The Great Check-In Battle
Foursquare and Gowalla are in a VC-funded race to become the dominant location-based social network. But their founders say both companies have a larger purpose.
Foursquare and Gowalla are in a VC-funded race to become the dominant location-based social network. But their founders say both companies have a larger purpose.
Neal Pollack Wired (UK) Jun 2010 Permalink
The 1979 Oscars pitted Hal Ashby’s Coming Home against Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, wildly different films both on the topic of the Vietnam War.
Peter Biskind Vanity Fair Mar 2008 40min Permalink
Born in Germany, raised in Montana, now living in New York, comedian Reggie Watts describes his style as “culture sampling.”
Sam Anderson New York Jun 2010 10min Permalink
Job Cohen, the current mayor of Amsterdam, is leading the Dutch race for Prime Minister on a platform of racial integration that could transform the relationship between European politics and immigration.
[Part 2 of 2] The story behind this spring’s spate of retributive murders in Southwest D.C.
Paul Duggan Washington Post Jun 2010 15min Permalink
[Part 1 of 2] The story behind this spring’s spate of retributive murders in Southwest D.C.
Paul Duggan Washington Post Jun 2010 10min Permalink
Argentina’s Lio Messi, the best soccer player on the planet, stands all of 5’7” and needed growth-hormone injections to get there.
S.L. Price Sports Illustrated May 2010 20min Permalink
In the wake of 9/11, terrorist networks moved their recruitment and training efforts online, giving birth to Jihad-geeks like Irhabi_007.
Nadya Labi The Atlantic Jul 2006 15min Permalink
The Onion’s Keith Phipps retraces the route Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda followed in Easy Rider.
Keith Phipps Slate Nov 2009 Permalink
Fred Franzia makes a lot of money selling really cheap wine.
Dana Goodyear New Yorker May 2009 Permalink
In 1920, Harvard University officials suspected that some students were gay. So they kicked them all out.
Benoit Denizet-Lewis The Good Men Project Jun 2010 10min Permalink
The head of the Social Security Administration’s secret life as a respected poet.
Paul Mariani First Things Jun 2010 Permalink
In need of a new lead singer, Journey settled on an unknown 40-year-old from the Philippines whose clips they found online. Arnel Pineda was perfect: just a small-town boy, living in a lonely world.
Alex Pappademas GQ Jun 2008 25min Permalink
In the chaotic days before the Berlin Wall fell, the East German secret police shredded 45 million pages. Fifteen years later, a team of computer scientists figured out how to put it all back together.
Andrew Curry Wired Jan 2008 15min Permalink
The author wanted to give up her day job but keep her lifestyle. So she turned to Seeking Arrangement, a site that pairs rich, older men interested in “companionship” with 20-somethings interested in “gifts.”
Melanie Berliet Vanity Fair May 2010 10min Permalink
A dispatch from the frozen, drunken wasteland of Eastern Siberia.
Jeffrey Tayler The Atlantic Apr 1997 20min Permalink
The justly paranoid man behind WikiLeaks.
Raffi Khatchadourian New Yorker Jun 2010 40min Permalink
A 1970 review of Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider.
Ellen Willis New York Review of Books Jan 1970 10min Permalink
In 2003, Gary Coleman ran for governor of California. But what he really wanted was to have never come to Hollywood in the first place.
Hank Stuever Washington Post Aug 2003 15min Permalink
A mayday call in the critical moments after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform.
Douglas A. Blackmon The Wall Street Journal May 2010 10min Permalink
What fragmented reading experiences do to neural circuitry. (It’s not good.)
Nicholas Carr Wired Jun 2010 10min Permalink
The rise and fall of The Exile, Russia’s angriest English-language newspaper.
James Verini Vanity Fair Feb 2010 30min Permalink
Lenny makes $5,000 a week selling coke. It was easy to get into the business after finishing prep school. Getting out and going legit after his final score is proving much more difficult.
David Amsden New York Apr 2006 25min Permalink
How the National Enquirer became a 2010 Pulitzer contender without straying from its roots as a supermarket tabloid.
Alex Pappademas GQ May 2010 Permalink
The contradiction-rich world of Maya Arulpragasam.