Reading archive 2023-12-10

Opinion  Actually, people don’t hate the media as much as you think

Opinion  Here’s a realistic path to protecting the Amazon rainforest

Internet sleuths identify lost ‘X-Files’ song, solving 25-year mystery: ‘Staring at the Stars’ was an original country song written at the request of producers, fans discovered

They watched their husbands win the Heisman – then lost them to CTE: For years, Heisman weekend was a chance to remember their husband’s glory. Now it’s a reminder of a sport’s violent toll.

Some states spurn migrants. The Rust Belt wants them. - "In recent months, communities including Detroit; Dayton, Ohio; and Erie, Pa. — all places experiencing population loss — have been working with outside experts on how to transform city services to meet the needs of immigrants. One city, Topeka, Kan., is being even more aggressive, offering legal migrants up to $15,000 to move there."

Ukraine’s Zelensky appears increasingly embattled as U.S. backing wavers

The “Sickening” Story of the Sarah Lawrence Sex Cult: Director Zach Heinzerling on Hulu’s three-part docuseries Stolen Youth, which features firsthand footage and audio of Larry Ray and his young followers: “Each video seemed more horrible than the next.”

What the federal probe into antisemitism, Islamophobia at schools is about

The call of Tokitae: After half a century in a tank, a beloved orca was about to be freed. Then her life ended, and a moment of reckoning began. - "In the water near Tokitae’s pectoral fin, Davis pressed her hand flat against the orca’s side, the place where Davis had always loved to feel that massive heart pumping against her palm. She felt it beat for the last time. In the moment that followed, a low roll of thunder echoed through the stadium — 'as if the sky received her,' she would recall later — and a soft rain began to fall."

Update: Orca abandons body of her dead calf after a heartbreaking, weeks-long journey [ed. note: from five years ago]

Paris Hilton vs. the Crunchy Tradwives: A modern parenting story: There’s nothing unnatural about being a nervous parent who doesn’t know what they’re doing

How Democratic and GOP Senate veterans stopped Tuberville’s military holds: Military veterans from both parties spent months working to find a solution, frustrated over the blockade and its impact on military families

Opinion  The Trump dictatorship: How to stop it