CURRENT ISSUE
August 2006
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Features
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Lost Over Laos
Scientists and soldiers combine forensics and archaeology to search for pilot Bat Masterson, one of 88,000 Americans missing in action from recent wars
Snap Judgments
The winners (and some runners-up) of SMITHSONIAN's annual photo contest take a bow
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Saving New Orleans
In a new book, the author of "Forrest Gump" paints an uncommonly vivid picture of an overlooked chapter in American history and its unlikely hero
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Crescent City Twilight
A photographer takes a pinhole view of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, which struck a year ago this month
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David Hockney and Friends
Though the artist doesn't think of himself as a painter of portraits, a new exhibition makes the case that they are key to his work
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Uphill Battle
As the climate warms in the cloud forests of the Andes, plants and animals must climb to higher, cooler elevations or die
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Corn Plastic to the Rescue
Wal-Mart and others are going green with "biodegradable" packaging made from corn. But is this really the answer to America's throwaway culture?
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Artist William Wegman
Wegman speaks about photographing his Weimaraners, including Man Ray and Fay Ray
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Cowboys and Realtors
The mythical West lives on - even as the wealthy, the leisured and the retired buy into Big Sky Country. An essay
Departments
Morning In America
Space shuttle-watchers took their place in the sun, not yet awakened to the true risks of exploring the heavens.
Trial by Fire
Vital records were missing—and would have stayed missing were it not for a dead lawyer's vanity.
Wild Things: Life As We Know It
Figs, canary songs, whales with legs, ancient flowering shrubs and beaver dams
Banner Renovation
The National Museum of American History will undergo a dramatic makeover
Airmail Letter
Stale Mail: The nation's first hot-air balloon postal deliveries barely got off the ground