Breaking gender barriers one nude tradition at a time!

Happening in the World: For the first time in its 1,250 year history, women will join in Hadaka Matsuri, the Naked Festival at the Konomiya Shrine in Japan where men attempt to drive away evil spirits and pray for happiness. A group of women wore happi coats—long, purple robes—and white shorts, and they carried bamboo offerings; they did not take part in the scramble to touch the shrine. This moment not only marks a breaking of the gender barrier but also young people keeping a tradition alive. (BBC)

Happening in the US: A seventh case of measles has been confirmed in Florida. It is the first case of the outbreak involving a child under the age of five and identified outside of Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, Florida. This outbreak has occurred after Florida’s Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo made the decision to allow parents to choose whether or not their children quarantine after being infected. For unvaccinated people, measles has a 90% chance of infecting them, causing the disease to be the most infectious pathogen in humans. (NBC)

Happening in NYC: One person has died and more than a dozen have been injured in a Manhattan apartment fire that broke out on Friday. The FDNY has determined the cause of the fire to be from lithium-ion batteries. While this is the first fatality from them this year, lithium-ion batteries caused 268 fires and 18 deaths last year. (ABC7)

Happening in Our Community: Tomorrow, Monday 26, Jayne Hilbrand—an Assistant Professor of English at Barnard College—-will discuss her book Novel Environments: Science, Description, and Victorian Fiction, which traces the scientific vocabulary the Victorians used to name the surroundings of living organisms and the development of Victorian environmental thought. More information about the event and how to register it can be found here.

Hadaka Matsuri festivities via Wikimedia Commons