Reuters reports that as of March 31st, 2022, all Russian military forces have left the vicinity of the Chernobyl exclusion zone and its satellite town of Slavutych (where the various monitoring, safety, & support staff live).

The Guardian confirms this, and adds that the International Atomic Energy Agency has a specific timeline for having a support mission on the ground at Chernobyl, "within a few days".

Cue a medium-sized sigh of relief.

From Mother Jones: Bark beetles are decimating our [conifer] forests. Maybe we should let them. (tl;dr - Surviving trees have superior tolerance of hot weather. Lots of trees will die, but the forests live on.)

Science surprise: Constrictor snakes don't kill by suffocation.

A macroscopic quantum phenomenon has been observed in water ice, at around 20 Kelvins.


On the more human-related end of things:

A great deal of feminist Win is taking place in this MetaFilter thread. The original article is interesting, but the MeFi discussion is where things are happening. If you just want the high points, people have been collecting their favorite quotes in the comments over siderea way.

The NYTimes has another update in its "Outlaw Ocean" series: 'Sea Slaves': The human misery that feeds pets and livestock

And I've recently run across a thoughtful article from 2011 titled Clinical Despair: Science, Psychotherapy and Spirituality in the Treatment of Depression, which is just what it says on the tin.

John Scalzi has written a viciously satirical letter to the politicians whose comments about sexual assault have made the news recently. (Trigger warning: Rape.)

One of the nice things about doing tasks by hand rather than by labor-saving device, which I don't acknowledge often enough, is that it gives me the opportunity to think without physical restlessness distracting me. Today, while hand-washing the unfixed dye out of a new-ish tie-dyed shirt and skirt, I found myself thinking about the current economic situation in the U.S..

America is becoming less affluent. We as a nation no longer have the resources to try to be everything to everyone. What's more, this is an unprecedented opportunity. In deciding where our limited resources should be directed - what to save and what to leave by the wayside - we have the chance to put our money where our mouth is and really live our values, personally and collectively. It's something to consider, in the voting booth certainly, but also in the stores and when you see someone selling the Spare Change News or your local equivalent. Do my actions move this world closer to, or farther from, being one that I want to live in? It may seem like a drop in the bucket, but even drops add up over time.

Yisroel Dovid Weiss spoke on campus today, at the invitation of a student political group which shall remain unnamed. I walked past and didn't hear a word of truth out of him the entire time I was in earshot.

The campus Jewish groups were also out in force, hanging Israeli flags from every available attachment point and handing out information sheets about why Mr. Weiss is wrong. Rather than continue to be exposed to the vitriol, I left matters in their competent hands and escaped home.