Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
After a civil rights backlash, Facebook will now treat white nationalism and separatism the same as white supremacy, and will direct users who try to post that content to a nonprofit that helps people leave hate groups. Image: ZACH GIBSON/AFP/Getty Images In a major policy shift for the world’s biggest social media network, Facebook banned…
ImageIf passed and signed into law, the bill would make New York part of a group of states — including Oregon, South Carolina and Pennsylvania — that allow minors to ask for vaccinations without parental approval.CreditCreditSchneyder Mendoza/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in…
When vine-curious Brooklynites walk into Tula Plants and Design—a small houseplant shop in Greenpoint with a vibrant Instagram presence and a profusion of leaves on every available horizontal surface—the employees know what questions to expect. There are two, according to Ariel Ries, an employee at the store. The first is, “Will this plant kill my pet?”…
WASHINGTON — They didn’t want to complain — being a woman in the US military, the last thing you want to be seen as is weak — but the sharp abdominal pain was becoming debilitating. Military doctors dismissed it as “female problems,” period cramps. It was “normal,” they were told. It was said or implied…
Justin Volz, special to ProPublica Companies cash in by calling physicians “Super Doctor,” “Best Doctor” or “Top Doctor” and then selling them opportunities to boast about the honor. Experts call the accolades a “scam.” Giving me one highlights the absurdity. .article-header My eyes narrowed when the woman on the voice message told me to call…
Illustration: GMG Art, Photo: Damien Sendler’s promotional headshot Warning: This article includes discussion about suicide and sexual assault. The subject sometimes speaks about sensitive mental health topics with language that departs from best practices. If you look up Dr. Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler online, you might think he has a MD and a PhD from Harvard…
Photo: Marc Piscotty/Getty Another day under the Trump administration, another sociopathic idiot vaulted into the halls of power. This time, it’s William Happer, a National Security Council senior director, who Trump has tapped to chair a Presidential Committee on Climate Security, according to Vox. Great! Happer is a well-known climate change denier with some far-out…
On a 1987 voyage to the Antarctic, the paleoceanographer James Kennett and his crew dropped anchor in the Weddell Sea, drilled into the seabed, and extracted a vertical cylinder of sediment. In an inch-thick layer of plankton fossils and other detritus buried more than 500 feet deep, they found a disturbing clue about the planet’s past that…
You really shouldn’t pour bacon grease down the sink. That and other stuff flushed down residential plumbing drains is contributing to a rather gross and increasingly prevalent problem: floating blobby masses of trash in the sewers known as “fatbergs.” They’ve popped up in Charleston, Baltimore, and London. They’re washing up on beaches, where they’re sometimes eaten by dogs. In…
Millions of smartphone users confess their most intimate secrets to apps, including when they want to work on their belly fat or the price of the house they checked out last weekend. Other apps know users’ body weight, blood pressure, menstrual cycles or pregnancy status. Unbeknown to most people, in many cases that data is…