The Americans Who Ditched Landlines and Other Fascinating News on the Web

1. You’re OK, I’m IPO

“Techies tend to have strong feelings about immigration barriers (they’re against them), universal health care (for that), and environmentalism (a big deal). In their minds, there’s no industry more closely aligned with the quirky culture of San Francisco — so why now, after decades in the region, are they being attacked as interlopers from the wrong side of the ideological divide? The difference appears to be less one of substance than of style.” The Bay Area led the tech revolution. Are the apparent cracks in our culture a harbinger of things to come in other cities as well? The New Yorker’s Nathan Heller shares a letter from San Francisco: California Screaming.

+ We need to figure this out because the technology boom is just warming up. Today’s tech geniuses are just the beginners. The disintermediators will be disintermediated. Consider the rise of mobile. 128 million Americans no longer have a landline.

2. It’s Mourning in the Middle East

Hamas rockets are reaching deeper into Israel as Israel looks for more high-value targets to bomb in Gaza. And a ground invasion is now being considered.

+ InFocus shares a series of photographs that provide a visual backdrop to the growing tensions.

+ What happens when Israeli mourners visit a Palestinian family?

+ Is the Yo App being used to alert Israelis about rocket attacks?

3. Like to Be Watched?

In The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain share the latest Snowden data dump and it’s a doozy. “The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim-Americans — including a political candidate and several civil rights activists, academics, and lawyers — under secretive procedures intended to target terrorists and foreign spies.”

+ Surveillance tactics made possible by technological advances are both used and abused. The question we face is where to draw the line. The NY Daily News takes a look at the NYPD’s modern arsenal: Big Brother — With a Badge.

4. Waxing Brazilian

Before yesterday, Brazil hadn’t lost a competitive soccer game at home since 1975. They still haven’t. There was no competition in Germany’s 7-1 historic drubbing of the home team. It was quick (three of Germany’s seven goals were scored in a 76-second stretch). It was the most talked about game in Twitter history. It was enough to make anyone cover his eyes. And, it may have been Mick Jagger’s fault.

+ It was bad, but was it bad enough to actually change the nation of Brazil?

+ Here are 17 extremely sad Brazilian newspaper covers.

+ Amazingly, Brazil’s soccer team only had the second worst sports experience of the week. Chicago author of How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona was gored during the running of the bulls. Of course, he plans to run again next year.

5. You Can’t Hide it Any Longer

I don’t want your money. I’m not asking you to invest in my startup or even to back my potato salad recipe. I just want you to help me achieve a goooooal. It takes a lot of time to read the Internet and this is a one dude operation. I don’t charge anything. I don’t sell anything. (Come to think of it, my business model sucks.) The only way I can grow this sucker is with your help. So come on and take one lousy minute and do me these two small favors.

1. Email this link to your two smartest (or dumbest) friends and tell them to sign up.

http://nextdraft.com

+ Share NextDraft on Facebook (you can add your own witty headline…)

6. Opening Pandemic’s Box

In an old storage room in a research center near Washington, a scientist opened a cardboard box and found several “decades-old vials of smallpox packed away and forgotten.”

7. Immigrant Song Doesn’t Remain the Same

The debate over immigration hasn’t changed much over the past few decades. But immigration has. FiveThirtyEight takes a look at some of the actual numbers.

+ Vox:14 facts that help explain America’s child-migrant crisis.

8. Such a Good Little Oy

Are we praising our kids to the point that they become entitled little monsters? Aeon’s Carlin Flora explains that the science isn’t nearly so simple. As an experiment, I spent one day praising my kids and one day criticizing them. They didn’t look up from their iPads on either day.

9. More Trix Up Their Sleeve

In the last few years, cereal has lost some of its grip on your breakfast table. But General Mills is not giving up. BloombergBusinessweek on the plans for a breakfast cereal revival. (Let me guess: Cinnamon Toast Crunchier…)

+ Here’s a chart showing who makes what at your grocery store.

10. The Bottom of the News

President Obama spent the day in Denver where he found himself shaking hands with someone wearing a horse head. Then things got a little weird.

+ Dubai’s plans for a 48-million square foot indoor city. (Suggested name: The Ass-trodome.)

+ Two dozen people offer you their best advice on how to invest a single dollar.

+ Let’s take a first-person trip down the world’s tallest waterslide. (For those who were rooting for Brazil yesterday, this will feel redundant.)