Culture Watch

Julia Sneden wrote: My father told me about the Fourth of July that took place in 1910, when he was 4 years old. He grew up on his grandfather’s prune ranch, in thrall to a slew of young aunts and uncles. Each Fourth, the uncles staged a display of fireworks for the family and the working crews (and their families) that lived on or near the ranch. The uncles would fire their pyrotechnics from a metal, flatbed wagon which was, perhaps, normally used as a drying bed for the prunes when they were harvested. One year, someone or something caused the wagon to up-end just as the display was lit, and instead of shooting up, the fountains shot straight at the crowd standing by the barn. more »

A bill to ensure the humane treatment of pregnant women by reinstating the presumption of release and prohibiting shackling, restraining, and other inhumane treatment of pregnant detainees, and for other purposes; A bill to require the secretary of Defense to establish an initiative on improving the capacity of military criminal investigative organizations to prevent child sexual exploitation, and for other purposes; A bill to direct the Joint Committee on the Library to obtain a statue of Harriet Tubman and to place the statue in National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol; A bill to modify the unconditional ownership requirement for women-owned and minority-owned small business concerns for purposes of procurement contracts with the Small Business Administration more »

It's Okay to Be Smart has videos exploring all manner of curiosities and scientific topics, such as why cereal tends to either clump together or stick to the edges in your cereal bowl, whether it's true that everyone has a doppelganger, and how fire ants became so widespread in the southern US; Hidden Brain "reveals the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, and the biases that shape our choices;" LGBTQ Materials in the New York Public Library is a super-collection, composed of hundreds of documents, photographs, post cards, and more. The Trevor Project, a national organization whose mission is "to end suicide among gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning young people." more »

Despite a lower uninsured rate than men (11% vs 14%), women are more likely to skip a recommended medical test or treatment due to cost... cost barriers to contraception have decreased for insured women since the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) coverage requirement took effect. Women without a regular clinician are less likely to receive certain preventive services, such as a mammogram and Pap test. Women are more likely than men to have a preexisting health condition ... Another government study recommends: The USPSTF has found that there isn't enough evidence to recommend screening women over age 75 for certain diseases, particularly breast cancer, cervical cancer, and colorectal cancer. In many cases, there just weren't enough older people in the studies to permit a judgment for or against screening. In other cases, screening was recommended, but the panel couldn't determine how often it should be done. more »