The Shadow of Edward Gibbon and Adam Smith

Against Self-Criticism: Adam Phillips on How Our Internal Critics Enslave Us, the Stockholm Syndrome of the Superego, and the Power of Multiple Interpretations

Why Reading Is Now Restless

Democracy vs. Data Centers

Ancient DNA Illuminates the Uniqueness of the Extinct Cave Lion

Open Thread

Research from the ground up

Make Britain Great Again

Teaching AI agents to ask better questions by playing “Battleship”

Donald Trump’s Superficiality Is Bone-Deep

Another Chance for Trump to Cash Out

What If You Start Calling Yourself Jane Smith, and Sue as Jane Smith, Instead of Asking to Sue Under a Pseudonym?

Court Awards $400M Default Judgment Against North Korea to Victims of 1968 Attack on U.S.S. Pueblo

No Pseudonymity for Plaintiff Allegedly "Enticed by an Attractive, Busty Jewess"

Spiraling Out of Control

Trump’s Border Win

Alasdair MacIntyre believed that Western morality, having lost its rationale, was replaced by something thinner: mere moral passion  

The Left’s Institutional Capture

Open Thread

Harold Bloom read everything, praised lavishly, and struggled mightily with self-doubt 

Killing Me Softly with His Song