Monday, June 13th, 2016

1

Orlando at Dawn

Over the weekend, Americans woke up to news of yet another mass shooting. And in modern day America, even mass shootings lead to immediate political rage. From Karen Tumulty in WaPo: When tragedy hits, Americans stand divided: "Across the ideological and partisan divide, it no longer seems possible to even explore -- much less agree upon -- causes and solutions."

+ CityLab: The politics of mass murder.

+ "Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism." That was part of Donald Trump's message in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. He also called on Obama to resign, and seemed to connect the president to the shooting. From The New Yorker's David Remnick: Donald Trump's Exploitation Of Orlando.

2

Semi Automatics and Half Measures

Orlando. San Bernardino. Aurora. Newtown. Aside from the tragic outcomes, what do these mass shootings have in common? Assault style weapons like the AR-15 that are really good at shooting a lot of people really fast.

+ How popular are guns in America? We have six gun sellers for every one Starbucks.

+ Consider that this headline exists: Orlando Shooting May Revive Effort to Keep Guns From Suspected Terrorists.

+ Anyone wondering whether Orlando will result in more gun laws or more gun sales hasn't been paying attention. But investors have. That's why gun stocks are up.

3

A Line Away From the Sand

"This public oath is about the only requirement that the Islamic State imposes on followers who wish to carry out acts of terror in its name." Where do we draw the line between a homicidal sociopath and a homicidal sociopath who is connected to a terror group? From the NYT: Was the Orlando Shooter Really Acting for ISIS?

+ President Obama referred to the shooter as a homegrown extremist, "inspired by various extremist information that was disseminated over the Internet."

+ FBI Director James Comey: "So far, we see no indication that this was a plot directed from outside the United States and we see no indication that he was part of any kind of network." But Comey also said he is "highly confident that this killer was radicalized at least in part through the Internet."

4

Satya Wants to Connect on LinkedIn

"This is about the coming together of the leading professional cloud and the leading professional network. This is the logical next step to take. We believe we can accelerate that by making LinkedIn the social fabric for all of Office." So said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as he announced his company's biggest acquisition ever; a $26 billion buyout of LinkedIn. This deals makes a lot of sense, and if nothing else, it will help the 8 people using Windows phones to connect with one another.

5

Hamilton Says Cheese

As expected, Hamilton dominated the Tony Awards (and even boosted the show's ratings to its highest level in 15 years). Here's a list of all the nominees and winners.

+ LA Times: Six moments that made last night's Tony Awards one of the best ones yet.

6

Massive Emojis Attack

Apple opened up its developer conference today by announcing a broad array of software updates and additions. Digg has a list of just the good stuff from Apple's WWDC keynote. Much of the event was focused on improvements to the Messages app -- including predictive emoji typing and emojis that are three times bigger. The more we get into this tech stuff, the more it seems like we just really want to communicate with each other. You know, like before the Internet. (Apple also debuted an app designed to help you breathe. Let's hope it has better battery life than the watch.)

+ MIT Tech Review imagines a scenario in which the iPhone was entirely manufactured in the USA.

7

Trial and Error

In Qatar, a 22 year-old Dutch woman who told police that she had been drugged and raped was just convicted of having sex outside of marriage and was ordered to pay a fine and leave the country (I'm guessing she won't have to be asked twice). This ruling came after she was detained for three months as she awaited trial.

8

Where Are You?

"The system is designed to solve the an often-ignored problem of 75% of the earth's population, an estimated 4 billion people, who have no address for mailing purposes." From Quartz: Mongolia is changing all its addresses to three-word phrases. I already reserved my three word address: Do Not Enter.

9

The Eyes Have It

"The evidence also points to Curry being an extreme outlier -- it wouldn't be wrong to say genius -- in his ability to process sensory input, even in the most stressful, complex, and fast-moving situations." Steph Curry literally sees the world differently than you do. Related: When I watch him play, I literally can't believe my eyes.

10

Bottom of the News

By popular demand and for a limited time, the original NextDraft Internet Superhero T-shirts are back up for sale. Be a Superhero and get yours right here, right now. (Warning: It's almost impossible not to get laid wearing one of these...)

+ "If you find yourself rolling your glazed eyes when the guy behind the counter at your local medicinal marijuana dispensary goes all sommelier on you with hyper-detailed descriptions of the most subtle aspects of his artisanal, farm to windpipe, sativa/indica blends, then you'll appreciate our simplified menu in which we provide a layperson's guide to our most popular strains."

+ Gizmodo: Here's the Physics Behind the 'Broomgate' Controversy Rocking the Sport of Curling.