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Philosophy of humor bleg
by Tyler Cowen March 17, 2017 at 12:49 pm in
What makes something funny? What should I read on this topic? I thank you all in advance for your wisdom and guidance. I can assure you I will put this material to use, though not as a producer of humor.
March 17, 2017 at 12:52 pm Hide Replies 1
Ted Cohen, Jokes.
March 17, 2017 at 3:08 pm Hide Replies 2
Watch Richard Pryor's standup and Eddie Murphy's movies pre-1990.
The Golden Child: Mandatory watching
Or just read humor pages and blogs. Most are easy reads: https://m.facebook.com/CrapIBuyOnAmazon/
mpkomara
The essence of humor is when you expect something to bounce and it doesn't.
Scott Mauldin
Agreed. I think the core to all humor is the unexpected, or perhaps more precisely the subversion or twisting of the expected.
Or the converse.
Like a Woody Allen joke - my parents realized I was kidnapped. They snapped into action immediately! They rent out my room.
I would pay $100 to hear what Art Deco or prior_test think is funny. I'm guessing Jack Benny for the former, drowning puppies for the latter.
prior_test2
March 17, 2017 at 1:17 pm Hide Replies 10
What do I find funny? Puns for one - though puns are sorely lacking in Germany (even if SWR1 managed to pull something like a pun off - 'SWR1 gehört gehört' - literally 'SWR1 belongs heard/listened to,' even if google/google translate cannot handle the phrase).
I found the first half of 'He's Back' / 'Er ist wieder da' utterly hilarious, after the first ten minutes or so - though no puppies are drowned, Hitler does shoot a dog. And much like Trump boasting he could murder someone in broad daylight on 5th Ave, in the movie this action does not hurt Hitler's ratings in the least. It was interesting to see the movie in a German movie theater with a German audience - they laughed about as much as I, though with a certain undercurrent at the beginning of the comedic action that was interesting. Hitler is most certainly not a figure of humor in Germany in 2017, unlike how most Germans viewed him in 1927.
This is the perfect response, very illustrative of my point. Where do I send the $100?
Seriously? This is truly getting amusing - why not send it care of Prof. Cowen, GMU, Mason Hall, Room D150, .4400 University Drive, 3G4
Fairfax, VA 22030.
Indeed. So either you are Tyler or you finally hooked up!
Now you have a problem sending a money order for 100 hundred dollars to Prof. Cowen at his office address? Why? I'm sure that Prof. Cowen can find some worthy GMU student to pass it on to, after all - it would cover about 70% of the list price of Modern Principles of Microeconomics - https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Principles-Microeconomics-Tyler-Cowen/dp/1429278412
Come on, no one is surprised that PA's distance stalker routine includes knowing Cowen's address
I'm guessing you haven't seen the movie. Without joking, it is worth watching to get a bit of insight into how Germans are looking at what is happening in the U.S. right now.
Hazel Meade
Trump IS sort of like a tragicomic spoof of Hitler.
yeah, Hazel, Trump is so fucking tragic compared with god damned Hitler.
Sorry, that sentence broke my brain. Will take a while to recover.
Troll me
March 19, 2017 at 4:59 am Hide Replies 17
Trump supporters harass women who express things which are not full of praise for Trump.
Trumo supporters also harass men who express things other than support for Trump. But they reserve special harassment for women.
Puns?
https://c3jemx2ube5v5zpg.onion.to/?document=view&id=84&section=10
Also from Asimov: "The planet of Lockmania, inhabited though it was by intelligent beings that looked like large wombats, had adopted the American legal system, and Bamaby Burnside had been sent there by the Earth Confederation to study the results. Burnside watched with interest as a husband and wife were brought in, charged with disturbing the peace. During a religious observation, when, for twenty minutes, the congregation was supposed to maintain silence while concentrating on their sins, the wife had suddenly risen from her squatting position and screamed loudly. When someone rose to object, the husband pushed him forcefully. The judge listened solemnly, fined the woman a silver dollar and the man a twenty-dollar gold piece. Almost immediately afterward, seventeen men and women were brought in. They were ringleaders of a crowd that had demonstrated for better quality meat at a supermarket. They had torn the supermarket apart and inflicted various bruises and lacerations on eight of the employees of the establishment. Again the judge listened solemnly, and fined the seventeen a silver dollar apiece. Afterward, Burnside said to the chief judge, "I approve of your handling of the man and woman who disturbed the peace." "It was a simple case," said the judge. "We have a legal maxim that goes: . . . 'Screech is silver, but violence is golden.'" "In that case," said Burnside, "why did you fine the group of seventeen a silver dollar apiece when they committed far worse violence?" "Oh, that's another legal maxim," said the judge. "Every crowd has a silver fining." (By Isaac Asimov)
@TR - Rotten meat eh TR? Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny. Today's news (BBC): "Brazilian police have carried out raids at the offices of some of the country's biggest meat-packing companies accusing them of selling rotten meat on the domestic market and abroad. "
Bonus trivia: I've done standup and even won a prize at amateur night. But there were only two contestants, and I won silver (the woman who won gold was really good, like a sort of amateur Paula Poundstone). But I did get a few laughs and the faces of the audience can turn from hostile to friendly in a flash. What do I think is funny? Anus jokes, fart jokes, slapstick, sexist and racist jokes, the lowest common denominator works, both in the USA and Germany. Flash the audience. It will get a laugh, guaranteed. By contrast, what prior_test2 suggests, puns, rarely work in front of a live audience. Maybe Rodney Dangerfield after he established his reputation could pull it off, but the rest of us are just wankers by comparison. Yet it? Da da dum dumb dumb dumb.
Who I don't think is that funny: anybody who pretends, like those Jon Stewart types (though he has good delivery) to dispense wisdom through telling jokes. What a crock. Comedy is play acting, not something serious or profound. I think TC could make a good standup comic, as he has a dry straight guy style that makes for good comedy.
I can assure you things are under control. Most of the rotten meat has been intercepted and the public is being warned to not eat the rotten market that found its way to supermarkets. Most meat is good and, in fact, Brazil is the greatest exporter of bovine meat. The authorities have alredy swiftly and merciless acted against the evil-doers. It was the biggest federal police action in all Brazilian history. Dozens of people and tons of files were captured.
Tons of files TR? Or tons of FLIES? HAHAHA!
Tons of files, papers and computers. The corrupt enforces have been arrested and the suspect policians are under federal invesrigation.
I just noticed the 100 dollar offer after posting - forget it.
How could you read the question without seeing that? It comes first! This is also very illustrative of the genius of prior_test.
I picked up on the Jack Benny and drowned puppies, while ignoring the generally meaningless gesture of paying someone money. And you almost got it right - one of the funniest movies I have seen in years also has a scene of a dog being shot.
But if you meant that seriously, I'm sure we can arrange a way for you to pay me 100 dollars - thus being very illustrative of the genius of msgkings.
That's the best you got? LOL
See above - this is starting to enter the realm of the absurd, if not quite reaching the level of absurdist humor.
Last word freak LOL
Pshrnk
"the generally meaningless gesture of paying someone money"
WTF dude? Shh; Economists have been known to visit this site.
Well, what with your rush to Wikipedia of course you didn't read it.
March 17, 2017 at 12:55 pm Hide Replies 34
'though not as a producer of humor'
False humility is never attractive.
Thus Spake prior_test, the man who knows what is attractive.
Not really. But since this is about what I find funny (see above), I have always assumed that Prof. Cowenis personally self-aware enough to realize that much of what he presents in public is not to be taken seriously, meaning that much of what is presented here is actually just a joke in his eyes. Thus the claim of unattractive false modesty. Obviously, I might be mistaken in assuming that, meaning that while he is still a reliable source of humor, his humility remains as boundless as ever.
The man is already married, bro. Move on.
And yet, I pine for the earnest Canadian.
Why choose?
He (TC) can't be arrogant, as you've told us. And when he's humble, that's wrong too. (Or illustrative of his moral/political failings.) WCTCD? What can TC do?
http://www.jehsmith.com/1/2017/02/the-death-of-gelastics-.html
adam h.
Humor is a moment in which our shared obedience to language and systems of meaning is disrupted by incongruity, and the animal howls that commence thereafter.
Read Bruce Fink or Richard Boothby on humor. And reflect upon the fact that humor is most powerful when it veers toward sex or death.
Explain animal howls. I chuckle quietly at very funny things.
Dan Dennett has a co-authored book on humor, btw.
Explain animal howls.
I don't know how to describe what makes something funny, but I do know that you have to be smart to be funny. We all grew up with people who got terrible grades in school but we knew they were very smart, often smarter than the grinders who got straight A's, because they were hilarious (and the grinders were not).
Some of us weren't funny at all in grade school and only became funny after years of horrifying trauma.
Being funny is finding links between things where others have not. That's called a joke.
Being intelligent is finding links between knowledge where others have not. That's called a book.
Went to school and college with a lot of brilliant people ( including one who picked up a Nobel) ; invariably the most earnest are never the humorous ones.
Robert K.
Ted Cohen, Jokes; Eric Kaplan, Does Santa Exist? A philosophical explanation; Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, Heidegger and a Hippo Walk through those Pearly Gates.
Andrew Tate
https://www.amazon.com/Naked-Jape-Uncovering-Hidden-World/dp/0141025158 by Jimmy Carr.
I Googled, at least.
"benign violation theory" sounds plausible, but the fact that it is Year Of Our Lord 2017, and we only have a theory casts doubt.
My guilty secret is that "Trial and Error" makes me laugh out loud. Pretty basic benign violation. Lip bomb.
"Hey man, you ever, you know, use Vaseline during sex?" "Oh yeah, every time." "Really?" "Absolutely. We put it on the doorknob and it keeps the kids out." Rimshot.
Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind might be of interest to you. If I remember correctly, it is pretty academic, considering the landscape of theory about humor and then tries to tie it together with an evolutionary explanation. Its been a while and I would have to leaf through my highlighting to say more...
A Truth Seeker
http://ktf.franko.lviv.ua/users/vasya/fantasy.html
I gave an ignite talk on this topic several years ago, you have to read the slide notes along with the slides:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yDm_cQ2f5l3shF00EufVFcToBBkmYFwgmXR9N6rrD7I/edit?usp=sharing
"All humor comes at someone's expense." - anonymous philosopher.
"Brevity is the soul of wit, but truth is its heart."
I don't have an answer for you, but Steve Martin is teaching a class on comedy at masterclass.com in a couple of months.
My own contribution https://sweettalkconversation.com/2016/04/30/funny-in-theory/
Will Baude
A second vote for Ted Cohen, Jokes.
I'd suggest listening an episode of the The Partially Examined Life that concerns Bergson on humor, available here: http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2012/05/31/ep57/
Bergson doesn't have the greatest ideas on the subject, but the hosts do a great job examining those ideas and the subject in general. I'd recommend them for an introduction to most philosophical topics.
Don't read books. Watch Penn and Teller's "The Aristocrats."
Next, watch all three Bill Burr stand-up specials, in order. Meditate each audience as well as the jokes.
NB: Most "classic" stand up specials and sketch shows are not nearly as funny as you remember. Does that have more to do with their timeliness, or that they were never all that funny in the first place? (See: Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, Kids in the Hall) Probably the former, but I dont know.
Other questions you should address: why are some jokes "objectively" funny? Think of much of the recent Trump sketches on SNL. Why are some jokes only subjectively funny (read: you have to be part of the in-group)? Think of the kind of joke told on The Daily Show, or Last Week Tonight.
In furtherance of my prior quote, things are funny only when they are perceived as truth. Situations that are widely recognized as true can be objectively funny. However when one's opinion of the truth, or beliefs, are shaped or given substance by one's values or perceptions, then groups with different values and perceptions will differ in subjectively regarding something as funny.
For example, a joke comparing Trump to Hitler would be subjectively funny only to people who think this comparison is apt. But the condition of Trump's skin color or hair is widely regarded similarly by all, and hence these jokes can be considered more objectively funny.
As my other quote mentions, humor almost always involves somebody or something getting hurt. There are some counterexamples, but this is generally true. Consequently, any emotional attachment or sympathy we have for the person or thing being hurt is likely going to make the joke unfunny, while those with no such attachment or sympathy will more likely regard it as funny.
I believe that humor is tightly intertwined with our sense of justice. That value includes both truth and people getting what they deserve.
Pinker's How the Mind Works, p.454, is on the problem of humor.
A whole page?
Ameya
While not necessarily a meditation on joke construction itself, "Laughter" by Henri Bergson attempts to understand the role of the comic (and laughter) in society.
It was first brought to my attention by Monty Python in which John Cleese reflects on "the Bergsonian idea of laughter as a social sanction against inflexible behavior."
With all due respect, the post fails an opportunity to make a perfect _Name of the Rose_ reference.
I imagine that your comment is funny, but it sailed past me. I read The Name of the Rose in German, so I likely missed something in translation.
Was it a lost book of Aristotle on comedy, that occasioned all those murders? I felt that book didn't pay off after the establishment of its atmosphere. As a reader I was wandering through a labyrinthine library, about to reach the crux, and it kept not being there, just another turning. I did bag some heresies I knew nothing of.
I don't know any books about humor but Jerry Seinfeld's comedian chats are breezy fun.
I would generally shy away from recommending something I think is funny - but since someone above mentioned that they think puns are funny (unless that was deadpan) I will put forward Roger Angell's "Ainmosni" for those who enjoy wordplay and light humor in an arch, "delightful" vein. The New Yorker knows the piece's worth and keeps it paywalled, though.
Agree, I thought maybe Tyler was angling for something on the lost book of Aristotle.
Tyler, your output of humor has doubled in recent years, and I think most of it is unintentional. That conversation with Gladwell was one of the funniest things I have seen this month, and I knew I wasn't supposed to be laughing.
Sick burn, bro.
jseliger
Finally! A place I can really shine: I wrote a dissertation chapter on humor.
Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind by Dennett and Hurley is good.
Try Lewis, Paul. Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict. The University of Chicago Press, 2006. (though it's specific.
The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor by Morreall is a good collection.
I like, oddly, Viktor Frankl's comments in Man's Search for Meaning:
"Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation. It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds. I practically trained a friend of mine who worked next to me on the building site to develop a sense of humor" (54).
"The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living. Yet it is possible to practice the art of living even in a concentration camp, although suffering is omnipresent. To draw an analogy: a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the 'size' of human suffering is absolutely relative" (55).
"5 Leading Theories for Why We Laugh—and the Jokes That Prove Them Wrong" is useful, though it seems easier to poke holes in theories of humor than it is to come up with and develop those theories: http://www.slate.com/content/slate/blogs/browbeat/2011/05/13/5_leading_theories_for_why_we_laugh_and_the_jokes_that_prove_them_wrong.html.
Email if you want more.
"Finally! A place I can really shine: I wrote a dissertation chapter on humor."
You're not the first doctoral student who had to take menial jobs after an unsuccessful defense. :)
Actually he's not the first doctoral student to take menial jobs after a successful defense, either.
I understand that Donald Trump doesn't laugh. The only other president I can think of that didn't have a hearty laugh is Nixon. I understand that Reagan liked to tell jokes, and would laugh at his own jokes. I can't imagine Trump telling a joke. Sure, I can imagine him ridiculing someone and believing it funny, but it wouldn't be. My point is that funny isn't universal. Laughing and crying are controlled by the same part of the brain. I recently saw a commercial for a drug that prevents uncontrollable laughing and crying by people who have suffered a stroke and damaged that part of the brain. Some drugs, alcohol for instance, make some people laugh, some people cry, and some people mean as Hell. I understand Trump doesn't drink alcohol. It's a good thing because it would likely make him mean as Hell. I used to think Dudley Moore was funny. I laughed out loud at the scene from 10 in which he fell down the hill while spying on the 10. I laughed out loud at the scene from Arthur in which he announced to his butler (John Gielgud) that he was going to take a bath and Gielgud responded "I will alert the media". Bill Murray isn't funny. Jim Carrey isn't funny. Will Ferrell isn't funny. Ben Stiller isn't funny. I had a law professor who looked just like Alan Arkin. Whenever he would call on me I would laugh uncontrollably. The man apparently didn't know he looked just like Alan Arkin, which itself was funny.
Honestly, the most serious indictment of Trump is that he appears to have absolutely no sense of humor. I've never seen him laugh or smile sincerely. There's no doubt that he's incapable of laughing at himself - ever.
The Other Jim
>Honestly, the most serious indictment of Trump is that he appears to have absolutely no sense of humor.
Well then. If that's the worst you can say about him, he looks forward to your vote in 2020.
Didn't vote for him this time. Would have preferred Pat Paulson but he's dead. But if the Dems trot out Hillary again, who knows.
steveslr
Trump is very funny on a meta-level.
funny uh-oh is a very different kind of funny than funny ha-ha
Trump just has a dry delivery. Half his tweets are a set up, and the MSM takes the bait. For like the 200th time. Pretty funny.
Luke Harriman
Dave Barry: "Why Humor is Funny"
http://www.e-reading.club/chapter.php/79498/1/Barry_-_Dave_Barrys_Greatest_Hits.html
T. Lord
Edward Piece already mentioned Penn & Teller, and here's another reference that I think is on point:
- In written form: http://symftr.tumblr.com/post/5987695109/nasas-successful-quantifying-of-comedy-timing-by
- Or, in 72 seconds of video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8D8rxn5Ai4
Scott Adams writes well about how to craft jokes.
The Cuckmeister-General
Dilbert is a celebration of the Beta Cuck
Dan in Philly
No reference to books, but hop on Pandora or whatnot and listen to old comedians from 50-60 years ago, or get on Netflix and watch comedies from the early days of TV. I find that it's much easier to analyze humor when you're removed from the immediate subject of the humor. How much of I Love Lucy depended on the mores of the day and strikes us more as interesting than funny? How much are you going to laugh at the young Don Rickles, and why is the audience laughing so much more than you are? Why would people of this earlier era find ethnic jokes so funny if 1) they really aren't, and 2) seem crude and offensive now?
IMHO this is better than reading any text on humor.
J. Ott
Tyler,
Don't dismiss trying to put your humor research to use. Take your own advice about writing out the argument with which you disagree.
And surely you can top Planet Money: http://www.npr.org/2015/04/01/396871377/on-april-fools-day-planet-money-tries-out-economics-jokes
The internet encyclopedia of philosophy's page on humor is a good starting place (especially if you want an example of how analysis can kill humor): http://www.iep.utm.edu/humor/
Humour Formula, by Scott Adams
Humor Formula
In today's blog entry I will teach you how to write humor, thus removing the mystery and in the process turning you into a joyless zombie, albeit a witty one.
I wrote on this topic more extensively in my book, The Joy of Work. So I'll just give you the highlights here. The core of humor is what I call the 2-of-6 rule. In order for something to be funny, you need at least two of the following elements:
Cute (as in kids and animals)
Recognizable (You've been there)
I invented this rule, but you can check for yourself that whenever something is funny it follows the rule. And when something isn't, it doesn't.
One of the reasons comics are such a popular form of humor is that they often get the cute part automatically. Calvin and Hobbes is widely considered the best comic ever, but the few times it featured the parents doing the main action, it fell flat. Whenever it combined Calvin and Hobbes (both exceedingly cute), with some witty dialog (clever), a dangerous wagon ride (cruel), Calvin acting like a typical kid (recognizable), and thinking about adult philosophy (bizarre) it fired on 5-of-6 humor elements, which is virtually unheard of.
One could argue that all of the elements of Calvin and Hobbes are borrowed from Peanuts, Dennis the Menace and Winnie the Pooh (Hobbes is essentially Tigger). Originality doesn't count for much with humor. I should know, since Dilbert has been compared to Charlie Brown grown up. And I certainly didn't invent talking cartoon dogs. Execution is everything.
The Far Side comic made a huge splash in its day primarily using the elements of bizarre, cruel and clever. Often the comic included an animal that was cute too, in its own way. That's 4-of-6 humor elements. No wonder he sold a trillion calendars.
Dilbert works best when cute Dogbert is doing something cruel, in a clever way, to people we recognize. That's my version of 4-of-6 and I rarely hit it. Usually I start with a recognizable business situation and just make something cruel out of it. On a good day I can do it in a clever fashion. On a bad day I introduce some bizarre character like a giant talking cucumber. On average, I hit only 2 or 3 of the elements. That's good enough to run in 2,000 newspapers, but it still isn't a pimple on Snoopy's buttocks.
Now take a look at a comic called Barkeater Lake that's published only on the web. In this example the cartoonist is trying to satisfy the 2-of-6 rule but each dimension falls just short. The dog isn't cute, the cleverness isn't clever enough, the cruelty isn't cruel enough and the bizarreness isn't bizarre enough. He's knocking at the door, but it needs a little extra.
You can see more examples of his work at:
http://www.comics.com/comics/barkeaterlake/index.html
Now compare that to Pearls Before Swine, a newish comic that's already in several hundred papers and growing. The author, Stephan Pastis, has literally studied the 2-of-6 rule and applies it religiously. To my knowledge, he's the only cartoonist other than me who does it consciously. In the following example you have cute animals, some cruelty that's definitely cruel enough, some bizarre behavior, and it's all tied together with a clever theme. That's 4-of-6. See for yourself.
You can see more of Pearls at:
http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/index.html
The only other humor tricks worth noting in this summary are:
1. Write simple sentences that are easy to read. Complex sentences with big words kill humor.
2. Use funny sounding words when you can. (Yank is funnier than pull).
3. All humor is about people. You can't make humor about concepts or objects.
Now go forth and be funnier. You have no excuse.
...."it still isn't a pimple on Snoopy's buttocks.."
Never realized Scott Adams was capable of modesty.
I guess the translation might not do it justice and that is why it is not very well known and why it hasn't been mentioned yet but "Laughter" by Bergson is a book that might be right up your alley. I always felt Bergson was a massively underrated philosopher and it is one of his minor works but it provides the best definition for what laughter is, why we laugh and gives an incredibly coherent answer that encompasses all branches of humour. When I was 19 it was eye opening.
"Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it."
E. B. White
Ian Maitland
Here is my nomination. It's not very funny.
The Act of Creation is a 1964 book by Arthur Koestler. It is a study of the processes of discovery, invention, imagination and creativity in humour, science, and the arts. It lays out Koestler's attempt to develop an elaborate general theory of human creativity.
From describing and comparing many different examples of invention and discovery, Koestler concludes that they all share a common pattern which he terms "bisociation" – a blending of elements drawn from two previously unrelated matrices of thought into a new matrix of meaning by way of a process involving comparison, abstraction and categorisation, analogies and metaphors. He regards many different mental phenomena based on comparison (such as analogies, metaphors, parables, allegories, jokes, identification, role-playing, acting, personification, anthropomorphism etc.), as special cases of "bisociation".
+1 to this recommendation, the parts on humor are all in the early pages of the book. Once he moves on from humor, you can move on too.
jdetal
"Life and How to Survive It," Robin Skynner & John Cleese,
"Afterthought: You've Got to Laugh" p. 71 (W.W. Norton& Co 1993.)
++Ian, Koestler is great. But in comparing him with Scott Adams, likely Scott actualizes the creation of jokes with a better process.
Matthew Young
Freud, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
The idea was to develop a sense outrage in the jokes lead up,then the punch line refocuses the outrage to the listener with a slip of words. The outrage turns inward,and gets translated into nervous laughter. Laughter is a snarl turned inward, a conflict between self preservation and the banishment of evil.
That's an awful explanation of both the causes and consequences of humor. And people wonder why Freud's influence, except his Platonistic division of the soul into three, has waned? He's downright ridiculous at times ... and not in a funny way.
AnthonyB
Freud cites and analyzes an excellent joke: "A wife is like an umbrella. Sooner or later one takes a cab."
"We have already elucidated the complicated technique of this example; it is a puzzling and seemingly impossible comparison which however, as we now see, is not in itself witty; it shows besides an allusion (cab=public conveyance), and as the strongest technical means it also shows an omission which serves to make it still more unintelligible. The comparison may be worked out in the following manner. A man marries in order to guard himself against the temptations of sensuality, but it then turns out that after all marriage affords no gratification for one of stronger needs, just as one takes along an umbrella for protection against rain only to get wet in spite of it. In both cases one must search for better protection; in one case one must take a public cab, in the other women procurable for money. Now the wit has almost entirely been replaced by cynicism. That marriage is not the organization which can satisfy a man's sexuality, one does not dare to say loudly and frankly unless indeed it be one like Christian von Ehrenfels, who is forced to it by the love of truth and the zeal of reform. The strength of this witticism lies in the fact that it has expressed the thought even though it had to be done through all sorts of roundabout ways."
March 17, 2017 at 3:16 pm Hide Replies 100
Henny Youngman:
A beautiful woman was knocking on my hotel door all night long - I wouldn't let her out...
A thief stole my credit card - I let him keep it, he spends less than my wife....
The doc says to the patient, "Bad news, I'm giving you six months to live. You can pay on your way out." The patient says, "Doc, I don't have any money." Doc says, "I'll give you another six months......"
Good. I also like the English comic Bob Monkhouse.
They laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian. Well, they're not laughing now.
I want to die like my father, peacefully in his sleep, not screaming and terrified, like his passengers.
RPLong
Don't forget to re-read the humor debate from Eco's The Name of the Rose.
Justin E.H. Smith
http://harpers.org/archive/2015/04/the-joke/
Samuel Wonacott
Something is funny if it was written by P.G. Wodehouse. That's all you really need to know. Other works of humor can then be compared to Wodehouse to see if they pass muster.
Indeed. I seem to recall a sentence something like this one: "He had the look of a wolf whose Russian peasant had just scampered up a tree."
After many decades of trying , still haven't come across anything more humorous than " Uncle Fred flits by."
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/04/19/beyond-a-joke
March 20, 2017 at 9:29 am Hide Replies 107
The best medicine.
Try Henri Bergson's Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, published in 1900. The excellent podcast The Paritally Examined Life has an episode about it which is interesting as well.
You're Mario Rizzo, right? He's the only loser who name-drops Bergson like a case of the crabs.
To me, nothing illustrates the differences in senses of humor better than this Seinfeld clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY-h3spBAgI
There's also a good passage in "A Connecticut Yankee" about how there are no new jokes.
Jim Pavlik
Dr. Pete McGraw is a psychology prof at the University of Colorado--Boulder. He is also the founder of the Humor Research Lab. But better than that, he put his theories to the test as a stand up comic.
Th HuRL is here: http://humorresearchlab.org/
His book is here: https://www.amazon.com/Humor-Code-Global-Search-Things/dp/1451665415/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Gordon Welch
What's So Funny? By Tad Friend
Eduard Fabra
I'd suggest 'Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience', by Peter L. Berger —a good compendium of ideas in the subject, an easy reading, and fun in itself.
https://www.amazon.com/Redeeming-Laughter-Peter-L-Berger/dp/3110353938/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=
https://books.google.com/books/about/Comic_Insights.html?id=bOZgAAAAMAAJ&source=kp_cover&hl=en
This book is more specifically about stand-up comedy but the point is that the simple words of a joke, written down, may not be funny at all. It's the entire performance that ties it together. Franklin Ajaye wrote a great book here - one of the few that I've re-read since I originally read it 10 years ago (most of my late teenage book choices were not great).
David Condon
Jerry Seinfeld explains how to write a joke in 5 minutes with an illustrative example: https://youtu.be/itWxXyCfW5s
Shane M
That's great: "You know in my world, the wronger something feels, the righter it is. So to waste so much time on something this stupid... that, that felt good to me."
Didier Thys
There actually is an article on the philosophy of humor in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/). If you get bored with that, there's always Monty Python... (http://www.openculture.com/2011/11/monty_pythons_flying_philosophy.html).
William Benzon
Here's an analysis of some bits by Jerry Seinfeld along with passages from his own reflections on stand-up:
https://www.academia.edu/26282876/Jerry_Seinfeld_and_the_Craft_of_Comedy
He thinks of jokes a finely crafted machines and will work on one for weeks, months, and even years, getting the timing and syllable count just right.
Hobbes saw humor as a function of power; we laugh because we recognize a moment in which we can be powerful, whether in relation to someone else or in our ability to understand something clever. I think that Hobbes' theory - especially the 2nd part (our ability to "get it") allows it to account for most other philosophical theories of humor
If it bends, it's funny. If it breaks, it's not funny.
Obvs.
Wile E. Coyote, supergenius, undoubtedly would agree.
The rest of us, not so much - beep-beep!
In this interview with Stephen Colbert he talks about joy, laughter, humor, and why it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaNvCHZ56ts
JSC7
Douglas Hofstader's Le Ton Beau De Marot has an interesting section on humor where he breaks down jokes to their most basic structures. I don't have the book around anymore, so I don't remember if it was one section or spread out over several, but it's excellent, like much of the book.
harpersnotes
Comparative animal behavior. Like only humans have humor. Yeah right. Kittens and puppies tussle. Calves and goat kids romp. Humans being extreme in signalling generally (likely something to do with their cooperation capacities) .. human laughter is more obvious, blatant, is all. Don Symon's Phd thesis on play fighting in rhesus monkey was way too far ahead of it's time. (Play and Aggression a Study of Rhesus Monkeys, 1984, now through Amazon.) It outlined a framework of conditions under which play fighting was observed to occur, along with associated behaviors (e..g. play face).In cool quiet afternoons when no predators had been seen or real fights had happened in the previous hours. Mostly between close kin. Slightly more often initiated by the younger smaller weaker animal. And so on. So what do I think of 'philosophical' approaches to humor? Not so much. For whatever it's worth.
efim polenov
March 17, 2017 at 10:06 pm Hide Replies 126
(a) "Review of the Rivals" (blog post dated 6 September, 2016), by Bruce Charlton. Explains how sometimes humor is funnier than it seems. (b) "Genius, A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds", by Harold Bloom, pages 225-231, the Moliere chapter (or start at 227 "Moliere seems to be the only valid alternative to Shakespeare") - really good on the platonic limits of the humor of observation, and as a bonus includes the not-very-self-aware Bloom throwing off several Tartuffean observations of his own (see top of page 231, or better yet, in the same book, see his uber-Tartuffean attempt at explaining that he is a better person in every single way than Saint Paul, although of course not quite as much of a genius). (c) Chesterton had a nice line about how the Gospel never describes Jesus laughing because, according to Chesterton, such a description would overwhelm us. While Chesterton was sort of a pale hot house flower (the "Sensitive Plant" of Shelley, oft mentioned by - I kd you not - Wodehouse, comes to mind) he did have quite a lot of funny things to say. (d) Steve Sailer had a really good comment thread in the wake of the now-forgotten Jerry Lewis controversy where Jerry said men are funnier than women (Jerry was wrong - he is a funny guy but nowhere near as funny as Jane Austen or Anita Loos or even that hilarious woman who starred in the Oscar-winning Three Stooges movie "Men in Black"). (e) The letters of Chekhov, and if you have read a lot about Proust you know that he made hundreds of different people who knew him in real life laugh. He was missed by almost all of them when he grew ill. He has not yet had an adequate biography.
I mixed up Marjorie White with Ruth Hiatt. Sorry, they both were very talented.
Ram Gopal
March 18, 2017 at 12:25 am Hide Replies 129
What about the entry on humor in the social science encyclopedia edited by David Sills? Of course You may be already familiar with it and you will know how dated or relevant it still is
I wonder what function humor serves from the perspective of evolution.
Nathan M
Inside Jokes by Matthew Hurley and Daniel Dennett explores exactly this questions.
I posted about it below, as have a few others.
Paul J
Kierkegaard seems to have a theory of humor in "Concluding Unscientific Postscript."
He's a pretty smart dude.
Maybe, but you aren't.
John C
Arthur Koestler's Act of Creation compares the sources of creativity in science, artistic endeavor and humor. He argues the sources are the same.
I saw a condensed version in a Sunday paper in London about 55 years ago and immediately bought the book.. It was a great read and it is one of the few books over the years where I still remember the arguments clearly..
No fucking way you're old enough to have read newspapers and post on a tool like Tyler's Internet forum.
http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-comedy-keeps-coming.html?m=1
Your GMU colleague F.H. Buckley 's The Morality of Laughter would be among the better places to look.
He sucks, too.
thfmr
Melvin Helitzer and Gene Perret are my picks.
Ali Choudhury
P G Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, P J O'Rourke, the Marx brothers.
Sad and lamentable!
carlospln
"I can assure you I will put this material to use, though not as a producer of humor"
There is a God.
If you want someone to think you're funny, don't tell them you're funny, tell them a joke.
middyfeek
S.J. Perelman was funny (and he wallowed in puns) . He wrote a lot of Groucho Marx's stuff.
Someone once said that the trouble with Groucho Marx is he thinks he's S.J. Perelman.
Judd Apatow's book of interviews Sick in the Head. Also Marc Marons podcast.
Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind by Matthew Hurley, Daniel Dennett, Reginald B. Adams Jr.
https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Jokes-Using-Humor-Reverse-Engineer/dp/0262518694
Could not give a stronger recommendation among the books I've read on the topic.
This book analyzes and summarizes approaches to this question, and then goes on to propose a novel framework for how and why humor functions, from an evolutionary psychology and cognitive science perspective.
My full summary/review here:
https://digitalsauna.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/inside-jokes-using-humor-to-reverse-engineer-the-mind-by-matthew-hurley-daniel-dennett-and-reginald-adams-jr-2013/
Diogo (March 17, 2017 at 2:23 pm) wrote:
"Humour Formula, by Scott Adams. The core of humor is what I call the 2-of-6 rule. In order for something to be funny, you need at least two of the following elements: 1. Cute (as in kids and animals) 2. Naughty 3. Bizarre 4. Clever 5. Recognizable (You've been there) 6. Cruel"
I've never read that before, so I'd like to thank Diogo for adding it here as a comment. Have to wonder how universal this is, and whether different cultures emphasize different elements.
I used to travel quite a bit and also spent a lot of time working outside the US. I was always curious about humor in different places. While in Qatar, I had a hard time getting a handle on their sense of humor. Qataris are a small minority within their own country, and they mostly keep themselves separate from outsiders, especially non-Muslims. One day, I pulled into a shopping mall parking lot. Nearby, stood a small group of Qatari young men, laughing loudly as they craned their necks to look at a smartphone that one of them held. As I walked by, I couldn't resist asking "what's so funny?" The one holding the phone turned it my way. It was a video of someone getting his head chopped off -- only it was run in reverse, so the head went back on. I just kept walking, even more repulsed by their laughter than by the video; but by the time I reached the blessed mall air conditioning, I realized that, for these young men, it was funny not just because it was both cruel and bizarre (backwards), but also because it was recognizable. They'd all, in some way, been there, or feared being there. More sad than repulsive. Funny? I guess, if you have to ask ...
John4
The three elements of comedy are:
1) Anything involving sidecars.
2) People slipping, both literally and figuratively.
3) Failed attempts at humor.
The beauty of this theory is that any purported counterexample will be subsumed (I claim) under 3.
Doubtful
See the video of the (old) Philoctetes roundtable discussion,
The Comic Imagination
http://philoctetes.org/past_programs/the_comic_imagination
Participants: Lewis Black, Jim Holt, Bruce McCall, Tami Sagher, Cody Walker (moderator)
Briant Wolfe
Look up Peter McGraw at CU Boulder - Studies humor at the Humor Research Lab http://humorresearchlab.org
Charlie Dolan
Marvin Minsky did not write much on humor, but this paper also contains one of my favorite jokes.
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/jokes.cognitive.txt
That's fucking stupid.
http://www.jpe.ox.ac.uk/papers/taking-humour-ethics-seriously-but-not-too-seriously/
it's really funny that I'm so obviously in the closet
It's not a surprise to anyone, believe me.
Subversion of expectation. Or: you slip on a potato skin in public or in front of your ego. Or, pointing a finger and laughing at another (a la Nelson Muntz).
When life gives you lemons? Potatoes (unless you are Latvian)
The Aristocrats
Things Rabbis say
Latvian Jokes ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14q1lq/collection_of_my_favorite_latvian_jokes/ )
jmh
There was an HBO special a while ago with Chris Rock, Louis CK, Jerry Seinfeld, and Ricky Gervais discussing technical aspects of modern standup...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKY6BGcx37k
http://existentialcomics.com/
Shahaf, Horvitz, and Mankoff's paper is excellent (and leans on a lot of data from the New Yorker weekly caption contest).
http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~dshahaf/pHumor.pdf
Tslade
Cool analysis of one Louis CK joke... https://youtu.be/ufdvYrTeTuU
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0231119151/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?tag=farstrblo-21&ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&camp=1a789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0231119151
Two pluses for this: it's short; it clears the high bar of a Nassim Taleb recommendation. One minus: may not be exactly on topic.
Surprising that in 175+ links/recommendations/comments no mention of 'The Simpsons', the most...(fill in the gaps).
I think that laughter (at one another) evolved as a way to gently punish mild breaches of social norms. Under that theory, most humor depends on pushing against those norms in one way or another.
middle aged vet
among mammals, humans, monkeys, orangutans and all the other apes, dogs, wolves, hyenas, coyotes, and all the other dogs, cats, lions, tigers, and all the other cats, capybaras, guinea pigs, and all the other rodents, rabbits qua rabbits, dolphins, porpoises, and all whales with no exception, even the 200 year old ones, have a memory of laughing from pure joy at, in their respective worlds, the other humans orangutans apes dogs wolves hyenas coyotes dogs cats lions tigers all other cats capybaras guinea pigs and all other rodents rabbits qua rabbit dolphins porpoises and all whales with no exception. Pigs and boars too, parrots and crows and the larger squids and among the smaller squids quite a few; the larger cockroaches as well, and again among the smaller ones quite a few - and on the subject of insects, let's not forget the pure humorous joy of being nothing more than a bee. ("have a memory of" - can anyone argue with that?). I missed almost everything but once, a half century ago, I made someone who had never laughed at anything like that before laugh when I pretended, like W C Fields, to have missed my head while putting on my hat and to be full of goggle-eyed wonder at where my hat might be (in your hand! you missed your head and it is still in your hand, don't you understand!!!!). There are not many of us - conscious creatures - in relation to the unconscious world. Real Comedians understand that.
if you do not understand the laughter of animals you are probably not the sort of person who might be a philosopher whose opinions would interest me, and the foregoing comment seems worthless. But maybe you have not wasted your time: has anyone explained this to you before ---?"Healthy animals may lack, unless they are humans or something close, language, but the way I understand the world lots of animals, in the prime of life and healthy, know what it is to good-heartedly laugh at each other from pure joy." No that is not Shelley, not Dante, not Chaucer, not even one of the Brontes.
Sparky the Wonder Pickle
Many thanks to anonymous for his "sad!" comments. He definitely deserves a Seattle burrito.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Seattle+Burrito
Contributing factors to funny: assumptions, timing and the unexpected dismantling of assumptions.
And then, there's this:
Quantum Theory of Humor...
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603948/the-curious-case-of-the-quantum-theory-of-humor/
In 1990, Jonathan Miller investigated the nature of humour in this half-hour programme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH7DWLypfwY
There is also some interesting commentary on humour in Hermann Hesse's novel, Steppenwolf.
April 8, 2017 at 12:24 am Hide Replies 173
As I recall, Heinlein grappled with this in both Stranger in a Strange Land (SSL) and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (TMHM). In SSL, he explored the idea that a funny thing had to contain a wrongful thing; as I recall, the realization comes from watching monkeys throw poop at zoo visitors. In TMHM, the problem was for humans to teach an AI being how to determine whether a joke was Funny, Funny-Once, or Funny-Always.


text:
Stress, mental
Board Directives and Guidelines (stress, mental) (chronic)
The worker appealed a decision of the Appeals Resolution Officer denying entitlement for chronic mental stress.
In 2017, the employer began discussing with the worker a new position that included different duties and working at a different location. The worker accepted the position. She began to have misgivings, and then found out that the position was a secondment and not a permanent position. She developed depression and anxiety, and stopped working in January 2018.
Pursuant to s. 13(4) of the WSIA, a worker is entitled to benefits for chronic or traumatic mental stress arising out of and in the course of employment. Pursuant to Board Operational Policy Manual, Document No. 15-03-04, on chronic mental stress, a worker will generally be entitled to benefits where a diagnosed mental stress injury is caused by a substantial work-related stressor. The policy provides that a work-related stressor will generally be considered substantial if it is excessive in intensity and/or duration in comparison to the normal pressures and tensions experienced by workers in similar circumstances. It follows that entitlement will not be in order if the work-related stressor is not considered to be excessive in intensity and/or duration when compared to the normal pressures and tensions experienced by workers in similar circumstances.
The Vice-Chair concluded that the worker sustained an impairment related to workplace stress.
The policy requirement of a substantial work-related stressor was similar to the role of the average worker test. The value of the average worker test, and similarly the substantial work-related stressor test, was to ensure that there was an actual injuring process related to employment. It sets an objective standard for identifying compensable accidents which are causally related to chronic stress. However, that test should not be applied so as to limit the application of the thin skull rule.
The Vice-Chair then considered the policy provision that the work-related stressor be the predominant cause of the worker's impairment. This should be understood to mean that the work stressors must be the primary or main cause of the mental stress injury. This approach is a change from the approach which ordinarily applies in workers' compensation law, that work-related factors have made a significant contribution to the injury.
Section 13.4(1) provides that a worker is entitled to benefits as if the mental stress were a personal injury by accident. It was well established that the significant contribution test is the standard test for causation in workers' compensation cases. The Vice-Chair was of the view that s. 13(4.1) should be considered as an interpretive lens for the Board policy. In this context, the policy should be interpreted in a manner which is consistent with section 13(4.1).
The decision noted that the worker had a pre-existing psychological condition, but it had not caused the worker to lose time from work during the 10 years she had worked with the employer. The Vice-Chair concluded that the work-related stressors were substantial and could be associated with an injuring process. The work-related stressors were the predominant or main cause of the worker's impairment, and made a significant contribution to the injuring process.
The Vice-Chair then considered s. 13(5), which provides that a worker is not entitled to benefits for mental stress caused by decisions or actions of the worker's employer relating to the worker's employment, including a decision to change the work to be performed or the working conditions, to discipline the worker or to terminate the employment.
The work-related stressors in this case were associated with the work assignments and a transfer to new working conditions. The worker's impairment was work-related, but that entitlement was limited by the explicit words of s. 13(5). Accordingly, the worker did not have entitlement for chronic mental stress. The appeal was dismissed.

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Doncaster is a category B private prison operated by Serco. Built in 1994 as a category A prison, it occupies the site of a former power station on Crimpsall Island in the centre of Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
Read Doncaster's latest inspection report here.
About this information
Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA) is the prison service's own measure of how many prisoners can be held in decent and safe accommodation. Any occupancy above CNA means that the prison in question is overcrowded.
Prisons in England and Wales fall into four separate security categories. Some prisons can operate under more than one category.
Category A: Category A prisons are high security prisons, holding those individuals considered the most threatening to the public should they escape. Category A prisons should not be overcrowded, given the high levels of security required.
Category B: Category B prisons, or local prisons, are the largest category of prison. They tend to hold un-sentenced prisoners, prisoners on remand awaiting trial, short-sentenced prisoners or those newly sentenced and awaiting transfer to another prison category. Category B prisons tend to be the most overcrowded, with a constantly churning population.
Category C: Category C prisons are sometimes called 'training prisons'. They are meant to offer education and training to prisoners and the vast majority of prisoners on longer sentences will spend time in Category C accommodation. Historically not overcrowded, we now see more and more Category C prisons running overcrowded regimes.
Category D: Category D prisons offer open conditions and house those who can be reasonably trusted not to try to escape. Prisoners in Category D prisons will be given Release On Temporary Licence (ROTL) to work in the community or go on home leave, usually returning to the prison in the early evening. The majority of Category D prisoners will be towards the end of their sentence, and their period in open conditions is preparing them for their eventual release. Category D prisons tend not to be overcrowded.
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AC Milan appointed Marco Giampaolo as their new coach on Wednesday, handing him the job of trying to end their eight-year trophy drought and take them back to the Champions League after a six-season absence.
It is the first time the 51-year-old, previously in charge of Sampdoria for three seasons, has coached at one of Serie A's big clubs and he will also be looking to land the first trophy of his well-travelled and somewhat chequered career.
He replaces Gennaro Gattuso who quit the job in May with two years on his contract after Milan missed out on next season's Champions League by one point after finishing fifth.
Milan said in a statement that they had handed Giampaolo a two-year contract with an option to extend for a further year.
Milan, seven-times European champions and 18-times Serie A winners, have suffered a series of mid-table finishes in the last few seasons, their fall from grace coinciding with Serie A's own loss of prestige.
They last won Serie A in 2011 and have not qualified for the Champions League since 2013-14 when they reached the round of 16.
Italian media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi sold the club to a Chinese-led consortium in a €740 million ($832m) deal in April 2017 and the club changed hands again the following year when it was taken over by U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management. Giampaolo spent his playing career in Italy's third and second divisions before it was curtailed by an ankle injury when he was 30.
He lifted Ascoli out of Serie B in his first season as coach in 2004-05 and then kept them in Serie A the following season.
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That was followed by a topsy-turvy stint at Cagliari where he was hired before the start of the 2006-07 season, sacked after six months, rehired two months later and sent packing again in November 2007.
Siena appointed him for 2008-09 and he led them to a respectable 14th place but he was fired early in the 2009-10 season.
In 2011-12, he was appointed by Cesena but fired after three months with the team in the relegation zone.
Next stop was Serie B side Brescia in July 2013 but again it was short-lived and he quit two months later, followed by Cremonese for the second half of the 2014-15 season.
However, he revived his career in 2015 when he replaced Maurizio Sarri at Empoli and, despite the team having sold several key players, managed a more than respectable 10th place with the Tuscans. That was followed by the move to Sampdoria where he further enhanced his reputation.
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OpenID users be careful, while using OpenID.
but the thing is OpenId user always sign in using the external application.
In background user has silently logged in OpenID account.
Finally the user closed the external web application using signout.
Still OpenID account session is alive and logged in.
If you used this in a public computer the same OpenID account name also in cache.
with that another user can login to your account easily.
So signout both the external application and the OpenID too.
An remember openID can be used – via backdoors – by NSA, CIA and other big brother organisations, to invade your privacy.. think for yourself… why should this initiative else pushed to COLLECT AL YOUR PASSWORDS outside your own head, with a CENTRALIZED ONLINE Storage ????
you have an awesome weblog here! would you wish to make some invite posts on my weblog?
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Maj. Joseline Phillip, 4th Medical Group medical logistics flight commander, poses during the 4th MDG opening ceremony for their Military Healthcare System GENESIS at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Born in the Dominican Republic, Phillip served over a decade in the Air Force before discovering she was considered a legal permanent resident, not a U.S. citizen, a requirement for U.S. Air Force officers. (Courtesy photo)
Maj. Joseline Phillip, 4th Medical Group medical logistics flight commander, poses with the Dominican Republic flag after completing the Dia de los Muertos 2-mile run at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, Sept. 16, 2022. Born in the Dominican Republic, Phillip served over a decade in the Air Force before discovering she was considered a legal permanent resident, not a U.S. citizen, a requirement for U.S. Air Force officers. (Courtesy photo)
Published Sept. 28, 2022
By Major Joseline Phillips
4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, North Carolina --
The year was 1999. My mother, Teresa Abreu Roche, a Dominican immigrant in New York City, sat anxiously waiting for her citizenship certificate after years of intense background checks, medical exams, an interview and a 100-question test on U.S. history. She did her best to expedite everything so that I could gain derived citizenship that fell under a parent before I became an adult. I was 16 at the time and was also born in Dominican Republic. She received her citizenship certificate with a naturalization number in the corner.
I subsequently received a U.S. passport from the Department of State, which I have used as proof of citizenship for the next 22 years.
In 2009, almost exactly 10 years after my mother became a citizen, I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, partially as my "thank you" to the country that gave me so many opportunities. I received all the required security clearances and then a direct commission into the Medical Service Corps just two years later in 2012. While commissioned and in the grade of captain, while preparing to deploy to Qatar in 2020, I was, for the first time ever, asked to provide my naturalization certificate number. After several phone calls back home, my mother gave me her certificate number and reminded me that I fall under her. I submitted that on my application and thought nothing of it.
I was deployed for the second time, this time to Fort Lee, Virginia, as a medical planner in support of Operation Allies Welcome. During that time, my mother sent me a copy of a letter that our old neighbor in New York received, addressed to me from the Department of Homeland Security. The letter explained that I recently used a certificate number that does not belong to me, and that I am currently recognized by DHS as a legal permanent resident -- not a U.S. citizen. I thought it must be a mistake. I thought about the irony as I was helping process Afghan personnel who were going through their visa and residency process.
I decided to speak to a U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services representative. He looked up my information and then explained that while the Department of State recognizes me as a citizen, DHS does not, unless I could provide my own certificate. The representative said that I needed to get this corrected ASAP or it would affect my military benefits and even service. As a commissioned officer, U.S. citizenship is a pre-requisite for commissioned service. He explained that this happens every so often and that it can affect my retirement benefits as well.
I immediately reached back to my home unit to inform them. I began to panic because I simply could not imagine my life without the military. I played it off and made jokes about it, however, I was heartbroken at the thought that my career might be over after 12 honorable years of service. As fate would have it, there was a reservist lawyer that happened to be stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base for two weeks of duty who was an immigration attorney. I got permission to come back to my home unit for one day to meet with him, and he helped me file the correct paperwork. Four months later, I was given an appointment to receive my certificate and to put this all behind me. Now, I'd like to spread the word for Airmen who were born in a foreign country and derive their citizenship under a parent. If it was not for deployment requirements, I would not have known about this discrepancy.
Editor's note: The requirements for being a U.S. Air force officer are more strict as native-born or naturalized United States citizen. For those who wish to enlist as a non-citizen in the Air Force, you must be a legal permanent resident with a valid Green Card. For more information on citizenship requirements, reference 10 U.S. Code § 532 - Qualifications for original appointment as a commissioned officer, and Air Force requirements. Questions concerning immigration to the United States should be asked of the U.S. Embassy.


CRA International,Inc. (CRAI) - Buy, Sell or Hold?
Stock Trend Analysis - Buy, Sell or Hold "CRA International,Inc." (CRAI)?
CRAI is in a very strong uptrend. In the last 52 weeks, CRAI has been trading above the 200 day moving average for 100% of the time with an average daily volume of 42.1K shares being traded. In the medium term, the 50 day moving average, currently at 42.77 for CRAI is also very bullish, indicating good swing trading opportunities for longs. This bullish stance is further reinforced by CRAI's ability to stay over the 20 day moving average for more than 85% of the time in the last 2 months of trading. There is however a possibility of profit taking setting in and it may be prudent to lighten up on strength and re-enter during a retracement. Good places to re-enter CRAI are at the 50 and 200 SMAs currently at 42.77 and 37.60 respectively. Click here for the latest support & resistance levels to help you finetune your entry into or exit out of "CRAI".
The analyst consensus estimates for the 1 year price target for this stock is $53.00* (*source: Yahoo Finance).


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Man United beats Chelsea 2-0, throws open race for CL spots
Feb. 17, 2020 at 1:59 pm Updated Feb. 17, 2020 at 2:42 pm
LONDON (AP) — Manchester United threw open the race for the final Champions League qualification spots in the Premier League by beating fourth-place Chelsea 2-0 thanks to headers by Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire on Monday.
With 12 games remaining, seven points separate Chelsea and 11th-place Burnley, with the team finishing fifth also set to earn a place in next season's Champions League following UEFA's decision to punish Man City for serious breaches of financial regulations by handing the English champions a two-year European ban.
Martial glanced in a header off a right-wing cross by Aaron Wan-Bissaka to give United the lead in the 45th minute at Stamford Bridge, before Maguire planted home a corner from January signing Bruno Fernandes in the 66th.
Maguire, United's captain, was perhaps fortunate to still be on the field, with the match officials opting not to punish the England defender for appearing to kick out at Michy Batshuayi after tumbling off the playing surface in front of the dugouts.
"I know I caught him but I felt like he was going to fall on me and the natural reaction was to straighten my leg so that if he was to fall on me, to hold him up," Maguire said. "It probably looks worse than it was.
"I did catch him … but I knew at the time I had no intent to hurt him or kick him."
Chelsea was on the wrong end of two other decisions by VAR, firstly disallowing a volleyed goal by Kurt Zouma in the 56th because of a push by Cesar Azpilicueta on United left back Brandon Williams. Azpilicueta seemed to have been pushed a split-second earlier by Fred.
Then, with 13 minutes to go, substitute Olivier Giroud had a goal ruled out by VAR for a tight offside, leaving Chelsea manager Frank Lampard looking thoroughly glum as he sat in his technical area.
Chelsea has long been in fourth place, but has only won three of its last 11 games in the league to give a slew of rivals clubs hope of catching up.
One of them is United, which climbed to seventh place with this win – three points behind Chelsea and two adrift of fifth-place Tottenham.
"This season, we have been far too inconsistent," Maguire said. "We have won at Manchester City, beat Chelsea at home, got a point against Liverpool, but we have let ourselves down against the teams where the pressure is on to break them down."
Injury problems are starting to bite at Chelsea, too. Top scorer Tammy Abraham and winger Callum Hudson-Odoi missed the game because of injury, while central midfielder N'Golo Kante lasted 11 minutes before hobbling off. Center back Andreas Christensen didn't come out for the second half after sustaining a knock to the head late in the first period, just before Martial beat the Denmark defender to a header for the first goal.
Lampard's main gripe, though, was his team's failure to finish off chances once again. Batshuayi was the biggest culprit, spurning two great chances in the first half in his first start in the league this season.
"We are fourth because of some of the good stuff we've done and because of the nature of the league, everyone taking points off each other," Lampard said. "But there's a lot of work to do because you can see the problem – that's putting the ball in the back of the net.
"I feel like a broken record. We have to put things to bed by scoring goals."
Chelsea hosts Tottenham on Saturday and would finally get overtaken with another loss.
"The season starts here," Lampard said.
Nigeria striker Odion Ighalo, who signed for United on deadline day in the January transfer window, came on in second-half stoppage time for his debut and had a late chance saved by Willy Caballero, who again started in goal ahead of Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Two players struck the post from free kicks in the second half, Fernandes for United and Mason Mount for Chelsea.


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Where does Astros cheating rank in scandals? Ask Pete Rose
WV Supreme Court rules against EQT in Doddridge County horizontal drilling lawsuit
Posted: Jun 5, 2019 / 06:53 PM EDT / Updated: Jun 6, 2019 / 02:57 PM EDT
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals issued a ruling Wednesday in favor of two land owners who sued EQT Production Company over a trespassing dispute that involved horizontal drilling.
The case centered around a 351 acre parcel of land in Doddridge County, known as the "Carr tract," which was leased to EQT's predecessors in 1901. The plaintiffs are Margot Crowder and David Wentz, a divorced couple who own three smaller parcels of the Carr tract.
In 2012, the pair became aware that EQT planned to drill on their property to extract gas from a 3,232 acre parcel that included the Carr tract. A lawyer for Crowder and Wentz sent EQT a letter telling the company that it only had the right to use their surface land to extract gas from the Carr tract, and it did not have permission to come onto their properties.
According to court documents, EQT ignored the letter and in 2013 built several two-lane roads, cleared about 42 acres of land and built a 19.7-acre well pad. In 16 months of work, EQT had drilled nine new wells on the plaintiffs' land, and some 9.7 miles of horizontal bores under neighboring properties. EQT claimed that 37.5 percent of the horizontal bores were in the minerals beneath the Carr tract, and the remaining 62.5 percent extended into minerals beneath neighboring tracts.
In 2014, the pair filed suit against EQT in Doddridge County Circuit Court, alleging that the company had trespassed onto their surface properties.
In 2016, the circuit court, with Judge Timothy Sweeney presiding, ruled that EQT had trespassed on the properties. The case then went to trial in 2017, and the jury awarded Wentz $180,000 and Crowder $10,000 in damages.
EQT then appealed to the WV Supreme Court. In Wednesday's ruling, the court concluded:
A mineral owner or lessee has an implicit right to use the overlying surface to access only
the minerals directly below the surface. Using the surface to extract minerals elsewhere,
without the permission of the surface owner, is a trespass. Should the mineral owner or
lessee want to utilize the surface to access minerals under neighboring land, they can
certainly reach a separate agreement with the surface owner.
You can read the full opinion here.
Following the release of the opinion, the West Virginia Surface Owners' Rights Organization issued a statement:
Surface owners can insist on being paid not what the land was worth to them as a meadow or wood lot, but instead insist on being paid what having the well pad is worth to the driller. In this case the driller expected to produce gas worth over a quarter billion dollars from this one pad. "If the surface owner valued their land being undisturbed more than getting the money, the driller can drill horizontal well bores that are a mile or even two miles long. So the driller can move the pad and access the minerals under the surface owner from a pad in a different location," said David McMahon, a lawyer for the Crowder and Wentz, and a co-founder of the West Virginia Surface Owners' Rights Organization [WVSORO].
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will send the black box flight recorders from the Ukrainian jetliner that it accidentally shot down last week to Ukraine for further analysis, an Iranian official said Saturday.
Hassan Rezaeifer, the head of accident investigations for the civil aviation department, said it was not possible to read the black boxes in Iran, without elaborating. He said French, American and Canadian experts would help analyze them in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
by TIM DAHLBERG, Associated Press / Jan 18, 2020
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Pete Rose was taking a break from signing autographs at the MGM Grand hotel when asked a question he's uniquely qualified to address.
What's worse, betting on baseball or cheating at baseball?
Sports / 11 hours ago
No charges filed yet in Greenbrier County Shooting
UPDATE: Police identified the person who was killed in Greenbrier County