The Brooklyn Nets' Cheerleader Uniforms: Confronting the Nightmare

Caity Weaver · 09/27/12 05:20PM

The new Brooklyn Nets' Brooklynettes cheerleader uniforms were revealed this week, and they are bad. They are bad in ways you would expect, like a cropped warm up jacket. They are bad in surprising new ways, like "painted sequin leggings." Because they are complicated, multi-piece ensembles, they are bad in many ways. Because they mostly consist of pieces of fabric bearing the word BROOKLYN in capital letters, they are bad in ways that seem Brooklyn-specific, but are, in fact, universal.

Todd Akin Says He Knows He's Winning Because His Female Opponent Is Getting Less 'Ladylike'

Cord Jefferson · 09/27/12 03:34PM

You might remember Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin from the time he said last month that women who suffer "legitimate" rapes undergo biological processes that prevent them from getting pregnant. It was one of the wrongest things a politician has said publicly in modern America, and Akin was criticized from people on both the left and the right. All that is apparently behind us now (what with Akin's former GOP critics supporting him again), and thus Akin is back to saying archaic nonsense about women.

Today's Song: K. Flay and Michna "L.A. Again"

Rich Juzwiak · 09/27/12 02:10PM

On "L.A. Again," San Fran MC K. Flay and New York/Miami producer Michna team for a sunny electronic hip-hop track that reminds me of '90s near-novelty, very focused tracks like Skee-Lo's "I Wish." There is also a really big Luscious Jackson tribute happening here, even if it's not intended.

How We Made and Won the NFL Referee Lockout

Mobutu Sese Seko · 09/27/12 02:05PM

It takes remarkably few complaints about the NFL referee lockout to provoke a chiding comment about "bread and circuses." It's a novel insight, assuming your conversation occurs nearly 2,000 years ago in imperial Rome. But all too often it represents misplaced disengagement. And now, of course, it's over, which makes it even easier to dismiss—a hiccup of labor history remembered only by people who paint themselves blue and stand nearly naked outside in January.

The Longer You're Unemployed, the Harder It Is to Get Hired

Hamilton Nolan · 09/27/12 02:00PM

Here, some new research findings on the current economic climate, which we sincerely hope that you are reading while at work. *Forced, desperate smile* Some economists decided to find out how length of unemployment affects your chances of finding a new job. So they sent thousands of fictitious resumes out to respond to thousands of job ads, and, long story short: "the likelihood of receiving a callback for an interview significantly decreases with the length of a worker's unemployment spell."

Hamilton Nolan · 09/27/12 11:29AM

How "a fucking high school doodle book" linked to Basquiat got Yale University into a big lawsuit. Ah, the art world.

California's Unconscionable System of Solitary Confinement

Hamilton Nolan · 09/27/12 10:53AM

There is a longstanding and serious debate over whether solitary confinement is, in and of itself, torture. Countless prisoners who've experienced it have said that isolation is worse than any form of physical torture. A new Amnesty report on isolation in California's prisons should make any rational person queasy about what we're doing to society's most forgotten people.