Recommended Reading (12/30/24)

Jimmy Carter, Peacemaking President Amid Crises, Is Dead at 100 (NYT)

In case you missed this good news over Christmas: Biden commutes sentences of 37 federal death row prisoners (NPR)

World endures 'decade of deadly heat' as 2024 caps hottest years on record (The Guardian)

So of course: Dutch appeals court overturns landmark climate ruling against Shell (NPR)

What’s in New Hampshire’s new minimum public school standards (NHPR)

New research points to raccoon dogs in Wuhan market as pandemic trigger. It's controversial (NPR)

Segregation Academies Still Operate Across the South. One Town Grapples With Its Divided Schools. (Pro Publica)

Cells Across the Tree of Life Exchange ‘Text Messages’ Using RNA (Quanta)

In Search of Lost Flavors in Flushing (The New Yorker)

City of cafes: Shanghai’s love affair with coffee (BBC)

How Novelist Lynne Reid Banks Helped Me See Myself—and the World (LitHub)

Why We Still Use Postage Stamps (The Atlantic)

Recommended Reading (12/20/24)

In Lebanon, residents fear Hezbollah could be hiding among people displaced by war (NPR)

This is bad! Under pressure from some conservative activists, Sununu pulls state librarian nominee (NHPR)

It's something, I guess: 13 states will have women governors next year, a new record (NPR)

For Xi Jinping, Religion Is Power (The Atlantic)

50 jobs, 30 years: The unseen labour of an Indian female worker (BBC)

Musket balls from first major battle of revolutionary war found near Boston (The Guardian)

Nick Harkaway on Growing Up with Smiley and Carrying on His Father’s Legacy with a new le Carré Novel (CrimeReads)

What the Heck Is Seaweed Mining? (Hakai)

Are We Living Through a Bagel Renaissance? (The New Yorker)

These Tiny Worms Account for at Least 4 Nobel Prizes (NYT)

Bringing Back Batting Average (Baseball Prospectus)

Japanese Green Tea Once Fueled the Midwest (Atlas Obscura)

Recommended Reading (11/13/24)

Phew: Ruben Gallego defeats Kari Lake in Arizona Senate race (NPR)

What Life Looks Like for Israelis Living Near Lebanon’s Border (NYT)

Justin Welby to quit as archbishop of Canterbury over handling of abuse scandal (The Guardian)

Haiti swears in a new leader as gangs shoot at a flight landing in the main airport (NPR)

Missing Henry VIII portrait found after random X post (BBC)

NASA's 'Hidden Figures' awarded Congressional Gold Medals for pioneering space work (NPR)

Nelson’s HMS Victory gives scientists vital DNA for battle against deathwatch beetle (The Guardian)

Strawberry Farmworkers Fight for a Living Wage (Civil Eats)

The Great Honeybee Fallacy (The Atlantic)

How ECMO Is Redefining Death (The New Yorker)

The Exploits and Exploitation of Indian Street Magic, Jadoo (CrimeReads)

Release Angles and the Illusion of Waste (Fangraphs)

Recommended Reading (11/12/24)

One piece of good news from Election Day, in case you missed it: Sarah McBride becomes the first out transgender person elected to Congress (NBC News)

Hamas’s Guerrilla Tactics in North Gaza Make It Hard to Defeat (NYT)

Sun, sea and sirens: A summer in Odesa (NPR)

The New Propaganda War (The Atlantic)

More NH communities consider community power (NHPR)

A new copyright rule lets McDonald's fix its own broken ice cream machines (NPR)

Yellowstone’s Wolves: A Debate Over Their Role in the Park’s Ecosystem (NYT)

Aw: Squeezed out: last accordion maker in France to close shop after 105 years (The Guardian)

! A boy snatched from a California park in 1951 is found living on the East Coast (NPR)

Truly the wholesome news I needed today: Art Garfunkel “Cried At Reunion Lunch With Former Musical Partner Paul Simon After 20 Years’ Silence” (Deadline)

What Makes a Wonder? On the Human Need to Map Out Monumental Greatness (LitHub)

What a bioluminescent petunia had to teach me (Knowable)

Recommended Reading (11/8/24)

What Happens to Hamas and Hezbollah Now That Their Leaders Have Been Killed? (The New Yorker)

Why Antisemitism Is Spreading on the Left (Elad Nehorai)

California sues ExxonMobil for misleading public on plastic recycling (NPR)

For LGBTQ+ people facing food insecurity, stigma and other barriers can make it hard to get help (NHPR)

The Cause That Turned Idealists Into Authoritarian Zealots (The Atlantic)

This preventive drug could be a 'game changer' in ending the HIV epidemic (NPR)

Why Is It So Hard to Find Local Fish (Even by the Water)? (NYT)

France’s 31-year treasure hunt for a buried owl statue finally ends (The Guardian)

On Murder Memoirs (Slate)

Is bullet hole proof of Bonnie Prince Charlie assassination attempt? (BBC)

The Unexpected Poetry of PhD Acknowledgements (ANU College of Science)

Jared Jones and the Plight of the Max-Effort Starter (Baseball Prospectus)

Recommended Reading (11/7/24)

Well, here we are. Most of this is going to be...other stuff, because I'm not up to reading a ton of election analysis yet and I figure people need distractions. But I will say that the most helpful post-election message I have seen is (unsurprisingly), this video by Elizabeth Warren.

This was also helpful: the day after (Life Is a Sacred Text)

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians struggle to access water (NPR)

The Biggest Mystery Of January 6 Remains Unsolved (TPM)

NYT tech workers are making their own games while on strike (The Verge)

Not great! Melting glaciers force Switzerland and Italy to redraw part of Alpine border (The Guardian)

A 27-year-old just became queen of New Zealand's Maori (NPR)

As Museums’ Missions Expand, So Too Does Their Physical Space (NYT)

Is a Plastic Rock a Rock? (Slate)

I gave up meat and gained so much more (Vox)

West Windsor gets rid of a cannon that it never really owned (NHPR)

I'm reading this book now and it's good: The Rare Entertainments of E.C.R. Lorac’s Death of an Author (CrimeReads)

Recommended Reading (10/21/24)

Moldova votes to stick with E.U. despite reports of Russian interference (WaPo)

Award-winning Ukrainian journalist dies in Russian captivity, Kyiv says (NPR)

White House aims to eliminate out-of-pocket spending on birth control for most Americans (The 19th*)

India and China agree to de-escalate border tensions (BBC)

Vietnam Revives Power-Sharing Arrangement With New President (NYT)

Oh come on: Two Republican candidates sue Goffstown library over election questionnaire (NHPR)

! No needles required: The FDA approves an at-home flu vaccine (NPR)

A Monday pick-me-up: All calls of Juan Soto's go-ahead home run in Game 5 (MLB)

The testing of AI in medicine is a mess. Here’s how it should be done (Nature)

Dorset ‘Stonehenge’ under Thomas Hardy’s home given protected status (The Guardian)

Why You Can't Get a Restaurant Reservation (The New Yorker)

“With alarm, Your Scholar,” and other excellent sign-offs from Emily Dickinson’s letters. (LitHub)

Recommended Reading (10/16/24)

Captured documents reveal Hamas’s broader ambition to wreak havoc on Israel (WaPo)

Good: Georgia judge counters GOP-led state election board on certification and hand counts (NPR)

Lilly Ledbetter, Whose Fight for Equal Pay Changed U.S. Law, Dies at 86 (NYT)

North Korea blows up parts of inter-Korean roads as tensions with South Korea soar (NPR)

Race to combat mpox misinformation as vaccine rollout in DRC begins (The Guardian)

First significant snowfall arrives atop Mount Washington (NHPR)

Exclusive: Remains of Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine believed to have been found on Everest (National Geographic)

How Originalism Ate the Law (Slate)

One N.H. town is trying to decarbonize their buildings — and build a workforce in the process (WBUR)

Hypochondria Never Dies (The Atlantic)

How an Ex-N.B.A. Player Is Diversifying Wine One Sip at a Time (NYT)

A Secret Letter to the KGB Turned A Lost Family History Into a Novel (Electric Lit)

Recommended Reading (10/11/24)

These maps and images show what's left of Gaza, 1 year into the Israel-Hamas war (NPR)

As Telegram's Popularity Soars, Is It 'A Spy In Every Ukrainian's Pocket'? (RFE)

A firehose of antisemitic disinformation from China is pointing at two Republican legislators (WaPo)

Good: NH Sec. of State orders use of affidavit ballots on Election Day, despite law’s conflicting dates (NHPR)

NPR Exclusive: U.S. overdose deaths plummet, saving thousands of lives (NPR)

Raffi's Guide to Fighting Fascism (Mother Jones)

Google Is Playing a Dangerous Game With AI Search (The Atlantic)

Lost GK Chesterton essay about detective stories published for first time (The Guardian)

Inside the beauty pageant in one of the world’s worst places to be a woman (BBC)

Mastering the Art of Making a Cookbook (The New Yorker)

How do you build without over polluting? That's the challenge of new Catan board game (NPR)

460 Years Ago, Shakespeare Was Born Here. Or Somewhere. (NYT)

Recommended Reading (10/9/24)

1 year after Hamas attacked Israel, the conflict grows more dangerous than ever (NPR)

Officials face antisemitic attacks over Hurricane Helene response (WaPo)

Tricked into conversion therapy in Russia for being trans (BBC)

I see: Trump secretly sent Putin COVID-19 tests during pandemic shortage, a new book reports (NPR)

Victor Ambros, Upper Valley native, wins Nobel Prize (NHPR)

What Is Wagner Doing in Africa? (The Atlantic)

Norway: electric cars outnumber petrol for first time in ‘historic milestone’ (The Guardian)

(Yes this has been sitting in my bookmarks since Passover and it's now almost Yom Kippur, but it's still interesting!) With a Fresh Look and Recipes, Manischewitz Courts a New Generation (NYT)

Startups want to cool Earth by reflecting sunlight. There are few rules and big risks (NPR)

This is extremely wholesome: I’ll Sign Your Baseball if You Sign Mine (NYT)

The Physics of Cold Water May Have Jump-Started Complex Life (Quanta)

From Austen to Larkin: Why Writers Could Be More Prone to Hypochondria (LitHub)

Recommended Reading (10/7/24)

The Israeli village grieving the biggest loss from Oct. 7, one year later (NPR)

The Israel–Hamas conflict one year on: researcher resilience in the face of war (Nature)

Rabbi Danya on the anniversary today: "...a being whose anguish may reach the heart of God." (Life Is a Sacred Text)

UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius (BBC)

The scale of Helene’s devastating impacts are eye-popping, even from space (NPR)

Previously unknown Mozart music discovered in German library (The Guardian)

The First AI Gadgets Are a Cautionary Tale (Intelligencer)

California heat has immigration activists bracing for a humanitarian crisis (NPR)

Quick! Someone Get This Book a Doctor. (NYT)

Batting Average Is Dead (BP)

Tracing the Long, Winding Path of an Ancient Roman Aqueduct (NYT)

Mountain Lions in NH? Some locals believe the big cats still roam the Granite State (NHPR)

Recommended Reading (10/4/24)

October 7th anniversary weighs heavy as Jews enter the High Holy Days (NPR)

Six hours at hands of Hamas - new accounts reveal how Israeli base fell on 7 October (BBC)

5 things to know about Mexico's first female president (NPR)

Housing is big in NH governor race — and Ayotte and Craig both have skin in the game (NHPR)

Biden’s green policies will save 200,000 lives and have boosted clean energy jobs, data shows (The Guardian)

! Montana man gets 6 months in prison for cloning giant sheep and breeding it (AP)

Bird Flu Is Infecting More Mammals. What Does That Mean for Us? (NYT)

Taxpayers Are About to Subsidize a Lot More Sports Stadiums (The Atlantic)

Legacies of Eugenics: An Introduction (LARB)

Rare Editions of Pushkin Are Vanishing From Libraries Around Europe (NYT)

Once an MLB bust, Travis Snider now hopes to change youth sports’ toxic culture (The Athletic)

Remnants of a Legendary Typeface Have Been Rescued From the River Thames (Artnet)

Recommended Reading (10/1/24)

A periodic reminder that Guardian liveblogs tend to be good (and free) for breaking news. Here's today's for the Middle East.

Gaza: Why is it so hard to establish the death toll? (Nature)

Good: Haitian group seeks charges against Trump and Vance over false Springfield claims (NPR)

Good! League of Women Voters, ACLU file suit to block NH’s new voter ID law (NHPR)

Go dockworkers, obviously: Dockworkers go on strike, snarling traffic at East and Gulf Coast ports (NPR)

The Antisemitic Revolution on the American Right (The Atlantic)

Scottish bog gets world heritage status (BBC)

Yeahhhhh: ‘Nobody Wants This’ Creator Erin Foster Wasn’t Thinking ‘Too Much’ About the Show’s Depiction of Jewish Women (Hey Alma)

When U.S. Diplomats Visit China, Meal Choices Are About More Than Taste Buds (NYT)

Singapore’s Foragers Find More Than Food in the Sidewalk Cracks (Eater)

How Jim Hickey and Sean Doolittle transformed Nats pitching together (WaPo)

But Why a Penguin? (JSTOR Daily)

Recommended Reading (9/26/24)

An exception for breaking news because I'm riveted: Eric Adams Live Updates: Adams Is Charged With Bribery and Fraud (NYT)

U.S. and allies call for an immediate 21-day cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah (NPR)

‘We are all in disbelief’: How the New Hampshire National Guard failed to protect female soldiers (CNN)

Churches don’t have to be accessible. That’s a voting rights problem. (LGBTQ Nation)

Trump gutted federal employee unions. They believe he'd do it again (NPR)

The Hague becomes world’s first city to pass law banning fossil fuel-related ads (The Guardian)

What Can ‘Green Islam’ Achieve in the World’s Largest Muslim Country? (NYT)

Steven Kwan’s rise from pinball wizard to the Guardians’ humble hitting savant (The Athletic)

The Complicated Ethics of Rare-Book Collecting (The Atlantic)

The English Farmers Who Harvest Rhubarb by Candlelight (Smithsonian)

A new generation is uncovering the tiny doodles left by engineers on old microchips (NPR)

Oldest wine ever discovered in liquid form found in urn with Roman remains (The Guardian)

Recommended Reading (9/24/24)

'We just had to flee': Fear and tension in Lebanon under deadly Israeli bombardment (BBC)

Bomb threats followed Trump's false claims about Springfield. Some Haitians may leave (NPR)

Related: Neo-Nazi and far right groups seize on Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric (The Guardian)

A GOP push to change how Nebraska awards its electoral votes appears to have stalled (NPR)

CERN cuts ties with Russia, will expel hundreds of scientists by December (Ars Technica)

Far Right’s Ties to Russia Sow Rising Alarm in Germany (NYT)

Black Capitalism and the City (Places)

How A.I. Is Revolutionizing Marine Conservation (Smithsonian)

On Himalayan Hillsides Grows Japan’s Cold, Hard Cash (NYT)

The Mysteries of Plant 'Intelligence' (The Atlantic)

How did 29 MLB teams pass on Orioles superstar Gunnar Henderson? (Yahoo! Sports)

Crime Novels with a Sense of Place and Manners (CrimeReads)

Recommended Reading (9/23/24)

Marxist Dissanayake wins Sri Lanka's presidential election as voters reject old guard (NPR)

Sudanese rebels appear to be posting self-incriminating videos of torture and arson on social media (The Guardian)

Did exploding pagers attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon violate international law? (NPR)

Inside connections, outside money: How Goodlander swept to big primary win (NHPR)

Sounds great, no notes: Microsoft deal would reopen Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power AI (WaPo)

Genome Sequencing Provides Latest Evidence Against Easter Island’s Societal Collapse (Gizmodo)

Lloyd Kaufman, Who Saw Answers Behind the ‘Moon Illusion,’ Dies at 97 (NYT gift link)

A Uniquely French Approach to Environmentalism (The Atlantic)

New Zealanders Are Crazy for This Fruit. It’s Not the Kiwi. (NYT)

Sarah Perry: ‘For much of my life, I loved God. The echo of that never fades’ (The Guardian)

Inside Twins closer Jhoan Duran’s ‘badass’ walkout entrance, ‘the WWE event for baseball’ (The Athletic)

Spain’s ‘Excalibur’ Sword, a 1,000-Year-Old Weapon Found Buried Upright, Reflects the Region’s Rich Islamic History (Smithsonian)

Recommended Reading (9/20/24)

The device bombs were in our living rooms, in our pockets, in our faces. Beirut is terrified (The Guardian)

Volunteers dying as Russia’s war dead tops 70,000 (BBC)

Kentucky Sheriff Arrested in Shooting Death of Judge (NYT)

Good: NH Youth Movement sues to overturn new voter ID law (NHPR)

‘I’m a black NAZI!’: NC GOP nominee for governor made dozens of disturbing comments on porn forum (CNN)

The U.S. has had a long history of political violence, but experts see a new trend (NPR)

I'm definitely watching this tonight: Otherworldly Ohtani creates 50-50 club in a 6-for-6 game for the ages (MLB)

A NASA probe is about to launch to an icy moon that could have life (NPR)

The Big Burnout: Life on the Front Lines of America’s Wildfires (ProPublica)

What If He Actually Did It? (The Atlantic)

Lost Tapes From Major Musicians Are Out There. These Guys Find Them. (NYT)

Recovering Worlds: On Mireille Gansel’s “Soul House” (LARB)

Recommended Reading (9/19/24)

(A note: even with posting more often I am not worrying about covering all major news stories - I assume you know where to get your breaking news. But I just wanted to clarify that if I don't link to an article about something it doesn't mean I don't know/care about it, just that I didn't happen upon an interesting piece I wanted to share that day.)

In Kashmir, voting begins in first local elections since India revoked autonomy (NPR)

Judge allows transgender girls to remain on girls’ sports teams, as NH law heads to trial (NHPR)

The GOP is making false claims about noncitizens voting. It’s affecting real voters (NPR)

Chased out by protesters, a political dynasty plots its comeback (BBC)

Republican voters less confident than Democrats in spotting AI deepfakes, poll shows (The Guardian)

Should We Change Species to Save Them? (NYT)

lol you don't say: Top companies ground Microsoft Copilot over data governance concerns (The Register)

The Coffee Apocalypse (Slate)

(Flaherty isn't there anymore but this is still interesting.) How Tigers are bucking 100 years of MLB history with 3 pitchers in single-digit numbers (The Athletic)

Chile’s Amazing National Parks (The Atlantic)

Joseph Stiglitz and the Meaning of Freedom (The New Yorker)

On the Invention of M. Dupin (CrimeReads)

Recommended Reading (9/18/24)

What we know about the Hezbollah pager explosions (BBC)

The FBI is investigating packages sent to election officials in more than 15 states (NPR)

UGH: Sununu signs voter ID overhaul, setting stage for likely court challenge (NHPR)

The stereotype of immigrants eating dogs and cats is storied — and vitriolic as ever (NPR)

For the First Time, Part of the Ocean Has Been Granted Legal Personhood (Hakai Magazine)

In a Communist Stronghold, Capitalists Become an Economic Lifeline (NYT)

How Baseball Explains the Limits of AI (The Atlantic)

An Elementary School Tries a ‘Radical’ Idea: Staying Open 12 Hours a Day (NYT)

Mothering and Writing Are Both Undervalued Labor, so How Do Women Do Both? (Electric Lit)

How Do You Illustrate the Rays of the Sun? (Fangraphs)

Into the World of the Very Online Dad (Esquire)

Neolithic site in Orkney to be reburied after 20 years of excavation (The Guardian)

Recommended Reading (9/17/24)

Ukraine's bookstores are thriving, but a top printing plant took a deadly hit (NPR)

Pressure Grows on Mayor Adams as Key Officials Leave Amid Investigations (NYT)

‘We Left the Girls Too Long in That Place’ (The Atlantic)

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan could be nation’s first Indigenous woman to serve as governor (NPR)

The Perilous Existence of a Hamptons Day Laborer (NYT)

From the KKK to the state house: how neo-Nazi David Duke won office (The Guardian)

How islanders are saving their Indian Ocean coral reef (BBC)

As a NH group plans an Abenaki cultural center, First Nation leaders have questions (NHPR)

“The Stone Home,” My Second Novel, Was Crafted From Shocking Historical Truths (Electric Lit)

How Perfectly Can Reality Be Simulated? (The New Yorker)

Why I Talked to Pseudoarchaeologist Graham Hancock on Joe Rogan (Sapiens)

Is Baseball About to Be Eaten By Rats (Baseball Prospectus)

Recommended Reading (9/12/24)

Protests in Mexico as controversial judicial reform passed (BBC)

Yes there is famine in Sudan. So why isn't 'famine' being declared? (NPR)

Adam Serwer: Gullible Mr. Trump (The Atlantic)

Dahlia Lithwick: Kamala Harris’ Face on Tuesday Was the Stuff of Legend (Slate)

Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris in Instagram post after the debate (NPR)

AI Makes Racist Decisions Based on Dialect (Science)

Israeli-American Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer on navigating life and baseball since Hamas’ October 7 attacks: ‘It’s always present’ (Boston Herald)

Teen Girls Confront an Epidemic of Deepfake Nudes in Schools (NYT)

Majority-Latino city endures years of toxic water in health ‘crisis’ (WaPo)

How One Reaction to a Mural Tore a New England Town Apart (NYT)

Prescribing Creativity: The Meta-Diaries of Marion Milner (The Paris Review)

The big steal: how do ancient treasures from museums end up for sale on the internet? (The Guardian)

Recommended Reading (9/11/24)

Dozens killed from an Israeli strike in a Gaza humanitarian zone, Palestinians say (NPR)

Inside Pokrovsk - the vital Ukrainian town in Russia's sights (BBC)

Everyone Knew Donald Trump Would Say Wild Things at the Debate. Not Quite Like This. (Slate)

A former Cornell student is sentenced to 21 months for threatening to kill Jews (NPR)

Heat inequality ‘causing thousands of unreported deaths in poor countries’ (The Guardian)

Honestly one of the most useful things Sununu has done: New Hampshire governor helps save man choking on lobster roll at seafood festival (ABC News)

The Conservative Who Turned White Anxiety into a Movement (The Atlantic)

The Gang That Preyed on America’s Small Museums (NYT)

Mixed feelings about this! With French under fire, Mali uses AI to bring local language to students (WaPo)

The Architectural Gift (Places)

Never Been Here Before (Baseball Prospectus)

A Millennial Weaver Carries a Centuries-Old Craft Forward (NYT)

Recommended Reading (9/9/24)

Horrifying but sadly not surprising: Man charged with plotting shooting at a Jewish center on anniversary of Hamas attack (NPR)

Venezuela's González vows to 'continue to fight' for democracy (BBC)

First doses of mpox vaccines arrive at the heart of Africa's outbreak. What took so long? (NPR)

A C.I.A. Black Site Remains a Touchy Subject for Lithuania (NYT)

Extreme weather fuelled flames coast to coast, largest study of 2023 wildfires finds (CTV News)

China cultivated high-rolling crime families before turning on them (WaPo)

The AI Revolution Is Crushing Thousands of Languages (The Atlantic)

‘Second renaissance’: tech uncovers ancient scroll secrets of Plato and co (The Guardian)

When Babies Rule the Dinner Table (The New Yorker)

Dying Cities: On the Lone Book of ‘Lost’ Novelist Elaine Perry (CrimeReads)

An under-the-hood look at the Red Sox’s dramatic pitching turnaround (The Athletic)

Salt of the Earth: All about cheese’s most elemental ingredient (Culture)

Recommended Reading (9/5/24)

You may notice a rebrand in the subject line here - basically, I bookmark too many links to post once or twice a week, but I don't feel like I can commit to daily, so we're going with . . . whenever works! Hopefully most weekdays, at least.

This is bad!! A German far-right party wins its first state election (NPR)

Revealed: Shell oil non-profit donated to anti-climate groups behind Project 2025 (The Guardian)

The voyage of the Altar Stone: A Stonehenge mystery solved (maybe) (WaPo)

East Palestine, After the Crash (The New Yorker)

Why Time Is Running Out Across the Maldives’ Lovely Little Islands (NYT)

Haunting the Human Genome Project: A Question of Consent (Undark)

The Logical End Point of College Sports (The Atlantic)

The reckless policies that helped fill our streets with ridiculously large cars (Vox)

‘Humongous’ fort found in Wales may disprove theory of Celtic-Roman peace (The Guardian)

The pitches they couldn’t master: 12 MLB aces on the one that got away (The Athletic)

! Rare Aphra Behn novel found on home bookshelf (BBC)

Why New England’s Stone Walls Are Unlike Any Others (Atlas Obscura)

Bonus Links (9/4/24)

How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I. (NYT gift link)

The Christian Nationalist Hydra: In Era of Trump, Christian Nationalism Has Many Faces (Talking Points Memo)

'This Will Finish Us': How Gulf princes, the safari industry, and conservation groups are displacing the Maasai from the last of their Serengeti homeland (The Atlantic)

From the Horror to the Envy of Africa: Rwanda’s Leader Holds Tight Grip (NYT)

In the Arctic, American commandos game out a great-power war (WaPo)

How to Publish a Magazine in a Maximum-Security Prison (The New Yorker)

The EPA Has Done Nearly Everything It Can to Clean Up This Town. It Hasn’t Worked. (ProPublica)

Here’s Why Jalapeño Peppers Are Less Spicy Than Ever (D Magazine)

Silver coin boom in medieval England due to melted down Byzantine treasures, study reveals (The Guardian)

How a new class of Japanese stars is changing baseball (WaPo)

Fake Authenticity Is Toxic, and So Are Iowa-Style Writing Workshops (Electric Lit)

Why Is It So Hard to Unionize a Bar? It’s Complicated. (Punch)

Weekly Reading (8/23/24)

How the Ukraine-Russia war is playing out differently on 3 separate fronts (NPR)

Iran uses fake news sites to interfere in U.S. election, Microsoft says (WaPo)

I was delighted by Massachusetts and Vermont. The DNC roll call featured a musical salute to each state. Here's what your state chose (NPR)

This is so great: Long-Acting Drugs May Revolutionize H.I.V. Prevention and Treatment (NYT)

Custody ruling in same-sex case hailed as LGBTQ+ milestone in China (The Guardian)

The Atlantic Is Cooling at a Mysteriously Fast Rate After Record Warmth (Gizmodo)

Lokiceratops, a Horned Dinosaur, May Be a New Species (NYT)

Jesus and the Jews: Part One (Life Is a Sacred Text)

A Secret Code May Have Been Hiding in Classical Music for 200 Years (The Atlantic)

This is nerdy but fascinating for um a very specific definition of fascinating: The evolution of Sonny Gray’s many sliders: ‘More velo, less movement’ (The Athletic)

How Lydia Ernestine Becker Was Once Central to—Then Excluded from—the Study of Botany (LitHub)

Doubling Down (Baseball Prospectus)

Weekly Reading (8/16/24)

More than 40,000 killed in Israel’s war in Gaza, Health Ministry says (WaPo)

WHO declares 2024 mpox surge a 'public health emergency of international concern' (NPR)

Revealed: US neo-Nazi terror group aims to revive activities ahead of election (The Guardian)

Kamala Harris Is Not ‘Totally Against the Jewish People’ (The Atlantic)

An ISIS Terror Group Draws Half Its Recruits From Tiny Tajikistan (NYT)

MIT researchers release a repository of AI risks (TechCrunch)

The U.S. Government Defended the Overseas Business Interests of Baby Formula Makers. Kids Paid the Price. (ProPublica)

The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius Wasn’t Pompeii’s Only Killer (NYT)

The World Series winner, the venture capitalist and their baseball dream for Team Poland (The Athletic)

Are Flying Cars Finally Here? (The New Yorker)

In Service: Writers on Making Ends Meet in the Service Industry (LitHub)

Knitter records glove patterns to save Sanquhar designs (BBC)

Bonus Links (8/14/24)

The Great Democratic Success Story That Wasn’t (The Atlantic)

This nonprofit has newsrooms in all 50 state capitals. Is it the future of state journalism? (CJR)

TikTok Turns to Nuns, Veterans and Ranchers in Marketing Blitz (NYT)

Despite Recent Headlines, Urban Farming Is Not a Climate Villain (Civil Eats)

The Family Who Vanished into the Bush (Slate)

Secret Spy Weapons of the Cold War (RFE)

Octavia Butler, Audre Lorde, and the Power of Pleasure (Reactor)

Declutter, Haul, Restock, Repeat: The content creators making a living by cleaning — one purse tower, acrylic plastic box, and egg organizer at a time. (The Cut)

She Slept With a Violin on Her Pillow. Her Dreams Came True in Italy. (NYT)

‘A crazy can-do mentality’: what made New York’s Met one of the world’s mega museums? (The Guardian)

Why ‘Shogun’ (and the Rest of TV) Is Slightly Out of Focus (The Ringer)

The Ancient Female Alchemist Whose Name Is in Your Kitchen (Atlas Obscura)

Weekly Reading (8/9/24)

Bangladesh’s Leader Fled Just Ahead of an Angry Crowd, Urged by Family to Go (NYT)

This is so great: In a hostile era, Tim Walz stood up for students’ Gay-Straight Alliance (WaPo)

This was written before the VP pick but what it has to say about the rhetoric people are using about Shapiro vs. other options is still really important: Who's Afraid of Josh Shapiro? (The Atlantic gift link)

Similarly, this was written before the election but is still worth a read: Could Venezuela’s softly-spoken opposition newcomer end 25 years of Chavismo? (The Guardian)

Many Ukrainian Prisoners of War Show Signs of Trauma and Sexual Violence (NYT)

A Jewish couple were rejected as foster parents because of their religion. This is the future Project 2025 envisions (The Guardian)

Don't Believe What They're Telling You About Misinformation (The New Yorker)

Maryland Is on Track to Process a Nearly 50-Year-Old Backlog of Rape Kits (ProPublica)

The breathtaking lifesaving impact of vaccines, in one chart (Vox)

find your place on deck (Life Is a Sacred Text)

Fuelling the Tour de France: Secrets of the team kitchens (BBC)

A new group is buying up minor league baseball teams at a feverish pace. What’s the end game? (The Athletic)

Bonus Links (8/7/24)

The Guantánamo Spy Who Wasn’t (NYT)

Few states cover fertility treatment for LGBTQ+ couples, but that could be changing (The 19th*)

‘You have imprisoned our democracy’: inside Republicans’ domination of Tennessee (The Guardian)

For Lithuania, Unease Over a Growing Russian-Speaking Diaspora (NYT)

Tromp 45: Braves backup gets unexpected lesson in the politics of a number change (The Athletic)

It’s time for a hard reset on notifications (The Verge)

This was fascinating!! Age of Empires (or, How Microsoft Got in on Games) (The Digital Antiquarian)

On Skeleton Beach (The Dark Mountain Project)

This by Ronald Acuña Jr. is a must-read for baseball fans: I Mean No Harm, I Swear (The Players' Tribune)

Álvaro Enrigue Won’t Romanticize Mexican History (The Millions)

Researchers Use Old Newspaper Reports to Identify 137-Year-Old Shipwreck in Lake Michigan (Smithsonian)

Syrinx and the Sirens: From Ancient Greece to Etruria (Antigone)

Weekly Reading (7/27/24)

Hillary Clinton: How Kamala Harris Can Win and Make History (NYT gift link)

Adam Serwer: Why Some Republicans Can’t Resist Making Vile Attacks on Harris (The Atlantic)

On Kamala Harris, Barack Obama and a theory. On Sleepy Hollow, moving forward and Not Going Back (Burner Account by Maureen Ryan)

JD Vance Has a Bunch of Weird Views on Gender (Politico)

Record number of journalists killed in Pakistan already this year (The Guardian)

A Ragtag Resistance Sees the Tide Turning in a Forgotten War (NYT)

An Alabama manufacturer shows how to retain working moms: child care (NPR)

Crossbows and eerie silences – following Antarctic whales for climate change clues (BBC)

Contemporary Literary Novels Are Haunted by the Absence of Money (LitHub)

Players play as themselves in MLB video game, and some use it as a scouting tool (The Athletic)

What Is Noise? (The New Yorker)

‘The Vilna Vegetarian Cookbook’ Was Ahead of Its Time (Eater)

Weekly Reading (7/19/24)

On Authoritarianism (Life Is a Sacred Text)

This piece from a few years ago has been going around this week for obvious reasons, and it's definitely worth your time: Hillbillies Need No Elegy (The Bitter Southerner)

About 90% of people in Gaza displaced since war began, says UN agency (The Guardian)

The schoolchildren being lured by rebels on TikTok (BBC)

War or No War, Ukrainians Aren’t Giving Up Their Coffee (NYT)

Canada's Polite Trumpism (Vox)

What George Kelly’s Mistrial Says About How We See the Border (The New Yorker)

How the pandemic gave power to superbugs (NPR)

Prestigious Medical Journal Ignored Nazi Atrocities, Historians Find (NYT)

Can Maine Lead the Way to a Future without Forever Chemicals? (Mother Jones)

Cutting Class: On the Myth of the Middle Class Writer (LitHub)

Oldest MLB player turns 100: Roomed with Yogi Berra, stymied Ted Williams (The Athletic)

Weekly Reading (7/12/24)

LGBT troops on Ukraine's front line fight homophobia at home (BBC)

How Gaza’s Largest Mental-Health Organization Works Through War (The New Yorker)

Imagine texting this stuff in public at an institution with a history of antisemitism like Columbia: Columbia Removes Three Deans, Saying Texts Touched on ‘Antisemitic Tropes’ (NYT)

‘This is going to be a disaster’: inside the Tories’ chaotic election campaign (The Guardian)

The Koch Brothers Are Getting What They Wanted: The Supreme Court Is Gutting Environmental Protections (Slate)

This is huge: ‘Chemical recycling’: 15-minute reaction turns old clothes into useful molecules (Nature)

An incomplete list of broken heat records this year (PBS)

Another Red-Blue Divide: Money to Feed Kids in the Summer (NYT)

The Torah I Learned at ACT UP (Life Is a Sacred Text)

Which scientists get mentioned in the news? Mostly ones with Anglo names, says study (NPR)

The Literary Outsider: How Barbara Comyns Wrote Her Way to The Juniper Tree (LitHub)

Jessie Winker Is Up to Something (Baseball Prospectus)

Bonus Links (7/9/24)

Sexual Assault of Migrants in Panama Rises to Level Rarely Seen Outside War (NYT)

The Deep and Enduring History of Universal Basic Income (The MIT Press Reader)

Inside A Secret Society Of Prominent Right-Wing Christian Men Prepping For A ‘National Divorce’ (TPM)

The Dragon Amid the Tigers (The American Scholar)

The strange, stressful, caught-in-between spring training of an MLB Rule 5 pick (The Athletic)

Inside the Biggest Art Fraud in History (Smithsonian)

Endangered Greek dialect is ‘living bridge’ to ancient world, researchers say (The Guardian)

What Do Gardens and Murder Have in Common? (JSTOR)

The Displaced: The forced migration of the Indigenous Northern Sámi, and the aftermath (Places)

In Search of the Last Saola (Encia)

She’s Shaking Up Classical Music While Confronting Illness (NYT)

What’s Behind the Evolution of Neanderthal Portraits (Sapiens)

Weekly Reading (7/5/24)

The Labour landslide in the UK is very exciting and, as usual, I recommend the Guardian liveblog for keeping up with breaking news.

Russian Attacks Crush Factories and Way of Life in Ukrainian Villages (NYT)

Sudan’s warring factions using starvation as weapon, experts say (The Guardian)

Inside India's first heat stroke emergency room (BBC)

Louisiana’s Ten Commandments Law Signals a Broader Christian Agenda (NYT)

A tribe in Maine is using opioid settlement funds on a sweat lodge to treat addiction (NPR)

Uber, Lyft to pay Mass. drivers $32 minimum wage during rides under $175 million settlement (WBUR)

This Land Is My Land: Inside the Growing Movement to Fight Conservation (Mother Jones)

The Coming Birth-Control Revolution (The Atlantic)

Fact check: true. In Tarik Skubal, the Tigers have found a must-watch ace (The Athletic)

The "Epic Row" Over a New Epoch (The New Yorker)

In Words and Beyond Them: Jane Hirshfield on the Transformative Art of Translation (LitHub)

Controlling the Flow of Baseball (Baseball Prospectus)

Weekly Reading (6/29/24)

Yesterday got away from me, so here we are on a Saturday!

One in five households in Gaza go whole days without food, draft UN report says (The Guardian)

Pilgrim Deaths in Mecca Put Spotlight on Underbelly of Hajj Industry (NYT)

Trump made Nazi ‘ovens’ joke in Jewish executives’ presence, ex-employee says (The Guardian)

'Spy mania': Why is Russia accusing its own physicists of treason? (BBC)

The Flooding Will Come “No Matter What” (ProPublica)

Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1,000 a month. A year later, nearly half of participants had housing. (Yahoo! News)

The Meltdown at a Middle School in a Liberal Town (The New Yorker)

The horse wars of Stormy Daniels (WaPo)

Top Chinese Swimmers Tested Positive for Banned Drug, Then Won Olympic Gold (NYT)

A behind-the-scenes tour of the Red Sox Dominican Republic Academy (The Athletic)

Dungeons & Dragons' New Core Rulebooks Want to Show, Not Tell (Gizmodo)

The Most Exciting Play in Baseball (FanGraphs)

Weekly Reading (6/21/24)

Oh this is such a relief: Supreme Court upholds federal ban on guns for domestic abusers (NPR)

‘Unprecedented scale’ of violations against children in Gaza, West Bank and Israel, UN report says (The Guardian)

In Western Ukraine, a Community Wrestles With Patriotism or Survival (NYT)

Incoming Post editor tied to self-described ‘thief’ who claimed role in his reporting (WaPo)

And an update! Robert Winnett will not join The Post as editor (WaPo)

How voters turned against Narendra Modi in his party’s heartland (The Guardian)

Campaign Puts Trump and the Spy Agencies on a Collision Course (NYT)

Clash of the Patriarchs (The Atlantic)

Willie Mays, Baseball’s Electrifying Player of Power and Grace, Is Dead at 93 (NYT)

Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with American cities (Vox)

MLB’s Next Order of Business? Saving Pitchers. (The Ringer)

! The Yankees’ Candlelit Clubhouse May Be Their Secret Weapon (SI)

Oh, Queer Canada: A Reading List for Americans in Search of LGBTQ Canadian History (LitHub)

Bonus Links (6/19/24)

Before Juneteenth (The Atlantic)

Why Juneteenth didn’t actually end slavery in Texas (WaPo)

Compulsory Voting's American History (Harvard Law Review)

Be like Bryce Harper: 3 novels to read if you love romance and baseball (The Athletic)

I did not have this on my 2024 bingo card: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping: A Grisly Theory and a Renewed Debate (NYT)

This River Is a Model (Places)

When your landlord bats leadoff: The insular, clannish world of baseball real estate (The Athletic)

The Lure of Divorce (The Cut)

Translating Philosophy: The Case of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Words Without Borders)

The Japanese Sensei Bringing Baseball to Brazil (NYT)

A Manual for Adversity (City Journal)

C Is For… Cooky? An Investigation Into the Weird Alternate Spellings of Vintage Cookbooks (Racket)

Weekly Reading (6/14/24)

The Supreme Court’s Abortion Pill Ruling Should Satisfy Nobody (Slate)

Ukraine’s Big Vulnerabilities: Ammunition, Soldiers and Air Defense (NYT)

Srebrenica To Rename Its Streets…Without Any Mention Of The Genocide (RFE/RL)

Could the U.S. force treatment on mentally ill people (again)? (NPR)

China’s Advancing Efforts to Influence the U.S. Election Raise Alarms (NYT)

In ‘Barons,’ Austin Frerick Takes on the Most Powerful Families in the Food System (Civil Eats)

The Rise and Fall of the Trad Wife (The New Yorker)

16 Takes On the "Kushite Wife" Verse That Have Nothing To Do With White Supremacy (Life Is a Sacred Text)

‘You feel like your life’s over:’ The painful limbo of a baseball DFA (The Athletic)

Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound: Rebuilding a Lost Masterpiece (Antigone)

Player's View: Consuming Baseball, Then and Now (FanGraphs)

Unsolvable Puzzles: Anna Shechtman on the Feminist Psychology Behind Crosswords (LitHub)

Links on Wednesday!

I've got a big backlog of bookmarks, so let's have some midweek links! These are mostly older things that I still think are interesting.

How Russian Spies Get Flipped or Expelled, as Told by a Spycatcher (VSquare)

These pansies are evolving to rely less on pollinators. Here’s why that may spell trouble (PBS)

The Case for Detracking (Culture Study)

The Mystery of the Coin That Shouldn’t Exist (NYT)

The Great Pretenders (Toronto Life)

On the Black Death in Africa and Asia, and the interconnected Middle Ages (Going Medieval)

Inside the Raptors’ ‘Puzzlepalooza’: Trust, egos and trash-talk thanks to Wordle and more (The Athletic)

What Frantz Fanon and Ian Fleming Agreed On (The New Yorker)

Hex Marks the Spot (The Strong National Museum of Play)

The surreal life of a professional bridesmaid (The Hustle)

Language barriers, culture shock and isolation: How the NHL’s loneliest players cope (The Athletic)

The Crochet Coral Reef Keeps Spawning, Hyperbolically (NYT)