soupsoup: With a bit more time on my hands commuting a few stops on the subway, I need some reading material to Instapaper to my iPad. Longreads has been invaluable in providing me with a great selection of really interesting articles. Along the way, there were five particular stories this year that really caught my […]
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Master of Play: Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s Man Behind Mario Jamin Brophy-Warren, who publishes a video-game arts and culture magazine called Kill Screen, told me that there is something in the amplitude and dynamic of Mario’s jumps—just enough supernatural lift yet also just enough gravitational resistance—that makes the act of performing that jump, over and over, […]
Can CollegeHumor’s Ricky Van Veen Turn Viral Funny into the Future of TV? Van Veen’s question for his deputies: “How do we translate network effects to original programming?” Reich thinks for a moment, then says, “What if we did a show called ‘Ransom,’ where each week you hold the next episode for ransom until the […]
Let Us Pay: On the Future of the Newspaper Industry I feel equally certain in saying that what the print media need, more than anything else, is a new payment mechanism for online reading, which lets you read anything you like, wherever it is published, and then charges you on an aggregated basis, either monthly […]
If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be the Taliban: Tourism in Afghanistan Tactically, our vacation had begun to feel similar to a military raid—rush in and rush out—and it was both exhilarating and unsatisfying. You were trying to be a tourist in a place that didn’t allow for it. You could strike up a conversation with […]
The Desperate Battle Against Killer Bat Plague At this point, it’s a losing battle. Bats with noses dusted by the Geomyces destructans fungus that causes WNS were seen for the first time in early 2006, in upstate New York. One year later, biologists realized that WNS could kill bats in large numbers. By 2008, mortality […]
The Decline and Fall of the American Empire Viewed historically, the question is not whether the United States will lose its unchallenged global power, but just how precipitous and wrenching the decline will be. In place of Washington’s wishful thinking, let’s use the National Intelligence Council’s own futuristic methodology to suggest four realistic scenarios for […]
The Worst Bathroom in New York When he opened the door to his apartment, I was hit with an overpowering smell of moisture. Justin said that a pipe had burst last January, gushing enough scalding water to turn the bathroom into a mold-filled, 24-hour steam room. Water damage had wrecked the floors. They were so […]
Gangrey All-Stars: Top 5 Longreads of 2010 Gangrey.com, btw, is the heart and soul of long-form journalism. Click for Top 5 lists from writers including Thomas Lake (Sports Illustrated), Ben Montgomery (St. Petersburg Times), Wright Thompson (ESPN), Michael Kruse (St. Petersburg Times), and Justin Heckert (ESPN).
Gillian Reagan is an editor at Capital New York. She does other stuff, too. *** My rule was to steer clear of Capital articles (although you will recognize some bylines from contributors). These articles that weren’t necessarily the best writing of the year, but have frequently popped up and rolled around in my brain long […]
Who’s Funding Russia’s Skinhead Terrorists? “Five years ago,” said Dmitry Bakhirev, a lawyer for one of the National Socialist Organization defendants, “you would hear about some skinheads beating a Tajik migrant on the metro. Then it became knives and aluminum bats. Then firearms. Soon you will be hearing about machine guns and grenade launchers.” By […]
To Have Is to Owe: A History of Debt Never has the governing class allowed anyone to question the sacred principle that we all must pay our debts. That principle has recently been exposed to be a flagrant lie. As it turns out, we all don’t have to pay our debts. Only some of us […]
Paul Ford was an editor at Harper’s Magazine; now he’s wandering around, looking at stuff and writing computer programs. *** Tony Judt, “Night,” New York Review of Books (January 14) This was the year of the dying critic. Most writers would do themselves, and their readers, a service by dying without all the self-elegies (“selfegies”?). […]
My First Time: A Political Novice Runs for Office I ran for Congress in Maryland’s 8th District because I thought the government was spending too much money. I had no idea how much I’d be spending, or what I’d have to show for it when the ballots were counted. My rookie stats — 2,242 votes, […]
The Mystery Of Erica Blasberg: Why Did the LPGA Golfer Take Her Own Life? “Did I push her too hard?” [her father] Mel asks, his voice cracking slightly. “That question will haunt me for the rest of my life. Every world-class athlete has to give up their childhood to some degree. They’re given a special […]
From 1948: Pearl Harbor in Retrospect nprfreshair: “Pearl Harbor struck a country satiated with war’s alarms. True, we had put through the draft and had actually reached the shooting stage with German submarines. But as a people we were still talking of war, without really accepting its imminence. Then, into our national complacency, came a […]
Andrea Pitzer is writer and editor of Nieman Storyboard. *** To eliminate some of the choices that have already been popular—hello, David Grann! ;)—I haven’t included anyone I’ve met in person. All stories from 2010. Rabbi to the Rescue, by Martha Wexler and Jeff Lunden from The Washington Post Magazine Spiritual longing, the Holocaust, and […]
Don Blankenship: The Dark Lord of Coal Country During the 1980s, the company injected more than 1.4 billion gallons of slurry underground — seven times the amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the BP disaster this spring. According to the lawsuit, Massey knew that the ground around the injection sites was […]
Unauthorized, but Not Untrue: The real story of a biographer in a celebrity culture of public denials, media timidity, and legal threats Presidential wrath has its niggling little consequences. After almost 30 years as a contributing editor for Washingtonian magazine, I was suddenly removed from the masthead. The editor said he disapproved of my Bush […]
Do Ask, Must Tell: Turkey’s military doesn’t just discriminate against gays — it humiliates them To seek exemption, therefore, many gay men have to endure pseudo-scientific tests designed to appraise both their homosexuality and the extent to which it might render them “unfit” for service. “Parts of the test I took included having to draw […]
Since Beating that Left Student in Coma, His Father Has Kept a Constant Vigil Ken quit his job running a health club in Loudoun County to care for his only son. Every day, he brushes Ryan’s teeth and bathes him, administers 50 medications, feeds him through a tube attached to his stomach, changes his catheter, […]
Alex Pappademas is a staff writer for GQ. *** Rules: Nothing not published this year, nothing from GQ, because I work there, and—in the spirit of the assignment—nothing I didn’t first read on my iPhone. (And I realize now, having done this whole thing, that everything on the main list is from a print-based publication, […]
The Real-Life Swedish Murder that Inspired Stieg Larsson ‘Teet fits the Hannibal Lecter of Sweden image,’ Kärmas says, referring to his piercing stare and square jaw. ‘He is a tabloid editor’s wet dream.’ According to Angell, Härm’s former mother-in-law was also, at the time of his arrest, employed by the Swedish tabloid Expressen, a newspaper […]
The Fall of Niagara Falls Mike Hudson, the founder of the weekly tabloid Niagara Falls Reporter, freely refers to his town as “a godforsaken place,” and it was hard to argue with the assessment in the neighborhood surrounding the bar. The area is the worst the city has to offer, a place of drugs and […]
Teen Mathletes Do Battle at Algorithm Olympics Neal Wu’s last chance for international glory, and maybe America’s, too, begins with a sound like a hippo crunching through a field of dry leaves—the sound of 315 computer prodigies at 315 workstations ripping into 315 gray envelopes in unison. “You have five hours,” a voice booms across […]
The Pentagon Papers Trial There were, inevitably, some individuals who spoke up eloquently, providing dramatic courtroom examples of Americana and of the war’s impact upon society. Jan Sirois, a 24-year-old divorced mother of two from a military family, said that the only publication she ever read was Hairdo magazine, a supplement to studies at a […]
Matt O’Rourke is interactive group creative director for Crispin Porter+Bogusky in Boulder. copymattt: For those of you that like the internet for things other than cats and boobies, I give you 5 of my favorite Longreads from the past 12 months. Hit-and-run vicitm was quiet, dependable, co-workers say If you’re really lucky, Andrew Meacham will still […]
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