November 7, 2016

Hong Kong may cool off after record highs, but temperatures are going to be higher than ever after China flexes unprecedented power over the island, claiming ability to remove insubordinate lawmakers. / scmp.com

Saudi Arabia is obviously a theocracy. South Korea, more so than you may know: an investigation is closing in on the president for sharing confidential information with a cult leader—think Emailgate, but Huma Abedin turns out to read crystal balls. / Quartz

1. MIT scientists announced they’ve come up with a way to make neural nets explain themselves, mitigating the major critique of the algorithms as inscrutable “black boxes.” / news.mit.edu

2. Samsung seeks redemption with a new phone that features “significantly differentiated” artificial intelligence. / Bloomberg

3. A serious Apple fan has likely agreed to (and not read) enough software contracts to equal the length of The Hobbit. / Quartz

4. The internet in all animals: the stomachs of sick cows can now text or email their farmers and vets. / Bloomberg

5. In Adobe’s upcoming “Photoshop for audio,” your typing is converted as spoken by a person’s voice—even if they never said it. / factmag.com

6. Not really tech, but: When doctors are monitored, their handwashing gets better, and the habit persists even when the monitoring stops. / economics.mit.edu

“To achieve flow, the brain needs to be tasked with doing something slightly challenging, but not impossible, and given rules or parameters.” New study suggests that participating in kinky sex leads to a state of “flow” that enhances creativity. / Quartz

Photographs from this weekend’s Lewes Bonfire, Britain’s largest Guy Fawkes event. / It’s Nice That

“No party has won the popular vote six times in seven tries since the formation of the modern party system in 1828.” A Clinton win would be unprecedented. Here are the four groups that will determine whether “restoration” or “transformation” become the theme of the next four years’ politics. / The Atlantic

“In the voting booth, recognize that you are alone. This is a moment of your personal truth, no one else’s. Feel your body; what is your body telling you? How is the heartbeat? Palms? Throat? Stand still for several moments. Feel your feet solidly on the ground. Take a few slow, deep breaths.” In case you actually vote in a booth, try some mindfulness. / New York Times

Clinton tells voters that their stress is real because the election is a big deal. / wfmj.com

“We call this our Selma because this is the worst attack on voting rights we’ve seen since the days of Jim Crow.” If you really want something to stress about, here’s North Carolina’s discriminatory voter ID law explained. / Vox

“Neither side is going into Election Day expecting to lose. Whichever party ends up being shocked by the results will have a protracted, painful, but perhaps rejuvenating, period of soul-searching ahead.” Tens of millions of Americans are going feel like they got punched in the gut. / Real Clear Politics

The New York Times produces its first ever video-game-as-op-ed, “The Voter Suppression Trail.” You can play as a white programmer from California, a Latina nurse from Texas, or a black salesman from Wisconsin. Guess which character has it easiest? / New York Times

A thorough debunking of four big myths about voter fraud. / The Daily Dot

“The issues. These are conjuring words, deployed to summon an air of adult purpose. In public discourse they tend to be pronounced with an unctuous reverence, in the same way you might say ‘the children’ or ‘the national debt’ or ‘the Yankees.’ Do not be taken in.” Contrary to popular belief and Newt Gingrich, this election was about “the issues”: Racism, misogyny, and xenophobia. / Slate

Japanese design prize recognizes a non-Mercator map that might be the most proportional representation ever. / Gizmodo

Vancouver atist Annette Labedzki posts mesmerizing videos of mixing paint—perfect for easing your election stress. / labedzki-art.com, Instagram

The choice between Trump and Clinton made the Koch Brothers and other groups refocus their efforts to supporting friendly Secretaries of State, who are responsible for implementing citizen ballot measures / ProPublica

“That will look bad on your behalf if I am forced to make a video.” Lessons learned from a year covering the controversial vegan YouTube vlogger beat. / Jezebel

“Mike Pence is not moderate. He is very, very conservative, particularly socially speaking. He’s also, in my experience covering him, a pretty partisan guy.” The narrative of Mike Pence as a consummate moderate Republican doesn’t ring true with reporters who covered him back home. / Columbia Journalism Review

“What’s made Kelly an asset to any network is her ability to remain an unflappable and even scornful authority when confronted with increasingly hysterical Republican men.” Megyn Kelly is rapidly becoming the face of conservative women utterly fed up with the misogynistic diarrhea factory that the Republican Party has turned itself into in order to defend Donald Trump. / The Week

A history of what counties voted for the losing presidential candidate explores the “geography of opposition.” / ProPublica

“If spotted a personal fortune, a sophisticated campaign, a gerrymandered district, and a squishy campaign finance system, can a man literally buy himself a seat in Congress?” Reporting from the Indiana town that a Tennessee tycoon targeted as the easiest way to get himself elected to Congress. / Slate

“If women… underestimate their qualifications for office, then only the most qualified, politically ambitious females will emerge as candidates. The women who are elected to office will perform better, on average, than their male counterparts.” Women govern differently than men, and one of the reasons may be what a political scientist dubs the “Jill Robinson effect”—they work twice as hard and perform twice as well in order to be taken as seriously as their male colleagues. / Vox

“She should smile more,” “her voice is so shrill,” and other sexist highlights of the 2016 campaign season. / YouTube

Arizona is in play tomorrow, in no small part thanks to the tenacious response of labor unions to the oft-maligned “show me your papers” bill in an incredibly diverse state. / capitalandmain.com

“At this, point there are five equally-likely outcomes in this election: 1) Your candidate wins. 2)You take up smoking again. 3) You send a series of threatening letters to Wolf Blitzer. 4) You fill out an online application for permanent residence in the Netherlands. 5) You wear your pajamas to work because, seriously, who cares.” FiveThirtyEight predicts you’re going to freak the fuck out this election. / Fusion

Whatever the outcome of the election is, on Nov. 9 the GOP is going to have to go out in search of its very, very lost soul—and decide whether women can continue to have a place in the party or not. / The Washington Post

“If black lives matter, they deserve to be in paintings.” Kehinde Wiley’s newest work: 10 stained-glass reinterpretations of medieval motifs with modern black men and women. / PRI

1. A brief introduction to Chinese science fiction. / mithilareview.com

2. The secrets of funeral home employees. / BuzzFeed

3. “Nick Denton, Peter Thiel, and the plot to murder Gawker.” / Vanity Fair

4. A guy photoshops himself into Kendall Jenner’s Instagram photos and significantly improves them. / imgur.com

5. Fine, one thing related to the election, though it’s an oldie-but-goodie: Larry David’s “Are You Undecided? Or Not?” / The New York Times

Mats Valk of the Netherlands sets a new world record for solving a Rubik’s Cube: 4.74 seconds / YouTube