How to Respond if Someone Holds a Gun to Your Head – Business Insider
“Most important: Stay. Calm. There is no way you’re going to remember all of the stuff I’m about to say, but if you remember anything, remember to remain calm. If clarity of thought was ever important, it will be in the proceeding moments.”
Fired? Speak No Evil – New York Times
“What brings me up short is clause No. 12: No Disparagement. “You agree,” it reads, “that you will never make any negative or disparaging statements (orally or in writing) about the Company or its stockholders, directors, officers, employees, products, services or business practices, except as required by law.” If I don’t agree to this nondisparagement clause, I will not receive my severance — in this case, the equivalent of two weeks of pay. Two weeks? Must be hard times out in San Francisco, or otherwise why the dirt parachute — and by the way, is that the sort of remark I won’t be allowed to make if I sign clause No. 12?”
The Wolf of Wall Street is Real, and I’ve Been Reporting on Him For Years – Esquire
“This is Belfort’s new pitch. He used to sell worthless stocks, now he sells himself. The story is that he is sober since 1998, that he is a reformed criminal who helped the Feds (ratting out his partners earned him a light prison sentence) and that he is now on Earth as a cautionary tale to other would-be thieves and the regulators and compliance people who must stop them. Also, he has great stories about abusing Quaaludes and having sex with beer models, which is how he entertained cellmate Tommy Chong, the comedian and bongwright who did time in federal prison alongside Belfort for the comparatively inconsequential crime of manufacturing pot smoking devices. It was Chong who convinced Belfort to tell his story.”
A Breakdown of 2013’s Most Fascinating Video Game Moment – Polygon
“In the wee hours of Nov. 10, 2013, a man who goes by Bananasaurus Rex performed a genuine video game miracle. He completed a solo Eggplant run.”
This is Your Brain on Gluten – the Atlantic
“When a person advocates radical change on the order of eliminating one of the three macronutrient groups from our diets, the burden of proof should be enormous. Everything you know is not wrong. Perlmutter has interesting ideas that I would love to believe. I’d love it if a diet could deliver all that he promises. There is value in belief. It’s what the Empowering Neurologist literally markets. His narrative comes with the certainty that you are doing something to save yourself from cognitive decline and mental illness, which is probably the most unsettling of disease prospects.”
The Granite Mountain Hotshots Yarnell Fire Investigation – GQ
“Wildfires rage throughout the summer in the Southwest, but the one that swept through Yarnell, Arizona, in late June was different. It began humbly but quickly became unpredictable, burning for days across thousands of acres. And so the Granit Mountain hotshots—a young grew of specialist wildfire fighters—were called in. Within hours, nineteen of the twenty men were trapped and hopelessly overrun by the blaze.”
Master of his Virtual Domain – The New York Times
“In the process, the 25-year-old who called himself Jorge Yao joined a new breed of virtual celebrity. The first of his seven audio-only interviews with a blogger named Flammy racked up almost 400,000 YouTube views. He has attracted more than 79,000 Twitter followers and almost 30,000 “likes” on Facebook. Videos of his rampages on other villages, or of his troops repelling other people’s invaders, went viral. Sometimes Jorge Yao would make surprise visits to other clans, just to reward the fans who were sending him daily tweets.”
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Photo courtesy of Nathan Adams.
