How Yahoo Blew It
A requiem for the ‘content portal’ era.
A requiem for the ‘content portal’ era.
Fred Vogelstein Wired Feb 2007 10min Permalink
From the Greeks to George Lucas, 2,200 years of failure.
Becky Ferreira The Awl Feb 2011 25min Permalink
On the group of friends who came to rule the bizarre, decreasingly lucrative world of Internet porn.
Benjamin Wallace New York Jan 2011 20min Permalink
How a nation went bankrupt. “Ireland’s regress is especially unsettling because of the questions it raises about Ireland’s former progress: even now no one is quite sure why the Irish suddenly did so well for themselves in the first place.”
Michael Lewis Vanity Fair Mar 2011 Permalink
Jack Nicholson interviewed at 73.
Jack Nicholson, Louise Gannon The Daily Mail Jan 2011 10min Permalink
“I’m not the kind of guy who hears voices. But that night, as I passed the station, I heard a little voice coming from the back of my head…‘If you do it that way, if you use that algorithm, there will be a flaw. The game will be flawed. You will be able to crack the ticket. You will be able to plunder the lottery.’”
Jonah Lehrer Wired Feb 2011 20min Permalink
A year-long investigation of America’s coroners and medical examiners reveals a deeply flawed, deeply troubling system.
A.C. Thompson, Lowell Bergman, Mosi Secret, Sandra Bartlett ProPublica Feb 2011 20min Permalink
How a legally dubious FBI sting lured a pair of Russian hackers stateside.
Brendan I. Koerner Legal Affairs May 2002 15min Permalink
How YouTube went from ubiquitous to profitable; and where it goes next.
Danielle Sacks Fast Company Feb 2011 Permalink
On Sam Cooke, theme parties, and the importance of McDonald’s-related jingles when street performing.
R. Kelly, Will Oldham Interview Feb 2011 25min Permalink
Money from relatives abroad, the lifeline for many Afghani’s, moves primarily through small hawala</em exchanges, which shift currency through cellphones, fax lines, and trust. When money moves in Afghanistan, however, connections to the heroin trade and terrorist groups are never far.
Kara Platoni East Bay Express Oct 2003 25min Permalink
A primer on Egypt’s political landscape.
Adam Shatz London Review of Books May 2010 30min Permalink
The Bohemian Grove is an exclusive, all-male club made up of Presidents, ambassadors, and other world leaders, with a 33 year waiting list for membership. Their booze-soaked annual retreat outside of San Francisco had never been infiltrated—until this story.
Philip Weiss Spy Nov 1989 Permalink
On the language of hobos and the dictionaries it spawned.
John Ptak Ptak Science Jan 2011 Permalink
The story of Nate Fleming—walk-on point guard at Oklahoma State, fan favorite, golden child—and the 2001 plane crash that took his life.
Tom Friend ESPN Jan 2011 Permalink
A remembrance of relationships formed when the author, at 13 and using a false identity, frequented hockey chat rooms.
Katie Baker Deadspin Jan 2011 20min Permalink
In 1998, at age 45, Ken Bradshaw surfed the tallest wave in recorded history.
William Langewiesche Vanity Fair Feb 2011 35min Permalink
What happened when the founder of North Face and Esprit bought a chunk of Chile the size of a small state, intending to live with a select group inside it and turn it case study for ecological preservation. It turned out, however, that Chileans didn’t really like that idea.
William Langewiesche The Atlantic Jun 1999 20min Permalink
Paul Wayment made a profound mistake, left his 2-year-old son alone in his truck as he tracked deer in the wilderness. The boy was gone when he returned. The story of a collective struggle to find a just punishment.
Barry Siegel The Los Angeles Times Dec 2001 30min Permalink
On the cloak and dagger dealings between The New York Times and WikiLeaks. Adapted from Executive Editor Bill Keller’s forthcoming ebook, Open Secrets: WikiLeaks, War and American Diplomacy: Complete and Updated Coverage from The New York Times.
Bill Keller New York Times Jan 2011 Permalink
On the pair of entrepreneurs behind a Wal-Mart of weed in Oakland. The duo is talking IPO. “Everybody I was meeting was a little bit older, more a part of the hippie generation,” says one. “I was like, ‘I bet there’s so much room for innovation and new ideas.’”
Josh Harkinson Mother Jones Jan 2011 Permalink
What has Ted Haggard, who left the New Life megachurch after admitting he purchased crystal meth and sexual favors from a male escort, been doing in the four years since? Selling insurance door to door and then… founding a new church and returning to the pulpit.
Kevin Roose GQ Feb 2011 20min Permalink
A primer on Peretz, longtime owner/editor of The New Republic, committed Zionist, and author of the line “Muslim life is cheap.”
Lockheed Martin is the largest government contractor in history. They train TSA workers and Guantanamo interrogators. Every American household pays them around $260 per year in taxes. The new military industrial complex is a single company.
William D. Hartung Guernica Jan 2011 10min Permalink
Is long-term solitary confinement torture?
Atul Gawande New Yorker Mar 2009 35min Permalink