Wednesday, February 24th, 2016

1

Trump Up the Volume

Here's a prediction. Everyone will be wrong about Trump. That's an accurate prediction, but it's about a year too late -- a year during which Donald Trump has broken all the rules and smashed the crystal balls of just about every political pundit. Evan Osnos asks a timely question: "Are the predictors getting worse? Or is the political world getting more unpredictable?" The only thing we know for sure is that no one is qualified to answer that question. From The New Yorker: Why Political Pundits Are Becoming More Wrong. I suppose it makes sense that Trump gave his latest victory speech in Las Vegas; the one place where everyone expects to lose their bets.

+ "According to preliminary network entrance polls, he won every single demographic." WaPo on Trump's win in Nevada and why conventional wisdom about his ceiling may be wrong.

+ Maybe Trump is the only guy left who can make predictions about Trump. So here's his take: "It's going to be an amazing two months. We might not even need the two months, folks, to be honest."

+ I thought it would be helpful if I fixed all the Trump headlines.

2

The Finger

Does it ever seem like the San Bernardino shooter is the only person who has a truly private iPhone? Here's the WSJ on how your fingerprint can be spoofed too.

3

Contract Killer

With the help of fellow celebrities and social media, the dispute between the pop star Kesha and Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald (Kesha's producer who she accused of sexual assault) has become one of the biggest stories on the Internet. In short, Kesha wants out of her contract with Gottwald and Sony. With all the remarkably bad buzz, why wouldn't Sony just tear up the contract (which, financially, amounts to little more than a rounding error for the company)? The answer: It's not that simple. From Bloomberg: Why Sony Music Can't Easily Cancel Kesha's Contract.

+ PS Mag: Why Kesha's court case matters.

4

The Courtship of Nevada’s Governor

Mitch McConnell insists that there will be "'no action' on any Supreme Court nomination before November's election, saying the decision ought to be left to the next president." That insistence only serves to increase the intrigue around Obama's potential pick. The latest buzz is that Obama could be leaning towards choosing a Republican governor for the slot.

5

Buck the System

"Adeney is a kind of human optimization machine, the quintessence of that urge, which is stronger in some of us than in others, to elevate principle over appetite, and to seek out better, cheaper ways of doing things. He presents thrift as liberation rather than as deprivation." Peter Adeney (who goes by the nickname Mr. Money Mustache) made enough money in his twenties to retire at 30. Actually, it wasn't about making money, it was about saving it. Nick Paumgarten with the fascinating story of Mr. Money Mustache's retirement (sort of) plan.

+ Which city in the world has the most billionaires? NYC? SF? Nope, Beijing.

+ The Morning News asked two dozen people from various backgrounds to tell you the best way to spend a single dollar.

6

Reax Rx

Love. Haha. Wow. Sad. Angry. After more than a year of development, those are the new one-click ways you can respond to Facebook status updates when a Like just won't do the trick. Phew. With our busy schedules, who has time to write out the word wow?

7

Old School Renewables

Bill Gates proclaims that the energy breakthrough that will save our planet is less than 15 years away. And hopefully that's true (even though it's likely to be several breakthroughs). But consider this: The US relied more on electricity from renewable sources in 1950 than today.

8

Rat Race

"To graduate as a landmine-sniffer, a rat has to find 100 per cent of landmines in a test field in a single sweep." From Mosaic: Rats can smell tuberculosis. Dogs can smell cancer. Now they're being trained to save your life. (If you're a rat, try to avoid the landmine sniffing gig and shoot for the study to determine the effects of Sativa vs Indica.)

9

Baby Love

"When Celeste awoke again, it was because another nurse -- a real nurse -- was frantically shaking her. 'Where is your child?' the nurse asked urgently." WaPo's Michael E. Miller with the mind-boggling tale of how a mom found the baby stolen from her 18 years earlier.

10

Bottom of the News

How long does it take for you to feel empathy towards Boston Dynamics' latest (and incredible) bipedal robot as it gets pushed and bullied? About as long as it takes you to start hoping it punches the human in the face. In other words, not long.

+ Today in human ridiculousness, we take you inside the controversial world of competitive yoga.

+ Buzzfeed: America's sexiest professions, according to Tinder.