Everyone is totally just winging it, all the time – The Guardian
“We’re similarly shocked whenever authority figures who are supposed to know what they’re doing make it plain that they don’t, President Obama’s healthcare launch being probably the most serious recent example. We shouldn’t really be shocked, though. Because all these stories illustrate one of the most fundamental yet still under-appreciated truths of human existence, which is this: everyone is totally just winging it, all the time.”
Secrets, lies and Snowden’s email: why I was forced to shut down Lavabit – The Guardian
“My legal saga started last summer with a knock at the door, behind which stood two federal agents ready to serve me with a court order requiring the installation of surveillance equipment on my company’s network.”
Why Do People Persist in Believing Things That Just Aren’t True? – The New Yorker
“Nyhan has tried to address this gap by using real-life scenarios and news in his studies: the controversy surrounding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the questioning of Obama’s birth certificate, and anti-G.M.O. activism. Traditional work in this area has focussed on fictional stories told in laboratory settings, but Nyhan believes that looking at real debates is the best way to learn how persistently incorrect views of the world can be corrected.”
Bonfire of the Humanities – Outside Online
“Nobody goes to Timbuktu, right? Patrick Symmes did, to discover what happened when jihadi rebels set out to burn one of the world’s finest collections of ancient manuscripts. Bouncing around by truck, boat, and boots, he got an intimate look at West Africa’s most mythic locale.”
Scammed – Medium
“Those who imagine cybercrime as a high-tech enterprise underestimate the importance of psychology. Nigerian fraudsters advertise lottery caches that will never be won. Non-existent goods sell on eBay. Bogus technical-support experts call with news that a computer has a virus, and offer to fix it for a fee. Those who accept help find that their clean computer has been infected with software that steals passwords.”
How extreme isolation warps the mind – BBC
“That summer, the 32-year-old had been hiking with two friends in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan when they were arrested by Iranian troops after straying onto the border with Iran. Accused of spying, they were kept in solitary confinement in Evin prison in Tehran, each in their own tiny cell. She endured almost 10,000 hours with little human contact before she was freed. One of the most disturbing effects was the hallucinations.”
Why Would A Gay Teenager Commit Hate Crimes Against Herself? – Buzzfeed
“A week later, on Nov. 14, a note was found on her windshield, one that’d been typed up large enough to fill the piece of paper. “YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE,” it read, “WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE. WHEN WE’RE DONE WITH YOU YOU WILL BURN IN HELL.” The next day, the gym locker again, “RUN FAG RUN,” as well as urine. This, Curtis and others presumed, was probably the work of a man, and yet how did a man not only go into the girls’ locker room without being noticed, she wondered, but know which was the correct locker?”
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Photo courtesy of Musgo Dumio_Momio.
