Blogaround

1. Journal Club: LDS Aces (March 22) "For example, churches generally don’t have any official policy on asexuality, so it tends to be a mixed bag based on local leaders. There are also a lot of practices surrounding reproduction and marriage that don’t explicitly refer to asexuality but have profound implications."

Another post also from Siggy: Three arguments on AI Art (March 25) "If one person looks at AI art, and thinks about how it’s eliminating artists’ jobs and violating consent, that’s what the art represents to them, and that makes it ugly. Likewise, if someone else looks at AI art and thinks of the new possibilities and increased accessibility, they will have a higher opinion."

2. A Chinese City Offers Free High School Tuition for Third Child (March 23) China's one-child policy ended in 2016, and now the government is panicked about the low birth rate and trying to get people to have more children. (It's not really working.)

And another one from Sixth Tone: How an Army of Elderly Influencers Took Over China’s Instagram (March 21) "During the lockdowns, millions of over-60s downloaded and learned to use food delivery, payment, and health apps for the first time. They often did so out of necessity: It was difficult to buy groceries — or complete mandatory COVID tests — without them."

3. Extremism leads to more extremism (March 22) Oh, yikes. Answers In Genesis has been featuring articles by "Harry F. Sanders" which is a pseudonym. Here's a youtuber who tracks down "Harry F. Sanders's" other online postings and it's all extremist anti-semitic conspiracy theories and the like.

4. The kingdom of heaven is like: Minnesota House passes "trans refuge" legislation after late-night debate (March 24) "Democrats pushing the legislation forward say it will protect trans patients and providers of gender-affirming care from legal action in other states where such care is banned or restricted, creating a safe haven in Minnesota. It's structured similarly to a proposal that passed the House earlier this week that's works as a 'shield law' for people seeking and providing abortions at a time when laws vary after the fall of Roe v. Wade."

5. Distributor, newspapers drop 'Dilbert' comic strip after creator's racist rant (February 27)

6. After Utah lawmakers allowed book banning, one parent went after the Bible (March 24) 

7. Cakes and ale (and drag queens) (March 24) "That all had another layer of complication in Shakespeare’s day, when only male actors were permitted on stage. That meant the part of Olivia was played by a man dressed as a woman who was falling in love with a man dressed as a woman dressed as a man."

8. GOP rep suggests replacing libraries with ‘church-owned’ alternatives (March 24) "As conservative politics has become more extreme, libraries have become more common targets."