The New Cold War

For three months, the Arab world has been awash in protests and demonstrations. It’s being called an Arab Spring, harking back to the Prague Spring of 1968. But comparison to the short-lived flowering of protests 40 years ago in Czechoslovakia is turning out to be apt in another way. For all the attention the Mideast protests have received, their most notable impact on the region thus far hasn’t been an upswell of democracy. It has been a dramatic spike in tensions between two geopolitical titans, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Published: Apr 16, 2011
Length: 12 minutes (3,080 words)

Just Write It! A Fantasy Author and His Impatient Fans

George R. R. Martin has now sold more than fifteen million books worldwide, and his readership will likely multiply exponentially after the launch, this month, of “Game of Thrones,” a lavish HBO series based on “A Song of Ice and Fire.” He is committed to nurturing his audience, no matter how vast it gets. “It behooves a writer to be good to his fans,” he says. Still, a close relationship with one’s audience has its drawbacks. As Martin puts it, “The more readers you have, the harder it is to keep up, and then you can’t get any writing done.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Apr 13, 2011
Length: 21 minutes (5,316 words)

Goldman’s Alpha War

Steve Friedman’s decision to quit as chairman of Goldman Sachs, in 1994, during one of its darkest hours, stunned and angered his partners. And despite Friedman’s maneuverings, it created a leadership crisis as the mismatched team of Jon Corzine (future New Jersey governor) and Henry Paulson (future Treasury secretary) took the helm. In an adaptation from his book on Goldman, William D. Cohan reveals how secret merger discussions put the expansive trader and the hardheaded banker on a collision course, setting the stage for the firm it would soon become.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Apr 15, 2011
Length: 35 minutes (8,931 words)

Woody & Mia: A New York Story

“It’s no accomplishment to have or raise kids,” Woody Allen often used to say. “Any fool can do it.” Then in the fall of 1979 he met Mia Farrow, who had seven children. Mia, he now says, “introduced me to a whole other world. Yet the two of us have so little in common that it always amazes us. We’re always marveling on why we threw in our lot together and stayed together as long as we have.”

Author: Eric Lax
Published: Feb 24, 1991
Length: 18 minutes (4,538 words)

This Tech Bubble Is Different

After a couple years at Facebook, Jeff Hammerbacher grew restless. He figured that much of the groundbreaking computer science had been done. Something else gnawed at him. Hammerbacher looked around Silicon Valley at companies like his own, Google, and Twitter, and saw his peers wasting their talents. “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads,” he says. “That sucks.”

Source: Businessweek
Published: Apr 15, 2011
Length: 11 minutes (2,966 words)

The Truth About Race, Religion, And The Honor Code At BYU

Over the past month, BYU has been held up as a symbol of all that is decent in college sports for its unsparing treatment of Brandon Davies, the African-American basketball player who violated the school’s honor code by reportedly having sex with his girlfriend. Davies was suspended shortly before the NCAA tournament, and a braying mainstream press lauded BYU for sticking to its principles. Sports Illustrated’s website even wondered if a values-driven, “non-hypocritical” BYU was “on the verge of becoming America’s team.” The reality isn’t so appealing.

Source: Deadspin
Published: Apr 15, 2011
Length: 18 minutes (4,658 words)

Trouble @Twitter

There’s no shortage of drama at Twitter these days: Besides the CEO shuffles, there are secret board meetings, executive power struggles, a plethora of coaches and consultants, and disgruntled founders. (Like Evan Williams. The day after Jack Dorsey announced his return to the company — via tweet, naturally — Williams quit his day-to-day duties at the company, although he remains a board member and Twitter’s largest shareholder, with an estimated 30% to 35% stake.) These theatrics, which go well beyond the usual angst at a new venture, have contributed to a growing perception that innovation has stalled and management is in turmoil at one of Silicon Valley’s most promising startups.

Source: Fortune
Published: Apr 14, 2011
Length: 14 minutes (3,719 words)

Donald Glover Is More Talented Than You

While in his senior year at NYU, Glover got an e-mail from David Miner with the message “I heard you write.” Miner had gotten his name from Tina Fey, who got it from Amy Poehler, who got it from his teacher at Upright Citizens Brigade. They asked him for some writing samples. He sent the spec script he wrote for The Simpsons, along with one for Everybody Hates Chris, along with some sketches he had written. Miner and 30 Rock co-creator Fey liked them. Not yet having graduated from NYU, he was now a writer on 30 Rock.

Source: Village Voice
Published: Apr 13, 2011
Length: 16 minutes (4,200 words)

Picasso’s Erotic Code

A major new exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery tracks the affair between Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter, who became his mistress at 17, bore him a child, and committed suicide after his death, 50 years after they met. John Richardson tells the love story behind Walter’s encoded appearances in some of the 20th century’s most important artworks, including Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece, Guernica.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Apr 14, 2011
Length: 12 minutes (3,070 words)

As the Mountaintops Fall, a Coal Town Vanishes

A couple of years ago, a subsidiary of Massey Energy, which owns a sprawling mine operation behind and above the Richmond home, bought up Lindytown. Many of its residents signed Massey-proffered documents in which they also agreed not to sue, testify against, seek inspection of or “make adverse comment” about coal-mining operations in the vicinity. You might say that both parties were motivated. Massey preferred not to have people living so close to its mountaintop mining operations. And the residents, some with area roots deep into the 19th century, preferred not to live amid a dusty industrial operation that was altering the natural world about them.

Author: Dan Barry
Published: Apr 12, 2011
Length: 11 minutes (2,774 words)