Reading archive 2021-07-06

Their neighbors called covid-19 a hoax. Can these ICU nurses forgive them?: For the nurses in the Appalachian highlands who risked their lives during the pandemic, it is as if they fought in a war no one acknowledges.

House Democrats take different approach to economic, national security threats posed by China

The scientists fighting to save the ocean’s most important carbon capture system The population of kelp forests, which help clean the air, has fallen dramatically. That has environmentalists worried. - "The fate of the world’s kelp forests may depend on controlling its sworn enemy — sea urchins — and the Nature Conservancy, an Arlington-based environmental group, says it has a plan. It is touting urchins as a culinary cuisine, hoping to appeal to commercial fishermen who could scoop them out of the ocean. It is also attempting to increase the population of their natural predators, sea stars and growing kelp in controlled environments before releasing the algae back into the sea."

A classic Silicon Valley tactic — losing money to crush rivals — comes in for scrutiny: Facebook’s latest product, a newsletter platform called Bulletin, exemplifies a strategy that some critics think should be illegal - "Asked for comment on Facebook Bulletin, Substack spokeswoman Lulu Cheng Meservey said, 'The nice shiny rings from Sauron were also 'free.''"

Untangling The Long-Armed Mystery Of The Bigfin Squid: The elbowed, spindly appendages of the bigfin squid have long stunned the public. But scientists say there is more to this deep-sea dweller than its ghostly appearance.

A Smithsonian museum turns to art, not science, to hammer home a warning about Mother Nature

He says he helped his country. A decade later, the government accused him of fraud.