Reading archive 2023-07-06

US public wants climate change dealt with, but doesn’t like the options: People want both action and to keep using fossil fuels.

Summer is here. Where are the fireflies? - "Fireflies in the United States spend the vast majority of their lives in their larval state, roaming the dirt to consume snails, worms and other soft-bodied grub several times their size. In contrast to their gentle summertime image, baby fireflies are vicious predators. 

"But much of the swampy soil young fireflies need to thrive is increasingly being bulldozed for golf courses, suburban subdivisions and other types of development, making habitat loss a top threat."

Judge’s decision in key misinformation case is latest to botch facts: Judges are supposed to be beacons of interpreting the law. Sometimes they can’t even get the basic facts right.

U.S. truckmakers reach deal to phase out polluting diesel big rigs: California pact could speed transition to electric commercial trucks in 2030s to reduce particulates and other pollution

Reeling Arctic glaciers are leaving bubbling methane in their wake, scientists warn

Mercenary boss returned to Russia to collect money and guns

Reading archive 2023-07-05

What does the Barbie movie have to do with the South China Sea dispute?

South Korea’s biggest Pride parade was blocked. It came back stronger.

Climate change could swamp this island. Home sales are surging.: Maryland’s iconic Smith Island faces one of the nation’s most dire forecasts for rising seas, but real estate is booming - "Some studies have shown similar trends elsewhere. One found more Americans are moving into hot urban areas and zones prone to wildfires that will be intensified by climate change. Hurricanes have become more devastating in Florida because millions have bought homes in their paths in recent decades."

Scientists found a solution to recycle solar panels in your kitchen: Research suggests microwave technology could make it easier to take solar panels apart

Opinion  A Georgia teacher’s plight exposes the essence of anti-woke MAGA fury - "This disconnect captures something essential about state laws and directives restricting classroom discussion across the country: They seem to be imprecisely drafted to encourage censorship. That invites parents and administrators to seek to apply bans to teachers haphazardly, forcing teachers to err on the side of muzzling themselves rather than risk unintentionally crossing fuzzy lines into illegality."

Twitter was locked in a chaotic doom loop. Now it’s on the verge of collapse

Reading archive 2023-07-04

North Dakota university leaders fear ‘catastrophic implications’ of Minnesota’s new free tuition plan

Reading archive 2023-07-03

Buttigieg calls SCOTUS ‘out of step’ on LGBTQ+ issues. He has a point. - "What’s interesting about 303 Creative is that it inverts the hierarchy of oppression. It has been presented as a religious designer seeking to take a stand against a widely held belief with which she doesn’t agree. But she is also a member of a group — conservative Christian Americans — that is obviously larger than the country’s LGBTQ+ population. (Gallup puts the LGBT community at 7 percent of the population; analysis of the General Social Survey puts the conservative Christian population at about a quarter of Americans.)"

Reading archive 2023-07-02

Man cited in Supreme Court LGBTQ rights case says he was never involved: The man says he has been married to a woman for 15 years and never asked for services from a Christian website designer

Opinion  How I learned to love toxic chemicals

Reading archive 2023-07-01

Trump pressured Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to overturn 2020 election

THE TAO OF DECEP TION PART I - "'You cannot stop being Chinese,' Yu said. 'Many of these Chinese students in the United States, they don’t remember Mao’s horrors. They believe in a new China dream. And if not, their parents in Beijing and Shanghai will remind them. The Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Berkeley, Cambridge, the same. They are still Chinese. That is where we recruit the MSS army.'"

Reading archive 2023-06-30

Republican opposition to LGBTQ rights erupts in backlash to Pride Month: Throughout June, many Republicans including presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis have sharply criticized Pride celebrations, and some have resurfaced fights over same-sex marriage