Up on the Roof

A lofty idea is blossoming in cities around the world, where acres of potential green space lie overhead.

Published: May 11, 2009
Length: 6 minutes (1,563 words)

Convenience Is King

Solving the “last-mile” problem in public transportation

Source: GOOD Magazine
Published: Apr 16, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,269 words)

Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation? Part 6, 1995: Live, Bush & Alanis

Alanis haters relished pointing out how many of the examples of irony in the lyrics to “Ironic” were, in fact, not really ironic. On this point I’m going to defend Morissette, if only because these are the same awful people that circle typos in newspapers and mail the clippings anonymously to editors with smug putdowns such as, “Maybe you should consider hiring copy editors,” or some equally non-clever bullshit. I’m right next to you flipping the bird at those a-holes, Alanis.

Source: Onion A.V. Club
Published: Dec 14, 2010
Length: 17 minutes (4,292 words)

Orchid Fever

At an orchid show in New York last year, I heard the same story over and over—how one orchid in the kitchen led to a dozen, and then to a back-yard greenhouse, and then, in some cases, to multiple greenhouses and collecting trips to Asia and Africa and an ever-expanding budget to service this desire. I walked around the show with a collector from Guatemala. He said, “The bug hits you. You can join A.A. to quit drinking, but once you get into orchids you can’t do anything to kick.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jan 23, 1995
Length: 26 minutes (6,536 words)

The Contenders: Is Egypt’s Presidential Race Becoming a Real Contest?

Mubarak has suggested that he will never willingly step down. In 2006, he told Egypt’s Parliament that he would continue to serve “as long as there is in my chest a heart that beats and I draw breath.” … One part of the system that has sustained Mubarak in power is Egypt’s Emergency Law, which has been in effect since 1981, the year he became President. The law has been used to jail thousands of people without charges. Public gatherings of more than five people without prior official permission are illegal.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Apr 5, 2010
Length: 20 minutes (5,152 words)

The Lords of Dogtown

The Dogtown kids started applying their surfing techniques to concrete, riding low to the ground with their arms outstretched for balance, skating with such intensity that they often destroyed their homemade boards in a single session. “We were just trying to emulate our favorite Australian surfers,” Tony Alva says, explaining the genesis of their new low-slung, super-aggressive style. “They were doing all this crazy stuff that we were still trying to figure out in the water—but on skateboards, we could do it.”

Author: Greg Beato
Source: Spin
Published: Mar 1, 1999
Length: 24 minutes (6,077 words)

Consider the Lobster

For 56 years, the Maine Lobster Festival has been drawing crowds with the promise of sun, fun, and fine food. One visitor would argue that the celebration involves a whole lot more.

Source: Gourmet
Published: Aug 1, 2004
Length: 31 minutes (7,841 words)

The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch

He’s a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd’s deciding about yoga—and his future in baseball.

Published: Apr 1, 1985
Length: 23 minutes (5,912 words)

Home

In February 2003, after the explosion of the shuttle two American astronauts aboard the International Space Station suddenly found themselves with no ride home. And things got worse from there.

Source: Esquire
Published: Jul 1, 2004
Length: 26 minutes (6,707 words)

Steve Jobs and the Portal to the Invisible

In his controlling hands, technology became both the engine and the emblem of transcendence. But as the iPhone slips from his grasp, Jobs is making his final bid for immortality. “Steve Jobs has become Steve Jobs by doing what nobody else has done before—by treating computers not just as tools but as mirrors, by making technology not just the engine but the emblem of transcendence. One day, however, he will have to do what everybody else has done before, and will wind up demonstrating what it’s like to be mortal, even in the age of the beautiful machine.”

Author: Tom Junod
Source: Esquire
Published: Oct 1, 2008
Length: 26 minutes (6,696 words)