PicoBlog

One of my least pleasant tasks as a journalist begins when survivors of sexual harassment, bullying, or other kinds of abuse contact me and ask for help exposing an abuser. I’ve been doing this #MeToo reporting for eight years now, beginning when I was still a correspondent for Science; continuing for The Verge and Scientific American; and now as an independent journalist. Over that time I have investigated dozens of cases, some of which have resulted in the termination or forced resignation of the perpetrators.

King Charles III has concluded his annual visit to the Castle of Mey on the northern coast of Scotland. For some five decades it was the remote retreat of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Since her death in 2002, Charles has spent the first week of every August there honoring her birthday on the 4th and carrying out royal engagements as well as finding solace in personal pursuits.

I moved into a house where the previous owner left behind their outdoor cat, so obviously we adopted her and continued feeding her in the laundry shed. A while later, I started hearing cat fights at night and around the same time a phantom alarm/smoke detector battery chirp going off occasionally. I investigate the laundry room and discovered a black kitten with the squeakiest voice. Now, we don’t need another cat.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself that not enough monsters are part-cat, part-dragon, it turns out that the Alps have you covered. For hundreds of years, locals and mountaineers have been menaced by this poisonous creature—perhaps it’s time your players were as well? Of the order of wingless dragons, this feline serpent doesn’t have quite the awe-inspiring size of its more famous counterparts. Rather, it is typically described as resembling a ‘stubby lizard’, usually with a cat head, and measuring 1 to 7 feet in length.

Conservative politics is not just for Evangelical Christians, anti-abortion crusaders, tax-averse libertarians, Q crazies, and MAGA cultists. There has emerged a New Right: young, smart, edgy, urbane—even hip. Its political philosophy is coherent and compelling. Its religion of choice, if it has one, is Catholicism. It operates in large cities like Washington, Miami, and New York. Its thought leaders are high-minded, well-read intellectuals. Known as the neo-reactionary fringe—NRx for short—its radical, antidemocratic ideas have seeped into the Republican mainstream.

After watching Duke’s exit in the round of 32 during this year’s NCAA Tournament, I couldn’t help but think how they’d fare if they had one more seasoned scoring guard on their roster. In fact, it’s easy to imagine who that player should be. He was in Durham a season ago, then made the decision to declare for the NBA Draft despite not being projected by many draft pundits as a first-round pick.

Warning: Images from the crime scene may be upsetting. Evidence of institutional police corruption will feature in a legal bid to have a notorious cold case linked to organised crime investigated for the first time as a murder. The High Court has granted permission for the family of Lee Balkwell to challenge an “unreasonable and irrational” decision by Es… ncG1vNJzZmismJrCsb%2FEraueqqOpv6q3xKxlrK2SqMGir8pnmqilX6V8tbTEZpqepZWjwW65yLGcq2Wdqr%2BlsdE%3D

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We're thrilled to have Alex Pall, general partner at Mantis VC, a seed and an early stage fund based in LA. Alex is a great example of someone who has made a significant crossover from another industry—he is one half of the award-winning duo of the Chainsmokers, a group that has found mainstream success by breaking boundaries between pop, indie, electronic, alternative, and rock.

This is brilliant. These bastards replaced John Wick with Steven Seagal in a trailer for the latest movie. It is hilarious. It runs for nearly half an hour, which is why I waited until late in the day, when nobody was hanging around any more, to post this. If I’d posted it during the day, you would've got nothing done. Enjoy it tonight with a drink. Or on the weekend. It is very cruel, very funny, and you’ll learn a lot about modern filmmaking.