Thanks to something called a distributed denial of service attack, several major Internet sites we're inaccessible on Friday; leaving many of us in a terrifying state we haven't experienced since the 1990s: Being left alone with our own thoughts. And one of those thoughts is that the communication and commerce engine that runs our businesses and our lives is more vulnerable to attack than we'd like to think. Here's Wired with what we know about Friday's massive East Coast Internet outage.

+ Gizmodo: Today's brutal DDoS attack is the beginning of a bleak future. (I felt this way too, and then my connectivity came back and I went back to thinking about cats.)

+ The Atlantic: When the Entire Internet Seems to Break at Once. If the internet doesn't get fixed soon, I'm going to have to remind myself how to fantasize to images in my own imagination.

"This is what upsets me, because I love the country, I love America. This country is my mother. When [Trump] said Syrians are coming without any paperwork, he should see my paperwork and other people's paperwork, it's huge. We went through a lot of interviews, a lot of background checks … More than 10 interviews, and a lot of them were scary and not comfortable, in small rooms, no windows, like an investigation." What kind of vetting are we doing when Syrian refugees enter the US? Let's ask one who moved to Boise, Idaho -- a city that has taken in "more than twice as many as Los Angeles, Boston and New York combined." From PRI: Idaho's first Syrian refugee wants Americans to understand their country's vetting process.

What to Doc: Thank god it's Friday. I've been waiting all week to recommend The Witness, a great documentary about the aftermath of one of New York's most notorious murders. This doc is not only riveting, it also relates to so many of our issues today, when versions of events (true or not) can spread like wildfire. It's also a story of a brother obsessed with finding out the truth about what happened the night his sister was killed. Here it is on Netflix.

+ What to Read: Earlier this week, I shared my wife's article arguing that it's time we chose our own cohorts based on shared values and passions, and break out of the faux constructs behind an age-based system of classification. It's going viral. Already number five on Medium and headed for number one. Meet the Perennials.

+ What to Watch: Black Mirror, Season Three is now on Netflix. Enough said.

+ What to Book: The President has some book recommendations for you. (Oddly, The Art of the Deal didn't make the cut.)

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is a longstanding tradition during which presidential candidates take a break from the heated campaigns, tell some jokes (often self-deprecating) and say a few nice things about each other. But everything this year is different.

+ I'm sick of writing about Trump and you're sick of reading about him. But I've put in my 10,000 hours on the topic and I finally figured it all out as I watched him bomb horribly at the Alfred E. Smith dinner; where he became the first presidential candidate (and the second and the third) in the event's history to get booed. There he was. Trump in the room with NYC's elite, finally at their level, and he goes full Donald and somehow shocks everyone on the downside. And I finally understood. So here's my Trump Theory of Everything. Trust me, this one is good.

Peter Thiel has always been a controversial character in Silicon Valley. But his backing of Trump (and a recent follow-up donation to his campaign) has some techies calling for him to be ousted from board seats at companies like Facebook. Slate's Will Oremus asks: "Should a prominent Donald Trump supporter be allowed to continue holding positions of power in the Valley?" (I don't have much in common with Peter Thiel. But calling for people to be fired for making political donations isn't the path we want to take.)

The robots are coming. And they're going to take our jobs. But what exactly does that look like in the business world right now? Ars Technica provides an inside look at the robots taking over Amazon, DHL, Ocado, Mercedes... and Domino's?

"About 50 percent of dogs urinate on themselves, just dribbling urine. I often joke if that was a human response, using marijuana wouldn't be quite as popular for people." A concern has risen along with the smoke from legalized pot in several states. And it's all about edibles: This is your dog on marijuana.

+ The NYT with a question for the ages: Should You Let Your Dog Lick Your Face? (To answer, I need to know my other options.)

Winter is coming. But now it might be late and its service might be bad. AT&T is reportedly in talks to buy TimeWarner as soon as this weekend. Finally, some consolidation in the media industry!

Maybe unlikely celebrities running for office will become a trend. On Friday, Bill Murray showed up at the White House briefing to discuss a matter of great importance. His Cubs.

"Easdale is the smallest permanently inhabited island in the Inner Hebrides archipelago of Scotland, but its population is about to swell. The coming hordes descend not for whisky tours, mountain biking, or Highland games. They come for stone skimming." Outside takes you inside the lively world of competitive stone skimming. Funny, I don't ever remember skipping rocks in a manner that was anything but competitive.

+ The cutthroat world of professional mini golf.

+ And from McSweeney's: When My Grandkids Ask Me What I Did To Fight American Fascism, I'll Proudly Tell Them I Tweeted A Few Times.