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The United States and Europe offer security guarantees to Ukraine modeled on NATO’s mutual defense pledge. / Reuters
What was the center of US military activity in 2025? Somalia. / Forever Wars
Some 117 billion people are estimated to have lived on our planet, and seven percent of them are alive right now. / Open Culture
Of the nearly 9,000 data centers around the world, 600 of them are located in places too hot. / rest of world
People often misunderstand how data centers use water—at the same time, “Big Golf isn’t making headlines about how it’s upending entire industries.” / Undark Magazine
Related: A fake wellness app to help you embrace climate chaos. / oilwell
A round-up of new designs from 2025—e.g., a meatball plate, a woollen circuit board. / dezeen
Merriam-Webster names “slop” the word of the year. / TechCrunch
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A physicist says his colleagues are increasingly agreeing “that a mystery is unfolding in every microbe, animal, and human.” / The Atlantic [$]
A Paramount Pictures tour in Los Angeles demonstrates the studio’s irrelevancy. / The New York Times [$]
No matter who buys Warner Brothers, it’s not a great time to own a soundstage. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
A Roman complains about Americans visiting Italy: “They’re playing a videogame called knowledge, and we’re its nonplayer characters.” / The Dial
“She used her genius to write about the moral importance of everyday life in a world that is always reinventing itself.” Why Jane Austen remains relevant. / The Common Reader
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