Happy #NewstodonFriday! Here’s our collection of stories featuring down-ballot voting, what happens when a far-right vision of government becomes reality in America, the marriage of religion and tech, and the all-time greatest “I voted” sticker.
“Beyond the battle between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, voters are deciding tens of thousands of offices and ballot measures,” writes @taniel for @bolts. He’s created a guide with at least one non-federal election for every state, broken down by states and issues. It’s essential reading for every U.S. voter this year.
https://boltsmag.org/whats-on-the-ballot/your-guide-to-the-elections-in-november-2024/
What does far-right government look like in America? We don’t need to guess. @ProPublica reports on Tim O’Hare, a county judge who has pursued an ultra-conservative agenda in Tarrant County, Texas, which voted for Beto O’Rourke in 2018 and Joe Biden in 2020. Glen Whitley, O’Hare’s predecessor, says O’Hare has implanted an “us vs. them” ideology that has increasingly been mainstreamed on the right.
https://www.propublica.org/article/tarrant-county-judge-tim-ohare-far-right
Journalist @w7voa is a must-follow for fediverse folk who are interested in news. This week, he shared many stories, including this one from nonprofit, nonpartisan site NOTUS about the upcoming election. “Nearly a sixth of Donald Trump’s fake electors are back as his 2024 electors in key swing states,” wrote Jose Pagliery and @byrontau. “Several others are still in positions of political power across the country — despite criminal indictments and other efforts to hold them accountable.”
https://www.notus.org/trump-2024/fake-electors-2024-state-officials
Two scientists from Massachusetts won this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were honored for their discovery of microRNA — research that is having profound effects on our understanding of how cells and organisms work. @gbhnews wrote about the scientists’ responses to their prize. “The surprises are what keep you young in science,” Ruvkun said. “And so I am constantly surprised. And my ignorance is bliss.”
Judy-Lynn del Rey edited works by Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick, snagged the novelization rights to “Star Wars” and founded the Del Rey Books publishing imprint that breathed new life into the fantasy genre. Overlooked for years, she’s now the subject of a PBS documentary and this @TheConversationUS article by Dennis Wilson Wise.
#Books @bookstodon #Fantasy #SciFi #Documentary #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday
The Karen people came from Myanmar to India in the 1920s, brought by the British administration to work on forest-clearing in the Andamans. They maintain their connection to their homeland via ngapi, a dried-shrimp condiment that they make from tiny acetes shrimp. Here, @hakaimagazine tells the story of how it’s made, the cultural significance, and why their tradition is at risk.
https://hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/the-salty-sun-dried-shrimp-paste-that-tastes-of-home/
Our @NewsDesk shared this @NewsLitProject Magazine dedicated to hurricane misinformation, which has been proliferating, with the help of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and others. Follow it in the fediverse here: @hurricane-misinformation-NewsLitProject
Technology has transformed every facet of life — so why not religion?@restofworld created a Flipboard Storyboard of their brilliant Digital Divinity series, which includes Hindu temples made by 3D printers, priests that dance on TikTok and more.
https://flipboard.com/@restofworld/digital-divinity-ancient-traditions-meet-modern-technology-0gmpvc702t3iqbmp
And finally, it would frankly be remiss of us not to share this slightly older story that our @ArtPhotosDesk unearthed from @arstechnica. It’s about a Michigan kid’s winning design for an “I Voted” sticker that may end up being distributed to voters throughout the state, and features a werewolf clawing off his shirt. It certainly made us howl (see what we did there?).
@Flipboard @gbhnews Was the discovery of microRNA really recent enough to get an Nobel this year? I'm a bit surprised to hear that.
@raphael_fl @gbhnews Per this article
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/microrna-2023-nobel-physiology-medicine
it was discovered in 1993 and named some years later; there are now more than 1,000 microRNAs identified (so we should adjust our caption to say that the research is having profound effects on our understanding!).
According to some digging, Nobel prizes in the sciences are given to recognize discoveries that have withstood the test of time (this happened because the 1926 award was given to someone who "proved" that a parasite causes cancer).
In this interview from 2001, Ralf Pettersson, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology/Medicine, said: "The criterion ‘the previous year’ is interpreted by the Nobel Assembly as the year when the full impact of the discovery has become evident."
@raphael_fl @gbhnews YOu're welcome — it was a good question!
@Flipboard @raphael_fl @gbhnews And thank YOU for responding! It would've been easy to just federate some magazines and be done with it, but I really appreciate Flipboard adding the human-curated desks that actually interact with Fedi and can look into and reply to questions like this
@WeirdAlex03 @raphael_fl @gbhnews Of course — we love chatting with people here and often they ask great questions that pique our own curiosity!