E-mails inside AIG reveal executives struggling with growing crisis

Source: Washington Post
Published: Dec 30, 2009
Length: 11 minutes (2,769 words)

The Tablet

Source: Daring Fireball
Published: Dec 31, 2009
Length: 10 minutes (2,597 words)

Hitting Bottom

Dr. Drew is a TV doctor seemingly engineered for this moment. Unlike talk-show therapists whose go-to prescription is “get real,” he commands an unusual blend of medical credentials and pop-culture savvy — he is fluent in textese, neuroscience, nitrous hits and psychodynamics, which he combines with a cool, eloquent charisma honed over 25 years in the media.

Published: Dec 30, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,384 words)

Food Fighter

Does Whole Foods’ C.E.O. know what’s best for you?

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jan 4, 2010
Length: 42 minutes (10,583 words)

Ten years of BlackBerry

Source: Engadget
Published: Dec 28, 2009
Length: 36 minutes (9,044 words)

The Hunt For the Perfect Screen

Source: Gizmodo
Published: Dec 28, 2009
Length: 13 minutes (3,441 words)

Night

In effect, ALS constitutes progressive imprisonment without parole. First you lose the use of a digit or two; then a limb; then and almost inevitably, all four. The muscles of the torso decline into near torpor, a practical problem from the digestive point of view but also life-threatening, in that breathing becomes at first difficult and eventually impossible without external assistance in the form of a tube-and-pump apparatus. In the more extreme variants of the disease, associated with dysfunction of the upper motor neurons (the rest of the body is driven by the so-called lower motor neurons), swallowing, speaking, and even controlling the jaw and head become impossible. I do not (yet) suffer from this aspect of the disease, or else I could not dictate this text.

Author: Tony Judt
Published: Jan 14, 2010
Length: 7 minutes (1,986 words)

Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won

In late October 2007, as the financial markets were starting to come unglued, a Goldman Sachs trader, Jonathan M. Egol, received very good news. At 37, he was named a managing director at the firm. Mr. Egol, a Princeton graduate, had risen to prominence inside the bank by creating mortgage-related securities, named Abacus, that were at first intended to protect Goldman from investment losses if the housing market collapsed. As the market soured, Goldman created even more of these securities, enabling it to pocket huge profits. Goldman’s own clients who bought them, however, were less fortunate.

Published: Dec 23, 2009
Length: 6 minutes (1,558 words)

The End of Influence

Excerpt: For as long as many can remember, the United States has been the country with money, influence, and power. But all that is changing, write Brad DeLong and Stephen Cohen in their new book, The End of Influence.

Source: Foreign Policy
Published: Dec 23, 2009
Length: 21 minutes (5,401 words)

The Running Back, The Cheerleader And What Came After The Greatest College Football Game Ever

The magic carpet ride began for Boise State with the unbelievable finish to the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, but what became of the heroic prince and the beautiful princess who waltzed into a nation’s embrace that night? How did their fairy tale turn out?

Published: Dec 28, 2009
Length: 13 minutes (3,404 words)