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“The previously unknown ‘muse’ of famed novelist Cormac McCarthy has revealed herself in a Vanity Fair profile… Complete with excerpts from love letters and the first-hand testimony of a woman named Augusta Britt, the article alleges the two met when she was just 16 and the late author was 42. McCarthy died in 2023.” — USA Today

Hail, mortal man! Yes, you there—leaning over your vintage typewriter, tapping out a screenplay. It’s your lucky day. Out of all the artists on earth, we have chosen you to channel our primordial spirit of creative inspiration that transcends space and time.

Also, have we mentioned that we’re sixteen years old?

We’re not sure why. Our age just seems to be important to you.

A couple of days after the election this year I wrote that I thought a lot of the anti-incumbent movement these past couple of years had to do with unprocessed trauma from the global pandemic. Here in America we lost over 1.2 million people in a very short time from a deadly disease that humans had never seen before. Within just a few weeks in the spring of 2020, New York City alone had lost more than 15,000 people. All of our medical systems were strained, supplies were unavailable and the whole country, the whole world, was in a state of barely suppressed panic. I don’t think we’ve ever really dealt with exactly what happened and we are now in danger of doing it all over again. President Trump failed miserably at the most important thing he was tasked with doing — reassuring the public. Instead he lied, complained, pushed snake oil cures and worried more about the effects of the pandemic on his re-election prospects than the health of the American people. Bob Woodward’s book “Rage” lays out a terrifying narrative, from taped interviews with Trump himself, of just how inept and dishonest he was.

Good news, bad news this morning First, good news courtesy of E.J. Dionne. Conservatives (with the most clout) have abandoned their opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. Why? They won’t admit it, but they caught that car and lost that fight: After gyrating from one position to another, Donald Trump simply gave up on being a pro-life candidate. The states, he said, would settle the issue, and he didn’t give a damn how they did it. The Republican Party followed along, drastically weakening the antiabortion provisions in its platform because it recognized that opposing reproductive rights after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision was an electoral loser. And it is. Abortion rights prevailed in 7 out of 10 states where voters had a choice this year — in three carried by Vice President Kamala Harris (New York, Maryland and Colorado) but also in four won by Trump (Missouri, Arizona, Montana and Nevada). Reproductive rights won 57 percent of the vote in pro-Trump Florida, but the state had a 60 percent threshold for the referendum to pass.

Experts say a complex but systematic series of electoral violations rather than a 'single smoking gun' have undermined Georgia's parliamentary elections

Steven Moffat left the door open just a bit on the idea that the Doctor Who Christmas Special "Joy to the World" might not be his last "Who."

Are they out to get you? Who they? During the runup to Nov. 5, there was a lot of talk about “vibes.” This was a vibes election more about what people felt than about what they think (or think they know). Jonathan V. Last has a Bulwark post about how out of synch people perceptions are with reality. It’s rather instructive. First, the results of a YouGov poll on how people perceive what percentage of the population various groups constitute: Now, the actual numbers: People make a consistent mistake in the same direction, Last observes. They wildly overestimate the number of people from recognized minority/interest groups of every kind and underestimate how numerically common their own group is.

Nothing saves money on people who are old, disabled and unable to work like just killing them.

To remind everyone how grateful we should be for all the readily available, appealing food that is easy to prepare and that everyone enjoys eating, take one day every year to spend fourteen hours laboring over food so terrible it can only be stomached once annually.

Think of everything you like about chicken: its moistness, its versatility, its ability to absorb the flavors of whatever is cooked adjacent to it. Now try to imagine a food that’s similar to chicken, except without any of those good qualities. Imagine flake-dry poultry served as slices of sawdust whose flavor can best be described as literally nothing or, at best, vaguely bird-ish. This nightmare cousin of chicken is called turkey, and turkey will be the shriveled centerpiece of your Thanksgiving meal.

If you’ve accumulated enough grocery points, your local grocery store might give you the turkey for free, because they simply cannot believe anyone will pay actual money for a turkey. They may also offer to swap it out for a free ham but don’t fall for it because ham actually tastes good.

Journalist and campaigner Gavin Esler on why Britain's entire political and democratic system is now failing and what we can all now do about it

A brief, animated history of astronomy shows how a sophisticated understanding of the night sky made us who we are

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

The endless battle over his legacy testifies to his great authority – and the power of his thought to make the world better

- by Edith Hall

Read at Aeon

When brothers and sisters victimise each other, the harms can be serious. But it’s never too late to heal old wounds

- by Kristen Cvancara

Read at Psyche

Union leader accuses the Labour Government of "trying to face both ways" amid threatened strikes over orders for civil servants to return to the office

In October, a historic industrial dispute by veterinary workers in South Wales suffered a devastating setback, with the employer VetPartners announcing the sudden closure of four clinics where staff had been agitating for measures to address low pay and poor working conditions. Traditionally a poorly unionised sector, the veterinary industry has seen a recent surge […]

The financial data company is accused of listing dozens of bonds as raising funds for a ‘sustainable purpose’ when they could be used to fund fossil fuel companies and deforestation

The 1990s had witnessed the widespread adoption of official inflation targets by central banks … Not only did the major central banks in the developed world now have a target, but they all coalesced around the same number: 2 per cent acquired talismanic significanc … After 2008, central bankers’ pursuit of inflation targets became as […]

"The UK's news environment [risks] fracturing irreparably along social, regional and economic lines... The implications for our society and democracy would be grim.”