Showing results by narrator "Kalen Allmandinger" in All Categories

Humor, like pornography, is famously difficult to define. We know it when we see it, but is there a way to figure out what we really find funnyand why? In this fascinating investigation into the science of humor and laughter, cognitive neuroscientist Scott Weems uncovers what’s happening in our heads when we giggle, guffaw, or double over with laughter. While we typically think of humor in terms of jokes or comic timing, in Ha! Weems proposes a provocative new model.

One afternoon in Manhattan's Washington Square Park, Eric Mather is approached by two men, Tom and Jerry, with a business proposal: a bit of light espionage that may be considered treason. Eric's friend and colleague, physics professor Peter Bradley, is on his way back from an international conference in Athens. In his briefcase is a roll of film that must be confiscated to keep the Cold War from turning hot. Bradley won't miss this little roll of film, they say, and nobody will get hurt.

During the 1970s, American foreign policy faced a predicament of clashing imperatives - US decision makers, already struggling to maintain stability and devise strategic frameworks to guide the exercise of American power during the Cold War, found themselves hampered by the emergence of dilemmas that would come to a head in the post-Cold War era. Their choices proved to be of enormous consequence for the development of American foreign policy in the final decades of the twentieth century and beyond.

They found Henry Gibson shot dead in his abandoned car on a dirt road. Then George Horner and Noah Hamberger. Random murders or a sicko with an agenda? That was the problem facing homicide detective Al Maharos. He ran out of ideas until he teamed up Sheriff Karen Vandergrift. Attractive, brilliant Vandergrift. Together, they uncovered other bodies, and a pattern unique in the annals of crime. They knew their path would converge with that of the killer. They knew when. But where?