Reading

Calm down. I don’t necessarily see what all the fuss is about. In all honesty, I also read the Dread Lord Nyarlathotep’s post this morning and was surprised by it, same as you. We all know he’s the Crawling Chaos, and that title implies a certain degree of unpredictability. But even for him, his vow to “gorge on the carcass of humanity itself” unless his latest (albeit nebulous) demands are met is pretty intense. I can’t remember the last time that an elected US official said something so unconscionable and nightmarish.

Didn’t Nixon say something similar? No? Hmm.

Anyway. I’m not endorsing what the Dread Lord uttered in a series of cacophonous, guttural snarls and clicking noises at the press pool yesterday. I don’t think “wholesale existential negation” is a particularly effective geopolitical strategy under even the most normal circumstances.

After a top reporter at the BBC drew outrage for publishing a quote demanding Iran be nuked, she’s been revealed as a dedicated regime change activist whose career was launched by a CIA-founded propaganda network. Serious questions remain about the BBC’s editorial process.  On April 6, 2026, horrified social media users began drawing attention to an extraordinary statement allegedly provided to the BBC by a twenty-something Iranian: “About them hitting energy infrastructure, using an atomic bomb, or leveling Iran – […]

The post Senior BBC Iran reporter exposed as opposition activist first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Senior BBC Iran reporter exposed as opposition activist appeared first on The Grayzone.

McSweeney’s contributor Johanna Gohmann channels the chaos and charm of life with a toddler into All Toddlers Are Scorpios a hilarious astrology guide illustrated by cartoonist (and McSweeney’s contributor) Emily Flake.

We’re thrilled to share an excerpt today from the book’s opening chapter. All Toddlers Are Scorpios is out now and available at your nearest bookseller.

When my country attacked my country, I cheered with enthusiasm and gasped in horror. “Now they’d get what they deserved, those bastards,” I said in the angry tone of the men I’d watched in black-and-white movies about World War II. Then I beat my chest and wailed and tried to pull out my own hair like I’d seen my grandmother do when my grandfather died. Of two minds, two hearts, and two stomachs, I walked around the house in a frenzy until I settled in the kitchen to make a breakfast of hot black tea and Lucky Charms.

If you are not a pilot or a drone operator or a person having their house blown up, there is not a lot to do in a war. I refused to give up my routines, even as bombs destroyed everything around my aunt’s house and then everything around my uncle’s house and then everything around my niece’s house, empires of rubble spilling out where there used to be hospitals, playgrounds, schools. Rubble rubble rubble.

The struggle is real when word retrieval goes wrong: see what’s happening in the brain during tip-of-the-tongue moments

- Video by TED-Ed

Watch on Psyche

Our culture valorises the big, coherent self: reading Robert Musil helps me embrace the beauty of my no-self existence

- by Mette Leonard Høeg

Read on Aeon

The Crime and Policing Bill, which seeks to reinforce sections of the Public Order Act 1986, has had its third reading in the House of Lords and will soon become law. One crucial aspect of the legislation is policing the ostensible ‘cumulative disruption’ of protest. While not yet codified in law, forms of ‘cumulative disruption’ […]

The racist origin story of the most common college entrance exam

The post The Creator of the SAT Was an Infamous Eugenicist appeared first on Nautilus.

Insects just aren’t what they used to be

The post What Happened to the Ancient Bug Giants of 300 Million Years Ago? appeared first on Nautilus.

When a father of astronomy wrote the first science-fiction book about the dark side of the moon

The post Did This 17th-Century Novel Presage the Coming Artemis II Observations? appeared first on Nautilus.

Suggesting deep evolutionary roots of rhythm in animals

The post Bumblebees Bounce to the Beat appeared first on Nautilus.

Timing is key

The post Unraveling the Chemical Secrets of a Wholesome Plant-Pollinator Relationship appeared first on Nautilus.

#————————————————
#File: exist.female
#Last Updated: Before you were born
#Status: Auto-enrolled
#Effective Date: Immediately
#Opt-Out: Not Available
#Note: You did not click anything.
#Note: It’s still your problem.
#————————————————-

INIT woman();

#—————————————————
#GENERAL HUMAN CONDITIONS
#—————————————————

if (human == woman) {

      human- -;
      object++;
      Default.value = “Mom”;
      store(family_dignity, location = clothing);

The transition from green to yellow is more complicated than previously thought

The post What Goes On Inside a Ripening Banana appeared first on Nautilus.

There was a time when approximately one-third of the globe was shaded pink, signifying lands that were part of the British Empire. Of course, some people claim that the Empire was a civilising force — a vehicle for spreading democracy and embodying a kind of moral crusade. However, one should always be drawn back to […]

My God. What has happened to the Republican Party? The Party of Lincoln, for goodness’ sake!

Nothing about them resembles the Party of Lincoln. Like, for instance, they have a signature hat, but it’s not a stovepipe one.

They don’t wear blankets over their shoulders and laps indoors to protect against the chill as they strategize about the Civil War in 1864. They just turn up the thermostat while fantasizing about a Civil War in 2026.

They don’t see plays anymore. And if they do, they get photographed doing hand stuff during them. Lincoln never did hand stuff. He was too busy bearing the heavy mantle of statehood to do hand stuff. And if he did do hand stuff at any plays, he wouldn’t get photographed. Photographs took longer than hand stuff back then.

They don’t project from their diaphragm with a high, powerful voice that carries their poetic oratory over the heads of the crowd assembled at Gettysburg. They bark unhealthily from the throat like someone who doesn’t understand how a speakerphone works.

They don’t likely have undiagnosed Marfan syndrome, and in fact, they’re not tall at all. Physically or spiritually.