“Today’s Kannapolis does not offer as many good blue-collar jobs as it used to — unemployment still hovers at 10 percent—but it does provide plenty of opportunities for locals to serve as human research subjects.” Pacific Standard’s Amanda Wilson on a town where a textile mill shut down and a biotechnology firm opened up.

+ How Buckyball fell apart.

+ “The courts are empty, the nets dangling by a thread. The crowds that used to stand four deep are gone, and so are the players. Once players asked ‘Who’s got next?’ Now the question is ‘Anyone want to play?’ And the answer seems to be no, at least not here, not outside.” From ESPN: Playground basketball is dying.

+ Grantland invented and is celebrating Rom-Com week with a fun series of articles that look at the often strange arc of the romantic comedy genre.