human behavior – Read Later

The Bleak Humor of Tehran’s One and Only Standup Comic

10 February 2020 0

ift.tt/2H7gann A couple of venues in Europe had offered Ali…

Why Do We Laugh?

9 February 2020 0

ift.tt/39kvlFF Why Do We Laugh? We laugh even before we…

The Joy of Collecting Stamps From Countries That Don’t Really Exist

7 February 2020 0

ift.tt/3bkWr16 The postage stamp looks like a postage stamp is supposed to look: white, perforated edges, and part of a circular cancellation mark in the corner. It also has the country and postage clearly printed, though its depiction of the…

How to Live and How to Die

4 February 2020 0

ift.tt/2aQtux0 “Leave something of sweetness and substance in the mouth of the world.” A year ago, I lost my darling friend Emily Levine (October 23, 1944–February 3, 2019). Figuring, in which she rightly occupies the first line of the acknowledgements,…

Pure Magic

2 February 2020 0

ift.tt/2GKG1RJ An oral history of Prince’s Super Bowl XLI halftime show. Alan Siegel | The Ringer | Jan 2020 [Full Story] via ift.tt/31kDEhV longform.org/

NSA Security Awareness Posters

1 February 2020 0

ift.tt/2teePYm From a FOIA request, over a hundred old NSA security awareness posters. Here are the BBC’s favorites. Here are Motherboard’s favorites. I have a related personal story. Back in 1993, during the first Crypto Wars, I and a handful…

The Irish myth of the Giant’s Causeway – Iseult Gillespie

13 June 2018 0

ift.tt/2JGRZf1 Check out our Patreon page: ift.tt/2v1FEd5 View full lesson: ift.tt/2Jx5MsG On the coast of Northern Ireland, a vast plateau of basalt slabs and columns called the Giant’s Causeway stretches into the ocean. The scientific explanation for this is that…

Inside Veteran TV’s Dark and Controversial Humor

13 June 2018 0

ift.tt/2JFGunY Welcome to Vet.TV: a comedy website started by an ex-Marine named Donny O’Malley who believes his brand of dark and twisted humor is the thing that some post-9/11 military veterans have been dying to see. Completely unapologetic and at…

The Doomed Cleveland Balloonfest of ’86

13 June 2018 0

ift.tt/2HJ9idJ In September 1986, the city of Cleveland attempted to set a special record: the simultaneous launch of 1.5 million balloons. But fate intervened, and the result was both crazier and more tragic than anyone could have imagined. Read more:…

What the U.S.-North Korea Negotiations Might Look Like, Simulated (HBO)

13 June 2018 0

ift.tt/2l5ow3D The historic summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un is over and one of the few substantive points to come out of their joint statement is for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a “high-level” North Korean official…

Why Was It Illegal to be “Ugly”?

13 June 2018 0

ift.tt/2JwUbcR You can learn more about CuriosityStream at ift.tt/2HJ8khx For nearly 100 years it was illegal to be “ugly” in America. Of course, “ugly” wasn’t actually about physical attractiveness, it was a way to criminalize disability and disfigurement and it…

Meet The Man Photographing The Women Who Lost Their Families In The Kashmir Valley

13 June 2018 0

ift.tt/2HJ8ipV This is Photobomb, a series about the photojournalists who spend their days in crazy, dangerous or just plain weird situations to document the world. There was a time when Showkat Nanda didn’t think he would live to see his…