Smartphone Dystopias, Disaster Fatigue, Roly-Poly Pandas

A quick note about the North Bay fires: I spoke with someone from the Santa Rosa fire department last night and asked her where they were preferring monetary donations be sent. She mentioned that the Redwood Credit Union is partnering with the local Press Democrat newspaper and state senator Mike McGuire to collect funds for the victims of the North Bay fires. If you're like me and wondering how you can help from where you are, you can visit their Community Fund donation page, or walk into any RCU branch in the Bay Area to give.

A few things in brief,

• Bloomberg’s devastating look at the man who built “a multimillion-dollar empire based on the simple idea of converting a semiautomatic rifle into a weapon that can fire up to 800 rounds per minute” is a sobering must-read on business and the insane patchwork that is US gun laws.

• Thing I don’t disagree with, from the Guardian: ’Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia.

• POTUS is having tantrums in the Oval Office: “I Hate Everyone In The White House!”: Trump Seethes As Advisers Fear The President Is “Unraveling”.

• If you’re asking why Harvey Weinstein’s victims didn’t come forward sooner, read Liz Meriwether’s personal take on gender and power for young women in creative industries, I’m a Coward.

• And just now: U.S. withdraws from UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural organization, citing anti-Israel bias
  
  And finally...

Watch the Toronto Zoo’s compilation of baby panda videos, set to classical music and filled with roly-poly fluffy panda outtakes to take your mind off of the real world, which is pretty much shite at this point.