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The Top 5 articles for your week:
“The Long, Complicated Legacy of a North Carolina Company Town” (Undark)
Because across the US and not just in Badin, NC, there are lots of “company towns” which bear the legacy of environmental damage and multi-generational public health challenges.
“Creating a better leaf” (The New Yorker)
Because one scientist thinks he can help plants grow better in a time of great climate change.
“‘All of our food, directly or indirectly, comes from the process of photosynthesis,’ Long told me. ‘And we know that even our very best crops are only achieving a fraction of photosynthesis’s theoretical efficiency. So, if we can work out how to improve photosynthesis, we can boost yields. We won’t have to go on destroying yet more land for crops—we can try to produce more on the land we’re already using.’”
“The escalating costs of being single in America” (Vox)
Because you can expect this kind of argument—especially that incentives for marriage and families are synonymous with costs for single and unmarried people—will pick up. This is one reason why it’s important to lock in pro-family policies now in this rare moment of bipartisan support.
“Inside the Fall of Kabul” (NYT Magazine)
Because the devastating collapse of Afghanistan post-American withdrawal may have always been inevitable.
“When I got my documents back, I walked out against the flow of Afghans leaving their country. In the parking lot, there were groups of families, some crying and some silent, people in their Western outfits for travel, suits and T-shirts, girls with big up-dos and painted faces, matrons taking photos, men in turbans and karakul hats and prayer caps, the families embracing and then dividing, one part walking away, the others left watching. The next day, Kandahar City fell.”
“Prince & Place” (Places Journal)
Because “Nothing musical happens in a placeless vacuum, though it may sometimes seem that way for listeners used to endlessly shareable recordings. The “sounding and resounding of music” transmit through physical space, creating auditory landscapes in the process. And, of course, physical locations don’t exist in vacuums either. They are shaped by social forces such as racism, class inequality, sexuality, migration, habitation, and displacement. Musical cultures and communities, therefore, help to create place — and the dynamics of those places are reflected and refracted sonically.”
BONUS: The saga of Jean and Jorts, two workplace cats
Because this is a truly ridiculous story about a stupid cat named Jorts and how he ends up in an HR complaint. Also, here is the totally logical follow-up which includes how Jorts ends up buttered. Wish we could summarize this one better.