A war between the United States and China would involve the kind of military manpower the world hasn’t seen in decades. As a point of contrast, around 156,000 troops landed on the beaches of France during the Normandy invasion in 1944, which was commemorated by world leaders earlier this month. Some experts estimate that if China were to try to invade Taiwan — the most likely flashpoint for a superpower confrontation — it might need as many as a million. If the US were...

YouTube has a pattern of recommending right-leaning and Christian videos, even to users who haven’t previously interacted with that kind of content, according to a recent study of the platform’s suggestions to users. The four-part research project, conducted by a London-based nonprofit organization that researches extremism called the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, explored video recommendations served to accounts designed to mimic users interested in four topic areas: gaming, male...

US electric vehicle maker Fisker has filed for bankruptcy after a funding deal with a large carmaker fell through — the latest EV maker to succumb to the struggles facing the sector. The company, founded in 2016 by veteran luxury car designer Henrik Fisker, said late on Monday that “various market and macroeconomic headwinds” had “impacted our ability to operate efficiently”.

Time is a strange phenomenon. It speeds up when we want it to slow down and drags when we wish it would go by faster. Sometimes it feels like we blink and a decade has gone by. Cue "the days are long, but the years are short," "time flies when you're having fun," and all the other time cliches that feel 100% true.Of course, those truisms are all about our perception of time, not time itself. Time ticks by in a never-changing rhythm of seconds, minutes, hours, days and years, perfectly metered and measured. But it sure doesn't feel that way, which is why a simple math equation an average third grader can do has grown adults pulling out their calculators to make sure it's correct. The equation in question comes from meme that reads "1981 and 2024 are as far apart as 1981 and 1938."Yep, it's correct. The math checks out, no matter how many times you plug the numbers into the calculator. So why does it feel so wrong?Again, time is a tricky thing. Those of us who were alive in 1981 remember how far back 1938 seemed to us at that time, and there's simply no way that distance is what 1981 is to us now. It seems impossible.Part of the problem is that, at least for the middle-agers among us, the 80s still feels like they happened 20 years ago, not 43. That's simply how time perception works as we age. But that's not all of it. As some people have pointed out, there were certainly major changes in both time periods, but the hugely significant cultural changes from 1938 to 1981 were more visible in many ways than most changes we've seen since then. Yes, technology exploded near the turn of the millennium, but once the internet and laptops and smartphones hit the scene, tech advancements have mostly been a matter of degree—better, smaller, lighter, faster, more efficient, more intuitive—in fairly steady increments and not so much dramatic jumps. From 1938 to 1981, we saw huge leaps, from tiny black-and-white television to full-color cable television, from the first transatlantic passenger flight to sending humans to the moon on space shuttles, from switchboards and party lines to cell phone technology, from human computers to PCs. We also saw clothing styles change drastically from one decade to the next during that time period in a way that we haven’t really seen in the past 40 years. Same with architecture and home designs. The mid-20th century saw the birth of rock n' roll, the Civil Rights Movement and the shift to women into the workforce. Again, huge leaps. Wars also defined generations more in the mid-20th century than in the decades since, from WWII to the Vietnam War to the Cold War. It’s not that we haven’t had wars since 1981, but the direct impact of those wars on American life has not been as notable as those previous wars were.Then again, it’s possible that much of the difference in feel is simply our perception of life now vs. then. Do the years since 1981 seem shorter simply because we’ve lived them, whereas most of us weren’t alive for a good chunk of the 1938 to 1981 time period and only learned it as “history”?Hard to say, but one thing that’s clear is that people do not like the way this math feels, as evidenced by the comments people left on the post.“Fitz is cancelled. Feeling triggered here. Lol”“I did the math too many times because I don’t want to believe this.”“As someone born in 1981 I really dislike this.”“Shut your mouth. Those are fighting words! ““I honestly did nothing to you! Like why?”“They're not far apart. You're far apart."It certainly will be interesting to see how the next 43 years feel for the people who live through it vs. 1981 until now.

The coming of age era known as your twenties are a time for experimentation, branching out, learning about different aspects of yourself, and of course, having stupid fun. Of course, every generation's definition of fun varies. Just what might Gen Zers, those who navigated their teenhood through TikTok and basically came of drinking age during a global pandemic, do to elicit feelings of fun?Thirty-two year old (read: millennial) Ashley Tea wondered this very thing. In a video that went viral on TikTok, she shared "I genuinely think millennials got to have a way better time than Gen Z does."Tea then reminisced about her own experience of being “an emo kid in 2005,” going out to clubs, bars and restaurants with her friends having a “fun, great, trashy” time. That simply wouldn’t be financially feasible in today’s economic landscape, Tea noted, leaving her “mystified” as to how today’s college age adults might enjoy themselves. So again, Tea posed the question: “ it's a Friday night, a Saturday night…What do do? Where do you go?”Thousands responded to Tea’s question, and their answers were…illuminating, to say the least—and certainly different than how she spent her early 20s.For starters, Tea’s joke about “Gen Zers not having any fun at all” rang true for many people of that age group. “As a 23 year old: I don’t have any fun, hope that helps!” quipped one person. Another joked, “sometimes I sit outside if I'm feeling extra.”One obvious factor behind this is finances. With everything being far more expensive, many Gen Zer’s simply cannot afford to have a social life that resembles earlier generations. “As a 21 year old, the economy makes it difficult to have fun that way, I work 40 hours weekly and I’m either too tired or can’t afford it,” one person wrote. Another reason, which isn’t maybe as obvious, is surveillance. Tea noted that a lot of young people said that since either “parents can track their phones everywhere” they are deterred from doing things that could get them into trouble. Perhaps that’s a win for safety, but there is something to be said about excessive levels of control. Then of course there’s the pandemic, which sucked the fun out of everything big time. “I got ROBBED of my early 20s bs COVID started when I was 22 ? Nwo things are normal but all the good bars and clubs in my area didn’t survive the lockdown,” one person wrote. Plus a lack of third spaces to gather, leaving very little options beside staying home and scrolling on TikTok. However, it’s not all gloom and doom, Tea discovered. @ashleyteacozy im genuinely curious ♬ original sound - Ashley Tea For one thing, Gen Zer’s don’t “glorify binge drinking” nearly as much as millennials and Gen Xers. According to a study held at the University of Michigan, many are forgoing booze entirely. Part of this comes down to Gen Zers prioriotizing health and wellness more than previous generations. And the other, again, is the cost. Plus, when Gen Zers do actually have fun, it tends to lean towards more wholesome activities, like house parties (sometimes even themes house parties) and crocheting. Lots and lots crocheting apparently. So maybe things look quite a bit different for this generation. That’s not entirely a good or bad thing. And it’s definitely to be expected in some ways. The struggle of rising costs and limited opportunities to form connections and have fun are undeniably issues that must be addressed. But the fact that Gen Zers are leaning into their creativity is worth noting too. And it makes it clear that even though it might not look like it, there is still fun to be had.This article originally appeared on 1.12.24

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Directly to Blinken’s face. The 3 major deviIs in the world. Incredible. pic.twitter.com/T2sDsE9YyA — ADAM (@AdameMedia) June 17, 2024