The Story

William Binney has been working in intelligence since the Cold War. As a cryptomathemetician, he helped create a new surveillance system called Thin Thread. When he discovered Thin Thread was being used to spy on American citizens, he spoke up and eventually left the agency.

How the rise of Hitler forced great physicists such as Max Born to flee Germany in the 1930s.

This is another in our series of favorite stories, and it comes from our partnership with Salon.com. When Michael Humphrey was growing up, he would sometimes hear his father telling strangers a story about how the Beatles stole the composition for “Lady Madonna” from him. Eventually, he looked into his father’s story himself.

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been running a series of stories called At Home. As a part of the series, we’re exploring how people are finding a place to live in the midst of a difficult housing market. Three years ago, Chris J. had a job, a house, three cars and a year's worth of savings. Today, he is homeless. But Chris is finding a new community through his blog and a Twitter account. Chris thought by sharing his experiences he would gather a few followers. Little did he know that it would provide him with community and even a room to call his own. Also: a story of coincidence related to the song Danny Boy.