To create a habit that sticks, “start by scheduling reading into your day,” said Gloria Mark, an attention span expert with the University of California, Irvine. Read five pages during a lunch break or right before bed. @adithi-r1.bsky.social apnews.com/article/read...

A scheme to encourage climbers to bring their waste down from Mount Everest is being scrapped - with Nepalese authorities telling the BBC it has been a failure. @navinsinghkhadka.bsky.social bbc.com/news/article...

I grew up in Lexington MA, telling the story of the start of the American Revolution to visitors day after day. Watching the king's Xmas message--a mature salute to compassion, diversity, kindness, and tolerance--I find myself wondering if maybe we were a bit hasty www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ciqg...

“Swaths of the Permian appear to be on the verge of geological malfunction.” *geological malfunction* 😯 euphemism for our time.

Started reading THEY POISONED THE WORLD by @mariahblake.bsky.social a superb book of investigative journalism, highly recommend by notable authors. @elizkolbert.bsky.social @jeffgoodell.bsky.social @billmckibben.bsky.social @deborahb.bsky.social @danfagin.bsky.social Available in Canada now

In 2026, Odysseus the wanderer returns—though this time arriving in cinemas, rather than a ship. Bronze-age Greece is, clearly, not the modern era. But there are parallels

Meera Syal also made dame while England women’s football and rugby winners feature prominently www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The president has increased the amount of invective he’s spewed against women and people of color @hellmanmd.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

"Health officials in Denmark and Germany...noted that the childhood vaccination schedule in [USA] had been tailored for the country’s large and diverse population and patchy system of medical care...'not at all fair to say look at Denmark unless you can match the other characteristics of Denmark.'"

The president has increased the amount of invective he’s spewed against women and people of color www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Here's what authors are saying about the Children’s Booker Prize. The prize, supported by AKO Foundation, will celebrate the best contemporary fiction for children aged eight to 12 years old, written in or translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.

French actress Brigitte Bardot, an emblem of women’s emancipation and sexual liberation in the 1950s and 1960s, has died at age 91 “Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X. “We’re mourning a legend of the century.” www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Jewish refugees, to be specific.

It took a lot of recent refugees gathered together at Los Alamos to make an atom bomb. Not just Fermi.

“A large body of research by independent scientists has linked forever chemicals to serious health problems, including obesity, infertility, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, neurological problems, immune suppression, and life-threatening pregnancy complications.” @mariahblake.bsky.social

Or check out my excerpt in @theatlantic.com. 5/ www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

For a glimpse at some of the book’s key themes, see my recent essay in @nytimes.com about the unlikely activists who are fighting to turn off the tap on forever chemicals—and making serious headway, even under the Trump administration. 4/ www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/o...

The epidemic of toxic flattery is spreading What do AI, Trump’s cabinet and the academy have in common? They aim to please. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

How Vance brokered a truce between Trump and Musk “Best to avoid politics where possible,” he told podcaster Nikhil Kamath recently, describing it as a “blood sport.” @nikhilkamath.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

In What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters, Nestle doesn’t hold back. @marionnestle.bsky.social civileats.com/2025/11/24/h...

Dynamic mounds made of methane at a depth of some 3,640 meters act like “frozen reefs” for a bizarre array of deep-sea creatures, new observations reveal

The Pentagon and A.I. Giants Have a Weakness. Both Need China’s Batteries As warfare is reinvented in Ukraine, and Silicon Valley races to maintain its A.I. lead, China’s battery dominance is raising alarms far beyond the auto industry. @hirokotabuchi.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/c...

Very glad so many people liked the Mary Beard episode of the David Frum Show. Tonight we drop audio -and tomorrow video - of a dialogue with @jonrauch.bsky.social on the connection between true knowledge and political freedom. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFF...

And a ground-level view of one part of the brightest, most vibrant city on the planet at Christmas.

Video has emerged of Gen Xu Qinxian of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at his court martial in 1990, explaining why he refused orders to crush the Tiananmen Square protests. Xu said he didn’t want to become “a sinner in history”. He was given a 5 year sentence.

I'm bowled over by how beautifully NewsHour distilled the story of the community I had the privilege of following for my book. A heartfelt thanks to William Brangham and his crew for lifting up the voices of residents and spreading awareness about the scourge of #PFAS. youtube.com/watch?v=cJYU...

Today is the day! After eight long years, They Poisoned the World, is out. The book interweaves the moving story of a small town on the frontlines of an epic global crisis with a deep investigation of one the most brazen cover-ups in corporate history. 1/

“I've reported on more than 40 wars around the world during my career, which goes back to the 1960s. I watched the Cold War reach its height, then simply evaporate.” @johnsimpsonnews.bsky.social bbc.com/news/article...

Wisdom from Robert Redford, Jane Goodall and others who died in 2025 www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/i...

A new line of research has revealed a surprising finding about how the presence of wolves helps keep people safe. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Why poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal believed Plato’s ideas contribute to intellectual stagnation scroll.in/article/1088...

When the 800-foot carrier the Zhen Hua 29 sailed into the Port of Kingston, Jamaica, in October, it had completed one of the longest shipping runs in the world: three-and-a-half-months, 19,687 nautical miles across three oceans. www.wsj.com/articles/thr...

Beef is more expensive than ever, putting steakhouses in a pinch The bill on a dinner for four can easily climb to $500. But after accounting for the restaurant’s costs—from the steak to rent—profits from the meal amount to around $25. www.wsj.com/business/hos...

Do hot baths improve endurance? Will creatine bolster your brain power? Does pickle juice prevent cramp? Here’s what we learned about living well this year www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

“The practice of slavery persists in the Middle East today in shadowy forms. In Lebanon and Qatar, for instance, the “kafala system” cycles African migrants into coercive contracts as maids or construction workers.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/b...

Bernie Sanders criticizes AI as ‘the most consequential technology in humanity’

Environmentalists argue that defining Aravalli hills by height risks leaving numerous lower, scrub-covered but ecologically critical hills unprotected from mining and construction. bbc.com/news/article...

The practice of slavery persists in the Middle East today in shadowy forms. In Lebanon and Qatar, for instance, the “kafala system” cycles African migrants into coercive contracts as maids or construction workers. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/b...

In his final My Ride column, A.J. Baime reflects on the roughly 600 stories he has found over 12 years In that time, I have published roughly 600 My Ride columns. This article marks my final one. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

2025: The year the crusade to define India as a Hindu rashtra intensified The programme to reify Indian identity was not conducted only on the borders, but also in the heartland with the special intensive revision of voter lists. @nareshfernandes.bsky.social scroll.in/article/1089...

A massive gold discovery hidden deep beneath China could rewrite everything we thought we knew about the planet’s remaining resources. With ore so rich it defies global averages, and early figures pointing to a scale never seen before. indiandefencereview.com/geologists-u...

Malaria has killed more people than any disease in history. Even with significant progress over the last two decades, there were 610,000 malaria deaths globally last year, almost all of them African children. @stephanienolen.bsky.social Gift 🔗 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/h...

"As 2025 comes to a close, I’ve been thinking about the arc of this year - how it felt different.... ...My word for the year was unrushed..." Sharing more in my year-end essay...If this resonates, I hope you’ll read along on Decks and Diapers decksanddiapers.substack.com/p/what-i-lea...

Ramachandra Guha: Gandhi, Lenin and the antidote to democratic backsliding The Russian and the Indian both aimed to emancipate the poor and end injustice. Which one seems more relevant now? scroll.in/article/1089...

Brigitte Bardot: The blonde bombshell who revolutionised French cinema bbc.com/news/article...

The therapists are being gaslit by gaslighting—they’re being told that it’s happening, but it’s not. @olgakhazan.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/family/2025/...

Brigitte Bardot: the zeitgeist-force who was France’s most sensational export | Peter Bradshaw

Nice haul of books for Christmas! #booksky