We’ve Done a Comprehensive Recap of The Newsroom…In Gchat


TheNewsroom

HBO



For those too cynical to understand it: The Newsroom is the Greatest Show on Earth. It’s also super fast-paced—because it’s written by Aaron Sorkin. So what better way to commemorate its criminally brief six-episode final season than with some ping-pong digital dialogue? Before we have to say goodbye forever, two WIRED writers—Jordan Crucchiola and Jason Kehe—are going to lovingly host walkthroughs of every episode until the series finale, doing real-time Gchat analysis of each one. They will aspire to Sorkin-levels of witty repartee while genuflecting to the master of emotionally charged, endearingly insufferable intellectual tennis. Read on for the full breakdown.


Jason Kehe: OK, Newsroom, Season 3, Episode 2: “Run.”

Jordan Crucchiola: I think you mean 3, 2, RUN.

Kehe: I was kinda hoping they’d redesign the title sequence again this season.

It’s still boring.

Crucchiola: But the THRILL of this music!

Kehe: The music is the best part.

And the very newsy coffee spill.

Crucchiola: I’m ready to chase down the leads,

get the scoops,

hand off so many papers to people!

Kehe: Here we go.

Kehe: “Aggressively Written By Aaron Sorkin”


[In ACN's boardroom. The twins walk in.]


Crucchiola: KAT DENNINGS

Kehe: Aka the lovable crazy intern from Thors 1 and 2

Crucchiola: She almost looks too contemporary to be in a Sorkin Show.

Kehe: I can’t figure out her face.

Crucchiola: Or her voice paired with her face

Kehe: It’s like…Elizabeth Olsen x ScarJo + vocal coaching from Ellen Page.

Also, who’s her twin brother?

He already seems irrelevant.


[Reese tells the twins he knows they’re planning on buying the company.]


Crucchiola: When Reese says he’s “a douche on the side of the angels” it is SO Reese.

Kehe: REESE! That guy: zero to hero.

OK, so he’s confronting the twins.

Crucchiola: Yes. And now Becca [ACN’s badass First Amendment lawyer] is confronting justice. And intellectual inferiority.

Kehe: I want to quote her every line.

Crucchiola: People can say Sorkin hates women, but they haven’t met Becca Halliday. Because she is clearly God.


Kehe: OK, and we’re back to Reese in the conference room. … How’s Kat doing with the Sorkinese?

Crucchiola: She’s trying to keep up. Fortunately Drunk Uncle Charlie just entered. WE RIDE.

How has the twin brother managed to disappear??

Kehe: He just got his first reaction shot—a stupid grin.

Crucchiola: Do you think Sorkin intentionally made Randy irrelevant? And then winked and nodded at us by having Charlie mess up their names?

Kehe: Randy? Blaire? I’m like Charlie, who’s who? This season is so meta.

Crucchiola: Like, I think the twins are the critics of the show.

Kehe: YES

Crucchiola: Who DON’T GET IT. Right?!

Kehe: Evil twins as stand-ins for the show’s HATERS. Brilliant move, Sorky.


[Back at ACN, where Becca is grilling Neal about his act of treason.]


Kehe: Neal is explaining his crime AGAIN. This make three times. Enough exposition, we get it.

Becca’s eyes get wide when Neal says 38 people are dead because of a fake story planted in “Kundu” (I had to check: not a real place) by an American PR firm.

Becca: “Well, here’s what you’ve done: you’ve committed espionage.”

Crucchiola: How could Neal think that teaching an enemy of the state to use the internet was OK?!

Kehe: Do we know he’s an enemy of the state?

Also, Becca knows every statute and subsection. I’m convinced she’s the smartest.

Becca shouts: “DON’T ASK SOURCES TO STEAL THINGS FOR YOU!”

Crucchiola: I’m always with Becca, but right now I’m SO with Becca.

Kehe: Neal is kinda arrogant.

Crucchiola: Sampat can’t just think that integrity is the most important thing going on here when he’s asking someone to help him commit treason.

Kehe: Like, go monitor a Twitter feed, Sampat.

Crucchiola: And then he ENABLES THEM TO HELP HIM COMMIT TREASON.


[Inside a shooting range, MacKenzie McHale is firing a gun.]


Kehe: Now Emily Mortimer is at a shooting range with an unfamiliar blonde.

She’s not a great shot.

Emily, not the blonde.

The blonde is FBI, and a perfect shot.

More women!

Crucchiola: The blonde is like Maria Bello mixed with Kathleen Turner.

Both in their current form.

Mac’s ring is gargantuan!

Kehe: Mac confesses she “missed a [wedding dress?] fitting last week.” DISASTER.

So Bechdel test: failed.

Crucchiola: That ring is the biggest thing about Emily Mortimer!

Kehe: Yes, she looks somehow smaller this season.

Crucchiola: Do you think everyone looks worse this season because of the cancellation? Because basically everyone (save Leona and Sloan) looks bedraggled. I can’t shake the feeling that Aaron Sorkin is making the physical presentation of these characters a projection of his frustration at audiences for not understanding his art.

Kehe: I’m VERY interested in how Sorkin and these actors are responding creatively to the cancellation.

Crucchiola: “No reporter has ever been charged by the espionage act” says the naive FBI agent.

Kehe: I like her gusto.

Crucchiola: Me too!


[Maggie Jordan on a train]


Kehe: Ah, Maggie Jordan: HEART AND SOUL of The Newsroom.

Crucchiola: Can we just take a moment to celebrate the return of blond Maggie Jordan?

Her self-hate phase was necessary but also done.

Kehe: It’s like Seasib 2 never happened, which for Maggie is a good thing.

She’s approaching a stranger.

It’s like Hitchcock.

is she going to ask this stranger to kill for her?!

Crucchiola: She’s about to eavesdrop on a secret convo.

Kehe: Ah, still Hitchcockian.


[Sloan and Don at brunch.]


Kehe: SLOAN AND DON

Crucchiola: OTP!

Kehe: Lots of quick cuts this ep.

Crucchiola: Yeah they are cramming it in.

Kehe: So look for: mirrorings, doublings, repetitions, redundancies, etc.

How do these scenes talk to each other, Jordan?

Crucchiola: Do we need to take stock of where we are?

Pause for reflection?

Kehe: PAUSE. What’s our first talking point?

Crucchiola: The jump cuts. All of them. What’s happening? Is this an attempt to shove in as much character time as they can in six episodes?

Kehe: six :*(

But yes, seems like, though it’s always been fast-paced.

Crucchiola: It’s a crazy time.

Kehe: Also, I love Sloan Sabbith—I mean, Sloan Sabbith for President 2016, amirite?

Crucchiola: I’m making buttons.

Kehe: BUT I feel like she never mastered Sorkinese.

I hold my breath every time she has to pronounce lots of words quickly, which is always.

Crucchiola: But she manages it in a way that Kat Dennings doesn’t seem to.

Kehe: She’s made it work for HER, yes.

Crucchiola: How are we feeling about Women In This Show?

Kehe: Uncertain.

But I’m a white male.

So my opinion is invalid.

Crucchiola: Sure.

Kehe: What’s your take?

Crucchiola: My thought has always been that basically everyone in this show is insufferable in their own way.

Men, women, mainstays, bit players.

Kehe: And I actually find the women slightly LESS insufferable

and there are more memorable female characters.

Mac.

Leona.

Crucchiola: Me too actually!

Kehe: Sloan.

Maggie.

Becca.

HELLO.

Crucchiola: And the women are in charge at almost every turn

Kehe: Which men do we like?

Crucchiola: Don. Love Don.

Kehe: …Neal?

Crucchiola: CHARLIE.

Kehe: CHARLIE.

Crucchiola: Neal I don’t know that I love, but I enjoy.

He’s like the tipping point of idealism, and this WHOLE SHOW is idealistic.

Kehe: Meryl Streep’s daughter is also in this season.

I wonder what her arc will be.

Crucchiola: I’m so glad she’s there

But will she be more than a device for Jim? That is the question.

Kehe: So: we’re just meant to assume she got a job at ACN, right I’m neutral on Jim

Crucchiola: That’s more fair than my position.

Kehe: He’s emotionally squirrelly.

Kehe: Also, Sorkin loves his alliterative names.

MacKenzie McHale.

Leona Lansing.

Sloan Sabbith.

Crucchiola: Oh, WOW.

Kehe: MacKenzie McHale is, like, DOUBLY alliterative.

It’s kiiinda outrageous.

Anyway, how’s the plot?

Crucchiola: It’s fitting that the final run is about a network on the brink of failure.

Kehe: Yes.

Crucchiola: But this feels like “We will burn this down if you take it from us.”

Which is a twist.

Kehe: I almost think—ALMOST, but not really—that Neal’s treason will bring down the network for good.

A second Genoa.

Crucchiola: Yeah I think even money could go on ACN shuttering for good.

Kehe: Do we want that?!

Better question: Would Dan Rather survive that finale?!

Crucchiola: I mean I WANT Netflix to say “we’ll take it” and they get two more seasons.

Dan Rather will not be capable of commenting.

It’s like watching his career die all over again.

Should we get back into the mix with this buffet scene?

Kehe: Yes, Sloan needs her waffles

I need waffles.

Crucchiola: Don is accidentally insider trading!!


[Don confesses he’s trading based on Sloan’s economic analyses—hours before she’s aired that advice on TV.]


Kehe: “Congratulations, we’re white-collar criminals.”

Don: “Should we talk to Rebecca?”

Well yes, always.

More Marcia Gay.

Crucchiola: Sloan’s dead eyes face is THE BEST.


[Back at ACN with Jim and his girlfriend/Meryl Streep’s daughter.]


Kehe: OK, Meryl Streep’s daughter.

Whom I call Gunther, for reasons which are no longer apparent.

Crucchiola: Yes, Gunther … who works here now?

Kehe: Apparently.

Kehe: But wait, it makes no sense, she’s a DIGITAL NATIVE, why’s she at a network? But I guess she does work…for Neal?

Anyway, she says she posted a tweet from the ACN account in the middle of the night.

Crucchiola: That said “Boston Marathon: Republicans rejoice that there is finally a national tragedy that doesn’t involve guns.”

I’m sorry.

That’s beyond.

Kehe: It’s…really stupid.

Crucchiola: Gunther would NEVER do that.

Kehe: Never.

Crucchiola: Like, unless she thought it was her own personal account and she didn’t log out.

Come on, Sorkin.

Kehe: I mean, it’s so bad it HAS to be some kind of self-sabotage…right?

Crucchiola: Exactly!


[Back in the boardroom]


Crucchiola: Randy the Evil Twin is SO irrelevant.

Kehe: But I really don’t mind Kat Dennings, she drops a good f-bomb.

Crucchiola: Now he’s just absent-mindedly eating.

While his sister kicks ass.

“Reese, I gotta tell you something: Dad thought you were an asshole.”

DAMN GIRL

Kehe: Reese is riled up.

He just shattered a cup.

Charlie steps in

“It’s me now,” he says to Kat.


[Annnd Becca still grilling Neal]


Crucchiola: Neal is still indignant.

Why is he so mad at people trying to protect him?!

STFU.

Go start a leftist blog Neal.

Kehe: He just called his boss a “pussy.”

I can’t even type that word without cringing.

Crucchiola: Ick, yeah.

I can feel your cringe,

Ten days in jail: “That’s one day for every 3.5 people we killed.”

Neeeaaaallllll stttaahhhhppppp.

Kehe: Will is impressed with that calculation. Like, is division really that complicated?

Uh, 38/10?

Will can’t carry a decimal?

Crucchiola: That doesn’t surprise me.

Numbers are too tangible.

And aren’t about arguments.

Kehe: Also, how does Neal have such an astounding network of sources?

Who would trust THE SOCIAL MEDIA GUY with 27,000 secret documents?!


[Back on the train with Maggie.]


Crucchiola: Maggie with massive eyes listening to a guy self-sabotage on a train is so amazing. Deputy Assistant Administrator of the EPA done MESSED UP.

Kehe: now she’s confronting him.

Very fairly

We always root for her.

“You’re on a train, Richard, you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

Flashbacks to media law my senior year of college.

Crucchiola: Preach Maggie.

Kehe: Is the EPA really staffed by 7 people and a high school intern?!

No, as I typed that I realized it was sarcasm.

Crucchiola: Sorkin’s commentary on the government!

Maggie to the EPA guy: “The unguarded moments are where the truth is.”

Season 3: Unguarded Moments

Kehe: This guy is so…Peter Pettigrew

Crucchiola: Maggie, is she backing down???

Kehe: She’s backing down.

Crucchiola: Reverse psychology?!

Kehe: Is my guess.


[Back at brunch.]


Crucchiola: Don’s triple waffle stack!

AKA, Sloan’s triple waffle stack.

Kehe: Oh jeez now they’re having the Couple Conversation.

Crucchiola: It’s only OK because it’s them.

And their banter.

Kehe: “We’re a couple! Totally!”

Crucchiola: Is outstanding.

Kehe: Sloan just said “hither and yon.”

Quiet down, Sorkin.


[Jim starts explaining the enduring plight of Bill Buckner to Hallie (Grace Gummer), before realizing it’s a metaphor.]


Crucchiola: Jim. Never talk again.

Gunther: “Jim what in the name of sweet Christ are you talking about?!”

Kehe: Their relationship is suddenly extremely combative

like,can Maggie-Jim still happen?

Kehe: Do we WANT it to??!

Crucchiola: No.

Kehe: I think I do.

Crucchiola: Maggie is BEYOND Jim.


[Return to boardroom with Reese, Charlie, Evil Twins]


Crucchiola: Suddenly seeing Kat Dennings thrills me.

Kehe: Kat Dennings vs. Charlie Skinner.

Charlie: “I win almost every one of those battles. What network president can say that about their corporate parent?” (More meta?)

Crucchiola: Charlie, as he always has been, is the conscience of the show.

“They just want us to play our role … as a moral imperative!”

“They do not require ACN to make money because they can afford it”

ACN = The Newsroom

Crucchiola: Also, the twins are TOTALLY the critics.

Kehe: They represent the two KINDS of negative critics.

Crucchiola: You’re right! The apathetic! And the cynical!


[Inside Charlie's office.]


Kehe: Jim has told Charlie about Gunther’s terrible tweet.

response: “JESUS CHRIST!”

(Exactly)

Excuse: she’s tired.

Charlie: “THAT’S JUST LAME!”

Crucchiola: Oh look Jason, Jim comes to the defense of his girlfriend.

Kehe: Man saves woman.

Crucchiola: You don’t matter, Jim, stop talking.

Kehe: Gunther might single-handedly be arguing in favor of SORKIN IS SEXIST this season.

Crucchiola: Gunther is coming in to take responsibility.

TIME TO LEAVE JIM.

Kehe: Charlie to…skin Gunther.

Ew. Sorry, gross.

Crucchiola: HA!

Kehe: Her motivation was…retweets?!

Crucchiola: She IS a digital native!

Kehe: This is an EMBARRASSMENT.

Sorkin, are you even ON Twitter?!

Crucchiola: She wasn’t ready for a serious newsroom.

Kehe: Yep, fired

Crucchiola: TWIST.


[Return to train with Maggie Jordan]


Kehe: also, who’s this other stranger on the train?

He looks familiar,

Crucchiola: Yeah, Homeland.

Always Sunny.

He’s around and a very reliable working actor.

Kehe: So does Maggie end up with him?

Sorry, I should say, will this GUY (Jimmi Simpson) end up with Maggie?

Crucchiola: Fordham, that’s NYC right?

He could be geographically convenient!

Kehe: He’s a—wait for it—ETHICS PROFESSOR. No. Effing. WAY.

Crucchiola: “I’m not taking what I overheard to my senior producer.”

MORALITY WINS!

Because she’s not JERRY DANTANA.

Kehe: But EPA guy was so impressed with Maggie that he wants to give her a story?!

So … it WAS reverse psychology?

Crucchiola: I think the power of goodness just won.

Kehe: This “ethics” professor is getting a crash course in RIGHT AND WRONG.

Crucchiola: “They know the difference between right and wrong. Do what’s right.”

Oh my God SORKIN IS WITH US.

The monolog acknowledgment!

BEST SHOW ON TV!


[Don and Sloan leaving brunch]


Kehe: Ew, Don just called Sloan “money honey”?

Crucchiola: Couple fight.


[Strangers on a train]


Crucchiola: EPA guy is back.

He’s giving her documents!

Kehe: He’s giving her an EMBARGOED REPORT.

Crucchiola: GIVING THEM TO HER.

Kehe: Because she’s…good?!

Crucchiola: Along with an “exclusive interview.”

Kehe: So what’s our ethics lesson?

Crucchiola: Oh, good triumphs.

Kehe: Rich and nuanced message, which is of course Sorky’s MO.

Crucchiola: If we appeal enough to people’s good natures, your SHOW MIGHT GET RENEWED.

Kehe: Maggie gave ethics professor her card.

Crucchiola: Ethics prof putting the move on Maggie.


[Sorkinese back in the newsroom: Becca, Will, Neal, et al.]


Kehe: People keep saying “covert ops.”

Crucchiola: I really appreciate Will’s patriotic conservatism.

Kehe: Yeah, Neal, YOU ARE EXCUSED.

Crucchiola: So we know that sometimes secrecy is NECESSARY

Kehe: When Becca says “leave behind the drive” and draws out “leeeeave,” I swoon.


Kehe: Jim + Gunther at bar

She comes out to the Internet as ACN’s terrible tweeter.

Crucchiola: It was terrible.

On like every available level.

Kehe: She’s so broken down.

Where’s the wisecracking no-nonsense woman from Season 2?

Crucchiola: I love that Jim did all he could for her and she still failed.

Story of Jim.

Kehe: Gawker got the story = she’s doomed/


[Don and Sloan confrontation]


Kehe: Don was testing Sloan—his parents aren’t actually here.

“THEN HOW ABOUT THE SEX?!” Sloan screams in the lobby.

Crucchiola: OK. I know the future of this show. Don and Sloan spinoff!

Kehe: With all the rest of the characters, too.

We’ll call it the NEWsroom.

Crucchiola: Has this been pitched?!?

Kehe: It is now.

Crucchiola: Let’s get on Twitter and DO IT.

Kehe: Retweets!

Crucchiola: Don and Sloan have good sex.

We know this.

Obviously.


[Boardroom banter]


Crucchiola: Leeeooooonnnaaaaaa!!!

Kehe: Quick: Is she stoned?!

Crucchiola: If not, she will be right after this meeting.

Kehe: Leona: “We no longer have a word in the English language that means literally.”

Crucchiola: “I’m literally going to set fire to this building with you in it before I hand over the keys to it.”

Kehe: Leona is offering more money to the twins so she can keep the company.

They agree. Because they’re gross and only care about money.

Leona’s parting words: “Oh get the fuck out of my boardroom kids.”

Crucchiola: Applause!

Kehe: More parting words: “People get the face they deserve.”

Leona has the face she deserves.

Crucchiola: Jane Fonda is gorgeous.

Kehe: She promised them $4 billion.

She doesn’t have it.

Crucchiola: Cue anecdotal explanation.

Kehe: Leona on fundraising back in the day: “Sold my clothes, dealt a little weed.”

“I’m just kidding – I didn’t sell my clothes”


[Cut to the all glass war room]


Crucchiola: It’s an all-hands meeting about Sampat.

Jim go home. This is for adults.

Kehe: Neal and Will are staring at each other

knowingly.

Crucchiola: Will is about to fight for the side of truth.

Kehe: What do they know?

Now they’re stepping out.

!!

Crucchiola: Becca is the only rational person: “Too many people already know that a more serious crime has been committed.”

Charlie wants to pursue the story.

Kehe: Nobody but Becca notices Will and Neal just left.

Crucchiola: Naturally.

Jenna the intern is one of my favorite characters.

Kehe: She’s come so far since “sentence or less.”

Crucchiola: Heart to heart with Will and Neal!

Kehe: Will knows Neal already called BCD! [When he went to the “bathroom” earlier.]

Crucchiola: The PR firm knows!

Kehe: Neal to Will: “You called me Punjab”

Crucchiola: Oh Will. Your history of casual racism is so charming!

Kehe: It’s like Sorkin is atoning for past sins.

Crucchiola: Will is insisting on knowing the source’s name!

He’s implicating himself to protect Neal!

And tell him to get a go bag ready!

Kehe: TAKE MAC’S GO BAG.

It comes with heels.

Crucchiola: This might be the greatest swan song in all of TV.


[Back to the OTP]


Kehe: Sloan tells Will she and Don are a couple

Crucchiola: “I’m in love with you. I love you Don.”

SLOAN!

He’s frozen!

OH SHIT!

Kehe: He’s not saying anything back.

“YOU HAVE BEEN TESTED AND YOU FAILED.”

Crucchiola: LOLOLOL

God they’re the best.

Kehe: I can’t transcribe these quotes at the speed they’re spoken.


[…more...cuts]


Kehe: Charlie is asking Becca for $4 billion.

Crucchiola: And I love the idea that she has it.

Kehe: Right?

Crucchiola: That she could just be like, “Fine.”

Kehe: She barely registers the question.

Crucchiola: The FBI is here!

Kehe: That was fast.

Specifically, blonde FBI agent is back.

That’s convenient.

She’s on the case.

Crucchiola: She’s pretending not to have talked to Mac!

This is… worse than anyone thought.

Will to the FBI agent looking for Neal: “I’m Spartacus, sir.”

Kehe: Mac: “Raiding a newsroom is damn near unprecedented.”

Yes.

My prediction: They’re going to live broadcast the raid.

In tandem with the classified story.

Crucchiola: FBI agent is explaining that Neal taught an enemy of the state how to use the Internet most effectively (note: still not totally sure it was an enemy of the state…).

Good one, Neal.

Kehe: According to the FBI, this source is a “bad guy.”

Will admits he knows the name of the source, too.

So: He’s already made a judgment and trusts Neal/the source?

Crucchiola: Maggie is wearing an ACN hat?

Kehe: HA

Crucchiola: Why the hell is she wearing that hat?

Kehe: I work here!

Remember me?

Crucchiola: Yeah it’s not incognito.

Kehe: DRAMATIC OMINOUS MUSIC

Crucchiola: The agents are seizing the hard drives!

Kehe: This show is becoming…a thriller!

Wow, major tonal shift.

Maggie is still wearing her hat.

Crucchiola: Neal took the sensitive information with him!

He’s fleeing!

Kehe: To a safe house?

Crucchiola: Fortunately, Neal did not run out wearing his ACN hat.

Kehe: Right.

Crucchiola: Man, I hope he has cash somewhere.

Kehe: “NEAL RUN”—Will’s secret message to Neal.

Crucchiola: Will gave him the sign to leave!

Kehe: HIGH DRAMA: Will presides over his newsroom as it’s being raided. Look what’s become of his sanctuary.

Crucchiola: I love this show.

Kehe: It’s an incredible show.

Crucchiola: And SCENE. So here’s my big takeaway:

This episode/season is 60 percent about metaphorically acknowledging the end.

Maybe 80.

Kehe: Closer to 100, but go on.

Crucchiola: And the rest is about an actual story.

Like, the story is incidental.

Kehe: It’s the story of the end.

Crucchiola: It’s the coda.

Kehe: But also a beginning?

“The first act”?

Crucchiola: This is the I Am John Galt chapter of Atlas Shrugged.

Kehe: Euripides?

Crucchiola: End? Beginning? It’s all in the snowglobe?

Kehe: And probably how Dan Rather felt in the end.

Crucchiola: The point is, Doing The Right Thing doesn’t have seasonal boundaries.

Kehe: RIGHT VS WRONG.

Crucchiola: And I think the other big thing here is the twins are definitely the IRL naysayers.

Kehe: Absolutely.

Will Leona light them on fire?

Is this Sorkin lighting his critics on fire?

LITERALLY?!

Crucchiola: Is Sorkin planning to burn HBO to the ground?!

Or just the show?

Kehe: I don’t know.

But I’d go down with it.



Snapchat Now Lets You Send Money Too


snapchat-ads

WIRED



Snapchat has long promised to make your online messages disappear. And now it can help make your money disappear, too.


On Monday, the mobile messaging company announced a partnership with payments startup Square, saying you can now use the Snapchat app to send money much as you would one its ephemeral text messages. The app now recognizes a dollar sign typed in to the messaging field and serves up a green button for sending the money from a connected debit card. Behind the scenes, Square will store the card’s number and handle the transaction.



Video: Ken Block Shreds LA in a Ludicrous 845-HP Mustang


Ever since we heard that Ken Block had rigged up a 1965 Mustang to send a nonsensical 845 horsepower to all four wheels, we’ve been eager to see it in action. The wait ended today with the YouTube debut of “Gymkhana 7: Wild in the Streets of Los Angeles.”


We suggest you wait until your boss goes out for lunch and watch the full 12-minute video, but if you insist on taking a peek now, here are the five best moments and where to find them:


0:55—Block spins all four wheels with the car chained up to keep it from moving, à la King Kong in his New York stage debut.

4:56—20 seconds of donuts around Randy’s Donuts shop.

7:35—Block blasts past a line of police cars following a white SUV in an ode to OJ Simpson’s run from the law.

8:25—Donuts timed to slide under an outrageously bouncing lowrider. This is the part of the video that most resembles a terrifying mini golf obstacle.

9:32—The reminder that when you spin your tires and surround your car with smoke, seeing where you’re going gets way harder. Which makes what Block’s doing all the more impressive.



Watch Live: The Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight


If you brave the chilly November air and head somewhere dark tonight, you should get an enjoyable show: the Leonid meteor shower at its peak. But if you live in a city with a lot of light pollution, or you’d just rather stay in the warm comfort of your pajamas, you can watch a live online show (above) from The Slooh Community Observatory starting today at 5:00 p.m. PST/8:00 p.m. EST.


Wherever you are, the best time to view the meteor shower with your naked eye is between midnight and dawn (local time). The Slooh Space Camera will start its broadcast from its observatory in the Canary Islands off the coast of northwestern Africa, and move to the Prescott Observatory in Arizona later in the evening. During the broadcast, you might even have the chance to hear the meteors.


meteor-inline

A Leonid meteor in 2009. Ed Sweeney/Flickr



No, meteors don’t really make sounds, but when they zoom through the atmosphere, they strip electrons off the atoms in the air, leaving behind a trail of ionized particles. Ambient radio waves being broadcast into the sky can hit these ionized particles and bounce back toward the ground. Slooh is partnering with SpaceWeatherRadio in New Mexico to catch these reflected radio signals and convert them into audio, producing a haunting, high-pitched hum.


In the past, the Leonids have provided some spectacular shows, such as a meteor storm in 1833 that produced 100,000 meteors per hour. This year, however, the prediction is that there will only be about 10 to 15 meteors per hour.


Meteor showers happen when Earth’s orbit takes us through the trail of debris that follows a comet. In the case of the Leonids, the comet is Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 33 years. As the comet orbits the sun, it leaves behind dust and detritus in its path, and when the Earth passes through this cometary litter, the particles burn up in the atmosphere, producing streaking lights in the sky that we see as shooting stars. In the same way that snowflakes appear to originate from a point straight ahead as you drive through a snowstorm, meteors appear to come from a single point in the sky.


Tonight’s meteor shower will be centered on the constellation Leo—hence the name the Leonids—which will be in the east after midnight. But you will be able to see meteors anywhere in the sky, as long as it’s dark and the weather’s clear. We see the Leonids every November when Earth passes through a particular point in its orbit.



We’ve Done a Comprehensive Recap of The Newsroom…In Gchat


TheNewsroom

HBO



For those too cynical to understand it: The Newsroom is the Greatest Show on Earth. It’s also super fast-paced—because it’s written by Aaron Sorkin. So what better way to commemorate its criminally brief six-episode final season than with some ping-pong digital dialogue? Before we have to say goodbye forever, two WIRED writers—Jordan Crucchiola and Jason Kehe—are going to lovingly host walkthroughs of every episode until the series finale, doing real-time Gchat analysis of each one. They will aspire to Sorkin-levels of witty repartee while genuflecting to the master of emotionally charged, endearingly insufferable intellectual tennis. Read on for the full breakdown.


Jason Kehe: OK, Newsroom, Season 3, Episode 2: “Run.”

Jordan Crucchiola: I think you mean 3, 2, RUN.

Kehe: I was kinda hoping they’d redesign the title sequence again this season.

It’s still boring.

Crucchiola: But the THRILL of this music!

Kehe: The music is the best part.

And the very newsy coffee spill.

Crucchiola: I’m ready to chase down the leads,

get the scoops,

hand off so many papers to people!

Kehe: Here we go.

Kehe: “Aggressively Written By Aaron Sorkin”


[In ACN's boardroom. The twins walk in.]


Crucchiola: KAT DENNINGS

Kehe: Aka the lovable crazy intern from Thors 1 and 2

Crucchiola: She almost looks too contemporary to be in a Sorkin Show.

Kehe: I can’t figure out her face.

Crucchiola: Or her voice paired with her face

Kehe: It’s like…Elizabeth Olsen x ScarJo + vocal coaching from Ellen Page.

Also, who’s her twin brother?

He already seems irrelevant.


[Reese tells the twins he knows they’re planning on buying the company.]


Crucchiola: When Reese says he’s “a douche on the side of the angels” it is SO Reese.

Kehe: REESE! That guy: zero to hero.

OK, so he’s confronting the twins.

Crucchiola: Yes. And now Becca [ACN’s badass First Amendment lawyer] is confronting justice. And intellectual inferiority.

Kehe: I want to quote her every line.

Crucchiola: People can say Sorkin hates women, but they haven’t met Becca Halliday. Because she is clearly God.


Kehe: OK, and we’re back to Reese in the conference room. … How’s Kat doing with the Sorkinese?

Crucchiola: She’s trying to keep up. Fortunately Drunk Uncle Charlie just entered. WE RIDE.

How has the twin brother managed to disappear??

Kehe: He just got his first reaction shot—a stupid grin.

Crucchiola: Do you think Sorkin intentionally made Randy irrelevant? And then winked and nodded at us by having Charlie mess up their names?

Kehe: Randy? Blaire? I’m like Charlie, who’s who? This season is so meta.

Crucchiola: Like, I think the twins are the critics of the show.

Kehe: YES

Crucchiola: Who DON’T GET IT. Right?!

Kehe: Evil twins as stand-ins for the show’s HATERS. Brilliant move, Sorky.


[Back at ACN, where Becca is grilling Neal about his act of treason.]


Kehe: Neal is explaining his crime AGAIN. This make three times. Enough exposition, we get it.

Becca’s eyes get wide when Neal says 38 people are dead because of a fake story planted in “Kundu” (I had to check: not a real place) by an American PR firm.

Becca: “Well, here’s what you’ve done: you’ve committed espionage.”

Crucchiola: How could Neal think that teaching an enemy of the state to use the internet was OK?!

Kehe: Do we know he’s an enemy of the state?

Also, Becca knows every statute and subsection. I’m convinced she’s the smartest.

Becca shouts: “DON’T ASK SOURCES TO STEAL THINGS FOR YOU!”

Crucchiola: I’m always with Becca, but right now I’m SO with Becca.

Kehe: Neal is kinda arrogant.

Crucchiola: Sampat can’t just think that integrity is the most important thing going on here when he’s asking someone to help him commit treason.

Kehe: Like, go monitor a Twitter feed, Sampat.

Crucchiola: And then he ENABLES THEM TO HELP HIM COMMIT TREASON.


[Inside a shooting range, MacKenzie McHale is firing a gun.]


Kehe: Now Emily Mortimer is at a shooting range with an unfamiliar blonde.

She’s not a great shot.

Emily, not the blonde.

The blonde is FBI, and a perfect shot.

More women!

Crucchiola: The blonde is like Maria Bello mixed with Kathleen Turner.

Both in their current form.

Mac’s ring is gargantuan!

Kehe: Mac confesses she “missed a [wedding dress?] fitting last week.” DISASTER.

So Bechdel test: failed.

Crucchiola: That ring is the biggest thing about Emily Mortimer!

Kehe: Yes, she looks somehow smaller this season.

Crucchiola: Do you think everyone looks worse this season because of the cancellation? Because basically everyone (save Leona and Sloan) looks bedraggled. I can’t shake the feeling that Aaron Sorkin is making the physical presentation of these characters a projection of his frustration at audiences for not understanding his art.

Kehe: I’m VERY interested in how Sorkin and these actors are responding creatively to the cancellation.

Crucchiola: “No reporter has ever been charged by the espionage act” says the naive FBI agent.

Kehe: I like her gusto.

Crucchiola: Me too!


[Maggie Jordan on a train]


Kehe: Ah, Maggie Jordan: HEART AND SOUL of The Newsroom.

Crucchiola: Can we just take a moment to celebrate the return of blond Maggie Jordan?

Her self-hate phase was necessary but also done.

Kehe: It’s like Seasib 2 never happened, which for Maggie is a good thing.

She’s approaching a stranger.

It’s like Hitchcock.

is she going to ask this stranger to kill for her?!

Crucchiola: She’s about to eavesdrop on a secret convo.

Kehe: Ah, still Hitchcockian.


[Sloan and Don at brunch.]


Kehe: SLOAN AND DON

Crucchiola: OTP!

Kehe: Lots of quick cuts this ep.

Crucchiola: Yeah they are cramming it in.

Kehe: So look for: mirrorings, doublings, repetitions, redundancies, etc.

How do these scenes talk to each other, Jordan?

Crucchiola: Do we need to take stock of where we are?

Pause for reflection?

Kehe: PAUSE. What’s our first talking point?

Crucchiola: The jump cuts. All of them. What’s happening? Is this an attempt to shove in as much character time as they can in six episodes?

Kehe: six :*(

But yes, seems like, though it’s always been fast-paced.

Crucchiola: It’s a crazy time.

Kehe: Also, I love Sloan Sabbith—I mean, Sloan Sabbith for President 2016, amirite?

Crucchiola: I’m making buttons.

Kehe: BUT I feel like she never mastered Sorkinese.

I hold my breath every time she has to pronounce lots of words quickly, which is always.

Crucchiola: But she manages it in a way that Kat Dennings doesn’t seem to.

Kehe: She’s made it work for HER, yes.

Crucchiola: How are we feeling about Women In This Show?

Kehe: Uncertain.

But I’m a white male.

So my opinion is invalid.

Crucchiola: Sure.

Kehe: What’s your take?

Crucchiola: My thought has always been that basically everyone in this show is insufferable in their own way.

Men, women, mainstays, bit players.

Kehe: And I actually find the women slightly LESS insufferable

and there are more memorable female characters.

Mac.

Leona.

Crucchiola: Me too actually!

Kehe: Sloan.

Maggie.

Becca.

HELLO.

Crucchiola: And the women are in charge at almost every turn

Kehe: Which men do we like?

Crucchiola: Don. Love Don.

Kehe: …Neal?

Crucchiola: CHARLIE.

Kehe: CHARLIE.

Crucchiola: Neal I don’t know that I love, but I enjoy.

He’s like the tipping point of idealism, and this WHOLE SHOW is idealistic.

Kehe: Meryl Streep’s daughter is also in this season.

I wonder what her arc will be.

Crucchiola: I’m so glad she’s there

But will she be more than a device for Jim? That is the question.

Kehe: So: we’re just meant to assume she got a job at ACN, right I’m neutral on Jim

Crucchiola: That’s more fair than my position.

Kehe: He’s emotionally squirrelly.

Kehe: Also, Sorkin loves his alliterative names.

MacKenzie McHale.

Leona Lansing.

Sloan Sabbith.

Crucchiola: Oh, WOW.

Kehe: MacKenzie McHale is, like, DOUBLY alliterative.

It’s kiiinda outrageous.

Anyway, how’s the plot?

Crucchiola: It’s fitting that the final run is about a network on the brink of failure.

Kehe: Yes.

Crucchiola: But this feels like “We will burn this down if you take it from us.”

Which is a twist.

Kehe: I almost think—ALMOST, but not really—that Neal’s treason will bring down the network for good.

A second Genoa.

Crucchiola: Yeah I think even money could go on ACN shuttering for good.

Kehe: Do we want that?!

Better question: Would Dan Rather survive that finale?!

Crucchiola: I mean I WANT Netflix to say “we’ll take it” and they get two more seasons.

Dan Rather will not be capable of commenting.

It’s like watching his career die all over again.

Should we get back into the mix with this buffet scene?

Kehe: Yes, Sloan needs her waffles

I need waffles.

Crucchiola: Don is accidentally insider trading!!


[Don confesses he’s trading based on Sloan’s economic analyses—hours before she’s aired that advice on TV.]


Kehe: “Congratulations, we’re white-collar criminals.”

Don: “Should we talk to Rebecca?”

Well yes, always.

More Marcia Gay.

Crucchiola: Sloan’s dead eyes face is THE BEST.


[Back at ACN with Jim and his girlfriend/Meryl Streep’s daughter.]


Kehe: OK, Meryl Streep’s daughter.

Whom I call Gunther, for reasons which are no longer apparent.

Crucchiola: Yes, Gunther … who works here now?

Kehe: Apparently.

Kehe: But wait, it makes no sense, she’s a DIGITAL NATIVE, why’s she at a network? But I guess she does work…for Neal?

Anyway, she says she posted a tweet from the ACN account in the middle of the night.

Crucchiola: That said “Boston Marathon: Republicans rejoice that there is finally a national tragedy that doesn’t involve guns.”

I’m sorry.

That’s beyond.

Kehe: It’s…really stupid.

Crucchiola: Gunther would NEVER do that.

Kehe: Never.

Crucchiola: Like, unless she thought it was her own personal account and she didn’t log out.

Come on, Sorkin.

Kehe: I mean, it’s so bad it HAS to be some kind of self-sabotage…right?

Crucchiola: Exactly!


[Back in the boardroom]


Crucchiola: Randy the Evil Twin is SO irrelevant.

Kehe: But I really don’t mind Kat Dennings, she drops a good f-bomb.

Crucchiola: Now he’s just absent-mindedly eating.

While his sister kicks ass.

“Reese, I gotta tell you something: Dad thought you were an asshole.”

DAMN GIRL

Kehe: Reese is riled up.

He just shattered a cup.

Charlie steps in

“It’s me now,” he says to Kat.


[Annnd Becca still grilling Neal]


Crucchiola: Neal is still indignant.

Why is he so mad at people trying to protect him?!

STFU.

Go start a leftist blog Neal.

Kehe: He just called his boss a “pussy.”

I can’t even type that word without cringing.

Crucchiola: Ick, yeah.

I can feel your cringe,

Ten days in jail: “That’s one day for every 3.5 people we killed.”

Neeeaaaallllll stttaahhhhppppp.

Kehe: Will is impressed with that calculation. Like, is division really that complicated?

Uh, 38/10?

Will can’t carry a decimal?

Crucchiola: That doesn’t surprise me.

Numbers are too tangible.

And aren’t about arguments.

Kehe: Also, how does Neal have such an astounding network of sources?

Who would trust THE SOCIAL MEDIA GUY with 27,000 secret documents?!


[Back on the train with Maggie.]


Crucchiola: Maggie with massive eyes listening to a guy self-sabotage on a train is so amazing. Deputy Assistant Administrator of the EPA done MESSED UP.

Kehe: now she’s confronting him.

Very fairly

We always root for her.

“You’re on a train, Richard, you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

Flashbacks to media law my senior year of college.

Crucchiola: Preach Maggie.

Kehe: Is the EPA really staffed by 7 people and a high school intern?!

No, as I typed that I realized it was sarcasm.

Crucchiola: Sorkin’s commentary on the government!

Maggie to the EPA guy: “The unguarded moments are where the truth is.”

Season 3: Unguarded Moments

Kehe: This guy is so…Peter Pettigrew

Crucchiola: Maggie, is she backing down???

Kehe: She’s backing down.

Crucchiola: Reverse psychology?!

Kehe: Is my guess.


[Back at brunch.]


Crucchiola: Don’s triple waffle stack!

AKA, Sloan’s triple waffle stack.

Kehe: Oh jeez now they’re having the Couple Conversation.

Crucchiola: It’s only OK because it’s them.

And their banter.

Kehe: “We’re a couple! Totally!”

Crucchiola: Is outstanding.

Kehe: Sloan just said “hither and yon.”

Quiet down, Sorkin.


[Jim starts explaining the enduring plight of Bill Buckner to Hallie (Grace Gummer), before realizing it’s a metaphor.]


Crucchiola: Jim. Never talk again.

Gunther: “Jim what in the name of sweet Christ are you talking about?!”

Kehe: Their relationship is suddenly extremely combative

like,can Maggie-Jim still happen?

Kehe: Do we WANT it to??!

Crucchiola: No.

Kehe: I think I do.

Crucchiola: Maggie is BEYOND Jim.


[Return to boardroom with Reese, Charlie, Evil Twins]


Crucchiola: Suddenly seeing Kat Dennings thrills me.

Kehe: Kat Dennings vs. Charlie Skinner.

Charlie: “I win almost every one of those battles. What network president can say that about their corporate parent?” (More meta?)

Crucchiola: Charlie, as he always has been, is the conscience of the show.

“They just want us to play our role … as a moral imperative!”

“They do not require ACN to make money because they can afford it”

ACN = The Newsroom

Crucchiola: Also, the twins are TOTALLY the critics.

Kehe: They represent the two KINDS of negative critics.

Crucchiola: You’re right! The apathetic! And the cynical!


[Inside Charlie's office.]


Kehe: Jim has told Charlie about Gunther’s terrible tweet.

response: “JESUS CHRIST!”

(Exactly)

Excuse: she’s tired.

Charlie: “THAT’S JUST LAME!”

Crucchiola: Oh look Jason, Jim comes to the defense of his girlfriend.

Kehe: Man saves woman.

Crucchiola: You don’t matter, Jim, stop talking.

Kehe: Gunther might single-handedly be arguing in favor of SORKIN IS SEXIST this season.

Crucchiola: Gunther is coming in to take responsibility.

TIME TO LEAVE JIM.

Kehe: Charlie to…skin Gunther.

Ew. Sorry, gross.

Crucchiola: HA!

Kehe: Her motivation was…retweets?!

Crucchiola: She IS a digital native!

Kehe: This is an EMBARRASSMENT.

Sorkin, are you even ON Twitter?!

Crucchiola: She wasn’t ready for a serious newsroom.

Kehe: Yep, fired

Crucchiola: TWIST.


[Return to train with Maggie Jordan]


Kehe: also, who’s this other stranger on the train?

He looks familiar,

Crucchiola: Yeah, Homeland.

Always Sunny.

He’s around and a very reliable working actor.

Kehe: So does Maggie end up with him?

Sorry, I should say, will this GUY (Jimmi Simpson) end up with Maggie?

Crucchiola: Fordham, that’s NYC right?

He could be geographically convenient!

Kehe: He’s a—wait for it—ETHICS PROFESSOR. No. Effing. WAY.

Crucchiola: “I’m not taking what I overheard to my senior producer.”

MORALITY WINS!

Because she’s not JERRY DANTANA.

Kehe: But EPA guy was so impressed with Maggie that he wants to give her a story?!

So … it WAS reverse psychology?

Crucchiola: I think the power of goodness just won.

Kehe: This “ethics” professor is getting a crash course in RIGHT AND WRONG.

Crucchiola: “They know the difference between right and wrong. Do what’s right.”

Oh my God SORKIN IS WITH US.

The monolog acknowledgment!

BEST SHOW ON TV!


[Don and Sloan leaving brunch]


Kehe: Ew, Don just called Sloan “money honey”?

Crucchiola: Couple fight.


[Strangers on a train]


Crucchiola: EPA guy is back.

He’s giving her documents!

Kehe: He’s giving her an EMBARGOED REPORT.

Crucchiola: GIVING THEM TO HER.

Kehe: Because she’s…good?!

Crucchiola: Along with an “exclusive interview.”

Kehe: So what’s our ethics lesson?

Crucchiola: Oh, good triumphs.

Kehe: Rich and nuanced message, which is of course Sorky’s MO.

Crucchiola: If we appeal enough to people’s good natures, your SHOW MIGHT GET RENEWED.

Kehe: Maggie gave ethics professor her card.

Crucchiola: Ethics prof putting the move on Maggie.


[Sorkinese back in the newsroom: Becca, Will, Neal, et al.]


Kehe: People keep saying “covert ops.”

Crucchiola: I really appreciate Will’s patriotic conservatism.

Kehe: Yeah, Neal, YOU ARE EXCUSED.

Crucchiola: So we know that sometimes secrecy is NECESSARY

Kehe: When Becca says “leave behind the drive” and draws out “leeeeave,” I swoon.


Kehe: Jim + Gunther at bar

She comes out to the Internet as ACN’s terrible tweeter.

Crucchiola: It was terrible.

On like every available level.

Kehe: She’s so broken down.

Where’s the wisecracking no-nonsense woman from Season 2?

Crucchiola: I love that Jim did all he could for her and she still failed.

Story of Jim.

Kehe: Gawker got the story = she’s doomed/


[Don and Sloan confrontation]


Kehe: Don was testing Sloan—his parents aren’t actually here.

“THEN HOW ABOUT THE SEX?!” Sloan screams in the lobby.

Crucchiola: OK. I know the future of this show. Don and Sloan spinoff!

Kehe: With all the rest of the characters, too.

We’ll call it the NEWsroom.

Crucchiola: Has this been pitched?!?

Kehe: It is now.

Crucchiola: Let’s get on Twitter and DO IT.

Kehe: Retweets!

Crucchiola: Don and Sloan have good sex.

We know this.

Obviously.


[Boardroom banter]


Crucchiola: Leeeooooonnnaaaaaa!!!

Kehe: Quick: Is she stoned?!

Crucchiola: If not, she will be right after this meeting.

Kehe: Leona: “We no longer have a word in the English language that means literally.”

Crucchiola: “I’m literally going to set fire to this building with you in it before I hand over the keys to it.”

Kehe: Leona is offering more money to the twins so she can keep the company.

They agree. Because they’re gross and only care about money.

Leona’s parting words: “Oh get the fuck out of my boardroom kids.”

Crucchiola: Applause!

Kehe: More parting words: “People get the face they deserve.”

Leona has the face she deserves.

Crucchiola: Jane Fonda is gorgeous.

Kehe: She promised them $4 billion.

She doesn’t have it.

Crucchiola: Cue anecdotal explanation.

Kehe: Leona on fundraising back in the day: “Sold my clothes, dealt a little weed.”

“I’m just kidding – I didn’t sell my clothes”


[Cut to the all glass war room]


Crucchiola: It’s an all-hands meeting about Sampat.

Jim go home. This is for adults.

Kehe: Neal and Will are staring at each other

knowingly.

Crucchiola: Will is about to fight for the side of truth.

Kehe: What do they know?

Now they’re stepping out.

!!

Crucchiola: Becca is the only rational person: “Too many people already know that a more serious crime has been committed.”

Charlie wants to pursue the story.

Kehe: Nobody but Becca notices Will and Neal just left.

Crucchiola: Naturally.

Jenna the intern is one of my favorite characters.

Kehe: She’s come so far since “sentence or less.”

Crucchiola: Heart to heart with Will and Neal!

Kehe: Will knows Neal already called BCD! [When he went to the “bathroom” earlier.]

Crucchiola: The PR firm knows!

Kehe: Neal to Will: “You called me Punjab”

Crucchiola: Oh Will. Your history of casual racism is so charming!

Kehe: It’s like Sorkin is atoning for past sins.

Crucchiola: Will is insisting on knowing the source’s name!

He’s implicating himself to protect Neal!

And tell him to get a go bag ready!

Kehe: TAKE MAC’S GO BAG.

It comes with heels.

Crucchiola: This might be the greatest swan song in all of TV.


[Back to the OTP]


Kehe: Sloan tells Will she and Don are a couple

Crucchiola: “I’m in love with you. I love you Don.”

SLOAN!

He’s frozen!

OH SHIT!

Kehe: He’s not saying anything back.

“YOU HAVE BEEN TESTED AND YOU FAILED.”

Crucchiola: LOLOLOL

God they’re the best.

Kehe: I can’t transcribe these quotes at the speed they’re spoken.


[…more...cuts]


Kehe: Charlie is asking Becca for $4 billion.

Crucchiola: And I love the idea that she has it.

Kehe: Right?

Crucchiola: That she could just be like, “Fine.”

Kehe: She barely registers the question.

Crucchiola: The FBI is here!

Kehe: That was fast.

Specifically, blonde FBI agent is back.

That’s convenient.

She’s on the case.

Crucchiola: She’s pretending not to have talked to Mac!

This is… worse than anyone thought.

Will to the FBI agent looking for Neal: “I’m Spartacus, sir.”

Kehe: Mac: “Raiding a newsroom is damn near unprecedented.”

Yes.

My prediction: They’re going to live broadcast the raid.

In tandem with the classified story.

Crucchiola: FBI agent is explaining that Neal taught an enemy of the state how to use the Internet most effectively (note: still not totally sure it was an enemy of the state…).

Good one, Neal.

Kehe: According to the FBI, this source is a “bad guy.”

Will admits he knows the name of the source, too.

So: He’s already made a judgment and trusts Neal/the source?

Crucchiola: Maggie is wearing an ACN hat?

Kehe: HA

Crucchiola: Why the hell is she wearing that hat?

Kehe: I work here!

Remember me?

Crucchiola: Yeah it’s not incognito.

Kehe: DRAMATIC OMINOUS MUSIC

Crucchiola: The agents are seizing the hard drives!

Kehe: This show is becoming…a thriller!

Wow, major tonal shift.

Maggie is still wearing her hat.

Crucchiola: Neal took the sensitive information with him!

He’s fleeing!

Kehe: To a safe house?

Crucchiola: Fortunately, Neal did not run out wearing his ACN hat.

Kehe: Right.

Crucchiola: Man, I hope he has cash somewhere.

Kehe: “NEAL RUN”—Will’s secret message to Neal.

Crucchiola: Will gave him the sign to leave!

Kehe: HIGH DRAMA: Will presides over his newsroom as it’s being raided. Look what’s become of his sanctuary.

Crucchiola: I love this show.

Kehe: It’s an incredible show.

Crucchiola: And SCENE. So here’s my big takeaway:

This episode/season is 60 percent about metaphorically acknowledging the end.

Maybe 80.

Kehe: Closer to 100, but go on.

Crucchiola: And the rest is about an actual story.

Like, the story is incidental.

Kehe: It’s the story of the end.

Crucchiola: It’s the coda.

Kehe: But also a beginning?

“The first act”?

Crucchiola: This is the I Am John Galt chapter of Atlas Shrugged.

Kehe: Euripides?

Crucchiola: End? Beginning? It’s all in the snowglobe?

Kehe: And probably how Dan Rather felt in the end.

Crucchiola: The point is, Doing The Right Thing doesn’t have seasonal boundaries.

Kehe: RIGHT VS WRONG.

Crucchiola: And I think the other big thing here is the twins are definitely the IRL naysayers.

Kehe: Absolutely.

Will Leona light them on fire?

Is this Sorkin lighting his critics on fire?

LITERALLY?!

Crucchiola: Is Sorkin planning to burn HBO to the ground?!

Or just the show?

Kehe: I don’t know.

But I’d go down with it.



Snapcart Now Lets You Send Money Too


snapchat-ads

WIRED



Snapchat has long promised to make your online messages disappear. And now it can help make your money disappear, too.


On Monday, the mobile messaging company announced a partnership with payments startup Square, saying you can now use the Snapchat app to send money much as you would one its ephemeral text messages. The app now recognizes a dollar sign typed in to the messaging field and serves up a green button for sending the money from a connected debit card. Behind the scenes, Square will store the card’s number and handle the transaction.


Messaging services are an obvious way to handle peer-to-peer payments, though Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel told Recode that he doesn’t see his company competing with the likes of PayPal or Venmo in the suddenly red-hot payments market. At least for the moment, it doesn’t look like Snapchat is charging a fee to use what it calls Snapcash.


Still, the deal allows Snapchat to get the jump on Facebook, which seems likely to merge messaging and payments at some point down the road. And if the new Snapcash service catches on, the company could easily pivot in this direction. Such a move might be particularly attractive because the three-year-old company is just starting to figure out how to generate revenue.


Snapcash most resembles Square’s own Square Cash, which lets you send money via an email. Both are designed to pare down the payments process to as few steps as possible.


Though many options are available for sending someone else money using a smartphone, no one app has become dominant. Unlike many of those apps, however, Snapchat is already used by an enormous number of people. With millions already sending Snapchat messages every month, a nudge might get them sending money as well.



Video: Ken Block Shreds LA in a Ludicrous 845-HP Mustang


Ever since we heard that Ken Block had rigged up a 1965 Mustang to send a nonsensical 845 horsepower to all four wheels, we’ve been eager to see it in action. The wait ended today with the YouTube debut of “Gymkhana 7: Wild in the Streets of Los Angeles.”


We suggest waiting until your boss goes out for lunch and watch the full 12-minute video, but if you insist on watching some of it now, here are the five best moments and where to find them:


0:55—Block spins all four wheels with the car chained up to keep it from moving, à la King Kong in his New York stage debut.

4:56—20 seconds of donuts around Randy’s Donuts shop.

7:35—Block blasts past a line of police cars following a white SUV in an ode to OJ Simpson’s run from the law.

8:25—Donuts timed to slide under an outrageously bouncing lowrider. This is the part of the video that most resembles a terrifying mini golf obstacle.

9:32—The reminder that when you spin your tires and surround your car with smoke, seeing where you’re going gets way harder. Which makes what Block’s doing all the more impressive.



Watch Live: The Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight


If you brave the chilly November air and head somewhere dark tonight, you should get an enjoyable show: the Leonid meteor shower at its peak. But if you live in a city with a lot of light pollution, or you’d just rather stay in the warm comfort of your pajamas, you can watch a live online show (above) from The Slooh Community Observatory starting today at 5:00 p.m. PST/8:00 p.m. EST.


Wherever you are, the best time to view the meteor shower with your naked eye is between midnight and dawn (local time). The Slooh Space Camera will start its broadcast from its observatory in the Canary Islands off the coast of northwestern Africa, and move to the Prescott Observatory in Arizona later in the evening. During the broadcast, you might even have the chance to hear the meteors.


meteor-inline

A Leonid meteor in 2009. Ed Sweeney/Flickr



No, meteors don’t really make sounds, but when they zoom through the atmosphere, they strip electrons off the atoms in the air, leaving behind a trail of ionized particles. Ambient radio waves being broadcast into the sky can hit these ionized particles and bounce back toward the ground. Slooh is partnering with SpaceWeatherRadio in New Mexico to catch these reflected radio signals and convert them into audio, producing a haunting, high-pitched hum.


In the past, the Leonids have provided some spectacular shows, such as a meteor storm in 1833 that produced 100,000 meteors per hour. This year, however, the prediction is that there will only be about 10 to 15 meteors per hour.


Meteor showers happen when Earth’s orbit takes us through the trail of debris that follows a comet. In the case of the Leonids, the comet is Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 33 years. As the comet orbits the sun, it leaves behind dust and detritus in its path, and when the Earth passes through this cometary litter, the particles burn up in the atmosphere, producing streaking lights in the sky that we see as shooting stars. In the same way that snowflakes appear to originate from a point straight ahead as you drive through a snowstorm, meteors appear to come from a single point in the sky.


Tonight’s meteor shower will be centered on the constellation Leo—hence the name the Leonids—which will be in the east after midnight. But you will be able to see meteors anywhere in the sky, as long as it’s dark and the weather’s clear. We see the Leonids every November when Earth passes through a particular point in its orbit.



Battling the Datenkraken’s Business of Surveillance


All tied up in the tenticles of the Datakraken?

All tied up in the tenticles of the Datakraken? patrickschulze/Flickr



Facebook has a long history of pushing the envelope when it comes data privacy and user rights, and one of the most egregious examples was its research on “emotional contagion,” where user news feeds were manipulated to study their reactions to negative posts. It may have sounded innocent enough to the data scientists in Menlo Park, CA, but the reality was that this Web overlord distorted its customers’ emotional states in order to better understand how to profit from them.


Much like the government intelligence agents who don’t understand (or won’t acknowledge) the severity of their surveillance programs until they go public, Facebook’s leadership acted like the program was “no big deal” until public outrage finally prompted them to openly apologize – well, sort of. Actually, they merely stated their regret for “the reaction the paper received,” without ever apologizing for the research itself.


This sort of hubris and cavalier attitude toward user privacy is not unique to Facebook – it is true of nearly all today’s Data Collectors, or Data States as many of us like calling it. These data hoarders — who hold our data hostage in exchange for “free” services that we can’t live without — actually grow their business by selling off our psychological profiles to advertisers and marketers (not to mention, government agencies).


But it’s their business model, and after all, we do consent to this data collection when we agree to use free services, so who cares: right? Perhaps at one time this was partially true, but the boundaries between free and paid services, between private and monitored channels, and between open and closed environments have now blurred to the point that terms of services (and the benefits) are unclear, with users having little knowledge of where their data is stored, and how it is being used, and re-used.


Recently, I was joined on stage by privacy campaigner Aral Balkan, who pointed out startling examples of this trend, for example Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp earlier this year for $19bn, which essentially bought them millions of phone numbers and the “right” to eavesdrop on them. Facebook is pursuing a strategy of acquisitions not just for the purpose of acquiring new services, but with the end goal of building a giant personal data reservoir that can be mined and manipulated continuously for their profit.


Again, let’s not pick on just Facebook – Google is the poster child in so many ways for critique; “ACH!”, they have perfected the model. With its Android mobile OS, Chrome desktop OS and ubiquitous “free” services like Gmail, Drive and Google Maps, this “open source” company has created an enormous global web of data – including pictures of your backyard, and to-the-second location records of anyone who has enabled GPS on their Android or Chrome-enabled device – to the point that they know where you are going before you leave home.


And when services like Gmail and Facebook are plugged into the APIs of other “free” apps, the result is a tangled mess of user data agreements that no person could hope to keep track of, with the worst case scenario being the digital privacy equivalent of second-hand smoke (as Aral terms it), whereby even non-users have their data exposed – against their wishes or without their knowledge – like for example when communication with Gmail users. Is there anything fundamentally different between this second-hand smoke reality, and the NSA’s own policy of monitoring anyone with three degrees of separation from a suspected terrorist?


As good citizens of the Internet, our instinct in this dilemma is to push for reform – and we have. Unfortunately, both our governments and the Web hoarders have failed to live up to the reforms they’ve promised. Some European countries have made noise about “Surveillance Valley’s” privacy infringements, but ultimately they are unable or unwilling to act decisively about it. My home country, Germany, has made a push against the so-called “datenkraken,” but one has to wonder why more has not been done already, considering our own nasty history of surveillance from the Nazis up through the Stasi. Meanwhile, tech companies are putting tons of marketing dollars into showing how “open” they are, with projects like Facebook’s TODO, the Open Data Center Alliance, and the AllSeen Alliance – which sound nice in theory, but are really vehicles for these large tech companies to hijack open source tools for the construction of even more information silos, threatening the very open nature of the Internet.


If we want to keep a free and open Internet, perhaps there is no doing business with the datenkraken at all. As Amazon, Facebook and Google have shown time and again, there are no such things as free services – you either pay with your wallet, or with your privacy. Instead of wishing and hoping that these companies will play nice, we must create, invest in, and use Web services that respect our human rights on the Internet. If this means exchanging a little money for services in the old fashioned way, then so be it. After all, who do you trust more with your data – a local service provider, or Mark Zuckerberg?


In case you can’t think of an answer right away, consider that Mark has already called you a “dumb f**k” for giving him your information freely, albeit back in his Harvard days. Would you give your money to a bank whose CEO calls you a sucker? It seems unlikely, to say the least. If we believe that our rights transfer over to the digital world, then we have to stand up to this perpetual abuse by a handful of Internet bullies.


Rather than wait for change to happen, the technology industry and its users – the backbone of the Internet itself – must transform from within. And this transformation must focus on technologies that can provide us with Cloud 3.0 services, (and I don’t mean the Internet of Things) that provide the convenience factor and attractive user experience of “free” services, but with a level of integrity and privacy that Internet citizens deserve as human beings.


Private businesses should control their own data boundaries – and that means regulating what data leaves, and what data remains within their organizations. For legally-bound industries, this is even more the case. If companies begin to use Cloud 3.0 solutions, that is a good start – they will pave the way for wide-scale adoption among consumers, as was the case with PCs in decades past. The software industry can’t relax, but instead must become fiercely competitive. Being open and free doesn’t cut it anymore – users demand the ease of use they get with Facebook and Google. In the cloud age everything is easy, except privacy and digital rights. But it doesn’t have to be that way – so let’s reclaim the Internet by only using services that treat us with respect.


Rafael Laguna is co-founder and CEO of OX.



The Internet of Anything: The Little Box That Hooks Your Old Car Up to the Internet


CarKnow founder Josh Siegel

CarKnow founder Josh Siegel. CarKnow



Detroit native Josh Siegel is a car guy.


He bought his first car, a 1955 Chevy 210, shortly before his 15th birthday. He liked it because he could tinker with it. After restoring this classic car, he moved on to more ambitious projects, tweaking the timing, swapping out the cams, and rejetting the carburetors. “It might take time or cost money,” he says, “but I could make the ’55 exactly what I wanted.”


But this wasn’t the case with his next car, a 2004 Chevy Impala. Though he wanted to tinker with it too—tune the engine or play with the automatic lock setting—he couldn’t. “Any sort of tweak,” he says, “required dealership diagnostics tools.”


It took him six years, but Siegel, an engineering student at MIT, now has a solution. It’s called Carduino, and it’s the first product from Siegel’s new company CarKnow.


This tiny device plugs into an automobile diagnostics port, letting you equip your car with all sorts of tools you otherwise couldn’t. You can set your windows to automatically roll up when the weather changes, tie your doors to a smartphone app that lets you lock your car from across the internet, or, well, dream up something no one else has ever thought of. The idea is that anyone can use the Carduino to build any app they like.


This tiny device plugs into an automobile diagnostics port, letting you equip your car with all sorts of tools you otherwise couldn’t.


Traditionally, the car you bought was the car you bought. You couldn’t add parking assistance or blind-spot monitoring after the fact—unless you took it back to the dealership for an expensive upgrade. But the Carduino is part of a movement that aims to change that. As it stands, the connected car movement—driven by the big-name car makers as well as tech giants such as Apple and Google—is limited to newer, high-end vehicles. But with Carduino, Siegel wants to extend this kind of thing to a new audience, giving anyone the power to plug their car into the internet.


The Cost of a Smartwatch


It’s called Carduino because it’s meant to evoke the Arduino—a tiny open source circuit board that lets you build your own electronic gadgets. But Carduino is a more powerful machine—about as powerful as your smartphone. It’s set to arrive early next year, and Siegel says it will cost about as much as a smartwatch.


There are other tools that plug into your car’s diagnostic port, such as Automatic and Carvoyant, but for the most part, these just pull data from your car. They can tell your car’s fuel efficiency—or what a certain “check engine” light means. They even offer services that let developers build apps based on information pulled from you car, so that you can do things like automatically text your spouse when you leave the office. But Carduino goes further.


It taps into a car’s controller area network, or CAN—the system the car’s various components use to communicate with each other. That lets it do more stuff. But it’s also a difficult thing to pull off.


The CAN Conundrum


Part of the problem is that not all cars used CAN. Siegel says its available on most cars built since 2004, but it has only been required since 2008.


Security is another concern, considering that Carduino connects your car to the net. But Siegel says Car Know has taken several precautions to ensure that the Carduino is safe. The company designed the Carduino to run only a certain set of white listed commands. It always checks these commands against a list of black listed commands. And since the platform will be open source, outside developers will be free to examine—and patch—the tool’s security.


But the biggest problem may be that CAN isn’t really a standard. Each manufacturer sends messages in its own way, and these messages can even vary from car to car. In order to make Carduino work properly, Siegel and company will have to reverse engineer all the relevant messages for every single car that the tool is supposed to work with.


Automatic’s tool can handle CAN messages in Ford vehicles—in a limited way—but the company had to partner with Ford in order to make this happen. “It’s a very delicate system,” he says. “A lot of cars don’t like when you add traffic to the CAN bus.”


Car Crowdsourcing


Siegel’s plan is to crowd-source much of this reverse engineering, asking outside developers to document a world of CAN messages and post all of their findings on a publicly accessible wiki. Given the number of car geeks out there, this may be doable—but then again, maybe not. “There’s a part of me that wishes them the best of luck,” says Automatic founder Ljuba Miljkovic. “But I think it’s going to be a huge challenge.”


That said, Siegel has already made huge strides during the six years he developed Carduino as a research project at MIT. The device will include several apps that will work on most supported cars right out of the box, and developers will be able to work with the CAN commands he’s already identified to get started building new apps right away.


“Frankly,” he says. “I can’t wait to see what people do with their cars.”



Experimental Videogame Consoles That Let You Make One Move a Day




This little cube is a videogame. Mario, to be exact. Clearly, it looks nothing like the Mario you and I know. But I assure you, it is in fact a videogame, and you can totally play it. That little button at the top, that’s your controller. And the little white dots, those are both your avatar and the world in which it functions.


This abstract cube is the work of Ishac Bertran, a designer living in New York City. And he’s made more than one. Bertran turned Mario, Tetris and Pong into minimalist game cubes, all of which come with a major disclaimer: Players can only make one move a day.


Appropriately, they’re called Slow Games, and the idea is to transform what is traditionally a fast-moving activity into a contemplative experience. Plenty of videogames are designed to tickle our instant gratification scratch. “This is what allows a game to be really engaging, really immersive,” says Bertran. “When you play a videogame, everything in the room disappears.” Slow Games takes the opposite approach.


Each cube comes with a different controller input. Mario has a push button; the longer you press down, the farther your avatar jumps. Tetris is controlled by rotating the entire cube. Pong uses a toggle switch to dictate where the ball bounces. Once you make your move, it takes a day for it to show up on screen. This languorous process creates a totally new kind of game. Instead of focusing on skills like eye-hand coordination, it challenges our memory and observation, says Bertran.


These aren’t games that you’ll finish in one session. That’s technically impossible. You’ll spend at least a couple weeks on each, and that’s if you don’t die in the process. This delay can be frustrating, especially if you’re looking at the games through the traditional lens of play. You won’t beat a level while you dash from work to home on the Subway, but maybe that’s OK.


You could draw comparisons to technology in a more general sense. More often than not, its purpose is to decrease the friction in our lives. The easier, the faster, the more immediate, the better, right? Not so fast, says Bertran. “We’ve developed this super fast, automated way of interacting with things,” he says. “Technology is almost anticipating what you will do.” This form of interaction is neither a good or bad thing, he adds, but it’s at least something that deserves some reflection. “For me this [Slow Games] is a way to test how we interact with technology that bends the rules a little bit,” he says.