Search Results for: Internet

Matt O'Rourke: My Favorite Longreads from 2010

Matt O’Rourke is interactive group creative director for Crispin Porter+Bogusky in Boulder.

copymattt:

For those of you that like the internet for things other than cats and boobies, I give you 5 of my favorite Longreads from the past 12 months.

Hit-and-run vicitm was quiet, dependable, co-workers say

If you’re really lucky, Andrew Meacham will still be alive when you die.

The 2010 Rapha Gentleman’s Race Report

Heidi Swift on bikes, dirt, enduring love and lots of vomit. 

5 Year-Old Slugger

A simple story told beautifully by one of the best sports-writers on earth. 

Letter From Manhattan

Joan Didion’s original review of Woody Allen’s last great movie.

And God Created Controversy

On the surface this seems like one of the dumbest interviews ever documented. It is.

Jared Keller: Top 5 Longreads of 2010

Jared Keller, in addition to being in charge of the whole internet, is also social media editor for The Atlantic.

michellelegro:

Trust in what Jared says. He’s in charge of, like, the whole internet. Or at least the portion of it housed in the Watergate building. 

jbkeller:

Dan Baum, “Happiness Is A Worn Gun” (Harpers, August 2010)
 
Many knee-jerk opponents of gun rights have never handled a gun before, so what happens when one liberal wears a concealed weapon? The Harpers articles is subscription only, but it’s worth subscribing just to read about Baum’s psychological transformation as a concealed gun owner.
 
Rebecca Mead, “Rage Machine” (The New Yorker, May 24, 2010)

I despise most everything about Andrew Breitbart – his personality, his politics, his smear tactics – but I loved this profile. Mead made him almost loveable.

Graeme Wood, “Prison Without Walls” (The Atlantic, September 2010)

This story has been done before, but I have an odd fascination with surveillance and surveillance states.

Robin Marantz Henig, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” (New York Times Magazine, August 18th, 2010)

Caught between economic recession and a poisonous political environment, why do young people take so long to grow up? For maximum impact, read “The Recessions Long Shadow” which appeared in the March 2010 issue of The Atlantic, immediately beforehand.

Wayne Curtis, “Gunpowder On The Rocks” (The Atlantic, November 2010)

A New Zealand bartender learns what pirates and sailors knew long ago: explosives and liquor mix just fine.

A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web

A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web

A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web

Longreads Pick

Not only has a heap of customer complaints failed to deter DecorMyEyes, but as an all-too-cursory Google search demonstrated, the company can show up in the most coveted place on the Internet’s most powerful site. Which means the owner of DecorMyEyes might be more than just a combustible bully with a mean streak and a potty mouth. He might also be a pioneer of a new brand of anti-salesmanship — utterly noxious retail — that is facilitated by the quirks and shortcomings of Internet commerce and that tramples long-cherished traditions of customer service, like deference and charm.

Published: Nov 28, 2010
Length: 23 minutes (5,881 words)

The Singularities of Josh Harris

Longreads Pick

Josh Harris made his fortune, long since lost, by starting two pioneering companies in New York: the first web research firm, Jupiter Communications, in 1986; and Pseudo, the first producer of television shows for the Internet, in 1993. “First of all, I’m flat broke,” he said. “And a guy like me is in New York City flat broke for a reason.”

Published: Nov 1, 2010
Length: 12 minutes (3,199 words)

The D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid Revolution

Longreads Pick

It’s not only presidents and United Nations officials who chip away at global challenges. Passionate individuals with great ideas can do the same, especially in the age of the Internet and social media.

Published: Oct 20, 2010
Length: 19 minutes (4,756 words)

A Virtual Counter-Revolution

Longreads Pick

It is still too early to say that the internet has fragmented into “internets”, but there is a danger that it may splinter along geographical and commercial boundaries.

Source: The Economist
Published: Sep 2, 2010
Length: 11 minutes (2,973 words)

Five-Year-Old Slugger

Longreads Pick

The video of his batting-cage exploits has turned him into an internet curiosity and a media star. How can a kid so small and so young handle 85-mph heat?

Published: Aug 30, 2010
Length: 24 minutes (6,191 words)

When Funny Goes Viral

Longreads Pick

One weekend this spring, close to 1,000 people gathered on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to attend a sold-out conference devoted to the question “What is awesome on the Internet?” While the event included presenters and moderators with respectable research credentials from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and the like, what they had gathered to examine, more or less seriously, is what might be called the ROFL universe.

Author: Rob Walker
Published: Jul 16, 2010
Length: 18 minutes (4,580 words)

Putting a Price on Words

Longreads Pick

This isn’t a lament about declining standards of quality or the rude incursions of amateur bloggers. In fact, thanks to the Internet, people probably read more good journalism than ever. That’s precisely the problem: the sheer volume of words has overwhelmed a business model that was once based on scarcity and limited choice.

Published: May 12, 2010
Length: 19 minutes (4,903 words)