California Says Facebook Dodged Privacy Subpoenas
We Are Running Out of Air ; A New Solution to CA's Sea Urchin Problem ; and More Picks
How Pence Meddled in Foreign Aid to Reroute Money to Favored Christian Groups (Gerry)
From ProPublica: “Officials at USAID warned that favoring Christian groups in Iraq could be unconstitutional and inflame religious tensions. When one colleague lost her job, they said she had been ‘Penced.’”
We Are Running Out of Air (Mili)
The author writes, “One of India’s holiest rivers is covered in toxic foam that looks like white cotton candy. Midday visibility is like a foggy dusk. The air reportedly causes people’s eyes to burn. At the root is not some panic-inducing virus, though. The cause is simply pollution from agriculture and transportation. And the city’s air crisis is unique only in degree. The same elements are accumulating in the air everywhere.”
Critics Blast a Proposal to Curb Climate Change by Halting Population Growth (Chris)
From MIT Technology Review: “Fewer people producing less in greenhouse-gas emissions could make some difference in the danger that climate change poses over time. But whether we end up with 9, 10, or 11 billion people in the coming decades, the world will still be pumping out increasingly risky amounts of climate pollution if we don’t fundamentally fix the underlying energy, transportation, and food systems.”
Why I Haven’t Gone Back to SCOTUS Since Kavanaugh (Chris)
The author writes, “In the year-plus since, I have given many speeches in rooms full of women who still have no idea what actually happened [at Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing], or why a parody of an FBI investigation was allowed to substitute for fact-finding, or why Debbie Ramirez and her Yale classmates were never even taken seriously, and why three books so far and two more books to come are doing the work of fact-finding that government couldn’t be bothered to undertake.”
A New Solution to California’s Sea Urchin Problem: Ranch Them and Eat Them (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Purple sea urchins have laid waste to Northern California coastal zones in recent years, decimating the kelp forest and ruining the habitat of other sea creatures that depend on it. The Norwegian company Urchinomics has a plan for that: Scoop the destructive urchins out of the ocean, fatten them up in a seaside urchin ‘ranch’ and then sell them to sushi and seafood restaurants. For diners, the idea is that they can enjoy their uni and help the environment at the same time.”
