Reading archive 2021-10-31

Hell caves, evil fairies and animal sacrifice: Halloween’s intense Irish roots - "Halloween arrived on our shores in the 1840s with a wave of Irish immigrants pushed out of their home country by the Great Famine. The 19th-century golden age of magazines, particularly women’s magazines, pushed it out of immigrant enclaves and into the broader public. 

"'Middle-class housewives loved reading stories about quaint, regional celebrations, so the magazines would include these stories about Halloween festivities and parties and so forth, and they caught on,' Morton said."

U.S. missionaries have long tried to convert the ‘unreached’ in the Amazon. Now Indigenous groups are fighting back.

How does a pandemic start winding down? You are looking at it.: Coronavirus infections are down, hopes are up, but uncertain forecasts put the Biden administration in a pandemic messaging bind

Reading archive 2021-10-30

Inside Russia's ‘fourth wave’: Record deaths, deep frustration and plenty of blame

Two doors, few windows and 4,500 students: Architect quits over billionaire’s mega dorm

Trump looks to 2024, commanding a fundraising juggernaut, as he skirts social media bans

Reading archive 2021-10-29

Air Force is first to face troops’ rejection of vaccine mandate as thousands avoid shots

Flight attendant suffers broken bones in ‘one of the worst displays of unruly behavior’ in the skies: The incident prompted the pilots to divert the flight to Denver, where a passenger was detained

Opinion: D.C. officials are finally asking questions about the city’s housing authority. They need to ask themselves some questions, too. - "That little-known action was a major step forward by D.C. lawmakers whose traditional mode of oversight when confronted with monstrously incompetent government conduct, or legally or morally questionable behavior, is to adhere to the proverbial principle: 'hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.' How else can DCHA, the D.C. Lottery, Medicaid contracting or the clearing of homeless encampments be explained?"

Opinion: We’re LGBTQIA+ students in Fairfax County. We’re tired of our lives being used for political gain.

Mark Zuckerberg just laid out his vision for the metaverse. These are the five things you should know.: The Meta CEO expects parts of the metaverse to go mainstream in five to 10 years

In battle at Supreme Court over N.Y. gun law, a surprising split among conservatives

The repeated claim that Fauci lied to Congress about ‘gain-of-function’ research

Reading archive 2021-10-28

Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke angers NFL owners with financial pivot related to lawsuit on St. Louis move, sources say

Opinion: To see climate change in action, just look in your own backyard

Climate change is making poison ivy stronger and itchier: Carbon dioxide and warmer soils could be supercharging everyone’s least favorite plant. - "Research shows that the main culprit behind climate change — increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — is supercharging poison ivy."

Chief federal judge in D.C. assails ‘almost schizophrenic’ Jan. 6 prosecutions: ‘The rioters were not mere protesters’

D.C.’s highest court clears way for McMillan development to proceed

The 14 things you need to know about Trump’s letter in the Wall Street Journal

'When do we get to use the guns?’: The ongoing danger of false fraud claims

Welcome to Tverskaya Street

Reading archive 2021-10-27

Mastodon's Founder Says Trump's New Social Network Is Just Mastodon: 'Truth Social', which will launch officially later in the year, is seemingly using Mastodon's codebase without credit.

Pushing election lies, TPUSA audience member asks Charlie Kirk when they can “use the guns” and “kill these people”

Inside Nick Rolovich's downfall at Washington State over the COVID-19 vaccine

Opinion: Manchin warns that Biden’s agenda would create an ‘entitlement society.’ But his state leads the way. - "Not surprising from a senator who hails from a state that presents itself as fiercely self-reliant. But in fact, West Virginians are not only older, sicker and poorer than most of the nation; they are, by some measures, more reliant on the federal government than any other state."

Top U.S. general calls China’s hypersonic weapon test very close to a ‘Sputnik moment’

In Poland’s politics, a ‘social civil war’ brewed as Facebook rewarded online anger: An independent data analysis of major political parties in Poland that was conducted for The Post showed that after 2018, negative messages were more likely to receive a high number of shares.

Frances Haugen took thousands of Facebook documents: This is how she did it: The company’s documents were available on its internal social network, which resembles the Facebook used by billions

Carl Nassib confirms he has a boyfriend: The Las Vegas Raiders lineman opened up about his beau on a teammate’s podcast.

Reading archive 2021-10-26

LET THINGS ROT - "When the tree falls is when the glory begins."

Invaders for sale: the ongoing spread of invasive species by the plant trade industry - "...we found that 61% of 1285 plant species identified as invasive in the US remain available through the plant trade, including 50% of state-regulated species and 20% of federal noxious weeds."

Mixed-Species Gardens Increase Monarch Oviposition without Increasing Top-Down Predation - "We found that monarchs laid 22% more eggs on milkweed planted in mixed-species plots than milkweed in monoculture."

Opinion: We Disneyfied the escaped zebras. The truth about exotic animals is a lot sadder. - "The tragic story of the Maryland zebras shows it is time to take a hard look at what animals’ lives are actually like in a society where people are allowed to turn them into collectibles."

Opinion: Democrats’ risky strategies show they never learned their lessons from Obamacare

Opinion: The GOP rebrands itself as the party of tax cheats - "Just as they did with Obamacare 'death panels,' Republicans have megaphoned misinformation. They allege that Democrats would create a Marxist 'surveillance program designed to target low- and middle-income earners' (false) in which the government would 'monitor every single transaction you make' (false) with 'no limits' (definitely false)."

Opinion: Manchin’s work requirement for child benefits would throw grandparent-led families under the bus - "But Manchin has indicated that he’ll vote for extending the program only if, among other things, beneficiaries prove they are working. 

"This might sound reasonable. Especially in West Virginia, where both receipt of government benefits and skepticism about benefits are high. Even Boyles says she suspects many people are 'sitting on their butts.' When pressed, she says she’s not sure how the state could easily distinguish between hardworking-but-unlucky families like hers and the slackers who want 'handouts.'"

Western monarch butterflies have been vanishing. This week, a sanctuary saw thousands return.

In Taiwan war game, few good options for U.S. to deter China

American eel, marbled salamander among ‘critters in crisis’ in D.C. region, experts: say Pollution and development in Montgomery County and the wider D.C. region are making it harder for certain species to survive

Five tactics used to spread vaccine misinformation in the wellness community, and why they work

Fox Weather readies launch, facing questions over how it will cover climate change

Ahead of Jan. 6, Willard hotel in downtown D.C. was a Trump team ‘command center’ for effort to deny Biden the presidency

Otters are taking over Singapore

Scientific reclamation: How the iconic Jefferson Memorial was restored

Reading archive 2021-10-21

The Raiders Had More Black Players Than Any NFL Team. Then Jon Gruden Took Over The Roster.

Jon Gruden was hostile to Black people for years before his emails came out: In his dealings with those in his immediate orbit, the former Raiders head coach long ago showed us where he thinks a Black man’s place in football should be

FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE: Where civilization emerged between the Tigris and Euphrates, climate change is poisoning the land and emptying the villages - "Years of below-average rainfall have left Iraqi farmers more dependent than ever on the dwindling waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. But upstream, Turkey and Iran have dammed their own waterways in the past two years, further weakening the southern flow, so a salty current from the Persian Gulf now pushes northward and into Iraq’s rivers. The salt has reached as far as the northern edge of Basra, some 85 miles inland."

Council member Trayon White Sr. is planning to run for D.C. mayor

Reading archive 2021-10-20

Opinion: Liz Cheney’s sharp rebuke of the GOP highlights a big and terrible truth

Opinion: A red state Democrat tries to talk sense to Joe Manchin

The accused spy knew stealth was crucial from his work on submarines. He surfaced anyway.

Reading archive 2021-10-19

Stripped naked, beaten, forced to shout ‘Viva Fidel!’: Inside Cuba’s crackdown on dissent

What is Tommy Tuberville doing here?: The college football coach turned U.S. senator objected to Biden’s victory on Jan. 6. He’s not looking back. “I have no regrets,” he says.

Russia allows methane leaks at planet’s peril - "'Methane is natural gas. How can it be harmful to the environment?” he asked. “Methane appears in every life process, from cows to plankton.'" [ed. note: fucking Russians]

FBI searches D.C., NYC homes connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

Reading archive 2021-10-18

Demolition has started at McMillan, but the legal saga continues

The Battle for McMillan: Why is the plan to redevelop the site of a decommissioned water treatment plant in Washington, DC so controversial?

McMillan, D.C.’s Most Cursed Development Project, Explained

D.C. approved a development at McMillan in 2014. Will it ever be built?

Northern Virginia Koran tutor convicted of receiving child pornography

Opinion: Joe Manchin’s ugly new demands expose the absurdity of arbitrary centrism - "Niskanen policy director Samuel Hammond calls Manchin’s position 'performative austerity,' and points to a deep perversity. The work requirement is supposed to avoid fostering dependency. As it is, such a requirement is misguided: People need the CTC not because they are unwilling to work, but because children impose additional costs.

"But beyond this, Hammond notes, means testing the program might create more dependency by creating incentives not to strive for a higher income, making it more like the sort of welfare program Manchin fears. 

"'If Manchin is worried about dependency, he should see the value in having the CTC be relatively universal,' Hammond told me. 'Narrowly targeting the credit to the lowest income families risks creating a stigmatizing poverty trap.'"

The WHO has a bold new plan to find covid-19’s origins. China could get in the way.

Opinion: Urban myths about economics have taken root — and the cost is high

The days of U.S. tech companies fighting back against authoritarian regimes are long gone

The Kyrie Conundrum: Kyrie Irving’s stance on the vaccine is a complicated and not very fun thing to talk about, because it’s a story in which two individually messy subjects intersect in compoundingly messy ways

Opinion: Kyrie Irving’s self-pitying refusal to get vaccinated is pathetic and dangerous

In search for coronavirus origins, Hubei caves and wildlife farms draw new scrutiny - "A reporter observed human traffic into Enshi caves, including domestic tourism, spelunking and villagers replacing a drinking water pump inside a cave. Defunct wildlife farms sat as close as one mile from the entrances."

At Alaska’s most popular national park, climate change threatens the only road in and out

‘More immediate, more visceral’ and a lot tougher on Eric Clapton: A plan for reviving Rolling Stone

Netflix fires employee for sharing information about Dave Chappelle’s special amid LGBTQ backlash

D.C. should consider excluding gun offenders from the Youth Act leniency, police chief says - "Five years ago, a Post investigation found hundreds sentenced under the Youth Act went on to commit rapes, robberies and homicides." [ed. note: JFC the My'onna Hinton story is insane]

Eric Clapton Isn't Just Spouting Vaccine Nonsense—He's Bankrolling: It Eric Clapton went from setting the standard for rock guitar to making ‘full-tilt’ racist rants to becoming an outspoken vaccine skeptic. Did he change? Or was he always like this?

Reading archive 2021-10-13

The Southwest Airlines mess and rumors of a vaccine walkout

U.S. judge calls for Justice Department civil rights probe into D.C. jail’s treatment of Jan. 6 detainees

2020 Census may have undercounted Black Americans, new analyses say

Plug-in cars are the future. The grid isn’t ready.: By 2035, the chief automakers will have turned away from the internal combustion engine. It’ll be up to the grid to fuel all those new cars, trucks and buses.

An unvaccinated man met a doctor at a bar. He left agreeing to get his first dose.

Reading archive 2021-10-12

Football made Jon Gruden. Now the NFL must reckon with its creation.

Nets give Kyrie Irving a public ultimatum: Get vaccinated or stay home

The Giants’ big bet on Saquon Barkley was doomed from the start

After A Scathing Audit, Tougher Oversight Could Be Coming For D.C.’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund

For more than two years, a wild elk had a car tire stuck around his neck. Now, it’s free.

Virginia And Maryland Rebuff D.C.’s Request To Force Drivers To Pay Traffic Camera Tickets

Neighbors clash over DC’s McMillan Park development

Georgia election workers fired for allegedly shredding hundreds of voter registration forms

Opinion: Mark Meadows and Laura Ingraham unmask the GOP’s corrupt core

Want to add healthy years to your life? Here’s what new longevity research says.

Annapolis couple accused of selling nuclear secrets could face life in prison - "The case is remarkable for the seemingly innocuous suburban life the couple lived, the complex and sometimes comical nature of the steps they took to disguise their clandestine work and the unusual degree of assistance the still-unidentified foreign country appears to have given the FBI."

Accused spy couple make first court appearance, ordered to stay in jail for now

A woman got nearly $5 million after police killed her son. Now, they say she used the cash to help provide guns for gangs.

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine will not seek elective office in 2022: The District’s first elected attorney general says he won’t run next year but will remain involved in local politics

A recipe for fighting climate change and feeding the world - "In Kansas, one of the nation’s leading producers of wheat, these problems are on full display. The state loses an estimated 190 million tons of its rich topsoil each year. Climate change has made Kansas summers hotter and drier, but also makes rainstorms more intense. The state’s farmers are among those most at risk of losing crops as a consequence of human-caused warming."

This Is Who Jon Gruden Always Was: Gruden is out as the Las Vegas head coach after a report detailed his history of making racist, sexist, and homophobic comments. But the questions about his emails don’t end there—for both the Raiders and the league as a whole.

Reading archive 2021-10-11

Inside Blue Origin: Employees say toxic, dysfunctional ‘bro culture’ led to mistrust, low morale and delays at Jeff Bezos’s space venture: ‘It’s condescending. It’s demoralizing,’ said one former top executive of conditions prompting many to leave the company

Liberal Democrats have become the mainstream of the party and less willing to compromise with dwindling moderates

‘Frustration is at an all-time high’: Behind Biden’s falling poll numbers

Woman fatally shot in D.C. had obtained protective order against suspect

Dave Chappelle can kiss my black gay ass

Organic food health time bomb? Carcinogenic organic pesticide copper sulfate used to grow wine grapes, potatoes and tomatoes found in ‘almost entire French population and in particular children’

Reading archive 2021-10-10

Despite spills and air pollution, fossil fuel companies award CEOs for environmental records: Marathon Petroleum’s former CEO got a $272,000 bonus for surpassing environmental goals the same year the company spilled 1,400 barrels of fuel in an Indiana creek

In secret tapes, palm oil execs disclose corruption, brutality: Global Witness, an environmental and human rights organization, sent undercover investigators to get the scoop

Reading archive 2021-10-09

McConnell vows Republicans will not help raise debt ceiling in December

China’s Xi vows peaceful ‘unification’ with Taiwan, days after sending a surge of warplanes near the island

Democrats edge toward dumping Iowa’s caucuses as the first presidential vote

Germany investigates possible ‘Havana Syndrome’ sonic attack on U.S. Embassy staff

Reading archive 2021-10-08

China warns U.S. over reports that American forces are stationed in Taiwan

The climate crisis is spawning weird ideas to fix it. They might be all we have.: Woolly mammoths and cow toilets: Desperate times can make even the longest shots seem worth a try

Reading archive 2021-10-07

Prosecutors charge 18 former NBA players with defrauding benefits program of nearly $4 million

Fall foliage flopping: How climate change is dulling and delaying your leaf peeping: The color and timing of the changing leaves are indicators of forest health

Senate report gives new details of Trump efforts to use Justice Dept. to overturn election

CIA creates new ‘mission center’ to counter China

What do all these stories of vaccine denial deaths do to our sense of empathy? - "Despite her father’s death, Haug says she is still undecided about getting vaccinated: 'For now, I just want to grieve and be in this moment.'"

What Wyoming Really Thinks of Liz Cheney: I traveled 2,100 miles across the state to figure out if she is doomed — and to glimpse the future of the Republican Party. - "Passing the storefront office of the state GOP, I couldn’t help noticing a poster celebrating 'Premier Wyoming Republican Women.' Of the seven women listed, two were dead and none was Liz Cheney."

Man charged in Md. triple-slaying was angry because brother gave coronavirus vaccines, police allege

Reading archive 2021-10-06

First Vatican sexual abuse trial absolves a former altar boy who served the pope

Hospital system says it will deny transplants to the unvaccinated in ‘almost all situations’

Opinion: Why Republicans think they can get away with setting fire to the economy

Children should be able to walk and bike to school safely. But, in D.C., four have been hit in crosswalks in less than four weeks.

A 5-year-old was killed while riding her bike. A video taken the next day has, rightfully, left people furious.

Reading archive 2021-10-05

Carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange at the soil-atmosphere boundary as affected by various mulch materials

‘Everyone here hated the Americans’: Rural Afghans live with the Taliban and a painful U.S. legacy

Facebook is harming our society. Here’s a radical solution for reining it in.

The NBA’s Anti-Vaxxers Are Trying to Push Around the League — And It’s Working: Conspiracy theories in the locker room. Mask police in the arena. Superstars trying to avoid the shot. After bringing back the culture from Covid, basketball confronts its own civil war - "Irving, who serves as a vice president on the executive committee of the players’ union, recently started following and liking Instagram posts from a conspiracy theorist who claims that 'secret societies' are implanting vaccines in a plot to connect Black people to a master computer for 'a plan of Satan.' This Moderna microchip misinformation campaign has spread across multiple NBA locker rooms and group chats, according to several of the dozen-plus current players, Hall-of-Famers, league executives, arena workers and virologists interviewed for this story over the past week."

The Problem With the Draymond Green COVID Lecture No One Asked For - "Imagine what it must feel like to these medical professionals, after another week of shitty sleep and dealing with very real pandemic PTSD, to hear a man who makes $24 million a year playing basketball offer extemporaneous, poorly researched opinions on why people should feel emboldened to skip the vaccine?"

Reading archive 2021-10-04

DeJoy’s USPS slowdown plan will delay the mail. What’s it mean for your Zip code?

Opinion: The revelations about Mike Pence’s role in Jan. 6 keep getting worse

U.S. Navy hit by another international bribery scandal

The Largest Autocracy on Earth: Facebook is acting like a hostile foreign power; it’s time we treated it that way. - "Facebook is a lie-disseminating instrument of civilizational collapse. It is designed for blunt-force emotional reaction, reducing human interaction to the clicking of buttons. The algorithm guides users inexorably toward less nuanced, more extreme material, because that’s what most efficiently elicits a reaction. Users are implicitly trained to seek reactions to what they post, which perpetuates the cycle. Facebook executives have tolerated the promotion on their platform of propaganda, terrorist recruitment, and genocide. They point to democratic virtues like free speech to defend themselves, while dismantling democracy itself."

Across Kabul, evidence of Afghanistan’s fast-unraveling economy under the Taliban is everywhere

HOW U.S. SANCTIONS TAKE A HIDDEN TOLL ON RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS

FOREIGN MONEY SECRETLY FLOODS U.S. TAX HAVENS. SOME OF IT IS TAINTED.

Reading archive 2021-10-01

After Years Of Community And Controversy, D.C. Makes Final Push To Close Down NoMa Encampments