Sport

New & Interesting

  • A Unified Theory Of New York Biking

    Cyclists behave, get treated, as though they were pedestrians. They don't feel bound by traffic rules. Drivers don't respect them. They need to jump species barrier, behave as motorists

    Felix Salmon | Reuters

    Date of publication online: 3 September 2010
  • Pakistan Cricket In Turmoil Again

    Well-judged analysis of cricket betting scandal. No purpose served by abandoning Pakistan; compassion may be in short supply but they should be helped to recover

    Mike Selvey | Guardian

    Date of publication online: 29 August 2010
  • Champion Cyclist Against Cancer, Under Siege

    Gripping profile of Lance Armstrong, asking whether drug scandal will tarnish his cancer work. Portrays him as brave but ruthless, admired but disliked

    Bruce Weber et al | NYT

    Date of publication online: 21 August 2010
  • Best Hangman Words

    As identified by a serious geek. So expect algorithms, game theory, Monte Carlo analysis, and a Nash equilibrium or two. Spoiler: "jazz" wins for most game sizes

    Jon McLoone | Wolfram Blog

    Date of publication online: 13 August 2010
  • Extreme Moneyball

    Entertaining big-money soap opera. Owners of Los Angeles Dodgers divorce ferociously, spend $20m on lawyers. Got lucky in Boston real estate. Famous for living large, even by local standards

    Richard Siklos | Business Week

    Date of publication online: 12 August 2010
  • Top-Earning Sportsman Of All Time

    And it's not Tiger Woods. A Lusitanian Spaniard named Gaius Appuleius Diocles earned the equivalent of $15bn in the course of a 24-year career as chariot-racer in ancient Rome

    Peter Struck | Lapham's Quarterly

    Date of publication online: 2 August 2010
  • Madden: The Franchise

    Star-struck history of breakthrough American-football video game, made by Electronic Arts working with coach John Madden. Great read if you're into games or football, otherwise pass by

    Patrick Hruby | ESPN

    Date of publication online: 22 July 2010
  • How To Survive In Vegas

    Profile of Gary Loveman, who left Harvard to run Harrah's Entertainment. "There are a number of people who think gambling is the devil's work, and that I am a consummate devil because I am a smart devil."

    Karl Taro Greenfield | Business Week

    Date of publication online: 5 August 2010

Best of the Last Month in Sport

  • 2010 Tour De France

    Stunning photo essay from the world's greatest cycle race. Wonderful combination of landscape and action, with much to appreciate even for non-cycling fans

    Various | Boston.com

    Date of publication online: 26 July 2010
  • Remembering Alex Higgins

    Unsparing portrait of two-time world snooker champion, Hurricane Higgins—flawed sporting genius who mesmerised with his manic, twitching play, while inflicting extraordinary abuse on himself and others

    John Rawling | Guardian

    Date of publication online: 26 July 2010
  • Kabul Wine Report

    Constantly disappointed bar manager runs gauntlet of Afghan bootleggers, police in search of drinkable wine. Lovely piece mixing social commentary, humour and dash of wine snobbery

    KW | Wine Economist

    Date of publication online: 23 July 2010
  • Black Men Can Swim

    Advances in genetics make it possible to debate sensibly the part played by genetic endowment in sporting success—including racial differences, previously a taboo subject

    Tim Harris | Prospect

    Date of publication online: 21 July 2010
  • Century Of Suffering

    Enjoyable anecdotal history, recalling 100 years of the Col du Tourmalet, the first mountain to be included in the Tour de France. Perfectly practicable, said the original route planner, after falling down a ravine and having to be rescued

    Richard Williams | Guardian

    Date of publication online: 22 July 2010
  • Soccer Explains Nothing

    World Cup encouraged a lot of high-flown theorising about soccer and life, but really, it's just a game now—globalised, homogenised. Geopolitics have drained away. No more festering WWII resentments.

    Simon Kuper | Foreign Policy

    Date of publication online: 21 July 2010
  • Sumo And The Yakuza

    How sumo fell into the grip of gangsters, and why a recent gambling scandal could presage a showdown between police and Japan's biggest organised crime group

    Masahiro Matsumura | Project Syndicate

    Date of publication online: 21 July 2010
  • TV's Crowning Moment Of Awesome

    Great read. Retired Las Vegas weather-man turns to casino surveillance, spots a way of beating "The Price Is Right", inveigles himself and friends on to show, walks away with jackpot

    Chris Jones | Esquire

    Date of publication online: 12 July 2010

Best of the Last Year in Sport

  • Selling The Most Expensive Vintage Ever

    Authoritative overview of the marketing of Bordeaux wine from 2009. Up close for non-oenophiles but still interesting. Some chateaux sold out within 30 minutes, months before the wine even reaches the bottles

    Date of publication online: 4 July 2010
  • Making Soccer Less Boring

    The best sort of humour. Builds slowly, so that only by the very end do you suspect you are being made a fool of. Even then, some of the ideas—a shorter pitch, two balls, free substitution—have a plausible ring

    Date of publication online: 27 July 2010
  • I’ll Take A Scoop Of Prosciutto

    Profile of San Francisco's shy, eccentric, ice-cream-making genius, Jake Godby. Flavours include "hibiscus beet", "government cheese"—and "secret breakfast", made with bourbon and toasted cornflakes

    Elizabeth Weil | NYT Magazine

    Date of publication online: 29 June 2010
  • Is It Okay To Cheat In Football?

    Apparently yes, since so many players do it, even in the World Cup. But wouldn't it be great if more footballers chose to tell the truth, setting an example for spectators and other players?

    Peter Singer | Project Syndicate

    Date of publication online: 28 June 2010
  • Golden Generation Passes On

    For sports fans only perhaps, but the best post-mortem on England's under-achieving football team. "When the end came, it was a real coup de grâce, flavoured with controversy, delivered by merciless opponents"

    Richard Williams | Guardian

    Date of publication online: 28 June 2010
  • In Search Of The Perfect Football

    Brief, eccentric, very enjoyable history of the football, from waterlogged leather skull-shaker to much maligned Jabulani. Apparently Jabulani means rejoice in isiZulu. Adidas expects to sell 13m of them at up to £80 each

    Ian Jack | Guardian

    Date of publication online: 26 June 2010
  • Gamesmanship And Collective Reputation

    Behavioural economist asks, and answers, two footballing questions. Why do players take dives so often and so obviously? And why do national styles of play persist over generations?

    Date of publication online: 22 June 2010
  • Wimbledon 2010 Live Blog

    One for the annals. Ten-hour match goes to 59-59 in the fifth set. "The man who was once Mahut is now a string-bag of offal. The man who was Isner is a parched piece of cow-hide"

    Xan Brooks | Guardian

    Date of publication online: 23 June 2010

Most Popular

  • TV's Crowning Moment Of Awesome

    Chris Jones | Esquire

    Great read. Retired Las Vegas weather-man turns to casino surveillance, spots a way of beating "The Price Is Right", inveigles himself and friends on to show, walks away with jackpot

  • Kentucky Obesity Crisis

    Will Haygood | Washington Post

    Classic newspaper reporting. Complex national issue brought alive in local, human terms. Interviews with families in Kentucky town where 52% are obese—and fast food the only entertainment

  • World Cup: Team-By-Team Analysis

    Jeff Blum | n+1

    Nicely judged mix of serious information and derisive snark. Especially recommended to non-football-fans who want a rough idea of what everyone else is talking about in the month ahead

  • Hitchens On Drinking

    Christopher Hitchens | Slate

    "I now drink relatively carefully". A whisky, a half-bottle of wine at lunch, same at dinner. "Not always more, but never less". Great virtue of alcohol: makes other people less tedious

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