Martin Schneider writes:

A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine's press release:

In "The Rubber Room," Steven Brill goes inside a facility where New York City teachers who have been accused of misconduct, or, in some cases, incompetence are required to spend each day—for which they receive full pay—while they await arbitration. Under the terms of the city's contract with the teachers' union, the United Federation of Teachers, teachers with more than three years' seniority are guaranteed a job for life and cannot be fired unless they are "charged with an offense and lose in the arduous arbitration hearing," Brill writes. Teachers can sit idle in these facilities, commonly referred to as "Rubber Rooms," for as many as five years.

In "Perfect Match," Burkhard Bilger profiles tennis's Bob and Mike Bryan, "the best doubles team of their generation," and examines the evolution of doubles tennis.

In "Useless Beauty," Nick Paumgarten visits Governors Island in New York Harbor and explores the battle over how to develop it now that it is back under New York's control.

In Comment, Laura Secor looks at the history of coerced confessions and show trials in Iran, and explains why such tactics are ineffectual today.

James Surowiecki asks if the public's resistance to Obama's health-care-reform plan is psychological.

Paul Simms sends a corporate memo about restructuring in one's personal life.

Elif Batuman chronicles the rise of comedy traffic schools.

Elizabeth Kolbert explores extreme experiments in low-impact living.

James Wood examines attempts to defend God from the new atheists.

Alex Ross notes a recent return to improvisation in bel-canto opera.

Anthony Lane reviews Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock and The Baader Meinhof Complex.

There is a short story by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.