Reading archive 2024-04-26

Is Southwest about to end its free-for-all seating?: The company says it is ‘very seriously studying’ alternatives to its signature open-seating system

How to deal with the 3 levels of gaslighting

Blinken warns China to address its support for Russia or ‘we will’

Asia’s next war could be triggered by a rusting warship on a disputed reef - "To buttress its claims in the South China Sea, the Philippines in 1999 deliberately ran aground a World War II-era landing ship on a half-submerged shoal, establishing the vessel as an outpost of the Philippine navy."

Opinion  This tiny flower teaches us all we need to know about growing old

Secret meetings, social chatter: How Columbia students sparked a nationwide revolt - "But unlike the protests of decades past, college administrators have fewer tools at their disposal to assuage demonstrator demands. Experts say student requests for divestment are not only impractical but also are likely to yield little if any real benefit. More broadly, the students could face a challenge in trying to build alliances. Some would-be demonstrators have been deterred by tactics and chants some view as antisemitic.

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"'I think a difference with older generations is that for them college was a coming of age, whereas my class started elementary school in the financial crisis, started high school in the Trump presidency, and started college in the pandemic,' Vijayakumar said. 'We’ve never lived in normal times.'" [ed. note: there is no such thing as "normal times"]

Baltimore principal’s racist rant was an AI fake. His colleague was arrested.

D.C. officers who were previously disciplined won’t get renewed contracts

After decades of disinvestment, D.C.’s Anacostia welcomes new developments - "But as Bowser and others spoke Thursday on the roof of DHCD’s new headquarters, there was a shared understanding that these new developments were only a step toward rectifying decades of disinvestment. Local business owners who attended the celebration said that while they are excited about the rapid development, they expressed concern about what the new amenities could eventually mean for the neighborhood’s affordability." [ed. note: complain about disinvestment, complain about the effects of investment]