"The chimpanzees immediately sorted the crystals out of the piles. Then they carried them in their mouths, turned them in the light and held them up to their eyes..."

"... like old-timey prospectors. When the researchers eventually set up cameras inside the chimp dorms, they saw that Yvan was still gripping one as he prepared to relax in his hay nest... They seemed to also be experiencing 'something beyond curiosity,' Dr. García-Ruiz said. Watching them added heft to one of his more speculative theories: He believes that crystals, as 'the only Euclidean object in nature,' may have helped humans invent geometry and unlock abstract thought."

From "Chimpanzees Are Really Into Crystals/In an attempt to understand our own fascination with the shiny minerals, researchers gave some to chimps" (NYT).

So... is this good science? Seems to me the human interest in crystals has long been considered pseudoscience, but you could scientifically study what draws humans into pseudoscience. But is this study, using chimpanzees, scientific? It seems to me that it's mainly combining the pseudoscientific interest in crystals with the hoped-for fun of hanging around with chimpanzees.

I tried to get Grok to make me an image of a chimpanzee holding a crystal and gazing at it "like old-timey prospectors." But after many tries and no progress — the chimp was almost expressionless and the eyes weren't even looking at the crystal — I lost hope.

Grok: "Want one more refinement round? Just say the word."

Me: "No, just tell me why some humans are goofy about crystals." 

The news of authenticity.

1. "Museum of Authenticity Annex Closes, Exhibits Feature is Expanded in Original Location" (Ark Valley Voice): "The Museum of Authenticity has offered unique, curated exhibits of art and utilitarian artifacts in Salida for years. While the larger annex off of F Street has closed, the museum itself has not gone anywhere...." 

2. "Time To Get Serious About Workplace Authenticity" (Forbes): "Think of your favorite leaders, whether political icons, sports captains, or CEOs. How would you objectively measure their authenticity? There is no baseline. No benchmark. If you find Trump authentic you probably adhere with his values; same goes for Obama. By the same token, not many Trump fans would find Obama authentic, and vice-versa."

3. "The authenticity double standard is negatively impacting female leaders/We tell brands that humanity drives commercial success, so why do we still advise women leaders to suppress theirs?" (MarketingWeek):

"Not everybody loved blemish patches. Already in 1649, a bill had been put before the increasingly Puritan Parliament calling for the banning of... Wearing Black Patches..."

"... although it was never passed. Meanwhile, an increasing number of tracts railed against the vanity displayed by those sporting beauty patches — 'Those Curles so extravagant, those Patches so abominable, unless it be to Cut the Throat of Chastity,' as noted by the 1683 book England’s Vanity or The Voice of God. The same sentiment is conveyed by an inscription on the Allegorical Portrait of Two Ladies itself, whose full meaning is still the subject of debate: 'I black with white bespott: yu white wth blacke this Evill: proceeds from thy proud hart: then take her: Devill.'"

From "Pimple patches — the 17th century beauty craze resurrected by Gen-Z/Louisa McKenzie traces the surprising history of the jaunty spot stickers loved by Gen-Z and 17th century women, who used them as a tool for seduction as well as concealment" (London Times).

You can buy these cute stars at Amazon (commission earned).

And here's the Allegorical Portrait of Two Ladies ("a 17th-century painting by an unknown artist"):

"How is it possible that a disease characterized by coughing, emaciation, relentless diarrhea, fever, and the expectoration of phlegm and blood became not only a sign of beauty, but also a fashionable disease?"

Asks Carolyn Day in "Consumptive Chic: A History of Beauty, Fashion, and Disease," reviewed by Allison Meier in "How Tuberculosis Symptoms Became Ideals of Beauty in the 19th Century/In Consumptive Chic: A History of Beauty, Fashion, and Disease, Carolyn A. Day investigates how the fatal symptoms of tuberculosis became entwined with feminine ideals in the late 18th and early 19th centuries" (Hypoallergenic).

It helped that the wasting away of tuberculosis sufferers aligned with existing ideas of attractiveness. The thinness, the ghostly pallor that brought out the veins, the rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes, and red lips (really signs of a constant low-grade fever), were both the ideals of beauty for a proper lady, and the appearance of a consumptive on their deathbed. If you didn’t have the disease, you could use makeup to get the pale skin and crimson lips, and wear a dress that slumped your posture....

The perception of a medical problem as beautiful is not an isolated quirk of the Victorian age. We do it today. Look around.

I'll just quote an old post of mine, from 2004, my first year of blogging:

Questions.

Same vibe, different question: pic.twitter.com/9COUzYoTlU

— 💖 (@cheesus_baby) February 27, 2021

"'During the plague, when people were trying to show they were healthy... they would rouge their cheeks. In World War II, there was tremendous privation and women were still trying to appear to be beautiful.' Today..."

"... people are wanting to express 'what they are going through right now,' in a 'visual diary' or 'tiny piece of immediate theater'...." 

From "Dark Under-Eye Circles? The Kids Say It’s Cool/A trend overtaking TikTok and Instagram has creators not only uncovering their under-eye bags, but accentuating them" (NYT). 

From NY Magazine: "Are the Teens Really Jealous of Our Under-Eye Circles?" Quoting various editors:

"One of my childhood friends had an extremely chic mom who always had visible dark circles. They made her look interesting and mysterious, like she’d been up all night with her handsome young lover. So I’ve always thought they were kind of sexy"/"Right, and the people showing off the trend on TikTok all conform to conventional beauty notions in every other way"/"I think the dark circles are more about a rejection of wellness culture, and I like it from that perspective. Like 'heroin chic' in the ’90s"/"So maybe everything is fake … including this trend."