All posts tagged: isnt

Cheating isn’t always the end of a relationship. It’s time to rethink infidelity

Cheating isn’t always the end of a relationship. It’s time to rethink infidelity

Published by skeptic

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Nothing ruffles feathers quite like a celebrity cheating scandal. It’s an entire industry in and of itself, resulting in an endless stream of column inches, viral social media discussions, and occasionally even merch – I was “Team Jen”, for the record. The stakes are rarely higher, the drama never quite so delicious. They’re not in short supply, either, thanks to a high-speed rumour mill of famous people getting frisky with one another while otherwise engaged, so to speak. The latest brouhaha surrounds McFly’s Danny Jones, who was seemingly caught on camera kissing Love Island’s Maura Higgins at a Brit Awards afterparty earlier this month. Jones, 39, has been married to former Miss England model Georgia Horsley since 2014; the couple share a seven-year-old son …

ICE Isn’t Delivering the Mass Deportation Trump Wants

ICE Isn’t Delivering the Mass Deportation Trump Wants

Published by skeptic

The opening salvo of President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation campaign has made immigrants across the United States fear that simply going to work, school, or the supermarket might result in a life-altering arrest. Sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, real and imagined, are everywhere on social media. Teachers say students are panicked that ICE will take their parents while they’re in class. One Maryland doctor who treats patients with cancer and chronic pain from worksite injuries told me that many are skipping appointments. “They’re terrified,” he said. That much, according to Trump officials, is going to plan, backed by a $200 million messaging campaign called “Stay Out and Leave Now.” The results of the actual deportation push appear to be more modest, though not for lack of effort. ICE officers, some working six or seven days a week, made about 18,000 arrests last month, according to internal data I obtained. (ICE stopped publishing daily-arrest totals in early February as its numbers sagged.) By comparison, the agency tallied roughly 10,000 arrests in February 2024. The …

Manus probably isn’t China’s second ‘DeepSeek moment’

Manus probably isn’t China’s second ‘DeepSeek moment’

Published by skeptic

Manus, an “agentic” AI platform that launched in preview last week, is generating more hype than a Taylor Swift concert. The head of product at Hugging Face called Manus “the most impressive AI tool I’ve ever tried.” AI policy researcher Dean Ball described Manus as the “most sophisticated computer using AI.” The official Discord server for Manus grew to over 138,000 members in just a few days, and invite codes for Manus are reportedly selling for thousands of dollars on Chinese reseller app Xianyu. But it’s not clear the hype is justified. excellent https://t.co/TfeV9QZ1d0 — jack (@jack) March 9, 2025 Manus wasn’t developed entirely from scratch. According to reports on social media, the platform uses a combination of existing and fine-tuned AI models, including Anthropic’s Claude and Alibaba’s Qwen, to perform tasks such as drafting research reports and analyzing financial filings. Yet on its website, Monica — the Chinese startup behind Manus — gives a few wild examples of what the platform supposedly can accomplish, from buying real estate to programming video games. In a …

Trump Orders Musk to Get Air Force One Finished Quickly, Even If It Isn’t Fully Safe Yet

Trump Orders Musk to Get Air Force One Finished Quickly, Even If It Isn’t Fully Safe Yet

Published by José

What’s the worst that could happen? President Donald Trump is running out of patience with Boeing, which was supposed to deliver two new Air Force One planes by the end of his predecessor’s term. And guess who he’s turning to to speed things up? Elon Musk, who Trump has “empowered” to take measures to get the beleaguered aerospace company to stop dragging its feet, the New York Times reports. Trump’s pick for the task isn’t surprising, since he’s asked the world’s richest man to do everything short of fixing the White House’s plumbing in his ostensible mission of making the federal government more “efficient.” If Musk can fly a rocket, Trump reportedly told associates, per the NYT, he can probably fly an airplane. But the lengths that Trump is letting Musk go here are alarming. According to the NYT, Musk has questioned the amount of time needed to flight test the planes, and is also considering lowering the security clearance required to work on the new jets, which are armed with a bevy of sensitive systems …

Timothée Chalamet Isn’t Done Yet

Timothée Chalamet Isn’t Done Yet

Published by skeptic

There’s nothing that Timothée Chalamet wouldn’t do, he’d go to the ends of the Earth for you, to make you feel his love for Bob Dylan. And, perhaps, to win an Oscar. Indeed, the freewheelin’ actor has proven that he would brave the crowds at his own lookalike contest, ride a Lime Bike on a red carpet, resurrect True Religion jeans, and sing Dylan deep cuts on SNL, all in the name of promoting the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. His portrayal of the titular troubadour has already earned him a nomination for best actor at the upcoming 2025 Academy Awards, but he’s not content to stop there. On Friday, Chalamet concluded the film’s formal press tour at the Berlin International Film Festival with yet another sartorial bang: a custom baby pink ensemble by the California brand Chrome Hearts, complete with leather trousers, a hand-dyed hoodie, and matching Timberland boots. Timothée Chalamet, in custom Chrome Hearts and Timberland boots, at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. Gisela Schober/Getty Images Andreas Rentz/Getty Images Gerald Matzka/Getty Images …

The FCC’s Jessica Rosenworcel Isn’t Leaving Without a Fight

The FCC’s Jessica Rosenworcel Isn’t Leaving Without a Fight

Published by skeptic

As the United States scrambles to kick China out of its communications networks, Jessica Rosenworcel, the outgoing Democratic chair of the Federal Communications Commission, says it’s vital for her Republican successor to maintain strong oversight of the telecommunications industry. The government is still reeling from the Chinese “Salt Typhoon” hacking campaign that penetrated at least nine US telecom companies and gave Beijing access to Americans’ phone calls and text messages and the wiretap systems used by law enforcement. The operation exploited US carriers’ shockingly poor cybersecurity, including an AT&T administrator account that lacked basic security protections. To prevent a repeat of the unprecedented telecom intrusion, Rosenworcel used the waning days of her FCC leadership to propose new cybersecurity requirements for telecom operators. On Thursday, the commission narrowly voted to approve her proposal. But those rules face a bleak future, with president-elect Donald Trump preparing to take office and control of the FCC transferring to commissioner Brendan Carr, a Trump ally who voted against Rosenworcel’s regulatory plan. In an interview days before Trump’s inauguration, Rosenworcel is …

The Health-Care System Isn’t Hopeless

The Health-Care System Isn’t Hopeless

Published by José

Earlier this month, the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare was assassinated during morning rush hour on a busy block in Midtown Manhattan; the alleged killer’s confession went viral, in particular the line “the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.” The murder led to a mass airing of grievances with American insurers and, among those who felt that the industry had it coming, a haunting moment of collective glee. What it did not lead to is any focus on policies that could make health insurance and the broader health-care system work better. Both the horrid act of violence and the flippant reaction to it struck me as tragic, because there are, in fact, many ways to make things better. The system is broken. But its problems are not intractable. Nor are America’s politicians incapable of making commonsense, even bipartisan, improvements. The problems are severe, to be clear. Americans spend more on health care than the citizens of any other country, and get less …

Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet by Samantha Allen

Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet by Samantha Allen

Published by skeptic

In her sophomore novel Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet, Samantha Allen crafts a story that is simultaneously a queer romance, a ghost story, and a meditation on authenticity in an age of carefully curated personas. Following the success of her debut novel Patricia Wants to Cuddle and her Lambda Literary Award finalist Real Queer America, Allen demonstrates her growing mastery of genre-bending fiction while maintaining her signature wit and insight into LGBTQ+ experiences. A Story Unlike Any Other The premise sounds like the setup for a joke: What happens when a struggling gay ex-Mormon ghostwriter meets an actual ghost who wants to write his memoir? But in Allen’s capable hands, this unlikely scenario transforms into a deeply moving exploration of connection, truth-telling, and the prices we pay for hiding our authentic selves. Adam Gallagher, our protagonist, arrives at Roland Rogers’ Malibu mansion expecting to ghostwrite for Hollywood’s biggest action star. Instead, he finds himself collaborating with an actual ghost—Roland died in a skiing accident but remains tethered to his home through electrical appliances, determined to …

Human settlement of Mars isn’t as far off as you might think

Human settlement of Mars isn’t as far off as you might think

Published by skeptic

Could humans expand out beyond their homeworld and establish settlements on the planet Mars? The idea of settling the red planet has been around for decades. However, it has been seen by sceptics as a delusion at best and mere bluster at worst. Mars might seem superficially similar to Earth in a number of ways. But its atmosphere is thin and humans would need to live within pressurised habitats on the surface. Yet in an era where space tourism has become possible, the red planet has emerged as a dreamland for rich eccentrics and techno utopians. As is often the case with science communication, there’s a gulf between how close we are to this ultimate goal and where the general public understands it to be. However, I believe there is a rationale for settling Mars and that this objective is not as far off as some would believe. There are actually a few good reasons to be optimistic about humanity’s future on the red planet. First, Mars is reachable. During an optimal alignment between Earth …

England’s planned pay increase for teachers isn’t enough to recruit the 6,500 more the government wants

England’s planned pay increase for teachers isn’t enough to recruit the 6,500 more the government wants

Published by skeptic

Before the 2024 general election, Labour pledged in its manifesto to recruit 6,500 new teachers in response to England’s continuing teacher recruitment and retention crisis. Now, this recruitment target is central to the government’s plans to deliver its “national mission” to break down the barriers to opportunity facing children. The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), a research charity, recently published a report on the ways that this recruitment target might be reached. The report claims that the government could achieve this target by restoring the relative position of teacher pay to its 2010 level. This would mean pay rises of nearly 10% a year for three years. While supported by the teaching unions, this was always unlikely: the NFER report states that this option would be the most costly to the government. Indeed, the government has proposed a 2.8% rise to teacher pay in 2025-26. But this marginally above inflation pay rise will be unfunded, meaning that schools will not be getting additional money from the government to fund this rise and will have …