Rock music
Scientists have developed an RNA-based vaccine that targets all strains of a virus, potentially eliminating the need for chasing influenza strains every year. / UC Riverside
As the WHO raises concerns about bird flu's potential to spread among humans, H5N1 has now been detected in raw milk from infected animals. / The Guardian, Barron's
See also: "The outbreak of H5N1 in commercial cows appears to have spurred higher sales of [raw milk] products, despite federal warnings." / PBS
Employees allege that a popular Montana photography ranch houses its exotic animals in squalid conditions. (Content warning) / Rolling Stone
By using topology to map voting deserts, researchers shed light on who has easier access to polling places with shorter wait times. / Quanta Magazine
How inconsistent security protocols allow money launderers to pass their cargo through two of the world's busiest airports. / The Wall Street Journal [+]
Add Walmart to the list of stores that are scaling back plans for self-checkout—whether due to theft, technology malfunctions, or understaffing. / CBS News, Fast Company
The troubled Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which has been scooping up classic artists' song catalogs, appears poised for a takeover by private equity giant Blackstone. / Billboard
"We don't deal with the future as geologists. We only deal with what's preserved in the rock record." Inside the battle over the Anthropocene. / The New Yorker
After experiencing sudden hearing loss, a musician used hearing-aid technology to compose music based on nature's rhythms and tones. Listen to a sample. / BBC, YouTube
Deaths and lawsuits ended the Domino's 30-minute delivery guarantee, but dangers still loom thanks to the gig economy and delivery apps. / The Hustle
"There is talk of opening an international school to teach children in English to accommodate the drugmaker's increasingly international work force." Ozempic is transforming a Danish town. / The New York Times [+]
Also, regarding the link on Friday about Botswana's elephants, a reader has provided the below (edited) background on that story, and we thought it was important to pass this along to you as well. Think of this as the comments section.
My understanding is that this is just some diplomatic posturing because the current Botswana president supports the trophy hunting and farming industries and is using overpopulation as an excuse. It is a funny headline but it also feeds into pro-trophy hunting myths and propaganda.
Of particular note is this IUCN report on the decline and lack of effectiveness of big-game hunting, which notes that trophy hunting competes with ivory poaching—rather than reducing it—and the rise of ivory poaching has decimated elephant populations, making it even more harmful to hunt them. Also, photo safaris are a multi-billion-dollar revenue industry and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, while trophy hunting in Tanzania (by far the largest) creates only $30 million in revenue and only 4,300 jobs.
As noted in this NPR article, the restoration of elephant hunting in Botswana has already damaged the photo safari industry's numbers (which creates far more jobs and brings in far more money than trophy hunting) by driving away ethically minded tourists.
When attacked for harming the elephant populations, Botswana's government turns around and describes the killings as “negligible.” So it is culling when it is a convenient excuse for them and negligible when it is not.
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Your headlines are sourced and composed by Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack (☜), Monday through Saturday. View this edition and the latest headlines at TMN.