Somali Pirates' Rich Returns
On the economics of the booming Somali pirate business, which is up 177 percent over last year.
On the economics of the booming Somali pirate business, which is up 177 percent over last year.
Robert Young Pelton Businessweek May 2011 Permalink
When I hear music as a fan, I see fields. I see landscapes. I close my eyes and see an entire universe that that music and the voice, or the narrative, create. A music video-and any other kind of visual reference-is created by someone else. For me, as a music fan, visuals kind of steal away the purity of the song.
Christopher Bollen, Michael Stipe Interview May 2011 25min Permalink
John Demjanjuk has had a huge year. Twenty years after being sentenced to die, he finally climbed to the pinnacle of the Wiesenthal Center's list of Nazi war criminals this April, shortly after the Germans filed the arrest warrant that allowed the OSI to put him on the jet to Munich.
Scott Raab Esquire Nov 2009 35min Permalink
A profile of Hole lead singer Courtney Love.
Lynn Hirschberg Vanity Fair Sep 1992 Permalink
While much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime — a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history.
Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone May 2011 25min Permalink
On Edward Tufte, the great data visualization (read: charts and graphs) theorist and author of 1983’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, one of the most successful self-published books ever produced.
Joshua Yaffa Washington Monthly May 2011 40min Permalink
On 21st-century prospectors:
Shawn Ryan is the king of a new Yukon gold rush, the biggest since the legendary Klondike stampede a century ago. Behind this stampede is the rising price of gold, and behind this price is fear.
Gary Wolf New York Times Magazine May 2011 1h10min Permalink
In 1935, a nine-year-old living in Switzerland became the King of Thailand. He would return to his homeland a decade later, and within six months he would be found shot to death in his bed. Though three servants were executed for the crime, a mystery endures.
The story of a high school quarterback’s descent into madness, and its tragic end.
Elizabeth Dwoskin Village Voice May 2011 20min Permalink
During her brief tenure as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin was a genuinely effective, bipartisan legislator. What went wrong?
Joshua Green The Atlantic Jun 2011 25min Permalink
On the ground to witness Cuba’s last days:
“Either we rectify our course or the time for teetering along on the brink runs out and we go down. And we will go down…[with] the effort of entire generations.”—Raul Castro
Jose Manuel Prieto New York Review of Books May 2011 15min Permalink
Doc moves quickly. He takes off his windbreaker, tosses his leather bag on the counter and unzips it. He pulls out a slate-blue polyester vest, V-necked, with six buttons. He raises his arms and jumps into it and then says, with an air of deep satisfaction, "Aah." Doc is proud of his bulletproof vest.
The discovery of 30,000-year old, perfectly preserved cave paintings in southern France offer a glimpse into a world that 21st-century humans can never hope to understand. The article that inspired Werner Herzog’s “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”
Judith Thurman New Yorker Jun 2008 30min Permalink
As announced last night. Click here for the full list of nominees.
What becomes of Asian-American overachievers after the test-taking ends?
Wesley Yang New York Jan 2012 35min Permalink
Justin Vivian Bond found downtown fame as Kiki DuRane, decrepit drag chanteuse and comedic prophet of gay rage born out of the AIDS era. Then he killed Kiki to try to become the woman (and man) he always wanted to be.
Carl Swanson New York May 2011 20min Permalink
In the past the only people who wrote autobiographies or memoirs were very important, those who had a crucial role in the history of their own country—Napoleon, Goethe—or were witness to major events or people who had singular, adventurous lives. Otherwise, it is ridiculous to write your autobiography.
Javier Marias, Sarah Fay The Paris Review Jan 2006 45min Permalink
The unintended consequences of American funding in Pakistan.
Lawrence Wright New Yorker May 2011 15min Permalink
How automated ‘execution algorithms’ are taking the world’s markets on a wild ride that few economists can even understand, much less control.
Donald MacKenzie London Review of Books May 2011 20min Permalink
The investigation of 20-year-old Russian model’s fall from a Manhattan rooftop uncovers a string of mysteries and clues embedded within the insular world of international models and those who scout them.
Peter Pomerantsev Newsweek May 2011 10min Permalink
A profile of Maine’s two U.S. senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
Martha Sherrill Washington Post May 2011 25min Permalink
The placebo response doesn't care if the catalyst for healing is a triumph of pharmacology, a compassionate therapists, or a syringe of salt water. All it requires is a reasonable expectation of getting better.
Steve Silberman Wired Aug 2009 20min Permalink
The questionable close relationship between a mobster/informant and an F.B.I. agent during a bloody Colombo crime family battle.
Fredric Dannen New Yorker Dec 1996 40min Permalink
When he was 16, Mark Clements talked his way into four life sentences. Twenty-eight years later, he talked his way out.
Steve Bogira Chicago Reader May 2011 30min Permalink
On Hillary Clinton’s Arab Spring.
Jonathan Alter Vanity Fair Jun 2011 30min Permalink