Atlantic: Want to Change Your Personality? Have a Baby.
I knew that becoming a parent would change me—but I had no idea how.
⋮
Recently, though, I’d begun to reconsider. I was in the midst of an admittedly strange-sounding project: I was spending a year trying to change my personality. According to a scientific personality test I’d taken, I scored sky-high on neuroticism, a trait associated with anxiety and depression, and low on agreeableness and extroversion. I lived in a constant, clenched state of dread, and it was poisoning my life. My therapist had stopped laughing at my jokes.
But I had read some scientific research suggesting that you can change your personality by behaving like the kind of person you wish you were. Several studies show that people who want to be, say, less isolated or less anxious can make a habit of socializing, meditating, or journaling. Eventually these habits will come naturally, knitting together to form new traits.
I haven’t read this entire article yet, but I love Olga Kazan’s work and I didn’t want to lose it.
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Wednesday announced a “significant shift” to the publisher’s opinion page that led David Shipley, the paper’s editorial page editor, to leave the paper. The changes upended precedent and rattled a media company that has already been shaken by years of turmoil and leadership turnover.
As part of the overhaul, the Post will publish daily opinion stories on two editorial “pillars”: personal liberties and free markets, Bezos teased in an X post on Wednesday morning after announcing the change in a company-wide email. The Post’s opinion section will cover other subjects, too, Bezos wrote, but “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
“I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America,” Bezos wrote. “I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.”
Saying you’re against “free markets and personal liberties” is like saying you’re against motherhood and apple pie, but the problems come from the extremes: controlled markets or completely unfettered markets, or a complete lack of personal freedom or unfettered personal freedoms. These are limited rights in law for a reason.
This may belong over on the political side, but it also discusses some general issues rather than polemic, so…
CNN: The best toasters of 2025, tried and tested
The Best Toasters We Tested
Best toaster: Cuisinart 4-Slice Compact Toaster
Best toaster for countertop aesthetics: Dualit NewGen 2-Slice Toaster
⋮
With plenty of options vying for your coveted counter space and your breakfast needing some heat, we tested 12 leading models to find the best toasters for perfectly browned toast and bagels with crisp edges (I have no side in the great debate on if bagels should even be toasted to begin with). Two units emerged as especially worthy of your money.
A surprisingly more extensive article than I had expected from CNN, somewhat similar to Consumer Reports!
BBC: Kent: Criminal gangs ruining environment, says watchdog
Organised criminal groups are targeting the waste industry and “wreaking havoc” on the environment, according to the Environment Agency (EA).
Government figures suggest illegal waste tipping costs the country £1bn a year.
In the South East, a number of sites have sprung up in recent years where large scale tipping has taken place. Industry experts say this is not just fly-tipping, but “organised crime” where “networks of people” are illegally collecting and dumping waste.
If it’s happening there, it’s probably happening worldwide.
Electrek: MAN CEO: “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs
“It’s one thing to have the technology and another thing for the technology to be viable,” Vlaskamp told the Spanish-language magazine Expansión (translated from Spanish). “Green hydrogen is not available for transportation and there is no point in switching from diesel to hydrogen if the energy source is not sustainable.”
Keep in mind that there are two ways to look at the concept of sustainability as it pertains to commercial trucking. The first is sustainability of the business (can we keep operating the way we have been), and the second is environmental sustainability. Vlaskamp makes an effort to point that hydrogen, at least for now, isn’t sustainable in either sense of the word.
Last Updated: 26.Feb.2025 18:28 EST
