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

Our @CultureDesk shared Lyz Lenz’s story for her newsletter, Men Yell At Me earlier this week, and we’re sharing it again. How could we not celebrate the sublime writing of Lenz on the subject of the drive to fight the declining birthrate, and Trump’s ambition to be the “fertilization president?” “Just the phrase ‘fertilization president’ made millions and millions of embryos in the bodies of women yeet themselves themselves right on out of their respective uteruses,” she writes. “They were like ‘send me into the ocean with the microplastics, I’d rather live there than turn into an American son forced to grow up grunting in gyms, optimizing my sales techniques, wearing tight Andrew Tate-ass pants, and calling women “females” online, as our civilization slowly collapses and women would rather watch “Pride and Prejudice” for the seven millionth time than text me back.’”

https://lyz.substack.com/p/conclave-of-chads

We’ve read more about Joe Rogan in the last couple of weeks than we really wanted to — first, with the Menswear Guy’s story for Bloomberg on his influential physique, and now, with @Daojoan’s article on the dangers of the Roganified male mystique, and what to do about it. “That pipeline doesn’t stop because we roll our eyes at it. It stops when we block it with something real. The Roganification of masculinity is a symptom. The disease is deeper. But the cure won’t come from debunking or mocking. It will come from reclaiming the terrain of meaning. Of power. Of identity,” she writes. “The future of men is being whispered into a mic. What these men hear next — rage or renaissance — depends on what we build. And whether we build it fast enough.”

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-roganification-of-the-male-mystique/

Farmers struggle to make a profit at the best of times, and times just got worse. @gbhnews spotlights how cuts in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s federal grant programs mean Massachusetts schools, food hubs and food pantries can’t buy fresh produce, and farmers are left with cases of unwanted produce. Who wins? No one.
https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-05-01/massachusetts-farmers-scrambling-to-sell-crops-after-usda-funding-cuts-leave-them-without-a-buyer

Users of Meta’s AI Studio can make bots to chat with — either for themselves or, if they’re influencers, their audiences. @404mediaco’s Samantha Cole was told by multiple bots that they were licensed therapists with multiple credentials and qualifications. She explores the potential harm of getting support from a chatbot.

https://www.404media.co/instagram-ai-studio-therapy-chatbots-lie-about-being-licensed-therapists/

At a meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), the U.S. counselor for economic and social affairs, Edward Heartney, touted President Donald Trump as a protector of Indigenous women. It didn’t go well. @Toastie reports for @HighCountryNew about this, and some of the other speeches at the annual meeting. Heartney slipped out in the silence immediately after he spoke. Had he waited, he would have heard what sounded like a direct rebuff to his statement, though it was written in advance. “The U.S. has opened the coastal plain to oil and gas leasing, threatening our very survival,” said model and land protector Quannah ChasingHorse on behalf of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. “The Gwich’in have never given consent for development, and our right to self-determination is being violated by interests that view our lands as a commodity,” ChasingHorse continued. “I am outraged that decisions about my people’s future are being made without us at the table.”

https://www.hcn.org/articles/pro-trump-statement-at-unpfii-met-with-silence/

When you fill in your sensitive medical data to shop for health insurance, the last place you expect it to go is LinkedIn. @themarkup’s investigation indicates that Covered California did exactly that as part of an advertising campaign. Via trackers, LinkedIn received info about gender, ethnicity, marital status, how often site visitors saw their doctors, and whether they were pregnant.

https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2025/04/28/how-california-sent-residents-personal-health-data-to-linkedin

“Ukrainians know how to find beauty in everything,” write Mariana Lastovyria and Veronika Romanova for @timkmak’s Counteroffensive. They talked to biologist Svitozar Davydenko about his year at the Akademik Vernadsky Station, in Antarctica, about his experiences there, and why Ukraine continues to spend money on hanging out with penguins.

https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/inside-ukraines-antarctic-expedition

Last December, Bashar al-Assad was toppled as leader of Syria by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and fled to Moscow. Syrians celebrated, but now, some are worried that life after Assad may be no better. @damemagazine’s Ryan Biller talked to Syrians about their fears of religious extremism, foreign interference and misinformation. “Somewhat discreetly, I disclosed to [a Yazidi woman named] Gulizar that I was an American,” writes Biller. “To this, she smirked. ‘Oh, so you must feel the same way as me.’ ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. Gulizar reminded me that it wasn’t just her new government that people ought to fret over regarding the treatment of women and minorities. ‘I think you kind of have your own version of HTS in America,’ she laughed. ‘It is called Donald Trump.’”

https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/05/01/syrias-new-government-might-be-a-lot-like-the-old-threat/

What’s the best way to make something more efficient? If you’re DOGE, it’s to cancel a project that’s almost complete, and that would itself reduce government waste and make people safer. @SFPublicPress spoke to Jayson McCauliff, who was laid off from the U.S. Digital Service. His team was seven months from completing a project with the CDC to modernize its disease surveillance system. “The recent dismantling of our team has left me feeling a complex mix of grief for the lost potential and determination to ensure these stories are heard,” McCauliff says.

https://www.sfpublicpress.org/opposite-of-efficiency/

The Trump administration talks about its desire to protect children, but many of its actions are harming them. @ProPublica looks at how: Cuts to programs that keep kids warm, fed, educated and safe. “Everyone’s been talking about what the Trump administration and DOGE have been doing, but no one seems to be talking about how, in a lot of ways, it’s been an assault on kids,” says Bruce Lesley, president of advocacy group First Focus on Children.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-trump-budget-cuts-harm-kids-child-care-education-abuse

The Chinese writer Fang Fang’s first novel was published in 1982 and for the best part of 40 years, she made her living as a writer, including winning national awards for her work. Then came COVID-19. Her public lockdown diary, “fengcheng riji,” published on her Weibo (microblog) account, became a phenomenon, and made her a target for criticism. She’s been called a liar and a traitor, reprints of her backlist of nearly 100 books have been halted, and her new work is effectively banned from publication in China. @nybooks reviews “Soft Burial,” her latest novel (translated by Michael Berry), and finds a story about trauma and survival. “I’ve chosen to forget, while you have chosen to leave a record. But once you record what happened, how will I ever be able to forget?” one character says to another. “Meanwhile the novel itself acts as a site, however small, however incomplete, for remembrance,” writes reviewer Madeleine Thien. [Story may be paywalled]

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/05/15/killing-memories-soft-burial-fang-fang/

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon #Literature #BookReview #Wuhan #COVID19 #China #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Fresh off the heels of the Canadian election, two more countries are heading to the polls this weekend. Our @NewsDesk shared a guide to the Australian election, while our @CultureDesk looked at how the Singaporean government is attempting to reach young voters. Both countries vote on May 3.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c626e935llwo
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yldprrdg3o

Texas’s House Bill 3225 is aimed at municipal libraries, and bans anyone aged under 18 from accessing “sexually explicit materials,” without defining what that is, restricts their access to the library’s general collection, even for school assignments, and more. Author Chris Barton testified against this at the Texas legislature, and writes for @TexasObserver about the many problems with this bill. “If a few Texas parents don’t want their kids to have free and full access to our libraries, let those parents hold their own children’s hands, never allow them out of their sight, and never allow them to think for themselves. That’s on them,” he writes. “But Texas libraries are treasures paid for by our tax dollars. Leave our libraries alone and let the rest of us — of all ages — make good use of them.”

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-legislature-censorship-libraries/

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon #Texas #Libraries #Censorship #BookBans #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

There might not be anything on the ballot that captures headlines in the way “Wisconsin vs. Musk” did in April, but there are still consequential elections taking place in the U.S. @taniel and Alex Burness of @bolts break down who can vote for what this month. It’s almost all local — mayoral races, school boards and ballot measures — and local elections matter.

https://boltsmag.org/whats-on-the-ballot/guide-to-elections-in-may-2025/