Articles Worth Reading
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The Human Factor
Interesting article about the Air France plane crash and how a modern airplane works.
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Seeds of Doubt
Michael Spector's epic takedown of Indian anti-GMO activist Vandana Shiva
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Ghosted
Really interesting (and long) read from the ghost writer of Julian Assange's autobiography. Intimate details from several years of Wikileaks saga.
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Degenerate, Inc.
The Paranoid and Obsessive Life of a Mid-Level Bookie
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Interview: Bruce Sterling
It's not like we all line up and dash like mad for some end-goal called "The Future." There's no victory-condition for being human. The future is just a kind of history that hasn't happened yet.
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Tokyo Drift
On tour in Japan, the founder of D.C. punk band E.D. Sedgwick finds himself lost in translation.
Why not Tour Japan? I’d said. To which the Record Label had said: You could. The Risk would be yours, but we could Facilitate. We know an Importer-Exporter. The Importer-Exporter knows Some People On The Ground. You could Pull It Off...
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Supply and Demand: A Market Analysis of Chicago's Heroin Trade, and its Residual Criminal Aspects, Written by a Junkie
The fact is, and I don’t care who tries to dispute this, that a majority of the people who make the daily migration to the West Side to cop blows are as addicted to the ritual of copping dope as they are to the dope itself. It is an adrenaline rush no different than those achieved by people who jump out of airplanes. And dope fiends get to experience it every day.
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And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’
Apple made it seem like the iPhone just appeared fully formed and perfect, but like anything else it took a whole lot of work from a whole lot of people.
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Bad Blood
Fascinating story about the murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko and the use of polonium-210 as a poison.
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Auto-Biography: Olds 442 Trans Am Party Time
In June, 1971 I was living like a bum in the area of New York City that used to be known as Spanish Harlem. As a 26-year-old British immigrant, I dreamed of driving fast, dangerous cars and visiting all the contiguous states as cheaply as possible. My dreams seemed impractical, but an outfit named AAACon could make them happen
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The Slow Winter
Amazing, hilarious, gonzo and super-nerdy take on what it's like to work on fabricating computer chips. (PDF link)
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To a Chinese Scrap-Metal Hunter, America's Trash Is Treasure
Genuinely interesting article about the Chinese demand for American scrap metal. I'm looking forward to reading the full book.
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Sleeping Together
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The Bad-Boy Brand: The Vice guide to the world
The Williamsburg headquarters of Vice Media, which calls itself “the Time Warner of the streets.” Its C.E.O., Shane Smith says, “The over-all goal is to be the largest network for young people in the world.”
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The Notorious MSG’s Unlikely Formula For Success
The “umami” craze has turned a much-maligned and misunderstood food additive into an object of obsession for the world’s most innovative chefs. But secret ingredient monosodium glutamate’s biggest secret may be that there was never anything wrong with it at all.
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Did Goldman Sachs Overstep in Criminally Charging Its Ex-Programmer?
Exactly what he’d done neither the F.B.I., which interrogated him, nor the jury, which convicted him a year later, seemed to understand. But Goldman had accused him of stealing computer code, and the 41-year-old father of three was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Investigating Aleynikov’s case, Michael Lewis holds a second trial.
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How Kiyoshi Izumi Built the Psych Ward of the Future by Dropping Acid
To build a better psych ward, a space unshackled from the inhumanity and stigmas of the "insane asylum", Kiyoshi Izumi would have to immerse himself in their world. [...] He'd have to conjure up not only hallucinations but also delusions and perceptual distortions distinct to psychoses. He'd have to eat acid.
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Yrs. Truly, A Lincoln
Fascinating profile of a serial document forger. I didn't even notice until afterwards that it was written over 50 years ago.
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Should Reddit Be Blamed for the Spreading of a Smear?
Nice piece on the role of journalists and journalism in a networked, peer-to-peer world.
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Drugs and the Meaning of Life
A reasonably objective essay on the role of drugs in society... and the meaning of life. From the author of The End of Faith.
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Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup
I regularly get emails from young people, usually those with an interest in programming, who are trying to make decisions about school and/or their professional futures. This post is for those young people.
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A Mongolian Neo-Nazi Environmentalist Walks Into a Lingerie Store in Ulan Bator
Photo essay of Mongolian ultra-nationalists who also fight pollution and environmental damage.
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Buried Secrets: How an Israeli billionaire wrested control of one of Africa's biggest prizes
Great piece of journalism about a secretive billionaire and an iron ore mine in Guinea
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Momma
My grandmother, known in some circles as “Momma,” called from her cell phone at nine o’clock one Saturday night in late October, 2011. An eerie snow was falling. I was basking in the lazy glow of a House Hunters International marathon and screw-top Pinot Grigio, surfing Craigslist sublets in exotic cities far from our Connecticut farm.
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The Unsuccessful Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln
On the eve of his first inauguration, President Lincoln snuck into Washington in the middle of the night, evading the would-be assassins who waited for him in Baltimore
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Greed is Groupon: can anyone save the company from itself?
They wanted this rocket ship to take off and nothing was going to stop them
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See No Evil: The Case of Alfred Anaya
Alfred Anaya Put Secret Compartments in Cars. So the DEA Put Him in Prison
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The Street Kids of San Francisco
We thought we’d find kids living in Haight-Ashbury as a desperate last resort because they were impoverished. Instead, we found that many were exactly where they want to be and were voluntarily choosing to make just enough money to subsist on the streets.
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My Gucci Addiction
The "Friday Night Lights" author has spent over half a million dollars on fancy men's clothing
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I'm starting another content company, and I plan to make a fortune
I'll wager that the venture community is going to have to start putting money into content companies, because they are going to be one of the best performers of the 2010 decade.
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I Was Wayne Gretzky's (Hungover) Linemate
Sean Pronger picked the wrong night to go out drinking