Humanities & Cultures
- Obstetric violence: abuse during childbirth is widespread, but the first step to fighting it is naming it
When a child is born, the person giving birth is often subject to extremely harsh treatment – verbal humiliation, invasive practices, unnecessary medication, physical violence, and denial of treatment and pain relief are all commonplace before, during and after birth, both in Europe and across the globe. This can include a lack of informed consent when performing caesarean sections, episiotomy, induction and vaginal exploration, as well as verbal or discriminatory insults.
Violation of human rights in this context has a name: obstetric violence.
[...]
As a form of gender-based violence, obstetric violence is not exclusively intentional, nor does it always occur between individuals. It is structural and intersectional, meaning that coercion and abuse can be indirect, anonymous and invisible, produced by the State and its institutions or by social norms. It is rooted in complex political, social, cultural, and medical contexts, meaning that working conditions, financial pressure, professional hierarchies and health education may encourage or enable it.
- Prisoners Need Civilian Review Boards, Toofiltermag.org Prisoners Need Civilian Review Boards, Too
Toward the end of my sentence in Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) custody I was a clerk in the Central ...
> Every cell you’d go to, someone would be begging you for toilet paper or for water. These are “wet cells” with a sink and toilet, but the person inside can’t flush the toilet or open the faucet to get drinking water themselves; someone outside the cell has to press a button to do it. So as a fellow incarcerated person, who’d been in similar cells myself at previous facilities, I’d usually spend the next two hours walking back and forth filling up people’s cups from the mop sink, because it’s midday and there hasn’t been officer around since 5 pm yesterday. > > You can land in these cells for months for talking back to an officer, or being in a fight even if you were just defending yourself. If you have a mental health episode, or report that you were sexually assaulted, they might stick you in there for a year. Purportedly for your safety, but really to shut you up. These inequities are wielded most harshly against trans women of color like myself.
> There should be an external civilian review board that audits the process, with members who rotate out every six or 12 months and are paid for their time. There should really be multiple boards—one for general housing conditions, one for use of force, one for mental health care, etc.
- Kuwohi name restored as U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) approves applicationtheonefeather.com Kuwohi name restored as BGN approves application - The Cherokee One Feather
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) approved an application on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024 that restores the name of Clingman’s Dome, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), to its original Cherokee name, Kuwohi (mulberry place).
> The name of the third-highest summit east of the Mississippi River has been restored to its original name. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) approved an application on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024 that restores the name of Clingman’s Dome, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), to its original Cherokee name, Kuwohi (mulberry place). > > Lavita Hill and Mary “Missy” Crowe, both members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), started this effort in 2022 and received widespread support for the initiative.
- "The most substantial discovery of Euripides in half a century"www.lrb.co.uk Robert Cioffi · Euripides Unbound
The Euripides papyrus was uncovered using basic archaeological tools – a trowel, a brush and an instinct for reading...
- When It Comes to Banning Smartphones From Schools, What Really Works?reasonstobecheerful.world When It Comes to Banning Smartphones From Schools, What Really Works?
It isn't as simple as prohibiting all devices — but going phone-free can help kids thrive, especially when they’re offered fun alternatives to screen time.
- We may be close to rediscovering thousands of texts that had been lost for millennia. Their contents may reshape how we understand the Ancient World.worksinprogress.co Doom scrolling - Works in Progress
We may be close to rediscovering thousands of texts that had been lost for millennia. Their contents may reshape how we understand the Ancient World.
Very long but also very interesting. Amazing how they're able to "open" and read carbonized scrolls.
- An AI Couldn’t Write This: A Late-Cyberpunk Manifesto - Blood Knifebloodknife.com An AI Couldn’t Write This: A Late-Cyberpunk Manifesto - Blood Knife
Nothing is true. Everything is content.
>Nothing is true, everything is content.
- Outside the Racist Nostalgia Box: Rethinking Afrikan tähti’s Cultural Depictionsgamescriticism.org Outside the Racist Nostalgia Box: Rethinking Afrikan tähti’s Cultural Depictions
by Sabine Harrer and Outi Laiti Published September, 2023. Download full pdf of article here. Abstract While in recent years many European businesses have taken steps to alter their previously raci…
> While in recent years many European businesses have taken steps to alter their previously racist product designs, some games, especially board games like the popular Finnish Afrikan tähti (Star of Africa; Kuvataide, 1951), resist this trend. This raises two questions: First, what are the emotional mechanics which allow openly racist games like Afrikan tähti to remain unchanged and celebrated as ‘classics’ today? Secondly, what can our predominantly white board and role-playing game communities do to let go of emotional attachments to white supremacist games and become invested in a more respectful and welcoming games culture?
> [...]we speculate on ways to expedite collective grief to help players reach what we term the ‘white acceptance stage’. We speculate that one useful design intervention to help rethink Afrikan tähti might be to classify it as a PEGI 18 game with the descriptor ‘discrimination’. Seen in this new light, the game might find a new purpose as a cultural educational item complementing lessons on Europe’s colonial past and the self-image of (Northern) Europe for older children. This intervention is inspired by the recent introduction of sensitivity warnings by multinational entertainment corporations such as Disney and broadcasting agencies like YLE (Rytsä, 2007). We argue that adopting such labeling practices for popular board games like Afrikan tähti can be a first step towards confronting racist and colonial ludic heritage.
- I Went to Yellowstone National Park to Learn Why it Turns Tourists Into Moronswww.outsideonline.com I Went to Yellowstone National Park to Learn Why it Turns Tourists Into Morons
Petting bison, cooking food in geysers. Ride along with our writer on a wild trip to our nation's most iconic national park at the height of tourist season to see all the bad behavior.
> The U.S. has a near-infinite supply of clueless tourists such as myself, much to the dismay of our National Park Service. Yellowstone, our most famous national park thanks to Kevin Costner, welcomes 4.5 million of us each year. Like all of our parks, Yellowstone takes in tourists not only for the revenue but to remind them that the physical country they reside in is a marvel well beyond their comprehension. As such, Yellowstone is set up to accommodate these hordes. And while park officials do their best to keep tourists in line, often literally, my kind still manage to do plenty of tourist shit. We trample plant life. We get shitfaced and pick unwinnable fights with animals ten times our size. And we hurt ourselves. According to NPS data, at least 74 people have died while visiting Yellowstone in the past 15 years. I could have been one of those people. I deserve to be one of those people. > > This is why Outside sent me to the park just a few weeks ago, during one of the busiest times of the year. They wanted me to observe our most basic tourists in the wild. Maybe I’d even get to see one die. Or, even better for my editors, maybe I would die while I was there. Maybe I’d look down my nose at the tourists around me only to end up as wolf food myself. Like most other Yellowstone visitors, I was not trained for the outdoors, I relish doing shit that posted signs yell at me not to do, and I often daydream about fighting bears (and winning!). I find danger tempting, which isn’t a good thing given that I can no longer swim a single pool lap without taking a break. Are people like me responsible enough to visit one of our national treasures without breaking it? Do we, as a population, know how to do national parks?
- Cars Have Fucked Up This Country Badwww.hamiltonnolan.com Cars Have Fucked Up This Country Bad
The car-centric age of development is one long mistake.
- Donald Trump’s debate tactic: a flame blower of lies and deception known as the Gish gallop
You may not know the term ‘Gish gallop‘ but you’ve seen it in action if you have watched any Donald Trump performance. It is a firehose of lies and disinformation employed to sow chaos rather than educate. It is dishonorable.
The technique is named for creationist Duane Gish who used it in his debates with biologists [and described in the Scientific American].
> His tactic consisted of talking fast and with confidence, bombarding opponents with falsehoods, non-sequiturs and enough cherry-picked factoids to confuse the audience. Scientists debating him faced the challenge of sifting half-truths from outright lies and finding the right evidence to refute them systematically, all within the few minutes allowed in response.
[...]
Nothing that Trump does is in good faith nor does he comport to norms. If that were the case, he would not still be trumpeting lies from eight years ago.
This scenario sounds eerily similiar to how news organizations, “[d]espite eight years and two election cycles,” continue to normalize Trump’s speeches by providing a coherence that is missing from the original.
[...]
It is the news media’s job to point out untruths. Period. Not parrot them or slide them under the rug.
Scientific American calls this integrity. I think of it as ethics. To that end, today’s journalists need to revisit the code of ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists:
> Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity (emphasis added).
- The Search for the Face Behind Mavis Beacon Teaches Typingwww.wired.com The Search for the Face Behind Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
The filmmakers behind “Seeking Mavis Beacon” wanted to know what happened to the Black woman who was paid only a couple hundred dollars to be the face of a wildly successful typing program. To find out, they had to do some “trolling.”
> Jazmin Jones knows what she did. "If you're online, there's this idea of trolling," Jones, the director behind Seeking Mavis Beacon, said during a recent panel for her new documentary. "For this project, some things we're taking incredibly seriously ... and other things we're trolling. We're trolling this idea of a detective because we're also, like,ACAB." Her trolling, though, was for a good reason. Jones and fellow filmmaker Olivia Mckayla Ross did it in hopes of finding the woman behind Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. The popular teaching tool was released in 1987 by The Software Toolworks, a video game and software company based in California that produced educational chess, reading, and math games. Mavis, essentially the "mascot" of the game, is a Black woman donned in professional clothes and a slicked-back bun. Though Mavis Beacon was not an actual person, Jones and Ross say that she is one of the first examples of Black representation they witnessed in tech. Seeking Mavis Beacon, which opened in New York City on August 30 and is rolling out to other cities in September, is their attempt to uncover the story behind the face, which appeared on the tool's packaging and later as part of its interface.
> The film shows the duo setting up a detective room, conversing over FaceTime, running up to people on the street, and even tracking down a relative connected to the ever-elusive Mavis. But the journey of their search turned up a different question they didn't initially expect: What are the impacts of sexism, racism, privacy, and exploitation in a world where you can present yourself any way you want to? Using shots from computer screens, deep dives through archival footage, and sit-down interviews, the noir-style documentary reveals that Mavis Beacon is actually Renee L'Esperance, a Black model from Haiti who was paid $500 for her likeness with no royalties, despite the program selling millions of copies. [...]
> In a world where anyone can create images of folks of any race, gender, or sexual orientation without having to fully compensate the real people who inspired them, Jones and Ross are working to preserve not only the data behind Mavis Beacon but also the humanity behind the software. On the panel, hosted by Black Girls in Media, Ross stated that the film's social media has a form where users of Mavis Beacon can share what the game has meant to them, for archival purposes. "On some level, Olivia and I are trolling ideas of worlds that we never felt safe in or protected by," Jones said during the panel. "And in other ways, we are honoring this legacy of cyber feminism, historians, and care workers that we are very seriously indebted to."
> You can watch the trailer for "Seeking Mavis Beacon" on YouTube.
I had no idea "Mavis Beacon" wasn't a real person until well after graduating college.
- How Capitalism Incentivizes the Destruction of Artwww.currentaffairs.org How Capitalism Incentivizes the Destruction of Art
Capitalism is supposed to encourage innovation. But in Hollywood, studios are creating a narrower range of films to avoid taking any risk at all.
- Workers in Japan hire resignation experts to help quit their jobswww.cnn.com Workers in Japan hire resignation experts to help quit their jobs | CNN Business
With bosses ripping up their resignation letters, many Japanese workers hire these proxy firms to help them resign stress-free.
- Japan: Of the nearly 40,000 people who died alone in their homes this year, some 4,000 went unnoticed for over a month, report sayswww.bbc.com Japan: Nearly 4,000 people found more than month after dying alone, report says
Of those 37,227 Japanese people who died alone in their homes in the first half of the year, some 3,939 went unnoticed for over a month.
Almost 40,000 people died alone in their homes in Japan during the first half of 2024, a report by the country’s police shows.
Of that number, nearly 4,000 people were discovered more than a month after they died, and 130 bodies went unmissed for a year before they were found, according to the National Police Agency.
Japan currently has the world’s oldest population, according to the United Nations.
The agency hopes its report will shed light on the country's growing issue of vast numbers of its aging population who live, and die, alone. Taken from the first half of 2024, the National Police Agency data shows that a total of 37,227 people living alone were found dead at home, with those aged 65 and over accounting for more than 70%.
- What We Learned In Our First Year of 404 Mediawww.404media.co What We Learned In Our First Year of 404 Media
In August 2023, we launched 404 Media with a novel idea: pay journalists to do journalism. Here we are, a year later.
The 404 Media team wrote about what they learned in their first year of 404 Media, and it’s full of hope.
- How To Win The Battle Against Objects: Fighting With Your Refrigeratorwww.thechatner.com How To Win The Battle Against Objects: Fighting With Your Refrigerator
One of my worst personal qualities is my tendency to turn minor, everyday inconveniences into a moral showdown with inanimate objects.
An instant classic, Daniel Lavery’s How to win the battle against objects shares an extremely healthy strategy based on blaming an inanimate appliance and a person (who isn’t yourself) for anything inconvenient that happens to you. My partner and I have been practicing hard and I’m sorry to say they’re naturally gifted (and I’m naturally infuriated).
- 50 Years Later: Remembering How the Future Looked in 1974thenewstack.io 50 Years Later: Remembering How the Future Looked in 1974
A half-century ago, "Saturday Review" asked some of the era's visionaries for their predictions of what 2024 would look like. Here are their hits and misses.
- The Intractable Puzzle of Growthwww.thenation.com The Intractable Puzzle of Growth
For more than a century, the key measure of a healthy economy has been its capacity to grow and yet if production and consumption continues to expand at their current rate we might risk the very health of the planet.
This is a surprisingly interesting thinkpiece for its length that ultimately arrives at no conclusion, but it's an important discussion to be having while we still can.
- Is Everyone Conscious in the Same Way? | Simon Roper
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- Don’t Forget About Non-Drivers in Rural Americausa.streetsblog.org Don’t Forget About Non-Drivers in Rural America — Streetsblog USA
"Too often, advocates for reducing car-dependency focus solely on dense urban areas. But in doing so, they write off too much of our country and discount the reality of too many non-drivers."
- Jesus Rode a Donkey. I Ride the Bussojo.net Jesus Rode a Donkey. I Ride the Bus
How public transit helps me know — and love — my neighbors.
> But the thing that excites me most about taking public transit is watching the people who come in at every stop. It is exciting to recognize the middle schooler with the headphones, the young mother with the infant in a stroller, and the construction workers with their hard hats tucked under their arms. They are my neighbors. On public transportation, I am reminded that they are the people I am called to love.
- How ‘Inside Out’ and Its Sequel Changed Therapywww.nytimes.com How ‘Inside Out’ and Its Sequel Changed Therapy
Mental health professionals and educators say the movies are remarkably helpful in providing a common language they can use with children and parents.
- A Logo on a Prosthesis Is Like a Tattoo You Didn’t Ask Forwww.theatlantic.com A Logo on a Prosthesis Is Like a Tattoo You Didn’t Ask For
As artificial limbs become more advanced, branding is becoming almost inescapable.
- Latest search for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims ends with 3 more found with gunshot woundsapnews.com Latest search for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims ends with 3 more found with gunshot wounds
Investigators say the latest search for the remains of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims has ended with three more containing visible gunshot wounds.
> OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The latest search for the remains of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims has ended with three more sets containing gunshot wounds, investigators said.
> The three are among 11 sets of remains exhumed during the latest excavation in Oaklawn Cemetery, state archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck said Friday.
> “Two of those gunshot victims display evidence of munitions from two different weapons,” Stackelbeck said. “The third individual who is a gunshot victim also displays evidence of burning.”
Stories like this underscore the importance of reading history, because (at least here in Missouri) I was never taught about the Tulsa Massacre and didn't learn about it until I read about it myself.
Other things you may want to read about that you may have never heard of: The Battle of Blair Mountain, Haymarket Square, or the Great Rail Strike of 1877.
- Only 100 years ago the Milky Way was visible from central Paris. Here’s how we can get the night sky backtheconversation.com Only 100 years ago the Milky Way was visible from central Paris. Here’s how we can get the night sky back
Light pollution is a relatively new problem. Simple solutions can fix it.
> Shielding of lights is an important aspect. Instead of having an open light, flat lights or shielded lights that prevent spill upward are crucial. They direct light to the ground, and not up into the sky. > > In Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory government and light operator Omexom have been changing streetlights to do exactly this – no upward spill, and controllable lights. > > In doing so, Canberra has reduced its light pollution by about 30% in only a few years, as my colleagues and I report in a forthcoming paper.
- 'First impressions are everything': What 9 teens wore on the first day of school in L.A.www.latimes.com 'First impressions are everything': What 9 teens wore on the first day of school in L.A.
From Sambas to baggy jeans and cropped hoodies, here's a look at the outfits that appeared at Venice High School on Monday.
- Readers are more suspicious of journalists providing corrections than journalists providing confirmationswww.niemanlab.org Readers are more suspicious of journalists providing corrections than journalists providing confirmations
The challenge for journalists may be figuring out how to provide debunkings without seeming like a debunker.
> Our new research, published in the journal Communication Research, suggests that’s the case. In two studies, we found that people generally trust journalists when they confirm claims to be true but are more distrusting when journalists correct false claims. > > Some linguistics and social science theories suggest that people intuitively understand social expectations not to be negative. Being disagreeable, like when pointing out someone else’s lie or error, carries with it a risk of backlash.
- To the Kremlin, Everything Is Propagandawww.themoscowtimes.com To the Kremlin, Everything Is Propaganda - The Moscow Times
Opinion | To bolster its claims of rampant Russophobia in the West, the Kremlin not only cites sanctions imposed for the war against Ukraine, but also perceived attacks on Russian culture and identity.
To bolster its claims of rampant Russophobia in the West, the Kremlin not only cites sanctions imposed for the war against Ukraine, but also perceived attacks on Russian culture and identity.
Canceling everything Russian because it could potentially be weaponized is anathema to the liberal traditions of Western countries. Russian propagandists and the special services take full advantage of this. Since the annexation of Crimea in Ukraine, investigations have revealed that Russian cultural centers across the world have been used to spread disinformation not to mention their use as “umbrellas” for spy agencies SVR and GRU operations.
- Psilocybin legislation is helping psychedelic drugs make a comeback – a drug researcher explains the challenges they facetheconversation.com Psilocybin legislation is helping psychedelic drugs make a comeback – a drug researcher explains the challenges they face
Pharmaceutical giants like Johnson & Johnson as well as smaller startups are investing in psychedelic drug development, and both are pursuing FDA approval for their patented psilocybin formulations.
- The Incredible Survival Story Of Genelle Guzman-McMillan, The Last Person Rescued After The September 11th Attacksallthatsinteresting.com The Harrowing Story Of The Last Person Rescued From The World Trade Center — After Being Buried For 27 Hours
Genelle Guzman-McMillan was a 30-year-old temp for the Port Authority who was working on the 64th floor of the North Tower when the first plane hit.
>On September 11, 2001, Genelle Guzman-McMillan made it from the 64th floor to the 13th floor of the North Tower when "everything went black." Over 27 hours later, she was miraculously pulled out of the wreckage.
Though I hate the overuse of the word 'miraculous', this is an interesting story for sure.
- Primitive Technology: Water Bellows (uses water instead of leather)
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- Does economic education spoil students’ morality? Economists and the Trolley problem
Does economic education spoil students’ morality? Economists and the Trolley problem
- You Won’t See Them at the Olympics, but These Speed Puzzlers Are World-Classwww.nytimes.com You Won’t See Them at the Olympics, but These Speed Puzzlers Are World-Class
Puzzling has been around for more than 250 years, but a budding tournament featuring participants from more than 75 countries in Spain is giving it new life.