Great read
Commercializing marijuana in California: it used to be about the smoke 
The curly world of typefaces and why we love them
In an extract from his new book Just My Type Simon Garfield geeks out on the history and prevalence of typefaces, including explaining the difference between serif and sans serif, how fonts have genders and why they can be regarded as living life forms.
Meeting the silent boy emperor
North Korea welcomed Western journalists to report on last week’s ceremony starring future heir Kim Jong Un, which demonstrated a very clear dynasty succession plan. Journo J.M. was in Pyongyang for the parade.
Cavalier: How to destroy a Premier
The NSW Labor government has seen four premiers in just five years. Former NSW Education Minister Rodney Cavalier offers an insider account of the Nathan Rees and Morris Iemma downfalls.
A tale of kindness from the commission flats
The couple living in the commission flats across from Virginia Millen’s house endure your standard sad tale of addiction, poverty and abuse. But don’t judge them too quickly.
Avatar activism: where pop culture and political protest collide
In February five activists painted themselves blue and staged a dangerous protest in the Palestinian village of Bil’in. Inspired by the movie Avatar, their protest was one of many recent occurrences in which pop culture and politics have formed a powerful fusion.
Tea Party full of crackers
Attend a Sarah Palin-led Tea Party rally and you’ll find yourself surrounded by contradictory old white people living off Medicare and complaining about the welfare state. Matt Taibbi examines how Republican insiders brought them to power.
The makings of a man: re-imagining masculinity
Masculinity isn’t just chopping down trees and being unable to cry. From the metrosexual to the retrosexual, Newsweek puts the non-fairer sex under the microscope in search of the New Macho.
Blogging Mexico’s messy drug war
Written by an anonymous twentysomething student, Blog De Narco chronicles the brutal violent drug wars underway in Mexico, including photos of bloody assassinated bodies and gold saint-encrusted guns. Boing Boing interviews the creator.
Reminiscing about my school friend Mark Zuckerberg
Rebecca Davis O’Brien, a fellow Harvard student with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, spills the dirt on Facebook’s early days in comparison to the portrayal in the new The Social Network film. It’s quite a juicy tale.
Rise of the mega city
The planet now has over 20 cities with a population of 10 million. Check out Global Post’s five part series on Dhaka, Bangladesh, the fastest growing city in the world. With urbanisation comes poverty, slums and pollution.
Let the Great Unhinging begin
Labor has won government. But expect to witness over the next 18 months or more an orgy of hysterics that will far surpass the duplicity and dishonesty that substituted for public debate on matters of government in the last year, writes Possum Comitatus.
The loud but secretive world of Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin manages the difficult feat of being simultaneously loud-mouthed on many matters and tight-lipped on others. Those who know Palin are unusually reluctant to talk, perhaps protecting her from what she dubs the “lamestream” media.
Hitchens: Hanging at Glenn Beck’s white pity Tea Party
Glenn Beck’s ‘Restoring Honor’ — a pro-conservative America rally starring Sarah Palin, held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — reflected the new anxious air pervading white America, writes Christopher Hitchens.
The good and the bad of working from home
A glorious cartoon by The Oatmeal demonstrating the positives — not having to wake up early — and the negatives — losing all memory of personal hygiene — of not having to go into an office to work.
INTERACTIVE: Hurricane Katrina, five years on
Five years ago New Orleans was rocked by Hurricane Katrina. Check out USA Today’s superb multimedia site, outlining what happened in the storm, the immediate after effects and the rebuilding of a destroyed city.
The sinking fortunes of quicksand
Quicksand used to be a standard popular culture disaster cliché, up there with deadly bombs with a ticking timer, but it’s recently sunk out of fashion. Why?
PHOTO GALLERY: The year 2000, as imagined by 1900
A glorious set of postcards from early 1900s Germany showing the year 2000. If only we’d had personal flying machines, weather control machines and roofed cities a decade ago.
Mia Freedman: Behind the scenes of my interview with the PM
Mia Freedman dishes the dirty on her recent interview with Julia Gillard, from battling turbulence — and her own flying phobia — in the PM’s plane to whether it’s OK to ask Gillard about botox.
PHOTO GALLERY: On the road (and behind the scenes) with Gillard
Photographer Andrew Meares offers a thrilling insider look at the campaign trail from behind the lens, as he speaks of the joy of iPhone photos of the press pack circus.
Crabb: The inside dirt on being a journo on the campaign trail
Hitch a thrilling ride on the campaign press bus with Annabel Crabb as she explains “the bubble”, where journalists are kept in the dark about where they are going and have only minutes to glance over policy announcements.
Crabb: If Abbott and Gillard said what they believed…
This “fair-dinkum” campaign talk is rubbish, says Annabel Crabb, as she offers up what Gillard and Abbott would say if they were be honest about key election issues: climate change, family values and immigration.
iNudes: life drawing on an iPad
iPads aren’t just for reading newspapers and watching YouTube videos. W H Chong creates beautiful life drawings using just the brushes application on his iPad.
The journo who went diving in the oil spill
AP journalist Rich Matthews dives into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill — without a Hazmat suit — to get video footage from underwater. The thick oil is like cake batter and takes 30 minutes to scrub off.
I’m a restaurant critic living on food stamps
Ed Murrieta was a newspaper food critic with $1,300 food expenses account. Now he is on food stamps, turning canned chicken into gourmet feasts and pouring $3 truffle oil over instant mashed potatoes.
