“The Stepford Wives” was a horror film, not a blueprint for modern living. But @damemagazine sees it today in the rise of the misogynist tech bros and the use of technology to move the world backwards, not forwards. “Whatever tools and electronics we have lying around, we can use them to make a future of equality and freedom for everyone, or we can use them to make a future of slavery and death,” writes Noah Berlatsky. “For better and worse, those choices are the same now as when Joanna first traveled to Stepford. And they’re the same now as when, against her will, she was bloodily removed from it.”

https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/02/19/prophetic-stepford-wives/

#StepfordWives #PopCulture #Movies #TradWives #Feminism #Politics #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Since Texas brought its near-total abortion ban, no one has studied the statewide effect on people undergoing pregnancy complications. So @ProPublica did it, purchasing and analyzing seven years of hospital discharge data. The findings: The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50 percent for those hospitalized in the second trimester of pregnancy. “This is exactly what we predicted would happen and exactly what we were afraid would happen,” said Dr. Lorie Harper, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in Austin.

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-sepsis-maternal-mortality-analysis

#Health #Healthcare #Texas #WomensHealth #Abortion #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

A Vancouver, B.C.-based Conservative TikTok creator called Robin Skies is also a former party staffer for the B.C. Conservative Party called Adam Beattie, @thetyee’s @jenstden reports. “Skies” mostly talks about immigration in his videos, claiming that immigrants push up housing costs, are scamming the system, and make women feel unsafe. His main focus is on people of South Asian descent, and he’s having an impact, with some of his videos breaking one million views.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/02/20/Anti-Immigration-TikToker-BC-Conservative-Staffer/

#CaPoli #CanadianPolitics #Canada #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

“Mississippi, a state known for its rich culture and strong heritage, also faces some of the nation’s most glaring health disparities. Among them is the inequity in cervical-cancer prevention and treatment, which is often shaped by racism and systemic discrimination in health care,” writes Barbara Rose Brooks for @msfreepress. The solutions: Investments in community health clinics and cultural competency training, which would allow all Mississippians equal access to preventative health care.

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/opinion-cervical-cancer-claims-black-womens-lives-at-disproportionate-rates-due-to-inequity-of-care/

#Health #Race #Gender #CervicalCancer #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

This NBC story on how mRNA vaccines might show promise in addressing pancreatic cancer was so good, our @ScienceDesk shared it twice. And we’re sharing it a third time because vaccines work, and mRNA vaccines are a phenomenal scientific achievement that should be celebrated.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/pancreatic-cancer-vaccine-mrna-treatment-trial-rcna192702

#Science #Health #Vaccines #MRNA #PancreaticCancer #CancerResearch #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Hoopla, which provides U.S. public libraries with ebooks, says it will do more to prevent their distribution after @404mediaco showed they were common on the platform. An AI-generated book about Elon Musk and a cookbook about fatty liver by an author who does not appear to exist were highlighted in the original report by @emanuelmaiberg. Some librarians say that Hoopla’s “light on details” statement avoids accountability.

https://www.404media.co/public-library-ebook-service-to-cull-ai-slop-after-404-media-investigation-3/

#Books @bookstodon #Libraries #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AISlop #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

The Ilemi Triangle is a disputed region that straddles the north of Kenya, southern Ethiopia and South Sudan. “Controversy over the Ilemi’s ownership can be traced back to colonial meddling,” writes Kang-Chun Cheng for @thexylom. The main employment for people who live in the region is herding livestock, but a new project aims to introduce climate-smart agriculture. Here’s how it’s going, and the challenges it faces.

https://www.thexylom.com/post/can-the-ilemi-triangle-s-forgotten-pastoralists-trade-arms-for-peace

#ClimateChange #Environment #EastAfrica #IlemiTriangle #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

@stevanzetti’s story for @TexasObserver on the ICE prosecutor who seems to be running a white supremacist X account isn’t only impressive because of what he’s revealed. It’s a remarkable piece of research that takes into account publicly available documents, social media activity, and even visits to the courtroom. “During the January court hearing the Observer attended, Rodden repeatedly used his phone at moments that corresponded to times GlomarResponder made posts. At the February hearing, the Observer saw Rodden scrolling through the X app on his phone and drafting a post at 1:14 p.m. The profile photo that appeared while Rodden drafted the post resembled that of GlomarResponder, which posted at 1:15pm.”

https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-prosecutor-dallas-white-supremacist-x-account/

#Immigration #ICE #TrumpAdministration #Texas #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Primatologist Susan Perry has been studying capuchin monkeys for decades. Tim Vernimmen of @KnowableMag spoke to her about how that came to be, the challenges of observing animals that seem to move in fast forward, and what she’s learned about the similarities between humans and monkeys.

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2025/meet-the-capuchin-monkey

#Science #Ecology #Biology #Nature #Monkeys #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Two years ago, Wisconsin liberals flipped the state Supreme Court, leading to expanded voter access. On April 1, control of the court is on the line again with the retirement of a longtime liberal justice, Ann Walsh Bradley. @bolts looks at the contest between local judge Susan Crawford, who as an attorney, helped lead the challenge to the state’s voter ID law, and Brad Schimel, the former Republican attorney general of Wisconsin.

https://boltsmag.org/wisconsin-2025-supreme-court-election-democracy/

#Wisconsin #WisconsinSupremeCourt #StatePolitics #USPolitics #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Why is Saudi Arabia involved in the negotiations to end the Russian occupation of Ukraine? “The Kingdom has great ambitions to take on the role of an indispensable intermediary,” writes @timkmak for the Counteroffensive. “And to do that, you must forget all their past and ongoing transgressions: their repression of women, their murder of Khashoggi, their torture, their executions and their silencing of the free press.” On their position in general, Mak and his team say: “The Counteroffensive will speak with moral clarity in these trying, dizzying times. We will call out hypocrisy. We will bear witness to America’s betrayal if or when it happens. And we will hold to account those who are responsible for the lives lost in the days to come.”

https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/the-suckerpunch-in-saudi

#Ukraine #UkraineRussia #Trump #Putin #Zelenskyy #SaudiArabia #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Ngwi Ndem, an 82cm Cameroonian sculpture known by Europeans as the Bangwa Queen, was supposedly given or sold by Chief Fontem Asonganyi in the 1890s to Gustav Conrau, a German trader and colonial agent. It changed hands several times before being purchased by the Dapper Foundation in Paris in 1999 for $3.8M. Since 2017, Chief Charles Taku, a great grandson of Asonganyi and lead counsel at the International Criminal Court, says that Ngwi Ndem was stolen, and he wants it back. @thecontinent reports on the case as part of its Museum of Stolen History series.

https://continent.substack.com/p/the-museum-of-stolen-history-part

#History @histodons #Africa #Art #Sculpture #Cameroon #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

@TheConversationUS created a Flipboard Storyboard this week featuring some of the less-well-known figures from Black history. Here are the stories of Charles Henry Turner, a high-school science teacher who revolutionized the study of insects, Mary McLeod Bethune, the “first lady of Negro America,” Wyatt Tee Walker, chief strategist for Martin Luther King Jr., and more.

https://flipboard.com/@conversationus/black-history-month-profiles-h9a2mdf8mttr0ei8

#BlackMastodon @blackmastodon #BlackHistory #BlackHistoryMonth #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Last of all, our @CultureDesk shared some good news from Canada: Its federal government has, for the first time, recognized Aboriginal title through negotiations. The Haida nation now has inherent rights to the archipelago of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia. @cbcnews reports that outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed the document on behalf of the Canadian government, saying that it: "recognizes that the Haida people have lived here since time immemorial. That the Haida people have an inalienable right to use, manage and enjoy the lands of Haida Gwaii as they see fit. That self-determination is the only path toward true reconciliation."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/haida-gwaii-aboriginal-title-federal-agreement-1.7461151

#LIfestyle #UnitedStates #School #Education #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday