9.19.2017

United Nations.
President Trump traveled to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, giving quick opening remarks praising the assembly ahead of his highly-anticipated speech today. The General Assembly is the United Nation's main policy-making body and the only one where all 193 members have an equal vote. The speech will be Trump's UN debut, where he is expected to call on other nations to step up their response to international terrorism. Other topics to be covered over the week include coordination over the North Korea threat, the future of the Iran nuclear deal, and the recent mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar. On the latter topic, President Aung San Suu Kyi canceled her trip to the Assembly, addressing her nation for the first time since the UN called the crisis "textbook ethnic cleansing". See a full schedule of UNGA events this week here.

Next Up, Maria.
Hurricane Maria strengthened into a Category 5 storm late Monday, causing widespread damage as it passed over the island of Dominica in the eastern Caribbean (map it). With wind speeds over 160 mph, the storm is the strongest to hit the tiny island since Hurricane David in 1983 - and the first Category 5 to hit Dominica head on in recorded history. The storm's current trajectory has it passing over Puerto Rico, still recovering from Irma, Wednesday afternoon, before turning northward and heading over the Bahamas and up the East Coast on Saturday. Maria is not currently projected to make landfall in the continental US - but early predictions can be unreliable. As always, the place to go for the best hurricane updates is the National Hurricane Center, where you can see best estimates for storm paths as the models roll in. 

Home Runs.
Major League Baseball teams are on track to make history together today, needing only 30 home runs combined to pass the cumulative single-season total of 5,693 set in the year 2000. While the total itself is impressive - with over 10 games to go in the regular season, the mark will likely be obliterated - it also represents the emergence of MLB from the steroid era after almost two decades. While some say stronger players and less strategic hitting (like bunting and hit-and-runs) are responsible for the boom, two independent analyses suggest new structure and composition of baseballs are playing a role (see The Ringer and 538 reports). Regardless, it's exciting, and you can check out the list of home run leaders - led by Giancarlo Stanton (Miami Marlins) at 55 and Aaron Judge (New York Yankees) at 44.
 

FBI now involved in Kevin Hart sex-tape extortion plot (More)
Jerry Seinfeld's much-anticipated stand-up special 'Jerry Before Seinfeld' releases today on Netflix (More)
Dallas Cowboys are NFL, world's richest franchise at $4.8B value (More) | Matthew Stafford NFL's highest paid player (More)
 

Mars simulation ends, mock crew emerges from 8 months in isolation (More)
US and EU team up to launch International Brain Lab, 21 top neuroscience labs aim for 'standard model' of brain by focusing on single behavior - foraging (More)
Sex and aggression linked brains of male mice, but not females (More)
 

Email killer Slack - $200M+ annual revenue, growing 100%+ - raises $250M from Softbank at $5B+ valuation (More)
Northrop Grumman to buy missile & rocket maker Orbital for $7.8B (More)
Toys "R" Us plans Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing amid brick & mortar decline, buyout debt load (More)
 

Report: 11% of world malnourished, up 38M to 815M between 2015 and 2016 (More)
US holds live fire drills with two B-1 bombers, four F-35s along Korean Peninsula in show of force (More)
Fmr. Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was wiretapped before and after election under court order (More)

The Atlantic | Erika Hayasaki. Culture may be telling mothers to forget about being creative after having children, but science tells an entirely different story. When scientists study maternal rats - whose brains are strikingly similar to humans - they see their brains begin to rewire even before the offspring are born. The result is increased innovation, flexibility in habits, and other new behaviors - all of which form the essence of creativity. Further, rats with more access to resources show a thicker cortex and create more neurological links. Can having offspring be enriching for creativity?
 

Washington Post | Staff. A new science called neuroaesthetics looks to explain how our brains interact with different art forms, but it’s also shedding light on some other conundrums. We don’t just want to understand how our brains interact with art, we want to know why we love it so much—and there actually is an answer. In a wonderful cocktail of text, video, and music, we become captivated by the mysterious relationship between our brains and art.

Times a' Changin: 6 in 10 viewers ages 18-29 use online streaming to watch television.

Op-Ed: Social security numbers are a massive cybersecurity vulnerability - we should ditch them. 

The 11 most iconic movie couples of all time.

Football Doggos: Boise State has a dog that retrieves the kickoff tee and he is a very good boy (with video).

Report: 52% of the world’s population still does not have access to the Internet (links direct to report).

Photos: Oktoberfest officially kicked off Monday in Munich.

Data: Exploring child marriage around the world.

In the past three years, 50 universities have started e-sports teams.

Obituary: Soviet officer credited with saving the world from nuclear war in 1983 has died.

Clickbait: Eating ice cream for breakfast improves mental awareness.

Historybook: George Washington’s farewell address (1796); President James Garfield dies from gunshot wound (1881); Argentine President Juan Peron flees following coup (1955); Nikita Khrushchev denied access to Disneyland (1959); HBD Jimmy Fallon (1974); Earthquake kills thousands in Mexico City (1985); ‘Goodfellas’ debuts (1990).

"OBSERVE GOOD FAITH AND JUSTICE TOWARDS ALL NATIONS; CULTIVATE PEACE AND HARMONY WITH ALL."
-George Washington (excerpt from his farewell address)
 

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