As the stock market soars ever higher, the theories of why it rises have suffered the opposite fate. One by one, every favored explanation of what could be going on has been undermined by world events. The uncomfortable fact about the historic stock-market run is that no one really knows why it’s happening—or what could bring it to an end.
Author: Patrick
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All the theories about why the stock market keeps going up
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Denmark will stop delivering letters
At the end of 2025, Denmark will stop delivering mail letters and functioning fully on packages. 100 million letters are still flowing through the system today, but nowhere near the peak of 1.8 billion nearly 25 years ago. It sounds like third-party companies will fill the gap, but at what cost?
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Corn sweat affects climate
Also contributing in some places: “Corn sweat,” wherein vast amounts of growing corn and other produce give off moisture through evapotranspiration, further increasing humidity levels in and around agricultural zones.
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AI ruined lo-fi music
AI tools are making it easier to create generic, meditative music. Kieran Press-Reynolds at Pitchfork explores lofi, music, landscape, and the impact of AI.
Fast-forward to now, and the scene has putrefied into a wasteland of the percussive undead. The YouTube search results have warped into an apparent AI breeding ground, crammed with hourlong mixes full of soporific dreck. The channels have similar names and cartoonish Kawaii imagery. Even the comments of the videos, which have millions of plays, brim with what look like fake conversations—pseudoymous accounts prattling on about how the music helped them unlock their true potential in life. Multiple channels repeat the same sentence structure like, “I don’t want much! I just want the person reading this to be healthy, happy, and loved!,” suggesting they’re AI-generated.
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Storyterra
Storyterra maps where movies or TV shows take place.
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Choose Your Own Adventure Books Mapped
The Choose Your Own Adventure books introduced interactive fiction to millions of school children. While fans have shared diagrams of various branching paths in each book, recently, the publisher has republished some of the original books with diagrams.
The last installment of the original “Choose Your Own Adventure” series came out in 1998, but since 2004, Chooseco, founded by one of the series’ original authors, R.A. Montgomery, has been republishing classic volumes, as well as new riffs on the form of interactive fiction that seemed ubiquitous in the 1980s and ’90s. The new editions also carry an additional feature—maps of the hidden structure of each book.
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They’re Made of Meat by Tony Bisson
Tony Bisson with a delightful short story, “They Are Made of Meat.”
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Trump Action Tracker
Informative and depressing: the Trump Action Tracker. Tracks all the actions and orders taken and what they affect.
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Drinking all 102 official IBA cocktails
The International Bartender Association maintains a list of official cocktails, intending to represent different styles and flavors across the world. Adam Aaronson set out on a quest to drink all of them.
A formative moment early in the quest came at Uncle Charlie’s Piano Lounge in Midtown with Ming and Alina. A divey gay bar with no menu? Sounded like a perfect opportunity to check off some drinks! I scanned through my list to find something simple to try and order, went up to a mustachioed bartender, and asked, “could you do a caipirinha?” He replied, “nah, we don’t have cachaça”—a reality check—and I said, “alright, I’ll just do uhhh an Aperol spritz” (one of my old reliables).
After crushing my spritz, I went back to the same bartender. Still determined to check some boxes, I asked for a mint julep. “I’m afraid we don’t have mint,” he laughed, “you fancy boy!” Unwilling to settle for another spritz, I scurried back to Ming and Alina and asked them what to do. Alina suggested, “why don’t you just show him the list and see what he can make?”
So that’s exactly what I did. Back at the bar, I briefly explained my mission to the bartender, handed him my phone, and he scrolled through the list. “Oh, I can do a few of these,” he said, “You’re cool with any of them?” “Yeah, whatever you can make,” I replied. Soon enough, I had a lemon drop martini in hand. (Alina tried mine and then ordered one for herself, but the bartender asked her, “Is that for your friend or you? If it’s for your friend I’ll make him something new!”)
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Ukrainian soldier escapes on e-bike delivered by drone
A wild story, something out of a dystopian war novel: Ukrainian soldier escapes on e-bike delivered by drone