The Rise of the Nearly Naked Barista, Leaving the Internet for a Year and More Morning #Mustreads

Good morning!

It’s Wednesday, and Re/code is here to help you get over the midweek hump with some good stuff from around the Web:

1. If you heard about a prostitution sting involving Pacific Northwest coffee spots with names like “Java Juggs,” (if you haven’t, here’s a concise post about it from The Week) then you should take a look at this more in-depth piece from Business Insider, which places the “bikini barista” trend squarely within the near-naked food service madness that’s sweeping the Pacific Northwest.
2. David Roberts, a blogger for the environmental news site Grist, abandoned Twitter and his regular Internet habits a bit over a year ago, and just recently returned to the Net. Most people who “take a break” from being online tend to write insufferable, self-congratulatory nothing-burgers about their hermitage that make you feel worse for having read them. This meditation from Roberts, for Outside Magazine, is the rare exception.
3. Do you like cute dogs? Of course you like cute dogs. The Dodo has a video of a French bulldog puppy discovering rain and jumping around in puddles.
4. The makers of Halo are coming out with a highly anticipated sci-fi video game called Destiny, and by all accounts it looks like it will be a monster hit. The Destiny team and Google Street View teamed up for this slick marketing stunt advertising “Destiny Planet View,” which you can probably figure out. Here’s the YouTube link.
5. Alex Pareene is one of those writers who is always worth reading for big laughs and incisive critiques (I’ll refer you to his most recent media hack list), and since he left his column at Salon to join the Pierre Omidyar-funded First Look Media, we haven’t seen a lot of him. Until yesterday! He did some guest-blogging at Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, and came up with these two great posts.

If you see any stories you’d like to send our way (or have any questions/comments about stories we’ve recommended), feel free to shoot an email to noah.kulwin@recode.net.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

We're here to shed some clarity

One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via