And finally, introducing Ruby Ibarra, a Filipina American rapper who won @npr’s Tiny Desk contest with her entry, "Bakunawa." The three-song performance features an all-Filipino band, and Ibarra sings in English, Tagalog and Bisaya, sometimes switching languages between verses. As she introduces herself, she says: "Being human is not illegal. Immigrants have been here, lived here, worked here. And this immigrant is here. From Tacloban City, Philippines, all the way to Washington, D.C., my name is Ruby Ibarra."

Link: https://flip.it/ZoSr3q

#Music #Culture #Entertainment #TinyDesk #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

At the end of WWII, the Soviet Union shifted its censorship into high gear in order to minimize the corrupting influence of the West. The punishment for disseminating banned materials could be imprisonment in a gulag, or even death. But that didn’t stop the enterprising, innovative people of the former USSR. @TheConversationUS explains “bone music,” where recordings of Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis were etched into used X-ray film. “The music … suggested that a different sort of life is possible, beyond the strictures of Communist officials. How could a political system that prohibited beautiful music, many asked, possibly merit the allegiance of its citizens?”

https://flip.it/I_5dzs

#Music #Culture #History #SovietRussia #MusicProduction #SoundEngineering #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

The automatic license plate reading camera technology made by Flock is supposed to prevent carjackings or find missing people. @404mediaco says in one Texas case, it was used to track down a woman who was believed to have had a self-administered abortion. 83,000 cameras were used in the search, including ones in states where abortion is legal. The sheriff’s office in Johnson County says that the woman’s family were concerned for her health and that this was the sole reason they were tracking her. “The idea that the police are actively tracking the location of women they believe have had self-administered abortions under the guise of ‘safety’ does not make me feel any better about this kind of surveillance,” says Eve Galperin, director of cybersecurity at digital rights organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

https://flip.it/bZM_xa

#Surveillance #Security #ALPR #Tech #Abortion #WomensRights #Technology #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Apartment concerts — kvartyrnyks — in Ukraine are nothing new. They took place throughout the Soviet years, where Ukrainians could read poetry, sing songs, and freely discuss the government. Veronika Romanova and Mariana Lastovyria write for @timkmak’s Counteroffensive about what it’s like to attend the 2025 version. “The existence of kvartyrnyks demonstrates how Ukrainian culture persists despite constant adversity – whether under authoritarianism or in the face of open war against it,” they write. [Story may be paywalled.]

https://flip.it/g6k7US

#Ukraine #History #SovietHistory #Music #Culture #Poetry #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

One way to track what’s happened on Earth during past periods of drastic climate change is to examine fossils, but, says @KnowableMag, “the fossil record for most species is spotty.” Enter planktonic foraminifera, a unicellular marine organism that first appeared on Earth about 100 million years ago. Nine out of 10 species went extinct when an asteroid hit 66 million years ago. It took 10 million years for species diversity to recover. Tim Vernimmen takes a look at what that can teach us about the past — and future.

https://flip.it/G63zRy

#MarineLife #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Fossils #Plankton #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Environment #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

When a Tennessee student makes a threat on social media and it comes to the attention of school staff, the law requires them to investigate the validity of the threat, and figure out a plan of action that supports the student, and protects their peers. @ProPublica reports on an incident in DuPont Tyler Middle School earlier this year, where authorities expelled a seventh grader without following proper procedures. The 12-year-old’s alleged threat was a screenshot of a text exchange that he says he reposted from a Spanish-language news site. It’s just the latest in a series of similar stories of children being expelled, facing felony charges, and being detained — in one case, just for making a “finger gun” gesture at classmates.

https://flip.it/QCyFxu

#Tennessee #GunCrime #Education #Children #Schools #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

@gbhnews has adapted “Acoustic Rooster,” Kwame Alexander’s jazz-meets-farmyard-animals children’s book, into an animated special and series of digital shorts. Kevin Coyne spoke to Alexander and series producer Julius about how it all came together. “This idea of democracy is at the heart of jazz, and I think that’s something that kids can learn from these musicians in ‘Acoustic Rooster’ – how they collaborate to create beautiful music, but more importantly, become friends and change their world,” says Alexander.

https://flip.it/7FZHOh

#ChildrensBooks #Education #Lifestyle #Parenting #Jazz #Music #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Another month … another series of local elections in the U.S. @bolts’s @taniel has once again detailed which 40 we should be watching, from high-profile contests like the New York City mayor and New Jersey governor primaries, to a ballot measure on book bans in a California city.

https://flip.it/0yaA-X

#NewYorkMayor #NewJerseyGovernor #BookBans #Elections #LocalElections #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Selena Quintanilla was murdered 30 years ago, but that’s far from the most important part of her story. @TexasObserver’s Francesca D'Annunzio reviews a new documentary, “Selena y Los Dinos,” which stitches together old camcorder footage, archival interviews with Selena and new conversations with her family members. “As for the woman who murdered Selena in 1995, the film essentially ignores her altogether. The film’s exploration of the loss of Selena’s life focused on the family’s grief and the late singer’s legacy,” writes D’Annunzio.

https://flip.it/cZ6CCU

#Texas #Documentaries #Selena #SelenaQuintanilla #Music #Entertainment #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday