The Fifty-First State?

Going to war with Iraq would mean shouldering all the responsibilities of an occupying power the moment victory was achieved. These would include running the economy, keeping domestic peace, and protecting Iraq’s borders, and doing it all for years, or perhaps decades. Are we ready for this long-term relationship?

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Nov 1, 2002
Length: 38 minutes (9,715 words)

With a Little Help From His Friends

At 19, Sean Parker helped create Napster. At 24, he was founding president of Facebook. At 30, he’s the hard-partying, press-shy genius of social networking, a budding billionaire, and about to be famous — played by Justin Timberlake in David Fincher’s new film, The Social Network.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Oct 1, 2010
Length: 16 minutes (4,068 words)

How Lyrics Work

Published: Sep 1, 2010
Length: 7 minutes (1,900 words)

The Silent Season of a Hero

“I would like to take the great DiMaggio fishing,” the old man said. “They say his father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as we are and would understand.” –Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

Author: Gay Talese
Source: Esquire
Published: Jul 1, 1966
Length: 33 minutes (8,370 words)

Investigative Shortfall

Many news outlets are doing far less accountability reporting than in the past, bad news indeed for the public. New nonprofit investigative ventures have emerged, but they can’t pick up the slack by themselves.

Published: Sep 6, 2010
Length: 30 minutes (7,646 words)

Frat House For Jesus

The entity behind C Street.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Sep 13, 2010
Length: 30 minutes (7,586 words)

Skin

The lampshade emerged from the wreckage of Katrina. But was it really what it appeared to be — a Buchenwald artifact made of human remains? A Holocaust detective story.

Published: Sep 5, 2010
Length: 28 minutes (7,208 words)

The Many Iterations of William Shatner

Author: Pat Jordan
Published: Sep 3, 2010
Length: 19 minutes (4,979 words)

As We May Think

It is the physicists who have been thrown most violently off stride, who have left academic pursuits for the making of strange destructive gadgets, who have had to devise new methods for their unanticipated assignments. They have done their part on the devices that made it possible to turn back the enemy, have worked in combined effort with the physicists of our allies. They have felt within themselves the stir of achievement. They have been part of a great team. Now, as peace approaches, one asks where they will find objectives worthy of their best.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jul 1, 1945
Length: 31 minutes (7,904 words)

The Peanut Solution

The product may not look like much — a little foil packet filled with a soft, sticky substance — but its advocates are prone to use the language of magic and wonders. What is Plumpy’nut? Sound it out, and you get the idea: it’s an edible paste made of peanuts, packed with calories and vitamins, that is specially formulated to renourish starving children. Since its widespread introduction five years ago, it has been credited with significantly lowering mortality rates during famines in Africa.

Published: Sep 2, 2010
Length: 21 minutes (5,258 words)