So sickening

This is truly some cheap geopolitical analysis, the article attempts to redeem itself towards the but, Jesus, talk about clickbait. They’re literally reducing half of a continent to a monolith, disregarding the specific reality and conditions of the individual countries. Africa is indeed a country for the BBC, it appears.

Is there any incentive other than showing who’s boss on the internet? I struggle to see how the amount of time and energy involved in moderating just one community, let alone multiple ones, are worth it just to get a power high. It seems exhausting.

And now they’re closing the Acropolis during the hottest hours as a precautionary measure

BBC News - Europe heatwave: Extreme heat leads to Greece Acropolis closure https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66202093

Indeed. One can only wish to live in exceedingly boring times…

“Interesting” - the understatement of the century

About the MSG hysteria, it’s not even rooted in actual medical data, just run-of-the-mill xenophobia, which in itself is absolutely wild to me. It’s like a whole chunk of the population collectively decided to develop the palate of a toddler, turning up their nose to “foreign” food.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate “Researchers, doctors, and activists have tied the controversy about MSG to xenophobia and racism against Chinese culture,[62][63][64][65][66] saying that East Asian cuisine is being targeted while the widespread use of MSG in other processed food hasn’t been stigmatized.[67] These activists have claimed that the perpetuation of the negative image of MSG through the Chinese restaurant syndrome was caused by “xenophobic” or “racist” biases.[68][69]”

Extremadura is not a plant-free desert landscape. Not yet, anyway.

You’re experiencing what Kant called the sublime. "Feelings of the beautiful “occasion a pleasant sensation but one that is joyous and smiling.” On the other hand, feelings of the sublime “arouse enjoyment but with horror.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_the_Feeling_of_the_Beautiful_and_Sublime#:~:text=In this section%2C Kant gives,the sublime into three kinds.

Eeeh… Pro-Russians gotta Russian

The robots

What a fucking shitstain

It’s easy to point fingers, but I would bet any of us would buckle under the pressure of free pizza…

"To see whether a small incentive could influence a decision about privacy, researchers offered one group of students a free pizza — as long as they disclosed three friends’ email addresses.

An overwhelming majority of the students chose pizza over protecting their friends’ privacy. Differences in gender or their stated personal sensitivities to privacy did not seem to have any effect on the choice."

Source https://fediscience.org/@petergleick/110675587849360118

Graphic of ice cover for the Antarctic is truly terrifying

Done

It’s a BBC alert, article is on their main page

It explains further down the key issues, with this admission from one of Raoult’s team: “this study had no protocol, no inclusion criteria and no initial research question.”

Jesus fucking Christ, just when you thought he couldn’t sink any lower… The damage this idiot did to the scientific community and science communication is unimaginable.