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.

...

"'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]

Reading archive 2024-04-25

The Morning: Chaos and oppression - "Arnold Kling, an economist, published a book a decade ago that offered a way to think about the core difference between progressives and conservatives. Progressives, Kling wrote, see the world as a struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed, and they try to help the oppressed. Conservatives see the world as a struggle between civilization and barbarism — between order and chaos — and they try to protect civilization."

Aid to Ukraine seemed dead. Then secretive talks revived it.: In one meeting, Biden and others sprang a surprise effort to persuade Speaker Johnson to pass the aid package

Meadows, Giuliani and other Trump allies charged in Arizona 2020 election probe

How cleaning product chemicals called ‘quats’ may affect the brain: A common ingredient in household disinfectants has been shown in lab studies to affect certain brain cells

In Australia, ‘Cats Are Just Catastrophic’: Feral cats take a heavy toll on the world’s wildlife, especially Down Under. The solution? Smarter traps, sharpshooters,

As bird flu spreads in cows, fractured U.S. response has echoes of early covid

Bird flu in humans, explained: How it spreads, the symptoms and more

Opinion  Why we shouldn’t panic if bird flu becomes the next pandemic

Some Jewish Students Are Targeted as Protests Continue at Columbia: After reports of harassment by demonstrators, some Jewish students said they felt unsafe. Others said they felt safe, while condemning antisemitism. - "Those demonstrations took a dark turn on Saturday evening, as protesters targeted some Jewish students with antisemitic vitriol that was captured in video and pictures, both inside and outside the campus. The verbal attacks left a number of the 5,000 Jewish students at Columbia fearful for their safety on the campus and its vicinity, and even drew condemnation from the White House and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.

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"In one instance, video captured a person holding up a sign that said, 'Al-Qasam’s Next Targets,' referring to Hamas’s armed faction, near several Jewish counterprotesters.

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"A video posted on X shows a masked protester outside the Columbia gates carrying a Palestinian flag who appears to chant 'Go back to Poland!' One Columbia student wrote on social media that some protesters had stolen an Israeli flag from students and tried to burn it, adding that Jewish students were splashed with water."

The ‘Mother Tree’ idea is everywhere — but how much of it is real?: A popular theory about how trees cooperate has enchanted the public and raised the profile of forest conservation. But some ecologists think its scientific basis has been oversold.

Invading plants remain undetected in a lag phase while they explore suitable climates

Can Gardeners Learn to Love Snags? These Pros Think So.

Where the Pros go to Source Native Plants

Senior ‘skip day’ was an annual tradition. Then 5 teens were shot.: Greenbelt officials and community members are grappling with how to move forward after five teenagers were wounded at a “senior skip day” outing

Reading archive 2024-04-24

Yellowstone’s Wolves: A Debate Over Their Role in the Park’s Ecosystem: New research questions the long-held theory that reintroduction of such a predator caused a trophic cascade, spawning renewal of vegetation and spurring biodiversity. - "Yes, stands of aspen and willows are thriving again — in some places. But decades of damage from elk herds’ grazing and trampling so thoroughly changed the landscape that large areas remain scarred and may not recover for a long time, if ever.

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"Richard Keigley, who was a research ecologist for the federal Geological Survey in the 1990s, has become an outspoken critic of the park’s bison management. 

"'They have created this juggernaut where we’ve got thousands of bison and the public believes this is the way things always were,' he said. 'The bison that are there now have destroyed and degraded their primary ranges. People have to realize there’s something wrong in Yellowstone.'"

These 150-foot-high sails could help solve shipping’s climate problem: Harnessing the power of wind could both reduce emissions from cargo ships and extend the life of these vessels

The robots are coming ... for your wedding: Congratulations. Your gift is a blast of cold fog to the face.

Opinion  So, 112 ignoble, infantile Republicans voted to endanger civilization - "Today’s Moscow-Beijing-Tehran axis is, as the 1930s Axis was, watching."

The debate about Sonia Sotomayor is not about sexism. It’s more dire.: Some want the Supreme Court justice to retire so that President Biden can name a replacement before... before what happens, exactly?

A homeless woman got an apartment. Then came conflicts with neighbors.

Arizona House votes to repeal abortion ban, advancing issue to state Senate

A global study just revealed the world’s biggest known plastic polluters: Coca-Cola and PepsiCo came in at the top of a global audit of plastic waste

Opinion  We have a radical democracy. Will Trump voters destroy it?

Reading archive 2024-04-23

NBA playoffs 2024: Why do so many players have beef with Rudy Gobert?

How a Tiny Inland Shorebird Could Help Save the Great Salt Lake: With half its surface area gone, the country’s largest saline lake is verging on collapse due to the region’s overuse of water and climate change, threatening the ecosystem, Salt Lake City and Wilson’s phalarope.

Restoring sight is possible now with optogenetics: People suffering from macular degeneration, along with other diseases that impair sight, may soon benefit from gene therapy

Your yard can help avert the insect apocalypse. Here’s how.: Welcome lacewings, sweat bees and lady beetles (back) into your life

Cornel West, focusing on Gaza, has harsh critiques for opponents, former allies

What happened to Tesla? Weak sales, layoffs and recalls weigh on outlook.: Just a few years ago, the company was flying high. Now, investors are contending with a grim earnings report Tuesday.

Australia’s prime minister calls Elon Musk an ‘arrogant billionaire’

Students rally, call for American University to divest from Israel

Here’s what happens when Formula 1 goes all-electric: Imagine an auto race with speed but no engine noise. That battery-powered vision is already here, with Formula E.

Reading archive 2024-04-22

Nine practices from Native American culture that could help the environment

Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem.: As electricity prices go negative, the Golden State is struggling to offload a glut of solar power

Smithsonian staff fear drag clampdown after GOP questioning, emails show: Secretary Lonnie Bunch says ‘LGBTQ+ content is welcome at the Smithsonian’ after comments at hearing, and canceled drag events draw concern - "'I think it’s not appropriate to expose children to drag shows,' Bunch said. 'I’m surprised and I will look into that.'"

Biden’s polls improve as Kennedy and third-party factor shifts: Two new high-quality polls show Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking more support from Donald Trump than President Biden

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at Yale

They fled Venezuela — and transformed D.C.’s food delivery scene

House Republican infighting getting worse after foreign aid vote: One GOP lawmaker said he serves with “some real scumbags,” while others fought over Speaker Mike Johnson’s strategy for bringing up the aid package

Opinion  Don’t waste your time recycling plastic

Reading archive 2024-04-21

Opinion  What it means when the mercenaries appear

A team of bitter rivals is making Israel’s most crucial war decisions

Opinion  The unspoken story of why Israel didn’t clobber Iran

Kennedy family members’ embrace carries deeper meaning for Biden: Biden has longstanding ties to the family of the only other Catholic president, sharing politics and tragedy

Don’t flush trees down the toilet. Use this toilet paper instead. - "Which one was softest? Winner: Simple Truth (Kroger) Our winner is made of out of 100 percent recycled paper with up to 60 percent post-consumer recycled content, or materials that would normally be recycled or wind up in a landfill."

Gaza aid flotilla plans to challenge Israeli blockade, organizers say

At Trump’s N.Y. trial, the jury pool spoke, and he had to listen: The potential jurors for Trump’s hush money trial acted as America’s ultimate focus group

The evolution of Mike Johnson on Ukraine: ‘How does it feel to be a RINO?’ one Republican asked the speaker last week after he decided to advance funding for Ukraine in its war with Russia

Trump’s legal bills drain millions more from his political committees: The former president’s legal bills account for more than a quarter of the spending by his political committees in March, new campaign finance filings show

Reading archive 2024-04-19

Bipartisan House coalition advances Ukraine aid: The latest news from the Middle East did not appear to change the likelihood that the House would pass more aid to Israel

Opinion  Here’s why Uri Berliner couldn’t stay at NPR

Turning Point Action official resigns after accusation of election-related fraud

The U.S. just changed how it manages a tenth of its land: The Interior Department rule puts conservation and clean energy development on par with drilling, mining and resource extraction on federal lands for the first time