PICASSO: TWO WOMEN
RUNNING ON THE BEACH
Clothes are too trivial
for such breasts. such knees.
So globed with light.
The sea is blue without
restraint. Cloud-spattered
sky, an open mouth.
The blue air quickens
their gritty steps. Barefoot,
bare-breast, they run.
Not to their lovers.
Not with the wind.
They are
the wind. Hair drunk
on speed, they run
out of nothing into this
primary blue and white.
Their shadows run,
make dark
cross-hatches on the sand.
What I love is
that the women
never stop. They
run. Toward
us, who do not yet exist.
~ Oriana
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CLIMATE CHANGE TO IDENTITY: THE VITAL LESSONS IN METAMORPHOSES, OVID'S 2,000-YEAR-OLD POEM
The hunter Acteon was transformed into a stag who was then devoured by his own hounds
You might think that Ovid's Metamorphoses, an ancient compendium of the greatest Greek myths, would hold little relevance today. But its tales of desire and deceit reveal surprising parallels with contemporary concerns, from climate change and the refugee crisis to gender-based violence and identity.
Ovid's Metamorphoses isn't simply a collection of myths and legends – it is the collection of myths and legends. Taken largely from Greek sources, but written in Latin around 8 AD, it contains the most famous versions of the stories we're familiar with, from Perseus slaying Medusa to the vain Narcissus falling in love with his reflection. (below, the painting of Narcissus by Caravaggio)
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Its tales of desire, jealousy, cunning and deceit have offered endless inspiration for artists and writers over the centuries – and still feel surprisingly relevant."The Metamorphoses is an extraordinarily contemporary text," Fiona Cox, professor and author of Ovid's Presence in Contemporary Women's Fiction, tells the BBC. "Ovid's obsession with fluidity, plasticity and change enabled him to explore the limitations of bodies, the boundaries of gender and of sexuality, and the relationship between humans and the Earth as well as the animal kingdom," she says.
The shapeshifting nature of the myths themselves means that "each generation can use them for their own purpose. They are about universal values [and] the human condition. They confront us with the desires, the passions, the emotions that we all have," Frits Scholten tells the BBC. He is the curator of Metamorphoses, a new exhibition at The Rijksmuseum that explores the work's influence on art over the centuries.
Whether you go back to Ovid’s original telling of the myths, read one of their many contemporary reinterpretations, or explore the numerous artworks they have inspired, you will find these ancient tales have a striking amount to say about the world we live in today.
For Scholten, the dangers of human vanity and pride are ever present in Ovid. The myth of Narcissus falling in love with his reflection has long been used by artists such as Caravaggio to caution against such vanity. The story can't help but draw parallels with contemporary self-promotion on social media. "We have fallen in love with ourselves and forgotten what's going on around us," Scholten says.
But if we look at the reality behind our filtered selfies and snaps of the latest overcrowded Instagram hotspot, we'll find, Scholten says, as Narcissus did, that "in the end it's just a reflection and an illusion that did not bring us what we hoped for”.
Pygmalion's love for the statue of a woman he has created has long appealed to artists like Rodin, who have used the story as an excuse to celebrate their own skill. However, for Scholten, Pygmalion's belief that his creation is superior to all the real women around him has echoes of humankind's misplaced faith in its own invention, AI. "We human beings think we can control everything and have solutions for everything," he says.
But this arrogance has consequences. At least in George Bernard Shaw's retelling of the myth, later adapted into the hit 1964 film My Fair Lady, the Pygmalion character, Henry Higgins, finds that his "creation", Eliza, eventually develops a mind of her own. Should the same happen with AI, the results could be far less pleasing.
Pygmalion's love for the statue he created has appealed to artists like Rodin and Jean-Leon Gerôme (pictured, his Pygmalion and Galatea)
Those arrogant leaders currently in positions of power, be they tech giants or oligarchs, presidents or prime ministers, would do well to heed the story of the hunter Actaeon. When he spied Artemis bathing with her nymphs, the goddess was so furious that she transformed him into a stag who was then devoured by his own hounds. "All those world leaders so full of pride should be aware that things can change around," says Scholten.
Metamorphoses isn't all bleak warnings, however. In the story of the lovestruck Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, whose bodies, male and female, become united, we can see an ancient representation of gender fluidity. For Scholten, this is a suggestion that "we should take everyone as unique human beings and not deviations of the norm. The ambiguity that is in nature itself is in Ovid”.
‘A SURGE OF INTEREST IN OVID’
Although Ovid's influence has waxed and waned over the centuries, Cox points to Marina Warner's observation in her book Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds, that renewed interest in Ovid can often be seen at crossing points and thresholds. "It is, perhaps, unsurprising that the insecurity and upheaval of contemporary times should coincide with a surge of interest in Ovid," says Cox.
Warner herself drew on the myth of Leto, fated to wander the Earth endlessly with her children, to explore the difficulties facing refugees in her 2001 novel The Leto Bundle. "A sense of exile, of homelessness, is never far away in Ovid… there are many myths in which people are driven into exile or end up far from home," says Cox. "It's interesting that since Warner published this book, other writers have explored the plight of refugees through references to Ovid." She points to the French author Marie NDiaye, whose 2009 novel Three Strong Women was about exile and displacement in France and Senegal.
Scottish author Ali Smith has been inspired by Ovid in numerous ways, most notably in her 2007 novella Girl Meets Boy, a contemporary retelling of the myth of Ianthe and Iphis, who was born female and raised as a male, set in Scotland. Their story "allows Smith to explore the anguish experienced by those who have felt the need to disguise their gender, as well as to celebrate same-sex relationships several years before same-sex marriages became legal in England and Scotland," says Cox.
The disturbing rise of misogyny and gender-based violence is uncomfortably reflected in the multiple assaults suffered by female characters within The Metamorphoses. But while Ovid himself is often dismissive of these experiences, several female writers have recently sought to reclaim the narrative for their own ends.
Although Marie Darrieussecq denies Ovid was an influence for her international best-selling 1996 novel Pig Tales, its story of a young woman working at a dubious Parisian massage parlor who is gradually transformed into a sow, is widely seen as Ovidian. "In its exploration of sexual violence and its creation of a woman who eventually fights back, it anticipates Ovid's appearance within the #MeToo movement. More and more writers are exploring the rapes within the Metamorphoses from the perspective of the victim," says Cox.
Natalie Haynes did just that with her powerful reimagining of the story of Medusa in Stone Blind (2022). "By far the longest version of the story of Medusa is in Ovid's Metamorphoses," Haynes tells the BBC. But it is a version that left Haynes furious. Ovid recounts how Medusa was once a beautiful maiden, but after she was raped by Neptune in the temple of Minerva, the goddess chose to punish Medusa rather than her rapist by turning her into a monster with snakes for hair. To add insult to injury, her story is told from a male perspective – that of Perseus.
Although Haynes was certainly not going to use his version, she drew on elements of it to bring home the full horror of the abuse Medusa suffered, in particular a scene in which Perseus, having realized her head is valuable as a weapon, makes a bed of seaweed for it, as he does not want to put the severed neck on hard sand. "There is something so absolutely horrifying about the care he shows for her decapitated head relative to the care he showed for her as a living creature. I properly stole that moment in its entirety for Stone Blind," says Haynes.
Despite her fury at the way in which Medusa was treated, and how her myth has been so misunderstood, Haynes is gratified by recent changes in perspective. "Mostly she's become a symbol of survivors of sexual assault, and that is an extraordinary thing," she says. The very Ovidian transformation of Medusa from maligned monster to feminist heroine is evident in the changing way she has been portrayed in art. Where once she would have been a terrifying creature, SPAWN (2019) is a beautiful young woman seemingly contemplating her fate as snakes slither over her face.
One lesser known, ultimately more positive myth, which Haynes believes is currently ripe for adaptation, is that of Philemon and Baucis.
The gods come down from Olympus to test us – there's almost a fairytale element to it – and everyone turns them away from their doors except Philemon and Baucis. So they decide to punish everyone else by flooding the valley that they live in and drowning them, but Philemon and Baucis they take up to higher ground first. Having expressed a wish to eventually die together, when the time comes the gods transform them into trees and they grow together for the rest of time. "That feels to me so much like a fable for climate change," says Haynes.
Haynes's reading coincides with Scholten's view of the most vital message contained within The Metamorphoses. "Behind all these specific and more focused issues there is always this concern about the world and its future," he says. Although divine transformation is at the heart of the poem, the world is at threat if mere mortals "keep on looking at it as something we can change".
In order to protect our world and ourselves, perhaps we might learn to be more like Philemon and Baucis. As Haynes says, "a lot of their world does get destroyed, but they are not – they showed the correct humility in the face of forces they can't control. Which means they have an 'unexpected' afterlife, we might say, but not an unhappy one."
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260317-metamorphoses-ovids-2000-year-old-poem-says-a-lot-about-2026
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DONALD TRUMP’S MELIAN DIALOGUE
The interior of an ancient Greek terracotta kylix showing a warrior, c. 500 BC.
‘We live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.’ White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s comment concerning Greenland took me back to the confrontation between presidents Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office in February 2025. Trump harangued Zelensky with the refrain: ‘You don’t have the cards.’ By implicit contrast, the Americans had them all, or almost all – perhaps the Russians had a few. At Davos in January the Canadian prime minister encapsulated the point with Thucydides’ apothegm: ‘The strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.’
It comes from the ‘Melian Dialogue’, spliced into The History of the Peloponnesian War. In 416 BC leading citizens of the small island of Melos attempted to reason the Athenians out of their unprovoked demand that Melos either surrender or face conquest – a choice of enslavement or death. The words quoted by Mark Carney are those of the Athenians, who explicitly refuse to fabricate any ethical justification for their actions, thereby denying their Melian interlocutors any appeal to justice.
The Dialogue is celebrated as the pithiest analysis of the logic of great power imperialism ever written. It is invoked in any good textbook on international relations. But it was not the first extant consideration of the doctrine that might is right. As early as the eighth century BC, Hesiod sang of a hawk advising a nightingale clasped in its claws that resistance would be idiotic. Nor was it to be the last, or the most philosophically nuanced.
Plato wrote his dialogues in the first half of the fourth century BC, but they are all located in the lifetime of Socrates, Thucydides’ contemporary. In the most famous, The Republic, Socrates attempts to define what justice is. The opening book consists of interlocutors challenging him with their definitions. The most important, because the most problematic for Socrates, is the final gauntlet, thrown down by Thrasymachus. ‘Justice’, says Thrasymachus provocatively, ‘is nothing else than the interest of the stronger.’
He thereby presents justice as intrinsic exclusively to power relationships. The compliance of the weak with the strong, the obedience of ruled to ruler, is what is commonly termed justice, but only from the perspective of the ruled. ‘Injustice’, in counterpoint, is what is in the interest of the ruler, but only from the perspective of ‘those who have the power of subduing cities and nations’. In other words, justice from the point of view of the ruled is injustice from the point of view of the ruler. These widely used, conventionally ethical terms have no meaning without such a context. It follows that in truth the word justice is quite devoid of its generally accepted ethical content.
There is no proof that Plato had read Thucydides. But the parallels between the views of the Athenians in the Melian Dialogue and those of Thrasymachus in The Republic are so close that it is difficult not to believe that in putting them in the mouth of a notable sophist at large in late fifth-century Athens, Plato had the Dialogue in mind. Even if he had not read it, its primary focus is on the logic of Athens’ expansion, and that was a subject of great moment for Plato. The rest of The Republic is an attempt to answer the contention to which Thrasymachus had given brazen expression.
The only reason the Athenians offer for the annexation of Melos is Athenian security. Of course, Melos itself could offer no threat to Athens. Paradoxically, it was because Melos was so insignificant that the Athenians felt obliged to seize it. Should they have failed to do so, the suspicion might have arisen among their rivals that Athens was weaker than it seemed. Also, Athens’ reluctant allies might have become restive. It was in these senses alone that the Athenians perceived annexation to be advantageous.
It is therefore hardly surprising that Trump’s threats to an island vastly larger than Melos, justified by invoking US security interests, should have reminded Carney of the Melian Dialogue. Similar thoughts have occurred to others in the US and Germany. But there has been no attempt to explore the relevance of the more elaborate treatment of the theme which the Dialogue inspired in Plato. Thrasymachus might also be considered as a more sinuous harbinger of Miller’s ‘iron laws’.
Thrasymachus the Chalcedonian was reputed to be bombastic in his rhetorical style. His name – literally ‘bold fighter’ – implies that he was belligerent. He was an apt choice on Plato’s part to advance the case placed in his mouth in The Republic. In this incarnation, Thrasymachus might judge the sort of thing currently posted on Truth Social too crude even for his tastes; but the sentiments expressed are spot on.
Thucydides and Plato prompt still more disturbing thoughts. The former presents the Melian episode immediately before a far more ambitious attempt to annex the much bigger island of Sicily. Melos was a pushover, but the Sicilian expedition proved a military disaster. However, what did for Athens in the end was not that reverse, but, as the Athenians had dimly anticipated in the Dialogue, the closet hatred of their allies, stoked by resentment at their treatment by their masters. Their eventual betrayal made Spartan victory possible. Thucydides and Plato saw unprincipled Athenian aggrandizement as a function of what we might now term democratic populism. It turned out to be deeply perilous to the perpetrator. Unfortunately, Trump majored in Economics, not Classics.
Thrasymachus the Chalcedonian was reputed to be bombastic in his rhetorical style. His name – literally ‘bold fighter’ – implies that he was belligerent. He was an apt choice on Plato’s part to advance the case placed in his mouth in The Republic. In this incarnation, Thrasymachus might judge the sort of thing currently posted on Truth Social too crude even for his tastes. But the sentiments expressed are spot on.
Thucydides and Plato prompt still more disturbing thoughts. The former presents the Melian episode immediately before a far more ambitious attempt to annex the much bigger island of Sicily. Melos was a pushover, but the Sicilian expedition proved a military disaster. However, what did for Athens in the end was not that reverse, but, as the Athenians had dimly anticipated in the Dialogue, the closet hatred of their allies, stoked by resentment at their treatment by their masters. Their eventual betrayal made Spartan victory possible.
Thucydides and Plato saw unprincipled Athenian aggrandizement as a function of what we might now term democratic populism. It turned out to be deeply perilous to the perpetrator. Unfortunately, Trump majored in Economics, not Classics.
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/making-history/donald-trumps-melian-dialogue
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THE CRACKUP OF THE TRUMP ELITE
Joe Kent never should have been director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Given his complete lack of qualifications and his sympathies for those who wish harm to Americans (especially Russia), the scandal is his appointment, not his resignation.
His resignation reveals a fault line in the Trump elite, but not one that does credit to anyone. In basic political terms, it might be suggestive that fighting a doomed war will make it harder rather than easier for Trump to steal the coming election. ~ Timothy Snyder
IRAN WAR SPLITS OLDER AND YOUNGER CONSERVATIVES
A majority of the American public, polls suggest, have been against the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign in Iran from the day it started.
Republicans, however, have largely stuck by their president as the war approaches the end of its fourth week.
But that may be changing.
At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas, some of the party faithful expressed concern about why the US started this war, how Donald Trump is going to end it and whether the effort has been worth the costs.
"I just wish that there was more transparency on why we're doing what we're doing, that way you could send your loved one overseas and be OK with that," said Samantha Cassell. "I hope it comes to an end quick, because it's the cost of living, the oil and gas, the prices are only going to keep going up."
Cassell, who lives in Dallas, and her friend Joe Bolick were attending their first CPAC conference. He also had his doubts about the war.
"I don't see an endgame yet," he said. "What are we actually trying to achieve? Is it true regime change? What does that look like? Who to replace them? I think we kind of got ourselves stuck."
CPAC has been welcoming ground for Trump for a decade, shifting from a libertarian-leaning gathering to one dominated by Make America Great Again loyalists. The conservative conference has traditionally been held just outside Washington DC, but this year it moved to a sprawling hotel complex near Dallas, Texas.
The atmosphere at this year's conference was similar to the past. A cavernous main auditorium offered days full of panels and speakers. A floor below, the exhibit hall featured plenty of conservative kitsch – a bus with the president's face on it, Trump 2028 T-shirts and glasses commemorating the 2024 attempted assassination of Trump with "bulletproof" written on it and a faux bullet embedded in its side.
Some things were different, however.
Even more than a thousand miles from Washington DC, the war in Iran was a common topic of conversation. And if there has been a recurring theme among the dozens of people interviewed by the BBC, it is that the conflict is creating a generational divide within conservative ranks.
Toby Blair, a 19-year-old college student at the University of South Florida, traveled to Dallas for CPAC with his friend Shashank Yalamanchi, a first-year law student. Neither said that they believed the Iran war was in America's best interests.
"I don't like that it's become America's job to find bad people and get rid of them," he said. "Especially when you have so many people at home that can't afford basic things like groceries and gas."
Yalamanchi said that many young conservatives supported Trump because he promised to avoid getting tangled in overseas wars – that he was a realist when it came to foreign policy, not an interventionist.
Two US Marine amphibious units are currently deploying to the Gulf. Elements of a US paratrooper division are also reportedly on their way. The Pentagon is also considering a $200bn request for war funding. All of this amounts to the prospect that, despite the president's assurances, the Iranian conflict may not end anytime soon.
"We have a lot of issues domestically that we need to handle, and when we're spending our time and effort justifying and fighting a foreign war, we have less time and effort to spend changing things here at home," he said.
The members of the "Trump Tribe of Texas" – wearing matching gold sequined jackets and necklaces spelling out the president's name – were an older crowd. Its founder, Michael Manuel-Reaud, was attending his sixth CPAC and said Iran posed a danger that needed to be dealt with.
"If there's a threat for the United States getting bombed with a nuclear bomb, who can say no to that?" he asked. "[Trump] can't just quit. He's not going to stop until he finishes."
The rest of the tribe agreed.
"I trust Trump to know what he's doing," said Penny Crosby. "I just think whatever Trump believes needs to happen, needs to happen to take care of the job.
"He's protecting us, protecting the American people," Blake Zummo said. "They're coming for us."
If conference-goers here have been split over the war, on Thursday they were largely drowned out by vocal group of Iranian-Americans who have been boisterously celebrating the US military operation.
They chanted "Thank you Trump" during a morning panel featuring two women that had been injured in anti-regime protests in Iran. They filled the hallways with shouts of "regime change for Iran" while holding photographs of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah of Iran, who was deposed following the nation's 1979 Islamic revolution.
In the afternoon, the activists rallied outside the conference center, waving Iranian lion-and-sun flags from the Shah's time as monarch.
"It's just so refreshing to see... the people of Iran finally having a shot at liberation after 47 years of oppression and tyranny under the Islamic regime," said Nima Poursohi, who was sporting a "Persians for Trump" T-shirt and a "Make America Great Again" hat with "Persian Excursion" embroidered on the side.
"No other president dealt with Iran or had even the courage to take a step forward like President Trump has," she said.
The outpouring of emotion of Iranian-Americans at CPAC didn't surprise Matt Schlapp, the event's organizer.
"If you were deprived of freedom for a generation, you probably want to be pretty excited to get it back," he told the BBC. But he said there was "no guarantee" that would happen.
Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union, has been running CPAC for 12 years. And he noted that – Iranian activists aside – there was a debate over where the war goes from here.
"Conservatives trust President Trump," he said. "They give him a lot of latitude. But behind that is some concern about where this goes."
That concern wasn't just expressed among the rank-and-file at the conference. It also spilled out onto the conferences main stage.
*** On Thursday afternoon, former Congressman Matt Gaetz warned that, with thousands of new US soldiers heading to the Middle East, a ground invasion of Iran would make the US "poorer and less safe".
"It will mean higher gas prices higher food prices," he said, "and I'm not sure we would end up killing more terrorists than we would create." ***
The next day, on a panel that was titled "Breaking Stuff and Killing Bad Guys: The Case for Western Military Dominance", Erik Prince, founder of the military contractor Blackwater, painted a dark picture about the future of the war and dismissed the administration's "optimism" about a rapid, peaceful end to the fighting.
"We face an extremely difficult challenge," he said. "Iran doesn't have an independence day because they have not been conquered since the days of Alexander the Great."
When former Navy Seal Jason Redman, also on the panel, said that America had to finish the job in Iran, some in the crowd cheered and chanted "USA".
At the end of the panel, Prince offered a word of caution.
"I agree, USA all the way," be said, "but all the people who are cheering, make sure you put skin in the game."That elicited a round of applause from others in the crowd.
Recent polling by Pew Research sheds light on some of these cracks that have appeared in Trump's formerly rock solid political base.
While 79% of Republicans approve of how the president is handling the war, only 49% strongly approve. That number drops to 22% among those who "lean" Republican.
The age gap is also visible in Pew's results. While 84% of Republicans say they back Trump's war conduct, only 49% of those ages 18 to 29 feel that way.
Jim McLaughlin, Trump's longtime pollster, said that surveys overstate the divisions among conservatives – and that any friction within Trump's movement is temporary.
"It's only going to be a matter of time before we go back to $2 gas again. [Oriana: What planet is he from?] This is not going to be long and drawn out," he said. "We're having a little bit of a blip here with the Iran military operation, but once that's over, you're going to see prices go down again significantly." [Oriana: How naive can you get?]
Time will tell, but for the moment it may be setting off alarms for Trump and Republicans looking ahead to November's crucial midterm congressional elections.
Younger voters were a key part of the coalition that delivered the White House back to Trump in 2024. And even 80% overall support from Republicans, while still a high mark, could spell trouble if it is tepid and translates into lower enthusiasm – and lower turnout – during upcoming congressional campaigns.
Trump recently said that the US war in Iran is "winding down". On Friday night, he said he believed his base would stick with him because they don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons and they liked America protecting "certain allies" – such as Israel and the Arab Gulf states.
But wars have a way of evolving in unexpected ways, and the Iranian regime, Israel and America's Arab allies will have a say in events to come. But this CPAC conference hints that the pressure for the president to find an off-ramp from the conflict is starting to build.
"You have to be convinced that this is the right thing to do, particularly now that we are on the eve, potentially, of the insertion of American combat troops," former White House adviser Steve Bannon told the CPAC audience on Friday. "This is a debate that has to happen."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjd8e4px12ro
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Russia's Baltic port oil fires, the result of Ukraine's drone attacks, can be seen all the way from Finland.
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THE ANCIENT REASON THERE ARE 60 MINUTES IN AN HOUR
A mysterious 5,000-year-old decision led directly to how we still count time today.
In October 1793, the newly established French Republic embarked on an ill-fated experiment. It decided to change time.
The day, the revolutionaries decided, would now be divided by 10 hours, not 24. Each hour would have 100 minutes décimales in turn made up of 100 secondes décimales.
The time system was part of a wider revolutionary calendar which aimed to rationalize (and de-Christianize) the years' structure, including a new 10-day week. Work soon began to convert existing clocks to the decimal system. Town halls mounted decimal clocks and official activities were recorded using the new calendar.
It quickly began causing no end of headaches, says Finn Burridge, a science communicator at Royal Museums Greenwich in London, UK, home of the Royal Observatory and the place where Greenwich Meantime was established.
De-designing and converting existing clocks proved extremely tricky. The system isolated France from neighboring countries, while the rural population hated the day of rest becoming only every 10th day. Ultimately, decimal time lasted barely more than a year in France.
To understand how we started counting, and still count today, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute, though, we need to wind the clock back to an era before the dawn of timekeeping. Because it's the story of one of the earliest number systems that started us off on this track – and explains why this awkward system has long outlived the civilizations who invented it.
A base of 60
At the origin are the Sumerians, an ancient people who lived in Mesopotamia (roughly modern-day Iraq) from around 5300-1940BC and one of the first civilizations to ever form cities. Along with many other inventions including irrigation and the plow, they are credited with creating the first known writing system. This happened to include a number system based on the concept of 60.
Hold up your hand in front of you, bend a finger, and you'll see it has three joints. Count all the joints on the fingers of one hand (not including the thumb) and you'll reach 12. Count this 12 as one using a finger on your other hand and restart the count to 12 on the first hand, until all five fingers on your second hand are used. What have you just counted to? Sixty.
This is one of the speculative theories as to why the Sumerians based their emerging mathematical system on 60, not 10 – a decision that still has implications for how we measure time today.
A decimal clock shows the new time system introduced by the French Revolutionary Government in the 18th Century
Their development of written numbers was driven by a need to keep records for the increasingly large and complex farming system supporting their growing cities, says Martin Willis Monroe, an expert in cuneiform (the early writing systems of the ancient Middle East) cultures at the University of New Brunswick in Canada.
They began using small clay tablets, often the size of a smartphone or smaller, to keep track of numbers, impressing the details into soft clay. Other pictorial notations soon followed, developing into the Sumerians' famous cuneiform text.
It was only in the mid-19th Century that these clay tablets were uncovered and started being deciphered. They show that the Sumerians used a whole host of number systems, says Monroe, but the most prominent for mathematics, and thus ultimately astronomy and time, quickly became a so-called sexagesimal system.
The Sumerians used 60 in a comparable way to how we now use 10. When we reach nine, we move over a space to the left, write a one and add zero to the right, says Erica Meszaros, who recently completed a doctorate in history of the exact sciences and antiquity at Brown University in the US. "[It's the] same thing with sexagesimal: they get up to 59 and instead of having a number higher than 59 they just use a one, but one place over."
Despite the tempting finger-counting theory set out above, it's not clear why the Sumerians settled on a base-60 system. "There's not a ton of evidence where 60 itself comes from," says Monroe. Some scholars have suggested the sexagesimal system may well have predated the Sumerians.
Its ease of use, however, is clear. Sixty can be divided by one, two, three, four, five, six, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60 without the need for fractions or decimals. Contrast that with 10, which can be divided only by one, two, five and 10 and its advantages start to become clear. "If you're developing numbers for very practical purposes, like accounting, taxes or measuring fields and dividing fields for your sons' inheritance, having an easy way to do these mathematical operations can be really helpful," says Meszaros.
The origin of time
There's no clear evidence that the Sumerians used time, although timekeeping likely did exist in the region before the first documented use of sundials and water clocks by the Babylonians (an ancient Mesopotamian civilization which came after the Sumerians) in around 1000BC, says Monroe.
The first civilization known to divide the day into hours were the ancient Egyptians, says Rita Gautschy, an archaeoastronomer at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and this shows up in religious texts from around 2500BC. The first known objects related to hours initially referred to the 12 hours of the night: these were diagonal star clocks found on the inner lid of the coffins of noble Egyptians from between around 2100 and 1800BC, says Gautschy.
It's not certain why exactly the Egyptians chose a subdivision of 12 – eventually leading to 24 hours in the full day. The Egyptians had a zodiac cycle of 12 constellations, but this was likely introduced after the first references to 12 hours. Counting to 12 using the joints and fingers of one hand is another possibility. Some experts think it may have been due to how their choice of a 10-day week intersected with the visibility of certain stars.
The earliest known instruments to measure time, sundials and water clocks, appeared in Egypt around 1500BC. Some were used during daily work, but most were "likely more related to the religious sphere and rituals" than timekeeping, says Gautschy. "Personally, I think that a lot of them were gifts to the gods, votive gifts," she says. "We don't have much information about scientific time keeping [from the era]."
Initially, in texts about the business of daily life, the smallest time unit was generally the work shift, says Gautschy – usually imagined as being either morning or afternoon. But by the Roman period of ancient Egypt (from 30BC), hours became the standard, with half hours also starting to appear, she says.
The arrival of minutes
Meanwhile, the Babylonians had also been developing their use of hours. They would ultimately be the first to break the hour down into much smaller units – albeit not for timekeeping purposes.
The Babylonians, who thrived from 2000BC to 540 BC, adopted both the cuneiform script and sexagesimal number system from the Sumerians. By around 1000BC, says Meszaros, they had developed a calendar based on how long it took for the sun to return to the same position in the sky – a little more than 360 days.
This was a handy number for a civilization already using a counting system based on 60.
"Wow, isn't that nice in a sexagesimal system?" says Meszaros. "In fact, it led really nicely to 12 months of 30 days each", which also fit in with the moon cycle, she says.
The Babylonians developed a practical time system for day-to-day use which divided both day and night each into 12, as the Egyptians did. The lengths of these "seasonal hours" would vary with the length of day and night. "We broke down the day into 12 because we break down the night sky into 12 months and 12 zodiacal signs," says Meszaros.
Many other ancient civilizations used seasonal hours and they were still in use in 15th Century Europe and 19th Century Japan. This seasonal time was never divided into smaller units for practical use, though, notes Monroe. "[That] isn't really a thing until the early modern period… It doesn't exist in Mesopotamia and other ancient cultures, because there's really no need for it."
The Babylonians also developed another time system for calculating and measuring astronomical events, which wasn't for daily use. This divided the day into 12 "beru", which we can think of as the same as two modern hours. Babylonia wasn't the only ancient culture to use them: they also appeared in ancient China and Japan, for example.
Driven by the need to measure more granularity in their calculations, the Babylonians started breaking down these beru double-hours into 30 ancient minutes known as ush, each equal to four of our present-day minutes. These were further divided by 60 into smaller units called ninda, each worth about four modern seconds. These subdivisions were likely used "because we break things into groups of 60 in the sexagesimal system", says Meszaros.
However, the Babylonians were "not thinking about it as like subdividing time", notes Monroe. "They're thinking about it as subdividing numbers that measure distance in the sky or velocity of planets."
It can be hard to say exactly who built upon whom amongst all these ancient developments of time, says Gautschy. "From around 330BC onward, Egypt, with the new center of science in Alexandria, became a melting pot where people, and with them their ideas from all regions, amalgamated," she says. "That's what we call the Hellenistic world."
Still, it's clear the ancient Greeks adopted the Babylonian astronomical time system, says Meszaros. "They kept the same division because this allowed them to just add new observations to existing ones… It's a system that worked well enough for the Babylonians that the people who came after them took it wholesale in order to take the astronomical data and traditions as well."
Counting seconds
While the Greeks had sand clocks at court "to make sure that people had the same amount of time to speak", the Babylonian time system they adopted was only used conceptually by astrologers and largely "not really relevant for daily life", says Gautschy.
But the concepts of hours, minutes and seconds that emerged from the Hellenistic melting pot were passed through the centuries to the present day. It was only a few hundred years ago, however, that timekeeping devices became accurate enough for minutes and the seconds to start being used day to day.
The second is now used in countless scientific definitions, and once we started counting time units smaller than a second, scientists did move to a metric system, breaking it down to milli and microseconds (a thousandth and a millionth of a second, respectively).
In the 20th Century, atomic clocks allowed scientists to redefine the second more precisely, moving from defining it based on rotations of the Sun to a precise value based on the absorption and emission of microwave radiation by cesium-133 atoms. Today, our global network of atomic clocks keep the time of pretty much every modern clock, and is behind everything from the internet to GPS to super accurate MRI imaging.
Tracing the history of timekeeping, though, reveals that it is actually a human construct, determined by human decisions. Hours, minutes and seconds arrived with us through a series of choices, coincidences and happenstance. But they stayed with us as useful heritage through the centuries, a hangover from ancient times so deeply ingrained that changing the system now would probably just be too much to handle.
Even during France's 18th Century attempt to decimalize time, in practice the new system was barely used, even while the Republic's similar efforts to decimalize distance measurements and currency were adopted and are used to this day. Decimal time lasted just 17 months, although the calendar stayed in some use for about a decade. "It was tried, but it was unsuccessful, it didn't take off," says Burridge.
A 1795 speech by Claude-Antoine Prieur, a member of the French National convention, may have been what put the final nail in the coffin of decimal time. As well as offering hardly anyone a marked advantage, he argued, it cast a bad light on the other new metric measurement systems – which were, in contrast, he said, useful.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260320-the-ancient-reason-there-are-60-minutes-in-an-hour-and-60-seconds-in-a-minute
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THE WW2 GENERAL WHO OUTWITTED HIS ARCH RIVAL
Field Marshal Bernard "Monty" Montgomery died 50 years ago. In 1968, he told the BBC about the Battle of El Alamein, and his German counterpart Erwin Rommel, the "Desert Fox".
"In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable." In one remark, Winston Churchill captured the infuriating brilliance of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the brains behind the celebrated November 1942 victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein. Seen as a turning point in World War Two, the battle in North Africa inspired another famous Churchill quote: "Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
By the time of the general's death on 24 March 1976, aged 88, the now Lord Montgomery of Alamein had enjoyed a long and sometimes controversial retirement. A prickly character unafraid of stirring up trouble, in his memoir he had dismissed General Dwight D Eisenhower, his old supreme commander and future US president, with the typically arrogant: "Nice chap. No soldier." In a moment of self-awareness, he once joked: "My business, as you know, is fighting – fighting the Germans or anybody else, too, who wants to have a fight.”
When Montgomery arrived in Egypt in July 1942 as the newly appointed head of the British Eighth Army, the Allies were in trouble on several fronts. In the Pacific, the Japanese had weakened British and American power and taken Hong Kong and Singapore. In the Atlantic, German submarines threatened to starve Britain into submission. In Egypt, the German Army looked likely to overrun the capital Cairo, just as they had conquered most of Europe. Having come to North Africa the year before to defend their Italian allies in Libya, they had their eyes on a bigger prize.
They had sent Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, one of their best generals, to smash through the British army and take Egypt and the Middle East, along with the oil supplies that fueled the British war effort. Rommel was so effective as the commander of Afrika Korps, the elite German expeditionary force, that he was nicknamed the Desert Fox.
In 1968, Montgomery was interviewed by the BBC's Cliff Michelmore in the same caravan he had used in the Egyptian desert while plotting to outwit his arch-rival. To help him visualize what he should do, Montgomery had a photograph of Rommel pinned to the wall of his mobile headquarters. "I used to look at it and I used to say to myself, what sort of guy is that? If I do this, what's he likely to do? And in some curious way, it helped. I think a lot of people thought I was mad. But you know, I've so often been considered mad that I now regard it as rather a compliment."
Before Montgomery's arrival in North Africa, Rommel had a fearsome reputation among the British who had built up an image of him as a military genius. Churchill even went so far as to name him in the House of Commons: "We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great general." According to historian Dr Niall Barr, this image "helped take the edge off the numerous failings of the British army in the desert. It was, after all, easier to explain away the numerous defeats by highlighting their enemy's strengths, than it was to face up to British shortcomings."
Montgomery, when asked by Michelmore about Rommel, said he was "quite different than what a lot of people thought". He called him a "Prince Rupert type of figure," a dashing frontline commander who preferred being with his troops rather than directing operations from headquarters. While Rommel's soldiers "loved him and would follow him anywhere", Montgomery said this approach was ill-suited to high command. "I don't think that Rommel understood administration [which is] terribly important in war. I realized that what I wanted to achieve in front must be commensurate with my administration behind. Otherwise, you couldn't do it.”
When Montgomery first arrived in the desert, he was an unknown quantity with "white knees", a term of contempt used by cynical veterans for pale newcomers shipped over from Britain. He made an immediate impact with his brash confidence, telling his troops: "Our mandate from the prime minister is to destroy the Axis forces in North Africa. It can be done and it will be done, beyond any possibility of doubt."
In his effort to restore morale, Montgomery tried to visit as many Army units as he could to articulate his vision of what would happen next. His key message was there would be no more retreats. "We will stand and fight here. If we can't stay here alive, then let us stay here dead. I want to impress on everyone that the bad times are over. They are finished."
The battle's three stages
He later recalled to the BBC: "I told them my ideas and my thoughts of the future. I think maybe some of them reckoned I was a bit too big for my boots. I'd been in the desert less than 12 hours and here I was telling them what to do and issuing orders with the greatest confidence as if I'd been there all my life. Anyhow, one thing had been made very clear. There was to be no more uncertainty about anything."
The village of El Alamein sits between the Mediterranean coast on one side and impassable salt marshes to the south. Since the first Battle of El Alamein in July, the Eighth Army had been dug in there, holding back Rommel's advance towards Cairo. For several months Montgomery continued to train and re-equip his soldiers while working on his grand plan. He told his troops: "Now, my forecast of this battle is that there will be three definite stages. First, the break-in. Then, the dogfight. I believe that the dogfight battle will become a hard killing match and will last for 10 or 12 days." He wanted to assure his soldiers that everything would be planned to the last detail. "The enemy will crack. Then will come the break-out and that will lead to the end of Rommel in Africa."
By 23 October he was ready to attack. It began with the largest British bombardment since World War One. Sickened by the carnage of that war in which he had himself been badly injured, he was determined to avoid unnecessary loss of life. According to historian Richard Holmes, the bombardment reflected Montgomery's "desire to let metal, not flesh, do his business wherever possible".
Engineers cleared channels through the deep German minefields, allowing the Allied tanks to pass through. While the weight of tanks would have exploded the mines laid by the Germans, soldiers were able to cross the territory. Montgomery gave this part of his plan the apt name of Operation Lightfoot. Losses mounted rapidly on both sides, but the Germans and Italians were outnumbered two to one. Rommel's tanks, far from their supply depots, were running short of fuel.
On the night of 1 to 2 November, the second phase of the offensive, Operation Supercharge, began: British armored divisions pushed through the final layer of Axis defenses. The advance was still far from straightforward. On 3 November, the Ninth Armored Brigade lost 102 of its 128 tanks. After the battle, Montgomery led his victorious Eighth Army across 2,000 miles of North Africa.
Rommel had begun with 500 tanks: by the end of the first phase, he was down to just 100, and after a massive tank battle on the last day he was left with only 30 serviceable tanks. Elements of Rommel's mobile forces managed to slip away because Montgomery, true to form, refused to gamble during the pursuit. Even so, most of their infantry was taken prisoner. By May 1943, the remaining Axis forces in North Africa had surrendered.
While Rommel did not live to see the end of the war, he was not killed in battle. When he was implicated in the 1944 plot to kill Hitler, the Nazis offered him the chance to take his own life to avoid the spectacle of putting their celebrated general on trial in public. Historians remain divided over Rommel. While some see him as an ambitious but essentially apolitical commander who fought a clean war, others argue that his career and prestige were bound up with the Nazis' brutal and murderous regime.
The victory at El Alamein was a massive morale boost for the British war effort. No longer an unknown general, Montgomery was now "Monty", a hero to his troops and to the people back home. He returned to lead the D-Day landings with four allied armies under his command and won the Battle of Normandy.
The BBC's 1987 documentary Monty: In Love and War gathered testimony from many who had served with him. Their accounts varied widely, revealing the complexity of his character. US Army General Bill Carter said: "We had no respect for Montgomery at all. He was a poseur, he was rude, he didn't respect his allies and he was a complete politician."
Lt Col Trumbull Warren, Montgomery's Canadian aide-de-camp and personal assistant, said: "I think the people that knew him well –- and served him closely –- worshipped him. And the people that didn't, I would say a great many of them hated him. He was the right guy at the right time and he got the right breaks. We needed a fellow like Montgomery." According to British intelligence officer Brig Sir Edgar Williams, "he wasn't a nice man, but nice men don't win wars.”
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260319-the-british-general-who-outwitted-his-arch-rival-in-world-war-two
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DID THE TOP NAZIS EVER EXPRESSED REGRET FOR THEIR CRIMES?
It is a heavy realization that the most men who were responsible for the mass killers during the war, were the only ones who were never came out and told the world they were sorry about the killing they had done. We often think that they would be crushed by the weight of their doings, but on the contrary, most went to their graves making excuses. They typically asserted that they were merely small cogs in a big machine or they usually just followed orders. However, there are a few noteworthy instances in which that silence was eventually broken.
Hans Frank, who was in charge of occupied Poland, was one example. In his trial, he had said that the guilt of his country will last for a thousand years. While in prison, he was converted to religion and expressed remorse before his execution.
Then there was Oskar Groning. He did not say a word about his past until 2015 when he was ninety three years old. He made the decision to speak up because he wanted to make a point against those who stated that the genocide never occurred. He told a horrible story of how he watched one of the guards kill an infant and confessed that he was morally guilty just for his part in this system.
The lead architect Albert Speer, was the only high ranking official to take responsibility at the trials at Nuremberg. While later evidence showed he may have been covering the full extent of his knowledge, he was the one to admit fault while his fellow top leadership did not. ~ Alex Colby, Quora
For a video of the "not guilty" pleas, go to https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/international-military-tribunal-the-defendants?series=192
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THE TEN-SECOND TRICK TO SPOT A LIAR
Asking open-ended and unexpected questions makes it harder to convincingly lie.
Malicious people may live among us, but it doesn't mean we have to fall victim to them.
Leanne ten Brinke, a social psychologist and associate professor at the University of British Columbia, dedicated her career to studying dark personalities. "When I'm talking about poisonous people, I'm specifically talking about what we call the dark tetrad of traits," she told Business Insider.
They include psychopathy (characterized by impulsivity and rule-breaking), narcissism (self-centeredness and entitlement), Machiavellianism (a strong desire for status and control), and sadism (enjoying other people's pain).
While they're different traits, there's also some overlap. "If you score high in one, you also tend to score high in the other because they have those shared components," she explained.
In her new book, "Poisonous People: How to Resist Them and Improve Your Life," released March 10, she outlines how to spot these traits in the wild. To be clear, ten Brinke doesn't want you to start diagnosing anyone you have difficult interactions with as a psychopath or narcissist.
Rather, it's to "identify patterns in other people's behavior that we can recognize, and try to figure out how we are going to deal with callousness or manipulation, for example."
Since lying is common among dark personalities, ten Brinke recommends a "10-second" test: asking certain questions to see how they respond. Here's how it works.
According to ten Brinke, some research shows that truth-tellers tend to go into more detail when answering questions.
While it's not a perfect tell for lying, it can still be a helpful tool to keep in mind. Because liars tend to give shorter and simpler answers, they benefit from straightforward yes-and-no questions, ten Brinke said.
Answering a more open-ended question, like "what did you talk about in the Thursday meeting you said you went to?" is more challenging if you're lying.
"If I'm lying about it, I need to come up with those details," she said. "I need to make sure they don't contradict what you already know. I need to make sure that I'm remembering them for the next time."
If someone gives a short answer to an open-ended question, she recommends asking them to elaborate more. "Truth-tellers won't have difficulty with simple requests for more detail, but liars will be challenged to come up with more," she wrote in the book.
The more unexpected the questions, the better
If someone has time to prepare a lie and add supporting details, it can be trickier to spot. That's why ten Brinke encourages asking unexpected questions.
In the book, she gave the example of interviewing a job candidate. If they listed five years at the Apple Store on their résumé, they're probably expecting questions like "tell me about your role."
They probably won't expect, 'I'm wondering, what was your favorite place to grab lunch when you were working at the Apple Store in Berkeley?'" she said. " If they never worked there, they'd likely struggle to generate a detailed and verifiable response.”
When confronted with an unexpected question, liars might start speaking slowly, stumble over their words, or just appear to be thinking very hard, she said.
Focus on their words, not their body language
Common stereotypes of lying include nonverbal cues such as avoiding eye contact or fidgeting. Still, there's not much evidence to support them, ten Brinke said.
"If you actually take videos of people lying and people telling the truth, and you count the number of seconds that they're looking at you versus looking away, there's no difference," she said. "If you're waiting to see someone shift in their seat or look to their left, your judgments are probably not going to be particularly accurate."
Instead, the goal should be to have a conversation and try to pick up on vague or brief answers.
"The thing that actually does help to discriminate liars from truth-tellers is their words," ten Brinke added.
https://www.businessinsider.com/10-second-trick-spot-liars-poisonous-people-narcissism-psychopathy-2026-3'
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GROWING UP IN RUSSIA (Misha Firer)
A bronze statue of a gaunt woman holding a crucifix high, standing next to
Recently, I was stuck in a small elevator in my building with a young couple in their early thirties. They wore their usual morose expressions when they got in, but when the elevator suddenly lurched, stopped, and refused to open its doors, they became agitated and excited.
All of a sudden, they were talkative, explaining that this wasn’t the first time this had happened to them. Luckily, last time, an elevator man was outside, and they called out for help. It was as if they had been waiting for this moment, while my own mind was racing in panic.
I started offering suggestions on how to get us out: "Press the button to ask for help." They did, but the power went off. "Shout for help!" They did that too, but there was nobody outside. "Try to pry the doors open."
Amazingly, they did everything I told them without showing any sign of distress at being trapped in an elevator with barely enough room to stand, let alone sit down. To add insult to injury, my little daughter was also somewhat excited by the unusual situation.
The couple began pressing different floor buttons; the elevator travels up and down until finally, the doors opened on the third floor. And then, the couple didn’t even want to get out. They hesitated, almost wanting to give it one more try!
How do Russians not only manage to keep their cool in emergencies but actually seem to thrive?
I’ll tell you their secret—a strategy that might work for you individually but would never hold together in a Western society.
When I walk outside and overhear people’s conversations here in Moscow, they are always talking about some dire situation—a friend broke his hand, someone got into a fight, there was a terrible car accident, and so on.
They constantly share these grim, real-life stories of misfortune, not to dwell in despair, but to prepare and steel each other.
So when hardship eventually does arrive, instead of falling into a stupor or panic, they recognize the very thing they’ve been discussing all along. The joy of recognition lights them up, and they embrace the challenge until they overcome it.
That’s why Western sanctions were a gift to Russians: the worst-case scenario had finally materialized, and they sprang into action, figuring out how to skirt and overcome them.
After all, we don’t just get what we deserve, more importantly, we get what we actively seek and prepare for.
While Americans rely on positive thinking to manifest the best possible outcome, Russians do the opposite: they expect the worst. And when it comes, they breathe a sigh of relief. After all, everything always gets worse—it’s just a matter of time. ~ Quora
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HOMELESS PEOPLE IN RUSSIA
Russia definitely has a lot of homeless people: over 2 million. In Moscow, over 200,000 homeless people live; in St. Petersburg—over 60,000.
The main factors in becoming homeless: family conflicts, real estate fraud, relocation in search of work. Very often people who were released from prisons become homeless.
Unscrupulous military recruiters are making good money by sending homeless men to trenches in Ukraine.
The scam works like this: homeless person is invited for a drink.
When he’s inebriated, the recruiter tells him he’d get some cash and another drink if he comes to this place and signs some papers.
The homeless person is brought to the military recruitment office, signs a contract, and taken to barracks.
When he wakes up, he can’t get out and will be sent to the frontline.
The guy who lured him to the recruitment office gets paid around $500-$1,000 commission.
The scheme of getting commissions for bringing willing cannon fodder to the military recruitment office is official.
Homeless people in Russia have always been persecuted—police could pull any of them from the street and beat them up into confessing to a crime that the police department struggled to solve.
Homeless people are also trafficked within Russia to work on farms—they are basically slaves there, they can’t leave.
Russian officials insist that homelessness isn’t a big problem in Russia—but they are simply refusing to acknowledge the issues. Once you acknowledge there is an issue, it would need to be addressed. So, they just pretend there is no issue, and encourage police to pester the homeless folk, so they have to hide. ~ Misha Firer, Quora
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WHY THE SS HAD EXPENSIVE UNIFORMS
The Nazis put a lot of money in uniforms with an dark purpose. It was not connected to fashion; it was connected to early branding. Such geniuses as Joseph Goebbels understood that a soldier with an elite and powerful appearance will start thinking that he is powerful. This appearance was created by artists Karl Diebitsch and Walter Heck and stressed tall-crown hats and silver skull designs to make the owner look taller and to instill a more threatening appearance.
The Nazi party invested heavily in uniforms as a key tool of psychological warfare and political branding rather than fashion. This "dark branding" was intentionally engineered to project power, instill terror, and enforce the ideology of racial superiority and "Gleichschaltung" (conformity) on the public.
The Dark Purpose of Uniform Branding
Intimidation and Authority: Uniforms, particularly the black SS uniforms, were designed by Karl Diebitsch and graphic designer Walter Heck to be sharp, tailored, and menacing, separating the wearer from common humanity and projecting cold, mechanical superiority.
Visual Propaganda: Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi party used uniforms as a "vector" of propaganda, transmitting Nazi ideology through clothing to convey a "new Germany" image.
The "Creator of Nazi Elegance": A 2025 study suggests that the "elegance" of the SS uniforms was a deliberate tactic to normalize a "violent dictatorship," making it look disciplined and attractive, and helping to sell the Nazi "Volksgemeinschaft" (people's community) concept.
Creating "Badass" Aesthetics: The uniforms, including the iconic Totenkopf (death's head) insignia, were designed to create a "badass" or "killer" brand, often drawing from older, imperial Prussian military traditions to project strength and efficiency.
Manufacturing and Branding
The Role of Hugo Boss: Contrary to popular belief, Hugo Boss did not design the SS uniforms but was one of many suppliers contracted to manufacture them. Hugo Ferdinand Boss, a Nazi Party member, was an early supplier whose company grew exponentially, partly due to these contracts and the use of forced labor.
The "Brown Shirts" SA: The SA (Storm Troopers) used cheap, early stock of colonial brown shirts, which became a branding mechanism for the party, later leading to the "brownshirt" nickname.
Branding through Uniforms: The SS adopted the black uniform specifically to differentiate themselves from the SA street thug reputation, turning themselves into an elite, orderly, and intimidating force.
"Whitewashing" History
Postwar Rebranding: A 2025 study claims that companies like Hugo Boss "whitewashed" their Nazi past by transitioning to fashion, burying their involvement in providing uniforms for the "evil empire" under luxury marketing.
The Nazi uniform, in essence, was a "weapon of identity" and a "shortcut for status and fear on the streets.” The uniform demonstrated discipline and status and was used as part of the propaganda effort to give their dreams of a new super Germany a sense of fashion.
The “appeal to male vanity” meant that every man in the Reich wore a uniform, from coal miners to Post Office workers to Nazi party leaders like Adolf Hitler. Writing about his experience as a young soldier in Nazi Germany, Bernhard Teicher reflects,
“Of course, we were provided uniforms (ideally everybody in the Nazi Reich should have worn a uniform!).”
The Nazi Party’s drive for ideological conformity extended all the way to the clothing worn by German citizens and emblazoned with the Nazi symbol.
Furthermore, Adolf Hitler considered himself an artist, not a politician. ~ (various sources)
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HOW TO BECOME MORE OPTIMISTIC
A lot of us are fickle friends to our optimism. It's easy to relish the brighter side of things when everything is going your way. But on those other days — your car broke down, your kid is sick (again) — finding a silver lining can feel futile.
Regardless of your situation, optimism can always come in handy, says behavioral scientist and psychologist Deepika Chopra, author of The Power of Real Optimism, a book published in March.
Unlike pessimism, whose evolutionary purpose was to help humans survive by constantly imagining worst-case scenarios, optimism can be more helpful in solving problems in our modern world, Chopra says.
"Optimism is what we need to stay engaged and keep deeply caring," especially during hard times, she says. It keeps us "deeply rooted in reality, but at the same time, holds space for hope."
And the best part is that anyone can train to see the glass as half-full, says Chopra. "Optimism is a muscle. We just have to work it out.”
3 ways to become a more optimistic person
Whether you lean more optimistic or pessimistic, there are exercises you can do to build a little more sunshine into your life. She shares three evidence-backed strategies below.
Make a daily "ta-da list"
Self-gratitude is an important part of becoming more optimistic — if you believe in yourself, it's easier to imagine greater success in your future, says Chopra.
To encourage this positive emotional response, Chopra recommends a tool called a "ta-da list." It's a list of all your accomplishments of the day, no matter how big or small.
Include all the things you crossed off your to-do list — like launching a big project or doing the laundry. Don't forget the unexpected or less tangible things too, like remembering to drink enough water or setting a successful boundary at work, Chopra says.
"By reminding yourself of all the things you do to make your life better, you can draw strength for the future and build a more optimistic outlook," she writes in her book.
Schedule "worry time”
The human brain is future-oriented, Chopra says. Unfortunately, that means we tend to worry a lot about what might happen, including things that are unlikely or impossible to prevent.
Those worries can eclipse our vision of the future, so we end up focusing mostly on the bad stuff that might happen, rather than looking toward the good.
To avoid being overwhelmed, Chopra recommends scheduling "worry time" into your day. This exercise, widely used in clinical psychology, "can help people get comfortable with uncertainty and render them more capable of coming up with solutions," Chopra writes in her book.
Find 15 minutes when you have energy and won't be distracted. Pick a place to worry that you don't normally associate with relaxation, like an office or a coffee shop — not your bedroom.
Throughout the day, jot down any worries that are bothering you, particularly the ones that keep popping up. Then, use your designated worry time to go down the list and ask yourself if you can control or change the worry.
If you can't, ask yourself if you can let the worry go. An important part of optimism, Chopra says, is feeling like you have some ability to take action for a better future.
Practice daily affirmations with the 7/10 rule
Affirmations have been shown in psychology to have a measurable positive impact on stress levels and optimism. Generally, the idea is that if you feel more positively about yourself, you're able to believe in a better future you — and a better future for you, Chopra says.
But if you're choosing affirmations you don't actually believe, Chopra says, they can be ineffective — or even make you feel worse about yourself.
That's why Chopra says to follow the "7/10 rule" for affirmations. Choose a statement you're at least 70% confident about, not something you believe in only 1/10 or 3/10. Then work up to the idea you hope to believe.
For example, maybe you got your dream job but are struggling with impostor syndrome.
Rather than saying an affirmation like, "I am the very best in my field," you might start with an affirmation you can fully get behind, like: "I'm a hard worker that adds value to my team."
Make a habit of repeating those positive, specific affirmations on a daily basis. The more you say something, Chopra says, the more your brain will start to seek out information that confirms it — until something you believed 7/10 becomes something you believe 10/10. Then, keep building new positive affirmations from there.
When you go from thinking of yourself negatively to instead believing in a lovable, competent person, it's a lot easier to feel hopeful about where you're going next, Chopra writes in her book.
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/27/nx-s1-5713624/optimism-quiz-worry-pessimism
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FOR THE LOVE OF PLANTS
Jonny Balchandani is so passionate about plants he turned his spare bedroom into a greenhouse.
Known as the Bearded Plantaholic, he posts about his collection of thousands of plants to one million followers on social media and it has become a "lifestyle" for the 39-year-old.
From watering days that involve a few hundred plants to ordering the latest rare species, his home in Malvern, Worcestershire, has turned into a jungle.
"Plants were a hobby, a passion, and I could escape reality and numb out the thoughts of the everyday. I was more creative, happier and it's nurtured my mood and made me more of who I am," he said.
Balchandani said his passion "spiraled" about two decades ago when he realized the vast range of plants for sale and the benefits that came with being surrounded by greenery.
"It was the immersion in nature and having things that were green around me that made me feel happy, and plants were an escapism," he said.
Balchandani's shipping container is filled with hundreds of plants that he sells.
To boost people's happiness and morale, Balchandani created a monthly "prescription" box filled with rooted plants and unusual species to help plant lovers grow their collection.
"I always thought of myself as a prescriber of happiness and I wanted to create a monthly medication in plants that arrives at your doorstep," he said.
The content creator said that having plants in the home brought "some of the outside in" and helped people feel a sense of wellbeing even in the gloomy months.
"We've created some micro-climates in the house and for me I don't feel the gloom because I simply move from one room to the other," he said.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) says that filling our lives with greenery is associated with a boost in physical, social and mental health.
Founders of plant shop Root 13, Dave and Katy Williams would agree – they have created a calm sanctuary so customers can escape from city living into nature.
Kitted out with running water, rocking chairs, big leafy plants and an aquarium, the space in Kings Heath, Birmingham has proven popular for those looking to de-stress from their busy lives.
"Mental health goes with everybody so if we can help somebody in their day by surrounding them in green, then we will," Dave Williams said.
The couple have about 250 plants in their home and have noticed a rise in customers purchasing plants rather than flowers as they look for longer lasting items in their home.
"[Plants give] a sense of caring for something, people like to see something grow and see it thrive, it's joy in a pot," Katy Williams said.
Businesses have filled their spaces with plants to help workers feel relaxed and productive
It is not only homes that are getting greener, but office spaces too.
Workplaces are being filled with moss walls, desk-side plants and hanging plants to promote productivity and a sense of calm among workers.
The company behind it all, Plant Plan, based in Leicester, was founded in 1977 by two brothers working in a garden shed, and has seen sales double in the last five years.
Head of marketing Carlsson Elkins said that companies started prioritizing plants after lockdown to make spaces more appealing and get workers back into the office.
"People are realizing that during Covid we spent a lot more time in nature and people want to have this connection to nature again," he said.
Plant Plan has transformed offices including Octopus Energy's building in Coventry and eateries such as Gail's and Dishoom.
Plants are appearing in more office spaces, cafes and restaurants
Five easy-to-grow plants recommended by RHS include the Madagascar dragon tree, English ivy, rubber plant, Boston fern and Sansevieria trifasciata.
According to the charity, plant owners may notice improved attention spans and mood, along with reduced stress levels and blood pressure.
"The greater the number of plants used, the more likely the benefit to air quality and overall well-being," the charity said.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jven2eevlo
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GÖBEKLI TEPE — DID TEMPLES COME BEFORE FARMS?
When hunter-gatherers carved Göbekli Tepe's 20-ton pillars, mammoths still roamed the earth—and the Great Pyramid wouldn't be built for another 7,000 years.
This timeline is exactly why the site, located in southeastern Turkey and dating to 9600 BCE, has fundamentally altered archaeological models of how human civilization began.
For decades, the standard historical narrative followed a strict sequence: humans discovered agriculture, which allowed them to abandon nomadic hunting and gathering to form permanent settlements. Once settled, food surpluses permitted populations to grow and diversify their labor. Only then, the theory went, did people have the time, resources, and social hierarchy required to invent complex religion and construct monumental architecture.
Göbekli Tepe turned that sequence upside down. Excavations revealed multiple rings of massive, T-shaped limestone pillars, some standing up to 18 feet tall. These pillars are intricately carved with images of foxes, scorpions, lions, and vultures. Yet, there is no evidence of domesticated plants or animals at the site from its earliest periods. The bones found in the surrounding debris belong entirely to wild game, such as gazelle, boar, and deer. This indicates that the builders were strictly hunter-gatherers.
The sheer scale of the project required organizing and feeding hundreds of people over long periods. Gathering such a massive workforce suggests that a shared religious or communal purpose came first, rather than emerging as a byproduct of settled agricultural life. The desire to gather, worship, and build at Göbekli Tepe likely created an unprecedented localized demand for food.
Consequently, archaeologists now propose that the need to feed these large groups of builders and pilgrims acted as the catalyst for the invention of farming. Supporting this theory, geneticists have traced the origins of domesticated einkorn wheat—one of the world's oldest known cultivated crops—to the Karaca Dağ mountains, located just 20 miles from the site.
Rather than agriculture paving the way for monumental temples, the drive to construct these communal spaces appears to have forced hunter-gatherers to figure out how to manage wild food sources, eventually leading to full-scale agriculture. Göbekli Tepe stands as physical evidence that the human impulse to gather for shared rituals predated the farm.
Wolf Metzner:
GT is the most important archaeological discovery in at least 150 years. (Oriana: Some archeologists say the most important ever!)
Glenn White:
But we don't know what Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe were. We assume temples, but we don't know.
Ron Clark:
Thank you. Today’s religious insanity has our “experts” assuming that the mental illness of religious belief has dominated mankind for 12,000 years!
If we could just stop assuming religion every time ancient peoples are studied, perhaps we could move forward. Our “experts” are condemning our ancestors to a life they probably never even imagined.
Glenn White:
Religion evolved from various sources of attempts to explain things. A good example is a legend among the Klamath and Modoc nations that lived along the California-Oregon border:
There were 2 gods who went to war, the God of Mt. Shasta and the god of Mt. Mazama. They rained fire and brimstone upon each other trying to destroy each other. Finally the god of Mt. Shasta prevailed destroying Mt. Mazama and filling the hole that remained with water so Mazama could never threaten Shasta’s supremacy again. That hole is called Crater Lake today.
So you see how gods and ultimately religion evolved since the evolution of language. Language would allow answers to questions that hominids were asking in their heads perhaps millions of years before we evolved language around 350–400 thousand years ago. Language could finally allow humans to ask and answer questions about nature and death and sex and procreation which would ultimately lead to the development of religion.
Art would also add to the development of religion as humans would conduct rituals around death, with burials of trinkets and weapons with the dead. Cave painting of animals and hunting scenes deep inside caves with the remnants of musical instruments and feasting indicate possible hunting rituals hoping for a good hunt or even giving thanks for a successful hunt.
Kevin Savage:
I’m keeping the door open but I just can’t help thinking this scenario is like a kid going from mastering a tricycle one week to warp factor 7 the next.
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HOW DOGS BECAME THE NEW BABIES
One in three UK postcodes now has more dogs than children. Meet the Dinkwads (dual income, no kids, with a dog).
Bryan Bell was at home when his one-year-old Patti collapsed, shaking like a leaf in a gale-force tornado. She was having a fit. Bell’s husband, John, was out of the house and he didn’t know what to do. “It was quite a traumatic experience because I didn’t know what was happening,” the 40-year-old PR recalls. Eventually, Patti’s fit subsided and the couple soon found a diagnosis from her doctor: their miniature dachshund had epilepsy. “She’s all medicated now, so it’s under control. But when it happens, you feel like: ‘Is this going to be the fit that’s too much for her little head?’”
Medical scares, behavior issues and a tendency to eat you out of house and home – many dog owners will tell you that getting a four-legged friend bears more than a few similarities to having a young child. But as birthrates plummet across the world, a curious inverse trend has emerged: couples are getting dogs. Lots and lots of couples, in fact. They’re called Dinkwads (dual income, no kids, with a dog) and their numbers are growing.
“With rising living costs alongside changing lifestyles and expectations, some people feel that welcoming a dog into their home is a more achievable way to build companionship and routine,” says Dr Bethan Greenwood, a research officer at the Dogs Trust, “though it’s important to remember that dogs still require time, money and commitment to ongoing care.”
Edinburgh-based content creator Mary Skinner and her husband got Fergus, a golden retriever, a year after they married. “We are deeply obsessed with him,” she laughs over Zoom.
“He turned two last year and we had a little birthday party for him – we had party hats and got him a dog-safe cake and a little outfit: a little vest with a bow tie.” Growing up in Virginia, US, as one of six children, Skinner saw how much energy and resilience it took to raise a family.
Still, “I grew up assuming that having a baby was the only path to take,” the 27-year-old says. “It wasn’t until I got older and started meeting people who weren’t having children and realized, ‘Oh, I don’t have to have kids if I don’t want to.’”
Skinner is one of thousands of owners going online to extol the virtues of a child-free lifestyle with a dog attached. The #dinkwad hashtag has picked up almost 135m views on TikTok alone, according to the pet insurers Everypaw. The term Dink (dual income, no kids) itself derives from a phenomenon first observed among high-flying, child-free couples in the yuppie 1980s. But the choice to eschew kids has never been more visible, thanks in part to viral videos praising Dink and Dinkwad lifestyles. As one pomeranian-wielding couple put it: “We’re Dinkwads – our fun money goes towards soy lattes and puppuccinos.”
When our hunter-gatherer ancestors first domesticated early canids somewhere between 32,000 and 18,000 years ago, they probably never imagined that the fearsome wolf would eventually morph into a fluffy pet who gets to enjoy dog-safe whipped cream. But the affection between humans and dogs goes back millennia. In one ancient burial site in the village of Ain Mallaha, Israel, dating back to 10,000 BC, a human skeleton was found curled around the remains of a puppy, its hand on top as if they wanted to give it one final back rub. In their evolution from wolf to man’s best friend, dogs have also evolved into something more pleasing to the human eye. That heart-melting “puppy eye” expression, for instance, is due to dogs having developed a specific muscle that allows them to raise their eyebrows – a trait noticeably absent in wolves.
“How we selected dogs and how we bred them in the past was mainly for the social behaviors that they can exhibit,” says Laura Gillet, a researcher in ethology (animal behavior) at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. “They’re really good at reading body language and communicative signals that no other species can read. If I was pointing, they can understand that it means, ‘Look at what I’m pointing at, not look at my hand.’”
Thousands of years of selective breeding have resulted in a species that is highly attuned to our body language and facial expressions, as anyone who’s shouted at their pet for ruining their carpet will know.
What is changing is our attitude towards our four-legged companions. According to recent Dogs Trust data, younger owners are now more likely to see their relationship to their dog as one of parent-child. Two-thirds of dog owners aged 25 to 34 see themselves as their pooch’s parent – a higher proportion than any other age group in the UK.
“I’m quite an Asian parent,” laughs actor Vera Chok. She and her husband, Dominic, got Ubi, their Australian labradoodle, six years ago. “We’re strict about things – he has to be calm when he leaves the house and he’s not allowed to pull on his lead.” Chok and her partner had a conversation about children early on in their relationship, “but he wasn’t sure and I wasn’t sure.” Now in her 40s, she is satisfied with the family they’ve built together.
You might not know it from the lavish range of dog prams and babyish-scented dog shampoo on the market, but most owners are able to distinguish between their fur child and an actual child. In a recent review in the journal European Psychologist, Gillet found even those who identify as “dog parents” understand there is a difference between having a dog and a baby. In fact, part of the appeal of getting a pooch is precisely because they are so different from a human child, demanding much less time and money. Take Patti, the epileptic miniature dachshund: her medication costs £180 a month on top of the £60 for high-quality dog food. “If we didn’t have insurance, it could be a massive cost that would actually impact our cashflow,” Bell says. “But our friends with kids talk about monthly nursery bills of £800.”
Gillet argues that we are a highly social species hamstrung by the cost of modern existence, which is where dogs trot into the picture. “We used to have small communities with tight bonds with each other,” she says. “But we are now more isolated – even caring for another adult is rarer in our daily lives. The theory is that we redirected these feelings towards pets because they are easily accessible.”
Dinkwads such as Bell and Skinner say getting a dog helped cement their decision to swerve kids: “If anything,” Skinner says, “my husband and I have talked about how having a dog has made us more convinced we don’t want a kid, because a dog is the level of responsibility that we feel comfortable with.”
At this point, I should admit to having a bone in this fight. I was once a Dinkwad, having acquired my own fur baby in a former relationship. (These days I’d be classed as a Sinkwad – single income, no kids, with a dog.) For those like me, Dinkwad might best be described as a potentially transitory phase. In fact, more than a few self-proclaimed Dinkwads who previously posted about their child-free lives online replied to my interview request with an admission: they actually now had a dog and a child – or were, to their own surprise, considering kids afresh.
Moira Davies, a model who lives in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, was one. She says that getting a dog with her fiance, Tighe, initially put her off children completely. “He used to cry all night and wake us up,” the 28-year-old says on a video call from her car, her handsome border collie Finn sitting next to her. “I thought, ‘Imagine this going on for years!’” But now Finn is fully grown, the couple are feeling the pull towards parenthood: “I never thought we’d end up feeling like this, it just happened naturally. We both developed a relationship with Finn and realized, ‘Oh, he’s our baby!’ Maybe it changed things for us.”
Moira and Tighe with Finn, their border collie
The rise of Dinkwads makes sense in a world where parenting is more expensive than ever, and dogs offer a more affordable way to channel a deeply human instinct towards nurture and care. For some couples, that may be a stepping stone towards eventual parenthood. Others are content with their furry friend for life. Whatever the outcome, it’s clear that more and more people will be stopping by that doggie in the window in the future.
As Gillet says: “International trends show a clear rise in pet ownership, even in African and South American countries. The phenomenon will not stop.”
Tim Dowling’s guide to the best dogs for Dinkwads
There are many breeds and mixes out there to suit Dinkwad households – just be on the lookout for a demanding, behaviorally challenged dog that can take up as much of your time and income as possible.
Labradoodle
One of the most popular of the designer hybrids: a lively blend of labrador and poodle resulting in an intelligent and hypoallergenic dog that is nonetheless extremely high-maintenance. Your labradoodle will probably need to go the hairdresser more often than you do, and will hate you for it.
Dachshund
A breed guaranteed to help you make the most of mealtimes – they’re notoriously fussy eaters, prone to going on food strike for no reason. You may have to try dozens of different dog food brands before your dog finally discovers the most expensive one. On the plus side, they tend to be quite patient about wearing outfits, even hats.
Whippet
Whippets have just two modes: running at full pelt after some other dog’s ball, and unconscious. Eventually, you will also be reduced to two modes: apologizing to strangers in the park, and unconscious. Additionally, many whippets suffer from a paradoxical combination of separation anxiety and not really wanting to go anywhere with you.
Cavalier King Charles spaniel
Quiet, small and generally retiring, this dog may as well have been bred for dog-friendly cinema screenings. They’re also very good at getting stolen, so be sure to keep plenty of reward money set aside.
Pitador
A charming mix between a lab and a pitbull, combining the former’s prodigious appetite with the latter’s unwavering tenacity – perfect if you’re looking for something to eat your skirting boards while you’re at work. May also need to be privately educated.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/mar/20/dinkwads-how-dogs-became-the-new-babies?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
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'LIKE A TRAP YOU CAN'T ESCAPE': THE WOMEN WHO REGRET BEING MOTHERS
Carmen loves her 10 year-old son, but if she could turn back the clock she says she would never have become a mum.
"Motherhood has taken my health, my time, my money, my strength, and my body," she says. "The price is too high, and the cost is forever."
The teacher, in her 40s, is part of a hidden community of women who regret becoming mothers.
This regret is rarely voiced out loud. The women who contacted me would only talk about how they feel on the condition of anonymity, for fear of harsh judgement and because their families don't know.
Carmen tentatively put her regret into words on a general parenting forum a few years ago and says while some people were empathetic, others reacted as if she was "a monster".
The extreme pressure and sacrifice that motherhood can involve is put under the spotlight in the film If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, which was nominated for an Oscar.
Actress Rose Byrne gives a visceral portrayal of a burnt out mother who feels alone in her struggle to meet the needs of her daughter and hold up the scaffolding of family life.
Carmen can identify with the themes of the film. "Motherhood is an endless job that you do even when you don't want to, because a little person depends on you," she says. "It feels like a trap you can't escape."
She is unflinchingly frank about how "devastating" she finds being a mother. But there is a palpable brightness in her voice when I ask about her son, Teo, whose name we have changed.
"Teo has nothing to do with my regret, he's a fantastic, adorable boy and I love him fiercely," Carmen says. "I'd give my life for him without a doubt. He's kind, easy-going, and a brilliant student."
Psychotherapist Anna Mathur says "often when women feel safe enough to talk about maternal regret what comes up isn't a lack of love, but a sense of isolation, exhaustion, or lost identity."
For Carmen, a self-described perfectionist, it's the responsibility to raise "a good citizen, a good and happy person" she finds heavy to shoulder.
Carmen promised herself Teo would never feel like she did growing up. She comes from a poor and dysfunctional background, "where violence was the primary language" and she never felt loved.
At first, being a mother was "a joy", she says. Teo was a good sleeper and she enjoyed the days spent caring for her baby son while on maternity leave.
But things changed when her son began to display serious developmental delays and "every simple moment turned into observation and concern," says Carmen.
"I felt so guilty," she says, "and I worried that his life would become a fight."
Ultimately Teo was not diagnosed with the conditions Carmen feared and is now doing well, but she says the stress and constant worry caused her to develop an autoimmune disease.
To connect maternal regret with unloving and neglectful parenting is a careless assumption, according to Israeli sociologist Orna Donath, author of Regretting Motherhood: A Study.
Donath interviewed 23 mothers, each of whom emphasized the difference between their feelings of regretting motherhood and how they felt towards their children. Several felt cheated by motherhood because the reality did not live up to the idealized version society had sold them.
"I regret having had children and becoming a mother, but I love the children that I've got... I wouldn't want them not to be here, I just don't want to be a mother," says one participant in the study, a mother of two teenagers.
What little data there is suggests that's not an uncommon feeling. A 2023 study conducted in Poland estimated 5–14% of parents regret their decision to have children and would opt to be childfree if they had their time again.
Parents may not speak openly about regret, but they are finding community online.
Carmen realized she was not alone when she joined the Facebook group I Regret Having Children, which has 96,000 members from around the world.
"Motherhood is full of sweet moments, but they do not make up for the freedom I could have had instead," one mother in the group, living in Australia with a five-year old, told the BBC.
"I wear my mask around my daughter well," she says, "but by the time she is in bed and my husband and I have that short window of quality time together, my mask is off and I prefer to be alone."
Having a child means finances are tight, and all her goals and ambitions – traveling, setting up a business and building an investment portfolio have been pushed aside.
"I have lost all motivation for anything," she says, "besides trying to raise a decent human being in this messed up world."
Another, in the UK, says she finds it "belittling" when people assume an unhappy mum must be suffering from postnatal depression.
"People are more comfortable labelling it as that – my children are adults now and I still grieve the life I never got to have.
"I am now worrying about looking after future grandkids – the caregiving never ends."
The I Regret Having Children Facebook group was created in 2007 and its content comes directly from parents – largely women – who have privately messaged their stories, to then be posted anonymously.
The group's moderator, Gianina, 44, a laboratory scientist from the US, says, "the aim has never been to shame parents or promote a particular lifestyle".
"It's more about documenting a cultural phenomenon that doesn't often have space in mainstream conversations," she says. "The community is large and active because many people are quietly grappling with feelings they were told they weren't supposed to have."
Gianina was on the fence about having children and reading stories on the forum influenced her decision not to have them, she says.
Younger adults are approaching the question of having children very differently from older generations, according to Margaret O'Connor, a counselor and psychotherapist from Ireland, who specializes in helping people decide whether to become parents.
"There is much more realization that it's a choice," O'Connor says. "It's not an automatic thing you have to do."
"I have people coming to me in their 20s and 30s who know they want to have children, but are still kind of worried about the challenges, and would like some support to navigate it."
It is difficult to name the red flags which might signal a woman will regret her decision to pursue motherhood, caveats O'Connor, because everyone's experience is unique.
"You need to be as sure as you can be about this big decision and be doing it for your own reasons... rather than external pressure from your partner, or your parents," she says.
She also cautions against buying too readily into the "village" idea that everyone will pitch in.
"The message we get generally is, 'We'll all be here to mind the baby' – but people often aren't – it's your baby and you'll be responsible for them," she says.
O'Connor says it's completely normal for parents to experience regret, given how enormous and demanding the role is.
She suggests seeing a therapist to try to get to the root of that regret, and talk "in a safe space where you won't be judged".
Maternal regret isn't always reversible "in a neat or total sense," says Mathur.
"For some women, those feelings [of regret] soften or change significantly with support, rest, time, and a shift in circumstances."
"But for others, elements of that feeling may remain regardless, and it's important we allow space for that honesty without the shame."
Orna Donath's study also finds that for some, regretting motherhood is a feeling that never goes away.
"All the women I talked to try to do their best alongside their regret," she says.
"A few years ago, I got a letter from a woman who regrets becoming a mother, and she wrote that what helps her is not having hope that it will someday disappear… she prefers to accept it rather than fight it and be crushed every time she understands that it's not going away."
In Carmen's case, she thinks the feeling is permanent, "because the sacrifice is forever".
But she has been seeing a therapist for a few years and says that has helped her accept herself and how she feels about motherhood.
"I no longer live feeling bitter," she says.
She now makes time to go to the gym and see friends and is trying to give herself permission not to strive for perfection.
"I'm finally able to say, 'No, sorry, I'm tired and I'm going to have an early night. Have whatever you want for supper; Daddy is here.'"
She has learned when she does this, the world doesn't implode.
"Teo sees that I'm a human being, that I'm not perfect, and he's okay with that."
I ask Carmen about the time spent with her son when she is happiest and she tells me that each night before Teo goes to sleep, they climb into the same bed and unpack the day together.
Teo wriggles down into the warmth of the duvet and snuggles into his mother.
"It's when I truly connect with Teo and see the person I love most in the world," she says.
"I don't feel like a monster anymore."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgkvge4rkmo
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VENUS AND EARTH
Billions of years ago, Earth and Venus were near-twins. They formed in the same neighborhood of the solar system, with similar sizes, compositions, and inventories of gases. However, Venus formed just a bit closer to the sun, and that slight difference in solar radiation changed its planetary destiny.
On Earth, liquid water oceans played a critical role as a planetary scrubber. Carbon dioxide dissolved into the oceans, where it reacted with minerals to form carbonates. Over millions of years, plate tectonics subducted these carbonate rocks deep into the mantle. Today, the vast majority of Earth's carbon is locked away in the crust in the form of limestone, marble, and chalk.
If Earth were suddenly heated to the point where all the carbon in its rock outgassed into the air, its atmosphere would quickly become a dense, toxic greenhouse very similar to Venus.
Venus, being closer to the sun, experienced a different chain of events. Early in its history, the higher temperatures caused its oceans to evaporate. Water vapor is a potent greenhouse gas, so as the surface water boiled away, the planet trapped even more heat, creating a runaway greenhouse effect.
Once the water was trapped in the upper atmosphere, ultraviolet sunlight broke the water molecules apart. The lightweight hydrogen atoms escaped into space, swept away by the solar wind, while the heavier oxygen combined with carbon. Without liquid oceans to dissolve the carbon dioxide, and lacking plate tectonics to cycle it back into the planet's interior, the gas had nowhere to go.
Over billions of years, volcanic eruptions on Venus continually added more carbon dioxide to the sky, with no mechanism to pull it back down. The gas simply piled up. The result is an atmosphere so thick and heavy that standing on the surface of Venus would subject a human body to the same pressure as being 3,000 feet underwater in an Earth ocean. ~ Quora
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PEOPLE WITH GENETIC RISK OF ALZHEIMER’S MAY LOWER THEIR RISK BY EATING MORE MEAT
Eating a greater proportion of unprocessed meat was also associated with less all-cause mortality among this group of people.
The APOE4 allele is the strongest risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease.
In a new observational study from Sweden, people with a genetic risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease had a lower risk of developing this form of dementia if they consumed large amounts of unprocessed meat.
“Those who ate more meat overall had significantly slower cognitive decline and a lower risk of dementia, but only if they had the APOE 3/4 or 4/4 gene variants,” said study author Jakob Norgren, PhD, in a press release.
This finding might come as a surprise considering that most dietary advice around preventing Alzheimer’s or age-related cognitive decline has focused on eating plant foods.
“There is a lack of dietary research into brain health,” argued Norgren, “and our findings suggest that conventional dietary advice may be unfavorable to a genetically defined subgroup of the population.”
What is APOE?
APOE is a gene that helps the body to make a particular type of protein that can combine with fats to make molecules called lipoproteins that play a role in cholesterol management.
There are three different forms, or alleles, that APOE can take: APOE2, APOE3, and APOE4. As people inherit one allele from each of their parents, this means that there are six different possible variants: 2/2, 2/3, 2/4, 3/3, 3/4, and 4/4.
The APOE4 allele is the strongest risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease. A significant number of people with the condition have the allele in the 4/4 genotype.
“This study tested the hypothesis that people with APOE 3/4 and 4/4 would have a reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia with higher meat intake, based on the fact that APOE4 is the evolutionarily oldest variant of the APOE gene and may have arisen during a period when our evolutionary ancestors ate a more animal-based diet,” said Norgren in the press release.
The data came from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care-Kungsholmen (SNAC-K), which followed the adults for up to 15 years.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/high-meat-consumption-lower-dementia-risk-in-alzheimers-gene-carriers
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EFFECTS OF KETOGENIC DIET ON COGNITIVE FUNCTION OF PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS (a very brief summary)
Research conducted has indicated that the ketogenic diet (KD)
can enhance the mental state and cognitive function of those with AD, albeit potentially leading to an elevation in blood lipid levels. In summary, the good intervention effect and safety of KD are worthy of promotion and application in clinical treatment of AD.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1279770724003932
Oriana:
Cholesterol can be kept at optimal levels when the patient takes 1500 mg/day of berberine. Of course since berberine is also neuroprotective, its wider use would likely mean less neurodegenerative disease to start with. Even once the disease is underway, berberine may be helpful: "treatment effectively clears Aβ plaques, reduces neuroinflammation, and improves spatial memory dysfunction in AD mice." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0944711324002836
It's a tragedy that berberine, a natural compound and not an expensive new drug, is still so unknown when it comes to its amazing therapeutic potential.
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SHINGLES VACCINE MAY CUT THE RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR EVENTS
Research suggests that the shingles vaccine is linked to a significantly lower risk of major cardiovascular events in people with existing heart disease.
Vaccinated individuals had reduced risks across multiple outcomes, including heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and death within 1 year.
The protective effect may be due to the vaccine preventing inflammation and dangerous blood clots that result from the shingles infection.
While promising, the findings come from an observational study. Therefore, more research is necessary to confirm a direct cause-and-effect relationship.
Since the approval of Zostavax in 2006, people have been able to protect themselves against shingles by getting the shingles vaccine.
In 2017, Shingrix received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and quickly became the preferred vaccine, with public health bodies thereafter recommending it over Zostavax.
Researchers estimate that one in three people will develop shingles, with risk increasing with age. For this reason, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) recommend that adults ages 50 and over receive 2 doses of the shingles vaccine.
Similarly, the risk of cardiovascular events also increases with age due to changes in the heart and blood vessels. For example, heart attacks are most common in adults aged 65 and older, and more than 70% of all strokes also occur in this population.
Previous research suggests that the shingles vaccine may offer additional health benefits, such as reducing the risk of cardiovascular events.
The findings suggest that adults with heart disease who received a shingles vaccine experience markedly fewer heart-related complications within a year than those who were not vaccinated.
After examining for cardiac events occurring between one month and one year after shingles vaccination, or the same time period for unvaccinated individuals, the researchers found that vaccination was linked with a lower risk across all outcomes studied.
Notably, the vaccine was associated with:
46% lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events
27% lower risk of heart attack
27% lower risk of stroke
33% lower risk of heart failure
61% lower risk of death from any cause
The researchers add that these reductions are substantial and comparable to the benefits expected from quitting smoking. They add that this supports recommendations for all adults over 50 to receive the shingles vaccine.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/shingles-vaccine-could-cut-risk-cardiovascular-events#What-did-the-study-find
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SEVEN MILLION CANCER CASES A YEAR ARE PREVENTABLE
Seven million people's cancer could be prevented each year, according to the first global analysis.
A report by World Health Organization (WHO) scientists estimates 37% of cancers are caused by infections, lifestyle choices and environmental pollutants that could be avoided.
This includes cervical cancers caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) infections which vaccination can help prevent, as well as a host of tumors caused by tobacco smoke from cigarettes.
The researchers said their report showed there is a "powerful opportunity" to transform the lives of millions of people.
Some cancers are inevitable — either because of damage we unavoidably build up in our DNA as we age or because we inherit genes that put us at greater risk of the disease.
But researcher Dr Isabelle Soerjomataram said "people are surprised to hear" that nearly four in 10 cancers can be prevented as it is "a substantial number”.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the WHO, analyzed 30 preventable factors known to increase the risk of cancer.
These include smoking and ultraviolet (UV) radiation which can directly damage our DNA; obesity and too little physical activity which alter inflammation and hormones in the body to raise cancer risk; and air pollution which can wake up dormant cancer cells.
The agency's report also looked at nine cancer-causing infections including HPV, hepatitis viruses which lead to liver cancer and the stomach bug H. pylori.
The team used data on cancer cases from 2022 and from the 30 risk factors a decade earlier – across 185 countries — to perform their statistical analysis.
The big three contributors to more than 18 million cancer cases around the world were found to be:
smoking tobacco which caused 3.3 million cancers
infections causing 2.3 million cancers
alcohol use leading to 700,000 cancers
However, the overall figures mask a nuanced picture of cancer risk around the world.
There is a stark sex-divide, with 45% of men's cancers being preventable compared with 30% in women, partly down to higher levels of smoking among men.
In women living in Europe, the top three preventable causes of cancer are smoking, closely followed by infection and then obesity.
While in sub-Saharan Africa, infections dominate and account for nearly 80% of preventable cancers in women.
This means any measures to tackle these cancers would need to be tailored to each region or country.
"This landmark study is a comprehensive assessment of preventable cancer worldwide, incorporating for the first time infectious causes of cancer alongside behavioral, environmental, and occupational risks," said Soerjomataram, the deputy head of the IARC Cancer Surveillance Unit.
"Addressing these preventable causes represents one of the most powerful opportunities to reduce the global cancer burden.”
The report, published in the journal Nature Medicine, showed lung cancer (linked to smoking and air pollution), stomach cancer (linked to H. pylori infection) and cervical cancer (linked to HPV infection) made up nearly half of all preventable cases of cancer.
Dr Andre Ilbawi, team lead for cancer control at WHO, said the study was "good news" as it showed something could be done and he pointed to the success of countries that have introduced policies to tackle smoking or vaccinate against HPV.
Dr Andre Ilbawi, team lead for cancer control at WHO, said the study was "good news" as it showed something could be done and he pointed to the success of countries that have introduced policies to tackle smoking or vaccinate against HPV.
"The percentage of preventable cancers can change over time and our goal is to get it as close to zero as possible," he said.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yd3x7yreno
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CHRONIC VENOUS INSUFFICIENCY
Since President Trump, age 79, had his diagnosis of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) shared in a White House announcement, the venous system disorder has gained national attention like never before. MedPage Today reached out to experts for more information on this chronic, progressive venous disorder that can significantly affect quality of life.
What Is CVI?
A common condition in older people — affecting an estimated 10% to 35% of American adults — CVI occurs when leg veins become damaged and cannot manage blood flow properly, making it harder for blood to return to the heart. Leg discomfort, swelling, and discoloration in the leg are major clinical features of CVI.
Trump was diadgnosed as having "mild swelling in his lower legs" from CVI based on Thursday's statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
"While it is not generally serious, it can impact quality of life and in some cases cause inflammation and leg ulcers," Robert Attaran, MD, of Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, told MedPage Today.
"Chronic venous insufficiency is typically a relatively benign condition," agreed Robert Eberhardt, MD, of Boston Medical Center. "It most commonly causes varicose veins with dependent edema (or leg swelling) and perhaps leg aching/discomfort with prolonged standing. However, if untreated it may lead to more serious complications such as leg ulcers (or skin breakdown)."
Pathogenic mechanisms underlying CVI can be non-acute venous obstruction, reflux, muscle pump dysfunction, or some combination of the three.
"The main cause of venous insufficiency is dysfunctional valves in the veins of the legs but blockage in the deep veins can also be a cause. Over time the condition and its symptoms can worsen, prompting many sufferers to seek treatment," Attaran explained.
Ronald Winokur, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, suggested that CVI can describe any chronic venous disorder (CVD) in general. "Varicose and spider veins are the most common examples of CVD and are among the most common issues that affect adults. Most of these are asymptomatic, although for some patients, they may be associated with discomfort."
Across the board, experts were quick to clarify that CVI has little, if anything, to do with cardiovascular disease. Indeed, the White House disclosed that Trump had no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease.
Other cardiovascular tests, including an echocardiogram, showed normal results.
"CVI is a venous disorder, not an arterial or cardiac condition. The typical causes of CVI differ from those leading to arterial cardiovascular disease, and therefore it is not usually considered a cardiovascular disease risk factor," according to Winokur.
"Some studies suggest a correlation between CVI and increased long-term cardiovascular risk and mortality — but this likely reflects shared risk factors (age, obesity), rather than CVI itself directly causing heart attacks or strokes," he noted. "So, while CVI alone doesn't elevate traditional arterial cardiovascular risk, its presence indicates one or more risk factors that may also predispose to heart or vascular disease."
It is also possible that "the resultant inactivity caused by CVI can contribute to obesity, hypertension, and worsening of overall peripheral arterial health," Ramona Gupta, MD, of Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, suggested.
"Due to immobility and stagnant blood in the legs, patients with CVI are at a slightly increased risk for deep vein thrombosis, which is when a blood clot in a major vein can develop and may then travel to the heart or lungs," commented Donald Baril, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
How Is CVI Managed?
Management of CVI generally aims for reducing the pooling of blood in the leg veins.
"Untreated cases can progress to inflammation and lipodermatosclerosis, the thickening and hardening of the skin with resultant discoloration and weakening of the skin. The most worrisome outcome ... is the development of venous ulcers, open wounds that demand attentive treatment to heal and prevent recurrence," said Gupta.
The initial management of CVI usually comprises leg elevation, exercise, low-salt diet, and long-term compression therapy.
Compression stockings are considered the main component of the conservative approach. "The good ones have a lot of compression at the ankle and gradually less so toward the heart," Stephanie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, of Hunter College in New York City, told MedPage Today.
If CVI does not improve with conservative measures, the patient usually proceeds to noninvasive testing to determine anatomic and pathophysiologic features that would inform more advanced treatment. Indeed, Trump reportedly underwent a bilateral lower extremity venous Doppler ultrasound.
Several surgical and minimally invasive treatment options are available for cases of CVI not responding to conservative management.
For one, Winokur highlighted the elimination of the saphenous veins that often inadequately move blood from the lower legs back toward the heart.
"This occurs because of improperly functioning venous valves which should direct blood from the legs back toward the heart against the force of gravity. In these cases, since we cannot repair the valves, elimination of the saphenous veins is safe and effective using outpatient ultrasound-guided procedures like endovenous laser or [radio frequency] thermal ablation or several non-thermal ablation approaches," according to Winokur.
"In some patients who have had a prior deep vein thrombosis involving the iliac veins in the pelvis, there may be incomplete reopening of these veins after the use of blood thinners," Winokur added. "In some patients with this problem, the insertion of a metal stent with x-ray guidance is appropriate. The stents are like those used in the coronary arteries for patients who have had heart attacks, although larger in diameter to improve blood flow through these large veins. The use of these stents has been demonstrated to relieve the symptoms and help heal venous ulcerations."
Overall, "the modern procedures are generally safe and require virtually no downtime," according to Attaran.
Of note is Trump's visible bruising on his hands, unrelated to his CVI, which was attributed officially to the president's persistent use of aspirin for primary prevention.
Experts explained that just as CVI is typically viewed as separate from cardiovascular disease, the cardiovascular prevention drug aspirin is not recommended for CVI.
Aspirin is "not used to treat chronic venous insufficiency. People taking even a baby aspirin a day can be more prone to bruising on the arms and legs," warned Attaran.
Even so, Eberhardt noted that on rare occasions, aspirin can be used to help prevent thrombosis.
"Aspirin is most commonly used with cardiovascular disease due to blockages in the coronary arteries, or for so-called primary prevention in those at risk for heart disease to prevent ischemic complications. Its use in primary prevention is generally less favored today but not uncommon and perhaps the indication for its use in the president," Eberhardt told MedPage Today.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/popmedicine/cultureclinic/116584?xid=nl_popmed_2025-10-03&mh=342eee1afb71606be9b8799b062f5355&zdee=gAAAAABo29FxQg2TSBv4EtJM5W1VjKng5HcRKCzHDCDPKk74XDU9a7ZRsFMpCanN5DChqnIpt7XMKPXDcHGvJwqpQbR2u3mi3BwNHQZRX4ekpN-hZeDzmFo%3D&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PopMedicine_SuppressedExcl_100325&utm_term=NL_Gen_Int_PopMedicine_Active
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ULTIMA THULE
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