There’s been a lack of cheer on this site lately. The obvious response: some analysis of trivial, ephemeral pop culture. So, a question before the jump: If I were to mention “the MacBride and Kennedy stories”, who would raise a hand and say “I know!” ? — It’s okay to say “no idea”, btw. This […]
Reading
PLAYERS: Infertility can be played alone, in a couple, or with a friend who promised that if you were still single at forty, they’d hook you up.
OBJECTIVE: The goal is to strategically bankrupt yourself physically, financially, and emotionally to become a parent. Average playing time is anywhere between two and ten years, but can last even longer, depending on your willingness to be mistaken for grandparents.
HOW TO PLAY: Starting from “Optimism Alley,” players choose one of three paths to begin: IVF Lane, Surrogacy Street, or Adoption Road. Players roll the dice to move down their path, landing on completely random outcomes that either propel them into frightening new stages of anxiety or spiral them backward into psychological and bodily horrors. The first player to outsmart human biology wins. At any time, players can quit and get into beekeeping.
Leading union criticised for reaching out to anti-trade union politician and Nigel Farage ally Andrea Jenkyns, despite her anti-worker stances
The silence of senior mainstream politicians and media organisations against the rise of a new well-organised far-right movement on Britain's streets is a disgrace, argues Adam Bienkov
On call with the volunteers offering humanitarian aid to thousands of migrants from the Global South trying to enter into Europe
- by Aeon Video
Told one brush stroke at a time, this love story spans decades, journeys over continents, and navigates life’s highs and lows
- Directed by Ian Bruce
New research reveals that physical attractiveness is more about personal compatibility than meeting universal standards
- by Annett Schirmer
Last month, Chris Worrall — the apparently ‘pro-housing’ Labour councillor and founder of Labour YIMBY — announced his defection to the Conservatives. As he did so, he claimed that Labour had become a ‘PIP and asylum seeker PAYEpig’, and that the party had extinguished hope for the burgeoning YIMBY movement. For the unfamiliar, YIMBY stands […]
As has been long and widely emphasized in various terms … frequentism and Bayesianism are incomplete both as learning theories and as philosophies of statistics, in the pragmatic sense that each alone are insufficient for all sound applications. Notably, causal justifications are the foundation for classical frequentism, which demands that all model constraints be deduced […]
Saw this recently, from the University of Chicago: And it begins. No music history and theory, comp lit, classics, and on and on. pic.twitter.com/e2JxrCbm1k — Dialectical Zach-Zack Loeffler (@thezachloeffler) August 12, 2025 The commentary is a bit of an exaggeration. But not too much. Now if this was just one data point, it wouldn’t matter, […]
State lawmakers are pushing a bill that would prohibit consumers from suing businesses — including a surveillance giant — whose AI use potentially violates consumer protection laws.
Shadow Treasurer (for now), Ted O’Brien, has arrived to work late today due to managing to get his tie caught in his briefcase, this is the third time this month that this has happened. ”They’re tricky things ties aren’t they?”... Read More ›
The first map of the Atlantic seafloor revealed a dynamic world under the waves
The post When the Ocean Floor Came Alive appeared first on Nautilus.
The climates that run through us
The post With Regard to the Invisible appeared first on Nautilus.
A tiny microbe discovered by accident challenges the definition of cellular life
The post A Rogue New Life Form appeared first on Nautilus.
The site did an “investigation” into preexisting conditions in starving kids in Gaza — the same logic that would have you believe typhus killed Anne Frank.
The post Bari Weiss’s Free Press Wants You to Know Some Kids Being Starved by Israel Were Already Sick appeared first on The Intercept.
Inspired by the boycott of South African goods and apartheid-affiliated institutions in the St. Paul’s neighbourhood of Bristol, people in our city today are opposing the Israeli genocide by organising a community boycott of all Israeli fresh produce. The Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone was launched at last year’s Bristol Transformed festival with a call for local […]
It was beautiful witnessing our children’s blossoming friendship when they were in Miss Penny’s first-grade class—and by extension, our friendship too. That said, seeing as next year your kid will be in Mrs. Lang’s Second Grade Class, and mine in Mr. Dodd’s, I’m afraid it’s time to say goodbye, because we will never see each other ever again.
I know, it’s hard. We grew so close. Together, we cut out hearts for the Valentine’s Day Party. Enjoyed each other’s cookies for the Christmas/ Hanukkah/ Diwali/ Kwanzaa Celebration. Trolled the Moms for Liberty at PTA meetings. Sang “So Long, Farewell” at the Parent/Teacher Talent Show. But from this moment on, whatever it was between you and me is over.
Now, you’re just somebody that I used to know.
Private equity funds are misrepresenting their risk and possibly saddling their least wealthy clients with their worst-performing investments, new research finds.
Google CIO praised Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for slamming the “climate extremist agenda” and sayings data centers should be powered by coal, gas, and nuclear.
It’s 1:17 a.m., and I’m sitting on the floor of my kitchen drinking Dr Pepper Blackberry out of the can like it’s medicine for a heartbreak I haven’t earned yet. I haven’t cried today, but I can feel it coming, crouched behind my molars. This beverage might be the gateway.
The label promises “Delightfully Dark. Subtly Sweet,” which, coincidentally, is also how I described myself during a short-lived phase in college when I tried to brand myself as “the mysterious girl who reads Bukowski and wears velvet chokers.” It didn’t stick. Much like this flavor profile.
I pop the tab. The hiss is aggressive, like the soda is already judging me for buying it. Like it’s muttering, “This is what we’re doing now?” before surrendering to carbonation.
Blackberry hits first. Not a real blackberry. Not a berry that ever knew soil or sunshine. This is the kind of blackberry that grew up in a basement listening to My Chemical Romance and wearing fingerless gloves. It’s dramatic. It’s synthetic. It’s here to make you question everything you once believed about fruit.