Web Article Database

Below is an archive of some great pieces of journalism or writing that I have read online. They cover an eclectic range of material (mainly because interesting writing is usually eclectic).

Quicklinked

• If you became the last person on Earth, what would you do? Realistically. (March 10, 2010)
  Epic comment from a Redditor. But since when was banana an exotic fruit? From Kottke.
   
• How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web (February 23, 2010)
  Wired article. "Throughout its history, Google has devised ways of adding more signals, all without disrupting its users' core experience. Every couple of years there's a major change in the system - sort of equivalent to a new version of Windows - that's a big deal in Mountain View but not discussed publicly. 'Our job is to basically change the engines on a plane that is flying at 1,000 kilometers an hour, 30,000 feet above Earth,' Singhal says." Marvelously complex, incredibly optimized, and improved by the day.
   

Manually curated (last updated March 6, 2010)

• Can a Woman 'Prong' a Man? Why it's so hard to put sex in the dictionary
  Jesse Sheidlower, Slate (October 2009)
  Language.
   
• Perfect Failure
  Paul Tudor Jones, Commencement Speech to Graduating Class of the Buckley School (June 10, 2009)
   
• You've got to find what you love
  Steve Jobs, Commencement Speech at Stanford University (June 12, 2005)
   
• Born to Run
  Ingfei Chen, Discover (May 28, 2006)
  Biomechanical research reveals a surprising key to the survival of our species: Humans are built to outrun nearly every other animal on the planet over long distances.
   
• Believe Me, It's Torture
  Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair (August 2008)
   
• Scientific Method Man
  Joseph D'Agnese, Wired (September 2004)
   
• Pearls Before Breakfast
  Gene Weingarten, The Washington Post (April 8, 2007)
   
• What Was I Thinking?
  Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker (February 25, 2008)
   
• Up and Then Down
  Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker (April 21, 2008)
   
• Private Profits and Socialized Risk
  David Einhorn, Grant's Sprint Investment Conference (April 8, 2008)
   
• The Next Bubble: Priming the Markets for Tomorrow's Big Crash
  Eric Janszen, Harper's Magazine (February 2008)
   
• The Mansion: A Subprime Parable
  Michael Lewis, Portfolio (September 18, 2008)
   
• Love on Girl's Side of the Saudi Divide
  Katherine Zoepf, The New York Times (May 13, 2008)
   
• In Nature's Casino
  Michael Lewis, The New York Times Magazine (August 26, 2007)
   
• The End
  Michael Lewis, Portfolio (November 11, 2008)
   
• The Man Who Crashed the World
  Michael Lewis, Vanity Fair (August 2009)
   
• Living on $500,000 a Year
  William J. Quirk, The American Scholar (September 2009)
  About F. Scott Fitzgerald.
   
• Clever fools: Why a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart
  Michael Bond, New Scientist (November 2, 2009)
   
• In Pursuit of the Wild Cohiba
  Ginger Stand & James Wallenstein, Believer Magazine (October 2009)
  Two semi-intrepid travelers meditate (with the help of a great deal of puffing) on the Cuban communist roots of an American capitalist icon.
   
• Revealed: The Ghost Fleet of the Recession Anchored Just East of Singapore
  Simon Parry, Daily Mail (September 28, 2009)
   
• Sextortion at Eisenhower High
  Michael Joseph Gross, GQ (July 2009)
   
• Difficult languages: Tongue twisters
  The Economist, The Economist (December 17, 2009)
  The most difficult language in the world.
   
• The Chess Master and the Computer
  Garry Kasparov, The New York Review of Books (February 11, 2010)
  Of computers and chess.
   
• Unhappy Meals
  Michael Pollan, The New York Times Magazine (January 28, 2007)
  Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Thoughtful advice about our diets.
   
• The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care
  Atul Gawande, The New Yorker (June 2009)
  About America's health care system.