Adam Green: “In magic circles, Robbins is regarded as a kind of legend. Psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and the military study his methods for what they reveal about the nature of human attention.” (New Yorker).

Related articles

• Video: The Art of Pickpocketing (newyorker.com)
• Video of the Week: The World’s Best Pickpocket (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
• A handy guide to pickpocketing (washingtonpost.com)
• The Best Pickpocket in the World (neatorama.com)
• Watch This Man Reveal His Pickpocketing Secrets (fox4kc.com)
• The neuroscience of pickpockets (kottke.org)

Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook: “When I first started writing about poisons, I had a certain image of poisoners in mind — creepy, yes, but cool, collected. After all, a poison murder is always premeditated. It’s a colder kind of killing, one that I used to imagine was somehow infused with extra intelligence.

But over the last year, I’ve come to realize that I might be overrating the poison killer… The poisoners of 2012 didn’t seem to be carefully planning as much as they seemed to be grabbing up the first bottle lurking in the medicine chest or under the kitchen sink. I’ve been picking up a pattern of bumbling rather than capability.

And, over all, I’ve realized that’s something to be appreciated. We don’t actually want our would-be killers to be too smart. The dumber and the more easily caught the better.” (Wired.com)