One Year in the App Store

So, can you make a living in the App Store? That’s what everyone really wants to know, right? Can a small indie team make some cool iPhone games and still pay their rent? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is, for two people, in western economies, with no kids or major health problems, with working wives, Sneezies did well enough to keep us in ramen this year. It’s a fragile existence, but that’s what you pay to live the dream, no? If one of our wives was out of work for a while, or if one of us decided we wanted to start a family, we’d have to go out and find contract work or get jobs. But so far, we’re getting by.

Source: Retro Dreamer
Published: Dec 1, 2009
Length: 28 minutes (7,156 words)

The Bank Job

One of the biggest disconnects on Wall Street today is between the way Goldman Sachs sees itself (they’re the smartest) and the way everyone else sees Goldman (they’re the smartest, greediest, and most dangerous). Questioning C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein, C.O.O. Gary Cohn, and C.F.O. David Viniar.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 20 minutes (5,180 words)

Married (Happily) With Issues

I have a pretty good marriage. It could be better. There are things about my husband that drive me crazy. Last spring he cut apart a frozen pig’s head with his compound miter saw in our basement. He needed the head to fit into a pot so that he could make pork stock. I’m no saint of a spouse, either.

Published: Dec 1, 2009
Length: 9 minutes (2,436 words)

The Fall of Mexico

In the almost three years since President Felipe Calderón launched a war on drug cartels, border towns in Mexico have turned into halls of mirrors where no one knows who is on which side or what chance remark could get you murdered.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Dec 1, 2009
Length: 18 minutes (4,505 words)

Obama Lost, Obama Found

How the president finds his way out of the woods.

Published: Nov 29, 2009
Length: 17 minutes (4,285 words)

North Star

Populism, politics, and the power of Sarah Palin.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Dec 7, 2009
Length: 12 minutes (3,177 words)

Up to Nothing

Source: Rands in Repose
Published: Nov 29, 2009
Length: 6 minutes (1,593 words)

Everybody Musta Got Stoned

UW scholar probes drug use among ancient civilizations. “Some of us wondered in geometry class how Pythagoras came up with his famous theorem regarding the relationship between the hypotenuse and the remaining two sides of a right triangle. Madison author David Hillman has a theory about the ancient Greeks that may grate on a few nerves in the classical studies world. It comes down to this: Maybe Pythagoras was smoking something.”

Source: Isthmus
Published: Oct 31, 2008
Length: 11 minutes (2,844 words)

Glenn Beck: The Renegade Running the Opposition to Obama

Glenn Beck is a TV host, bestselling author and the most influential voice on the rightwing Fox channel. Now, even some Republicans worry that the extreme and maverick views of Beck and his supporters will make their party unelectable. Is the TV tail wagging the political dog?

Author: Gaby Wood
Source: The Guardian
Published: Nov 29, 2009
Length: 43 minutes (10,991 words)

The ’00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell

Source: Time
Published: Nov 24, 2009
Length: 34 minutes (8,530 words)