Zach Snyder released the first image of Ben Affleck sporting his new Batman outfit.
Teaching Greg Oden How to Be a Benchwarmer (Grantland)
Oh Greg Oden. Once a college basketball prodigy, now serves as lineup-dressing for the Eastern Conference Final-bound Miami Heat. Oden talks to Mark Titus about what it's like to go from being the number one draft pick to being "momentarily paralyzed" by the thought of getting put in a game. He's surprisingly upbeat about the whole thing, which is apparently one of the keys to properly warming an NBA bench.
Plus, the article is chock-full of cheeky Grantland-isms, including this gem:
"I’m not sure of the precise details of Greg’s process, but with his history of injuries, it’s presumably something like this: He has to live with a tapeworm in his intestine for a month to cut weight, spend a week in a cryogenic chamber, and then sacrifice a baby lamb to the basketball gods so they will continue to allow his broken-down body to play."
Slate's blanket coverage of the NYT/Jill Abramson fiasco (Slate)
Slate has published seven articles about the New York Times announced the departure of executive editor Jill Abramson. While controversial, and therefore open for speculation, there are only so many ways you can cover a single story, right? As it turns out, there are at least six, because each one offers a slightly different perspective.
Over-covering a single event, especially a media criticism story, seems like one of the biggest dangers for a news salon-style outlet like Slate, but this performance shows that, with the right people, you can literally have every writer do their own take on the same story and have a meaningful reservoir of insight.
Vladamir Putin's War (Time - Subscribers Only)
Time's cover story on the military ambitions of Vladamir Putin suggests the Russian commander hasn't let go of the ideals of the Soviet Union, and that he may be willing to risk a war with the west to bring it back.
For those of you who don't have a magazine subscription, Time's profile on the Wolves' Hundred, an "unsanctioned" Russian militia spearheading the pro-Russian rebellion in Eastern Ukraine, is a more focused, but equally frightening, story about what may be the prelude to a much larger war.
Here's How The Military Would Actually Fight Godzilla (Business Insider)
Business Insider isn't afraid to ask the important questions: How would the U.S. deal with a giant monster attack?
The funny part is that Sgt. Maj. James Dever, military consultant for this week's Godzilla reboot, alludes to the fact that the movie doesn't show a "realistic" military response: Dever says all four branches of the military would get involved, but the movie focused on a Navy-centric response.