Reading

1.

Problem: The story you are writing has plot holes.

Solution: Unreliable narrator.

2.

Problem: The story you are writing has severe, glaring plot holes.

Solution: Unreliable narrator with amnesia.

3.

Problem: Even an unreliable narrator with amnesia can’t explain the plot hole typhoon raging across this entire godforsaken story.

Solution: Time travel.

4.

Problem: You are not a very good writer.

Solution: Your narrator is not a very good writer.

5.

Problem: You are bad at dialogue.

Solution Your main characters are robots. (Advanced: Any character with a speaking role is a robot.) Welcome to the avant-garde.

NATO should have been wound up at the end of the Cold War, but the United States — giddy with its new status as unchallenged global hegemon — used it instead to expand its military reach into Eastern Europe and to prosecute regime-change wars. Britain dutifully tagged along and, for a while, that reinvigorated Atlanticism. […]

In a heated argument, it’s easy to say things you’ll later regret. With practice, you can learn to disagree more productively

- Video by Dr Tracey Marks

Watch on Psyche

When polio left me unable to walk, my parents put me in a disability centre. There, I met Mommy

- by Kiprop Kimutai

Read on Psyche

Hooman Majd on the Iran protests and the government’s brutal response, and Lois Parshley explains the financial and tech interests in Greenland.

The post Protests and Power Plays: From Tehran to the Arctic Circle appeared first on The Intercept.

As AI’s endless clichés continue to encroach on human art, the true uniqueness of our creativity is becoming ever clearer

- by Richard Beard

Read on Aeon

The conditions at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility are akin to solitary confinement, local experts say — an apparent violation of state law.

The post New York Women’s Prison Forces People to Go Without Showers or Recreation appeared first on The Intercept.