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A group of biologists based at Stanford has discovered a new form of life, unrelated to any known animal, plant, bacteria, archea or virus. Known as obelisks, they consists of tiny circular fragments of RNA, without a protein coating (like viruses have). These were discovered by computer-aided searching through tens of thousands of RNA sequences and according to the authors "they define the working...

Two short speculative stories in which pairs of women figure out some things about their relationships. "Twenty Thousand Last Meals on an Exploding Station" by Ann LeBlanc, published 2021 in Mermaids Monthly: "Riles Yalten has approximately thirty minutes before she dies, and that's just enough time to try the new gravlax place on level sixteen." "The Freedom to Decide" by W. L. Bolm, published...

A deliciously "naughty" (but SFW) examination of long, pointy-toed shoes and the moral panic they provoked. "Aside from the sinful association of fleshly pleasures, clerics were concerned that the long toe-pieces prevented people from kneeling in the approved obeisant manner."Can it be said they weren't responsible for the pestilence?!

A short comic about a farmer and a god of small things, based on a tumblr writing prompt and several collaborative replies.

Before being Rednoted (recently), but after sabotaging attendance at Donald Trump's 2020 campaign rally, TikTok users discovered Donghua Jinlong is the only choice when you're looking for High Quality Industrial Food Grade and New Pharmaceutical Glycine (and then going full dada). What does this meme say about TikTok, the future of free speech and the internet? Depending where you are, you may now or...

Indigenous doctors from across the globe point to the benefits of first languages in health. Hundreds of Indigenous doctors have converged from across the globe to share their tips for good health.

I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. And this is a dangerous — and that's the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultrawealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally...

I'd Rather Be Sick Than Eat Progresso Soup Drops Ever Again you may ask. is this real? but what is reality anyway

The 80s were long ago and, in terms of socially acceptable comedy, far away. (CW: Brett Kavanaugh and screen piggishness)Private Lessons (1981) Goin' All the Way! (1982) Porky's (1982) with Kim Cattrall Zapped! (1982) Class (1983) with Andrew McCarthy and Rob Lowe Losin' It (1983) with Tom Cruise My Tutor (1983) Private School (1983) with Matthew Modine and Phoebe Cates Spring Break (1983) Bachelor...

Is there something you can do on your phone that's the opposite of doom-scrolling? It would probably need to be cute and encouraging and maybe it somehow allows friends to support each other... That's basically what Finch is trying to do. Sadly, their own website provides very little information about what using the app is like, so I've selected some reviews to give you...

Israel and Hamas have agreed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal following 15 months of war, mediators Qatar and the US say. The ceasefire deal will take effect on 19 January, but a long-term truce is still being negotiated. BBC live coverage. Al Jazeera live coverage.

Andreas Wannerstedt is a Stockholm based artist and art director who crafts unique 3D sculptures and mesmerizing looping animations. The imagery of Andreas is both sophisticated and whimsical, featuring simple and playful geometric shapes in balanced compositions, together with organic textures and harmonizing color palettes.

Until 2020 Diamond Comic Distributors had a decades-long near-monopoly as supplier of comics & merchandise to the North American direct market. This changed following the arrival of COVID-19 when many of the biggest publishers signed deals with new distributors. Yesterday Diamond announced that it had filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.Over the years Diamond has...

"[Joe] Strechay has a unique role in the entertainment business: making sure people with visual impairments are portrayed realistically -- well, at least as realistically as they can be in a sci-fi show about a post-apocalyptic world where everyone is sightless."

Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza If you want current updates on the situation in Gaza, please check the current I/P thread. This post is to focus on the story of one queer Palestinian trying to survive under very extreme circumstances.

Alice is Missing is a stunningly beautiful storytelling game that delivers an utterly unique and unforgettable experience. ... A high school student named Alice has gone missing, and the players will take on the roles of her friends as they try to figure out what happened while dealing with the emotional trauma of her disappearance. The central conceit of the game is this: You...

"Sections of the Alphabet, a guide" is a short Tumblr post that describes the 26 letters as belonging to 5 distinct neighborhoods. "The heavy lifters in this area draw a sharp disparity with Q, which is unique for its specialist role."

"The famous king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar II was lately enthroned when a group of Phoenician sailors watched their boat sink in shallow water off the coast of Spain ... The sailors would have been beside themselves watching the boat go down in just 7 feet of water, but before they could recover it and bring it to the shore around 65 yards away, a...

Vietnam fines reckless drivers half the average annual salary. Vietnam, where 11,500 people die in traffic accidents every year, has introduced severe new penalties for those who break road rules as well as bounties for those who dob them in.

The American Dialect Society has selected rawdog as Word of the Year for 2024."The vote is the longest-running such vote anywhere, the only one not tied to commercial interests, and the word-of-the-year event up to which all others lead. It is fully informed by the members' expertise in the study of words, but it is far from a solemn occasion."

Now the outlines of a popular political movement are becoming clearer, and this movement has no relation at all to the right or the left as we know them. The philosophers of the Enlightenment, whose belief in the possibility of law-based democratic states gave us both the American and French Revolutions, railed against what they called obscurantism: darkness, obfuscation, irrationality. But the prophets of...