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The Story That’s Holding Taylor Swift Back
The artist is an extraordinarily powerful woman who still, somehow, feels like she has no real power at all.
The year was 2006. Popular music was, for women, a pretty desolate landscape. Songs such as âMy Humpsâ and âButtonsâ served up shimmering, grinding strip-pop, while dull, minor-key objectification infused âSmack That,â âMoney Maker,â and similar tracks. In the video for âLondon Bridge,â the singer and former child star Fergie gave a lap dance to a silent, immotive Kingâs Guardsman, barely pausing to lick his uniform. For âMs. New Booty,â the rapper Bubba Sparxxx staged a mock infomercial for a product offering women âa little more frosting in your cakes ⦠cantaloupes in your jeans,â before proselytizing the message of the era: âGet it ripe, get it right, get it tight.â
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Columbia Has Resorted to Pedagogy Theater
Columbia University shut down all in-person classes on Monday, and faculty and staff were encouraged to work remotely. âWe need a reset,â President Minouche Shafik said, in reference to what she called the ârancorâ around pro-Palestinian rallies on campus, as well as the arrestâwith her encouragementâof more than 100 student protesters last week. Also on Monday, Columbiaâs office of the provost put out guidance saying that âvirtual learning optionsâ should be made available to students in all classes on the universityâs main campus until the term ends next week. âSafety is our highest priority,â that statement reads.
By moving its coursework online, the administration has sent an important set of messages to the public. In the midst of what it says is an emergency, the school asserts that it is still delivering its core service to students. It affirms that universities share the publicâs perception that education, per seâas opposed to research, entertainment, community-building, or any of the other elements of the college experienceâis central to their mission. And it implies that Columbia is carrying out its duties of oversight and care for students.
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Photos: Chile’s Amazing National Parks
Across the length of Chile, stretching 2,650 miles (4,265 kilometers) from north to south, more than 40 national parks have been established in the past century, protecting many endangered species, wild landscapes, and natural wonders. Collected below are images of several of these parks, from Lauca National Park, in the altiplano of Chileâs far north, to the dramatic mountains of Torres del Paine National Park, in the southern Patagonia region.
A view of the Cuernos del Paine, a cluster of steep granite peaks in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park. #
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Welcome to the TikTok Meltdown
So: Youâve decided to force a multibillion-dollar technology company with ties to China to divest from its powerful social-video app. Congratulations! Hereâs whatâs next: *awful gurgling noises*
Yesterday evening, the Senate passed a billâappended to a $95 billion foreign-aid packageâthat would compel ByteDance, TikTokâs parent company, to sell the app within about nine months or face a ban in the United States. President Joe Biden signed the bill this morning, initiating what is likely to be a rushed, chaotic, technologically and logistically complex legal process that is likely to please almost no one.
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How Bird Flu Is Shaping People’s Lives
A conversation with Katherine J. Wu about the disease sweeping through animals and raising food-safety questions
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
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What to do when racing thoughts keep you up at night | Psyche Ideas
is a commissioning editor at Psyche. He was previously a senior editor at Psychology Today.
It’s time for bed. You lay down, pull up the cover, close your eyes, and then… the thoughts come rushing in. Maybe you’re replaying a conversation from earlier in the day, chewing on a piece of unhappy news, or thinking ahead to tomorrow’s to-do list. Perhaps you start worrying about sleep itself and whether you’ll get enough of it. With the lights out and nothing else to do, it suddenly seems impossible not to focus on these thoughts. So you lie there and wait anxiously for sleep to come.
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Bottles of 250-Year-Old Cherries Discovered Beneath George Washington's Home
Researchers at Mount Vernon say that the stash still “bore the characteristic scent of cherry blossoms”
George Washington’s legacy is famously colored by myths: He never did wear wooden dentures, for instance, and he didn’t skip a silver dollar across the Potomac River.
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Paleontologists Unravel Secrets of 'Enigmatic' 33-Foot Prehistoric Shark After Fossil Discovery
Scientists didn’t know much about Ptychodus, an ancient shark genus, because its remains were usually just fragments. Now, complete fossils reveal its body shape and hunting habits
After years of uncertainty, a prehistoric shark mystery has at last been solved—thanks to the recent discovery of remarkably complete fossil skeletons in northeastern Mexico.
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The 'World's Largest Wildlife Crossing' Will Help Animals Walk Safely Over Eight Lanes of California Traffic
The 210-foot-long bridge across a busy freeway in Los Angeles County is expected to be finished in 2025
When freeways are built through their natural habitats, animals often end up suffering—and so do humans on the road. Every year, more than one million wildlife-vehicle collisions occur across America, resulting in 200 deaths and 26,000 injuries to drivers and passengers.
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This Rare Condition Makes Some People Get Drunk, Even When They Haven't Touched a Drop of Alcohol
A man in Belgium was acquitted of drunk driving charges this week, after doctors showed he has auto-brewery syndrome, which makes his body produce alcohol
In April 2022, police pulled over a brewery worker in Belgium and found that his blood alcohol level was more than four times the legal limit. He was pulled over again about a month later, with a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit.
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Thursday 25th April 2024
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