Your toaster is connected to the Internet. Your fridge knows when it's running out of eggs. Your watch is so advanced it can save your hand a trip to your pocket. Up until recently, the biggest risk of the Internet of Things was that it made us look pretty idiotic. But now we know better. And last week's massive Internet outage was a reminder of how our connected devices can be used against us.

+ NYT's John Markoff: As Artificial Intelligence Evolves, So Does Its Criminal Potential.

+ The latest attack shouldn't surprise us. Everything we attach to the Internet comes with a risk. And our obsession with tech often leads us to play the part of the accomplice in an ongoing plot to obliterate our own privacy. There are a lot of ways to tell the story of the Internet. Here's one: With every advance, we dramatically increase the risk we face as individuals, nations, and societies. All of which leads me to ask: What the Hell Are We Doing? (Or, why ET phoned home).

As our privacy evaporates, a new breed of international power players is emerging. In Buzzfeed, James Ball takes you inside the strange, paranoid world Of Julian Assange.

How did a class of highly addictive opioids make its way from your doctor's prescription pad to high volume pill mills dealing destruction across many American cities? The short answer is that everything about the war on drugs is broken, and everything about the way big pharma pushes product is troubling. The long answer is even more depressing. From WaPo: The DEA slowed enforcement while the opioid epidemic grew out of control. Plus, How drugs intended for patients ended up in the hands of illegal users.

+ Who knew that a drug like Fentanyl could be so dangerous? Hint: The people who sold Fentanyl and the health care providers who prescribed it. From Vice: The First Fentanyl Addict.

"French security forces have started evicting the thousands of migrants living in a notorious camp known as The Jungle near the port of Calais." NPR shares some photos as France starts the evictions and the destruction of the notorious camp.

+ LA Times: "Dozens of young people headed to a small sanctuary amid the chaos: a graffiti-fronted, one-room cafe -- made of plywood and a tarpaulin roof -- that has become a regular fixture in their otherwise disjointed lives. Residents of the camp call it the Jungle Books Kids Cafe." A visit to a haven for kids one day before it's set to be destroyed.

"The worry among consumer groups and rivals, of course, is that for AT&T to make the deal work strategically and financially -- the company is paying a 35 percent premium to Time Warner's stock price before news of the deal broke last week -- it is going to use Time Warner's content as a weapon." As AT&T looks to acquire TimeWarner for a cool $85 billion, the NYT's Andrew Ross Sorkin helps us try to make sense of deal.

+ In a smaller (but happier) deal, the NYT is acquiring The Wirecutter for $30 million. Brian Lam's product review site is one of the modern web's true gems. (Yes, $30 million and a link from NextDraft on the same day. Good things come in bunches.)

The WSJ on the fatal mistake that doomed Samsung's Galaxy Note: "It wasn't a definitive answer, and there was no explanation for the bulges. But with consumers complaining and telecom operators demanding answers, newly appointed mobile chief D.J. Koh felt the company knew enough to recall 2.5 million phones ... Instead, as a result of the flammable phones and the botched recall Samsung's leaders are now struggling to salvage the company's credibility. At risk is the expected February launch of its next flagship smartphone, likely to be called the Galaxy S8" (I'm no branding expert, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that they not call it that.)

"Its members are a collection of anarchists, hackers, libertarians and Web geeks. It sets policy through online polls -- and thinks the government should do the same. It wants to make Iceland 'a Switzerland of bits,' free of digital snooping. It has offered Edward Snowden a new place to call home. And then there's the name: In this land of Vikings, the Pirate Party may soon be king." This year has been a weird one when it comes to politics. And it's especially weird in Iceland, a land of Vikings, bracing for a Pirate Party takeover. (Hey, we're not in any position to be pointing any fingers...)

According to everyone in Chicago, I buried the lede. (But in fairness, the Cubs buried the Giants first.) For them, there's only one news story that matters this week. After more than seventy years, the Cubs are back in the World Series. And the general manager who ended their drought is the same general manager who ended the Red Sox' curse. Here's Wright Thompson on Theo Epstein: The Mastermind.

"Although it was a deeply personal endeavor, Gaga's creation of the record shows a willingness to reach across the aisle. It's a concept we hardly recognize anymore." From CuePoint: Lady Gaga's new creation shows a willingness to reach across the aisle. Whatever she's reaching for, she got it with excellent performances on SNL and on Monday's Howard Stern Show.

"Historically, the sketch has embellished black stereotypes and mocked white people's political correctness. This time around, it found common ground between African Americans and rural white conservatives: a sense of disenfranchisement, a distrust of authorities and, more playfully, an appreciation of curvy women." With the latest episode of Black Jeopardy, SNL served up its best political sketch of the year.

+ While we're on the topic of SNL, their sketch on Internet pet videos was pretty great also.

+ The Guardian: Over time lies may desensitise brain to dishonesty. I'm racking my brain trying to come up with a current example...