Recent searches
Search options
Administered by:
It’s #NewstodonFriday once again, and we’ve tried to find the heartwarming, inspiring and funny in this week’s tsunami of terrible (though we couldn’t find the silver lining in everything). Highlights include @ProPublica’s story about a lawyer who switched sides, @TexasObserver’s review of a film about inspiring librarians across America, and @Daojoan's story about why we’ve come to believe that you have to be an a**hole to be a genius. Plus, our @CultureDesk shared the only information you need to know about tariffs. Check out these stories and all the others in this thread, comment, like, follow their accounts and give them your money. 
When @ProPublica journalist Alec MacGillis first met lawyer Andrew Rabinowitz, the latter was representing a property management company owned by the Kushner family. McGillis was writing an article about the company’s aggressive approach to tenants. Eight years later, Rabinowitz is defending beleaguered tenants against their landlords. What happened?
Astonishingly, some people are still banging the “women aren’t funny” drum. @damemagazine shares sketches from the women of “Saturday Night Live,” from Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin to Cecily Strong as Goober the Clown, talking about abortion.
https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/02/14/who-is-funnier-than-the-women-of-snl/
Have you ever had food poisoning and subsequently been unable to eat whatever caused it? A team of neuroscientists studying mice have found the exact “memory hub” in their brain that is responsible for this reaction. Our @ScienceDesk shared the story from @PopularScience.
https://www.popsci.com/health/how-brain-remembers-food-poisoning/
#Food #Brain #Neuroscience #Health #Science #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday
Not everything on the internet is real. Case in point: Your relationship with OnlyFans creators, it turns out. Two former subscribers from Illinois are suing the company because they thought they were talking directly to the platform’s stars rather than agencies hired to manage their messages. @404mediaco’s Samantha Cole explains more [Story may be paywalled].
April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. and Canada. Here’s a roundup from @thetyee of new Canadian collections, from an exploration of wonder to a reflection on the shared histories of Indigenous Peoples of North America and the people of Palestine.
https://thetyee.ca/Presents/2025/04/01/National-Poetry-Month-New-Canadian-Collections/
A new documentary, “The Librarians,” premiered at SXSW last month. It focuses on librarians at the heart of right-wing culture war attacks across America. @TexasObserver’s Josephine Lee sees heroism and hope in the film. “At a moment when our institutions of learning seem to be engulfed in flames, incited by right-wing witch hunts of diversity, equity, and inclusion, ‘The Librarians’ reminds us how we got here and reveals, perhaps, how we can get out,” she writes.
https://www.texasobserver.org/librarians-movie-sxsw-book-bans/
OK, it’s not all sweetness and light this week – but here’s some news you can use. @KnowableMag breaks down everything you need to know about bird flu, from where it came from to how dangerous it is.
Earlier this week, all American eyes were on Wisconsin as two judges duked it out for a seat on the state’s supreme court — a race that Elon Musk poured millions into. @bolts’s Alex Burness wrote the definitive story on what happened and what it all means. “Today should be a breaking point for our state. Even if your preferred candidate wins, … every single Wisconsinite should be alarmed at this grotesque billionaire arms race,” Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Center, told Bolts late Tuesday, before the result was announced. “The past two months have shown us a terrifying preview of what’s coming: an America where billionaires run the show, and the rest of us are just spectators.”
Philadelphia’s roller-derby league turned 20 last month. For @TheConversationUS, Colleen English wrote about how roller derby became a revolutionary feminist sport.
When did we all start to believe that to be brilliant means you must be unbearable, and that kindness is “mediocrity in disguise?” Yet another brilliant piece from @Daojoan, who looks at the myth of the tortured genius and the real damage they leave in their wake.
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/stop-conflating-genius-with-asshole/
Ukraine has been damaged in so many ways by the Russian attack. Veronika Romanova, Mariana Lastovyria, and Artem Moskalenko explore another for @timkmak’s Counteroffensive: The contamination of the soil by metals from mass shelling. France still has “red zones” where toxic levels remain deadly 106 years after the end of WWI, and Ukraine is likely to face the same future, whenever the conflict finishes.
https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/scars-of-war-can-ukraine-rebuild
British Nigerian artist Karl Ohiri was shocked to hear that many photographers in Lagos, Nigeria, burned their old negatives, so he embarked on a project to develop whatever he could find. Here, @thecontinent shares some of the photos that form the Lagos Studio Archives.
https://continent.substack.com/p/photo-essay-old-lagos-new-light
And finally, the only information you need about tariffs, courtesy of our @CultureDesk.
@Flipboard @thecontinent
The last one is just too cute!
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdef64519-08b2-4522-a2ed-bcc66aeaa3b0_1200x1800.jpeg
Must be an amazing collection.
@jandi @thecontinent Even the caption! "Blazer Boy with Phone, circa 1990s" 
@Flipboard @Daojoan A while back, I also ran into this article - similar tone, with some interesting parallels. https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/sherlock-and-elon-musk
@Flipboard @Daojoan Hell yes, 1000% this. I *just* read a book that held this up, the misanthropist who "gets to" treat people like garbage because he's allegedly a genius.
Nobody should *want to* treat people like garbage. Anyone who does is an asshole, and it doesn't matter if they're really good at coding or whatever. Someone equally good who's not a piece of shit will do the job *better* because they're not an asshole.
@Flipboard @Daojoan Actually I'd peg the start of the "asshole = genius" meme to the first "bad boys" of art aka the impressionists, quickly followed by the robber barons of the Gilded Age, to which the MAGAt in Chief aspires as a paragon of American "greatness." Jobs & Musk are just Johnny-Come-Late-lies.
@Flipboard @Daojoan My son is tested with a high IQ and he is the friendliest young man you can imagine. Always there to help others. Will he be "successful" businesswise in his future? I can't imagine because he has a moral compass. Will he be successful in his private life? You bet. Always curious, always funny, always thinking. Sometimes weird. That's high IQ. Not business arseholes who exploit others, bully them, steal from them.