"Contrast the way UFO belief operates with historical celestial apparitions, such as the aerial phenomena associated with the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal..."

"... on October, 13, 1917. On that day, approximately 70,000 people reported witnessing a variety of celestial phenomena. The people ranged from devout Catholics to atheists and skeptics who were there to disprove the testimonies of witnesses. But the institutional church influenced the interpretation of that event, and the devout welcomed their interpretation. The UFO community is not as trusting. It is characterized by suspicion of conventional authority, be that the Catholic Church or the U.S. government. Rather than being defined by a hierarchy, UFO belief has been shaped by pop culture. For decades, films and television series such as 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' offered cosmologies populated with advanced intelligences. These stories did not create belief in UFOs, but they helped establish a cultural vocabulary through which anomalous experiences could be understood. Most significantly, 'The X Files' popularized the idea that governments conceal knowledge about nonhuman intelligence.... Each new file release, leaked testimony or declassified video generates further interpretation rather than closure. The two most famous catchphrases from 'The X Files' — 'I want to believe' and 'the truth is out there' — express this perfectly...."

From "The UFO files reveal a hidden truth about a growing religion/Belief in alien life is on the rise — fueled by declining trust in institutions" (WaPo).

"The Girlbossification of AI/Reese Witherspoon, Mel Robbins, and Sheryl Sandberg are telling women to use ChatGPT or get left behind."

That's a headline at The Cut.

I haven't read the article (yet). I just went to AI, asked it to read the article for me, and added the prompt: "I thought 'girlboss' was a dying framework." Grok agreed with me about "girlboss."

You're spot on— "girlboss" has been widely declared dead (or at least on life support) for years. By the mid-2020s, the term had become a punchline for toxic hustle culture, burnout aesthetics, exclusionary corporate feminism, and the "rise and grind" era that promised women could "have it all" if they just leaned in harder. Cultural commentary shifted toward "soft life," "snail girl" vibes, quiet quitting, slow living, and backlash against the idea that ambition equals endless optimization under capitalism. The May 11, 2026, The Cut article you linked ("The Girlbossification of AI") essentially argues that this supposedly dying framework isn't gone—it's just been updated for the AI era. Author frames it as a revival (or mutation) where high-profile women like Reese Witherspoon, Mel Robbins, and Sheryl Sandberg are repackaging AI tools (ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, etc.) as the new essential for women's career survival and empowerment. It's no longer purely aspirational "have it all" optimism; it's more defensive: don't get left behind, don't backslide, automate the drudgery so you can cling to what you've got.

You're spot on— "girlboss" has been widely declared dead (or at least on life support) for years. By the mid-2020s, the term had become a punchline for toxic hustle culture, burnout aesthetics, exclusionary corporate feminism, and the "rise and grind" era that promised women could "have it all" if they just leaned in harder. Cultural commentary shifted toward "soft life," "snail girl" vibes, quiet quitting, slow living, and backlash against the idea that ambition equals endless optimization under capitalism. The May 11, 2026, The Cut article you linked ("The Girlbossification of AI") essentially argues that this supposedly dying framework isn't gone—it's just been updated for the AI era. Author frames it as a revival (or mutation) where high-profile women like Reese Witherspoon, Mel Robbins, and Sheryl Sandberg are repackaging AI tools (ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, etc.) as the new essential for women's career survival and empowerment. It's no longer purely aspirational "have it all" optimism; it's more defensive: don't get left behind, don't backslide, automate the drudgery so you can cling to what you've got.

But — I'm reading the article now —  The Cut isn't promoting "girlbossification." It's sick of these girlboss celebs:

"Texas Children’s Hospital will create the nation’s first 'detransition clinic,' fire five physicians and pay the state $10 million..."

"... under an unusual settlement announced Friday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). The clinic would focus on providing [free] medical care to patients who had undergone gender-affirming healthcare and work toward reversing its effects, Paxton said.... The move follows an investigation that began in 2023 after Texas passed a law banning health providers from facilitating gender-affirming medical care for minors.... In a statement, representatives from the hospital system insisted they had been compliant with all laws but were settling to 'protect our resources from endless and costly litigation.'"

The Hill reports.

I'm also reading the Axios report of this story. There's this quote from Paxton:

Sunrise.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"A judge in Manhattan declared a mistrial on Friday after the jury in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial was unable to reach a verdict..."

"... on the charge that the disgraced Hollywood producer raped an aspiring actress in a hotel room in 2013. It’s the second time a jury has not been able to reach a verdict on this charge."

The NYT reports.

Screen grab from the NYT:

The typo has now been corrected, but I honestly thought for a second that "juros" might be some new slang for "jurors." You know how there's all this cutesy millennial slang like "doggo" and "kiddo." 

"What I find funny is when people play things straight. I don’t like comedy that winks at you."

Said Joe Sedelmaier, quoted in "Joe Sedelmaier Dies at 92; Ad Auteur Behind ‘Where’s the Beef?’/He directed nearly 1,000 comedic commercials, including a much-quoted spot for Wendy’s and one for FedEx featuring a manic speed talker" (NYT).

"Around 1980, mainstream psychiatry adopted a medical model."

"A new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, U.S. psychiatry’s bible of diagnoses, published that year, enshrined the change. Ever since, troubles of the mind have been viewed mostly as physiological diseases of the brain, with treatments focused largely on pharmaceuticals. The medical model was partly a reaction against psychiatry’s decades-long dominance by psychoanalysis and its offshoots.... The discipline, meanwhile, was under attack in popular culture; the antipsychiatry movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest' won five Oscars in 1976. The field wanted to be viewed as a true science. Then Prozac, an S.S.R.I., was released in the United States in 1987.... The idea of Prozac — and, soon, its close S.S.R.I. cousins — as an unmitigated medical advance was spread by a flood of pharmaceutical advertising. The ads presented readily comprehensible brain science: Mental illness boils down to an imbalance of chemicals.... The chemical imbalance theory has never been substantiated and has been supplanted by other hypotheses that are equally elusive to proof...."

From "The Strange Alliance Trying to Remake American Psychiatry" (NYT). By Daniel Bergner, author of "The Mind and the Moon: My Brother’s Story, the Science of Our Brains and the Search for Our Psyches."

"President Donald Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate..."

"... allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The commission overseeing the compensation fund would have the total authority to hand out approximately $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to settle claims brought by anyone who alleges they were harmed by the Biden administration's 'weaponization' of the legal system, including the nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as well as potentially entities associated with President Trump himself."

ABC News reports.

It's mid-May, the 15th, and we see deep red columbine.

Back home, it's time once again to move the avocado tree back out onto the deck. That's a big production, and I played only a small role in the process, but it was a bit more than just taking this picture:

Xi is pulling the old chair-rigging power trip.

沙发肯定是特制的，习近平座的沙发明显高过川普的沙发，而川普比习近平身高10厘米，中共在这些细节上处处用尽心机。 pic.twitter.com/qP4ifU8im7

— David Tsai/蔡慎坤 (@cskun1989) May 15, 2026

Reminds me of the time Trump confronted David Letterman. It was December 2, 1987:

"How come this seat is at such a low level? You know, I'm looking at him. He's got this stage rigged, folks.... That seat is a good six inches higher than my seat."

Even better, the dictators cranking up barber chairs in "The Great Dictator" — here.

"In one scene, a military police officer asks Jesus to produce his identification. 'I don’t have one!' Jesus says. 'I don’t have anything!' In another scene, Jesus walks on water by becoming a duck."

From "Frank Stack, Painter Who Secretly Drew 'The Adventures of Jesus,' Dies at 88 For 20 years, he hid his identity behind the nom de plume Foolbert Sturgeon as he chronicled Christ’s encounters with modern-day hypocrites in comic-book form" (NYT)(gift link, so you can read more, including some of the comics).

“I’ve always loved to see my stuff in print, but I was on the horns of a dilemma,” he wrote. “Did I dare to publish the cartoons under my own name when my job was at risk if the university ever noticed that I worked in the most disgraceful of all media — the awful COMIC BOOK?” 

Entertaining... or a dire warning against high-speed chasing?

Footage released by authorities in Wisconsin shows a suspect's car go flying over another vehicle as they attempted to flee.

The suspect, who is being held on multiple charges, was eventually arrested after a short foot chase, officials said. https://t.co/k49wKvl3pK pic.twitter.com/vkphFcC8s2

— ABC News (@ABC) May 15, 2026

There are other ways to catch a fleeing person.

Musk, re-enjoying what the camera caught, his supreme coolness.

pic.twitter.com/QMgqquoGkS

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2026

"Honestly, before this, I had never heard of Spencer Pratt. The thing I am concerned [about] and feel about him is that I feel like..."

"... he’s exploiting the grief of people in the Palisades, and I just think that’s just reprehensible."

Said L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, fighting for reelection and surprised by this upstart, quoted in "Karen Bass is terrible at this" (Washington Examiner).

The feeling I get:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by lulu (@retrofilmglow)

Sunrise (and 5.2% moon).

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

"Speaking just ahead of Trump, Xi... said a major question for the two countries was whether they could avoid the 'Thucydides Trap'...."

I'm reading "Xi asks Trump if U.S. and China can avoid 'Thucydides Trap' at high-stakes summit" (CNBC). (That's the original headline. The headline was rewritten, perhaps to avoid mystification, as "Xi warns Trump: Mishandling Taiwan will put U.S.-China relationship in 'great jeopardy.'")

You probably know Thucydides was a historian in ancient Greece, but is "Thucydides trap" a common term? It's pretty recent, according to Wikipedia, coined and popularized in the last 10 years, and used specifically in the context of the U.S. and China.