Best longform magazine articles

[sruffian]

4-part series on "The War in the Desert". Bunkerville, Malheur occupation, grazing and water rights, Sagebrush Rebellion, etc...part 4 drops tomorrow 5/18/18.

https://longreads.com/2018/05/15/bun...in-the-desert/

Excellent stuff. OPB also did a seven-part podcast on this. In depth analysis that definitely added nuance to my understanding - https://www.opb.org/news/article/bun...ation-podcast/

[fool]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...-who-came-home

The Spy Who Came Home - Why an expert in counterterrorism became a beat cop.

[John_B]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...-who-came-home

The Spy Who Came Home - Why an expert in counterterrorism became a beat cop.

Thanks for that one.

[dunfree]

old but good:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...-ronnies-court
John le Carre on growing up with his conman father.

[PNWbrit]

Losing Earth: The Decade We
Almost Stopped Climate Change

[iceman]

This wasn't over the top great or anything but I read it today and it was pretty interesting: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/m...ld-reveal.html

[klar]

https://thewalrus.ca/my-life-and-death-on-opioids/

[lifelinksplit]

This is the one thread on tgr that I have bookmarked and keep coming back to. So much good writing. Thanks people.

[Harry]

Yeah, this thread and the Cool Science thread. I always learn something new when either thread gets bumped.

[fool]

Sean Parker later described the company’s expertise as “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.” The goal: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” Facebook engineers discovered that people find it nearly impossible not to log in after receiving an e-mail saying that someone has uploaded a picture of them. Facebook also discovered its power to affect people’s political behavior. Researchers found that, during the 2010 midterm elections, Facebook was able to prod users to vote simply by feeding them pictures of friends who had already voted, and by giving them the option to click on an “I Voted” button. The technique boosted turnout by three hundred and forty thousand people—more than four times the number of votes separating Trump and Clinton in key states in the 2016 race. It became a running joke among employees that Facebook could tilt an election just by choosing where to deploy its “I Voted” button.

From: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...eaks-democracy The most famous entrepreneur of his generation is facing a public reckoning with the power of Big Tech.

Insightful article if you have interest in big tech, democracy, monopolies, etc.

[dunfree]

I Found the Best Burger Place in America. And Then I Killed It.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/portland/stanichs-closed-will-it-reopen-burger-quest

[phatty]

I Found the Best Burger Place in America. And Then I Killed It.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/portland/stanichs-closed-will-it-reopen-burger-quest

That was a great one. #4 was a no name place in Seattle that had similar issues, though still open.

[Viva]

Damn! Didn't know that Stanich's had closed. Lived a few blocks away for a couple of years. The whole neighborhood was mellow and k00l back then.

Sent from my SM-G960U using TGR Forums mobile app

[reckless toboggan]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...tion-debt-work

How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation

A lot more in there than the title suggests.

Love it or hate it, there were definitely a few things in there I identified with (not the social media parts, as I largely don't do that except here on TGR).

It's a long read. But that's what this thread is for. Maybe browse the bold subtitles first.

I completely agree with some of it, I completely disagree with some of it, and some of it is just whining for sure, but I do certainly relate to enough parts of it to make the read worthwhile.

Queue controversial quote to make you old-timers mad enough and read the article.

To describe millennial burnout accurately is to acknowledge the multiplicity of our lived reality — that we’re not just high school graduates, or parents, or knowledge workers, but all of the above — while recognizing our status quo. We’re deeply in debt, working more hours and more jobs for less pay and less security, struggling to achieve the same standards of living as our parents, operating in psychological and physical precariousness, all while being told that if we just work harder, meritocracy will prevail, and we’ll begin thriving. The carrot dangling in front of us is the dream that the to-do list will end, or at least become far more manageable.

But individual action isn’t enough. Personal choices alone won’t keep the planet from dying, or get Facebook to quit violating our privacy. To do that, you need paradigm-shifting change. Which helps explain why so many millennials increasingly identify with democratic socialism and are embracing unions: We are beginning to understand what ails us, and it’s not something an oxygen facial or a treadmill desk can fix.

...

The problem with holistic, all-consuming burnout is that there’s no solution to it. You can’t optimize it to make it end faster. You can’t see it coming like a cold and start taking the burnout-prevention version of Airborne. The best way to treat it is to first acknowledge it for what it is — not a passing ailment, but a chronic disease — and to understand its roots and its parameters.

[PNWbrit]

When the ice melts: the catastrophe of vanishing glaciers


https://www.theguardian.com/news/201...shing-glaciers

[splat]

When the ice melts: the catastrophe of vanishing glaciers


https://www.theguardian.com/news/201...shing-glaciers

WoW. So sobering.

The frenetic pace of contemporary life is having a devastating impact on this planet. Humans have transformed more than half the ice-free land on Earth. We have changed the composition of the atmosphere and the chemistry of the oceans from which we came. We now use more than half the planet’s readily accessible freshwater runoff, and the majority of the world’s major rivers have been either dammed or diverted.

As a species, we now hang over the abyss of a geoengineered future we have created for ourselves. At our insistence, our voracious appetite is consuming nature itself. We have refused to heed the warnings Earth has been sending, and there is no rescue team on its way.

[PNWbrit]

Spain’s Open Wounds

Decades after Franco’s regime, the country’s citizens continue to unearth the crimes of the past.

[CarlMega]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...n_villain.html

Linda Taylor - The original "welfare queen" - is an amazing tale beyond the superficial entitlement program grift.

[DolphinSki]

Thanks to everyone posting here. Bundy article was really interesting, a much deeper insight to the family and issues than I've seen before.

I feel better when I procrastinate with engaging journalism instead of forum nonsense and social media.

[seano732]

Harry, paging Harry to the white courtesy phone.......Holy shit, this is riveting:

Fight the Ship, the story of the USS Fitzgerald. Great read by the folks at ProPublica......

https://features.propublica.org/navy...crash-crystal/

[fatnslow]

Harry, paging Harry to the white courtesy phone.......Holy shit, this is riveting:

Fight the Ship, the story of the USS Fitzgerald. Great read by the folks at ProPublica......

https://features.propublica.org/navy...crash-crystal/

Wow, great read !!!

[PNWbrit]

Not sure if this really counts.. a NYT Opinion piece.. not very long. But it's a damn good read.

They Really Don’t Make Music Like They Used To

[dunfree]

this is a good profile of David Milch - writer of Deadwood among other things, and hard living man - and also a piece on aging and dementia:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...lchs-third-act

[iceman]

this is a good profile of David Milch - writer of Deadwood among other things, and hard living man - and also a piece on aging and dementia:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...lchs-third-act

Dude burned through 100 million dollars. I think he just doesn't want to remember what happened.

[CarlMega]

Measles for the one percent

https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/measl...e-percent.html