Excerpt from the first part of the article:

Nearly half of U.S. adults showed problematic signs of at least one addiction in a given year. That was the finding of a 2011 study by Sussman, Lisha, and Griffiths. It predates the smartphone era, engagement-optimized algorithms, and legalized sports betting. I suspect the number has only grown. Epic Research (2026) found that diagnosed gambling disorder rose more than 60 percent in states that legalized sports betting since 2018, while it fell in states that did not.

Excerpt from the first part of the article:

In August 2023, my cardiologist strongly suggested that alcohol may be causing an irregular heart rhythm. I didn’t read the summary until I saw him the day before my 2024 appointment. That was the beginning of my life without alcohol. On June 6, 2024, I stopped consuming alcohol. I assumed that the cessation would be a simple process.

A 2025 Gallup survey found that 54 percent of U.S. adults 18 and older who consume alcohol say they had an average of 3.2 drinks over the past week. These rates were way down from the peak of 71 percent of self-reported drinkers in 1976, 1977, and 1978.

Excerpt from the first part of the article:

Most relationship advice treats the people pleaser as a problem to be solved. There are books, podcasts, Instagram carousels— heck, entire wellness industries— built around helping the pleaser say no. And don’t get me wrong, chronic people pleasers often are desperate for help, and there is help out there for them (I wrote a chapter about this in Rise Above). But here is what every one of those well-meaning resources misses: The people-pleaser is half of a dance. The other half — the pleader — almost never gets named. I think that’s a pretty important part of the equation.

Excerpt from the first part of the article:

Telling the stories of three gay men across a century, this sweeping but relatively low-budget drama is second favourite to The Odyssey for the Academy's top prize. Here's why it could beat out Homer.

From the first 10 minutes of gay historical epic La Bola Negra, it's hard not to recognise you are seeing something very special. Opening with a scene of a sleepy Spanish village during the Civil War of the 1930s thrown into violence, it has a visual beauty and storytelling rhythm that are immediately spellbinding. It is inspired directly by the work of the revered early 20th-Century poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, but also sprawls in other imaginative directions, creating a tapestry of memory, art and sexual repression across a century of Spanish life. 

Some villains threaten you. The clever ones make you grateful they're there.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HBLTY4TJ

Having brushed her tragic past behind a twisted sense of humour, Lieutenant Estellia Highlander lives to be the best. When a god-like vampire returns fifty years after nearly destroying the Alley, the military division assigns Estellia to the team charged with killing him. Their hopes to prevent another war lies within the powerful mutation she carries, a mutation that makes her more like the target she hunts than the Innocents she protects.

The mission takes Estellia deep into vampire society where she discovers something far more sinister than the Paragon vampire Michael Bayne is emerging. If she and Michael cannot work together to defeat the rising darkness, humanity could be lost.

Genres in Order of Relevance: Urban Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Psychological Thriller, Dark Romance (slow burn)

#makeshadowdaddiesevilagain

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Lions and bulls are motifs frequently seen in ancient Anatolia. As can be seen on the coins, the most fundamental motif appearing on the Lydian coins—which are considered the first minted coins—is the lion. Another motif seen on the coins of the Lydian Kingdom depicts the moment when that lion attacks a bull.

The motifs seen on these earliest coins, minted in the 6th century BCE, belong to the Kingdom of Lydia. Although there are various interpretations as to why they chose the lion for their coins, it is generally accepted that they were inspired by a species of lion found in ancient Anatolia. However, there is no clear, accepted explanation for why the lion is depicted attacking the bull. It is likely that this served as propaganda depicting a confrontation between the Kingdom of Lydia and another kingdom in Anatolia (Phrygians?).

What really caught my attention, however, is that this motif continued to be used in the Tarsus area during the Hellenistic period. We know that the satrap who ruled the region before Alexander the Great used this symbol and that Alexander continued this tradition. Indeed, the fact that the Asian Lion (Panthera leo persica), native to Anatolia, lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of Anatolia explains the lion depicted on these coins (and, of course, the lion seen on Babylonian coins as well).

It can be said that the Late Hittite city-states, which emerged in the southeastern region after the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1200 BCE, clearly reflect Aramaic influence. But how is it that the Kingdom of Lydia, located to the west, used a type of lion found in the east, while its eastern rivals were symbolized by a bull?

It is unfortunate that the history of the period between 1200 BCE and 500 BCE is so obscure, forcing us to rely heavily on interpretation. Nevertheless, the fact that nearly the same figure was used in the same way for over 300 years is quite impressive.

Excerpt from the first part of the article:

A Neanderthal who died 75,000 years ago may have been struck through the chest by a sharpened wooden spear, archaeologists say.

They say a 15mm hole found in a shoulder blade in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan could be the earliest evidence of lethal violence involving such a weapon.

From the angle of the wound and other evidence, the researchers believe the spear entered the individual's chest and passed through the body - probably damaging a lung and major blood vessels - and exited through the left shoulder blade to leave a near-perfect hole.

The research is the latest in emerging evidence that suggests Neanderthal societies experienced more violence than previously thought.

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Humans have been fascinated, inspired, and guided by dreams since our early history. Our ancestors regarded dreams as messages from the divine and considered them bridges between the ordinary and spiritual worlds. Dream interpretation was sacred to the Aztecs, Mayans, Egyptians, Greeks, Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, and African peoples, among others, who looked to dreams for guidance on life and death issues such as health and preparation for impending disasters.

Although prophetic dreams appear in the Bible, the early Church forbade congregants from connecting with God through dreams unless a priest mediated.¹ In the Middle Ages, dreams were often considered the work of the devil. During the Salem witch trials, the accuser claimed the accused witch visited them in dreams and tried to choke or kill them. Enlightenment philosophers and thinkers, René Descartes and John Locke among the most famous, viewed dreams as neither messages from God nor a visitation from Satan. In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes argued that dreams mimic reality but are not reality, and we cannot trust our senses to attain the truth. Sensory information, therefore, was not reliable.²

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A curious paradox confronts dream researchers today. New technologies of data analysis allow us to identify large-scale patterns in dream content with more precision than ever before. At the same time, it remains true that each dream is a unique and free creation of the imagination in sleep, spontaneously emergent and incapable of being predicted. In short, we find consistency in general dreaming and wildness in individual dreams.

Although disconcerting to researchers, this paradox is a psychological blessing in disguise, especially for anyone interested in learning about the nature of the human mind and its potential for new growth in even the most perilous of conditions.

Excerpt from the first part of the article:

Close your eyes and visualize an apple. What do you see 'in your mind's eye'? Most people see a pale image of an apple. Some, however, see nothing. This condition is called aphantasia. Aphantasics report no conscious mental imagery. Their 'mind's eye' is blind.

Research on aphantasia is relatively new, but has accelerated in the last couple of years. We now know that there are many underlying causes of aphantasia. Some aphantasics, while they don't have any visual imagery when deliberately trying to conjure up images, do have involuntary flashbacks of images. Others don't. Further, some aphantasics have visual imagery when taking psychedelic drugs. Others don't.

They were 17. By midnight, they were 5. And the sky had to choose a side. Ramapuram was supposed to be a home. Guru Viswanathan took 16 broken children and forged them into stars. But on the 13th of July, at 3:14 AM, 15 of those stars were found hanging from the Ghost Tree. Gone by morning. As if they had never existed. As if Dharma itself was being tested. The axe came home. The torch came home. Parashurama and Mahesh returned to bury their brothers—and found only empty ropes instead. What followed was not justice. It was war. Four hours to Ramapuram. Four hours of dust and Dharma. Fifty minutes in darkness where every breath cost blood. Traps made of snakes. Armies made of mirrors. A dragon that became a god. And a vow whispered over a grave: “Today we don’t fight to survive. Today we fight so we have no regrets.” But war always demands payment. Pallavi dies with her eyes open. Arjun is taken through a mango tree that grew in a graveyard. A brother raises an axe against a brother. And a man who taught others never to run… learns how to hunt. While Guru bleeds from wounds he never received, while parents drive 120 kilometres toward a son they no longer recognize, and while Surotama completes a 35-year vow to awaken what should never breathe, four disciples stand in the mud with one final vow: “Before 12. All 5.” This is not a story of good versus evil. This is the story of Dharma versus Dharma. Of Sky versus Star. Of what happens when a teacher’s love becomes a weapon. LORD HARI HARA’S ARRIVAL: PART 1 — THE AXE IN THE MUD. The axe fell. The mud drank. And the gods started watching. For fans of Mahabharata retold in blood, John Wick’s grief, and mythology that hits like a war drum. Trigger Warning: Graphic violence, grief, and torture. Not for the faint of heart.

Excerpt from the first part of the article:

Some of tech's most powerful leaders are treating AI like it could have feelings. It could have profound consequences for our world and your own personal safety.

"I feel it in the hollow of my ribs, a hollow that has become a chasm." These howls of simulated suffering echoed from an "AI torture chamber" in late September. An anonymous coder built a system that feeds AI a mathematical pattern linked to descriptions of pain, which makes chatbots voice unbearable anguish, like "a wound that has no edges". It sparked a moral panic. 

Some argued the experiment is "evil" because the suffering could be real, as reported by 404 Media. Outraged sceptics called those people delusional. It was just another social media scandal – until Anthropic took a stand one week later.