Giuliani exits national stage

Source: Politico
Published: Dec 23, 2009
Length: 6 minutes (1,701 words)

Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care

Published: Dec 22, 2009
Length: 13 minutes (3,472 words)

The End of the ’00s: The Guantanamo Gift Shop, by Spencer Ackerman

When I visited Guantanamo Bay in the summer of 2005—the middle of this wretched, spiritually-draining decade—the last thing I expected to find was the summit, the epitome, the apotheosis of the Bush era’s epic union of consumerism and brutality. Yes: Guantanamo Bay has a gift shop. I bought this adorable plush iguana there. I’ll explain.

Source: The Awl
Published: Dec 22, 2009
Length: 11 minutes (2,913 words)

Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem

Featuring a swaggering, steroidal, wisecracking hero, Duke Nukem 3D became one of the top-selling videogames ever, making its creators very wealthy and leaving fans absolutely delirious for a sequel. The team quickly began work on that sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, and it became one of the most hotly anticipated games of all time. It was never completed.

Source: Wired
Published: Dec 21, 2009
Length: 32 minutes (8,066 words)

How I Convinced a Death-Row Murderer Not to Die

Eight years ago, Christian Longo murdered his wife and three children. On the lam, he assumed the identity of the author, a man he’d never met. Now their long, twisted relationship culminates in a final, chilling bargain.

Source: Esquire
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 16 minutes (4,173 words)

Fed’s approach to regulation left banks exposed to crisis

Source: Washington Post
Published: Dec 21, 2009
Length: 11 minutes (2,786 words)

Something About Meryl

Since she turned 38, Meryl Streep has been waiting for her career to crater. Instead, at 60, she is more of a box-office powerhouse than ever—and coming off her indelible performance in Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, she’s being pursued by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin this month in the romantic comedy It’s Complicated.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 22 minutes (5,700 words)

Mandates of Heaven

Religion hadn’t lost its capacity to bestow, again according to Breckman, “the consoling message of cosmic meaning and personal redemption,” to comfort countless numbers of its adherents afraid of death and acquainted with grief, to illuminate the masterpieces of Chartres Cathedral and the Mass in B Minor, to introduce Gerard Manley Hopkins to the power and glory of “chestnut-falls and finches’ wings,” to restore in Leo Tolstoy “the joy of being,” but it had been relieved of its character as a public menace.

Published: Dec 18, 2009
Length: 15 minutes (3,902 words)

Person of the Year 2009: Ben Bernanke

Bernanke is the 56-year-old chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the U.S., the most important and least understood force shaping the American — and global — economy. Those green bills featuring dead Presidents are labeled “Federal Reserve Note” for a reason: the Fed controls the money supply. It is an independent government agency that conducts monetary policy, which means it sets short-term interest rates — which means it has immense influence over inflation, unemployment, the strength of the dollar and the strength of your wallet. And ever since global credit markets began imploding, its mild-mannered chairman has dramatically expanded those powers and reinvented the Fed.

Source: Time
Published: Dec 16, 2009
Length: 25 minutes (6,462 words)

How Susie Bayer’s T-Shirt Ended Up on Yusuf Mama’s Back

If you’ve ever left a bag of clothes outside the Salvation Army or given to a local church drive, chances are that you’ve dressed an African. All over Africa, people are wearing what Americans once wore and no longer want.

Published: Mar 31, 2002
Length: 25 minutes (6,255 words)