THE INTEL PICTURE BEGINS TO FOCUS

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1. THE INTEL PICTURE BEGINS TO FOCUS

This is an exhaustive and well written article. "Yet one important region where the Emni [ISIS intelligence group] is not thought to have succeeded in sending trained attackers is North America. Though dozens of Americans have become members of the Islamic State, and some have been recruited into the external operations wing, 'they know it’s hard for them to get Americans into America' once they have traveled to Syria, he [Harry Sarfo] said. 'For America and Canada, it’s much easier for them to get them over the social network, because they say the Americans are dumb — they have open gun policies,' he said. 'They say we can radicalize them easily, and if they have no prior record, they can buy guns, so we don’t need to have no contact man who has to provide guns for them.' From NYT - How a Secretive Branch of ISIS Built a Global Network of Killers

+ A great interview with, Rukmini Callimachi, the author of the above article. From Wired - How One Journalist Uses Social Media to Get Inside the Minds of ISIS

2. THE NUCLEAR "FOOTBALL"

"Fact check: There is no button. There is a briefcase, though. It follows the president everywhere — onto Air Force One, onto the golf course, onto elevators. Inside is a manual for conducting nuclear war. A how-to, really." From WaPo - Nervous about nukes again? Here’s what you need to know about The Button. (There is no button.)

3. MOONWALK

There's a pretty cool video embedded in the article. "For years, the only entities with the power and resources to visit the moon were governments. But that's all about to change: A private spaceflight company announced it will be the first of its kind to conduct an independent moon landing. While on the moon, MoonEx's lander will also try to win a $20 million bounty being offered by Google as part of the Lunar XPRIZE competition. In order to win, a private entity must land on the moon, take off again, land more than 1,500 feet away from its original position, and send high-definition video and images back to earth." From WaPo - This company’s one small step may be a giant leap for private space travel

4. BOW CHICKA BOW WOW...OR NOT
From WaPo - ‘There isn’t really anything magical about it’: Why more millennials are avoiding sex

5. I SCREAM. YOU SCREAM. WE ALL SCREAM FOR...KIMCHI

For the Record, I don't like kimchi. "So why is Korean food taking off in the US now? In addition to being delicious, there are deeper factors at play—namely, a large investment from the Korean government to promote and propagate Korean restaurants abroad. And it’s not alone: countries have developed official 'gastro-diplomacy' programs through which they invest aggressively in marketing their cuisines abroad, training chefs, easing trade restrictions, and using a variety of other tactics in the hopes of becoming the next big food trend." From Quartz- Your newfound love of Korean food is a government conspiracy

BOTTOM OF THE NEWS

- If you have not seen Bad Moms, I highly recommend it
- Glorious photos of world leaders eating badly in public

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