The Horror Before the Beheadings →

Rukmini Callimachi:

They were the ones who had called him “naughty” during the worst torture. They were the ones the hostages called the Beatles.

They instituted a strict security protocol.

When they approached the cell holding Mr. Suder, the Polish photojournalist, they called out “arba’een”: Arabic for the number 40.

That was his cue to face the wall so that when the guards entered, he would not see their faces. Several hostages were given numbers in Arabic, which appeared to be an effort to catalog them — not unlike the numbers American forces had assigned to prisoners in the detention facilities they ran in Iraq, including Camp Bucca, where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, was briefly held.

“When the Beatles took over, they wanted to bring a certain level of order to the hostages,” said one recently freed European captive.

It seems that The New York Times has taken to releasing their big Sunday pieces on the web on Saturday night to drum up some click buzz. This is one time, at least, that the buzz will be warranted.

There were several times while reading, before the section that I quoted above, when I was was taken back to the brutal interrogation scenes in Zero Dark Thirty, to the details that were leaked about Iraq and Afghanistan after the fact about the real thing. This is why the way we conduct ourselves as a nation is important. The world—the good and bad parts of it—is always watching.

Zen Pencils’ ‘Kevin Smith: It Costs Nothing to Encourage an Artist’ →

View fullsize

Gavin Aung Than:

The quote used in the comic is taken from Smith’s memoir/self-help book Tough Shit: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good. It’s from a chapter where Smith writes about his 2011 movie Red State, a 100% independent film he released and distributed. Sick of dealing with movie studios where the marketing budget for the film would have cost more than the actual film to make, Smith produced and screened the movie himself, touring America with the film and screening it to sold-out theatres across the country.

Another excellent comic from one of my favorite inspirational sites on the internet.

‘Little Chance’ (A ‘Lion in a Coma’ Snippet) →

View fullsize

In celebration of my finally tying the bow on the third draft of my new book, I’m sharing this paragraph, which I was told was, “beautiful, one of the best paragraphs in the book so far."

Fourth draft, here I come.

Don’t Eat Before Reading This →

Anthony Bourdain:

I’ve been a chef in New York for more than ten years, and, for the decade before that, a dishwasher, a prep drone, a line cook, and a sous-chef. I came into the business when cooks still smoked on the line and wore headbands. A few years ago, I wasn’t surprised to hear rumors of a study of the nation’s prison population which reportedly found that the leading civilian occupation among inmates before they were put behind bars was “cook.” As most of us in the restaurant business know, there is a powerful strain of criminality in the industry, ranging from the dope-dealing busboy with beeper and cell phone to the restaurant owner who has two sets of accounting books. In fact, it was the unsavory side of professsional cooking that attracted me to it in the first place. In the early seventies, I dropped out of college and transferred to the Culinary Institute of America. I wanted it all: the cuts and burns on hands and wrists, the ghoulish kitchen humor, the free food, the pilfered booze, the camaraderie that flourished within rigid order and nerve-shattering chaos. I would climb the chain of command from mal carne (meaning “bad meat,” or “new guy”) to chefdom—doing whatever it took until I ran my own kitchen and had my own crew of cutthroats, the culinary equivalent of “The Wild Bunch.”

The 1999 New Yorker piece that was the beginning of it all.

Siri, An Austic Boy’s BFF →

Judith Newman:

It all began simply enough. I’d just read one of those ubiquitous Internet lists called “21 Things You Didn’t Know Your iPhone Could Do.” One of them was this: I could ask Siri, “What planes are above me right now?” and Siri would bark back, “Checking my sources.” Almost instantly there was a list of actual flights — numbers, altitudes, angles — above my head.

I happened to be doing this when Gus was nearby. “Why would anyone need to know what planes are flying above your head?” I muttered. Gus replied without looking up: “So you know who you’re waving at, Mommy.”

Just when you thought every morsel of meat, every ounce of marrow, had been snipped and sucked from the public discourse on technology, and all that was left to do was gnaw on the snarky bones.

U.S. Cable News Coverage vs. Canadian Public News Coverage →

View fullsize

/via Vox

The Author of ‘White Noise’ Reviews Taylor Swift’s ‘White Noise’ →

Megan Garber:

This morning, "Track 3" from Taylor Swift's new album, "1989," rose to No. 1 on Canada's iTunes. This would not be notable—yet another Swift song, catapulting to the top of the charts—except for the song itself: "Track 3," it turned out, was simply eight seconds of ... white noise.

You could see the whole thing as a simple glitch (and, of course, as a commentary on the deep loyalty of Swift's fan base, in Canada and in the U.S.). But you could also see it as something more meaningful, something in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons and, of course John Cage: Taylor, an expert in the agonies of love and loss, extending her reach to explore technology and nihilism and the entire human condition. "White Noise" may be the song of our time. So we asked for a review of it from Don DeLillo, the author of one of the novels of our time.

I hope this starts a new trend in music reviews.

Political Polarization and the Media →

Andrew Prokop:

The Pew Research Center published a fascinating new report on political polarization and the media Tuesday morning. The report contains [a] chart, based on survey data of people who say they've read, watched, or listened to different media outlets.

Really interesting. You’ll be surprised by where some organizations/outlets land compared to others.

Arcade Fire—‘The Well and The Lighthouse’ (Live at Big Day Out 2008)

I heard the voice calling from just outside the well
She said "You fool! Now that you know your end is near
You always fall for what you desire or what you fear"

The Players’ Tribune Fails to Cut the Middleman (Journalists) Out of Journalism →

Diana Moskovitz:

What exactly have we learned from the opening salvos of The Players' Tribune? What deep, dark secrets are these great athletes finally empowered to reveal now that the burden of dealing with reporters is removed? The first post, from " Derek Jeter," opens with the expected platitudes about how great New York fans are, how great baseball fans are, and how grateful he is. It then turns from the usual platitudes to the usual Jeter routine of speaking while saying nothing:

“I do think fans deserve more than "no comments" or "I don't knows." Those simple answers have always stemmed from a genuine concern that any statement, any opinion or detail, might be distorted. I have a unique perspective. Many of you saw me after that final home game, when the enormity of the moment hit me. I'm not a robot. Neither are the other athletes who at times might seem unapproachable. We all have emotions. We just need to be sure our thoughts will come across the way we intend.”

Great, except at no point in the piece does "Derek Jeter" say what's on his mind. There is no first-person story; there are no behind-the-scenes details. He is, instead, during the only truly Jeter thing there is to do—selling a product. (Himself, in this case.) The only thing missing from his sales pitch is a button advertising T-shirts for $39.99, plus shipping and handling.

Yeah, I was initially excited by this premise, but it’s turned out to be pretty vapid. There’s a reason politicians shouldn’t be allowed to investigate themselves.