Friday, December 11th, 2015

1

Justin Time

"Canuck-nuck." Who's there? "Refugees from Syria." Oh, cool. Welcome to Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally welcomed the 163 Syrian refugees who landed in Toronto last night. Canada is expecting 25,000 of the refugees to arrive by the end of February (and yes, they're giving them winter coats on arrival). "This is a wonderful night where we get to show not just a plane load of new Canadians what Canada is all about but we get to show the world, how to open our hearts and welcome in people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult situations." (Now who's the hoser?)

+ Here are more photos and words from the scene by way of Twitter Moments.

2

World’s Most Expensive Three Way

It's like Uber for chemicals. Dow Chemical and DuPont have agreed to merge to create a $130 billion giant. But once the merger is done, the combined company plans to divide itself into three separate companies. In addition to forming the world's largest seed and pesticide company, DowDupont basically makes all the stuff we use to make all out stuff.

+ Courtesy of Bloomberg, here's a look at one project Dow has been working on: How Dow Chemical Is Turning Sewage Into a Refreshing Drink.

3

Weekend Reads

"How is it that this novel could be sexy, entertaining, experimental, politically radical, and wildly popular all at once? Its success was no sure thing, and the story of how it came about is a crucial and little-known chapter in the literary history of the last half-century." From Vanity Fair: The Secret History of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

+ "How did dancing with LED-lined gloves become a Shark Tank-approved, multimillion-dollar industry." Buzzfeed's Marisa Carroll on America's trippiest new sport: Glove is a Battlefield.

+ "In 1892, the young state of South Dakota was a refuge for divorce seekers. It had among the laxest divorce laws in the country, offering numerous grounds and, more importantly, requiring only 90 days residency to fall under the court's jurisdiction." The Atavist on The Divorce Colony.

+ FiveThirtyEight: How A Dead Millionaire Convinced Dozens Of Women To Have As Many Babies As Possible.

+ " If you're looking for happy endings with your heroes, boxing remains one of the worst places in America to look." Roy Jones Jr.'s Long Goodbye.

4

Putting the Bad in Badge

"His conviction is likely to be viewed as a key moment of accountability for law enforcement officers who abuse their position: out of the hundreds of police officers terminated for sexual abuse in recent years, only a small number faced criminal charges and even fewer were convicted. And black women are especially liable to be their targets." The Guardian on the conviction of Daniel Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma police officer found guilty of numerous counts of rape.

+ Buzzfeed: The 13 women who accused a cop of sexual assault, in their own words.

5

You’re Covered

Looking for a good holiday read? The NYT is out with its selection of the top books of 2015. I'm in the middle of one of the books on the list. The Cartel by Don Winslow is an excellent, fast-paced read that sheds light on the drug wars and puts our current discussion of gun violence into some perspective.

+ No time to read? Well, at least enjoy some of this year's best book covers.

6

Time Well Spent

"I go to a lot of demo days. I meet entrepreneurs at the best schools all over the world. I can't say any impressed me as much as this (demo day) did." Bay Area VCs attend a lot of demo days and hear a lot of startup pitches. But it's rare that the entrepreneurs "have to build software without access to the Web and without ever touching a smartphone or tablet." It's also rare when the tech incubator is in San Quentin.

7

Home Depot on the Range

Tatiana Duva-Rodriguez was just passing by when she noticed a commotion and realized that a couple people were shoplifting from Home Depot. So she pulled out her 9-millimeter handgun and starting firing shots at the suspects' SUV. They were eventually arrested. Duva-Rodriguez just got her gun license revoked. All of which leads us to this NYT headline: Woman Who Shot at Home Depot Shoplifters Vows to Never Help Anyone Again.

8

That Ain’t Working

"Where others see a waning future, Turley sees an undervalued brand with tremendous upside." Hopes & Fears pays a visit to Richard Turley to answer this question: Can a rogue designer make MTV cool again? (If nothing else, the guy likes a challenge.)

+ While MTV is in some trouble, music videos are alive and well. (Don't blame the messenger.) Here's a look at 2015's top ten music videos on YouTube.

9

Stat Wars

"Only 4 percent of the 805-minute Star Wars film canon, stretching from Episodes I through VI, involves clearly discernible Force use." Bloomberg goes deep in an effort to figure out who the force is the strongest with. Star Wars: The Force Accounted. The new movie comes out on December 18th. Hype for the next episode begins on December 19th.

10

Bottom of the News

There are really no bloopers like news bloopers. What makes them so great is that many of them are not actually bloopers at all.

+ InFocus: The year in Photos.

+ Downton Abbey. but with American accents.

+ Canada orders a batch of emergency holiday butter.