Do plastic bags really take 500 years to break down in a landfill?

Asides

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The more sides a street sign has, the higher the danger level it invokes. #onlyanengineer http://t.co/ypmBpHTh

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RT @GuardianBooks: Stlll time to download Julian Barnes's Arthur and George on audiobook. Arthur as in Conan Doyle. A great read. http: ...

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About time, if you ask me. RT @TheOnion: FAA To Ban Plane Crashes http://t.co/2j5gK1LS

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Chilling at the Admirals club in Chicago, hanging out with Quentin Tarantino. Yeah.

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+1 RT @sarahw: Michael Idov on "the movie set that ate itself" in November's GQ is amazing. http://t.co/uQl8h8sQ #longreads

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Did Stephenson make Reamde too accessible? http://t.co/FigTkXTK

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RT @jonathanchait: Paul Ryan and the fantasies of inequality deniers http://t.co/f0HBcmje

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Will English lose it's apostrophe's soon? http://t.co/UzTVM3KI (via @bookbench)

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NYTimes: The Hazards of Confidence. http://t.co/wZfhP0BU

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Another area where paper books are better than the Kindle: toilet reading. - http://t.co/5OILXdOi

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Err... The Literary Saloon. Blame a long flight and some liquids I was served.

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The Literary review collects a bunch of 1Q84 reviews - http://t.co/g8KANHAq

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The GOP's incentive to obstruct and the media's inability to call it like it is. http://t.co/YJAQNaPD

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Michael Dirda gushes about Murakami's "1Q84" http://t.co/WjJmURvi (via @MAOrthofer)

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The Dark Side of the Placebo Effect: Alexis Madrigal in The Atlantic. http://t.co/Hu0wpSYL

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Looks like Stephenson has a big winner on his hands with Reamde: http://t.co/XfyEbrnZ, http://t.co/oEMVWl29, http://t.co/b5aqq22B

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Barry Duncan, master-palindromist. http://t.co/tKOJLtR (via @somethingtoread). The Greenward palindrome is here http://t.co/ctav2g5

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The Comfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen http://t.co/eXWPmmj via @TheByliner

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It does not take a god to know what a hamdryad is anymore. http://t.co/703QPRp via @somethingtoread

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MT @Esquiremag: Astounding lunch reading. @TheNation on CIA sites in Somalia: http://thenat.in/qMv64A #longreads

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How Ray Dalio built the world’s richest and strangest hedge fund. http://nyr.kr/oowl1L #longreads

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RT @anupkaphle: MUST READ: Afghanistan is now India's problem. http://t.co/vFWh7Sm (v @mvatlarge)

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+1 MT @mvatlarge: How can India expect clout in world when it can't lean on its neighbor led by the thuggish Rajapaksa http://t.co/Vo9T4PY

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I always suspected that there was something behind the huge increase in cellphone use: http://t.co/GLO7ORd

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How John Kerry Tries to Put Out Diplomatic Fires - NYTimes.com http://nyti.ms/qk0YMz #longreads

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Putting together a sports team of winners? Men need not apply - latimes.com http://lat.ms/n4DZdA

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The previous Allan Seager tweet was via @somethingtoread

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One of Allan Seager’s short stories endures in ways that none of Hemingway’s can match. http://t.co/n73vlkY

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Apathy isn't easy, tbh. Especially epic apathy. @mvatlarge The famed Mumbai spirit was probably epic apathy all along. http://nyr.kr/qDTJ91

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A great read if there ever was one - from the Atlantic archives. Oscar Night in Hollywood; Chandler. http://bit.ly/pRM1aX #longreads

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And a very good book too. RT @longformorg: There's nearly a book worth of reading in our @Lawrence_Wright archive: http://bit.ly/q78YSX

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Now, that's an idea for myspace.Pity he sold it already. RT @pourmecoffee: You don't need an invite for your stuff to be shared on Murdoch+.

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While on The Atlantic, here is a favorite blogger on Murdoch, circa 2003 : http://theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/09/fallows.htm

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+1 MT @pbump: The Atlantic could share great articles every 5 mts for wks w/o writing anything new.On the ValuJet crash: http://p-bu.mp/co8

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Great Langewiesche reads @Byliner: http://bit.ly/q4RjSt including a couple of personal favorites - http://bit.ly/dDq3h9 & http://bit.ly/dO208D

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From the superbly curated @somethingtoread, purveyor of hand-picked awesomeness, a phone-hacking scandal reading list. http://bit.ly/n6HUPV

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MT @sarahw: Two must reads about the #notw situation & Murdoch's role: BBC's Paul Mason: http://bbc.in/nD9onD @carr2n: http://nyti.ms/oq0Qfs

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It takes @TheEconomist to call it a spade. The Republicans are playing a cynical political game with America's debt http://econ.st/p08mUs

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Why was most of the UK media silent as the phone hacking sscandal developed? http://bit.ly/lPjbM8 (via @somethingtoread) #longreads

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The story of the one man National Institutes of Health - http://bit.ly/jGhsON (via @thedailydish)

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Across Africa, elephants are slaughtered to satisfy the spike in ivory demand from newly rich China. http://vnty.fr/qhv1Cu #longreads

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Midnight reading from @Byliner: Jon Krakauer. http://bit.ly/reaP6t

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Larry David's debut is marginally funny, making it better than most Shouts & Murmurs columns. http://nyr.kr/m3LEPX

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Andrew Marantz spends a summer at an Indian call center, watching bright kids slip into someone else's identity. http://bit.ly/rqBcSs

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The modern stomach contains undigested pieces of its own history. http://bit.ly/iGO2uv (v @theByliner)

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Can Sheryl Sandberg upend Silicon Valley’s male-dominated culture? http://nyr.kr/khQCkW #longreads

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With a name like that... Ransom Center blamed for collecting too aggressively. http://econ.st/kJNWT8 (v @The Economist)

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A democratic China will be much more assertive and belligerent. http://bit.ly/jBbBhg (v aldaily.com) #longreads

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On the Louisiana oil spill, Transocean's defiant strategy seems to be paying off. http://buswk.co/jhyjXA

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RT @GuardianBooks: Fresh claim over role the FBI played in suicide of Ernest Hemingway http://gu.com/p/3va6p/tf

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Summer reading recommendations @FinancialTimes http://on.ft.com/kLBBFl (v @MAOrthofer)

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Michael Lewis on Mark Twain's autobiography - 'A good joke spoiled.' http://bit.ly/luiTSn v @mathitak

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Michael Lewis on Mark Twain's autobiography - 'A good joke spoiled.' tnr.com/article/books-… #longreads v @mathitak

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Six classic business books - good reads from a much maligned genre. http://econ.st/mtOxdq via @theeconomist

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Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds http://nyti.ms/mvhPvs

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“The War for 'Catch-22" on the 8 year genesis of Heller's book. http://t.co/8AHkXDr

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Fall of the House of Busch." Tragedy, scandals and Budweiser dynasty http://buswk.co/jfy9EF v (@longreads)

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Roald Dahl slept with "every girl on the East and West coast worth more than 50k," all for Britain. http://bit.ly/iway4s (@manish_vij)

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What I’m Reading This Summer: Junot Díaz http://nyr.kr/jsxmlx

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India generates the most bogus Google takedown requests. http://t.co/BfnrTnG

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Inside LulzSec: Chatroom logs shine a light on the secretive hackers http://bit.ly/iMdEWR

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Thanks for this! MT @prempanicker: Whenever Dravid and Laxman play their last game, I hope Updike can chronicle it... : http://nyr.kr/9UQPaK

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RT @nilanjanaroy: "In short: he is secretly young." John Le Carre on Smiley, and on his own youth in Germany. http://bit.ly/mKSrRk

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Must be true because the game inspires writing like this classic DFW piece on Federer. http://nyti.ms/J8duk

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Geoff Dyer on why tennis is the most beautiful game http://bit.ly/jATPR3 (via @somethingtoread)

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+1, great post. RT @supriyan: this is fine, fine sportsblogging. RT @sidvee Dravid and the mastery of the struggle http://bit.ly/lANqWd

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Almost everything a long form aggregator should be, and then some more. Byliner (@theByliner) is awesome. http://byliner.com

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Typical Taibbi takedown of Bachmann - a bit overblown but fun to read. http://bit.ly/in2CtM

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Typical Taibbi takedown of Bachmann - a bit overblown but fun to read. http://bit.ly/in2CtM

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How Bitcoin works: http://econ.st/jskYL5 As explainers go, difficult to top this one from the @theeconomist

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What were they thinking, episode 1129: Ex-spy says Bush asked CIA to spy on Iraq war critic Juan Cole. http://nyti.ms/k4stVR @mvatlarge

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Finally, reason to go there after 5. Ok, 4. @mvatlarge: Starbucks might sell beer and wine. http://t.co/x5xJAbO

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DFW Interviews, both cut and uncut. http://bit.ly/kMz2bG via @ScottEsposito

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Thieves Found Citigroup Site an Easy Entry http://nyti.ms/mmePKu

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The Greatest Paper That Ever Died - the paper that changed everything about sports journalism & lost $150m. Fascinating http://es.pn/miw6iW

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Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts... http://bit.ly/lTH9bm

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Maud Newton's #Longreads recommendations.

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Jhumpa Lahiri on the events that made her a writer. http://t.co/rVBhVde

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Disney interns spend long hours flipping burgers, acting happy and cleaning up "protein spills." http://bit.ly/j3eUjT

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Longform.org's Guide to Detroit: From the World War II boom to "ruin porn," 5 of the best. http://bit.ly/m9N9Uz

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How pharmaceutical companies "influence" medical journals... http://bit.ly/j2OT59

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Talking to the public about cell phones, safety, and cancer risks http://bit.ly/mkWq1Z

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Naipaul : Equal opportunity insulter. http://bit.ly/lb2SzF (via @maudnewton)

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RT @mvatlarge: Every reporter in Pakistan knows if they get call from "Col. Tariq" they've fallen afoul of ISI: http://bbc.in/itZJvj sidebar

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Must read. The usability of passwords. http://bit.ly/cy7LnK (via James Fallows)

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Uggh. RT @GuardianBooks VS Naipaul finds no women writer his literary match - not even Jane Austen http://bit.ly/lvcjA0

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Nature 'is worth billions' to UK http://bbc.in/mwm0rx (via @pourmecoffee)

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"Research" : Romance novels dangerous to women. http://nyr.kr/k158E7

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Long (2009) interview with Joseph O'Neill. http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/the-joseph-oneill-interview/

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Mideast Uses Western Tools to Battle the Skype Rebellion http://on.wsj.com/iDal1h

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Payback might be a bitch, but the urge for revenge is universal, and the stuff of great drama. http://t.co/nKhFdFm via @aldaily

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Revolving doors of the 8,000-crore English book publishing business is (sic) spinning like a roulette wheel http://bit.ly/kmk4yE @MAOrthofer

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And do read this: Cricket and the Mystery story , from an American perspective. http://bit.ly/jLYn9R

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Which sports produce the best literature? http://bit.ly/itgzZq (Cricket, obviously. Netherland, Corner of a Foreign Field... )

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Five epic heists from longform.org, including my favorite, the collar bomb heist. http://slate.me/kKHeFw

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The secret world of child brides: http://bit.ly/lMWedi (via the invaluable http://bit.ly/3UEAKM)

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The audacity of Dupe: Fraud in Chinese companies listed in the US. http://nyti.ms/jlKCwf (via @NickKristof)

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The audacity is of Dupe: Fraud in Chinese companies listed in the US. http://nyti.ms/jlKCwf (via @NickKristof)

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The People vs. Goldman Sachs http://j.mp/jSeDLI

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Publishing a Hindu newspaper in Pakistan. http://bit.ly/iIrN36