1. Starbucks, monetary superpower by JP Koning

Starbucks has ~$1.6 billion in ‘stored value card liabilities’ i.e. the Starbucks Card. So ~6% of the firm’s liabilities are comprised of coffee addicts paying 0% for the privilege of lending to their supplier.

2. The cult of Columbine: how an obsession with school shooters led to a murder plot by Rachel Monroe

3. How a Bitter Divorce Battle on Earth Led to Claims of a Crime in Space (law)

4. Did Venus Williams Ever Get Her Due? How the first Williams sister changed the course of women’s tennis by Elizabeth Weil (sports)

5. Every Noise At Once (music)

Every Noise at Once is an ongoing attempt at an algorithmically-generated, readability-adjusted scatter-plot of the musical genre-space, based on data tracked and analyzed for 3,346 genre-shaped distinctions by Spotify as of 2019-08-24. The calibration is fuzzy, but in general down is more organic, up is more mechanical and electric; left is denser and more atmospheric, right is spikier and bouncier.

Bonus: Why being skinny used to be easier (lifestyle)