It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s another summer edition of your Weekly Reader! As always, if you want to share anything, head over to the comments and leave a link or three. It’s free!
The Internet Is a Cesspool of Racist Pseudoscience (from Scientific American): “If anything, the public debate around race and science has sunk into the mud. To state even the undeniable fact that we are one human species today means falling afoul of a cabal of conspiracy theorists. The “race realists,” as they call themselves online, join the growing ranks of climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers and flat-earthers in insisting that science is under the yoke of some grand master plan designed to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. In their case, a left-wing plot to promote racial equality when, as far as they’re concerned, racial equality is impossible for biological reasons.”
Greenland is melting in a heatwave. That’s everyone’s problem (from CNN): “Greenland is home to the world’s second-largest ice sheet. And when it melts significantly — as it is expected to do this year — there are knock-on effects for sea levels and weather across the globe.”
The Last Days of John Allen Chau (from Outside Online): “What Pathak did not say, because Port Blair’s small press corps already knew, was that, aside from Chau, almost no outsider had ever set foot on North Sentinel. That in itself did not make the island unusual. The Andamans and Nicobars are a lost world, 836 islands of mangroves, rainforests, and crescent-moon beaches stretching for 480 miles where the Bay of Bengal meets the Andaman Sea in the warm waters between India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Indonesia. Only 31 islands are inhabited. Living alongside Indian settlers are six protected indigenous tribes that for thousands of years have existed apart from the rest of humanity, spearing fish and turtles and shooting wild pigs with bows and arrows. This includes the people of North Sentinel, whose reputation for killing anyone who lands on their tiny island ensures that they are the world’s most isolated people.”
Ronald Reagan’s Long-Hidden Racist Conversation With Richard Nixon (from The Atlantic): “The past month has brought presidential racism back into the headlines. This October 1971 exchange between current and future presidents is a reminder that other presidents have subscribed to the racist belief that Africans or African Americans are somehow inferior. The most novel aspect of President Donald Trump’s racist gibes isn’t that he said them, but that he said them in public.”
Maybe It’s Lyme (from The Cut): “Decades after Polly Murray kept her diary of symptoms, the spirit of advocacy associated with Lyme disease endures. But while Murray’s efforts were ultimately vindicated by medical science, a new fight — for the recognition of something known as “chronic Lyme,” which can encompass a vast range of symptoms and need not be linked to any tick bite — has grown into a phenomenon often untethered from scientific method or peer review. The chronic-Lyme community has a new agenda, one that was visible at last fall’s Global Lyme Alliance Gala in New York, where supporters gathered at Cipriani heard a speech from Real Housewife of Beverly Hills Yolanda Hadid.”
Coke and Pepsi abandon the plastics lobby (from CNN): “The move may help reassure some customers. But as people grow more worried about the negative impacts of plastic pollution on the environment as well as on animal and human health, companies like Pepsi and Coke will have to go even further to find a solution.”
I Finally Understand The Appeal Of Escaping Into A Video Game To Cope With Stress (from Kotaku): “I’ve always thought of escapism as a dirty thing, even irresponsible, and in some ways, I still do. It’s a temporary band-aid on a problem. A way to ignore, to mitigate, and arguably defer responsible action. One more match, one more level. Anything to avoid reality. Yet, as my body truly and genuinely failed me, as I traveled from doctor to doctor and fled my home due to the high heat, escapism made more sense. Sometimes, things just fall apart, and one of the ways that people can deal with that is to put buffers between us and the bullshit. Fight a boss and actually achieve victory, command an army and actually have some sense of control. Video games can offer us a very particular solace when everything is crumbling: they make us feel like we have power again.”
How To Help Your Anxious Partner — And Yourself (from NPR): “Living with anxiety can be tough — your thoughts might race, you might dread tasks others find simple (like driving to work) and your worries might feel inescapable. But loving someone with anxiety can be hard too. You might feel powerless to help or overwhelmed by how your partner’s feelings affect your daily life.”
The Chilling Story of Three Women Haunted by the Same Rapist—And How the Law Failed Them (from Mother Jones): “Despite these sleuthing advances, a group of survivors is still precluded from getting justice in the legal system. As Sergeant Karakostas explained to Hunter as he sat on her couch that March day, the window for her to press charges had long passed. At the time the attack occurred in 1987, Minnesota’s statute of limitations for criminal sexual offenses involving victims over 18 was just three years.”
The Delay (from Esquire): “Finally, five days after the horse was first reported, a sheriff’s deputy drove out to euthanize the injured animal. Right then, a tribal officer pulled up, too. They dragged the horse to a nearby ditch, where the tribal officer shot it in the head. The director of animal control was livid. “This animal had to suffer for five days,” she told the paper, “because of jurisdictional issues.””
Walmart and Nordstrom are building stores that don’t sell anything (from CNN): “Curbside pickup is the “natural evolution of the traditional in-store shopping experience,” Cowen analysts said in the report.
Pickup appeals to shoppers who want to grab their stuff and go without waiting in checkout lines or interacting with sales workers on the floor, analysts say. Picking up orders from stores can also be faster than home delivery.”
Yum Yum Sauce: The Making Of An American Condiment (from NPR): “One of the more subtle curiosities of teppanyaki restaurants — beyond the stacked onion rings of fire and behind-the-back toss of metal utensils — is a creamy orange-pink sauce placed beside your steaming meal. Almost every teppanyaki restaurant will serve it, though its name differs depending on whom you talk to. White sauce (a deceptive moniker), shrimp sauce, yummy sauce, yum yum sauce — are all used interchangeably.”
And that’s all for now. Drop by again for more compelling links of interest that will help you strengthen your brain muscles. Until then, happy reading!
Iacon East 