“Top-Level Figure Skating Judges Consistently Favor Skaters From Their Home Countries. Now Many Of Those Judges Are At The Olympics,” BuzzFeed
Well, this is disappointing. The data wonks over at BuzzFeed crunched figure skating scoring data to find 27 judges who consistently up-score skaters from their home countries. Sixteen of them are scoring skating in PyeongChang for the Olympics this month. Now, there are other things that could explain this — preference for a regional skating style, for instance — but the odds that what looked like bias was a fluke for any of these judges was 1 in 100,000. And this is after scoring rules were changed to make the whole thing less corrupt. — Greta Kaul, data reporter
“Has Anyone Seen the President?” Bloomberg View
It’s clear that after just one year of his presidency, Donald Trump has created one of the most unusual White House environments in the modern era. The seemingly fresh weekly scandals and bizarre aides making news each week make that apparent, but what I like about this long, discursive essay in Bloomberg from Michael Lewis (he of “Moneyball” and the “Big Short”) is how he zeroes in on the little details of this bizarre administration to tell that broader story. Warning: There is some Steve Bannon here, but not so much that it makes the story any less enjoyable. — Sam Brodey, Washington correspondent
“The House That Spied on Me,” Gizmodo
I have a Google Home smart speaker but I’ve not gotten much beyond playing music and trying to stump it with questions like ‘Hey, Google, who won the 1979 NBA Championship?’ which it got wrong (it was NOT the Oklahoma City Thunder!). Anything beyond that seems creepy. So I enjoyed this piece in Gizmodo by Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu about what happens to those who adopt all possible smart home technology. — Peter Callaghan, local government reporter
“Why Do Cats Freak Out After Pooping?” Mental Floss
Many cat owners are familiar with the 50-yard dash that often follows a successful trip to the litter box. Is it euphoria over a job well done? An escape from the eye-watering odor? Jake Rossen at Mental Floss researches the possible biological and/or behavioral answers to this steaming question. — Corey Anderson, web editor
