The Closing of the Marijuana Frontier

California is not just deciding whether pot should be legal. It’s determining the shape of a major new American industry.

Published: Nov 1, 2010
Length: 29 minutes (7,495 words)

Straight Outta Comp 101

I have never, to my knowledge, heard a song by 2Pac, Nas, Lil’ Kim, Lil Wayne, KRS-One, DMX, Kanye West, Cam’ron, 50 Cent, or the Wu-Tang Clan. This is why I’m so evangelically excited about The Anthology of Rap, Yale University Press’s monumental new collection of rap lyrics. It feels like it was published, exclusively for me, by the vanity press of my own subconscious.

Published: Oct 31, 2010
Length: 6 minutes (1,651 words)

The Singularities of Josh Harris

Josh Harris made his fortune, long since lost, by starting two pioneering companies in New York: the first web research firm, Jupiter Communications, in 1986; and Pseudo, the first producer of television shows for the Internet, in 1993. “First of all, I’m flat broke,” he said. “And a guy like me is in New York City flat broke for a reason.”

Published: Nov 1, 2010
Length: 12 minutes (3,199 words)

The Perfect Stride: Can Alberto Salazar straighten out American distance running?

At first, Salazar’s scheme was bizarrely complex. Among other things, he arranged for the design of a sealed house near the Nike campus in which athletes would sleep in rooms with varied amounts of oxygen. He also used an obscure computer program from Russia that claimed to measure an athlete’s fatigue level using electrodes that tracked variations in heart rate and in a runner’s “omega brain waves.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 1, 2010
Length: 20 minutes (5,123 words)

Machete

Mohamed Jalloh and his family fled rebels in Sierra Leone for the relative safety of New York. Then the danger caught up with them.

Published: Nov 1, 2010
Length: 14 minutes (3,624 words)

Bad Lieutenant, Dan Choi

Choi, 29, became the face of the movement against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” But it isn’t just getting kicked out of the military that irks him. He’s also not happy about being kicked off Grindr — four times.

Source: Village Voice
Published: Oct 27, 2010
Length: 19 minutes (4,855 words)

PR for the PRC

During the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, I worked as a speed typist for the Chinese Ministry of Propaganda. It was my job to type, in English, everything that was said during an endless blur of press conferences where the Middle Kingdom celebrated its logistical triumphs.

Author: Anonymous
Source: n+1
Published: Sep 27, 2010
Length: 12 minutes (3,010 words)

Why Twitter’s CEO Demoted Himself

As Evan Williams talked with the interviewer about building a 21st-century business, keeping to Twitter’s foundational principle (the Google-like “be a force for good”) and fostering corporate experimentation, members of his audience started groaning — and leaving, one by one. “They wanted Ev Williams; they got Ev Williams,” a Twitter staff member said later.

Published: Oct 31, 2010
Length: 13 minutes (3,418 words)

Last Stand at American Apparel

“I’m not sure. I certainly think I can talk to you. Can you call back in an hour? We have this meeting at 9, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be free in an hour,” Dov Charney says genially. An hour later, he says, “I’m just not sure I’m in the right headspace. Can I call you back—how late are you going to be up?” (It must be said at this point that I sense no lecherous intent in his tone.) “Ninety-per-cent sure, I’ll call you by about 11. If not, tomorrow.”

Published: Oct 28, 2010
Length: 22 minutes (5,581 words)

Innocence Lost

On October 27, 2010, just a month after the publication of this story, the Burleson County district attorney’s office dropped all murder charges against Anthony Graves and released him from the county jail, where he was awaiting retrial.

Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Oct 1, 2010
Length: 57 minutes (14,450 words)