between iron and silver

we passed a sign in boring that said their sister city is dull, scotland

oh there's a third! bland, new south wales!

For anyone wondering, the PhD student's name is Myra Cheng.

Across three preregistered studies, participants interacting with sycophantic AI became more convinced of their own rightness and less willing to repair relationships. Yet at the same time, participants rated sycophantic AI models as higher quality, more trustworthy, and more desirable for future use, which may explain why this behavior has persisted despite its harmful impacts.

I’m sure this will get buried but for the sake of answering all your FAQs

okay this is an insane poll but for context: as a lot of people know, in fashion and styling, different people have different complimentary palettes. some people look better in cool tones, some people look better in warm tones, some in bright colors, some in pastels, etc etc. however, this also applies to metals, specifically gold vs silver. so,

Apparently there was a jewelry trend in like, the 20s-40s to have an onyx ring with a small diamond "floating" on the onyx and I could never afford one but I think they're so cunty. Especially when the diamond is off center. Reminds me of Marilyn Monroe's beauty mark

You'll never be her

"In the ‘60s one either believed that America was being greened or that America was being morally defoliated. You either believed that this was the dawning of the age of Aquarius or you believed that we were on the eve of destruction. I sometimes think that the most malignant aspect of the period was the extent to which everyone dealt exclusively in symbols. Certain artifacts were understood to denote something other than themselves, something supposedly abstract; some positive or negative moral value. And whether the artifact was positively or negatively charged depended not on any objective reality at all but on where you stood, where the polarization had thrown you. Marijuana was a symbol. Long hair was of course a symbol, and so was short hair. Natural foods were a symbol – rice, seaweed, raw milk, the whole litany. I found myself in situations during the late ‘60s where my refusal to give my baby unpasteurized milk was construed as evidence that I must be “on the other side.” Probably an undercover. In fact, it meant nothing except that I had grown up around farms and I had known children who got tuberculosis and brucellosis from drinking raw milk. But this was a period in which everything was understood to have some moral freight, some meaning beyond itself. And in fact, nothing did; that was the peculiarity of the decade. In a way it was very touching, this whole society so starved for meaning that it made totems out of meaningless artifacts. The whole country was like a cargo cult. But it was also very destructive. Because nothing meant what it was supposed to mean."

Seriously, the storytelling and character work in Off Campus is so far beyond anything I expected going into it. The way that every point of conflict stems from established traumas or fears getting triggered rather than lies and miscommunication? The dismantling of toxic masculinity (especially within male friendships + their treatment of women)? The portrayal of women's tendency to feel guilty once they start enjoying themselves? THE GIRLBESTIES, HELLO? The early theme of "how can two things be true at once" resonating with Garrett's confusion over Hannah's feelings, and then the show taking that a step further by introducing all these nuanced conversations across the entire cast where neither party is in the wrong? The fact that we actually spend time with the main couple in a healthy relationship, facing issues together, rather than spending it all on dramatized buildup just to prolong tension?