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"A large chasm has opened between the fates of young liberal-arts majors and their peers in STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math) fields. The former are struggling to find work that pays, at least before their late twenties. The latter are mostly finding lucrative work after they graduate." (This actually gives me some good fodder for conversation next time my parents come down to the basement for a talk.) The Atlantic's Derek Thompson on the millennial unemployment crisis that's really a liberal arts unemployment crisis: Fear of a College-Educated Barista. Right about now, I could use a venti coffee with room for irony.
The headlines keep coming. More murders in Chicago. A weekend of shootings. A summer of killings. But as the excellent Alex Kotlowitz explains, "one issue is rarely raised: year after year, the vast majority of murders and non-fatal shootings in Chicago go unsolved. Last year, the police charged individuals in just twenty-six per cent of all murders. Of the nearly three thousand non-fatal shootings, only ten per cent of the assailants were charged, which means that you have a pretty good chance of shooting someone in Chicago and getting away with it." From The New Yorker: Solving Chicago's Murders Could Prevent More.
+ Jill Leovy's book Ghettoside is focused on exactly this point (and is a must-read): "This is a book about a very simple idea: where the criminal justice system fails to respond vigorously to violent injury and death, homicide becomes endemic."
In a moment that foreshadows the ultimate demise of the lead character in Scarface, Elvira warns Tony Montana to heed a key warning: "Don't get high on your own supply." It's advice that the employees of Hampton Creek should have taken when their superiors allegedly pushed absurd claims and advised them to start buying the company's fake mayonnaise in bulk to boost sales. The goal? To raise more money from investors. Bloomberg's Olivia Zaleski, Peter Waldman and Ellen Huet on how Hampton creek sold Silicon Valley on a fake-mayo miracle. Say hello to my little friend. (It's a jar of real mayo.)
Yahoo has confirmed that hackers gained access to data associated with as many as 500 million user accounts. It's news that could impact the sale of the company's web assets. It's also news that should lead half a billion users to change their passwords at other sites they still actually use. And it's yet more news of just how vulnerable our personal information is as the years pass, and the number of sites with which we share that information continues to rise. And here's an explainer for millennials: Yahoo has confirmed that a hacker has accessed your parents’ personal data.
According to the latest numbers, "Americans own an estimated 265m guns, more than one gun for every American adult." But that stat implies that the hardware is evenly divided among citizens. It's not. It turns out that just 3 percent of Americans own half the guns. These "are America’s gun super-owners -- an estimated 7.7 million Americans who own between eight and 140 guns."
"Just look around you -- at the people crouched over their phones as they walk the streets, or drive their cars, or walk their dogs, or play with their children. Observe yourself in line for coffee, or in a quick work break, or driving, or even just going to the bathroom. Visit an airport and see the sea of craned necks and dead eyes. We have gone from looking up and around to constantly looking down." Reporter, columnist and early adopter Andrew Sullivan on the endless bombardment of news and gossip and images that has rendered us manic information addicts: I Used to Be a Human Being. (I'm gonna have to take the fifth on this one, folks.)
For years, lawmakers have been trying to strike a balance between the needs of those who suffer from pain, and the potentially deadly effects of opioid addiction. Over that same time period, "a coalition of drugmakers and industry-backed nonprofits blanketed Washington with messages about the importance of painkillers." Wait, you mean some pharmaceutical companies aren't putting the health of patients first?
"Sandy removes his cap ... wipes his index finger across his left brow, dries it off on his left pant leg, readjusts the bill of his cap. I imagine that the mound at Dodger Stadium must be the loneliest place in the world. There are 29,000 people here ... and about a million butterflies." As Vin Scully approaches his final baseball game behind the mic, his colleagues look back at his 67-year career: The Man. The Voice. The Stories.
+ "The researchers whose work led to Tom Brady’s suspension have never spoken publicly. Now they’re eager to say they were right, no matter what Patriots fans believe." From The NYT: The Deflategate Scientists Unlock Their Lab.
Our culture is so sick with all of you publicly commenting on a celebrity divorce involving people you’ve never met. That's why I’m mourning in private. Yes, most of the coverage is gross gossip, silly rumors, or bad Mr. and Mrs. Smith sequel jokes. But if you're into the topic, you should probably check out this quite interesting perspective from Anne Helen Petersen: Brangelina Is Dead; Long Live Angelina.
"A 2013 study in the International Journal of Trichology found 84 reports of 'unusually rapid' adult hair-blanching in medical literature between 1800 and the present day. Of these, 14 were witnessed by a physician, and were not explained by the rate of follicle growth or any known medical conditions. I am here to report an 85th case: my own." The Atlantic on the medical mystery of hair that whitens overnight. (For most of us, it just feels that way.)
+ Looking for office space and determined to pay the highest rents in America? Come on down to Sand Hill Road, where venture capital firms pay the highest rent in the US (and advise startups on fiscal decisions).
+ Here's my advice for Hillary Clinton in the debate to end all debates Monday. Do not try to take on Donald Trump where he lives.
+ Donald Trump Jr. had a bad social media week.
+ "I get calls all day of kids saying, 'we saw your number on Facebook, you're ugly and should kill yourself.' If that's what fame is, then, yeah, I guess you could say I'm famous." There's been a lot of news about clowns lately. So let's catch up with Wrinkles: "the Internet-famous scary clown who claims to have a roster of celebrity clients, and a steady business traumatizing badly behaved kids for money." (If he's not available, you can just have the kids watch Hannity.)
+ Daniel Jovanov does fantastic impressions of cars. (Watching this makes me finally understand how my parents felt when I told them I was gonna write a newsletter...)
This is a weekly best-of version of the NextDraft newsletter. For daily updates and to get the NextDraft app, go here. (Original story reprinted with permission from NextDraft.)
