ICYMI

After years of forcing photographers to think square, Instagram is finally letting users post portrait- and landscape-style photos. Image via Instagram

Slender Man is Watching (New York, long)

An amazing recreation of how two tween girls conspired and attempted to murder their friend. And how Slender both did and did not legitimately factor into it.

Mortal Kombat: [The] Untold Story of The Movie That 'Kicked The Hell Out of Everyone' (The Hollywood Reporter, long)

This one's a little older than the rest, but I hope you'll indulge me since I haven't done one of these in a while. Our momentary fascination with oral histories has definitely come and gone, but I don't think there's a better way to tell a story like this.

The World's Leading LinkedIn Expert Advise Gucci Mane on His New Profile (Grantland, mid)

There some kinds of articles/stories that just can't exist in print because they wouldn't fit the editorial vision of any strong magazine, and/or because they would technically count as humor stories, but aren't necessarily yuk-yuk funny. I guess we should call them blog posts.

This is one of the funniest blog posts I've read in a long time.

College Student Refusing to Read a Lesbian Memoir Don't Deserve College (Quartz, short)

Bold words from SUNY Brockport's Lisa Miller:

“If we don’t do the work, we fail. The Duke students who refused to read Fun Home have already failed. Willfully. Perhaps Duke should dismiss them, as they’re unwilling to take on college-level study. Let them reapply when they are ready to face the danger presented by a comic book.”

She also gets bonus points for writing something concise. There are a LOT of recent articles about how terrible undergrads are these days and there isn't much more left to say on the matter.

Dude, It's Not a Hoverboard (Gizmodo, short)

You don't really need to read this one; just take note...

Remember how Wiz Khalifa got tackled by airport security at LAX this week? He apparently got tackled for riding one of these things...

Image Credit: Ben Schmanke (YouTube)

Note that it has wheels and does not hover. Do not refer to this as a "hoverboard." Do not equate it to Back to The Future 2 or the actual hoverboard Lexus made.

10 Worst Mega Man Bad Guys (Who Never Made it Into The Game) (Polygon, List)

Sometimes you just have to say "fuck it." 

Image Credit: Capcom via Polygon

Even though the list previews/regurgitates content from the upcoming Mega Man Collection, these outtakes from Mega Man II, an incredibly important video game, are still pretty funny.

ICYMI - 8/23

Let's Be Real (Grantland)

Grantland film reviewer Wesley Morris says in no uncertain terms that the new movie "Let's Be Cops" is not especially good, but he also begs us to draw parallels between this silly comedy about two guys who pretend to be cops and the situation in Ferguson, MO.

Great criticism doesn't tell us whether or not to watch, read or otherwise consume art: It doesn't tell us what to think. Great criticism does the opposite: It stimulates and inspires us to take our escapist passions and bring them back into our lives.

People Keep Getting into People’s Cars Because They Think Its Uber (Valleywag)

People are getting into strangers' cars, assuming they are the Uber/Lyft rides they called. The funny part? These people don't seem the least bit embarrassed...

The 16 Most Buzzfeed Facts of All Time (Gawker) 

The most shocking, astonishing, insane list of random bullshit that will blow your mind.

Kanye West’s Samples: A Listenable History (The Verge)

What's better than an oral history? A history of Kanye beatz.

Putting Together The Most Fun Fantasy Football Team Money Can Buy (Grantland)

In honor of the fantasy football team I drafted this week, I bring to you the first article I've about the hobby that actually makes it sound like a good time.

Who Invented The Ice Bucket Challenge? (Slate)

No one really knows who invented the Ice Bucket Challenge, but it definitely wasn't created to raise money for ALS.

ICYMI - 7/26

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Chuck Palahniuk is writing Fight Club 2 as a 10-part comic series, Dark Horse Comics announced ahead of Comic Con 2014.

As you can see, I haven't put one of these out for awhile. Writing blog posts, even quick, listy ones, don't serve as a good distraction from J-school work. Still, I did have the presence of mind to note a few stories this week, so you should read these:

My Summer as a Professional Party Girl in The Hamptons (New York)

A cautionary tale in the first-person details the social life of New York models. By the time you finish reading it, you'll probably need a hug.

I Tried to Find Love by Sniffing Strangers' T-Shirts at a Pheromone Party (Vice)

I can't decide whether pheromone-based dating events, where people bring sniff each other's lightly soiled clothes to figure out who they're chemically attracted to, is a sign sociopathic practicality, utter desperation, or just a great way to isolate a city's crazies from the rest of the population. Regardless, it's too weird not to read about.

These People Know What You're Going to Eat Before You Do (Vox)

Culinary Illuminati! Culinary Illuminati! Culinary Illuminati!

Seriously, though: Food, like fashion, is a largely trend-based industry. Dishes and ingredients championed as haute cuisine get picked up by celebrity chefs, then by food bloggers, then foodies, then chain restaurants and will eventually be available at McDonalds and Taco Bell.

Barb Stuckey works for, Mattson, a food and drink innovation firm, which means she helps most people pick what they're going to order, cook and crave without them even knowing it.

The Pickpocket's Tale (NYT)

Wilfred Rose was one of the top 50 pickpockets in New York, hunted by every plain-clothes officer in the whole city. For better or worse, that doesn't really mean what it used to: Nobody carries cash anymore. Finally caught, this loose account of the old-fashioned pickpocket's life likens Rose to a grand-master, rather than a petty crook.

Quit Twitter Before You're Hard. Quit Instagram Before You're Soft (Polygon)

Editor-at-Large Chris Plante compares the realities if his digital life on Twitter to the realities a living in New York. Twitter is a different place for "media professionals" than for the average person. If you aren't one of those people — a media producer or a Twitter user — the piece will probably make Twitter sound terrible, which is why his analogy is 100 percent right.

As a news-blogger/digital journalist, I spend most of my day reading stories online. "In Case You Missed it" (ICYMI) collects some the best posts and stories published this week (or at least the ones I saw) so I can say all that aimless reading was good for something.

ICYMI — 3/8/14

The Wiggle Jiggle

As a news-blogger/digital journalist, I spend most of my day reading stories online. "In Case You Missed" (ICYMI) It is a round-up of the best stories and posts published this week that are worth reading. That way I can say that all that reading was good for something.

The Face Behind Bitcoin (Newsweek)

Someone has (probably) found the impossibly secretive creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamura. Guess what? He's a paranoid recluse that doesn't want to talk to you.

How Weed Became The Hippest Term for Marijuana (Slate)

I'm a sucker for etymology stories, and this one's an interesting, albeit shallow dive into what I've always thought of as an ubiquitous term.

Alan Thicke, The Most Interesting Man in The World (Grantland)

You may know him as the dad from Growing Pains, but there was a time when Alan Thicke was the coolest guy ever and we had no idea. He was either involved with or at least hanging out behind the scenes at a bunch of major sports-related happenings in the 90s. He helped get Wayne Gretzsky to leave Canada.

Big Score (The New Yorker)

In honor of the SATs reverting to the old 1600-point format (or not) New Yorker Staff Writer Elizabeth Kolbert took the SATs again as an adult. Her experience, along with others' who did the same, serves as more evidence that standardized testing does more harm than good.

The End of The Hunt (The Verge)

Forget about all those stupid reality shows about ghost hunters. This is a real story about some of the crazy people who spend their time trying to show the world that ghosts are real.

And if you have too much time... 

Is The Wiggle Jiggle The New Harlem Shake? (The Daily Dot)

Somebody made a dance called the Wiggle Jiggle. Apparently it may be the next endlessly repeatable YouTube meme, even though it's a line dance and it's called the Wiggle Jiggle.