The Longform Thead: Interesting reads online

[KevinNYC]

Post stuff you found interesting here.

They Began a New Era (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/aug/13/wright-brothers-they-began-new-era/): an article on the Wright Brothers based on the upcoming book by David McCullough


Wilbur did the early flying. Down the sand slope headed into the wind they would trot the glider until it began to be airborne, and Wilbur would pull himself up onto the lower wing, take hold of the controls, and, with mooring lines still attached, briefly fly. By mid-October that year he was flying untethered three and four hundred feet.

[KevinNYC]

Border patrol officers were waiting when Wang pulled up to the Highgate Springs port of entry along the U.S.-Canadian border. He was selected out for a search, which turned up 44 bags of corn seeds under his seat and in his suitcases, as well as a notebook filled with GPS coordinates and a digital camera containing hundreds of pictures of cornfields. Corn Wars (http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122441/corn-wars)

[KevinNYC]

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/12/16/an-unbelievable-story-of-rape?ref=hp-1-100#.cVu3ucoSu

[QUOTE]An 18-year-old said she was attacked at knifepoint. Then she said she made it up. That

[Draz]

A Thai Man Faces Nearly 40 Years in Jail for Insulting the King’s Dog


http://time.com/4148911/thailand-bhumibol-tongdaeng-lese-majeste/

[gigantes]

Human betrayal drove rapid spread of our species
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/human-betrayal-drove-rapid-spread-our-species-around-world



Prior to about 100,000 years ago, humans didn't travel much. Our population shifted and spread geographically much like how populations shift for any species, which depends on things like environmental events or ecological changes. But then, at some crucial juncture, everything changed. Humans began migrating at breakneck speed, spreading across continents and major environmental barriers, until eventually inhabiting nearly every ecological niche imaginable.

So what happened 100,000 years ago that suddenly gave our species such an insatiable sense of wanderlust? New research by Dr. Penny Spikins, an archaeologist at the University of York, offers a rather theatrical explanation. She claims that around this time, humans developed an advanced propensity for betrayal, reports Phys.org.

In other words, humans had evolved into exceptional drama queens. Moral disputes motivated by broken trust and a sense of betrayal became so frequent among human groups that we were driven apart from one another. Rapid human migration was a desperate attempt to flee from our rivals. You might say the story of ancient human migration was like an epic Greek tragedy, the plot escalating as one betrayal led to the next.