Extra, Extra
Peace in the Middle East? “President Joe Biden announced Friday that Israel has proposed a three-part plan that would ultimately lead to a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, as well as the release of all hostages who have been held there for the last eight months. Speaking from the White House, Biden said that the proposal comes after intensive diplomacy carried out by his team.” AP: Biden says Hamas is ‘no longer capable’ of carrying out another major attack against Israel. “This is truly a decisive moment. Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says it wants a cease-fire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it.” (This is a long way from done, but let’s hope peace is approaching.)
+ Quid Pro Go: “This is a change in policy, as the U.S. has publicly and repeatedly said it opposes the use of U.S.-supplied weapons to strike inside of Russia.” U.S. gives Ukraine permission to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, with caveats. (The change in policy indicates an increasingly dire situation.)
+ Bitter End: Wired: Gene-Edited Salad Greens Are Coming to US Stores This Fall. “Biotech giant Bayer plans to distribute mustard greens that have been genetically altered to make them less bitter.” (Why mess with minor iterations? Let’s just make them taste like Fruit Loops.)
+ Lickety Split: “The idea that specific tastes are confined to certain areas of the tongue is a myth that ‘persists in the collective consciousness despite decades of research debunking it.'” NYT (Gift Article): The Textbooks Were Wrong About How Your Tongue Works.
+ Floating an Idea: After catastrophic floods, Vermont becomes first state to enact law requiring oil companies to pay for damage from climate change.
+ Orca or Nah? “Orcas very rarely go for boats — that’s supposed to be the idea, but something new is happening off the Iberian coast. Since 2020, from the top of Portugal down to southern Spain, sailors have reported almost a thousand similar attacks. Almost every day, every spring and summer, yarns from anguished captains attaching photos of their beat-up rudders fill up a Facebook group called Orca Attack Reports, which has more than 60,000 members.” Rolling Stone goes deep on the Orcas story. The Mad Scientist and the Killer Whales.
+ Spelling Counts: “Bruhat Soma, a 12-year-old from Florida, bested the competition Thursday with his spelling of ‘abseil,’ a word used to describe descending a vertical surface area with a rope attached to one’s body.” A 12-year-old from Florida has won this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee. (It’s only a matter of time before ChatGPT licenses this kid’s data.)
