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Beyond the Game: This Atlanta Monument is a Tombstone For…Gravity?

This stone at Emory University is a marker of one millionaire's personal vendetta against gravity.   

This episode is part of our ongoing coverage of the soccer world championship. In each episode, we take you beyond the stadium, and to a nearby wonder that’s off the beaten track.


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The pressure

The pressure Daniel Stenberg on the unprecedented level of pressure the curl team are facing right now thanks to the deluge of (credible) AI-assisted security issues being reported. The rate of incoming security reports is 4-5 times higher than it was in 2024 and double the...

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What is the “Alex Lifeson Chord”? #guitarist #alexlifeson #shorts

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Text • Cheri Lucas Rowlands

Short Naps, Long Hours: How Autism Clinics Squeeze Medicaid Dollars Out of Preschoolers

"The industry has grown rapidly, straining state budgets. A focus on finances has led to overbilling, fraud and even harm."

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Text • Jason Kottke

My Son’s Math Homework Is Essentially Just Pokémon ....

My Son’s Math Homework Is Essentially Just Pokémon. “As I watched my son play Prodigy, it became clear there wasn’t much learning happening. In about 10 minutes of gameplay, he spent less than 30 seconds answering math questions.”

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Text • Jason Kottke

The first-ever Enhanced Games (open to those using...

The first-ever Enhanced Games (open to those using performance-enhancing drugs) featured 42 athletes, three of whom were competing clean. All three won their respective events.

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Text • Jason Kottke

Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence

Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical letter yesterday; it’s entitled Magnifica Humanitas Of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV On Safeguarding the Human Person In the Time of Artificial Intelligence. It is very long and I haven’t been able to read the whole thing; here’s a tast...

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Text • Jason Kottke

250 to 250. We Are America.

The 250th birthday of the United States is coming up and I know many of us are having a tough time feeling celebratory because *waves hands around at everything*. To mark the occasion in a decidedly non-jingoistic manner, historian Heather Cox Richardson is producing a ser...

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Text • Jason Kottke

Tenderly Tracking My Husband . “Knowing when to...

Tenderly Tracking My Husband. “Knowing when to step in and tell a loved one with [Alzheimer’s] that they can no longer do something because it’s too risky is a game of chance we caregivers hate to play.” Lovely & heartbreaking.

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Text • Cheri Lucas Rowlands

Comparisons as Predictable as the Sunrise

"An analysis of 200,000 similes from popular fiction."

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(comic) Shoutout to Kevin

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Great title for a book: Fascist Yoga . “Ever...

Great title for a book: Fascist Yoga. “Ever since, the world of yoga has been full of grifters, occultists and white supremacists, all out to exploit and recruit via the medium of exercise.”

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Text • Kate Mothes

Eight London Underground Restrooms Get Vibrant Refurbs with Illustrated Tiles

Eight London Underground Restrooms Get Vibrant Refurbs with Illustrated TilesHugh Broughton Architects incorporates designs by artist and illustrator James Lambert, who interprets the distinctive character of each location.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Eight London Underground Restrooms Get Vibrant Refurbs with Illustrated Tiles appeared first on Colossal.

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Text • Krista Stevens

I Spent a Week Recording Myself Doing Chores for Money. Who’s the Robot Now?

"Cooking. Doing laundry. Tidying up. All your household tasks can be turned into data to train future humanoids—if you’re prepared for the consequences."

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Pinterest Has Become Unusable . “When I started...

Pinterest Has Become Unusable. “When I started painting again in January, I went back to Pinterest and found it overrun with AI slop. It’s continued to get worse and worse, and it’s now basically unusable.”

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Stephen Colbert Hosts Only in Monroe

The day after ending his run on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert hosted a show called Only in Monroe on a Michigan public access channel. His musical director for the show was Jack White, nestled onstage between a boombo and a reel-to-reel recorder. His guests included Byron...

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An unusual new-to-me animal: the aardwolf . It’s a...

An unusual new-to-me animal: the aardwolf. It’s a hyena but it eats insects like an aardvark. The cubs are incredibly cute.

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Microsoft Copilot Cowork Exfiltrates Files

Microsoft Copilot Cowork Exfiltrates Files The biggest challenge in designing agentic systems continues to be preventing them from enabling attackers to exfiltrate data. In this case Microsoft Copilot Cowork (yes, that's a real product name) was allowing agents to send email...

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Quoting Paul Graham

A lot of the emails I get from founders are now written in a hard-hitting journalistic style. I know they're written by AI, because no founder ever wrote this way before. And once you realize something is written by AI, it's hard not to ignore it.

I have never knowingly finished reading an email signed by a human but written by AI. It feels like being lied to, and who would stand for that?

[...] It makes me think less of the author. It means they can't write well unaided (or feel they can't), and that they're trying to trick me.

It's not impressive to use AI to write stuff for you; any teenager can do that.

— Paul Graham

Tags: writing, ai-misuse, paul-graham, generative-ai, ai, llms

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California Brown Pelican, Snowy Egret, California Sea Lion, Harbor Seal

California Brown Pelican, Snowy Egret, California Sea Lion, Harbor Seal, in San Mateo County, CA, US We took our new folding kayak out in the harbor and saw sea lions and harbor seals chilling on the docks.