Maria Thomas

A NYE appropriate picture too!

Sorrento is the kind of Italian town that makes you understand the obsession with the Amalfi Coast. Lemon groves, cliffside views, old streets, and sunsets over the Bay of Naples all make it hard to leave.

When you see somebody calling it "literary gatekeeping" to suggest that you need to read *all* of a book to read all of a book, you start to understand why some people think writing a 10-page paper without ChatGPT is impossible. We are cooked.

Congratulations, Twitter is good again.

crocheted my friends daughter a very hungry caterpillar for her 1st birthday 🐛🧁🍓

Pope Leo XIV on AI: “Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word [disarmed] is strong I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity.”

GOOD NEWS: A record-breaking 52,019 puffins have been counted on Skomer Island off the Welsh coast, smashing last year’s all-time record of 43,626!

@icod lol

Without moving from my hammock I've caused a massive pile on on #Mumsnet Good to know I've still got it.

That inevitable 40°C day in July is going to be apocalyptic.

Found an AC unit in a flat we bought 25 years ago and it has moved with us 5 times

yeah man London just like, idk its generational, once you go there you can't go anywhere else because nothing beats it

I’m not in any way religious but this guy might turn me

God no

Fucking he’ll

I didn't know this about tawny owls: 'As they do not like flying over water, they are not present on the Isles of Man or Wight, Outer Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland or even Ireland.'

Expectation and Reality

"Hurt" is not an original by Johnny Cash. The song was written by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) in 1994 for the album The Downward Spiral. Rick Rubin had to insist several times on Cash recording his version, at first Johnny found the idea completely insane because the original version is industrial and noisy. At 71, already very ill, almost blind and with trembling hands, Cash completely transformed the band. The iconic video, directed by Mark Romanek, was filmed at the House of Cash (his own museum). June Carter Cash appears looking at him fondly, the video was shot in February 2003, a few months before she died (May) and Johnny himself (September). Trent Reznor was so moved that he declared, "This song is not mine anymore." It is considered one of the best covers of all time.

I’m currently in Lofoten, Norway. I’ve never been anywhere like this before. It’s the most bizarre place I’ve ever been. For one, during the summer the sun does not set. 24 hours of daylight every day. The locals call it the Midnight Sun. It’s currently 12 AM and people are still hiking. Kids are still playing outside. After five days of consistent daylight I’m in a euphoric, trance-like dream state. Everyone should experience this at least once.

Brené Brown, researcher and author, on the contradiction she keeps hearing in rooms full of tech billionaires: Her work puts her in rooms where the founders and CEOs of major tech platforms talk openly about how they think. What @BreneBrown hears there unsettles her: "So I hear someone say, 'Hey, you know, tech billionaire, what should my kids study? I'm worried for my kids… they should study coding, physics,' and then five minutes later, as if that answer didn't happen, someone will say, 'What do you attribute your success to?' I mean deeply when you think about it, and the same person will say, 'My deep reading of philosophy and the stoics.'" The contradiction is what stops her: the same people crediting philosophy and the liberal arts for their own success are telling other parents their kids should focus on coding and physics. That gap leads her to a bigger, more uncomfortable question: "I start to extrapolate from there and wonder if there is a thinking class that's emerging where they're like, 'We're going to read philosophy and we're going to read the liberal arts and we're going to study history, and the rest of you just keep scrolling. Don't worry about the big words. We'll handle all the big words for you.'" She points to Steve Jobs as an early signal of the same pattern: "It's like when they asked Steve Jobs, 'Boy, your kids must love the iPad.' Steve Jobs said, 'My kids don't have an iPad.' And then his biographer who spent time with his family said he wasn't kidding. There's no technology. At dinner, they're talking about art and history." The takeaway is simple but uncomfortable. The people building these platforms are protecting their own kids from them, and giving them books, ideas, and real conversation instead. So why are the rest of us being sold something different?

made a site that picks the closest rothko for how the weather feels outside your window