I was reading about a newly discovered praying mantis the other day — the kind of thing you stumble on while pretending you’re just “checking the news” — and it turns out one species has solved one of nature’s more awkward problems. Specifically: how not to get eaten immediately after…
Tag: don macleod
Culture
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Even a Koala Have Figured Out How to Escape Traffic
So I heard this story about a koala in Brisbane who wandered into traffic, panicked a bit, and then — with the confidence of someone who knows the schedule — climbed onto a city bus. Not metaphorically. Not “as a symbol.” Physically. Onto the bus. This is where we are…
Media
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An Interstellar Comet Passed Earth and Refused to Make a Scene
I was reading a ClickOrlando story about an interstellar comet making its “closest approach” to Earth. I immediately felt the cultural muscle memory kick in — the part of our brain trained by late-90s disaster movies to assume this ends with fire, sacrifice, and someone hugging their daughter under a…
AI
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TikTok Overtakes Traditional Media as Primary News Source for Digital-First Consumers
Not that it happened — that part felt inevitable. It’s how fast it went from fringe behavior to muscle memory. According to a new Pew Research Center study, 1 in 5 Americans now regularly get news on TikTok, up from 3% in 2020. Three percent to twenty before anyone really…
AI
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Traffic Calming Psychology—and Why the Road Suddenly Feels Wrong
It started with a left turn that didn’t feel legal. Not illegal either. Just… off. The arrow leaned like a tired elbow had nudged it — not broken, not crooked enough to complain about, but not straight enough to trust. I slowed without thinking. So did the pickup beside me….
Culture
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Average Age America and the Long History of Eye-Rolling Youth
The average age of the American population is approximately 39.1 years.* That’s the math. Census tables, life expectancy, delayed adulthood, all of it boiled down into one mildly uncomfortable number. And somehow, that number now comes with judgment. If you’re under 25, anyone born in the 1900s gets treated like a historical…
Lifestyle
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Germany Welcomes Twin Barbary Macaques-Nature’s Little Flex
Every once in a while a story shows up that overrides the usual headlines — the political noise, the corporate nonsense, the weather app pretending it knows everything — and this week it was two tiny Barbary macaques who rolled into a German zoo and stole the whole news cycle….
AI
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Why Antarctica Is Suddenly the Hottest Mystery in Science
The weird stories never announce themselves. They just stroll in, flick the lights twice, and act like Antarctica is the logical place for answers. The ANITA saga fits right in — a cosmic prank hiding under a few miles of ice, radio static, and scientists giving that tight-lipped “everything’s normal”…
AI
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Legacy Media Lost a Generation — And Teens Aren’t Waiting Around
There’s a moment every media veteran has when they look around the room, realize every kid is staring at a phone, and think: Ah. We’re screwed. The AP story about teens distrusting the news didn’t shock me. What did catch me off guard was how early the rot set in….
Humor
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Liquor Store Break-In Ends With One Passed-Out Raccoon and a Lot of Questions
There’s drunk, and then there’s “broke into a locked Virginia liquor store and passed out in the bathroom” drunk. And that’s exactly what one raccoon managed to pull off in Ashland, reminding all of us that nature has absolutely no respect for closing hours or inventory management. The store was…