Hurricane Joaquin is Coming
There’s a hurricane brewing. All this dreary gray weather will turn to heavy rain Friday as Hurricane Joaquin grows stronger and moves toward the East Coast, weather forecasters say. The storm is hitting the Bahamas now, but so far its path has been hard to predict. Joaquin could either veer towards North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland or avoid landfall and head east. Either way, the Rockaway peninsula has already started preparing for the worst case scenario. [Washington Post]
Michelle Obama Tells Girls to “Beat the Boys” in School
Michelle Obama's getting a lot of positive press for encouraging teen girls not to give up their education for anything. At an event called "The Power of an Educated Girl," she encouraged young women to “Compete with the boys. Beat the boys.” She asked people at the event to use the hashtag #62milliongirls to show how education has helped them and said that "There is no boy, at this age, that is cute enough or interesting enough to stop you from getting your education." [Washington Post]
Obama Snubs Waldorf Astoria Over Spying Concerns
The Waldorf Astoria hotel has served as the New York City home of American Presidents during their annual trip for the UN General Assembly since Herbert Hoover’s time. But this year, the American delegation broke the decades-old tradition and is staying a block over instead, at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel. According to the Washington Post, the threat of Chinese espionage is to blame. Last year, the Waldorf Astoria was purchased by Chinese firm Anbang Insurance Group. The Lotte New York Palace Hotel is South Korean-owned. [Washington Post]
Donald Trump Is Not Going Anywhere
Perhaps you’re suffering from Trump overload. Well, so is New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich, and that’s what makes his profile "Donald Trump Is Not Going Anywhere” (a title that can be read a couple of ways, of course), an interesting look at America’s most divisive candidate. One take away: "Trump might be the single most self-involved yet least introspective person I have ever met in my life, in or out of politics." [NYT]
Planned Parenthood Battles Washington
Planned parenthood head Cecile Richards spoke before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Tuesday, addressing secretly shot videos anti-abortion activists have used to argue that the women's health organization should be defunded. The hearing, which had Richards defending everything from her organization to her own six-figure salary, had its share of tense moments including clashes over sexism and misogyny. [NPR]
Whole Foods to Cut Ties With Prison Labor
The high-end grocery store announced this week that it will no longer sell products made by prisoners, after criticism that the practice was exploiting incarcerated workers, according to NPR. Whole Foods said it would pull a goat cheese and a Tilapia from its shelves by April of next year — both are made through a program in Colorado that employs prisoners. Supporters of such programs argue that they allow the incarcerated to learn useful work skills while they're behind bars. [NPR]
The New York Times Will Tell You How To Be A Modern Man
The New York Times has come out with an ... interesting list of 27 ways to be a modern man, which author Brian Lombardi sums up in the intro as being "all about adhering to principle." The principles for 2015 apparently include eating all of the fat on your steak, using the word "helicopter" instead of "chopper," listening to the Wu-Tang Clan at least once a week and picking up a newspaper every morning (that last one seems pretty self-promotional). Oh, and you should probably also have a daughter. [NYT]
How One Man Created a Made-Up Language for 'Game of Thrones'
David J. Peterson, the mind behind both the Dothraki and Valyrian languages from "Game of Thrones," has a new book out called "The Art of Language Invention." In it he describes what goes into the basics of constructed languages — or "conlangs" — why it's so hard for him to speak a language he created and how conlangs could help us one day speak with an alien species. [Wired]
'Yelp for People' is Going to be a Thing
A new app that some are calling “Yelp for people” is coming in November. The founders of the app, which is called Peeple, said it will allow users to make informed decisions about humans they come across and review them. The idea is to give people the ability to make informed decisions about friends and acquaintances, but the personal stakes of a negative review on this app — especially a false or malicious one — are probably higher than someone lying on Yelp about food poisoning. [Washington Post]
Watch HLN Get Trolled
Twitter comedian Jon Hendren managed to seamlessly work Edward Scissorhands into a conversation about Edward Snowden with HLN anchor Yasmin Vossoughian, and it was beautiful. [Gawker]
