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Facebook Prepares To Launch New Video Streaming Service Facebook is rolling out it's new video streaming service this week. "Facebook Watch" is accessed by a button on the home page feed. Click and you get tons of shows, including a couple of originals. It's paid for by ads, which could be aimed directly at you, since Facebook knows all about you. Read more on NPR

The Smartphone Generation: Less Sex, Fewer Drinks, More Depression A psychologist worries that thousands of young people are "on the brink of a mental health crisis." Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

Google-Funded Think Tank Fires Scholar Who Criticized Tech Giant Google has spent millions funding the New America think tank. So when one of its scholars criticized Google, he was fired. Ailsa Chang talks to Barry Lynn about his criticisms. Read more on NPR

Tech Giant Google Finds Itself In Another Free Speech Controversy Ailsa Chang talks to NPR tech reporter Aarti Shahani about the issues that this standoff raises. Read more on NPR

Morning News Brief: Harvey Weakens, Sanctuary Cities Ruling Harvey's has been battering the Texas-Louisiana coast for nearly a week. And, a federal judge has temporarily blocked Texas from implementing tough measures on sanctuary cities. Read more on NPR

By DIONNE SEARCEY from NYT Technology via New York Times

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By TIFFANY HSU and NELLIE BOWLES from NYT Technology via New York Times

By BRIAN X. CHEN from NYT Technology via New York Times

By NELLIE BOWLES from NYT Technology via New York Times

Thinking Of Running For Office? A Website Lets You Test The Waters Think you may want to run for public office? A new site lets you crowdfund a potential campaign. See how a California congressional candidate was inspired to give it a try. Read more on NPR

What's Up Those Baseball Sleeves? Lots Of Data, And Privacy Concerns Professional athletes use wearable technology to improve performance. But key questions remain over who owns the data and how it's used. Read more on NPR

By NICK WINGFIELD from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

Uber Ends Its Controversial Post-Ride Tracking Of Users' Location The practice caused immediate privacy concerns when the ride-hailing company added it in November. Users will regain the option to choose to share location data with the app only when using it. Read more on NPR

After Pressure Mounts, Joel Osteen Says His Houston Megachurch Is Open To Evacuees Lakewood Church occupies an arena that used to house the Houston Rockets. Questions circulated online about why it wasn't being used to house those needing refuge from Hurricane Harvey. Read more on NPR

How Moldy Hay And Sick Cows Led To A Life-Saving Drug The blood thinner warfarin, which prevents blood clots, owes its existence to some cows who got very sick after eating the wrong hay. That and a chemist who spent years trying to figure out why. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

Residents, Police Turn To Social Media To Communicate Amid Harvey Facebook and Twitter became de facto centers for thousands of stranded people as 911 centers became overwhelmed with calls. Police and officials are using social media as an essential tool to connect. Read more on NPR

By FARHAD MANJOO from NYT Technology via New York Times

Texas Police And Residents Turn To Social Media To Communicate Amid Harvey Facebook and Twitter became de facto centers for thousands of stranded people as 911 centers became overwhelmed with calls during the hurricane in south Texas. Even police and government officials are now using these social media channels as an essential means of communication. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By DAVID STREITFELD and NELLIE BOWLES from NYT Technology via New York Times

The News And Your Newsfeed Do Facebook's partnerships with news organizations make it part of the media? Read more on NPR

How Silicon Valley Is Shaping The News Tech giants could soon replace traditional media publishers. Are we ready for social media to be the "mainstream media"? Read more on NPR

Expedia's Dara Khosrowshahi Picked As Uber's New CEO After a search that included a number of well-known candidates, the board of ride-sharing giant Uber has announced its pick for CEO: Expedia's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Read more on NPR

By FARHAD MANJOO from NYT Technology via New York Times

By CADE METZ from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

What The Public Is Saying About Miscarriage In 140 Characters Miscarriage, while widely experienced, is not often discussed in public. Researchers have turned to social media to see what people are saying about the topic and how much they're choosing to share. Read more on NPR

Why Don't We Have Princess Leia Holograms Yet? Researchers continue to chase down the sci-fi holy grail of genuine free-standing holograms — and they're getting pretty close. One obstacle: Current computing systems just aren't up to it. Read more on NPR

Human Rights Watch Raises Concerns Over Autonomous Weapons NPR's Scott Simon talks to Bonnie Docherty, senior arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, about the group's call for a pre-emptive ban on fully autonomous weapons. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

Will Samsung Case Mark A Turning Point For South Korean Business Ties To Government? After Lee Jae-yong's conviction for bribery, "I hope this is a starting point to cutting off businesses' close relationship to the government," said South Korean President Moon Jae-in's spokesman. Read more on NPR

By FARHAD MANJOO and MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

By NICOLE PERLROTH and ADAM GOLDMAN from NYT Technology via New York Times

By THOMAS ERDBRINK and VINDU GOEL from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MATT STEVENS from NYT Technology via New York Times

By NICK WINGFIELD from NYT Technology via New York Times

By STEVE LOHR from NYT Technology via New York Times

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

YouTube Stars Stress Out, Just Like The Rest Of Us Young YouTube stars work hard to look authentic and accessible, and they can make millions of dollars doing it. But the pressure to appear perfect while living online can sometimes be too much. Read more on NPR

Tanzania Gears Up To Become A Nation Of Medical Drones Drones have delivered everything from pizza to condoms to hot dogs. In Tanzania, they have a bold new mission. Read more on NPR

Justice Department Narrows Request For Visitor Logs To Inauguration Protest Website Dropping a request for some 1.3 million IP addresses, the Trump Administration says its will instead focus "on evidence of the planning coordination and participation in a criminal act." Read more on NPR

By NICK WINGFIELD from NYT Technology via New York Times

#HappyBirthday: Quintessential Twitter Feature Turns Ten Originally envisioned as a method of organization, the hashtag has gone from an obscure idea to indelible part of our communication landscape. Read more on NPR

By MIKE ISAAC and TIFFANY HSU from NYT Technology via New York Times

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By DAMON DARLIN from NYT Technology via New York Times

Walmart, Google Join Forces In Online Fight Against Amazon The world's largest retailer will hawk its products on Google Express for the first time in a play to get a bigger chunk of the growing voice-enabled shopping market currently dominated by Amazon. Read more on NPR

By BRIAN X. CHEN from NYT Technology via New York Times

By BRIAN X. CHEN from NYT Technology via New York Times

By FARHAD MANJOO from NYT Technology via New York Times

Unlikely Allies Join Fight To Protect Free Speech On The Internet After big tech companies took action to take down white supremacist content, there have been calls for the government to step in to protect free speech on the right and left. Read more on NPR

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI and MICHAEL CORKERY from NYT Technology via New York Times

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI from NYT Technology via New York Times

New Bullet Trains To Put China Out Front On High-Speed Rail Six years after China slowed down its fastest trains in the wake of a deadly crash, a next generation of super-fast trains are set to cut commute times between major cities. Read more on NPR

'Smart' Pill Bottles Aren't Enough To Help The Medicine Go Down Lots of people forget to take their medicine on time. Now firms are selling "smart" pill bottles that send patients reminders through the internet. But maybe the real problem isn't forgetfulness. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

Uber Hires Harvard Business School's Frances Frei To Address Leadership Issues NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Frances Frei, Uber's new vice president of leadership and strategy, about what she plans to bring to the ride-hailing company after more than dozen executives left this year. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By NELLIE BOWLES from NYT Technology via New York Times

Russian Bots Tweeting Calls To Fire McMaster, Former FBI Agent Says An online tracker developed by former FBI agent Clint Watts has identified Russian bots as responsible for many tweets urging the firing of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Read more on NPR

By FARHAD MANJOO and MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

Is AI More Threatening Than North Korean Missiles? Tesla CEO Elon Musk last week warned that AI is an enormous threat. There can be no doubt that the advent of smart, rather than smart-ish, machines, is a long way off, though, says blogger Alva Noë. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

Tech Companies Blacklist White Supremacist Site The neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer has been essentially purged from the Internet following the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville. Read more on NPR

By KATIE BENNER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By KATIE BENNER from NYT Technology via New York Times

Silicon Valley Fights Back Against Extremism Online Companies are waging a broad attack against white supremacist groups, cutting off their ability to raise money, post content or register their sites online. These moves are not unprecedented, but this muscle flexing raises a lot of questions — not just about free speech, but also about due process and who controls the Internet. Read more on NPR

Turning To VPNs For Online Privacy? You Might Be Putting Your Data At Risk With Internet providers able to track and sell your browsing data, people who want to keep their activity hidden are turning to virtual private networks. But VPNs can themselves be insecure. Read more on NPR

British Cybersecurity Expert Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Malware Charges Before these allegations, 23-year-old Marcus Hutchins was known for his role in finding the kill switch to the WannaCry ransomware cyber-attack last May. He is accused of creating a malware scheme. Read more on NPR

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to ... Interactive Biodegradable Funerary Urns? Technology is fundamentally changing how we deal with death, memorials and human remains. One of the latest examples: A startup offers a smartphone-connected urn where ashes are used to grow a tree. Read more on NPR

Kyle Quinn Hid At A Friend's House After Being Misidentified On Twitter As A Racist A University of Arkansas professor falsely identified as a participant in a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville says the online reaction was frightening and felt like being chased by a mob. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

Dreamhost Challenges Department Of Justice Anti-Trump Records Request NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Dallas Kashuba, co-founder of DreamHost. The company challenged the Department of Justice's demand that DreamHost hand over 1.3 million IP addresses for people who visited an anti-trump protest site. Read more on NPR

By LAURA HUDSON from NYT Technology via New York Times

By RON LIEBER from NYT Technology via New York Times

UNICEF Picks YouTube Star As Ambassador Known as "Superwoman" to her 12 million online followers, Lilly Singh represents a new kind of celebrity — and that's exactly why UNICEF's made her the face of its cause. Read more on NPR

Quoting Mandela, Obama's Tweet After Charlottesville Is The Most-Liked Ever "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion," the former president tweeted. He was quoting Nelson Mandela, and it struck a chord for many. Read more on NPR

UNICEF Picks YouTube Star As Ambassador Known as "Superwoman" to her 12 million online followers, Lilly Singh represents a new kind of celebrity — and that's exactly why UNICEF's made her the face of its cause. Read more on NPR

Here's What You Need To Know About The Total Solar Eclipse As America prepares for the eclipse on Aug. 21, here are some basic facts about the phenomenon. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By FARHAD MANJOO from NYT Technology via New York Times

By CADE METZ from NYT Technology via New York Times

By CADE METZ, JEAN YVES CHAINON and JOSHUA THOMAS from NYT Technology via New York Times

DOJ Demands Files On Anti-Trump Activists, And A Web Hosting Company Resists Legal experts called the government's demand for information unusually broad. DreamHost says the warrant would require it to hand over logs of 1.3 million visits to its customer's website. Read more on NPR

By KEVIN ROOSE from NYT Technology via New York Times

By CECILIA KANG from NYT Technology via New York Times