Notices by Flipboard Culture Desk (culturedesk@flipboard.social), page 2

If you want to glimpse into a world without modern medicine, just pick up a Victorian book. In the first half of the 19th century, between 40% and 50% of children in the U.S. didn't live past the age of five. Kids were dying of diseases that are now preventable by vaccination, treatable with antibiotics, or out of the picture thanks to better sanitation, as well as from consuming unpasteurized milk or contaminated foods. @TheConversationUS looks at how this shows up in classic fiction, periodicals and personal writing. "These Victorian stories commemorate a profound, culturally shared grief. To dismiss them as old-fashioned is to assume they are outdated because of the passage of time. But the collective pain of a high child mortality rate was eradicated not by time, but by effort," writes Andrea Kaston Tange, a professor of English.

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#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon #Literature #PublicHealth #Disease #DiseasePrevention

Backpacking can be a terrific way to go on an adventurous trip. Even more adventurous when hunkering down for the night in one of the U.K.’s hiking “hotels.” You can’t book them and you don't know who else will be there, but they're an excellent way to explore Britain's most remote corners — for free. Read more from the BBC.

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#Culture #Travel #Hiking #Backpacking #UK

Of the 4,000 Indigenous languages worldwide, one dies every two weeks and Michael Running Wolf, founder of Indigenous AI, says most Native American languages will be lost within the next decade. Running Wolf leads First Languages AI Reality, where he and his team are building speech recognition models for more than 200 endangered Indigenous languages. @NBCNews talked to him, student engineers Kyra Kaya, who is Native Hawaiian, and Madeline Gupta, who is Chippewa, and Lakota artist Suzanne Kite about their AI projects to preserve and restore the languages, stories and culture.

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#IndigenousHeritage #NativeAmericanHeritage #Language #Culture #ArtificialIntelligence #AI

Today is Trans Day of Remembrance. A new report released yesterday by the Human Rights Campaign says that at least 36 transgender and gender expansive people were killed in the U.S. since Nov. 20 2023. Three-quarters of these were people of color. The report comes out amid an onslaught of anti-trans legislation in the USA — just today, House Speaker Mike Johnson said trans women will not be allowed to use the women's bathroom in the Capitol buildings. @TeenVogue highlights some of the organizations across the country supporting trans people, including Genderbands in Utah, the Iowa Mutual Aid Network, and Gender Justice LA.

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#TransDayOfRemembrance #TransRightsAreHumanRights #USPolitics #LGBTQ

When a website listed a Halloween parade in Dublin at which Cristiano Ronaldo and MrBeast might appear, social media hype began to build. And last night, thousands of Dubliners showed up from Parnell Street to Christchurch Cathedral, waiting for the three-hour event that would "[transform] Dublin into a lively tapestry of costumes, artistic performances, and cultural festivities." They waited in vain — the listing was, according to Defector, "a combination of classic SEO bait tactics and newfangled AI slop content." Here's more.

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#Culture #Dublin #Halloween #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AISlop

McDonald's is serving a masterclass in political neutrality in its latest statement to staff. The fast-food giant has been pulled into the election because Trump is disputing Harris's claims that she worked there in the 1980s, and at the weekend, pretended to serve fries at a Pennsylvania franchise. “McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue — we are golden,” the company's senior leadership team said in an internal memo, which also stated that it was proud of both the fact that Trump loves McDonald's and that Harris speaks fondly of her time there. “Upon learning of the former President’s request, we approached it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone,” the letter said. Here's more from CNN about McDonald's franchise model and how it has got the company in political pickles in the past.

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#McDonalds #FastFood #Trump #Harris #USElection #Restaurants

Taylor Swift has donated $5 million to Feeding America to support hurricane relief efforts. The nonprofit announced the donation with a “Thank You” graphic resembling a friendship bracelet. The childless cat lady/global pop superstar supported food banks throughout her record-breaking Eras Tour, donating the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of meals across cities she played in. Here's more from @AssociatedPress

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#TaylorSwift #Celebrity #FoodBanks #HurricaneHelene #HurricaneMilton #FeedingAmerica #Philanthropy

Bruce Springsteen has endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the November election. In a video posted to his Instagram feed, The Boss also emphatically rejected Donald Trump, describing him as, "the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime." He continued: “His disdain for the sanctity of our constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law, and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again. He doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history or what it means to be deeply American.” Watch the video here, courtesy of @USAToday.

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#BruceSpringsteen #Entertainment #KamalaHarris #TimWalz #USPolitics #USElection

22 "exceptionally creative people" will each receive no-strings-attached grants of $800,000, the MacArthur Foundation announced. @npr breaks down who's on the list, from disability justice activist Alice Wong to "Reservation Dogs" co-creator Sterlin Harjo.

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#Culture #Creativity #Arts #Television #MacArthurFoundation #ReservationDogs

Richard Kind might be everyone's favorite character actor. He visited Zabar's deli in New York to eat cheese, lactose intolerance be damned. "People who eat it on the subway are not good people. People who eat it on a plane are not good people," he told Interview Magazine's Julian Ribeiro. "In the tablets that Moses dropped with the 15 Commandments, that was one of ’em: Never eat cheese on a plane."

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#RichardKind #Cheese #Celebrity #Entertainment #NewYork

For some trans women, weddings aren't just public declarations of their love for their partners — they're powerful expressions of gender euphoria. PS talked to four brides about their big-day inspiration, from Disney Princess gowns to Audrey Hepburn hair, and why they want to tell their stories. "I never thought that it would be a reality for me," says Toronto-based Jamie Pandit. "I think not only finding love but also getting married and having someone publicly show their love for [regardless of] what people will think, it's something that I still think about and means so much to me."

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#Lifestyle #Style #Beauty #Weddings #LGBTQ #Pride #TransRights #TransRightsAreHumanRights

"The Peter Principle" is a term coined in 1969 by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull — it was the name of their book exploring the idea that employees are often promoted beyond their level of competence. Big Think's Jonny Thomson says this is often a consequence of rewarding good followers with leadership positions. "What Hull and Peter point out is that it makes no sense at all to assume that someone who’s lived their career in unoriginal subordination would suddenly become Abraham Lincoln with a corner office," he writes. Here's his story for Big Think about what we can learn from the theory — and how we can avoid its pitfalls.

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#Work #Lifestyle #PeterPrinciple #HumanResources #Business #Philosophy

Many Americans are living through what U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” Meanwhile, the country is experiencing growing political and cultural divisiveness. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In her newest book titled “Loving Connections,” activist and scholar Adrienne Maree Brown offers a practical guide to empathy that may transform more than our relationships with one another. Read about it from Grist: https://flip.it/JzVCv5
#Culture #Books #Bookstodon #Reading #Empathy #Earth

Is Banksy a great artist? It sounds like a resounding yes from author Kelly Grovier, who studied “every inch of the street artist's back catalogue” for his new book, “How Banksy Saved Art History.” After a string of new artworks sprung up around London, Gravier reveals the clues that unlock Banksy’s historical genius. Read more in his article for BBC Culture: https://flip.it/TZV5p9
#Culture #Art #Banksy #London #StreetArt

While some athletes have raved about the muffins and others have complained about the cardboard beds, some American Olympians are taking advantage of the free healthcare. Team USA rugby player Ariana Ramsey didn't just get a bronze medal in Paris — she's had a pap smear, X-ray, teeth cleaning, and an eye test. She's posted about this on TikTok, influenced other athletes in the Village to visit medical professionals, and now plans to fight for universal healthcare in the U.S. Here's more from Sports Illustrated.

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#Olympics #Sports #USA #Healthcare #UniversalHealthcare

WordStar, an MS-DOS-based word-processing program released in 1978, was loved by writers as diverse as Ralph Ellison, Anne Rice, and George R.R. Martin, because of its ability to capture the long-hand writing experience. Now, we can all give it a try thanks to Robert J. Sawyer, a Hugo- and Nebula-winning author who has released a complete archive of the program, along with MS-DOS emulators and all its manuals. Here's more from Gizmodo.

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#Tech #Emulators #WordStar #Writing #AmWriting #RobertJSawyer

The U.S. marks the abolition of slavery on June 19th. Canada's emancipation day was August 1, 1834. @MONTECRISTO_mag's Tom Hawthorn explains the history of slavery in Canada, how its ending has been celebrated by Black Canadians for nearly two centuries, and its enduring mark on the country. "Those who owned slaves were neither pilloried nor punished. Many were honoured, and the names of Canadian slaveowners dot the landscape, including Jarvis Street in Toronto, named for Samuel Peters Jarvis, the scion of a louche, slave-owning family that owned six humans and lobbied for extending slavery even in the face of an abolitionist public sentiment."

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#Canada #BlackHistory #CanadianHistory #History @histodons @blackmastodon

Three years ago, Simone Biles pulled out of the team gymnastics final. Today, the 4-foot-8 athlete took to the floor to clinch gold for Team USA. CNN reports on her preparations, emotions through the day, and the routine that led to her becoming the most decorated American gymnast in the Games, and the oldest American to win an Olympic gymnastics medal at the grand old age of 27.

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#Olympics #OlympicGames #SimoneBiles #Gymnastics #Sports #GOAT

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has ruled that Amazon is responsible for recalling dangerous products sold by third parties on its platform. More than 400,000 of such products have been recalled, including faulty carbon monoxide detectors, hairdryers without electrocution protection, and kids' sleepwear that violates flammability standards. Here's more from CBS.

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#Amazon #Shopping #Lifestyle #ConsumerProtection #Recalls #USLaw

Mega Zoom calls have been a major driver of support and fundraising for Kamala Harris's presidential campaign, starting with a group of 44,000 Black women who raised $1.6 million, just a few hours after Harris launched her bid for the White House. @19thnews spoke to some of the organizers and participants of calls for South Asian women, Latinas and white women. Next up: White Dudes for Harris, and the cross-coalition Women for Harris, both of which calls take place today (Monday).

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#Politics #USPolitics #KamalaHarris #Women #Culture #PopCulture #Zoom