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Ball-Ache, Cow Pussy, and Dick Hair: Vulgarity in Chinese Internet Language
In July 2024, ByteDance’s Douyin app—the Chinese version of TikTok—introduced a system through which live streamers are ranked on a six-tier scale of ‘health points’ (健康分 jiankangfen), with the platform now deducting points if live streamers commit offences including unhealthy behaviour, misinformat...
archive.ph: https://archive.ph/wYZKR
BBC - Doughnuts, drones and a dancer: Photos of the week
A selection of news photographs from around the world.
We developed a way to use light to dismantle PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ – long-lasting environmental pollutants
PFAS are made up of a chain of incredibly strong carbon-fluorine bonds, which make them difficult to break down.
> PFAS are made up of a chain of incredibly strong carbon-fluorine bonds, which make them difficult to break down.
Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08327-7
5 Superstitious Stories for Friday the 13th - Atlas Obscura
Explore these tales of death, sacrifice, and bad omens—if you dare.
> This Friday the 13th, watch out for deep sea serpents and deathwatch beetles, and even something as innocent as a rainbow. The origins of Friday the 13th are murky, with possible connections to Judas being the 13th guest at the Last Supper, or the Knights Templar being condemned on a Friday the 13th. Just like the holiday, many superstitions have mysterious origins. We often hang on to old ideas without knowing how they came about.
No one is radicalized by pain
I’ve been deeply upset about an article going around about the UHC shooter, which suggests Luigi Mangioni was radicalized by pain. The article gives no evidence, and makes no convincing argument. It expects you to look at the negative space: because Luigi “had options”, and “could have been almost a...
Syrian Activists Feared Assad’s Retaliation. His Fall Frees Them to Speak Openly.
The Syrian regime’s ouster unleashed a collective unmasking across the country and its vast diaspora.
provided without an archive as archive.ph and archive.is do not properly archive The Intercept, if there is a service that does please let me know
12ft.io: https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2024%2F12%2F12%2Fassad-syria-exile-activists-censorship%2F
Resisting Local Authoritarianism and Multipolar Imperialisms in Georgia
The protests in Georgia point beyond a choice between Europe and Russia, rejecting both local authoritarian rule and foreign economic domination.
archive.ph: https://archive.ph/O7kHX
Playing with the Rules at Duck Express: Workplace Banter at a Chinese Restaurant in Nairobi
‘I’m getting good at dealing with these Chinese guys,’ Grace (a pseudonym, as are all other names of people and businesses in this essay) told me one day after joking around with a customer. Grace was one of two full-time Kenyan employees working the counter at Duck Express, a small takeaway Chinese...
archive.ph: https://archive.ph/XsjFs
AI Jesus might ‘listen’ to your confession, but it can’t absolve your sins − a scholar of Catholicism explains
In the future, a program like AI Jesus could be used to hear confessions around the clock. But with no experience of having a human body, it cannot engage or absolve human sins.
> In the future, a program like AI Jesus could be used to hear confessions around the clock. But with no experience of having a human body, it cannot engage or absolve human sins.
To map the vibration of the universe, astronomers built a detector the size of the galaxy
A new effort to map the rumblings in spacetime caused by enormous black hole collisions paints a surprisingly loud and lopsided picture of the universe.
> A new effort to map the rumblings in spacetime caused by enormous black hole collisions paints a surprisingly loud and lopsided picture of the universe.
NEOWISE, the NASA mission that cataloged objects around Earth for over a decade, has come to an end
Once the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer couldn’t survey widely anymore, NASA scientists switched gears and began using the spacecraft for planetary defense.
> Once the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer couldn’t survey widely anymore, NASA scientists switched gears and began using the spacecraft for planetary defense.
British Special Forces join drone hunt at RAF Lakenheath
Those hobbyists better watchout for SAS...
Archive : https://archive.is/3WZw5
On the 40th Anniversary Poisons Continue to Drip Into Bhopal’s Open Wound – THE BHOPAL MEDICAL APPEAL
archive.ph: https://archive.ph/NfmIq
Music can change how you feel about the past
Neuroscientists found that music cannot only influence your emotions in the present − it can also alter how you remember your memories.
> Neuroscientists found that music cannot only influence your emotions in the present − it can also alter how you remember your memories.
Journalist and human rights activist Murat Temirov, an ethnic Circassian from Russia, talks about Circassians
How Circassians maintain connections despite being scattered across the world, whether there is a unified Circassian national movement, and what its goals are.
archive.ph: https://archive.ph/kScnU
This secret society is on a mission to change the way we eat
Replacing meat with legumes would reap huge health and climate benefits, says "the Legumati."
archive.ph: https://archive.ph/gb3XB
Why are drones flying near US airbases in Suffolk and Norfolk?
In a village close to a military site, residents report aerial vehicles hovering above their houses.
BBC interviewed locals :
Casseem Campbell, 28, said he had seen objects above his house in Beck Row.
He described seeing a triangle-shaped aerial vehicle, which was "a grey, dark colour", in one of two evening sightings of drones he had made in the past week.
"They were really noisy and had lights. They looked official to be honest.
"If they are a threat, why aren’t they being shot down? Why let them fly over if they’re sinister?"
‘You’re a slut!’: Judi Dench reveals parrot’s pet name for her
Award-winning actor, who turns 90 next week, says ‘everyone should have a parrot’ like her African grey Sweetie
> Award-winning actor, who turns 90 next week, says ‘everyone should have a parrot’ like her African grey Sweetie
The forgotten street found behind a hidden library door
The passageway gives a glimpse of how Edinburgh looked centuries ago.
The Killing of Hind Rajab - Forensic Architecture
> Working closely with journalists from Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines, Forensic Architecture collaborated with Earshot to examine the circumstances surrounding the killing of Hind Rajab, her four cousins, her aunt and uncle, and the two paramedics who came to her rescue. > > Our investigation sought to answer the following questions: Where were the Israeli military vehicles located the day that Hind’s car was attacked? From what position and proximity was Hind’s 15-year-old cousin Layan killed after being connected by phone to Palestine Red Crescent dispatchers? Would it have been possible for the shooter to see Layan before killing her? What type of munition was used? From what position and direction was the ambulance shot? Could answers to these questions help us to identify the perpetrators of the shootings?