 - All the Presidents' Papers How do presidential libraries decide which records to release?
Nov. 15, 2005 - I Want My Oil Yesterday! Why it takes so long to drill in Alaska.
Nov. 10, 2005 - How Do Legal Teams Work? Have my lawyer call my lawyer.
Nov. 9, 2005 - How To Tornado-Proof Your Mobile Home First, tie down your water heater.
Nov. 8, 2005 - So, You Wanna Torch a Peugeot? How French hooligans set cars on fire.
Nov. 7, 2005 - Does That F-16 Come With a Warranty? What happens if the U.S. government sells you a lemon.
Nov. 4, 2005 - The XXI Club What's the history of closed sessions in the Senate?
Nov. 2, 2005 - How Do Church Trials Work? Do pastors get jury duty?
Nov. 1, 2005 - How Many Ways Can You Say "Lie"? The difference between perjury, false statements, and obstruction of justice.
Oct. 31, 2005 - Does Patrick Fitzgerald Get Two Salaries? He has two jobs.
Oct. 28, 2005 - To Cull a Mockingbird How they kill birds infected with avian flu.
Oct. 27, 2005 - X Marks the Baseball Team Why the White Sox aren't the White Socks.
Oct. 25, 2005 - How Do You Fire a New York Times reporter? Could Judy Miller get the ax?
Oct. 25, 2005 - What's the Deal With Tom DeLay's Mug Shot? Why doesn't it have numbers on it?
Oct. 21, 2005 - Stop That Ship! How do you make an arrest at sea?
Oct. 20, 2005 - So, You Want To Be a Weatherman? Start working on your audition tape.
Oct. 19, 2005 - What's an Induced Coma? How to mend a swollen head.
Oct. 18, 2005 - Do Aspens Turn in Clusters? How much does Scooter Libby really know about trees?
Oct. 17, 2005 - What Happens When a City Goes Bankrupt? You stay solvent, San Diego.
Oct. 14, 2005 - How Do You Steal a Plane? Open the door and get in.
Oct. 13, 2005 - What's 3 Feet Tall With a Small Brain and No Chin? How the tiny island people got that way.
Oct. 12, 2005 - Who's That Guy in the Police Lineup? It could be a crook, an office worker, or a tourist.
Oct. 11, 2005 - So, You Want to Be a Beer Vendor … How concessionaires make a living.
Oct. 7, 2005 - How Does Assisted Suicide Work? A guide to "Death With Dignity" in Oregon.
Oct. 6, 2005 - How Do They Harvest Caviar? They suck it through a straw.
Oct. 4, 2005 - A Space Tourist's Itinerary Check on the stem cells, call Nelson Mandela …
Oct. 3, 2005 - What's a Runaway Grand Jury? Is that what sank Tom DeLay?
Sept. 30, 2005 - What's With Those Spanish Enclaves in North Africa? And what's so special about Parsley Island?
Sept. 29, 2005 - Giant Squid, Where Are You? If they're so big, why can't we find them?
Sept. 28, 2005 - Can I Cut Off My Electronic Monitoring Bracelet? You bet I can!
Sept. 27, 2005 - What's Causing All the Traffic in Houston? Evacuation gridlock and what to do about it.
Sept. 23, 2005 - How Do You Dump Fuel From a Plane? Just turn on your fuel dumping system.
Sept. 22, 2005 - What's So Great About Ice? Why they bought 200 million pounds of it for Katrina victims.
Sept. 20, 2005 - The Reason for the Season Why do television shows premiere in September?
Sept. 19, 2005 - Why Do Airlines Go Bankrupt? Delta can't keep up with JetBlue.
Sept. 15, 2005 - Dead Man's Float Why are bodies in the water always facedown?
Sept. 14, 2005 - How Do You Handle an FBI Informant? If you pay him, get a receipt.
Sept. 13, 2005 - Louisiana's Napoleon Complex The French influence on Pelican state jurisprudence.
Sept. 12, 2005 - Why Do People in New Orleans Talk That Way? The origins of the accent.
Sept. 8, 2005 - Lying in State vs. Lying in Repose What's the difference?
Sept. 7, 2005 - Could Drinking Floodwater Save Your Life? Dehydration vs. contamination.
Sept. 7, 2005 - Why New Orleans Cell Phones Aren't Working You might want to change your number.
Sept. 6, 2005 - Homeless How do you pay for a house that no longer exists?
Sept. 2, 2005 - How Do They Estimate Hurricane Damage? Why do the Katrina numbers vary all the way from $25 billion to $100 billion?
Sept. 2, 2005 - Could Drinking Floodwater Save Your Life? Dehydration vs. contamination.
Sept. 2, 2005 - What Is Martial Law? And is New Orleans under it?
Sept. 2, 2005 - The Oil Price Roundup Slate readers ask about rising fuel costs.
Sept. 1, 2005 - What Happens to Flooded Houses? Can their owners ever move back in?
Aug. 31, 2005 - How Do You Move a Cemetery? Also, what happens when a grave gets flooded?
Aug. 30, 2005 - How Do You Measure Sea Level? Plus, how did New Orleans get below sea level in the first place?
Aug. 29, 2005 - The Secret Lives of Retired Judges Why Brad and Jennifer hired one to handle their divorce.
Aug. 24, 2005 - What Are Supernotes? The best fake money that money can buy.
Aug. 23, 2005 - What's Comparable Worth? Why John Roberts railed against "equal pay for equal value."
Aug. 22, 2005 - Isn't One Life Sentence Enough? Why the BTK killer got 10.
Aug. 19, 2005 - What Are Those Cubes on the Gaza Settlers' Heads? Tefillin 101.
Aug. 18, 2005 - So Many Greek Shipping Magnates … Where do they all come from?
Aug. 17, 2005 - How Wildfires Get Their Names The story of Burnt Bread and Dirty Face.
Aug. 15, 2005 - What Does Fat Taste Like? Can you even taste it at all?
Aug. 12, 2005 - How To Make an Avian-Flu Vaccine First, make the virus bird-safe.
Aug. 10, 2005 - How Does the Space Shuttle Fly Home? On the back of a jumbo jet.
Aug. 10, 2005 - When Doves Fly Away What happens to all those birds they release?
Aug. 8, 2005 - How Japan's Postal Service Got $3 Trillion It wasn't by selling trillions of stamps.
Aug. 5, 2005 - They Know How the Dead Bird Sings Identifying extinct bird calls.
Aug. 4, 2005 - The Waking of the President Who decides when to rouse the commander in chief?
Aug. 3, 2005 - You Call That a Planet? How astronomers decide whether a celestial body measures up.
Aug. 2, 2005 - How Do You Seal a Nuclear Plant? With stickers, metal disks, and fiber optics.
Aug. 1, 2005 - Can a Dead Man Walk? How about half of a dead man?
July 29, 2005 - Why Are Power Lines So Deadly? Aren't they insulated?
July 28, 2005 - How Does the Heat Index Work? Pretty well, if you're 5-feet-7.
July 27, 2005 - Spring Forward, Cut Back? Does daylight-saving time really save energy?
July 26, 2005 - Are Subway Searches Legal? The rules for searching bags.
July 22, 2005 - What Do Bombs Smell Like? And how do they train dogs to sniff them out?
July 21, 2005 - How Do Mock Trials Work? Can your mock objection be mock overruled?
July 20, 2005 - What's the Deal With "Cat Ladies"? Are there "cat gentlemen," too?
July 19, 2005 - You Say CLE-ment, I Say cle-MENT How to pronounce the potential Supreme Court nominee's name.
July 19, 2005 - What's a Launch Window? How NASA decides when it's OK to take off.
July 18, 2005 - How Do Video Games Get Rated? Warning: contains cartoon violence and partial nudity.
July 15, 2005 - Which Pedophiles Strike Again? Check the actuarial tables.
July 14, 2005 - How Do Cycling Teams Work? What Lance Armstrong's "domestiques" do.
July 13, 2005 - What Catholics Think of Evolution They don't not believe in it.
July 12, 2005 - Who Owns Judith Miller's Notes? Can her bosses turn them over to the feds?
July 8, 2005 - Who Planted the Bombs? How to verify a terrorist group's claim of responsibility.
July 7, 2005 - Oops, I Made an Oil Spill … What should I do?
July 5, 2005 - Villa-Ruh … What? How do you pronounce the new L.A. mayor's name?
July 1, 2005 - How To Pick a Supreme Court Justice Read everything they've written, then call the FBI.
July 1, 2005 - When One Company Buys Another ... Who's better off?
June 30, 2005 - Can You Ever Really Erase a Computer File? What if you use Evidence Eliminator?
June 29, 2005 - Who Speaks for Piglet? What happens when a cartoon character loses its voice.
June 28, 2005 - How Do Sharks Find Their Prey? And is it a good idea to punch one in the face?
June 27, 2005 - Scientologists vs. Psychiatrists Why they don't get along.
June 24, 2005 - What's a "Simulated" Baseball Game? Fantasy baseball, for real.
June 22, 2005 - The American University in Cairo? What makes a foreign university "American"?
June 20, 2005 - What's So Great About Tygacil? Is it really a new class of antibiotic?
June 17, 2005 - Where Do Red Tides Come From? And will the algae wreck my lobster bisque?
June 16, 2005 - Can We Trust Track & Field Records? How accurate are they?
June 15, 2005 - When Congress Says It's Sorry How lawmakers apologize.
June 14, 2005 - Can This Gamecock Be Saved? The fate of fighting birds.
June 13, 2005 - Do Records in Boxing Mean Anything? It seems like no one ever loses.
June 10, 2005 - How Good Are Hurricane Forecasts? Last year, they blew.
June 9, 2005 - Is Cat Litter Really Radioactive? And how do we detect nuclear materials at the border?
June 8, 2005 - What's the FBI Doing in Aruba? Can the bureau snoop around overseas?
June 6, 2005 - How Do the Paparazzi Sell Their Pics? An introduction to the celebrity photo game.
June 3, 2005 - What Are the Rules of Bollywood? Is there really no kissing allowed?
June 2, 2005 - How Do Space Pictures Get So Pretty? Photoshop, of course.
June 1, 2005 - You've Got One of Those Four-Hour Erections ... Now what?
May 31, 2005 - What Does the Bird Flu Mean For the Birds? Could they have a pandemic, too?
May 27, 2005 - Do Governments Take Checks? How the United States gives foreign aid.
May 26, 2005 - What's That Thingy Court Reporters Type On? How does it work?
May 25, 2005 - If You Can't Grow Poppies … Where do poppy seeds come from?
May 24, 2005 - How Come They Divert Airplanes? Why not check the No-Fly List before the plane takes off?
May 20, 2005 - What Can Female Soldiers Do? A primer on the latest wrangling over women in the military.
May 19, 2005 - Does North Korea Need To Test Its Nukes? Only if they're really small.
May 18, 2005 - Who Regulates Our Nation's Amusement Parks? And what's the "roller coaster loophole"?
May 17, 2005 - What Do Election Observers Do? How Jimmy Carter really spends his time.
May 16, 2005 - A Prison for One? When solitary confinement really means solitary confinement.
May 12, 2005 - Can the Russians Control the Weather? How cloud seeding works.
May 11, 2005 - Creationism vs. Intelligent Design Is there a difference?
May 10, 2005 - Where Do Mob Nicknames Come From? The origins of "Tony the Ant," "Big Tuna," and "Joey the Clown."
May 9, 2005 - Can the Police Commandeer Your Car? What else could they ask you to do?
May 6, 2005 - Why Can't Lynndie Plead Guilty? She swears she did it.
May 5, 2005 - Do Countries Really "Point" Missiles At Each Other? How does it work?
May 4, 2005 - When Did We Get "Cold Feet"? The Germans had 'em first!
May 3, 2005 - When Do They Call an Animal Extinct? They used to wait 50 years.
May 2, 2005 - Middle-School Girls on the Juice? How many are there really?
April 29, 2005 - No Animals Were Harmed...? The people looking out for horses, dogs, and bugs in the movies say so.
April 27, 2005 - Where Satellites Go When They Die To a higher plane.
April 26, 2005 - Why Take Asylum in Brazil? I hear Panama is nice.
April 25, 2005 - Does the FBI Have Your Fingerprints? Find out for 18 bucks.
April 22, 2005 - Markets vs. Exchanges What's the difference?
April 21, 2005 - Who Counts the World's Icebergs? And why don't they count the "bergy bits"?
April 20, 2005 - How Much For That Monkey? Primates à la carte.
April 19, 2005 - How To Read a Dirty Papyrus First, call NASA.
April 19, 2005 - Contact Lenses You Wear to Bed? How they fix your eyes while you sleep.
April 15, 2005 - Whose Finger Is in My Chili? What digit detectives can learn from a tip.
April 14, 2005 - Can We Get Sucked Out of Airplanes? How explosive decompression works.
April 13, 2005 - When Did the Blind Get a Tax Break? World War II, of course.
April 12, 2005 - Why Not Quit the Directors Guild? What Robert Rodriguez can and can't do.
April 8, 2005 - Why Didn't They Embalm the Pope? He's been dead for almost a week. Hmmm.
April 7, 2005 - Is the Conclave Held in Latin? Plus, how will the new pope pick a name?
April 6, 2005 - Can I Help With the Terrorism Drill? I wanna be a victim!
April 5, 2005 - What Is a Body Wrap? No, not the spa treatment. The police tool.
April 5, 2005 - Cheerleaders in Baseball? Not in my day!
April 2, 2005 - What's With All Those Intelligence Commissions? How to tell them apart.
April 1, 2005 - Dead Man, No Talking? Can the Supreme Court still rule on Johnnie Cochran's freedom-of-speech case?
March 31, 2005 - Marburg vs. Ebola Ebola wins.
March 29, 2005 - How Do You Say "Kyrgyzstan"? Hint: It's a hard "g."
March 26, 2005 - Does Oil Really Come in Barrels? Not anymore.
March 24, 2005 - How Do Feeding Tubes Work? The ins and outs of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy.
March 23, 2005 - What Do Pirates Want From Us? Why they've gotten into the kidnapping business.
March 22, 2005 - The Terri Schiavo Roundup Who's paying for her care, how long can she live without food, and what's with the bill written just for her?
March 19, 2005 - How To Become a Legend of Rock On getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
March 18, 2005 - How Do You Find Underground Oil? First, get a vibrating truck.
March 18, 2005 - Why Is the National Guard Hunting Shrimp? What military biologists do.
March 16, 2005 - Do You Have to Testify Before Congress? What happens if you refuse.
March 15, 2005 - Should I Melt My Gold Nuggets? Or sell them whole?
March 11, 2005 - Why Is Captive Breeding So Hard? Don't animals like to breed?
March 10, 2005 - What's With All the Martyrs' Squares? Why they're all over the Middle East.
March 10, 2005 - How Much Is Your Stolen Music Worth? Probably more than you think.
March 8, 2005 - If Bono Ran the World Bank ... What the job entails.
March 7, 2005 - How Do Shrinks Measure Maturity? With questionnaires, brain scans, and video games.
March 4, 2005 - What Martha Really Ate in Prison The incarceration diet explained.
March 4, 2005 - Who Are the Druses, Anyway? A primer.
March 2, 2005 - How To Race Around the World Which way should you go?
March 1, 2005 - Goo That Destroys Boulders? How it works.
Feb. 28, 2005 - How To Teach an Ape To Talk Cross-species communication 101.
Feb. 25, 2005 - Can Your Phone Get a Virus? How cell phones get hacked.
Feb. 23, 2005 - Doctor, Please Reattach My ... How long can you wait before sewing a severed body part back on?
Feb. 22, 2005 - Has Your Identity Been Stolen? What to do if it happens to you.
Feb. 18, 2005 - How To Hunt the Clean Boot And why real foxhunters think it's such a drag.
Feb. 17, 2005 - What About Bob? Judith Miller and Matt Cooper seem to be headed for jail. Why isn't Robert Novak?
Feb. 17, 2005 - How Come Syria Controls Lebanon? Why the neighbors are calling the shots.
Feb. 16, 2005 - A New Strain of HIV? How many kinds are out there?
Feb. 15, 2005 - What Is a Princess Consort? No one knows. Camilla will be the first.
Feb. 11, 2005 - Want To Know How Old That Cow Is? First, look at its teeth.
Feb. 11, 2005 - Why Some Feasts Are Movable How come Lent moves around while Christmas stays put?
Feb. 10, 2005 - How Nickels Got So Heavy Why stealing 45,000 pounds of them is a bad deal.
Feb. 9, 2005 - What Is Death Row Syndrome? And who came up with it?
Feb. 1, 2005 - How Islam Got to the Philippines And what the Sultan of Sulu has to do with it.
Jan. 28, 2005 - Can Mouse Poison Kill You? How much can humans ingest without dying?
Jan. 27, 2005 - How Much for That Domain? Who sells .net? To whom? And why does it matter?
Jan. 24, 2005 - Osama, Call Your Agent! Is Doubleday violating Bin Laden's copyright?
Jan. 21, 2005 - Why "Hail to the Chief"? How it became the presidential song.
Jan. 20, 2005 - How They Measure Wind Chill It's all about how thick your skin is.
Jan. 19, 2005 - How Embarrass, Minn., Got Its Name And what lumber's got to do with it.
Jan. 18, 2005 - How To Count Right Whales First, photograph their calluses.
Jan. 13, 2005 - Prisoners Are Fighting Mudslides? What else do inmate work crews do?
Jan. 13, 2005 - Do Commandos Go Commando? Soldiers and their skivvies.
Jan. 10, 2005 - Army Reserve vs. National Guard What's the difference, anyway?
Jan. 7, 2005
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