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Via Authors Against Book Bans - May 29, 2026

Three federal book ban bills are currently alive in the United States Congress:

HR 7661

Status: Passed out of committee; to be introduced in the House Would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to prohibit federal funds from being used for any material deemed “sexually oriented.” Buried within that definition is language that includes material that “involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism.” While framed as protecting children, the bill opens the door to banning books that include LGBTQ+ characters, defining trans existence as inherently inappropriate, and narrowing literature toward a prescribed, limited canon. In short: Would treat any LGBTQ+ identity as sexual content.

HR 2616

Status: Passed the House; referred to a Senate committee Would withhold ESEA funding from schools that “teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology,” using definitions from Executive Order 14168. It frames itself as protecting children. In practice, it represents another attempt to eliminate not only trans and nonbinary books, but also any acknowledgment of gender non‑conforming people in public education. In short: Would deny the existence of trans and nonbinary people.

HR 8705

Status: Passed out of committee; to be introduced in the House Rather than naming specific books or categories of literature, it blocks federal funding for American History and Civics Education from being used to promote what it calls “discriminatory equity ideology” or “gender ideology,” definitions drawn from a January 29, 2025 executive order. Likely impacts would include fewer books on racism and civil rights, less discussion of sexism and inequality, narrower civics curricula, and publishers pulling back on diverse perspectives. In short: A funding lever that shapes whose version of history gets taught.

HR 7661 and HR 8705 are still in the House, so please call your representative and tell them to oppose both bills. Click here to find the phone number of your representative’s office.

Clothing company Patagonia is currently sueing drag queen Pattie Gonia for "irreparable” harm to their brand.

To be clear; Pattie named herself after the region in South America.

So Pattie is asking people to politely ask Patagonia to drop the lawsuit.

I'm extending the invitation to all of you, because sueing a drag queen for 'infringement' in the current political cultural landscape is vile. Especially a drag queen who has raised millions of dollars for non-profits, uses her platform to raise awareness for climate activism, and fully aligns with Patagonia's apparent climate-conscious mission statement.

They're claiming they're sueing for $1. They're actually asking her to stop using her name, and pay over $1 million in legal fees. They're straight up harassing her.

In contrast, drag queen Jan Sport has a Jansport bag line. It's that easy to just... work with a queen.

Anyway. Be respectful(ish), but feel free to be annoying on Patagnoia's socials, asking them to 'DROP THE LAWSUIT'

And there are so many articles and videos and discussions. Like, the scientific community is buzzing about this.

So much research will have to be redone because the data was absolutely compromised, off by orders of magnitude, by using standard lab gloves.

The world is probably not horrifically contaminated by microplastics. Sterile laboratories, however, are contaminated by latex and nitrile gloves.

Sources beyond dude just trust me, for the skeptics.

https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/scientists-lab-gloves-may-be-causing-an-overestimation-of-microplastics-411138

Nitrile and latex gloves may cause overestimation of microplastics - Phys.org (it’s a pdf)

^ Bingo card about me since I know people here like those :3

If you live in Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota, or Texas, we need you to take action to protect disability rights! ASAN’s plain language action alert explains what’s happening and how you can help. https://autisticadvocacy.org/2026/02/take-action-to-protect-disability-rights/

LineageOS (I use this one)

Graphene OS

Functionally they are virtually identical to stock Android. Android began as an open-source project, and these versions are built off of that.

anyapk is a lightweight Android application installer that bypasses Google's developer verification requirements by using local ADB (Android Debug Bridge) connections. Smoothly install any APK file on your device without restrictions, gatekeepers, or corporate approval.

a tweet by @/Pirat_Nation:

From September 2026, all apps, including those outside the Play Store, must come from verified developers.

No more anonymous sideloads. No quick comebacks for malware gangs.

First: Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand.

And before you say "but the founder stepped down (after harrassing several big names in the digital privacy world)," who "replaced" him? The answer is himself. He moved stewardship to the GrapheneOS Foundation. The dev directors are chosen by the members of the GrapheneOS foundation. The foundation has only one member: the founder/"former" lead dev. The "former" lead dev is one of the 3 directors. There are two lead devs now and the wording of the announcements (almost certainly the founder writing) strongly suggests that one of those two is that same guy and one of the other directors is the co-lead, again chosen by the founder. Previous announcements of stepping down were deleted. He talks about combating misinformation while spreading misinformation himself. Fed behavior.

Absolutely root your phone if possible and put an alternate OS on it. Look into your options, but I'd be very cautious with GrapheneOS. Even if it's not actually fed shit, the founder has a history of harrassing people for being critical of his behavior and has banned at least one person from the github for politely requesting a very simple security feature that exists in other OSes which is not a good sign for the future security of GrapheneOS.

For some other alternatives:

iodéOS - Fork of LineageOS

/e/OS - Fork of LineageOS

Ubuntu Touch - Ubuntu Linux for your phone/tablet

postmarketOS - Based on Alpine Linux (for "power users")

PureOS - Linux-based. Idk shit about this one.

Mobian - Based on Debian Linux

CalyxOS - De-googled Android. Lineage uses some Calyx apps for some of its features. (WARNING: Releases currently on pause til further notice)

I only know surface-level stuff on all of these, so do some research before choosing one. LineageOS is probably the most popular alternative besides GrapheneOS, but it's important to look into these things yourself before choosing one and listen to the techie people in your life. Looking into GrapheneOS beyond the hype is how I found out that the lead dev/founder is hella sus.

the largest eagle to ever exist (pouākai) was endemic to aotearoa

same with the tallest bird to ever exist (moa)

tuatara is only remaining species in the order sphenodontia and only exists here (for context- the other three extant reptile orders are snakes+lizards, turtles+tortoises, and crocodiles+alligators+caimans)

only two native land mammals and they're both tiny bats

kea is the only alpine parrot on earth

wētāpunga is the heaviest insect on earth

hard to condense into a quick "fun fact" but matariki is an incredibly celebration that has a lot of fascinating history and tradition behind it, totally worth researching!!

less of a fact more of a "check this out" but showing people photos of rotorua's geothermal areas is a favourite of mine

we were the first nation to give women the right to vote in 1893, almost a decade before any other country on earth!

Navigating gender dysphoria? Be heard and be counted in the science.

[pt: DO NOT TAKE THIS SURVEY]