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cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 03:15 pmHarry Styles announces Together, Together tour in 2026
Harry Styles is going back on the road. The English musician announced his Together, Together tour on Thursday. It's a 50-date run made up of residencies in Europe, the U.K., Brazil, Mexico, the U.S. and Australia.
cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 02:59 pmArctic air mass extends over most of Canada, bringing extreme cold
An Arctic air mass moving across North America is causing extreme cold in Western Canada, which will continue into the weekend, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 02:45 pmGrondin, O'Dine among 13 snowboarders named to Canada's Olympic team
Olympic medallists Éliot Grondin and Meryeta O'Dine headline Canada's snowboard cross team for the Milano-Cortina Games.
cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 07:00 amIranian Canadians suing B.C. currency exchange they allege owes them thousands
A B.C. currency exchange specializing in transfers between Canada and Iran is facing a series of lawsuits and demands from customers allegedly owed tens of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, legislation passed to regulate currency exchanges is still not in force more than two years after the provincial government heralded new measures intended to protect customers.
in_the_pipeline_feed) wrote2026-01-22 02:12 pmMicrostructures All Around
This is one of those papers that really makes you wonder what you’re missing when you look around you. The authors are looking at what might sound like a rather uninteresting question - what happens when you dissolve alkylamines in water? I would have said (and I’ll bet that many of you would have too) that well, you get a solution of alkylamine molecules in water. I mean, there will be solvation shells and there will be hydrogen bonding around the amine ends and some local rough order of the water molecules around each amine molecule, but all of it will be dynamic at room temperature, too. Right?
Well, not for the first time, and not for the last, There’s More To It Than That. X-ray studies over the years have indicated what the authors describe as “a very peculiar microheterogeneity” being produced when (for example) hexylamine is dissolved in water. This is probably the most detailed look at the X-ray scattering data yet, across the whole series from butylamine (pee-yew) up to nonylamine (not smelling all that much better, honestly) in different proportions with purified water. These were checked across a range of concentrations and (in some cases) across a range of temperatures as well.
What comes out is a rather surprising picture. The amine headgroups (NH2) do indeed interact strongly with the water molecules, with water being the H-bond donor to the acceptor nitrogen atoms. This leads to amine saturation around water domains in solution. At lower amounts of alkylamines and/or higher temperatures, though, what you actually have is more like two liquids in the same container. One of these is pretty much straight water, and the other of these is an amine/water mixture, a demixing that leads to actual phase separation because there aren’t enough amine molecules to stabilize the “patches of water” situation any more. But at the other end of the scale, high amine/low water, you have pockets of water in the bulk amine, each of which is surrounded by amines with their nitrogen atoms pointed at the interfaces.
But at lower temperatures (and even more so at lower amine concentrations) you get a lamellar structure, with stacked layers of water and amines partaking of that amine-head-group interaction at the boundaries. You can think of this situation as flat patches of more or less pure water surrounded by double-layered sheets of more or less pure amine. It’s a surprisingly orderly structure for what’s supposed to be a well-mixed solution, and as the authors note, it’s the sort of thing you’d expect to see more in soft-matter gelatinous situations. This lamellar structure demixes immediately once temperature or amine concentration thresholds are crossed.
You’d hardly notice any of this stuff as you mix these liquids together! Only the higher-temperature phase separation would be visible to the naked eye, I would think. It makes you wonder how many more things we miss. The physical world is full of shapes, textures, and structures that exist without us even realizing them. . .cue up William Blake, who himself is not generally miscible with discussions of hydrogen bonding and phase diagrams.
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muccamukk) wrote2026-01-22 12:17 pmReading Whatever's Day (Holiday Reading Recap, Part II)
Cinder House by Freya MarskeThis was getting hyped up by someone at my bookclub, and I probably should've known better (not because they don't have great recs, just that I'm more miss than hit on fairytale retellings), but it was a novella, so I thought I'd give it a go. I indeed should've known better.
It's a cute idea: the step mother murders both Cinderella and her father on the first page, and the rest of the story is about Cinderella's ghost haunting the house. I appreciated a lot of the little twists on the story (which seemed pretty closely linked to the Disney version, but I also haven't read a tonne of other versions, so maybe not). There's some neat worldbuilding around how society treats magic, and the author did a good job incorporating the history and politics of the country without info dumping. I liked how the glass slippers worked.
Unfortunately, I had a difficult time connecting with it, and I'm trying to work out how to describe why. The story had a certain smugness to it, maybe? Like it was aware that it was telling the version of the story that would appeal to someone who thought a bisexual ghost polycule was the solution to every love triangle, where of course the other woman was a secret badass, because this is the kind of story that has Awesome Women who Subvert Tropes. Which is something that I ought to enjoy, and have enjoyed in other contexts, but not here. Maybe it was just that it should've been a novel with a few more subplots to hold it up, but either way the emotional beats never felt all that earned to me. What should've been crowning moments of awesome kept feeling like they were happening because this was the kind of story where they had to happen? It's all very clever, but never felt like it had any grounding in real emotion.
I thought this was a first outing, but it looks like Marske has written a bunch, so maybe she's just not my thing.
Leave Our Bones Where They Lay by Aviaq Johnston
Found this in a library display of books advertised as short reads to help you make your year-end goal, which made me laugh.
Short stories set inside a framing device: every season, an Inuit man travels into the wilderness to meet with a monster, and every season he must tell the monster a story. As he grows older, he struggles to find an heir to continue the tradition, but his immediate family is shattered, and won't go, so he ends up leaning on a young granddaughter. The stories are a mix of twists on traditional Inuit legends, and contemporary snippets of life in the high arctic, with or without supernatural elements.
Both the frame and the stories examine how colonisation has affected Inuit society, and the ways families and individuals figure out how to recover their culture and even thrive. There's a mix of horror, humour, and quiet sadness. Johnson had originally published some of the short stories independently, so there isn't an explicit connection between the stories and the frame. However, they are arranged so that the stories fit with who's telling them, and match the tone of the frame story, so it never felt cludged together.
I loved the conclusion, and finding out who the monster was, and why we were telling it stories, and the tender relationships between all the characters. Really beautiful, hope Johnson keeps publishing.
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Kate Reading
Third time through this (maybe fourth?), and I still get new things out of it every reread.
Our heroine is middle-aged mother who has recently been freed from a curse, and now has to figure out if she's going to take another shot at having a life, or if she's just going to sink back into helplessness (which is a valid choice, considering how the rest of her life has gone!). She goes on pilgrimage, mostly to get out of the house, and then the gods get involved.
It's all about trying to figure out how to make choices, especially when your history with making them has been utterly catastrophic. It's also coming to understand that the narrative of your life has been told by other people, and maybe they didn't have your best interests at heart, even when they said they did. I also love how unrepentantly horny our heroine is. She hasn't gotten laid in a good twenty years, and is starting to think she should do something about that.
There are also a handful of beats about how women navigate in a patriarchal society, for good or ill, that largely avoid the way that a lot of books in these settings shame women for wanting power. Some characters we initial dismiss turn out to be capable of heroism, if someone thinks to ask it of them.
I just really love this duology.
Wounded Christmas Wolf by Lauren Esker
(Know the author disclaimer.)
A new series, with slightly different rules for the shapeshifters, which I enjoyed, and am interested in seeing how it builds out in future books.
I enjoyed how cheerfully over the top the set up was, with a family matriarch who was so into Christmas that the kids all have Christmas-themed names, and there's aggressively Christmas-themed cabins on the property, which is also a Christmas tree farm. And that the natural reaction to the relatively normal-person hero is, "Holy cow, this is all a lot." Which it was, and all the characters admitted it was, but we're just rolling with it now.
We have a classic Esker hero who's not sure where his place is in the world, or if he has one. He's got a whole traumatic backstory to heal from, and just falling in love isn't going to be enough to fix him. (I thought the fire theme could've used a little more set up). And a heroine who's also at loose ends and second guessing herself. The sparking romance built naturally around their foibles and hesitations, and was really sweet. I liked what we met of the rest of the family, especially the heroine's dad, and look forward to them getting their own books.
olivermoss) wrote2026-01-22 12:06 pmA Tale of 2 Vibes
Here's the one the official account went with to promote the interview:
The vibe difference is hilarious to me. Vincess Dunn versus The Dunndertaker
oursin) wrote2026-01-22 07:17 pmCertain things accomplished (with some niggles)
So, at long last, I finally have an email address associated with My New Academic Position (this has been A Saga to do with their system upgrade).
I have also achieved reader's card for library of former workplace (spat out from the bowels of their system with A Very Old Photo of Yrs Truly).
And went and looked at the items I wanted to check, and found that lo, I was right and they did NOT have anything pertinent, as I had in fact hoped they would not. Though I had hoped to look, for another thing, at a couple of closed stack items and discovered that these cannot be ordered on a day's notice INFAMY I am sure I recall the times when there were regular deliveries throughout the day. Not actually critical, but irksome. (Also irksome was that I moaned about this on bluesky and got various responses that had no relevance at all to research libraries, in the UK, in particular this one.)
I then managed to get a digital passport photo at one of the photobooths on Euston station and have applied for a new passport, as mine is well out of date and I seem to keep seeing things that want 'government ID' to verify WHO I AM (over here, making like Hemingway....) so thought this was probably the way to go.
Also this is a trivial thing but in the course of my perambs of the day I walked past the statue of Trim, and his human.
In the niggles department, I did that thing of putting my phone down in place I never usually put it and flapping about trying to find it.
The lockers at the library have really annoying electronic locks.
Printer playing up a bit again. Though I think this really is that one has to let it mutter and sulk for a bit between turning it on and actually trying to print anything.
cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 04:00 amJack Smith, a potential target of the U.S. president, defends indictment of Trump over 2020 election
Jack Smith, the former special counsel who filed indictments against U.S. President Donald Trump in two separate cases that never went to trial, condemned "false and misleading narratives" in his first public congressional testimony regarding his investigation.
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thefridayfive2026-01-22 01:52 pmThe Friday Five for 23 January 2026: Hair
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destined_dreams.1. What type of hair do you have? (Thin, Normal, Thick, Frizzy, etc.)
2. What color is your hair currently?
3. What colors have you dyed/highlighted your hair?
4. If you could dye your hair any color, what would it be?
5. What is your hair's length?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
theatlantic_science_feed) wrote2026-01-22 12:57 pmThe Sciencewashing of Everyday Life
There’s a double helix in my local Sephora. It’s roughly the size and shape of a soda can, and it is accompanied by a placard referencing patents and peptides, as if in a science fair. It’s trying to sell me a hair mask.
Online, the company responsible for this display describes itself as a “biology-first haircare brand, powered by biotech.” It practices “biomimetic hairscience,” and, thanks to “a decade of complex research into the bioscience of hair,” has patented a peptide that repairs hair “at a molecular level across multiple types of bonds including polypeptide chains and disulfide bonds.” I have no idea what any of this means. The mask costs $75.
In 2026, it is possible to cover your body in science. You can put on probiotic leggings and a patented bra, and then you can apply lipstick containing hyaluronic acids “with differentiated molecular weights” and slather your face in a “triple-lipid peptide cream” developed by self-identified “skintellectuals.” You can also eat your science, by way of “clinically-studied key herbs, adaptogens, and minerals—at amounts informed by research.” If you get thirsty, you can have water that has been chemically manipulated with extra hydrogen atoms, just in case two aren’t enough for you. Even decades-old products have been newly recast as miracles of modern chemistry: After years of selling itself purely impressionistically, via close-up shots of hot athletes dripping sweat and swilling neon liquid, Gatorade has recently begun touting itself as “Lab Tested.” As the wellness movement collides with the supercharged demands of selling products in a crowded market, science-speak seems to have invaded every crevice of the fashion, beauty, and food industries.
[Read: Eat your vegetables like an adult]
Many of the claims these products make are perfectly legitimate, if a bit goofy; others are transparently nonsense. And dubious, science-flecked marketing claims have existed about as long as marketing has. But they used to be comparatively unsophisticated, and quite literal: Cheerios contain a certain amount of fiber, and fiber is good for you, thus Cheerios are good for you and you should buy them. A skin-care product is superior to its competitors because it has more vitamin C, and vitamin C is good for your skin. These ads were informed but plainspoken, employing the simple logic of cause and effect, inputs and outputs, using words most people recognized. They talked, basically, like a family-medicine doctor.
Today’s ads, by contrast, talk like the Ph.D. kind of doctor, using polysyllabic words and alluding to things viewable only under a microscope. They seem designed not to illuminate but to obfuscate, to impart the veneer of science at such a high level that people will never really ask how, or if, it works. Almost no one is looking up a peer-reviewed study, or spelunking through the patent database, to make sure the claims on their package of goo are accurate. “People like buying products that are, quote, research backed,” Neil Lewis Jr., a behavioral scientist at Cornell, told me. “But most people, they’re not equipped to actually evaluate those claims. They don’t have the time or expertise, often, and so they sort of just look for some heuristic cue, and that’s good enough.” What science-washed products promise—more than what they actually promise on the package—is that someone else did the work for you.
For years, the trend in consumption was beautiful but useless trash. Now, Stephen Zagor, who teaches courses in food business at NYU and Columbia, told me, “science is the new it thing.” For companies, nodding to state-of-the-art technology and papering a corporate website in clip art of molecules is an indication that their product is the best, empirically. And for consumers, drinking a soda that went to grad school is a signal too—of savviness and responsibility. It’s cultural capital: If others “see us eating a food item that has been surrounded by scientific discussions, people think automatically we know what we’re talking about, when we don’t have a clue either,” Zagor said. “Science makes ignorance feel smart.”
[Read: The Trump administration’s most paralyzing blow to science]
Many companies do actually employ professionals—cosmetic chemists, food scientists. But science in the private interest doesn’t necessarily work like science in the public interest. It tends to operate on a different timescale, and to use different yardsticks. The scientists who work for corporations need to be sure that their products provide enough short-term benefit to keep people buying, while abiding by consumer regulations. They are employed to ask questions the market wants answered, ideally as quickly as possible.
The irony here, of course, is that this is happening at a time when institutional science, the kind that doesn’t come with next-day shipping, is under considerable threat. The federal government has embarked on a concerted, and largely successful, effort to undermine, discredit, and defund serious scientific research at any opportunity. Influencers and pundits have sought to cast scientists themselves as elitists and liars, in an effort that appears to be working: Nearly one in four Americans has little or no confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interest. Thousands of scientific minds have, by brute force or something subtler, left the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and academia. Their absence leaves a vacuum. Some of these people worked on projects that couldn’t be sold; others worked to regulate the ones that could. Sometimes, when I am feeling particularly pessimistic, I worry that we are approaching a world in which scientists are employed not by independent institutions but only by companies—a world in which science itself is marketing copy, and little more.
olivermoss) wrote2026-01-22 10:30 am(no subject)
* Here is an interview clip where Rachel talks about being angry at hockey and the books being a way to get her thoughts out. Based on things she said a while ago, well before the show, I got the impression that the sweetest, coziest scenes in hockey romance all are rooted in anger at the sport. That's one of things about the genre that's interesting to me.
While I love the Shane/Ilya books, it's Tough Guy that deals the most with the impacts of hockey culture. Love Shane and Ilya, but I think Tough Guy is very interesting book and there's a lot there to discuss.
maju) wrote2026-01-22 01:06 pm(no subject)
cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 12:36 pmQ+A | Greenland's PM takes questions on Trump, sovereignty and what comes next
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen spoke to reporters in Nuuk on Thursday about President Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that the U.S. should control the semi-autonomous territory, the potential framework deal floated by Trump — about which very little is known — and what Nielsen thinks is the best path forward for Greenland.
cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 12:31 pmHere are the countries joining Trump's 'Board of Peace' so far
U.S. President Donald Trump launched his newly formed "Board of Peace" on an international stage Thursday as more countries responded to his invitation for a seat at the table that will initially aim to rebuild Gaza.
osprey_archer) wrote2026-01-22 12:32 pmLate October
I’m working my way through the book slowly, a poem a night. I ought to save this one till next October, but I haven’t the patience, so here it is.
Late October
By Sara Teasdale
I found ten kinds of wild flower growing
On a steely day that looked like snowing:
Queen Anne’s lace, and blue heal-all,
A buttercup, straggling, grown too tall,
A rusty aster, a chicory flower–
Ten I found in half an hour.
The air was blurred with dry leaves flying,
Gold and scarlet, gaily dying.
A squirrel ran off with a nut in his mouth,
And always, always, flying south,
Twittering, the birds went by,
Flickering sharp against the sky,
Some in great bows, some in wedges,
Some in bands with wavering edges;
Flocks and flocks were flying over
With the north wind for their drover.
“Flowers,” I said, “you’d better go,
Surely it’s coming on for snow,”–
They did not heed me, nor heed the birds,
Twittering thin, far-fallen words–
The others through of to-morrow, but they
Only remembered yesterday.
cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 04:00 amCarney meets with cabinet fresh after forceful speech aimed at Trump administration
Prime Minister Mark Carney is huddling with his cabinet in Quebec City to chart out the government's plan for the new year after using a closely watched moment on the world stage earlier this week to condemn the U.S. administration and signal a pivot for Canada.
cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 11:29 amHeated Rivalry stars named Olympic torchbearers for Milano-Cortina Winter Games
The stars of the popular Canadian hockey drama Heated Rivalry are headed to the Olympics. Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie will be among the torchbearers carrying the Olympic flame for the Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games in February.
cbc_topnews_feed) wrote2026-01-22 11:18 amICE detained a 5-year-old boy coming home from Minnesota preschool, say school officials
A five-year-old boy, wearing a blue tuque with droopy ears, carrying a Spider-Man backpack, was reportedly apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in his Columbia Heights driveway on Tuesday.