"His innovation was to teach a computer to spot trends in unsolved murders, using publicly available information that no one, including anyone in law enforcement, had used before. This makes him, in a manner of speaking, the Billy Beane of murder." There are a lot of murders in America. And, over the past few decades, a lot more of those murders have gone unsolved. You'd like to think there's some trove of data being crunched by law enforcement agencies across the country to find any clue that can and will be used against the perpetrators of what could be multiple homicides. Thomas Hargrove found out there wasn't. So he starting building one. From Bloomberg: Serial Killers Should Fear This Algorithm. Facts, science, data. Three things that should only be feared if you're a murderer.

"If you're looking for new markets, Africa is the place to be. But right now, the U.S. is not leveraging Africa's huge potential. By contrast, the Chinese are there, and they are willing to take risks." The Chinese are indeed all over the African market. But it's not just about economics. It's about a longterm strategy of advancing soft power and winning allies (and putting more Chinese employees to work). Here's a great example of how it plays out from the NYT: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, With China's Help.

"Absolutely nothing in the large body of data we have about real terrorist plots in the United States remotely supports either a focus on barring refugees or a focus on these particular seven countries. Nothing." Lawfare's Nora Ellingsen on what the data really tells us about the threat of terrorism in the US.

+ This issue came up during the travel ban hearing in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals where judges seemed to want to know what, exactly, the emergency was. You can listen to the questioning here.

+ During a speech to law enforcement officials, "Trump insisted the order was within his executive powers and 'a bad high school student would understand this.'" (I'm guessing none of the three judges on the 9th Circuit were bad high school students, so I'm not sure how this helps.)

+ Speaking of terrorists entering the country, an FBI reports suggests we should be worried about the border with Canada, not Mexico. (I knew it would be the Canadians. It's always the ones who seem so nice...)

Who'd have guessed that Mitch McConnell would come up with the ultimate quote for the resistance? Well, he may have done just that when he used a somewhat obscure rule to shut down Elizabeth Warren as she read from Coretta Scott King's letter criticizing Jeff Sessions. The words he used almost immediately went viral: "She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted." And the King letter went viral as well. It all seemed like a weird move given that Sessions is almost certain to be confirmed anyway.

"So that's where I went. I wanted to feel what it was like in the dark. The human population is somewhere north of 7 billion, and light tends to follow our species wherever it goes. I wanted, in a way, to go back in time." FiveThirtyEight's Oliver Roeder pays a visit to the darkest town in America. (Oh man would my retina display pop in that environment.)

She can remember most of the days of her life as clearly as the rest of us remember the recent past, with a mixture of broad strokes and sharp detail. Now 51, Price remembers the day of the week for every date since 1980; she remembers what she was doing, who she was with, where she was on each of these days. She can actively recall a memory of 20 years ago as easily as a memory of two days ago." In The Guardian, Linda Rodriguez McRobbie explains how "an extremely rare condition may transform our understanding of memory." Total recall: the people who never forget. (I'm having this problem when it comes to 2016.)

"I've been in this town for 26 years. I have never seen anything like this." DC always has leaks. But those leaks are usually not an attempt to share glimpses of a president's conduct. Like everything else, this too is different during the Trump era.

+ Trump is reportedly reaching out to White House veterans about ways to straighten things out a bit.

Sex sells. Well, strike that. Sex sold. These days, brands seems to be more excited to sell themselves through activism. "Companies are now attempting to outdo each other with major acts of generosity, but there's a catch; they'll do good as long as they can make sure their customers know about it." (I guess that leaves the sex to indie brands like NextDraft...)

"Not so long ago, Fillerup Clark was a broke student in Provo, Utah. Today, at age 26, she is the equivalent of internet royalty: a 'relatable influencer,' someone whom hundreds of thousands of women trust as a friend and whom companies pay handsomely to name-drop their products." Maybe you too should be turning your life experiences into a business. In the meantime, meet Instamom. (I'm waiting for the person who shares photos of their screaming kids and disappointed friends. Now that would be a relatable influencer.)

+ Remember when fitness instructors were only famous among the people in their classes? Now, they are part of an online entertainment industry, and they're pedaling their way to stardom.

"Before her manuscript went to print, she reached out to a group of 'sensitivity readers.' These advising angels -- part fact-checkers, part cultural ambassadors -- are new additions to the book publishing ecosystem. Either hired by individual authors or by publishing houses, sensitivity readers are members of a minority group tasked specifically with examining manuscripts for hurtful, inaccurate, or inappropriate depictions of that group." (And we're talking about fiction.) From Slate: Is My Novel Offensive?

+ Librarians are working with little kids to help them identify fake news.

+ And this from the official Potus twitter account: "My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!" (She needs to push harder.)

+ Details about each of the ingredients in Doritos. (How could inventing a photo sharing app make one richer than inventing this?)

+ One strawberry, 22 bucks.