Welcome back to Tidings by Seabird. If you're not on our link-sharing app, you're missing out! Sign up to try it on web or mobile. And if you find value in reading Tidings, help us keep it going by spreading the word to other interested readers. On to this week's sampling of links shared by the Seabird community...
A charmingly illustrated guide to some of creatures and critters one may encounter on an adventure through Texas.
Texas Highways | Asher Elbein [illustrations by Irene Pérez]
Relatedly, when will you be able to adopt a fully domesticated pet raccoon? Alas, perhaps never. [Gift link.]
The Atlantic | Annie Lowrey
A new book considers the history of the newspaper obituary.
Longreads | Sam Roberts
A comically-written tale of online discourse bringing out the worst in neighbors over a minor political dispute. (Have we mentioned that Seabird doesn't have a reply feature? It's one way keep it nice!)
Oakland Review of Books | Amy Brown
Story after story covers the "male loneliness crisis." But what if it's less about men than it is about money and civic institutions?
Slate | Nick Keppler
Mark your calendars to celebrate Ether Day: on the innovations in anesthetics that have made surgery bearable.
The Scientist | Kamal Nahas
On the remarkable progress of modern medicine and how to fix the bottlenecks that prevent it from advancing even further.
Works in Progress | Saloni Dattani
The second Trump administration isn't just going after immigrants in the United States illegally. It's also stripping legal status from more than a million immigrants authorized to live and work in the US.
The New Yorker | Dara Lind
The United States is once again deporting immigrants to far away foreign prisons for potential life sentences without trial, due process, or hope of release. [Gift link.]
The New York Times Magazine | Nicholas Casey
"Most Muslim or Mormon Americans don’t premise their rights and dignity on everyone necessarily sharing their religious convictions, but on a mutual ethic of noninterference and nondiscrimination. If trans people can make the same kinds of arguments — that we have a common interest in mutual respect despite different beliefs about gender — we stand a chance at rebuilding the coalitions we need for our security."
The Argument | Cassie Pritchard
On Temu: "[...] it’s an addiction not just to shopping, or to cheap stuff, but to what that cheap stuff represents: the kind of hits that allow you to pretend that normalcy is going on, even as you engage in the acts that deny normalcy is possible at all. And that, unfortunately, is a way a lot of people are going to experience the 21st century."
Systematic Hatreds | Paul Musgrave
A thoughtful piece on The Gods Must Be Crazy, the improbably successful (and controversial) South African film that made a star of N!xau ǂToma.
Equator | Carey Baraka
Competing apps, credit cards, and secondary markets for hot restaurant reservations have made getting a table more complicated than ever. [Gift link.]
The Wall Street Journal | Heather Haddon and Adam Chandler
"We were promised robot butlers. For now, Silicon Valley would like to help you match your socks."
Business Insider | Rya Jetha
Allergic dog lovers, rejoice: gene editing can produce a pup without allergens.
Morning Brew | Molly Liebergall
Finally, in bird news... A seven-year-old interviews a bird conservation scientist. "I know seagulls are really smart." We endorse this message!
NPR | Janet W. Lee
Tidings is edited by Jacob Grier. The links in our newsletter were all shared first on Seabird, our minimalist platform simply designed for recommending worthwhile links. Learn more about us here and join to discover and share articles like these every day. Your recommendations may appear in a future edition of Tidings.
