Your weekend must reads🗞️
SpaceX is encroaching on South Texas communities — and locals are unsure if it's a good thing. The shooting of UnitedHealthcare's CEO unveiled the world of ghost guns. Otters have posed a threat to an invasive species.
👋Happy Weekend! I'm Nicole Fallert, filling in for John Riley. The weekend is here again, and so is The Short List weekend edition✨ with all the must-reads from Paste BN. Get your coffee and let's dive in.
But first: Happy "Christmukkah" ! This holiday season features a rare calendar quirk only seen once since 1959.
How Elon Musk and SpaceX changed this corner of Texas.
A portal into the future of human space travel or an irrevocable disruption to the shorebirds, ocelots and endangered sea turtles that nest in the Rio Grande delta? How people in South Texas view the sprawling, rocket-making complex that is SpaceX’s Starbase near Brownsville depends on who you ask.
Musk, the richest man in the world, has poured more than $3 billion into the ever-expanding rocket-producing venture, perched on a river delta east of Brownsville. Space travel enthusiasts have applauded his goal of one day placing a man on Mars. 🚀 But some question just how much the venture has benefited locals and warn of harmful environmental consequences.
- President-elect Musk? Here's how the billionaire's influence is currently on display.
The anonymous world of 3D-printed guns
Luigi Mangione has been charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The high-profile case has thrust not only "ghost guns," which have no identifying serial number, into the national debate, but underscored the burgeoning 3D-printed variety. With those, DIY-gunmakers download a design file, and feed it into a machine that prints layers of plastic to make some components of a gun. Someone has to create and refine those design files to make the resulting guns function better and fit comfortably in a shooter’s hand. 📰 Paste BN spoke with "Charimanwon," who recognized the gun seized from the suspect.
- Paparazzi and protesters: The CEO shooting suspect's unusual journey to New York City.
Cute and hungry — and fighting invasive species
A California ecosystem has gotten a big boost from an adorable, fluffy and hungry friend. At Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, a newly-reinvigorated population of native southern sea otters have eaten so many invasive European green crabs that researchers say the otters have locally solved a problem that has plagued the West Coast for years. 🦀 At the reserve, otters have almost wiped the crabs out, helping the estuary's ecosystem come back into balance.
'Tis the season for some good reading
- What NFL games are on Christmas?
- Take Google's word for it: These are the 100 best gifts of 2024.
- This is the must-have gift to give your business the boost it needs.
- That black plastic spatula in your kitchen may be toxic.
- An OnlyFans model's documentary sparked an important conversation about sex.
- These are the Paste BN Pictures of the Year 2024.
Keep scrolling: There are more great stories below.👇 See you next week!