We can twerk it out

Good news, you guys: CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY. Or fall did, at least. Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte will return not on the seasonally appropriate date of September 25 or October 25 -- or hell, November 25, even -- but 10 days from today, on the 25th of August. (A date on which, I must point out, it is still appropriate to wear white and drink coffee of the iced variety.) Some haters have attributed this early launch to consumers' impatience, or to Starbucks' soul-sucking marketing genius, or to the gentle dissolution of seasonality/space/time. I am taking it as evidence that God loves us/wants us to be happy. Amen to that. Now, the links!

1. Email is the cockroach of the Internet. Not in the sense that it fears the light or has lots of gross little legs. Despite all the "innovations" designed to displace it, email (like the cockroach!) soldiers on -- and probably will, until the computers take over, and then probably they'll still email themselves.

2. What is up with "unboxing" videos? This is one Youtube phenomenon I will never understand: videos (very, very popular videos) of people ... opening things. Toys. Shoeboxes. Pens. Whatever. It so bothered Mireille Silcoff that she set off in search of the elusive DisneyCollector -- the 21-year-old Brazilian "unwrapper" who now has Youtube's most popular channel.

3. Meet the Internet's flirtiest robot. For weeks, one New Yorker has been using a chatbot to answer his OkCupid messages -- and for the most part, ladies don't realize they're speaking to a machine.

On Fridays I make GIFs of my dog. Here she is getting up in everyone's business.

Pocketable: On the front lines in Ferguson. (3608 words/14.4 minutes)

Postscripts: Kale v. bacon. Catstarter. We can twerk it out. 10 emoji meanings you probably didn't know and nine things I would't miss if the Internet disappeared. How the #IceBucketChallenge went viral. Why you're not getting enough sleep. Should 12-year-old kids even have smartphones? I don't know the answer to these things.

PSA: Links will not come out Monday, as I'm taking the day off. But in the meantime, have a cute video.

Until Tuesday!
@caitlindewey

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