Yeah yeah, appalling news swept through the media again today. It’s a non-stop horror show. But you won’t find the Helsinki events and other OMG stories reported here. If you read OND at night before sleeping or in the morning before beginning your day, this edition will ease you into sweet dreams or boost you into a positively productive day. I’m not proposing we ignore reality, but to be effective in overcoming the horrors, I need regular respites. That’s a reasonable and intelligent approach. One nightmare about Tr$mp was enough for me. I initiated a horrible news blackout that lasts from my 8 pm dinner until the next morning after coffee. Because our regular Monday night Editor, maggiejean, is on vacation, you can share my horrible news blackout tonight. Let’s read about art, pretzels, birds, women sabotaging grizzly hunts, and sports — topics conducive to a calm and healthy mind.
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame.
OND offers news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research, or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
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The Guardian — 'We're building a bridge' – the exhibition shining a light on Latinx artists
...a new exhibition opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York called Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay. The title roughly translates to “Universe, community, home” in the Quechua language and the artwork here is devoted to Latinx art.
“As the first thing people see in this exhibition is a brown Latina woman dancing in front of a Frank Lloyd Wright building, it’s a very feminist point to make,” said the exhibition’s curator, Marcela Guerrero. “It’s to give the purpose back to the building, which was first influenced by Mayan architecture.”
“There’s a lack of knowledge of how we think about Latinx people in the US,” said Guerrero. “I wanted to make a platform for Latinx artists, which includes indigenous people, it’s not just Mexican or people from South America.” [...]
While the messages in their work are vital – many of the artists here have their own stories of border politics, language barriers and displacement – it still remains on the fringe of the art world. Part of the goal of the exhibition is to shed light on these overlooked artists, who are not exactly blockbuster names in the museum world.
The Guardian — ‘I broke the contract’: how Hannah Gadsby's trauma transformed comedy
Nanette is feminist iconoclastic fierce truth-telling, but also is funny when it should be. It is on Netflix now and if you can’t see it there, precursors to and pieces of this show are on Youtube.
Standup comedy relies, of course, on creating tension and release. In Nanette, Gadsby exposes and then destroys that formula. She reveals experiences of homophobic and sexual violence, which escalate throughout the set, until finally she is delivering them from a precipice of rage. “This tension is yours,” she tells the stunned Sydney Opera House audience. “I am not helping you with it any more. You need to learn what this feels like.”
“I broke the contract and that’s what made this work,” she says. “I betrayed people’s trust, and I did that really seriously, not just for effect.” [...]
“If a documentary crew were to follow me around, they’d probably think they were making a film about the saddest person in the world,” Gadsby says, “but I’m throwing the best thought orgies.” [...]
Three years ago, she was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder . . . she points out that Nanette was built from her ability to see patterns. “Having the framework of autism boils down to not looking out to the world to see how I should exist, but knowing I don’t actually have to be social, knowing that it exhausts me and that I will get confused and look like an idiot,” she says. “Because I also know that I understand things a lot deeper than a lot of people.”
Pajiba — Guess Who Hates The New She-Ra Design
The first image of Netflix’s She-Ra reboot have hit the web. And fans are divided. And by divided, I mean a lot of people are stoked, and some dudes have decided their boners matter more than the show’s intended demographic of young girls. [...]
Basically, their complaint is that this She-Ra isn’t a busty babe in skimpy clothes meant to appeal to the Male Gaze first, and maybe interest little girls second. These detractors have deemed this She-Ra too masculine, too queer, and not pretty enough. But they’re missing the point. This series isn’t for them, or at least not exclusively for them. It’s for girls who might better relate to a superheroine who doesn’t look like an ’80s music video vixen, but rather a cool kid who might actually go to their school.
NatGeo — Jane Goodall Joins Wyoming Protestors in Buying Up Grizzly Hunt Tickets
As the state prepares for its first legal grizzly hunt in years, animal advocates clash with hunting interests and state wildlife managers. [...]
Within the last few days, [Jane] Goodall, 84, and [Cynthia] Moss, 78, entered a lottery hoping to win a coveted hunting license in Wyoming allowing them to sport shoot a grizzly bear in the Yellowstone region. They have no aspirations to actually kill a bruin. Their maneuver is part of a mass act of civil disobedience to protest Wyoming’s controversial hunt of up to 22 grizzlies—the first in 44 years—slated to commence only weeks from now.
Called “Shoot ‘em With A Camera, Not A Gun,” the impromptu campaign, spearheaded mainly by women, has caught hunting officials in Wyoming off guard. It has also created a groundswell among those who condemn the state’s recommencement of a trophy season on grizzlies just a year after they were removed from federal protection. In May, Wyoming’s wildlife commission approved the hunt unanimously 7-0.
WaPo — Pretzels to replace peanuts on Southwest flights
On Southwest, you no longer can fly for peanuts. But you can for pretzels. On Aug. 1, the low-cost carrier will cut the popular snack food from all flights, in deference to its passengers with peanut allergies.
“Peanuts forever will be part of Southwest’s history and DNA,” the carrier said in a statement. “However, to ensure the best onboard experience for everyone, especially for customers with peanut-related allergies, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue serving peanuts on all flights.” [...]
Pretzels will take over the job once held by nuts. On longer flights, the airline will offer a rotating menu of small bites, including BelVita biscuits in cranberry orange and coconut flavors, Wheat Thins veggie chips, cinnamon Nabisco plane cookies and Fritos corn chips, which are gluten-free. Passengers can still carry their own stash of peanuts.
Audubon — A Wave of Bird Alarm Calls Can Travel at 100 Miles Per Hour
A frantic cacophony of loud, rapid bird calls tells other birds nearby: There’s a predator on the prowl. Mobbing, it’s called, as birds clamor and dart back and forth at the threat.
An ongoing study of mobbing and other bird warning behavior now suggests that some birds listen in on the warnings of other birds. A wave of warning calls spreads from one hillside to another at more than 100 miles per hour. So vulnerable birds may be clued in to a predator’s movements before it comes near, giving them time to take cover. Even chipmunks and some squirrels seem to pay heed to the birds’ red alert.
The predator’s size might also be coded in the bird’s alarm calls. Chickadees announce an urgent alarm for a small, agile pygmy-owl that’s a major threat to them.
And to end with a very positive effect on our wellbeing
here’s a crosswalk musical medley