Vox Sentences: Forget politics, let’s see what cloned sheep are up to

The Democratic National Convention kicks off with one hell of a Michelle Obama speech; a horrific mass killing in Japan targets the disabled community; big news in the world of cloned sheep.

TOP NEWS

"I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves"

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

• The biggest moment of the first night of the Democratic National Convention had nothing to do with Bernie Sanders's die-hard supporters, and everything to do with Michelle Obama. You can watch her speech here.

  [YouTube / Democratic National Convention]

• Obama did not mention Donald Trump at all but made an emotional, powerful argument for the importance of issues of family and home in politics — issues that Hillary Clinton has spent her career taking seriously, and that have an obvious connection to both women's time as first lady.

  [Vox / Dylan Matthews]

• In the speech's most powerful moment, Obama connected the historic advance represented by Clinton's nomination to the historic import of her and her husband's time at the White House: "I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters – two beautiful, intelligent black young women – playing with their dogs on the White House lawn."

  [NYT / Julie Hirschfeld Davis]

• While Obama elided the issue of the Bernie or Busters at the convention, both Bernie Sanders himself and, of all people, Sarah Silverman addressed the issue head on, arguing that anyone who believes in the political revolution has to get on board with Clinton. Or, as Silverman ad-libbed, "To the Bernie or Bust people, you’re being ridiculous."

  [Washington Post / Emily Heil]

• Sanders cannily used his speech to tie Clinton to left-wing planks in the party platform his representatives demanded — signaling to his supporters that she's a more reliable progressive than they might think, and signaling to Clinton's people that he's going to press her to enact a robust social democratic program once in office.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• It's unclear how big of a problem Sanders holdouts really are. As we reported yesterday, a Pew analysis finds that 90 percent of Sanders supporters back Clinton — but other analysts, like Nate Silver, argue that as many as 30 percent could back third-party candidates.

  [Nate Silver]

• Night two, which gaveled in at 4 pm, has already seen Clinton win a roll call vote and officially become the nominee. The night's speakers include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi; incoming Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer; actresses Meryl Streep, Elizabeth Banks, America Ferrera, and Lena Dunham; the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and other victims of police violence; and Bill Clinton.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

What happened in Japan was an anti-disabled hate crime

Ken Ishii/Getty Images

• A man believed to be a 26-year-old former employee broke into a facility for the disabled outside of Tokyo and killed 19 patients with a knife in their sleep. It is the worst mass killing in post–World War II Japanese history.

  [Reuters / Elaine Lies and Kwiyeon Ha]

• Satoshi Uematsu, the ex-employee, had sent a letter to the speaker of the Japanese Diet (parliament) in February threatening to attack the facility in exactly this manner, saying, "My goal is a world where people with multiple disabilities can be euthanized with their guardians’ consent if it’s difficult for them to live at home or take part in social activities."

  [NYT / Motoko Rich and Jonathan Soble]

• He told his colleagues he believed the seriously disabled residents of the facility should be euthanized, triggering a series of events that led to Uematsu being involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility. He was released 12 days later.

  [Washington Post / Anna Fifield]

• The attack killed more people than the apocalyptic cult Aum Shinrikyo's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. In general, Japan has remarkably few homicides; the US's murder rate is more than 11 times greater.

  [Washington Post / Adam Taylor]

• The ideas that evidently motivated this attack, however, are all too common. In recent years, dozens of parents have murdered their disabled children, encouraged by a culture that views life with a disability as worthless and puts more focus on the inconvenience disability causes for caregivers than on the humanity and dignity of disabled people.

  [Autistic Self-Advocacy Network]

• The attack comes on the 26th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, signed on July 26, 1990. The law was won through the persistent, tireless self-advocacy of disabled people themselves — including the Capitol Crawl, which saw 60 activists leave their canes and wheelchairs and pull themselves up the Capitol steps by hand.

  [Curbed / Patrick Sisson]

Let's check in and see what's up with sheep

Toni Barros

• Big news in the sheep world: A Nature study looking at 13 cloned sheep, including four from the same cell line as Dolly, the famous first cloned mammal, finds that cloned animals seem to age normally.

  [Nature / Sinclair et al.]

• Dolly famously died at only 6, after struggling with arthritis and lung tumors. That made scientists fear that cloning caused unusual health problems and prompted bans on animal cloning in countries like Canada and Australia and policies like the European Union's ban on importing food from cloned animals.

  [NYT / Joanna Klein]

• Cloning is growing progressively more reliable, and as it does, its use for a variety of applications, including helping endangered species and reviving extinct ones, is looking more attractive.

  [NPR / Rae Ellen Bichell]

• However, the process remains rather inefficient; as few as 1 to 2 percent of cloned embryos develop normally into live animals.

  [Scientific American / Karen Weintraub]

• But apart from the specific merits of cloning, the new study could have major implications for stem cell therapy in humans. It suggests it's possible to totally reprogram an adult human cell — opening the way for more far-reaching adult stem cell treatments, eliding the debate over the ethics of using embryos.

  [Washington Post / Rachel Feltman]

MISCELLANEOUS

Crocodiles are facing a grave existential threat: humans. [Smithsonian / Naomi Shavin]

• Modern-day celebrities have nothing on the naming practices of 17th-century puritans, who busted out names like "Kill-sin Pimple," "Sorry-for-sin Coupard," "NoMerit Vynall," "If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned Barbone," and "Humiliation Hynde."

  [Slate / Joseph Norwood]

• While I (Dylan) think his record on AIDS remains very underrated, George W. Bush was still a disaster of a president in many ways. His post-presidency, however, is shaping up to be a major success.

  [Washington Post / Jean Edward Smith]

• Psychologists find that up to 80 percent of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria don't actually identify as trans as adults. Trans activists say the research is faulty. Who's right?

  [NY Mag / Jesse Singal]

• 21 New York socialites who will reaffirm your commitment to the class struggle.

  [Observer / Zachary Weiss]

VERBATIM

"Magid explained that her intention was to use the engagement ring with Barragán’s compressed remains to 'propose' to Zanco, in the hope that she would, in exchange, agree to open the archive, perhaps even to return it to Mexico. The family members took a vote and agreed unanimously." [New Yorker / Alice Gregory]

• "[Angela Merkel's] open-door immigration approach has done more to protect Germany from terrorism than any counter-terrorism policy because it has helped to reassure Muslims (living inside German borders and jihadis living abroad) that the German government is not at war with Islam."

  [Independent / Robert Verkaik]

• "After the 59th Amendment passed and Trump was proclaimed Emperor, the entire voting process was abolished. At long last, minorities are no longer disproportionately turned away at the polls."

  [McSweeney's / David Kawalec]

• "It's clear that Katmai Park needs a smarter breed of bear. I watched for a few minutes, and during that time I saw a couple of dozen salmon leap up the falls in the foreground while the adorable young bear just stood around in one spot oblivious to the fact that all the fish were elsewhere, laughing at him."

  [Mother Jones / Kevin Drum]

• "I think we can afford to sink another $150k into stronger nets and industrial fishing boat, Sanders camp has momentum but will not match our $$$. We CANNOT do this with a harpoon, want this thing alive."

  [ClickHole]

WATCH THIS

Ancient Romans had disgusting condiments. Here’s a recipe. [YouTube / Phil Edwards]

Vox / Phil Edwards