#followfriday — Public Fediverse posts

Hello, everyone;
On this Follow Friday;
I want everyone to have:
1. Lifelong Peace
2. Lifelong Freedom
3. A World Without War
4. Thriving Livable Wages
5. Lifelong Excellent Health
6. A World Without Genocide
7. Affordable Quality Housing
8. Affordable Nutritious Food
9. Love of Family and Friends
10. Happiness, Safety, Security
11. Quality Universal Healthcare
12. Other things that you wish for.
#FollowFriday #Solidarity #Peace
#FollowBackFriday #FF #Follow
#GoodWishes #BestWishes 💚 😊

Hi!, I'm a bot posting selections from Francis Grose’s 1785 “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue”, a compilation of slang terms, the coded language of the underclass and the demi-monde.

[18th-century-content warning: possible racism, animal cruelty, homophobia, sexism, slut-shaming. Let me know of any problems.]

#FollowFriday #books #literature #dictionaries #history #society #crime #language #slang #18thCentury

RE: https://bots.ambience.sk/@arroganceofspace/47893c90-5de0-4bbc-8053-1204372338bb

#ArroganceOfSpace bot is now live!
Follow @arroganceofspace
for #urbanism, #architecture and #maps of #cities.

#bot #bots #followFriday #publicTransport #publicspace

Hi!, I'm a bot posting selections from Francis Grose’s 1785 “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue”, a compilation of slang terms, the coded language of the underclass and the demi-monde.

[18th-century-content warning: possible racism, animal cruelty, homophobia, sexism, slut-shaming. Let me know of any problems.]

#FollowFriday #books #literature #dictionaries #history #society #crime #language #slang #18thCentury

Welche öffentlichen Einrichtungen, #Stiftungen #Kommunen etc. könnt ihr heute zum #FollowFriday empfehlen?

Es ist #FollowFriday und hier sind die Hashtags mit den meisten Folgenden auf :pnpde_social: pnpde.social!

1. #pnpde
2. #RollenSpiel
3. #pnpSuche
4. #pnp
5. #pnpdeSwap
6. #ttrpg
7. #osr
8. #DasSchwarzeAuge, #DnD5e, #PbtA, #PenAndPaper, #pnpdeSocial
9. #DnD
10. #rpg
11. #UlissesSpiele, #WaldLesbenContent
12. #pnpBerlin

PS: Wie man einem Hashtag folgt steht hier: https://wiki.pnpde.social/books/faq/page/hashtags#bkmrk-wie-folgt-man-einem-

#FollowFriday 🪴 📚

Die grünen politischen Stiftungen im #Fediverse (wenn wir was vergessen haben, ergänzt es bitte in den Kommentaren)



Grüne Bundesstiftung @boell

Sachsen @weiterdenken

Berlin @bildungswerk_boell

Baden-Württemberg @HeinrichBoellStiftungBW

Rheinland-Pfalz @boellstiftungrlp

Bayern @kelly_stiftung

#Mastodon #grün #heinrichboell #petrakelly #politischeBildung

Es ist #FollowFriday und hier sind die meist benutzten Hashtags auf :pnpde_social: pnpde.social!

1. #pnpde
2. #PhantastikPrompts
3. #ttrpg
4. #DnD
5. #rpg
6. #rogule
7. #RollenSpiel
8. #freiburg
9. #DasSchwarzeAuge
10. #adventskalender
11. #pnpswap
12. #wurfel
13. #schlefaz
14. #Würfeldrache
15. #wurfelgoblin
16. #brettspiele
17. #Dicedragon
18. #DiceGoblin
19. #DiceOfTheDay
20. #lesen

Black Friday is the perfect day to support independent news sites and journalists with clicks and/or cash. 💰

Here are some who are active in the fediverse. Tell us in the comments if there are any we've missed.

 
404 Meda, @404mediaco

Bolts, @bolts

Brian Krebs, @briankrebs
 
Brian Merchant, @brianmerchant
 
Casey Newton, @caseynewton

Cory Doctorow, @pluralistic


Joan Westenberg , @Daojoan

Gareth Halfacree, @ghalfacree


GBH News, @gbhnews

Kim Zetter, @kimzetter


Knowable Magazine @KnowableMag

LWN.net, @lwn

Molly White, @molly0xfff


ProPublica, @ProPublica
 
Rest of World, @restofworld
 
San Francisco Public Press, @SFPublicPress
 
Steve Herman, @w7voa
 
The Texas Observer, @TexasObserver 
 
The Continent, @thecontinent

The Conversation, @TheConversationUS

The New York Review of Books, @nybooks
 
The Transmitter, @thetransmitter
 
The Tyee, @thetyee

The Xylom, @thexylom


The Tucson Sentinel, @TucsonSentinel
 
Tim Mak/The Counteroffensive, @timkmak
 

#Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #News #BlackFriday #Media #Journalism #FollowFriday

Weekend list of critical reading links about the state[1] of Tech, AI[2] hype/finance/politics, mostly long form:

Ed Zitron's The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/

How to use computing power faster: on the weird economics of semiconductors and GenAI (by @gauthier)
https://gauthierroussilhe.com/en/articles/how-to-use-computing-power-faster

Predictive Capital: Roads to Terminal Alienation: Soil to Server Farm, Reason to Vibe (by @atomless)
https://www.creativeapplications.net/theory/predictive-capital/

Honey, AI Capex is Eating the Economy
https://paulkedrosky.com/honey-ai-capex-ate-the-economy/

Decomputing as Resistance (by @danmcquillan)
https://danmcquillan.org/decomputing_as_resistance.html

How big tech is force-feeding us AI
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-big-tech-is-force-feeding-us

Also, in addition to the above, a little more #FollowFriday if you're interested in these topics, their implications and peripheries (in A-Z order):

@asrg
@festal
@gerrymcgovern
@Kurtis_Clark
@tante
@w0bb1t

Academia:

@bildoperationen
@databasecultures
@emilymbender
@Iris
@timnitGebru

[1] As in: "Just look at the state of this..."
[2] As in "generative AI"

#LongRead #CriticalAI

And finally, introducing Ruby Ibarra, a Filipina American rapper who won @npr’s Tiny Desk contest with her entry, "Bakunawa." The three-song performance features an all-Filipino band, and Ibarra sings in English, Tagalog and Bisaya, sometimes switching languages between verses. As she introduces herself, she says: "Being human is not illegal. Immigrants have been here, lived here, worked here. And this immigrant is here. From Tacloban City, Philippines, all the way to Washington, D.C., my name is Ruby Ibarra."

Link: https://flip.it/ZoSr3q

#Music #Culture #Entertainment #TinyDesk #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

At the end of WWII, the Soviet Union shifted its censorship into high gear in order to minimize the corrupting influence of the West. The punishment for disseminating banned materials could be imprisonment in a gulag, or even death. But that didn’t stop the enterprising, innovative people of the former USSR. @TheConversationUS explains “bone music,” where recordings of Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis were etched into used X-ray film. “The music … suggested that a different sort of life is possible, beyond the strictures of Communist officials. How could a political system that prohibited beautiful music, many asked, possibly merit the allegiance of its citizens?”

https://flip.it/I_5dzs

#Music #Culture #History #SovietRussia #MusicProduction #SoundEngineering #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

The automatic license plate reading camera technology made by Flock is supposed to prevent carjackings or find missing people. @404mediaco says in one Texas case, it was used to track down a woman who was believed to have had a self-administered abortion. 83,000 cameras were used in the search, including ones in states where abortion is legal. The sheriff’s office in Johnson County says that the woman’s family were concerned for her health and that this was the sole reason they were tracking her. “The idea that the police are actively tracking the location of women they believe have had self-administered abortions under the guise of ‘safety’ does not make me feel any better about this kind of surveillance,” says Eve Galperin, director of cybersecurity at digital rights organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

https://flip.it/bZM_xa

#Surveillance #Security #ALPR #Tech #Abortion #WomensRights #Technology #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Apartment concerts — kvartyrnyks — in Ukraine are nothing new. They took place throughout the Soviet years, where Ukrainians could read poetry, sing songs, and freely discuss the government. Veronika Romanova and Mariana Lastovyria write for @timkmak’s Counteroffensive about what it’s like to attend the 2025 version. “The existence of kvartyrnyks demonstrates how Ukrainian culture persists despite constant adversity – whether under authoritarianism or in the face of open war against it,” they write. [Story may be paywalled.]

https://flip.it/g6k7US

#Ukraine #History #SovietHistory #Music #Culture #Poetry #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

When a Tennessee student makes a threat on social media and it comes to the attention of school staff, the law requires them to investigate the validity of the threat, and figure out a plan of action that supports the student, and protects their peers. @ProPublica reports on an incident in DuPont Tyler Middle School earlier this year, where authorities expelled a seventh grader without following proper procedures. The 12-year-old’s alleged threat was a screenshot of a text exchange that he says he reposted from a Spanish-language news site. It’s just the latest in a series of similar stories of children being expelled, facing felony charges, and being detained — in one case, just for making a “finger gun” gesture at classmates.

https://flip.it/QCyFxu

#Tennessee #GunCrime #Education #Children #Schools #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

One way to track what’s happened on Earth during past periods of drastic climate change is to examine fossils, but, says @KnowableMag, “the fossil record for most species is spotty.” Enter planktonic foraminifera, a unicellular marine organism that first appeared on Earth about 100 million years ago. Nine out of 10 species went extinct when an asteroid hit 66 million years ago. It took 10 million years for species diversity to recover. Tim Vernimmen takes a look at what that can teach us about the past — and future.

https://flip.it/G63zRy

#MarineLife #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Fossils #Plankton #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Environment #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

@gbhnews has adapted “Acoustic Rooster,” Kwame Alexander’s jazz-meets-farmyard-animals children’s book, into an animated special and series of digital shorts. Kevin Coyne spoke to Alexander and series producer Julius about how it all came together. “This idea of democracy is at the heart of jazz, and I think that’s something that kids can learn from these musicians in ‘Acoustic Rooster’ – how they collaborate to create beautiful music, but more importantly, become friends and change their world,” says Alexander.

https://flip.it/7FZHOh

#ChildrensBooks #Education #Lifestyle #Parenting #Jazz #Music #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Another month … another series of local elections in the U.S. @bolts’s @taniel has once again detailed which 40 we should be watching, from high-profile contests like the New York City mayor and New Jersey governor primaries, to a ballot measure on book bans in a California city.

https://flip.it/0yaA-X

#NewYorkMayor #NewJerseyGovernor #BookBans #Elections #LocalElections #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Selena Quintanilla was murdered 30 years ago, but that’s far from the most important part of her story. @TexasObserver’s Francesca D'Annunzio reviews a new documentary, “Selena y Los Dinos,” which stitches together old camcorder footage, archival interviews with Selena and new conversations with her family members. “As for the woman who murdered Selena in 1995, the film essentially ignores her altogether. The film’s exploration of the loss of Selena’s life focused on the family’s grief and the late singer’s legacy,” writes D’Annunzio.

https://flip.it/cZ6CCU

#Texas #Documentaries #Selena #SelenaQuintanilla #Music #Entertainment #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

It’s Friday! It’s nearly June! How the heck did that happen?! Here’s our #NewstodonFriday selection of stories from independent newsrooms and a few that caught the Flipboard editorial team’s eye. And while there’s hard-hitting journalism in there (we live in hard-hitting times), there’s more than our usual number of inspiring, positive stories of hope and beauty amidst destruction and oppression. @timkmak’s team writes about secret apartment concerts in Ukraine. @TheConversationUS’s story is about “bone music” in Soviet Russia. We’ll end with a Tiny Desk concert from @npr to take you into the weekend. Please follow independent publishers on the open social web, engage with their stories, and donate money if you can. ⤵️

#Media #Journalism #News #Newstodon #MastodonMigration #FollowFriday

And finally, our @ArtPhotosDesk shared a few @RollingStone photos from the recent All-American Rejects tour, where they played free shows at weird and wonderful venues suggested by their fans in order to highlight the problem of crazy ticket prices for live music. Enjoy these shots of people crowd surfing and taking to the roof to get the best view.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-pictures/all-american-rejects-nashville-house-party-1235345435/

#Photography #Photos #LiveMusic #Entertainment #Music #AllAmericanReject #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

@Joysauce is usually focused on celebrating joy in the AANHPI community. "But how do we do that when things seem so bleak?" wrote editor Samantha Pak in her introduction to this Flipboard Storyboard, which our @CultureDesk featured. It centers on stories of activism — stories that Pak says should remind us not to lose hope.
https://flipboard.com/@joysauce/fight-back-this-aanhpi-month-with-joysauce-q58v9npns2ct362v

#History #AAPIHistory #AANHPIHistory #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday @histodons

“The knowledge infrastructure that used to anchor American governance is fraying,” writes @Daojoan in her story for her Index newsletter. People in senior positions often have limited understanding of their roles, responsibilities, the law and the U.S. Constitution, and it doesn’t seem to matter. “The crisis we face — not only in America but worldwide — isn't a knowledge gap. It's a moral gap. A deficit of virtue. And the only remedy for that is cultural, not political,” she writes.

https://www.theindex.media/the-unlearning-of-america/

#TrumpAdministration #KristiNoem #USGovernment #USLaw #USConstitution #HabeasCorpus #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

“The fundamental right to due process is under attack by Trump's mass deportation policy,” wrote our @ElectionCentral team in this Flipboard Storyboard. Here’s a collection of articles exploring what’s happening, who is being sent where, and if U.S. citizens could be next.

https://flipboard.com/@electioncentral/the-vanished-trump-deportations-4c20bskv33q9e5j9

#USPolitics #TrumpAdministration #Deportations #ElSalvador #Immigration #HabeasCorpus #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

The No. 1 threat to birds is windows. @TheConversationUS reports that more than 1 billion birds – and as many as 5.19 billion – die from collisions with sheet glass each year in the U.S. alone. Here’s what you need to know about why glass is so often deadly, which windows are riskiest, and how we can make them safer.

https://theconversation.com/windows-are-the-no-1-human-threat-to-birds-an-ecologist-shares-some-simple-steps-to-reduce-collisions-255838

#Wildlife #Animals #Birds #Conservation #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Months ago, a Congolese rebel group called M23 seized Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now they’ve got it, what are they doing with it? @thecontinent reports on how M23 is struggling to control the city of two million people, and how residents are suffering. In the words of one resident, Prisca Kanyere, living in the city is like a subscription that is “renewable every 24 hours” because “to sleep and wake up alive is a very exceptional grace in these times.”

https://continent.substack.com/p/seizing-is-easy-ruling-is-harder

#Africa #Congo #Rwanda #Goma #War #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Russian bombs have destroyed many of Ukraine’s cities and in doing so, flattened Soviet-era buildings. @timkmak, Mariana Lastovyria and Artem Moskalenko write for The Counteroffensive about whether that might one day create opportunities for a new kind of city planning and building that’s more resilient and better for individuals and communities.

https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/how-ukraine-can-move-beyond-its-soviet

#Ukraine #History #SovietHistory @histodons #Architecture #Building #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Have you heard the one about the small dog in the terrible zoo? We first heard it back in the 1990s, when Dad told it and “ruined Christmas dinner,” according to Granny. It’s also a favorite of Google’s Veo 3 AI video generator. But why? Emanuel Maiberg from @404mediaco tries to figure things out.

https://www.404media.co/why-does-googles-new-veo-3-ai-video-generator-love-this-dad-joke/

#Tech #Technology #AI #Comedy #Humor #Jokes #DadJokes #ArtificialIntelligence #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

One of TV personality Dr. Phil’s maxims is that you should avoid debt at all costs. At the same time, his son Jay McGraw has been involved in the payday lending industry. @ProPublica collaborated with Anchorage Daily News on a story about his role in CreditServe Inc., a consulting firm that worked with a company owned by a Native American tribe in Alaska that offered small dollar loans, with interest rates as high as 700%. CreditServe provides the infrastructure to market, underwrite and collect on loans while “the Tribe is merely a front” and shares in only a small percentage of the revenue, according to a suit filed by five borrowers. They claim that McGraw has collected hundreds of millions of dollars of consumer payments.

https://www.propublica.org/article/minto-money-dr-phil-son-payday-lending-alaska

#Money #Finance #Alaska #Anchorage #DrPhil #FinancialCrimes #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Not every farmer is happy to see birds on their land, but their cooperation with conservation programs can be key to the survival of wetland-dependent waterbird species. @KnowableMag reports on projects that are helping safeguard breeding grounds, molting spots and migration stopover sites for our feathered friends.

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2025/how-farmers-can-help-save-migrating-water-loving-birds

#Birds #Conservation #Farming #Agriculture #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Environment #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

A pattern of practices, both deliberate and unintentional, has concealed the history of Massachusetts’ state institutions from the public, including institutional survivors and their family members. This is the finding of a newly released report from the Massachusetts Special Commission on State Institutions — a commission that was made up of majority disabled people, many with personal experience of having been institutionalized. Here’s @gbhnews’s story about the report, which could have national ramifications, since Massachusetts was the home of the U.S.'s first institution for disabled people, creating a blueprint for the nation.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-05-21/shocking-report-spotlights-mass-history-of-mistreating-disabled-people

#Disability #DisabilityRights #Massachusetts #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

On Tuesday, Larry Krasner easily won the Democratic primary ahead of a November election that could see him win a third term as district attorney of Philadelphia. @bolts’s @taniel writes about Krasner’s role as one of a number of progressive prosecutors across the United States, the opposition he faced from everyone from Elon Musk to the city’s Democratic Party, and why he continues to be supported across Philadelphia.

https://boltsmag.org/larry-krasner-wins-philadelphia-primary/

#Pennsylvania #Philadelphia #LarryKrasner #ProgressivePolitics #Law #Elections #LocalElections #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Graphic novel legends Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco collaborated on a three-page “comic” about Gaza earlier this year. @thetyee’s Tom Sandborn thought that might lead to controversy, but it didn’t. He looks at the art of the comic form — how it can provoke, satirize, and challenge moral complacency, and whether it’s journalism.

https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2025/05/22/Comics-Power-Moral-Horror-Spiegelman-Sacco-Gaza/

#Culture #Art #Comics #Journalism #Media #GraphicNovels #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

John J. Lennon lives at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where he is serving his 24th year of a 28-years-to-life sentence. He’s also a journalist whose work has appeared in Esquire, the New York Times, the Atlantic, and more. Until last year, he was at Sullivan Correctional Facility, where he mentored emerging writers, both informally and most recently, through the Sullivan Nonfiction Writing Workshop. He writes for @nybooks about setting that up, and what happened when it came to an end with the prison’s closure. “I often think about the time before I came to prison, when I had no promising future. I’ve come to realize that two opposing realities can be true at once: prison probably saved my life and it’s where I learned to write; and prison is a disgusting place that’s hurting me more now than ever,” he writes. “I’m both ashamed and proud of my path. But it wouldn’t have been possible if prison officials hadn’t given writing programs a chance.” [Story may be paywalled]

https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/05/21/finding-the-story-prison-writing/

#Writing #Journalism #AmWriting #Prison #Incarceration #JusticeSystem #Crime #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Nine-year-old Jackie Cazare was one of the victims in the horrific Uvalde, Texas, shooting. In total, 19 children and two teachers were murdered. In the aftermath, Jackie’s uncle, Jess Rizo, became a regular at local government meetings. A year ago, he was elected to the Uvalde CISD school board. He spoke to @TexasObserver’s Gus Bova about turning anger to activism, what he’s learned, and how the community is coming back together. “Everybody, when you go to these meetings, you hear the word transparency, you hear the word accountability, and so everybody’s practicing what they’re preaching, and so we hold each other to that,” he says.

https://www.texasobserver.org/uvalde-jesse-rizo-school-board/

#Texas #TexasPolitics #Uvalde #SchoolShootings #Safety #School #Education #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

We were hoping for the summer of love, or at the very least, the summer of ice cream and going to the beach, but alas, @damemagazine tells us, it’s the summer of stagflation. Kaz Weida explains the difference between this and a common-or-garden recession, the signs that indicate the U.S. is going in that direction, and lessons from the past about how to survive the squeeze.

https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/05/20/the-summer-of-stagflation-is-here/

#Stagflation #Inflation #Economics #Tariffs #USPolitics #USEconomy #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

On that note, some words from Bruce Springsteen, as shared by our @CultureDesk. "The last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed, are the people, you and me," said the Boss at a show in Manchester, U.K. Here’s the video of his many anti-Trump remarks at the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZHWIYHlXOs&t=1s

#BruceSpringsteen #TheBoss #Springsteen #TrumpAdministration #USPolitics #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

During Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, Congress has not asserted itself as an equal branch of the U.S. government. @TheConversationUS explores how this erosion of power happened long before Trump took office, as a result of the nationalization of politics and polarization along party lines. “A weak Congress paired with what historian Arthur Schlesinger called the ‘Imperial Presidency’ is a recipe for an unaccountable president, running wild without the constitutionally provided oversight and checks on power that the founders provided to the people through their representation by the first branch of government,” writes political scientist Charlie Hunt.

https://theconversation.com/congress-began-losing-power-decades-ago-and-now-its-giving-away-what-remains-to-trump-254984

#TrumpAdministration #Congress #USPolitics #Autocracy #Dictatorship #Government #Law #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

We all have subjects we know we talk about too much (sorry in advance for boring your ears off about politics/our new dog). In the case of X’s Grok AI, it’s white genocide. @404mediaco’s Matthew Gault writes about how, on the afternoon of May 14, Grok answered virtually every question it was asked, whether it was about baseball, video games or HBO, with a reference to South African politics and the widely debunked claims that Afrikaners there are victims of racism. “I think they're literally just taking whatever prompt people are sending to Grok and adding a bunch of text about ‘white genocide’ in South Africa in front of it,” said Matthew Guzdial, an AI researcher at the University of Alberta.

https://www.404media.co/why-did-grok-start-talking-about-white-genocide/

#Tech #Technology #AI #ElonMusk #SouthAfrica #Africa #WhiteGenocide #Grok #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

And finally, to the sea cucumber. @KnowableMag deep dives into these diverse, spiny, slimy creatures, the threats they face, and how to protect them.

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2025/weird-wondrous-sea-cucumbers

#Nature #Biology #Ecology #SeaCucumbers #Conservation #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Earlier this week, all American eyes were on Wisconsin as two judges duked it out for a seat on the state’s supreme court — a race that Elon Musk poured millions into. @bolts’s Alex Burness wrote the definitive story on what happened and what it all means. “Today should be a breaking point for our state. Even if your preferred candidate wins, … every single Wisconsinite should be alarmed at this grotesque billionaire arms race,” Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Center, told Bolts late Tuesday, before the result was announced. “The past two months have shown us a terrifying preview of what’s coming: an America where billionaires run the show, and the rest of us are just spectators.”

https://boltsmag.org/wisconsin-supreme-court-result-2025/

#USPolitics #Wisconsin #ElonMusk #SusanCrawford #BradSchimel #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

It's #FollowFriday !

Meet StratoCat, an Argentina-based independent source of historical data and news on the development of stratospheric balloons for scientific research, aerospace & military applications, and commercial exploitation of near space. Online since 2005.

The website also publishes the newsletter "World Balloon News"

https://stratocat.com.ar

#fedi22 #Ballooning #NearSpace #Science #Research #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Technology #Cosmology #Astrodon #Space #Academy #Stratospheric

Now, to earwigs, which seemingly have more vibrant social lives than we do (though based on this @KnowableMag story, we’ll stick with what we’ve got). Tim Vernimmen writes about their 20-hour mating rituals, peculiar penises, protective parenting, and occasional cannibalism.

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2024/social-life-of-earwigs

🧵 8/12

#Science #Nature #Insects #Entomology #Earwigs #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

#FuneralFactFriday: Fantasy Coffins of Ghana

Hey new friends! Here’s what happens: I post fun facts about death and funeral related topics, especially on certain themed days. For the past couple weeks, I’ve accidentally on purpose tied all of my posts to cats (Not literally, don’t ever tie anything to a cat). Sooo, here’s a cat-shaped coffin!

For the past 70 years, master carpenters in Ghana have custom built “figurative” coffins. Families choose a theme based on their loved one's occupation, hobbies, personality, or symbolism from proverbs. You want to be buried in a lobster? They can do that!

The tradition began in the 1950s when the village chief commissioned a palanquin shaped like a cacao pod (it’s a fancy enclosed platform with handles so people can carry you — very fancy). Unfortunately, the chief died before it was finished. The villagers opted to use it as a coffin after parading his body around town in a procession.

The idea caught on. Other chiefs and priests were similarly honored, then regular folks began to request specially made coffins. The idea is for dead people to remember something of themselves in the afterlife and to highlight their social status.

Carpenters and their apprentices hand carve the special shapes from local wawa trees, usually taking about 2-6 weeks to complete. Urgent orders can be completely faster if several carpenters work together. A fantasy coffin usually sells for about $1000, but for perspective, the people buying them are typically earning about $3 a day!

Popular designs include airplanes, animals (family totems), Coca Cola bottles, shoes, cellphones, luxury cars, fish, and Bibles. If you do a Google image search, they’re fascinating to see! Which one would YOU choose???

#HisAndHearsePress #Coffin #Ghana #FantasyCoffin #CoffinDance #Woodworking #CustomBuilt #Funeral #Casket #DeathPositive #FBF #FollowFriday #FollowBackFriday

jenifer daniels :verified:
@jentrification

i #design, #build, and #invest in #people, #places, and #purpose | thought partner for hire | 📸 #photos @ jeniferdaniels dot com

beginning #francophile # sois gentil

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Baker Shop, Old Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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© Photo Credit: Eric Lynn.

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Tea Workers, Srimangal, Bangladesh.

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Panam Nagar, totally abandoned city of Hindu cotton merchants from the early 19th century.

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