Sabrina Vourvoulias
@followthelede.bsky.social
Award-winning Latina journo, SFF writer & author. Editor on the Opinion desk at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Opinions here are my own. She/her/ella. www.sabrinavourvoulias.com. Water is life. You can't drink data. No es sequía, es saqueo.
Marwan Kreidie: The pressure our community has faced since 2001 has made us stronger in a lot of ways. It forced us to build real, lasting ties with our religious allies. www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...
9/11: Arab Americans mourned the dead, but also our place in U.S. society | Opinion
The pressure our community has faced since 2001 has made us stronger in a lot of ways. It forced us to build real, lasting ties with our religious allies.
inquirer.com
GenAI spam has slowly morphed into an incredible form of comedy.
The Arthur C. Clarke Award@clarkeaward.bsky.social · yesterdaySome scams are easier to spot than others. That said, we get these semi-regularly and they are only getting more focused and custom-tailored, so be careful writers! And, no, we didn’t reply, but it was super-tempting.
In Guatemala way back when I was growing up they'd say — irreverently but fondly — the Virgin Mary is taking a shower. Since then Guatemala has become much less Catholic and much more Evangelical, however, so I'm sure that's changed ...
Caris Adel@carisadel.bsky.social · 4d agowhat??? This country is messed up
I am so saddened by this. It is my favorite Philadelphia museum by far. www.inquirer.com/education/ac...
The Academy of Natural Sciences is closing its museum after nearly two centuries
The closure does not affect the rest of the institution, which builds and maintains the collections and conducts research through departments such as the Patrick Center for Environmental Research.
inquirer.com
Medical scool deans are among the most authoritative voices in medicine, but as RFK Jr. methodically undermines our government’s commitment to science and public health, their voices are barely audible, writes David Oxman. www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...
It’s time med school deans start talking About RFK Jr. | Opinion
Are the deans of American medical schools alarmed? I know they are. So why haven’t more spoken out — and why hasn’t American academic medicine spoken with anything approaching a unified voice?
inquirer.com
“[T]he main takeaway for me is that the Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans. One-third of all Americans cast their ballots by mail, and the U.S.P.S. puts all of their votes at risk.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/u...
Whistle-Blower Says Trump Officials Are Defying Court Orders on Voting by Mail (Gift Article)
A report detailed “grave concerns” that a new system being rushed into use by the U.S. Postal Service could imperil millions of mail ballots ahead of the midterm elections.
nytimes.com
"Across cities as different as Dakar, Medellín, and Bangkok, the same pattern emerges. The most vibrant urban environments are the ones where people can participate easily in the economy, move freely through the city, and engage in public life throughout the day. " nextcity.org/urbanist-new...
I’ve Visited More Than 200 Cities. Here’s What U.S. Cities Can Learn From the Global South.
Op-ed: From Thailand's markets to West Africa's street economies, a Black urbanist reflects on how great cities create opportunities for participation.
nextcity.org
"The amended complaint alleges that North Dakota’s 2021 legislative map unlawfully dilutes Native voting power and violates the U.S. Constitution because it was enacted with discriminatory intent and sorts voters by race without sufficient justification." narf.org/tmc-voting-r...
Tribes Forced to Re-argue their Successful Challenge of Discriminatory Map - Native American Rights Fund
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the Spirit Lake Tribe, and individual Native American plaintiffs in North Dakota continue the fight to protect their voting rights.
narf.org
New column by @lfcarrasco.bsky.social: www.inquirer.com/opinion/abol...
ICE cannot survive past the Trump administration | Luis F. Carrasco
If ICE is being used to indiscriminately terrorize communities and ignore constitutional protections while disregarding its public safety charge, what is the point of its continued existence?
inquirer.com
"The Third Circuit is the eighth federal appeals court to rule that Trump's administration's mandatory detention policy is unconstitutional." www.inquirer.com/news/nation-...
ICE’s policy to detain nearly all undocumented immigrants is unlawful, a Philly-based federal appeals court ruled
The Third Circuit is the eighth federal appeals court to rule that Trump's administration's mandatory detention policy is unconstitutional.
inquirer.com
"Consumer trials found that willingness to buy the products increased significantly once shoppers learned they helped reduce food waste, suggesting sustainability is becoming an important driver of purchasing decisions ..." globalvoices.org/2026/08/21/h...
How changing diets are creating new markets for Africa’s Indigenous crops
"A growing number of consumers with celiac disease are unable to consume gluten-containing foods such as bread and therefore rely on alternative gluten-free products..."
globalvoices.org
And consider, a UN report from a couple of months ago details that we are already amid a global water bankruptcy ... www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-d...
AI Data Centers Use Far More Water Than Most Tech Giants Report
Water used at the power plants that supply electricity to data centers can be much greater than the water used in the data centers themselves.
wsj.com
...gallons of freshwater for electric power generation every year, but few electric power producers have connected this increasing power demand to water supply risks. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...
Data Centers Use More Water Than California Cities, Study Says
Electric power generation for data centers is a threat to water supplies even in states outside the arid Southwest, according to a report published Tuesday by the think tank Ceres.
news.bloomberglaw.com
The water that data centers use for electricity generation in just the top 7 states with the most data centers is the equivalent of 12-times the annual water use of Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington, DC, combined. /1 news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...
Data Centers Use More Water Than California Cities, Study Says
Electric power generation for data centers is a threat to water supplies even in states outside the arid Southwest, according to a report published Tuesday by the think tank Ceres.
news.bloomberglaw.com
Mamdani is succeeding in part by projecting joy Ossoff is succeeding in part by projecting steely ferocity We’re in a moment when attitude is nearly as powerful as ideology, because we all need courage. And these are two ways of summoning it
in Springfield Ohio right now. I’m told by multiple activists and religious leaders here that ICE took a second Haitian pastor
Watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show with my high school friends 1980 - 1981. Went to the theater with a bag full of props to throw up into the air matching the scenes shown on the screen. Good times singing along with every song in New Orleans, LA. www.npr.org/2026/08/26/n...
Tim Curry, who defined 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show,' has died
Curry will be most remembered for his role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the tyrannical gender-bending alien scientist in both stage and screen versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was 80.
npr.org
Seems to me, Tim Curry said “Eff this…I want to hang with Dolly.”
"In honor of Dolly and her commitment to getting books to kids, tell me about a book you read as a child that changed your life." The Hobbit — which led me into Middle Earth (a place I've returned to repeatedly since) and kicked off an adulthood of reading and writing SFF/speculative fiction.
Preeti Chhibber@runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 2w agoIn honor of Dolly and her commitment to getting books to kids, tell me about a book you read as a child that changed your life. I’ll start: so many, but tonight maybe I’ll say A WRINKLE IN TIME, a book that taught me anger wasn’t wrong.
Remember that if you got the Moderna Covid vaccine, you have Dolly Parton to thank, she gave the largest individual contribution toward their research to make it possible.
going to do this right now. Such an important, worthwhile, terrific program.
Alex Zalben@azalben.bsky.social · 2w agoDolly Parton, among a thousand other amazing things she did in her life, gifted over 330 million books to kids through her Imagination Library program. Her passing is a tremendous loss to the world, but you can support the program today to keep it going imaginationlibrary.com
We are so, so fortunate to live in the world Dolly touched - to have benefited from so much magnificent music and activism and acting and philanthropy and liberation and JOY. I'm very sad right now but mostly profoundly grateful.
I'm really glad that my father – who served in the U.S. military during the Korean war — isn't alive to see the U.S. president deciding to cancel military exercises with longtime ally South Korea because they might make the totalitarian dictator of North Korea uncomfortable ... 🤯
