Monday Medley

What we read while building our own Death Star in the private sector…

• Aaron Swartz, an Internet pioneer and activist, died this weekend at the age of 26. Though the causes were many, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Swartz was the target of a prolonged federal prosecution that some have called “bullying” in the name of intellectual property and emblematic of a broken criminal justice system. Swartz’s heroism has inspired many to combat the “intellectual property” racket.

• For the first time since 1996, no players were elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame this year. You’re not going to believe this, but Joe Posnanski had a lot to say about the shutout. But the best analysis of the vote was probably Jonah Keri’s at Grantland.

• Dan LeBatard and Jason Taylor team up to make you feel awful about enjoying the weekend’s NFL action.

• What happens when you cast Lindsay Lohan in your movie?

• With the Golden Globes last night and the Academy Award nominations now out, the debate over the morality of Zero Dark Thirty has resurfaced. Some are comparing it to Argo (besides John S, who did that last month).

• A conversation between George Saunders and his editor.

• Marc Maron goes over his favorite episodes of his podcast.

• In other comedy news, the cast of Arrested Development reunited to talk about the new episodes.

• Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote a…something…for New York last week. It has, predictably, generated some reaction. But what would Hannah Horvath think of it?

• The complicated questions behind imprisoning pedophiles.

• Remember Watson, the computer that dominated Jeopardy a couple years ago? Well, apparently he still does not get slang.

• On Mike Francesa.

• Where the characters from Full House would be today.

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.

Questions Inspired by Slate’s Explainer

Slate’s Explainer column recently tackled its toughest question yet: “Why are there so few dunks in women’s basketball?” Amazingly, the column was longer than just, “They’re shorter”—it stretched on for 473 words.

This got me thinking that perhaps this is a neglected field for blogging. Perhaps there is an underfed market of people seeking answers to questions that you would never think required explanation. Here at NPI, we aim to please, so over the next few weeks, prepare for us to explain the questions so tricky that they never even occurred to you to ask. Questions like:

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 watching Bin Laden watch himself…

• Bin Laden still dominated the news this week: The New York Times detailed the search for the terrorist, the New Yorker wondered if the killing was legal, and New York provides an alternate history (see what we did there?).

• Awesome long read from David Grann in the New Yorker about a Guatemalan murder mystery. Slate explores what makes Grann so good.

• If you didn’t realize that there were Mongolian slaves in South Carolina or that the Red Shirts were defenders of personal freedom, then you (like 50 Cent) obviously don’t know your history.

• What does confirmation bias tell us about the function of reason?

• Will a Congressional clerkship one day be as sought after as a federal court clerkship?

• Jerry Seinfeld delves into his own archives of stand-up bits. Speaking of comedians, we don’t follow everyone on this list (I mean, it has Kathy Griffin), but it’s a good start for best comics on Twitter.

• Does Boy Meets World hold up over time? Do we even need to ask this question?

• Is CBS trying to ruin March Madness?

• Slate called the now-bankrupt Sbarro “America’s least essential restaurant.” In other “food” news, Diet Coke passed Pepsi as the #2 soda in the country.

Monday Medley

What we read while Colin Firth managed to give a stutter-less acceptance speech…

• Natalie Portman won the Best Actress award last night, so it’s worth asking: Is Natalie Portman a good actress? Slate ran two stories that seem to say “no.” Slate also dished on The King’s Speech and stuttering.

• We know one Egyptian who will be retroactively upset The Social Network didn’t win Best Picture.

• Suze Rotolo, of this famous album cover, died last week, meaning pop music lost perhaps it’s greatest muse (it’s either her or Pattie Boyd, right?).

• Have you ever wanted to hear Louis C.K. repeatedly ask a former Secretary of Defense if he is an alien lizard? If so, then boy do we have a link for you…

• On his “other” other blog, Chris Jones riffs on the rules to the press box and the locker room for sports reporters. The latter drew some commentary from former hockey player Justin Bourne.

• Frank Lloyd Wright had a 10-point manifesto for his apprentices. It doesn’t necessarily conform with the philosophical tenets of the book he, in part, inspired.

• Man, when was the last time we had a batch of DFW links? Well, here’s an old Laura Miller interview with him, as well as a thoughtful look at the underappreciated Oblivion, and a look at the recently opened archives in Austin. And hey, this makes Infinite Jest slightly less confusing. Slightly.

• The multi-talented Donald Glover as a rapper.

• What your favorite classic rock band says about you…

• Charlie Sheen…er, uh, well, we don’t really know what to say….

Monday Medley

What we read while winning Best New Artist at the Grammys…

• One of NPI’s favorite shows of all-time, Friday Night Lights, came to an end last week. And while we haven’t completely caught up to its DirecTV run, we enjoyed the critical nostalgia about the greatest sports-centric television series of all-time (narrowly passing Hang Time). Alan Sepinwall, as usual, had a great breakdown of the series’ best moments (he even helpfully separated the ones containing spoilers), as well as an interview with showrunner Jason Katims and not one but TWO retrospective podcasts (including one with Bill Simmons).

• Slate‘s Farhad Manjoo adroitly and aptly addresses AOL’s acquisition of HuffPo.

• Speaking of SEO, we’re behind anyone who goes after Bleacher Report, even if they’re Phillies’ fans.

• In baseball news, the Albert Pujols Countdown is quickly approaching zero, as Will Leitch panics. And while we’re usually a fan of Baseball Prospectus, even we think this is nerdy…

• The New Yorker offers a fascinating look at Scientology through the lens of Paul Haggis’ split from the church. And, with eerily coincidental timing, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Scientology movie got funding on the same week.

• As Jeopardy! gears for Watson (TONIGHT!!!), a breakdown of the most common categories and “questions” (i.e. answers).

• The tickets for LCD Soundsystem’s final show at Madison Square Garden mysteriously vanished, so James Murphy went to his blog to offer a “Fuck You” to scalpers and announce four new dates.

• Can this actually make the NCAA Tournament better?

• It’s going to be tough to get a better win probability graph this season. (Although this one from last year is dear to our heart.) (And this one is just ridiculous.)

• R.I.P. Guitar Hero

Monday Medley

What we read while eating a goddamn snack on Revis Island:

• So what’s the state of political discourse in the week after the tragedy in Tucson? Some want us to tone it down, while others think that’s a silly overreaction. Tom Junod at Esquire and Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone have each offered intriguing thoughts on the debate about debate.

• Less seems to be more in football announcing.

• Wikipedia celebrated its tenth anniversary last week.

• CalTech: In a class by itself? Speaking of intelligence, Jeopardy may have for itself a perpetual winner.

• Only one of us still occasionally puts two spaces after a period. It’s such an editing hassle.

• Roger Ebert’s best documentaries of 2010.

• What was more awkward: Ricky Gervais’ monologue at last night’s Golden Globes, or Bill Murray’s speech to Sofia Coppola at the NBR awards?

• Shake Shack’s different locations are compared by Serious Eats.

• Agree to disagree on this one: SplitSider on why the Arrested Development is a lousy movie AND why that’s OUR fault.

• Jill Lepore dissects America’s relationship with the Constitution.

• We don’t agree with all of their choices over at This Recording (there’s no way DFW is the White Swan), but this is obviously a great game…

• A breakdown of pretty much every funny tweet you’ll ever read.

• It may be in Spanish, but this graphic of The Simpsons‘ demise couldn’t be clearer. And as far as gifs go, they don’t get much better than Homer’s Night Out (h/t on each to Dead Homer Society, as usual).

Monday Medley

What we read while deleting our unfortunately phrased tweets…

• Kanye West may be winning the battle amongst critics, but Taylor Swift is winning amongst fans: Only Eminem and Lady Antebellum sold more records in 2010, an overall lousy year for music sales (again).

• Gary Becker and Richard Posner opine on the future of bookstores.

• R.I.P. Pete Postlethwaite and Gerry Rafferty.

• The Lost numbers won the lottery, but Hurley had a message of warning for the winners.

• This may be a topic for Pierre Menard: Should NFL teams start the new playoff overtime with an onside kick? Slate explores the new OT rule’s loophole. Speaking of NFL football, a simple but interesting football statistic that doesn’t make Mark Sanchez look too good.

• SplitSider does for the newly available Saturday Night Live footage on Netflix what Tim did for the NCAA Vault. P.S. There is now an ACC Vault, where you can see Randolph Childress do things like this (Jeff McInnis got his revenge with a much more effective NBA career).

• Meet a former professional liar.

• Brazil has figured out a way to end poverty: Just give poor people money!

• An oldie but very goodie we just got around to reading: Michael Paterniti on the solitary suicide catcher of Japan.

• Leon Black’s getting his own show!

• Speaking of comedy, here is a breakdown of Marc Maron’s always enjoyable WTF podcast.

• My guess is the Binghamton fans were not quite this vitriolic when the Times‘ Pete Thamel broke a story affecting their basketball squad.

Monday Medley

What we read while you were thankful for your favorite blog…

• R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen.

• And R.I.P. diplomatic cables?

• If you were patted down by TSA agents this weekend, take comfort in this: They don’t like it any more than you do.

• John Paul Stevens on the death penalty. And he still looks great in a bowtie.

• After releasing his new album to critical and commercial success, Kanye West performed all of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at Bowery Ballroom last week. He ended the show with a beautiful, dark, twisted rant.

• You knew someone was going to do it–that someone was gonna go all, “Hey, doesn’t the decade really end in 2010?” and put out another encompassing review of the Aughts, 2010 inclusive. That someone turned out to be Time, which is attempting to launch an annual “Timeframes Issue” with its glance back at the last 11 years. Of special note (IOHO, of course and taking into account that some stories are not online) is James Poniewozik’s shortie on news tickers.

• Slate‘s Tom Scocca, while on a cruise vacation over Thanksgiving, was inspired to post a 1998 interview he did with David Foster Wallace in several parts. The focus is primarily on Wallace’s non-fiction work, specifically his cruise essay, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.”

• Looking for a way to procrastinate? Here are the funniest “Watch Instantly” options on Netflix.

• How To Use Extremely Negative Reviews of Your Customer Service to Your Advantage: A Primer.

• Say what you will about Obama’s policies, but the man is cool.

• Does Wall Street produce anything of social value?

• Boy, we’re glad we weren’t alive for the most boring day of the 20th Century.

• What exactly do sportswriters mean when they refer to “relevance”?

• Tim’s excitement for the return of Pretty Little Liars in January was officially ratcheted up with the release of this trailer.