Power of the ‘Nones’ in a Growing Religious Gap ; Man-the-Hunter Hypothesis Debunked? ; and More Picks 11/9
Arizona Flips! Navajos Contribute to Historic Shift (Dana)
From the Navajo Times: “For only the second time in the last 70 years, Arizona voters went for the Democratic candidate for president, and Navajo voters contributed to the swing. Apache, Navajo and Coconino counties, the three that overlap the Navajo Nation, went solidly for Joe Biden, with 73,954 votes compared to just 2,010 for incumbent President Donald Trump — a 97 percent turnout for Biden compared to 51 percent statewide. (Note: all the votes are not yet counted and all results listed are unofficial.)”
Power of the ‘Nones’ in a Growing Religious Gap (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “We talk all the time about the gender gap in voting, the education gap and the urban-rural divide. But in [Washington] state an even bigger influence on local politics is religion. Or rather, lack of religion. In surveys of state voters released for the 2020 election, the group answering ‘none’ to the question of ‘what is your religion?’ easily forms the largest religious group in this state. The ‘Nones’ made up 34% of the state electorate this year, according to the Votercast survey of 110,000 voters by AP and other news organizations in all 50 states.”
Biden Denied Transition Funds as Trump Refuses to Concede (Reader Steve)
From the Washington Examiner: “Presumptive President-elect Joe Biden is so far being denied resources by the Trump administration to initiate a formal transfer of power. Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, has yet to sign off on a transition that would allow funding, office space, and access to government agencies to the Biden team. ‘An ascertainment has not yet been made. GSA and its Administrator will continue to abide by, and fulfill, all requirements under the law,’ GSA spokeswoman Pamela Pennington said in a statement to reporters on Sunday.”
Why Transgender People Are Ignored by Modern Medicine (Mili)
The author writes, “When you factor in the large data gaps in everything from the average life expectancy of transgender people to the right dosages of medications for their bodies, along with the widespread lack of knowledge among doctors about how to address them — let alone treat them — and the high chance of them being refused treatment outright, it soon becomes clear that transgender medicine is in crisis. Few groups experience such significant barriers to healthcare, and yet their struggles are going largely unnoticed.”
Man-the-Hunter Hypothesis Debunked? (Peg)
The author writes, “For centuries, historians and scientists mostly agreed that when early human groups sought food, men hunted and women gathered. However, a 9,000-year-old female hunter burial in the Andes Mountains of South America reveals a different story, according to new research conducted at the University of California, Davis. … The surprising discovery of an early female hunter burial led the team to ask whether she was part of a broader pattern of female hunters or merely a one-off. Looking at published records of late Pleistocene and early Holocene burials throughout North and South America, the researchers identified 429 individuals from 107 sites. Of those, 27 individuals were associated with big-game hunting tools — 11 were female and 15 were male. The sample was sufficient to ‘warrant the conclusion that female participation in early big-game hunting was likely nontrivial.’”
Two New Species of Greater Glider Discovered (Dana)
From the Sydney Morning Herald: “There are two more reasons to love Australia’s fluffiest aeronautical marsupials after the discovery that there are actually three species of greater glider, not one as previously assumed. The greater glider is a possum-sized marsupial living in the forests of eastern Australia, squeezing into tree hollows during the day and at night soaring up to 100 metres through the air on the hunt for its favourite eucalyptus leaves.”
