Networks Did Not Show Angry, Booing NFL Fans
Sporting News
The NFL's TV partners decided to air playings of the national anthem before games this week, given the red-hot news of President Trump's attacks against protesting players. But they left out a key element of the coverage: crowd shots of angry fans. One behind-the-scenes TV staffer told the Sporting News that camera operators were ordered to avoid panning the stands. Cameras were similarly crowd-shy at other stadiums. Russians Relied Heavily on Twitter in 2016
New York Times
"Twitter may have been used even more extensively than Facebook in the Russian influence campaign last year," the New York Times reports. Russia-linked Twitter accounts posed as Americans, and false stories were spread using large-scale automated messaging or "bot" accounts. Twitter has not said much about this activity, but its silence is ending: It's due to brief staff of the Senate and House intelligence committees today. North Korea May Be Using Its Banned Coal to 'Mine' Bitcoin
Quartz
After North Korea was banned from exporting coal to China, it evidently repurposed its coal to power the "mining" of bitcoin -- the virtual currency created through complex computations requiring enormous amounts of electricity. An information security firm believes North Korea started bitcoin mining in May, judging from a spike in internet activity observed then. Another firm found evidence that North Korean hackers were targeting South Korean bitcoin exchanges to steal their crypto-funds. How the Bankruptcy System Fails Black Americans
ProPublica
Black people struggling with debts are far less likely than their white peers to gain lasting relief from bankruptcy, ProPublica finds. Prime reason: Chapter 13, the type of bankruptcy favored by lawyers in the South. Unlike Chapter 7, which wipes out debts and allows people to keep what little they have, Chapter 13 blocks foreclosures and car repos as long as debtors can keep up payments for five years. But: "Most Chapter 13 filers in Memphis don't last a year, let alone five," this story says. Citi Revives Infamous Bet From the Credit Crisis
Bloomberg
Citigroup's boss is out marketing synthetic collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) -- financial derivatives that let buyers make leveraged bets. Sound familiar? The huge market for these products played an infamous role in the 2008 financial crisis. And back then Citi was forced into a taxpayer bailout after suffering huge losses on similar securities, tied to mortgages. But it says this time things are different. How Fake News Turned Idaho Town Upside Down
New York Times Magazine
Twin Falls, Idaho, turned against refugee resettlement after false accounts of the sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl by two minor refugee boys. Conspiracy theories proliferated and residents demanded action from city leaders. Since the victim and the perpetrators were all minors, many of the details of the case were sealed, which only fueled speculation. Crowdsourcing an Alzheimer's Cure
Wired
From bird census-takers to astronomy hobbyists, amateurs have long helped scientists, even before the internet. Now researchers have created an online game in hopes of developing a cure for Alzheimer's -- using slides depicting mice brains. For some players, it has already proven an effective treatment for one of the disease's most insidious symptoms: helplessness. | 
