Monday Medley

What we read while remembering Mother’s Day, we swear…

• An in-depth look at President Obama’s handling of Syria.

• Stephen Hawking joined the academic boycott of Israel, opening himself up to predictable attacks from the nation’s defenders. But will Hawking’s support of the boycott send a message to Israel about the occupation?

• You’re probably using paper towels wrong.

• Breaking down a classic and polarizing episode of The Simpsons.

• An inside look (kind of) at Draft Day from Chuck Klosterman.

• Matt Walsh on Veep and the future of UCB.

• On Michigan’s emergency-manager law and whether or not it disenfranchises the poor.

• Who is the highest paid public employee in your state? Probably a football coach.

• The CIA really did edit the script for Zero Dark Thirty.

Monday Medley

What Drunk Nate Silver told us we were going to read…

• So, President Obama won again. Some conservatives are taking it pretty bad, but there’s one group even more upset…

• How do maps affect our understanding of the electorate? Are there better ways to visualize American voting patterns? And will Republicans ever win again?

• Nate Silver concludes Gallup sucked this election, among other things.  Oh, and he used to have a blog about Chicago burritos.

• What happened to that other ambitious young black politician from Chicago?

• Ben Montogomery (perhaps better known as @gangrey) goes in-depth on the Florida A&M hazing scandal.

• Sports Illustrated‘s Top 100 Sports Photos of all-time. (We hope that’s not an actual ranking, because otherwise, prepare to be disappointed.)

• New York examines the slippery slope of the Asperger’s spectrum (including shots at NPI fave Tyler Cowen!), dives in on Jonah Lehrer, and sits down with Oliver Sacks.

• We’d say at least 31 of these apply to us, collectively.

• The winner of the contest for the stupidest fake yet convincing prescriptive rule of English is . . .

• David Petraeus, every reporter’s favorite general, was forced to resign when his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was exposed. The reverent media mourned his loss, but how did the cult of Petraeus start in the first place? Meanwhile, Chuck Klosterman may have played a crucial role in the Broadwell-Petraeus affair.

• An interview with Maurice Sendak.

Monday Medley

What we read while reapplying to the Lingerie Football League…

• An NYU/Stanford study on drones was released last week, illustrating the horrific effects of those weapons on other countries. In related news, Conor Friedersdorf explains why he won’t vote for Barack Obama. He has sparked a debate.

• An interview with XKCD’s Randall Munroe.

• The U.S. blew it again in the Ryder Cup, which Tim still loves.

• Chuck Klosterman on fantasy football. Joe Posnanski about RefGate.

• Why, Keith Hernandez, why??? (For charity, but still…) And on the topic of baseball announcers, which are the most biased?

• Arthur O. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, died Saturday at the age of 86.

• Is WikiLeaks an “enemy”?

• Ridiculous words, illustrated.

• Rethinking the legacy of Robert Rubin.

• This week on oral histories: GQ on Cheers.

Monday Medley

What we read while talking to an empty La-Z-Boy…

• An inside look at what it means to be a “failing school.”

• Last week was the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL. Paul Ryan gave a powerful, but incredibly misleading speech. Condoleeza Rice lectured on foreign policy. And Clint Eastwood talked to a chair. Meanwhile, President Obama took questions in a Reddit AMA.

• Also, how did Mitt Romney use debt at Bain Capitol?

• The mind-bending truth behind The Swedish Chef’s real identity.

• Bernie Miklasz with a good old-fashioned newspaper column on Rick Majerus and fear.

• Chuck Klosterman has three rule changes for the NFL.

• Paul Lukas does God’s work in ranking all 122 North American professional sports uniforms.

• David Shields on writing.

• The 20 greatest sports moments from Parks and Recreation.

• How that PSA video on the Internet supra represents 1995.

• A victory in the War on Drugs…

• Mike Birbiglia and Ira Glass talk about their new movie, Sleepwalk With Me.

The End of Football?

“I’m fine…”

Back in 2009, fellow NPIer Josh asked, “What Common Human Behavior Will be Viewed as Mistaken in 100 Years?” He used that question to talk about vegetarianism, but the question popped into my head recently regarding football. It is starting to seem inevitable to me that football—a sport everyone here at NPI loves—will be seen as barbaric and immoral in a generation or two. The more science exposes about the long-term effects of concussions and subconcussive impacts, the more it seems that there is simply no safe way to play football.

Right now, however, football’s popularity seems invulnerable. The highest rated show on TV last year was Sunday Night Football; it was so highly rated that it, combined with the Super Bowl, kept NBC—NBC!—from finishing last among the four major networks this season. This year’s BCS National Championship was watched by 24.2 million viewers, and that was the lowest rated championship of the BCS era. In a recent piece on football’s popularity for Grantland, Chuck Klosterman pointed out that 25 million people watched the NFL Draft, “a statistic that grows crazier the longer you dwell upon its magnitude.” And, if anything, the football’s popularity seems poised to grow as an influx of popular young stars like Cam Newton, Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, and Tim Tebow enters the league.

In other words, football’s decline seems both inevitable and impossible.

Monday Medley

What we read while Mega Millions disproved rational choice theory…

• John Calipari won his showdown with Rick Pitino, the ex-Wildcat coach and Calipari’s former mentor. Of course, the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry predates those coaches. Chuck Klosterman, meanwhile, fears what a Kentucky championship could mean for college basketball’s future. John Gasaway ain’t buying it.

• It was a rough week for fans of President Obama’s health care law, as the oral arguments at the Supreme Court did not bode well for the individual mandate, which puts the entire bill in jeopardy. Molly Ball of The Atlantic and Jonathan Chait at New York are already wondering what will happen if the bill gets struck down. Orin Kerr opines on the individual mandate oral argument. Meanwhile, health care keeps getting more and more expensive, with few solutions in sight.

• Speaking of The Atlantic, its Facebook timeline now stretches back into the 19th century.

• Splitsider remembers the greatest April Fools’ Day joke of them all.

• How did the Daily Mail become England’s biggest paper?

• Senator Rand Paul, fresh off blocking more needless drug laws, blocked a bill ramping up sanctions on Iran.

• Who killed last summer’s debt deal?

• Someone speaks up about fraternity hazing at Dartmouth. We’re just glad to see a prominent university other than Duke come under fire for once.

• A Marxist analysis of modern capitalism. And speaking of modern capitalism: An underage prostitution ring, brought to you by Goldman Sachs.

• Is there a separate legal system in America for Muslims? It certainly seems that way sometimes, based on what people pay attention to.

• Kurt Vonnegut’s response to the burning of his books.

• Two interesting looks at copyright law: A story on Apple’s war with Android, and a look at how copyrights kill books.

• Speaking of Android: Is it an Android phone or a condom?

• Tyler Cowen reports on remembering e-books compared to paper books.

Monday Medley

What we read while not Googling “Santorum”…

• With so much military grandstanding in the Republican primary races, it’s worth wondering if a nuclear Iran would even be such a bad thing.

• A trio of comedy interviews: Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen talk about Portlandia; Louis C.K. talks about his show and other stuff; Nick Offerman (aka Ron Swanson) talks about writing his own episode.

• Speaking of Ron Swanson, the CEO of PBS defended public television’s funding model.

• It’s been 9 days since President Obama authorized indefinite detention without due process, so it’s worth paying attention to stories like this tragic case of wrongful imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay.

• Jodi Kantor’s new book about the Obamas analyzes the evolution of Michelle Obama as First Lady.

• Chuck Klosterman doesn’t mind drinking “mouse-dissolving acid.”

• A rare success story for 21st century journalism.

• Jorge Posada is retiring. John S made a Hall of Fame case for him a few years ago, but will it work?

• The greatest map you’ve ever seen.

• A profile of liberal pundit Dylan Ratigan.

• Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s resolutions.

Monday Medley

What we read while turning down the Donald Trump debate…

• Tim Tebow keeps engineering miraculous comebacks (it’s almost making John S believe in God) and last week two of NPI’s favorite writers tried to figure out why so many hate him: Paul Shirley analyzed the racial aspect of the Tebow phenomenon, while Chuck Klosterman thinks it’s all about religion.

• Speaking of Klosterman, he ranked his favorite hair metal albums of the 1980s.

• You’re never going to guess who’s comedy album is ranked as the best of 2011 (unless you guessed Louis C.K., because it’s Louis C.K.). C.K. also released his new special at his website for $5. In other comedy news, Ron Swanson was named the best TV character of the year and David Wain returned with more episodes of Wainy Days!

• Perhaps the biggest sports story of last week was Albert Pujols signing with the Los Angeles Angels for $254 million. Friend of the blog Will Leitch was obviously distraught, though Pujols will always have a place in Cardinals history. As usual, Jonah Keri tried to break down the numbers.

• While Pujols was the biggest on-field story, John Branch’s three-part exploration of late Rangers’ enforcer Derek Boogaard may have been the most important off-field story done all year.

• This building may evoke images of 9/11 but still, doesn’t it look really cool?

• Oh potential of high-speed rail, we hardly knew ye.

• The Millions kicks off its always entertaining and enlightening “Year in Reading” series.

• Serious Eats’ on Bad Good and Good Bad pizza.

• So, um, this is pretty racist. And so is this.

• ESPN’s Tim Keown laments the ossification of the sports interview.

Monday Medley

What we read while sexually harassing Herman Cain back…

• Two economists, including NPI-favorite Tyler Cowen, explain the NBA lockout.

• In better basketball news, Chuck Klosterman came up with a somewhat controversial list of the 50 greatest college basketball players ever.

• Friend of the blog Ben Cohen profiles previous subject of the blog (and we wish one day friend of the blog) Jon Scheyer.

• Bill Simmons and Entertainment Weekly each look back at the career arc of Eddie Murphy, who might possibly return to SNL after all these years (or maybe not).

• In other comedy news, Hannibal Buress is getting written about in the Times (as part of it’s new regular comedy column)!

• It’s about time someone explored why humans’ biggest potential foe is the octopus.

• A look back at the reign and downfall of Muammar Qaddafi.

• Mike Bloomberg’s disdain for and condescension to OWS is getting old and ridiculous.

• Another reason to dislike the Redskins.

• ESPN’s go-to SEC profiler Wright Thompson looks at one of the weekend’s big winners: Les Miles.

• Et tu, Jon Huntsman?

• Daniel Kahneman has a new book out, and William Easterly is excited about it.

• A truly disturbing story about how the Internet helped cause–and then solve–a murder.

• Finally, an awesome look at how the way we’ve followed baseball hasn’t changed as much as you’d think in the last century.

Monday Medley

What we read while Boston mourned…

• Last Wednesday was possibly the greatest night in baseball history, with Boston and Atlanta finishing epic collapses with blown saves in the ninth. Nate Silver put the odds of all that happening at about one in 278 million. Bill Simmons live-blogged the night from a Boston perspective, while Joe Posnanski summed up what it all meant to baseball. Even the venerable Roger Angell was amazed…

• Meanwhile, Obama did something that was almost certainly illegal and also probably stupid.

• New York Times Magazine ran its Food and Drink issue this week, which included Michael Pollan answering interesting questions on “food mysteries”  and Tyler Cowen on how to eat decently at seemingly lousy restaurants.

• Atul Gawande wonders why coaching isn’t a more prevalent practice.

• We came across this oral history of Wet Hot American Summer a few weeks ago, but shamefully forgot to link to it until now.

• In other comedy news, NPI-favorite John Mulaney talked The A.V. Club and New York Magazine runs an oral history of the Upright Citizens Brigade.

• Chuck Klosterman breaks down the plight of a fantasy owner.

• We really hope this story isn’t an illusion…