India. China. Senegal. These are countries where the NBA has introduced global academies that offer scholarships to educate and train the world’s best young talent. Several more African countries, like Uganda and Kenya, are home to Jr. NBA programs. The NBA sees the world shrinking and isn’t wasting time or resources to better its talent pool. But there’s one place where the NBA has not invested much: the United States.

I was walking across the Collegetown Bridge in Ithaca, New York, when I saw my friend Mark sitting too close to the edge, with his back to the gorge and his feet dangling. It was 200 feet down to a dry creek bed full of boulders the size of cars. A crowd of fellow students had gathered on the sidewalk to watch, keeping a safe distance. There were no cellphones in 1979, so somebody ran to a pay phone to call the police.I stood off to his side about 10 feet away. "Mark, what are you doing?" I asked.

I was never exactly the risk-taking type. At age 3, playground slides were far too intimidating for me to enjoy. At age 7, I watched from a riverbank as my family took turns leaping from a low tree branch into the water. And at age 9, my mom and younger brother convinced me to ride Splash Mountain at Disney World, where I sat paralyzed in the bobbing cart like a man awaiting execution. And yet, one of the most unregulated and dangerous extreme sports on the planet? I'm doing it.

EUGENE, SIR: My husband and I enjoy filming ourselves. He got into trading with other amateurs and fans of homemade movies. Someone at my husband’s job just approached him, asking how long we had been in the “lifestyle.” He apparently had seen them online. Which feels beyond weird. But we’re less worried about that and more worried about the possibility of him getting fired for this.

“Alexa, Play Justin Bieber!” It’s the OZY office’s Thursday dance party, and apparently this Justin Bieber is what constitutes a “favorite” for folks who I’m not entirely sure aren’t just being deeply, and perhaps a little darkly, ironic. There’s a bubbly bounce to Bieber’s boy-to-man neo-postmodern take on R&B, but it sounds to me like Coke. As in Coca-Cola. Or McDonald’s. Entertainment in small packages.

The Tick lands (with a bang) on Amazon Prime on August 25. The big blue eccentric hero (of the super variety) is joined by his reluctant partner in thwarting evil, Arthur. Before the pair come crashing through your ISP, they've stopped by OZY to curate our Good Sh*t section and share with us some of their favorite things.The Ticktick fave thingsHello, chums! The Tick here - hero of the super variety. That blue guy with the reflexes of an Olympic-level jungle cat.

It was September. We were all starving artists, so we got ourselves a great loft in a very shady neighborhood. It was big, bright, close to downtown Szczecin and worth it. I was going through a bout of insomnia, which meant that I was walking around alone at night for hours, listening to music and rethinking and analyzing stuff.I worked a lot and slept very little.

EUGENE, SIR: Is it just me or are more women asking for rougher sex, especially the kind that involves dirty talk? And how do I start this without getting it wrong? Advice, please. — Walter S. Dear Wally, My Man: This is probably pro playbook stuff, stuff that’s not likely going to be comfortable, easy or successful in unfamiliar hands because, simply put, done well? It can be a worthwhile adjunct to sex play. Done poorly? It can be a relationship destroyer for any number of reasons.

Join OZY as we travel through all 50 states to uncover the challenges and meet the innovators reshaping a country that's more divided than ever. In this occasional series, OZY takes to streets and neighborhoods across the globe to ask a simple question: “How was your day?” I was a little bit anxious. I had a mare, the horse I was running, it was her second or third rodeo. I wanted to make sure she handled the noise and commotion well.

In this occasional series, OZY takes to streets and neighborhoods across the globe to ask a simple question: "How was your day?"Rod SmartChurcham, Gloucestershire, U.K. We're making Double Gloucester cheese today. We make cheese twice a week, so we've just put away the cheese we made on Tuesday. We started at 6 a.m. with about 450 liters of milk [119 gallons], and we'll make about 45 kilos of cheese [about 99 pounds] from that. We'll be done by around 6 p.m.