Dave Pell

The severity of Harvey Weinstein revelations surprised many, and the widespread sharing of “Me Too” stories on social media shocked even more. At this point, no one can claim to be shocked or surprised at the wave of related stories that are certain to emerge in the coming weeks and months. Let’s hope the courage shown by victims who come forward will stem the tide of harassment and assaults. In today’s political climate, no sexual misconduct accusation is likely to be met with more divergent reactions than the claim that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl. Mitch McConnell represents one part of the GOP: “If these allegations are true, he must step aside.” Meanwhile, Moore is maintaining a lot of support in Alabama, including from State Auditor Jim Zeigler: “Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.” (In case you were wondering why Jesus and Mary are currently trending harder than Kanye and Kim…) Moore’s brother was a little more reserved, merely suggesting that his brother Roy “is being persecuted … like Jesus Christ was.”

As we cross the one year mark since Trump was elected, many people on both sides of the aisle still can’t believe the other side votes they way they do. In particular, the anti-Trump crowd still can’t wrap its head around the idea that millions of people voted for Trump—and continue to support him even though many of his policies seem to work against their self interest. (Full disclosure: I’ve got one of those heads.) Politico Magazine’s Michael Kruse went to Johnstown, PA—and what he found there is worth understanding. Yes, people there voted for Trump. No, things are not much better. But their support for Trump hasn’t wavered. “His supporters here, it turns out, are energized by his bombast and his animus more than any actual accomplishments. For them, it’s evidently not what he’s doing so much as it is the people he’s fighting. Trump is simply and unceasingly angry on their behalf, battling the people who vex them the worst—’obstructionist’ Democrats, uncooperative establishment Republicans, the media, Black Lives Matter protesters and NFL players (boy oh boy do they hate kneeling NFL players) whom they see as ungrateful, disrespectful millionaires. And they love him for this.” Johnstown Never Believed Trump Would Help. They Still Love Him Anyway.

A year after Donald Trump shocked pundits and prognosticators by winning the White House, voters in several key races gave the president his annual political check-up, and like most yearly check-ups, there was some discomfort. In the biggest race of the day,Democrat Ralph Northam beat Republican Ed Gillespie in what was widely described as a test of Trumpism without Trump. (It turned out to be Trumpism without votes.) Here’s WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin with 15 takeaways from Virginia.

Back in 1975, a notable (and nearly clairvoyant) economics journalist named Norman Macrae accurately predicted the rise of computers in our homes and offices. And then he explained how that would impact our work life: “Once workers could communicate with their colleagues through instant messages and video chat, he reasoned, there would be little coherent purpose to trudge long distances to work side by side in centrally located office spaces. As companies recognized how much cheaper remote employees would be, the computer would, in effect, kill the office.” A decade or two ago, I would have agreed with Norman Macrae. But I live in the heart of tech world, and my commute this morning was hell. Something has happened that I never would have predicted: Cities are more crowded than ever. Here’s CityLab: The Economics of the Office: Why Do We Still Commute (and could virtual reality finally change that)? Here’s a possible story twist that few of us saw coming: Maybe constantly interfacing with screens has increased our yearning for in-person human interactions. (And I’m positing that theory as one who’s never been a huge fan of in-person human interactions.)

You’d think the bustling, neon-lit, “sin city” streets of Las Vegas would have nothing in common with a community church in a tiny, no-stoplight town like Sutherland Springs. But in America, we all have one terrible thing in common. And so it is that these two very different places find themselves playing an unwanted, starring role in America’s longest-running horror story. “At least 26 people are dead after a gunman opened fire during a Sunday service at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Those killed in the church ranged in age from 18-months to 77-years old.” Here’s the latest from Buzzfeed.

The news moves at Internet speed and stories often depart our consciousness as fast as they flash over our screens, but few of us will forget where we were when, for eleven brief but glorious minutes, Donald Trump—the all caps king, the exclamation point potus—was deleted from Twitter; giving a us an ephemeral respite from the past SAD! ten months, a welcome reprieve during which we could ENJOY! the fantasy that this near year of social media trolling from the Oval Office had merely been an illusion, a Shakespearean-level tragicomedy concocted in the less forgiving recesses of our slumbering minds—perchance just a bad dream, one that, had he lived during this era, Sigmund Freud might have interpreted as: Fake News. Alas, it was no such thing, a reality slapped across our face by the tiny tapping thumbs of he whose account had re-emerged: “My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee.” From AP: Trump’s brief Twitter outage prompts cheers, concerns. Like the notion that “that all men are created equal” the reason for the cheers is self evident. The reason for concern is less obvious, but worth noting. Imagine for a moment that another rogue employee were to take control of the presidential Twitter account and use it to wantonly harass private citizens, belittle Senators with slander and catchy nicknames, attack Gold Star families, spread mistruths and propaganda concocted by our enemies, defame former US presidents, taunt foreign leaders and threaten war with nuclear-armed adversaries, or even go so far as to call into question the rule of law with constant attacks on judges and law enforcement agencies. That could be really bad.

WeWork has had a big impact on how people work together in shared office spaces, and that has had a big impact on the company’s valuation (a cool $20 billion). But the efforts to move from shared workspaces to shared living spaces (WeLive)—with communal kitchens and, of course, ping pong tables—hasn’t really taken off. Bloomberg’s Ellen Huet on What Life Is Like Inside WeWork’s Communal Housing Project: “Black mugs in the apartments urge tenants to Live Better Together, and the housekeepers pushing carts down the hallways wear black T-shirts that read, Do What You Love. Both are WeWork slogans. Some of the décor is best viewed at a distance: The record player on the eighth floor is never plugged in, and thousands of books in the building’s lounges have red $1 sale stickers on them from the Strand, a venerable New York bookstore.” The success of WeLive seems to depend on the idea that millennials are, at their core, a different species than the humans that came before them. Aside from a penchant for ironic t-shirts and an over-enthusiasm for facial hair, I think we’ll find that millennials are just like the rest of us.

With tech companies testifying on Capitol Hill for the second straight day, The New Yorker’s Stephen Marche pieces together a theory of why the US is so susceptible to social-media distortion. I’m not sure there’s a clear answer, but this is an interesting examination of the question; and at this moment in time, there are few questions more profound. “The parameters of social-media conflict are difficult to grasp because Facebook posts seem irrelevant when compared to war or geopolitics—one is an online amusement, diversion, and sometime news source, while the other is life and death. But Marshall McLuhan predicted that the Third World War would be ‘a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation,’ and that’s exactly what it has turned out to be. America seems more vulnerable than other developed countries to the kind of distortion that Facebook and Twitter bring to news and politics. Arguably, the social-media distortion affects America more profoundly than other countries because of the very specific, even unique, way that Americans make meaning.”

My dogs and I have an agreement. I follow them around with a plastic bag and pick up after them. In exchange, they don’t tell my wife and kids how much I eat when I come back downstairs after everyone else goes to bed. At this point, my family must know what I’m up to since I’ve apparently turned our household into something of an American aberration: By morning, we never have leftovers. I used to feel bad about my after-hours eating habits. But that was before I realized that the rest of you people are throwing out 27 million tons of food a year. Researchers recently found that “the average person wasted 3.5 pounds of food per week. Of that, only a third consisted of inedible parts, such as chicken bones or banana peels. And of the remaining, edible trashed food, bin digs found that 23 percent consisted of prepared leftovers, from any source — followed by fruits and vegetables, baked goods, and liquids and oils.” (Until just now, I didn’t even know there were inedible parts). Caitlin Dewey in WaPo: Why Americans have stopped eating leftovers.

In the spirit of giving both sides of the story, let’s go contrarian on this Manafort Monday and lead with President Trump’s reaction to the first indictments connected to the Mueller investigation: “Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? … Also, there is NO COLLUSION!” And from Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “We’ve been saying from day one there’s no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, and nothing in the indictment changes that at all.” Those reactions came following the news that three former Trump campaign officials have been charged by the special counsel. Paul Manafort and his longtime partner Rick Gates have plead not guilty to conspiracy and money laundering charges that could result in millions in fines and decades in prison. Meanwhile we learned that George Papadopoulos, an ex-advisor to the campaign, secretly plead “guilty three weeks ago to lying to federal agents about his contacts with Kremlin-connected Russians.”

Just how corrupt is Vladamir Putin? What is this Magnitsky Act thing I keep hearing about? Are we making too big a deal out of Russia’s role in our elections and that weird meeting between Don Jr and the Russians at Trump Tower? There’s so much news, sometimes it’s hard to get a grasp on how the various parts of a story fit together. So at some point this weekend—on a drive, a walk, or just sitting at your desk—listen to Preet Bharara’s riveting and informative interview with Bill Browder—a guy who knows as much about Putin’s corruption as anyone (and is in very real danger because of that). This is an absolutely incredible interview.

“The botulinum toxin is so powerful that a tiny amount can suffocate a person by paralyzing the muscles used for breathing. It’s considered one of the world’s most deadly potential agents of bioterrorism and is on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s select agent list of heavily regulated substances…Because of that, Allergan must account to the CDC if even a speck of the toxin goes missing, and when it’s sent to Allergan’s manufacturing facility in Ireland, its travels bring to mind a presidential Secret Service operation—minus literally all of the public attention…A single gram in crystallized form, ‘evenly dispersed and inhaled, would kill more than 1 million people.'” But, hey, let’s not just focus on the negatives. The substance, it turns out, is also a great way to smooth wrinkles. That version of the poison goes by its hip nickname, Botox. And when administered on purpose, the ensuing paralysis is considered a feature, not a bug. As Cynthia Koons explains in Businessweek, this combination of characteristics makes Botox the most lucrative, poisonous, and secret formula on Earth.

Because digital security solutions have been so effective in protecting our online information, we’ve decided to use them to protect our homes as well. At least that’s one way to read the news about a new Amazon service that lets couriers unlock your front door to deliver packages to the safety of your foyer. “The service is called Amazon Key, and it relies on a Amazon’s new Cloud Cam and compatible smart lock….When a courier arrives with a package for in-home delivery, they scan the barcode, sending a request to Amazon’s cloud. If everything checks out, the cloud grants permission by sending a message back to the camera, which starts recording. The courier then gets a prompt on their app, swipes the screen, and voilà, your door unlocks.” Here’s my alternate proposal: Amazon buys AirBNB and WeWork, and Prime members are given the option to live and work among their packages inside of an Amazon warehouse. (If a delivery person opens my door, even a crack, they better be prepared to drive away with three cats, a couple dogs, and most likely, an extra kid or two.)

“The current state of affairs is a free-for-all. We are seeing similar problems to what we saw with grave-robbers centuries ago. I don’t know if I can state this strongly enough. What they are doing is profiting from the sale of humans.” You’ve undoubtedly heard of options like organ-donation or donating your body to science. But it’s unlikely that you’ve considered the way some largely unregulated body brokers sell (and even rent) human bodies and body parts—and even after death, the poor are more likely to be abused. A special report from Reuters: In the US market for human bodies, almost anyone can dissect and sell the dead.

“On Facebook, the debate over the markers has taken a heated tone with posts that say the signs allow for a criminal element and open the door to pedophiles and terrorists.” From the sounds of that heated rhetoric, those must some pretty offensive markers, eh? Not really, but in today’s America, every debate is heated and every message offends someone. So let’s take a minute and visit Groton, Massachusetts, where a debate is raging over the message inscribed on some stone markers scattered throughout the town. The message? Town of Groton: All Are Welcome.

Trouble is brewing. “Climate change could spell disaster for coffee, a crop that requires specific temperatures to flourish and that is highly sensitive to a range of pests. So scientists are racing to develop more tenacious strains of one of the world’s most beloved beverages.” WaPo’s Caitlin Dewey on the scientific advances being made in the race to save coffee. Rising seas will swallow our cities. Wildfires will rip through our forests and communities. Ferocious hurricanes will gain more damaging strength, while deadly heatwaves and droughts will be interspersed with raging floods. Warmer and increasingly polluted air will become less breathable. Ice caps will melt faster than the vanilla ice cream in an affogato. Bloody wars will be fought over food and natural resources as mass refugee crises become the norm. But, with a little luck, there’s a reasonably good chance that your iced caramel latte macchiato can be saved. (Though, there’s no guarantee baristas won’t go extinct.)

“‘It’s easy to say, ‘Get these people out, build the wall,’ when it’s these people. When you put a live person in front of them, like their hairdresser or their kid’s best friend, then it’s different.” We begin today in the San Joaquin Valley with what, these days, might feel like the ultimate man bites dog story. It’s a community where conservative Trump voters and new immigrants live side by side. It’s not perfect, not by a long shot. But they’ve managed to keep one American tradition alive: They talk to each other. And that’s because they rely on each other. From CS Monitor: How Stockton, Calif., has resisted political polarization.

We built the network with a clear goal. To disrupt every business, one by one, and make industries more transparent and efficient. Even transactions like buying a mattress, that had hitherto felt like shady ripoffs, would be tossed and turned into feel-good experiences where buyers and sellers—freed from the clutches of commission-driven middlemen—could both rest easy, knowing they got a fair shake. In the new digital panacea, no bedfellow was too strange. We were going to live the dream. But after a series of wake-up calls, we’ve realized not everything we set out to build in the early days of the internet ended up looking exactly like it did when we drew it up on the whiteboard. And the new version of buying a mattress may end up being pretty much like the old version. From FastCo’s David Zax: The war to sell you a mattress is an internet nightmare. “Casper was on its way to becoming a 750-million-dollar company. It was the hottest of the bed-in-a-box disruptors, with investments from celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Nas. And it was picking on some skinny blogger from Arizona?” (Sorry to wake you from your slumber, internet generation. You made your bed, now lie in it.)

“Over the several months we are in contact, Ishiguro will share information that strikes me as deeply personal: He has contemplated suicide twice in his life; though he has a family, he considers himself a lonely man. I will hear him use that word to describe himself—lonely—about half a dozen times.” That’s a line that seems out of place in an article about robots. But as Alex Mar writes in Love in the time of robots, “Hiroshi Ishi­guro builds androids…but his true quest is to untangle the ineffable nature of connection itself.” To make androids realistic, we have to gain a deep understanding of our own communication modes and motivations. Even if we can pull that off, are we ready for intimacy with robots? (Hopefully, they treat us better than we treat each other.)

America’s opiate epidemic and overdose scourge is the perfect storm of the worst aspects of America’s most glaring flaws. So maybe it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that greedy pharmaceutical companies threw millions of dollars at Congress, and managed to get a law passed that dramatically limited the DEA’s ability to stem the flow of opiates into the market at a time when their deadliness was already headline news. An excellent piece of reporting from WaPo: “The law was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry to weaken aggressive DEA enforcement efforts against drug distribution companies that were supplying corrupt doctors and pharmacists who peddled narcotics to the black market.” My headline might seem a little harsh. But consider this. At the time the law was passed, the opioid crisis had already claimed 200,000 lives. And the goal of the law was to up America’s dosage.

“If you’d come to me in 2012, when the last presidential election was raging and we were cooking up ever more complicated ways to monetize Facebook data, and told me that Russian agents in the Kremlin’s employ would be buying Facebook ads to subvert American democracy, I’d have asked where your tin-foil hat was.” Back then, most of us in the tech community would’ve agreed with Antonio García Martínez, who was managing Facebook’s ad targeting business. “And yet”, as Alexis Madrigal explains in The Atlantic, “now we live in that otherworldly political reality.” (Reality bytes). In this excellent overview of how we got here, Madrigal traces What Facebook Did to American Democracy (and why it was so hard to see it coming).

The Harvey Weinstein story is big because it involves a powerful perpetrator and celebrity victims operating in America’s most obsessively observed industry. But it’s also big because of its connections to the broader story of sexual harassment and abuse; who comes forward, how we treat them when they do, and what happens next. It’s easy, now, to make public pronouncements about the repugnancy of Weinstein’s monstrous history of abuse. What’s more difficult is figuring out a way to urge more victims to come forward, and to ensure that they’re not punished, in one way or another, for doing so. The New Yorker’s Jill Tolentino with a short, powerful piece on how men like Harvey Weinstein implicate their victims in their acts.

“It’s tempting to blame helicopter parents with their own anxiety issues for that pressure (and therapists who work with teenagers sometimes do), but several anxiety experts pointed to an important shift in the last few years. “Teenagers used to tell me, ‘I just need to get my parents off my back,’ recalls Madeline Levine, a founder of Challenge Success, a Stanford University-affiliated nonprofit that works on school reform and student well-being. ‘Now so many students have internalized the anxiety. The kids at this point are driving themselves crazy.'” From the NYT Magazine: Why are more American teenagers than ever suffering from severe anxiety? (And what should parents, schools, and therapists be doing to address the growing problem?) As a person with 75 browser tabs and a few social networks open every morning, I find it hard to believe that the bombardment of information from the Internet isn’t a contributing factor. The stress is always out there if you know where to look.

“YouTube videos of police beatings on American streets. A widely circulated internet hoax about Muslim men in Michigan collecting welfare for multiple wives. A local news story about two veterans brutally mugged on a freezing winter night.” These are all examples of the content that ultimately ended up being part of Russian propaganda campaigns to alter the US election. While it’s important to get to the bottom of how they did what they did (and who may have assisted them), it’s also important to note that one of their core techniques was to amplify the negative trends already driving social media: “A New York Times examination of hundreds of those posts shows that one of the most powerful weapons that Russian agents used to reshape American politics was the anger, passion, and misinformation that real Americans were broadcasting across social media platforms.” The real people behind fake news, or how Russia harvested american rage to reshape US politics.