People in jails are largely cut off from voter information and seldom exercise the right to vote because it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible.@bolts’s Alex Burness visited Genesee County jail in Flint, Michigan to see how activists and authorities there are encouraging election participation, but simultaneously providing inadequate living conditions and food, and blocking visits from families.

https://boltsmag.org/flint-michigan-jail-candidate-forums/

#Michigan #Prison #Incarceration #Voting #VotingRights #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

The Taiwanese language doesn’t sound like Mandarin Chinese. “[It] originates deep from the belly, creating rumbling sonorous tones that remind me of my dad’s laughter or my mom calling me for dinner, ‘ki jia buan!’” writes Josephine Lee for @TexasObserver. She explains the wave of migration from Taiwan to Houston, Texas, in the 1970s and ‘80s, why it’s difficult to quantify how many Taiwanese people are in America, and how organizations are supporting Taiwan’s independence.

https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-hotbed-taiwanese-nationalism/

#Taiwan #Taiwanese #China #Houston #Texas #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

One out of every four known animal species on Earth is a beetle. Entomologists are fascinated by what makes them so successful and diverse, one element of which is their shields. For
@thexylom, Carolyn Bernhardt reports on the tortoise beetle, a leaf-eating herbivore that makes its shield from its old exoskeleton, plus poop.

https://www.thexylom.com/post/for-tortoise-beetles-feculence-is-the-best-defense

#Entomology #Beetles #Insects #Science #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

@Flipboard @damemagazine

Fashion and cosmetics, two multi-billion dollar industries that do absolutely nothing.

Both industries are predicated on making people feel bad about themselves so the money flows into industry's pockets.

And finally, we couldn’t help but reshare our @CultureDesk's post of this LitHub article in praise of reading and print. It has everything a person could need — references to Terry Pratchett, Carl Sagan, George Orwell and Sven Birkerts, and some extremely pithy writing of its own. "The ephemerality of the internet is attractive to entropy, for how much of what’s been written over the past few decades has all but vanished, our prodigious output a daily burning of the Library of Alexandria, while stone, papyrus, vellum, and paper can endure for centuries,” writes Ed Simon. “A printed book is a living animal with flesh of paper and ink of blood, so that compared to turning pages, mere scrolling is anemic.”

https://lithub.com/in-praise-of-print-why-reading-remains-essential-in-an-era-of-epistemological-collapse/

#Writing #Literature #Books @bookstodon #TerryPratchett #CarlSagan #GeorgeOrwell #SvenBirkerts #Culture

@Flipboard @thexylom
Republicans!?