Donovan Hohn:

"The [Chicago] canal is the only remaining link wanting to complete the most stupendous chain of inland communications in the world," one visitor to Chicago wrote in 1834. That use of the word "communications" sounds archaic to our ears, but there's a furtive meaning bottom-dwelling in those etymological channels. Ideas, goods, images, species -- everything is communicable now.

Robert Moore:

Guys, I wanted to let you know about a personal decision I recently made. I don't really feel like discussing it, but I want to put my position out there. Please be respectful. This is a really long post, but please read the whole thing.

I'm taking the brakes off my car. This isn't a rash decision, so please listen up.

Julia Angwin:

The fact that so much of the Internet's security software is underfunded is becoming increasingly problematic.

Game of Thrones:

Send a raven.

Megan Graham:

What qualifies as an emergency for these purposes? We don't know.

Michael Riley and Jordan Robertson:

The attack appears to follow a pattern of thefts of medical data by foreigners seeking a pathway into the personal lives and computers of a select group -- defense contractors, government workers and others, according to a U.S. government official familiar with a more than year-long investigation into the evidence of a broader campaign.

Paul McLeary:

The $585 billion fiscal year 2016 defense budget request -- so painstakingly sculpted by White House and Pentagon before being sent to Capitol Hill this week -- will likely die a long, complicated death as it winds its way through the congressional committees, analysts say.

If Congress begins cutting, it will likely leave the accounts that fund the politically sensitive compensation and benefits for service members alone, meaning the procurement and modernization lines will be on the chopping block.