📚 Essays worth your time

"Turning gold into gold." What's it like to translate the Bard into Bengali, and Lear’s verdict on Cordelia into Chinese?

"Turning gold into gold." What's it like to translate the Bard into Bengali, and Lear’s verdict on Cordelia into Chinese?

Upward Bound, a novel by a profoundly autistic author, raises an awful but unavoidable question: Who actually wrote it?

Upward Bound, a novel by a profoundly autistic author, raises an awful but unavoidable question: Who actually wrote it?

The New York art critic Jerry Saltz recently unearthed 40,000 slides: Here’s what the art world of the 1990s looked like

The New York art critic Jerry Saltz recently unearthed 40,000 slides: Here’s what the art world of the 1990s looked like

Intelligence Testy

Podcast with Robert Wright

Why Cooperation Falls Apart Over Time

It’s a question of motivation The post Why Cooperation Falls Apart Over Time appeared first on Nautilus.

Crocheted Technology

Nicole Nikolich is a textile artist whose current focus is making crochet artworks that reference old school technology. You can explore her work on her website, at Paradigm Gallery and on Instagram.

What Happens When Giants Disappear from Ecosystems?

Big animals leave big holes in the food web The post What Happens When Giants Disappear from Ecosystems? appeared first on Nautilus.

Livestream of the Big Bear bald eagle nest (perched 145...

Livestream of the Big Bear bald eagle nest (perched 145 feet up in a pine tree) with two fuzzy bald eagle chicks that hatched 3 weeks ago.

How Phil Collins created the pop sound that defined the 1980s

Jacob Bielecki at Quillette: “Artists given complete freedom die a horrible death. So, when you tell them what they can’t do, they get creative and say, ‘Oh yes I can,’” Peter Gabriel told music journ

Presidents Can Be Impeached Because Benjamin Franklin...

Presidents Can Be Impeached Because Benjamin Franklin Thought It Was Better Than Assassination. “The Constitution’s impeachment procedures make the removal of the chief magistrate less violent, less d

A Bad Look

Eight years ago, I argued the White House Correspondents’ Dinner should end. The years since have only made the case stronger. And Saturday wasn’t even the worst part.

Thoughtful thread on the armed man who rushed the WHCA...

Thoughtful thread on the armed man who rushed the WHCA dinner. “This guy is indicative of people who are anti Trump not having a voice because Congress and SCOTUS have enabled Trump to obliterate any

Coffee Break: Has the Ellison Infotainment Empire Peaked?

The Ellison infotainment empire financed by father Larry and nominally helmed by son David, may have peaked with the shareholder approval of Paramount-Skydance's purchase of WBD (Warner Bros Discovery

“Neurons that fire together, wire together” is not the full story

Yasemin Saplakoglu at Quanta: The brain is “incredibly plastic, and it stays that way throughout the lifespan of a human,” said Christine Grienberger(opens a new tab), a neuroscientist at Brandeis Uni

The Black Robin and the Power of Tenacious Tenderness: How a Single Mother Brought an Entire Species Back from the Brink of Extinction

This essay is adapted from Traversal. “In the great chain of cause and effect,” Alexander von Humboldt wrote as he was teaching science to read the poetry of nature, “no single fact can be considered

Nearly two decades after landmark Indigenous rights declaration, countries still aren’t complying

At the U.N., global leaders say governments must stop talking and start implementing protections they adopted.

"Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, often found in...

“Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, often found in plastic, coupled with climate change’s effects…are each linked to reductions in fertility and fecundity across global species – including in humans.” Ar

Monday links: beliefs and behaviors

A Comment on Noah Smith's "The Moderately Easy Problem of Consciousness"

OpenAI President Greg Brockman on GPT-5.5 “Spud”

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Dario Amodei, hype, AI safety, and the explosion of vibe-coded AI disasters

What the AI cheerleaders don’t tell you

Teaser trailer for season four of Star Trek: Strange New...

Teaser trailer for season four of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. “Space is limitless in its beauty. And in its terror.” (Reminder: they are doing an episode with puppets this season.)

What will be scarce?

Alex Imas at Ghosts of Electricity: Economics is the study of decision-making under constraints, i.e., scarcity. If advanced AI brings material abundance—if machines can produce many if not all forms

Friendster is back, and has a twist

Mike Carson bought the Friendster domain, secured the trademark and launched an iOS app with a unique requirement for adding friends — you have to connect IRL. And there’s some other features baked in

Every View of Population Ethics Agrees: Proliferate Happy Lives!

So then let's do it if every view says it's overwhelmingly important!

Trouble in YIMBYLand: What Can We Learn from Singapore's Housing Miracle?

Review: Public Subsidy/Private Accumulation: The Political Economy of Singapore’s Public Housing

Physicists Discover the Most Complex Forms of Ice Yet

Scientists keep detecting new forms of ice. According to simulations, there could be many more left to find. The post Physicists Discover the Most Complex Forms of Ice Yet first appeared o

Sombrero Galaxy: The Universe's Dusty Brimmed Hat

An amazing capture of galaxy Messier 104, aka the Sombrero Galaxy, by the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera mounted on a Chilean observatory. The Sombrero galaxy (Messier 104) is a galactic masterpiece

A Marxist assassination conspiracy thriller, a great rock-'em-sock-'em French action movie, and more

Roundup 04/27/2026

Hildegard of Bingen’s Mysticism

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Politically hysterical Bluesky dork fails to shoot his way through security in latest disturbing Trump assassination attempt

On Saturday some leftoid lunatic tried to kill Trump again.

The Difficult Balance of Intimacy and Independence: Beloved Philosopher and Poet Kahlil Gibran on the Secret to a Loving and Lasting Relationship

"Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."

Adviser links: controlling the controllable

Mondays are all about financial adviser-related links here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look at...

Gunfire of the Vanities: Trump Dinner Shooting Defines a...

Gunfire of the Vanities: Trump Dinner Shooting Defines a Violent, Unserious America, “a land where guns are everywhere and a callous elite media dons formalwear to toast its own humiliation by our nar

Why Food Additives May Not Be FDA Reviewed

Discussing a decades-old FDA loophole for putting new ingredients into the country’s food supply.

Daredevil Michelle Khare ran 7 marathons on 7 different...

Daredevil Michelle Khare ran 7 marathons on 7 different continents in 7 days. The first one was on Antarctica.

GENER8ION – STORM starring Yung Lean

I suggest starting with the music video (it’s over 7 minutes long, but stick around 4:15 or scrub if you must). Then go deep with Stereogum to learn more about the lineage and creative folks involved

The Skip-Month Mystery: What Last Month’s Returns Are Really Telling You

New research challenges a long-standing rule in momentum investing—and reveals surprising insights about when to use it

Moderna developed an mRNA Covid-flu combo vaccine and...

Moderna developed an mRNA Covid-flu combo vaccine and it’s been approved for use in the EU, “but it continues to be shelved in the US, where it was developed”.

The Publishing Industry is Allergic to Money

Here’s the real reason most books don’t sell—and why no one wants to admit it