New Scientist - Home (
newscientist_feed) wrote2025-12-10 04:00 pm
From a particle smasher encircling the moon to an “impossible” laser, five scientists reveal the experiments they would run in a world powered purely by imagination
New Scientist - Home (
newscientist_feed) wrote2025-12-10 04:00 pm
Genetic trick to make mosquitoes malaria resistant passes key test
The rollout of a type of genetic technology called a gene drive for tackling malaria could be edging closer after a lab study supports its success
New Scientist - Home (
newscientist_feed) wrote2025-12-10 04:00 pm
Oldest evidence of fire-lighting comes from early humans in Britain
An excavation in Suffolk, UK, has uncovered pyrite and flint that appear to have been used by ancient humans to light fires some 400,000 years ago
Fridi (
fridi) wrote in
talkpolitics2025-12-10 08:46 pm
Entry tags:
Some scenarios for the future of the collective West
For centuries the West has held outsized global power, even though Western societies were always a demographic minority. That dominance is now slipping, and although the world is still built on Western foundations (established institutions, science, law, finance) the West can no longer assume it sets the terms for everyone else. The real question is what kind of Western dominance is fading, and what might replace it.
After 1945 the USA forged a politically unified West, but then diluted that cohesion by framing itself as leader of the entire Free World, defined mostly by what it opposed. This logic survived the Cold War and eventually turned into a universalist liberal project that depended on having enemies to justify itself. When liberal democracy failed to spread globally (and when the US electorate doubled down on America First) the gap between Western ambitions and Western capabilities became impossible to ignore.
The West now faces three paths.
( Read more... )
After 1945 the USA forged a politically unified West, but then diluted that cohesion by framing itself as leader of the entire Free World, defined mostly by what it opposed. This logic survived the Cold War and eventually turned into a universalist liberal project that depended on having enemies to justify itself. When liberal democracy failed to spread globally (and when the US electorate doubled down on America First) the gap between Western ambitions and Western capabilities became impossible to ignore.
The West now faces three paths.
( Read more... )
New Scientist - Home (
newscientist_feed) wrote2025-12-10 01:00 pm
What the evolution of tickling tells us about being human
From bonobos and rats to tickling robots, research is finally cracking the secrets of why we’re ticklish, and what that reveals about our brains
Snopes.com (
snopes_feed) wrote2025-12-10 02:00 pm
20 rumors we've investigated about Hegseth
No, Hegseth doesn't have a swastika tattoo — although some of his ink may be associated with Christian nationalist movements.
New Scientist - Home (
newscientist_feed) wrote2025-12-10 12:32 pm
Australia's social media ban faces challenges and criticism on day one
As Australian teenagers lose access to social media, observers say there are still many unknown questions about the ban, which came into force on 10 December
New Scientist - Home (
newscientist_feed) wrote2025-12-10 10:00 am
Why we only recently discovered space is dark not bright
For centuries, Europeans thought that eternal daylight saturated the cosmos. The shift to a dark universe has had a profound psychological impact upon us
New Scientist - Home (
newscientist_feed) wrote2025-12-10 10:00 am
Did ancient humans start farming so they could drink more beer?
New evidence suggests that alcohol was a surprisingly big motivator in our monumental transition from hunting and gathering to farming – but was beer really more important to us than bread?
Snopes.com (
snopes_feed) wrote2025-12-10 12:00 pm
Missouri man skipped 13-year prison sentence due to clerical error
Cornealious "Mike" Anderson expected to go to prison in 2002, but authorities never came to arrest him — not until more than a decade later.
Snopes.com (
snopes_feed) wrote2025-12-10 11:00 am
Don't be fooled by doctored photo of Trump and daughter Ivanka
Images of U.S. President Donald Trump and a young Ivanka, one of his daughters, often resurface on social media — some authentic, others doctored.
Savage Chickens – Cartoons on Sticky Notes by Doug Savage (
savagechickens_feed) wrote2025-12-10 08:01 am
ladyunicorn22 (
ladyunicorn22) wrote in
addme2025-12-10 03:12 am
What's up?
Hi folks, I hope you all are doing well. Not good at doing these intro things, but I'll give it a try. I'm Lesley. I'm in my late thirties, happily married and I have one cat child. I love books of all types, I'm currently making my way through the Dungeon Crawler Carl books, Tv shows including The Golden girls, How I met your Mother, Grace and Frankie and others. I love all kinds of music, and I enjoy baking. I welcome people of all backgrounds and stuff, I'm a Christian myself. as for what I write about in here, To be honest, there's only one entry in here, but I plan on changing that. I will most likely write about daily life things, and sometimes about what I'm watching/reading/listening to as well as mental and physical health stuff. I am totally blind, so sometimes I will write about that. If there is anything else you wanna know, feel free to take a peak at the profile. I will be writing in here probably every few days to every week. Depends on the mood I'm in. I hope all of you have a good day, and if you celebrate them, happy holidays
𝔅𝔢𝔱𝔰𝔶 (
weedpizza) wrote2025-11-28 11:09 pm
The Friday Five for November 28, 2025
1. What were some of the smells and tastes of your childhood?
There was a very distinct smell at my Montessori nursery school. I associate it with the smell of that tacky putty stuff that you'd use to put posters up. It was bluish in color.
As far as tastes, ice cream cone cupcakes come to mind. I think of them as very 80s, and I'm pretty sure my mom made these for my second or third birthday party.
2. What did you have as a child that you do not think children today have?
Freedom from the influence of social media! I do not envy Gen Alpha. Shit's getting dark.
3. What elementary grade was your favorite?
It's hard to say, as I've always had a hard time in school... I can easily name the worst year I had in elemenrary school though – 5th grade (age 10-11)!
4. What Summer do you remember the best as a child?
The couple of Summers I spent at my dad's. I played a lot of PC games! My favorites were Lemmings games.
5. What one piece of advice would you give to your younger self, and at what age?
Deep question... The first thing that comes to mind is, "Accept yourself." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There was a very distinct smell at my Montessori nursery school. I associate it with the smell of that tacky putty stuff that you'd use to put posters up. It was bluish in color.
As far as tastes, ice cream cone cupcakes come to mind. I think of them as very 80s, and I'm pretty sure my mom made these for my second or third birthday party.
2. What did you have as a child that you do not think children today have?
Freedom from the influence of social media! I do not envy Gen Alpha. Shit's getting dark.
3. What elementary grade was your favorite?
It's hard to say, as I've always had a hard time in school... I can easily name the worst year I had in elemenrary school though – 5th grade (age 10-11)!
4. What Summer do you remember the best as a child?
The couple of Summers I spent at my dad's. I played a lot of PC games! My favorites were Lemmings games.
5. What one piece of advice would you give to your younger self, and at what age?
Deep question... The first thing that comes to mind is, "Accept yourself." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Georgiana Brummell (
dandylover1) wrote in
addme2025-12-10 12:14 am
Seeking New Friends
Name: Georgiana or Georgie. Neither is my legal name, but they are what I use here and in most situations.
Age: Forty-two.
I mostly post about: Entries may consist of anything from short summaries of my day, to surveys, to essays on various topics, to interesting links and quotes that I find, along with my commentary on them. Lately, I have been writing reviews of opera recordings from the 1950's and earlier. I have no interest in politics and modern celebrities. I wish to keep my journal light and happy as much as possible.
My hobbies are: studying dandyism, Received Pronunciation, the Regency, and the Italian language, reading, writing, cooking, baking, playing cards and dice, and enjoying warm weather.
My Other Interests include: coffees, teas, antique menswear and accessories (usually Edwardian), chamber and classical music, old opera singers, plants and gardening, crafts, and history and nature documentaries. I love wit, wordplay, and sarcastic humour without vulgarity. I also love cats.
My fandoms are: I don't have any.
I'm looking to meet people who: are positive, who share my interests and can introduce me to some new ones, and who enjoy at least some elements of high culture. While the minimum age I will add is twenty-one, I tend to get along with those who are older than I, particularly seniors. I am also single and searching, but since this isn't a dating community, I'll just say that you can find more about that in one of the sticky entries in my journal. You can also find my Mastodon and Escargot.chat information there.
My posting schedule tends to be: It varies, from a few posts in a given week to a few in a single day. Often, I post what I call filler entries toward the end of the month. These are entries posted on one date but for another. I try to post a few entries per week.
When I add people, my dealbreakers are: minors (I prefer at least over twenty-one), depression and/or anxiety (posted regularly), bad self-esteem, life drama, recreational drugs, religion or politics (posted regularly), a lot of bad grammar and spelling (unless you're learning English), and frequent obscenities. Please note that I am totally blind, so if you mostly post images, I won't be able to comment on them, as I cannot see them.
Before adding me, you should know: I have no time for political correctness, lies, or drama. While I always try to be civil during discussions, I share my opinion without reservations. If you are easily offended, please do not add me. I have a very dry and witty sense of humour. Otherwise, feel free to read my profile and/or posts and add me if you wish. I will most likely reciprocate. I also comment when I have something to say, but there are times when I don't read my friends' page for awhile, and I am trying to change that.
Age: Forty-two.
I mostly post about: Entries may consist of anything from short summaries of my day, to surveys, to essays on various topics, to interesting links and quotes that I find, along with my commentary on them. Lately, I have been writing reviews of opera recordings from the 1950's and earlier. I have no interest in politics and modern celebrities. I wish to keep my journal light and happy as much as possible.
My hobbies are: studying dandyism, Received Pronunciation, the Regency, and the Italian language, reading, writing, cooking, baking, playing cards and dice, and enjoying warm weather.
My Other Interests include: coffees, teas, antique menswear and accessories (usually Edwardian), chamber and classical music, old opera singers, plants and gardening, crafts, and history and nature documentaries. I love wit, wordplay, and sarcastic humour without vulgarity. I also love cats.
My fandoms are: I don't have any.
I'm looking to meet people who: are positive, who share my interests and can introduce me to some new ones, and who enjoy at least some elements of high culture. While the minimum age I will add is twenty-one, I tend to get along with those who are older than I, particularly seniors. I am also single and searching, but since this isn't a dating community, I'll just say that you can find more about that in one of the sticky entries in my journal. You can also find my Mastodon and Escargot.chat information there.
My posting schedule tends to be: It varies, from a few posts in a given week to a few in a single day. Often, I post what I call filler entries toward the end of the month. These are entries posted on one date but for another. I try to post a few entries per week.
When I add people, my dealbreakers are: minors (I prefer at least over twenty-one), depression and/or anxiety (posted regularly), bad self-esteem, life drama, recreational drugs, religion or politics (posted regularly), a lot of bad grammar and spelling (unless you're learning English), and frequent obscenities. Please note that I am totally blind, so if you mostly post images, I won't be able to comment on them, as I cannot see them.
Before adding me, you should know: I have no time for political correctness, lies, or drama. While I always try to be civil during discussions, I share my opinion without reservations. If you are easily offended, please do not add me. I have a very dry and witty sense of humour. Otherwise, feel free to read my profile and/or posts and add me if you wish. I will most likely reciprocate. I also comment when I have something to say, but there are times when I don't read my friends' page for awhile, and I am trying to change that.
New Scientist - Home (
newscientist_feed) wrote2025-12-10 12:01 am
Dinosaurs like Diplodocus may have been as colourful as birds
Skin fossils from a sauropod dinosaur examined with an electron microscope feature structures called melanosomes, which are similar to those that create the bright colours in birds' feathers
𝔅𝔢𝔱𝔰𝔶 (
weedpizza) wrote2025-12-05 10:43 pm
Entry tags:
The Friday Five for December 5, 2025
1. If you had to participate in one Olympic event, what would it be and why?
Basketball, or anything involving throwing a ball.
2. What is the one song you always sing along to?
There's way more than one! But just today, I was singing along to "Alone in Hollywood on Acid." Check it out:
3. Do you wear a seatbelt in the car?
Yes.
4. Car, SUV or truck and why?
Truck! BIG truck! Because large vehicles feel (are?) safer, and you can move things – good for thrifting furniture and stuff!
5. Are you a good/bad driver? Explain.
I'm what they call a "passenger princess."
Basketball, or anything involving throwing a ball.
2. What is the one song you always sing along to?
There's way more than one! But just today, I was singing along to "Alone in Hollywood on Acid." Check it out:
3. Do you wear a seatbelt in the car?
Yes.
4. Car, SUV or truck and why?
Truck! BIG truck! Because large vehicles feel (are?) safer, and you can move things – good for thrifting furniture and stuff!
5. Are you a good/bad driver? Explain.
I'm what they call a "passenger princess."
microbie (
microbie) wrote2025-12-09 11:10 pm
Entry tags:
November reading
Two books I bought on whims didn't turn out to be gems, but it was good to try new authors, I guess.
Allegro, Ariel Dorfman
This is billed as a mystery about Johann Sebastian Bach's death that is solved by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is actually a hellaciously overwrought, needlessly wordy, and tedious meditation on art and how suffering affects art. There is no mystery, just page after page of absurdly intricate prose. I assume Dorfman was paid by the word. I gave it one star on Goodreads because there's a playlist at the end. That's the best part of the book.
The Nakano Thrift Shop, Hiromi Kawakami (translated by Allison Markham Powell)
The premise was alluring--a story centered on three people who work in a thrift shop in a Tokyo suburb. I did enjoy reading a Japanese novel that was about ordinary people. There are no murders, no fantasy elements, no wealthy characters. Nakano is the family name of the owner, and he employs two people, Hitomi and Takeo. His sister, Masayo, is also frequently at the shop (though she has her own business nearby and is an artist). Like a lot of workplace ensemble stories, there's a tendency for the characters to overshare and become overinvolved in each other's lives. Nakano shares details about sex with his girlfriend that I'd be embarrassed to share with a close friend, let alone co-workers I supervise. Hitomi and Takeo attempt to date despite not having anything in common. The dates are deeply awkward, yet somehow they progress to having sex, and later Hitomi decides that she is in love with Takeo. Maybe I was just too tired to appreciate this author's particular brand of quirkiness. I gave it two stars, mostly because the writing didn't make me want to bleach my eyeballs.
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
I knew this would be an emotionally draining read, but I didn't realize how draining it would be. I read it quickly, over Thanksgiving weekend, because I absolutely did not want to linger on it. Whitehead is a terrific writer, but the brutality made my eyes water and my stomach heave. I will not be watching the movie adaptation.
Allegro, Ariel Dorfman
This is billed as a mystery about Johann Sebastian Bach's death that is solved by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is actually a hellaciously overwrought, needlessly wordy, and tedious meditation on art and how suffering affects art. There is no mystery, just page after page of absurdly intricate prose. I assume Dorfman was paid by the word. I gave it one star on Goodreads because there's a playlist at the end. That's the best part of the book.
The Nakano Thrift Shop, Hiromi Kawakami (translated by Allison Markham Powell)
The premise was alluring--a story centered on three people who work in a thrift shop in a Tokyo suburb. I did enjoy reading a Japanese novel that was about ordinary people. There are no murders, no fantasy elements, no wealthy characters. Nakano is the family name of the owner, and he employs two people, Hitomi and Takeo. His sister, Masayo, is also frequently at the shop (though she has her own business nearby and is an artist). Like a lot of workplace ensemble stories, there's a tendency for the characters to overshare and become overinvolved in each other's lives. Nakano shares details about sex with his girlfriend that I'd be embarrassed to share with a close friend, let alone co-workers I supervise. Hitomi and Takeo attempt to date despite not having anything in common. The dates are deeply awkward, yet somehow they progress to having sex, and later Hitomi decides that she is in love with Takeo. Maybe I was just too tired to appreciate this author's particular brand of quirkiness. I gave it two stars, mostly because the writing didn't make me want to bleach my eyeballs.
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
I knew this would be an emotionally draining read, but I didn't realize how draining it would be. I read it quickly, over Thanksgiving weekend, because I absolutely did not want to linger on it. Whitehead is a terrific writer, but the brutality made my eyes water and my stomach heave. I will not be watching the movie adaptation.
silver_chipmunk (
silver_chipmunk) wrote2025-12-09 10:23 pm
More Christmas decorating
Got up at 10:00 today. While I was lying in bed deciding to get up, I got a text and then a call from
mashfanficchick. Then I did get up, had breakfast and coffee, and then took a shower, washed my hair and dressed.
Then while I was waiting for my hair to dry I worked on the decorating some more. I poured a glass of eggnog, put on Christmas music on Pandora, and put up a lot of the tree ornaments, though there's still lots more to do. I also put the star lights across the TV and plugged them in, so I have them going too, as well as the tree and the entryway lights.
Then once my hair was dry I got my sweater on and my coat and hat and took out the garbage, and walked around the block. Then while I was going around the block I detoured to the mailbox and mailed the three cards I made out yesterday.
Then I got a call from Middle Brother's group home, they wanted to get our plans for Christmas straightened out, so I did that, and it's taken care of now.
Came back in and did more tree decorating.
Finally heard back from Chris, we're going to meet up on Thursday, in Union Square at the Barnes and Noble. In the cafe, I am not going to order anything because it's Starbucks and the strike is still on, but I can sit there and meet up with him.
And then we'll have dinner somewhere I guess. So I'm not going to mail his card to him. I'm hand delivering it that night.
Anyway, I kept decorating til I got too depressed to go on, and lay down in bed until 6:30 when I came out and got ready to Team the FWiB,
We talked at 7:00 until 8:00 when I got off for my Al-anon meeting by Zoom, which was very good tonight though M wasn't there.
After the meeting I had dinner, and lay down to play solitaire until pet feeding time, when I fed the pets,
I finished Somewhere Beyond the Sea last night, not as good as The House on the Cerulean Sea, but I enjoyed it.
Tomorrow, more tree decorating, And hopefully, finally, a gaming session.
Gratitude List:
1. The FWiB.
2. Cards mailed.
3. Middle Brother's plans set.
4. Tree is getting done.
5. Eggnog.
6. Got in touch and made plans with Chris.
Then while I was waiting for my hair to dry I worked on the decorating some more. I poured a glass of eggnog, put on Christmas music on Pandora, and put up a lot of the tree ornaments, though there's still lots more to do. I also put the star lights across the TV and plugged them in, so I have them going too, as well as the tree and the entryway lights.
Then once my hair was dry I got my sweater on and my coat and hat and took out the garbage, and walked around the block. Then while I was going around the block I detoured to the mailbox and mailed the three cards I made out yesterday.
Then I got a call from Middle Brother's group home, they wanted to get our plans for Christmas straightened out, so I did that, and it's taken care of now.
Came back in and did more tree decorating.
Finally heard back from Chris, we're going to meet up on Thursday, in Union Square at the Barnes and Noble. In the cafe, I am not going to order anything because it's Starbucks and the strike is still on, but I can sit there and meet up with him.
And then we'll have dinner somewhere I guess. So I'm not going to mail his card to him. I'm hand delivering it that night.
Anyway, I kept decorating til I got too depressed to go on, and lay down in bed until 6:30 when I came out and got ready to Team the FWiB,
We talked at 7:00 until 8:00 when I got off for my Al-anon meeting by Zoom, which was very good tonight though M wasn't there.
After the meeting I had dinner, and lay down to play solitaire until pet feeding time, when I fed the pets,
I finished Somewhere Beyond the Sea last night, not as good as The House on the Cerulean Sea, but I enjoyed it.
Tomorrow, more tree decorating, And hopefully, finally, a gaming session.
Gratitude List:
1. The FWiB.
2. Cards mailed.
3. Middle Brother's plans set.
4. Tree is getting done.
5. Eggnog.
6. Got in touch and made plans with Chris.
