The opening theme for DuckTales, but with real ducks... If you can't appreciate the genius, then you're beyond hope.
Reddit is a Failed State (The Verge)
The recent wave of nude celebrity photos that recently leaked online is not the first breach of personal privacy and ethics proliferated on and protected by Reddit in the name of "digital democracy." The tone-deaf complaints from "John," the Reddit user who posted the leaks and then cried foul after he was outed by The Washington Post, show the kind of behavior the Reddit encourages.
The Verge's political writer T.C. Sottek suggests that if we judge Reddit to the same standard we judge real-world governments, Reddit would be closer to an anarchy run by fear-mongers than a shining beacon of democracy.
You Won't See Me: The Hidden Lives of US Open Ball People (Grantland)
Someday, the USTA will replace ball boys (and girls) with tractor beams, or at least awesome robots with crazy, extendable arms. Until then, however, pros like Williams sisters and Djokavic will rely on human beings to keep the court clear and flush with those fuzzy green things like to hit so much. Where those people come from, what they care about and why they choose to do a thankless job in utter silence are all interesting questions that Peter Macia looks at.
Fear and Loathing in America (ESPN)
On September 12, 2001, Hunter S. Thompson wrote about how the World Trade Center attack would change America. After 13 years, it looks like he was pretty much right on the money.
Thanks, Deadspin
A Brand Remembers 9/11 (The Awl)
If Hunter Thompson's diatribe serves as a austere reminder of what Americans should remember about 9/11 — the fear, the hate and the feeling of loss — than The Awl's pithy intellectual exercise about corporations remembering the day on social media acts with equal and opposite force: Remembering to post a status update is not proof that you haven't forgotten, or that you ever even understood why you shouldn't.
The Dating Game: An Oral History of Tinder (Playboy)
Writer love to pick on Tinder. They love to mock it and marvel at it and bring low those who would seek to use it for anything other than... Well, other than writing funny stuff about Tinder.
Playboy contributor Kiera Feldman's repository of Tinder users explaining their experiences on the service opens with a friendly reminder: People have never been able to keep themselves from engaging in what people would publicly condemn as indecent, and using Tinder is simply the latest in a long line of social constructs that people engage with on the path to the intimacy. This is just a new a way to be awkward, cheesy, pervy and desperate with strangers.
Also there's a storyline about tindering Mormons.
The Death of Adulthood in American Culture (NYT)
Movie reviewer A.O. Scott rambles on about the state of the artistic protagonist, as seen on TV, in film, in concert and on the page, and what their popularity says about who have become. It's long. It's windy. It sounds curmudgeonly and supportive at the same time. If you like stuff and thinking about the stuff that you like, this is mandatory.