Factual Dispatch

I'm hoping this can act as a counterweight to the increasingly useless awful din of weaponized digital tabloids, for-profit message amplification, and information overload. This dispatch assumes you're vaguely aware of the news, so I'll provide perspectives, articles, data visualizations, and other content that you wouldn't come across otherwise.

With the GOP solidifying their hold on the Senate, 96 women elected to the House, Scott Walker being shown the door, Colorado welcoming the first openly gay governor, Florida's recounting like it's 2000, the first Native American women, Muslim women, and the youngest woman (who can't afford a DC apartment) ever being elected to Congress, we've come a long way from when you said your vote out-loud to a sheriff with the candidate in the room. My favorite reads are:

• Michael Hirsh's read on potential foreign policy implications.   

• Barry Ritholtz of Ritholtz Wealth Management had a stunningly honest, raw, and insightful read on what Trump has revealed (or reminded) us about who we are as a country. 

• Filter did a great look at how Drug Policy Reform did.

• Lily Hay Newman at Wired evaluated how elections are being secured in a low-funding post-2016 world. 

• Sarah Kliff at Vox talks Medicaid expansions for you healthcare policy wonks.

• Colum Lynch's review of why voting is a giant pain in the USA.

• Vann R. Newkirk II's surprisingly optimistic analysis of the Gillum, Abrams, and O'Rourke races for The Atlantic.

• Sarah Kendizor says what we're all avoiding admitting we're thinking.

In the 1608, the introduction of the telescope allowed traders to evaluate ships entering the Dutch port, checking how deeply they sat in the water. As Jamie Catherwood expertly details, ships that sat lower telegraphed that the vessel was loaded down, and prices of commodities they were carrying would drop. Or how in the 1830s, traders used "optical telegraphs" built on the top of hills to communicate investing information. The world actually used the Fires of Gondor method of transmitting information, except it was used to prospect on commodities, not calling for aid. That is, until 1834, when two bankers in France got an operator to send fake news about the bond market to Bordeaux, blowing up all of their trades. Signal integrity remains crucial, no matter whether you're playing a game of telephone, or buying stocks in Mumbai.

While hyper-connected urban dwellers are awash in data with very little insights, across America, others are dealing with the exact opposite problem. A "news desert" is a place where the local economy cannot sustain a journalistic organization, whether it's for-profit or non-profit. As traditional advertising revenue dwindles in the face of Big Tech, some communities simply don't have the spending base to support a newspaper or a non-Sinclair local TV station. And this has real consequences for the community. The Columbia Journalism Review found that when local journalistic outfits closed, local governments spent more inefficiently. And while we've gotten pretty good at understanding why Fox News & other conservative media is so unflinchingly consumed by some, we have a responsibility to get the things right that we got wrong almost 90 years ago. 

Eye-Watering Data Visualization of the Week: Source 

"Annoying But Correct" Take of the Week: Now that the caravan has entirely disappeared from the news cycle, it's important to remember it's not just government rebels and gang violence causing these migrations. Central America is in the 4th year of a drought that has ravaged farmland that affects more than 2 million across El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras."Huh, Interesting" Read of the Week: There might be a biochemical basis for the placebo effect.Dunk of the Week:

Get some rest if you can, you're doing better than you think,T