Stereotypes say that it’s hard to make friends when you’re middle-aged. But that’s not always the case, according to @damemagazine’s Temim Fruchter. She writes about how queerness has enabled her to defy expectations: “To make new friends and commence new adventures later and later, and to make friends and friendship a distinct priority, no matter when they come along.”

https://www.damemagazine.com/2024/06/14/im-here-im-queer-im-45-and-still-making-new-friends/

#LGBTQ #Pride #Friendship #Lifestyle #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Massachusetts is the only U.S. state with a right-to-shelter law, which mandates that families and pregnant people are housed. Currently, over 8,000 families are in state-run shelters or on an overflow list. That doesn’t include the dozens of people — mostly Haitian migrants — who are sleeping at Logan Airport and spending their days at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mattapan. Sarah Betancourt of @gbhnews spoke to some of the families about their experiences.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2024-06-26/at-night-dozens-sleep-at-logan-airport-during-the-day-migrant-families-find-solace-at-a-mattapan-church

#USA #Immigration #Boston #Massachusetts #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

At night, dozens sleep at Logan Airport. During the day, migrant families find solace at a Mattapan church.

The state’s emergency shelter system is already at capacity. Then there’s the overflow list. The families at Logan Airport haven’t even made it onto that list.

^{Sarah Betancourt (GBH)}

India’s heatwave has been going on since May. Here’s @restofworld’s story on how gig workers are attempting to stay cool.

https://restofworld.org/2024/india-heat-wave-delivery-workers/

#India #Heatwave #ClimateChange #Photojournalism #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

India’s heat wave makes it hard for gig workers to survive - Rest of World

How hot is it in India right now? Temperatures in New Delhi crossed 50 degrees Celsius and claimed over 100 lives, with about 40,000 suspected heatstroke cases.

^{Itika Sharma Punit (Rest of World)}

The recent campus protests led to renewed debates around academic freedom and freedom of speech. @themarkup’s Mohamed Al Elew spoke to author and professor Julia Schleck about academic labor, university policies, politics, and her new vision for higher education.

https://themarkup.org/hello-world/2024/06/15/a-new-dirty-vision-for-higher-education

#Education #HigherEducation #Academia #CampusProtests #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

A New, Dirty Vision for Higher Education – The Markup

An interview with Julia Schleck, who argues that rather than serving the public good, universities should be a forum to define and debate the public good

^{themarkup.org}

“Scientists built an artificial shark uterus,” says the headline of @hakaimagazine’s latest story. How could we resist sharing it? Learn more about how the technology was developed, and the potential it has to bolster populations of sharks threatened with extinction.

https://hakaimagazine.com/news/scientists-built-an-artificial-shark-uterus/

#Science #Sharks #Ecology #Zoology #MarineBiology #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Scientists Built an Artificial Shark Uterus | Hakai Magazine

Preemie sharks that would otherwise die get by with a little help from a human-made womb.

^{Hakai Magazine}

The Yakama Nation holds treaty rights to gather food in Pushpum, a ridgeline overlooking the Columbia River in Washington. When a new green energy project was proposed for the land, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) talked to leaders of the tribal nation, but asked them to disclose exactly why the land was considered sacred — knowledge that could make it vulnerable to desecration. Eventually, the project was moved forward without consultation. For @ProPublica and High Country News, @Toastie reports on the question of whether and how the U.S. government should protect tribal privacy and cultural resources.

https://www.propublica.org/article/yakama-nation-green-energy-federal-government

#Indigenous #IndigenousCulture #LandDevelopment #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Feds Advance Plan to Develop a Yakama Nation Sacred Site Without Tribe’s Input

The Yakama Nation wanted to consult on the development of a project on sacred land. But when the tribal nation refused to disclose confidential information, the agency moved forward without tribal input.

^ProPublica

“Cruise ship essays read like an obituary for civilization,” writes @maria in an essay for @flaminghydra. She details her own experiences touring the Summer Isles in the Highlands of Scotland, and discusses the essays of writers including David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Caity Weaver and more.

"The joke of all these essays is supposed to be that the reader is in on how horrible the essayist’s cruise ship experience is going to be. Ha-ha! Sending a fun-loving intellectual to go suffer among the MAGAs is not all that funny, I am now thinking; Decades later, this sneering, superior, high-ticket slumming seems just sad.”

https://flaminghydra.com/my-boat-essay/

#Travel #Cruises #Writing #Essays #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

My Boat Essay

by Maria Bustillos I. There’s a tiny archipelago in Loch Broom in the Scottish Highlands called the Summer Isles, which you can tour via Shearwater Cruises, out of the pretty town of Ullapool.

^{Maria Bustillos (Flaming Hydra)}