Reading

Why we should embrace beliefs or stories that may not be, strictly speaking, true but are to some extent useful or good

- by Sam Dresser

Read on Psyche

How community science games could help cure disease

The post Gaming Cancer appeared first on Nautilus.

Centuries-old wisdom may ring true on food-fueled nightmares

The post Cheese Might Haunt Our Dreams appeared first on Nautilus.

As a core element of a great power’s system of information and indoctrination, the BBC is bound to be a fiercely contested space. In the journalists’ jargon, it is always being ‘rocked’ by scandals, real and imagined. But the BBC now faces two new challenges, and it is not at all clear that it will […]

Oh, come on. ICE’s new detention center, Alligator Alcatraz, is nothing like a concentration camp. For one thing, historians unanimously agree that Nazis never used alligator-infested moats. Maybe things would have been different if they had access to a bunch of crocodiles, but I’m not even sure the European climate would have supported such a project.

Then there’s the barracks themselves. Those are laminated floors in there, and I’m pretty certain Dachau’s were wooden. If they even had floors, mind you. But either way, there’s your answer: different floors entirely.

Trump’s wealth grew by over $1 billion in the past year, but the White House insists he isn’t profiting off of the presidency.

The post The Whiff of Corruption: Trump’s New Perfume Has Strong Notes of Graft appeared first on The Intercept.

Leaked confidential files indicate the International Atomic Energy Agency was infiltrated by a veteran British spy who has claimed credit for sanctions on Iran. The documents lend weight to the Islamic Republic’s accusation that the nuclear watchdog secretly colluded with its enemies. A notorious British MI6 agent infiltrated the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on London’s behalf, according to leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone. The agent, Nicholas Langman, is a veteran intelligence operative who claims credit for helping engineer […]

The post Spying on Iran: How MI6 infiltrated the IAEA first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Spying on Iran: How MI6 infiltrated the IAEA appeared first on The Grayzone.

The Senate GOP passed its “megabill” on Tuesday — handing police billions in grants to fuel Trump’s deportation regime and tax write-offs.

The post Senate Passes Trump’s Big, Beautiful Boon for Police appeared first on The Intercept.

“Wall Street shivers over ‘hot commie summer’ after Mamdani’s success… When Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old self-described socialist, won New York’s mayoral Democratic nomination last week over a seasoned but scandal-scarred veteran, the city’s financial elite had a meltdown.” — The Guardian

With temperatures across the country rising, and the “red wave” of the election giving way to a different kind of “red wave,” here’s everything you need to have a hot commie summer to remember.

A Good Beach Read

Nothing says summertime like reading a book on the beach, which is why every good worker will have all three volumes of Das Kapital with them when they hit the sand. Just be sure to bring a tote for your tomes. Why else do you think NPR and The New Yorker have been giving totes away for years? They clearly knew this day would come.

The budget gives $175 billion to immigration enforcement. “The orders of magnitude are going to be multiplied,” immigration experts say.

The post Trump’s Budget Just Passed the Senate. Brace for a Massive Increase in ICE Raids. appeared first on The Intercept.

Attempts by the public to keep tabs on ICE are provoking predictable and pathetic responses from the government.

The post ICE Agents Deserve No Privacy appeared first on The Intercept.

The Senate is on the verge of passing the distinctly misnamed “big beautiful bill.” It is, in fact, one of the ugliest pieces of legislation to come out of Congress in living memory. The version that passed the House recently would cut $1.7 trillion, mostly in domestic spending, while providing the top 5% of taxpayers with roughly $1.5 trillion in tax breaks. Over the next few years, the same bill will add another $150 billion to a Pentagon budget already soaring towards a record $1 trillion. In short, as of now, in the battle between welfare and warfare, the militarists are carrying the day. Pentagon Pork and the People It Harms The bill, passed by the House of Representatives and... Read more

Source: Feeding the Warfare State appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

How are student visa applicants supposed to share their accounts on platforms that haven’t existed in years, like Google+?

The post Want a Student Visa? The U.S. Government Needs Your Vine Account. appeared first on The Intercept.

I just had a tour of your newly renovated theme park. I hate to be that guy, but I just want to mention that, while you refer to your destination as a theme park, it would be more accurate to describe it as a motif park.

See, a theme is the central subject your experience is about, like lost love, patriotism in wartime, or the allure of social status. What you have is a cluster of motifs, distinct features of your work that attempt to develop a theme.

I say “attempt” because the imagery here is unhinged. On the map we have a castle, a geodesic dome, a haunted house, and a Chinese pavilion with a dragon poking out of it. What thematic concept, in the abstract, are you going for? Amusement? Yes, but what about amusement are you saying?

Most great themes are about conflict. For example, while the title of your park, Cedar Coppice, evokes the arboreal, the attractions are more man-made. So maybe your theme is “man versus nature.” Then one of your motifs would be that thirty-foot-tall plexiglass treehouse. Or there’s “man versus machine,” exemplified by rides like the Tungsten Titan.