James Bond and the Killer Bag Lady. In December 2012, Salon published this account of the unusual murder of a Wall Street tycoon, killed in his office by a deranged homeless woman. What made it unusual was that it looked an awful lot like an assassination, as the woman claimed. And when police dug back into the pasts of both the victim and his killer, they found a common thread between them: Both had connections to the CIA.

 Operation Delirium. Writing in the December 17, 2012 issue of The New Yorker, author Raffi Katchadourian exhaustively profiles Col. James Ketchum, who, for a time in the mid-20th century was the head of the Army’s psychological experimentation group. In this position Ketchum, devised and oversaw massively unethical psychological experimentation on partly-coerced soldiers using drugs and mindbending procedures that were carried out for years.

How to Install a Dishwasher. Writing in This Old House magazine, author Harry Sawyers sensibly describes exactly how to install a new diswasher. The text is accompanied by a slideshow of photos that make the process easier to follow. This is a comprehensive, well-researched article.

The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin. This December 2011 Wired article could stand to be retitled, The Rise and Fall and Rise again of Bitcoin, since the digital currency reached an all time high of $147 last April, but the facts remain the same: The origins of its pseudonymous developer — who cracked a longstanding problem of digital currency, how to prevent a single unit from being copied –  make for a terrific mystery.

 The Power of Negative Thinking. Wall Street Journal author Oliver Burkeman hustles through an examination of an interesting type of mental acrobatics, using negative thought as a means of ultimately bringing about a happier existence. Drawing on the ideas arising from the Stoics, who used a type of negative immersion into one’s worst fears to demonstrate to the anxious mind there’s nothing so bad as anticipation.

 The Mystery of the Millionaire Metaphysician. Written by James Ryerson and originally published in Lingua Franca magazine in 2001, Slate recently republished this article, what its editors consider one of the best magazine articles ever written. It certainly has it all: Ryerson chronicles his hunt for the pseudonymous A.M. Monius, an unidentified amateur metaphysician willing to heap large sums on academic philosophers willing to review his work, which frames the meaning of life.

Atari Teenage Riot. Buzzfeed’s Chris Stokel-Walker wades into the history of the video arcade game pioneer Atari with interviews of the founders of the company who are, by turns, the founders of the video game industry itself. Stokel-Walker mines the earliest days, beginning in 1972, when Pong was unleashed on humanity.

Joe Arridy was the happiest man on death row. In the Denver magazine Westword, Alan Pendergast describes the immensely depressing story of Joe Arridy, a developmentally challenged man who, in the 1940s, was railroaded by a limelight seeking lawman into confessing to the rape and ax murder of a young girl. It was clear to the end, as Arriday played with his toy trains on the floor of his cell on death row on the day of his execution, that he was both innocent and incapable of understanding where he was and what was about to be done to him by the state. This is one of our favorite magazine articles of all time.

Marvin. Hamlisch. Is there a name that evokes thoughts of swirling, swinging schmaltz than that? And what if you loaded a name like that up with James Bond — the gigantic martini-swilling (more importantly Vesper-swilling) womanizing secret agent? It would go from schmaltzy to schmaltzier, but you could increase the schmaltziness, just you wait. Marvin Hamlisch was the composer for not only a James Bond movie, but many James Bond movies and, in this case, one of the schmaltziest James Bond movies ever, 1977′s The Spy Who Loved Me. Not only is it set in the 70s, it stars Roger Moore — AND! — it features a Lotus Esprit S1 that converts to a submarine to take a sexy ride to villain Karl Stromberg’s lair and it is here that we join up with Mr. Hamlisch on his Ride to Atlantis. Is there anything schmaltzier than a trumpet with a mute? Friend, it’s no coincidence they use that same effect for the sad trombone?

“How’s this for gross: Hats may contain remnants of hair products, sweat, or skin infections.”

Via Reader’s Digest

An Extensive Gallery of Josh and Chuck Photoshopped Into Troubling Images. We added about 40 new troubling images to this gallery. Good, unsettling stuff.

Animated Stuff You Should Know, Episode 9: From How Subways Work. An awesome installment of our wonderful animated series of snippets taken from the podcast by Nick Shoen.

Abandoned Water Park, Eagle Beach, Aruba. During a vacation last fall, Josh and his wife Umi came upon a creppy abandoned water park and documented it in photos. We present them here for you in this gallery.

This Day in History: April 30, Walpurgis Night. Something has happened to unnerve Chuck and Josh while they eavesdrop. While they wait for it to happen again, they record an episode of TDIH on the Norse pagan holiday of Walpurgis night.

Tuesday’s Podcast Episode: Is there such a thing as a truth serum? Ever since people have had secrets, other people have been looking for ways to get it out of them. Law enforcement and chemistry alike have searched for a drug that can remove the ability to lie. Chuck and Josh check in to see how it’s going.

Don’t Be Dumb: Dropping a Penny From the Empire State Building.In the latest installment of this video series hosted by a mentally-addled Josh, we learn why dropping a penny from the Empire State Building won’t kill anyone below.

Thursday’s Podcast Episode: How Dungeons and Dragons Works.  Despite what you’ve heard, Dungeons and Dragons isn’t just for geeks, it isn’t satanic and it’s actually a pretty great way to exercise your imagination. Find out about the basics of D&D, its place in pop culture and the controversy the classic role playing game has stirred.

How to Perform a Citizen’s Arrest, and Why You Really Shouldn’t. Just because something sounds like a good idea doesn’t mean it is. In this post, SYSK provides a how-to guide on citizens’ arrests as well as extensive reasons why you shouldn’t perform one.

The Best Stuff We’ve Read This Week. From hidden messages in Edgar Allen Poe’s writing to CIA bank robbers, here are links to the most engrossing articles we’ve read this week.

How the Trailer Park Could Save Us All. Writing in Pacific Standard magazine, author Lisa Margonelli chronicles life inside the Pismo Dunes Trailer Park, a sprawling expanse of manufactured homes in Pismo Beach, Calif. Upon close examination, the author finds that the park — and by extension, any trailer park — is organically fulfilling the requirements for healthy aging among its inhabitants: access to socialization, community help, exercise, a sense of ownership and freedom. By aging researchers’ standards, trailer parks could be just the ticket to address the impending aging crisis the U.S. faces as the Baby Boomer population fully enters retirement. This article gets the Most Alarming Fact award: “The generation of Americans now facing retirement is so financially ill prepared that half of them have less than $10,000 in the bank.”(!)

 20 years after fire, David Koresh’s tragic spell lingers. Writing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Tim Madigan marks the 20th anniversary of the end of the standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidians at their compound outside of Waco, Texas. Madigan is the author of two books on the Branch Davidians and he visits some of the survivors of the fiery siege of the compound that killed 74 men, women and children, including Koresh; two decades later he finds that many still believe that Koresh was Jesus Christ. An interesting reintroduction to one of the darkest moments in American domestic history.

In Virginia’s Fairfax County, Robbing Banks for the CIA. Perhaps a little hurried by his deadline or his editor at BusinessWeek, Tom Schoenberg rushes what is certainly a more in-depth story, but the article is worth reading nonetheless. It describes a spate of bank robberies in the metro DC area in the summer of 2012 and the whopper of an alibi given by the perpetrator when he was finally caught. Even more incredible, the man had proof to back his story up.

Typically, most of us rely on sworn law enforcement to handle our policing activities. That’s the standard and rational thing to do. And yet the citizen does have some sort of right to apprehend criminals. In fact, there are laws that protect and even encourage vigilantism and they are not of recent provenance. Places like the United States, Canada and other geographic regions once controlled by the British crown, trace the concept of the citizen’s arrest back to medieval English law. The concept of the ordinary person possessing the right to detain a criminal dates back to a time when, according to constitutional attorney David Grossack, the local sheriff routinely relied on anyone who could reasonably be expected to apprehend a criminal to do just that. Grossack points out that the tradition of the posse comitatus, the legal concept of an officer of the law’s ability in a time of emergency to deputize friends and neighbors who were handy at wielding a torch and/or a weapon while on horseback, is also born from this era and cultural attitude toward the citizen’s obligation to protect and defend the peace. It bears reminding, however, that we have, as societies, moved away from calling on citizens to act as enforcers of the law. It is one of the perks of the police states.

Under U.S. federal law, there is no explicit mention of citizen’s arrest, but a group called CrimeFighters (for which we could find no website) interprets Title 18, Section 2236 to give at least tacit permission for any normal citizen to arrest another, depending on the circumstances. Here’s the statute:

Whoever, being an officer, agent, or employee of the United States or any department or agency thereof, engaged in the enforcement of any law of the United States, searches any private dwelling used and occupied as such dwelling without a warrant directing such search, or maliciously and without reasonable cause searches any other building or property without a search warrant, shall be fined under this title for a first offense; and, for a subsequent offense, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

This section shall not apply to any person—

(a) serving a warrant of arrest; or

(b) arresting or attempting to arrest a person committing or attempting to commit an offense in his presence, or who has committed or is suspected on reasonable grounds of having committed a felony; or

(c) making a search at the request or invitation or with the consent of the occupant of the premises.

If you’ll notice, the first paragraph makes explicit mention of agents of federal law enforcement. When the statute lists the exceptions, however, the wording becomes more vague, mentioning instead “any person.” Laziness? Who cares, says CrimeFighters. It says “any person” right there in the text. A citizen qualifies as “any person,” of course, and so that would mean that if an average citizen could get his or her hands on a real, live arrest warrant (as is typically the case with bounty hunters), they would be able to make an arrest within the limits of the law. But it would be difficult, CrimeFighters admits, for the average citizen to get that warrant (even despite wanting one really, really badly), and so we drop down to part (b). It is in this section that we find what’s considered federal justification for the citizen’s arrest. The idea that it is a legal right for anyone who witnesses a felony carried out in their presence to arrest that person seems to be widely agreed upon, at least by people who spend their time interpreting such things. CrimeFighters also believes this right is extended to a situation where a reliable third party has witnessed the felony and convinces the citizen crime fighter they have probable cause to arrest the suspected criminal.

It’s within the states where the real money citizen’s arrest laws are to be found, however. Depending on where you live, they can be pretty close to those enjoyed by medieval English vigilantes. Kentucky is the standard-bearer for citizen’s arrest laws; Section 503 of the state’s penal code lists all manner of circumstances where a person could make an arrest and a court case from the 1930s is interpreted to mean Kentucky law calls on citizens to intervene when they see a felony, especially one where another person is in danger. Other states, like Massachusetts and Florida, allow for citizen’s arrests, but require that if the criminal isn’t convicted, the crime fighting citizen isn’t convicted of the crime.

So say you’re the type of person who really wants to arrest another person and you actually seem some heavy action go down right in front of you. CrimeFighters recommends that you first be aware of the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor in your state (and ostensibly, the differences between the two in any states where you plan to vacation and possibly fight crime while on vacation). Citizens’ arrests protections (where they do exist) don’t extend to misdemeanors and you will get in all sorts of trouble (see upcoming section) for attempting one under such circumstances. But if you see what is clearly a felony being carried out before you and you choose to act, here are the steps CrimeFighters suggests you take:

A CrimeFighter, when making an arrest, must tell the suspect being arrested of the intention to arrest and the cause of the arrest. That’s not necessary if the suspect is engaged in the commission of an offense, is chased after its commission, after an escape, or forcibly resists before the CrimeFighter has opportunity to inform the person. After making an arrest a citizen must, without unnecessary delay, deliver the suspect to a police officer, or take them to a magistrate or police station.

That’s pretty much it as far as the arrest goes, although there is all manner of fine-grained details involved. (Here is CrimeFighters’ full document on the subject.) No Miranda rights need be read, for example, since they only apply to the person’s right to remain silent among law enforcement officials. Even more, any admission of guilt expressed to you, the apprehending crime fighter, can likely be used in court, should you be willing to sit as a witness for the state (and I would guess that being the type to carry out a citizen’s arrest, you would be). It gets even more granular the more you look into it and, are you considering carrying out a citizen’s arrest, you should definitely look into it first. But let us attempt to persuade you otherwise.

It’s about here that we should take a breather, since we are clearly describing some genuinely attractive ideas for certain people. It is worth pointing out this very important fact: Performing a citizen’s arrest is pretty much always a bad idea, especially if no one is in immediate danger. Here are a whole bunch of reasons why:
* The person whom you intend to place under arrest may not recognize the authority granted you to make an arrest
* You’re not a cop
* The person whom you intend to place under arrest may be armed with a gun, knife or cudgel and may find it convenient to use it against you; as a result you, a bystander or both may become injured or killed
* You’re not a cop
* You may have to wait around for a taxi to arrive if you manage to convince the suspect to come with you peacefully, as CrimeFighters strongly suggests you not use your own car to deliver the person to the nearest police station
* Waiting around too long could lead to charges of false imprisonment, since by definition arresting a person requires their detainment, which is synonymous with imprisonment
* The act of arresting a suspect, especially when using physical force to do so opens up all manner of potential violations of the suspect’s civil rights, especially since, remember, you’re not a cop, including but not limited to:

-Charges of sexual assault resulting from a frisk or pat down

-Charges of assault and/or battery resulting from the use of force during arrest

- Charges of assault and/or battery charges resulting from any verbal abuse, especially threats of violence, used against the suspect

- Criminal charges in states where the suspect must be convicted for a citizen’s arrest to be considered legal (if the suspect isn’t convicted)

- A pretty hefty civil suit from the defendant and/or his or her family

Certainly, the threat of legal action isn’t reason enough for the average crime fighter to turn his back on several centuries of English common law, but it probably should be. And if a lawsuit Is not enough to deter you, perhaps the threat of real physical harm might deter you. Even a pack of Guardian Angels, whose organization has been meting out vigilante justice in 170 cities since its founding 1979, recently found that performing citizens’ arrests can get you stabbed. The Guardian Angels are the closest thing to professionals when it comes to citizens’ arrests and they still get stabbed.

South Park’s Butters sings Chicago’s If You Leave Me Now

Looney Tunes’ Michigan J. Frog sings Bert Williams’ Hello! Ma Baby

The Brady Kids sing In No Hurry

Scooby Doo guest Jerry Reed sings Pretty Mary Sunlight

If there is one thing that documentarians contribute to the world it is their uncanny ability to root out incredibly obscure subcultures one could never rationally imagine exist and finding tragedy and everyday heroism there. The Rock-afire Explosion is no exception, following the handful of enthusiasts of the titular animatronic band that entertained kids at Showbiz Pizza in the 80s and the man who invented them and ultimately lost his creation.

 I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW

Very frequently hard to watch, I Think We’re Alone Now trails two people — one with autism and another mid-operation transgender woman — as each lives out the obsessive superfandom they feel toward the 80s pop star Tiffany. The movie’s invasiveness into the lives of its subjects borders on exploitation.

MARWENCOL

The subject of this film, Mark Hogancamp was attacked outside a bar one night and suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result. Injured and different than he was before, Hogancamp retreated to his home behind which he built a besieged town named Marwencol, populated by dolls and action figures he uses to play out his imagination.

JESUS CAMP

There is pretty much no way to enter a camp for fundamentalist Christian children and produce a documentary for mass consumption about them and not be accused of betraying their trust. Although extremely controversial, Jesus Camp still manages to show its subjects as whole people – leaving the viewer to pass any judgments on their culture.

GRIZZLY MAN

Legendary documentary director Werner Herzog tracks the last summer of Timothy Treadwell, a self-proclaimed expert on grizzly bears who, for several years, managed to survive Alaskan summers living alongside enormous bears. During his last summer his luck and he both expired and Herzog creates part raw-footage documentary, part travelogue to get to the bottom of what Treadwell’s deal was.

The new meme is the Condom Challenge, wherein the person making the video – typically a kid – inserts a condom into their nose and pulls it out of their mouth. It’s viral now and there is of course no also the requisite accompanying meme of reaction videos of people watching the videos for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD-vphCGwig