While the TED Blog chills for the next two weeks, take a break to read some of our favorite pieces from around the Internet over the past seven days:

A fascinating, at times hilarious, look at business management practices in high-threat terrorist organizations. [Foreign Affairs]

A profile of Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who helped Edward Snowden in his leak. Cinematic in its surreality. [The New York Times]

Just by us living our lives, coincidences can become likely. A mathematician explains. [Nautilus]

How many Oppenheimer books is too many? However many it is, we’re not there yet. Freeman Dyson on Ray Monk’s new book about the legendary physicist and his own interactions with Oppenheimer. [New York Review of Books]

A lovely ode to the “mentor text,” or what one journalist calls “zigging when everyone else was zagging.” The scene: A Justin Bieber concert. The hero: A Rusty Peacock. [Poyntor]

John Grisham, on Guantánamo. [The New York Times]

Look at this adorable gribble! [The Last Word on Nothing]