Terry Newman: Malcolm Gladwell — the storyteller misunderstood as the sage - "Malcolm Gladwell has been disappointing people for years. In the fall of 2022, the bestselling author and speaker participated in a Munk Debate on Media in Toronto alongside New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, debating journalist Matt Taibbi and author Douglas Murray about whether the mainstream media could be trusted. When audience members entered Roy Thomson Hall that evening, as is practice, they voted pre-debate on the motion “Be it resolved, don’t trust mainstream media,” with 52 per cent backing Gladwell and Goldberg’s defence of the mainstream media, before they even took to the stage. In other words, the debate was Gladwell’s and Goldberg’s to lose. Gladwell performed poorly. Seemingly unprepared, he came off as arrogant and smug, engaging in ad hominem attacks, calling Taibbi and Murray conspiracy theorists. To illustrate the decline in trust in journalism, Taibbi referenced polls showing that American journalist Walter Cronkite was once “ the most trusted man in America .” In response, Gladwell created a strawman of Taibbi’s argument, saying, “What you’re really saying is you want to go back to the days when a white man in a suit sat behind a desk and everybody believed what he said. That’s what you’re nostalgic for. You’re nostalgic for the days of Walter Cronkite, when there was a white man who was in charge of the news, and when I think about that era, I think about the fact that era was also the era of Jim Crow. It was an era when a whole series of people in this society were not heard, were not listened to,” a response that Taibbi felt insinuated that he was a racist . Of course, the point Gladwell was trying to make had nothing to do with trust in journalism. By the end of the night, a dramatic shift occurred. Post-debate, after hearing arguments on both sides, the audience weighed in again, their votes swinging a whopping 19 per cent — a decisive win and the largest voter swing in Munk Debate history — awarding their opponents Taibbi and Murray the win, and 67 per cent of audience departed Roy Thomson Hall that night convinced that the mainstream media could no longer be trusted. Gladwell later admitted in his Revisionist History podcast that he had performed poorly, failing to engage with Taibbi’s or Murray’s arguments, or listen to his opponents’ and the audience’s concerns. “We lost because we weren’t listening. I wasn’t listening. I was so caught up in my own head, in my own argument, that I didn’t hear what the other side was saying, and I didn’t hear what the audience was saying.” In March of that year, Gladwell led “ a conversation on the path forward for the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports ” at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, according to the events website. He opened the panel discussion with what he called a “dumb martian question” which he defined as “the question a martian would ask if they were looking down on this panel.” He continued, “When maybe 100 years ago women were let into things like the Olympics, and if you’d asked people 100 years ago why we had separate categories for men and women, they would have given a 19th century answer right? Women and men are physiologically distinct, the only way to have fair competition is to separate them out, does that definition in 2021 need updating?” The problem with setting the talk up this way, is Gladwell begins with a situation where women were unfairly excluded from the Olympics in general, loading his question about whether or not women still need separate categories, a very different issue than whether they were welcomed at all, front-loading it with the assumption that because inclusive thinking was flawed before, it may now be flawed again. During the panel discussion, there wasn’t a lot of disagreement from the panel members... Gladwell appeared unprepared for their responses, leaning naively into the inclusion side throughout the debate. Fast-forward to 2025, Gladwell once again admitted to another disappointing performance... he was “ ashamed of (his) performance on that panel, because I share your position 100 percent. And I was cowed at the idea of saying anything on this issue .” The reaction to Gladwell’s remarks was mixed. Tablet’s Liel Leibovitz called the apology “fake,” “self-serving,” and went so far as to suggest that it was a sign that he saw journalism “as a pursuit of social clout and career advancement” rather than telling the truth. Many were less harsh, noting that the most important thing was that he apologized. Others debated whether it was an apology at all. But everyone’s missing the point. Gladwell’s poor performance in debates and panels shouldn’t be surprising. This isn’t where his expertise actually lies. The truth is, Gladwell is a synthesizer and storyteller, not a master debater or moderator."
Meme - "WHEN YOU CANT DECIDE BETWEEN A GIRLFRIEND OR A PET SO YOU GET BOTH. *woman with dog mask including muzzle and ears*"
Meme - "Shout out to Carrie at Darvel Library for putting this display together... every little thing she does is magic!"
"Sting dropped in to return his books"
"EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE C.L. TAYLOR"
"EVERY SMILE YOU FAKE. DOROTHY KOOMSON"
"EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE. MARY HIGGINS CLARK & ALAFAIR BURKE"
"I'LL BE WATCHING YOU"
Viewers are the reason TV is so bad
From Channel 4, which pushes "diversity" everywhere. If you don't shut up and consume, you're a bad person.
Advertising's likability crisis - "We hear about many crises in marketing. Most are overblown. But if there’s one thing that’s approaching crisis level, it’s the decline in the likeability of ads"
Mom Has Ingenious Yet Mean Hack To Get Her Kid To Take More Baths - "He didn't want to take a bath, so I took a picture while he was sleeping and edited it with cockroaches. Now he takes a bath 10 times a day"
Meme - "Beef Wellington Is just a corn dog from a different socioeconomic background."
Meme - "Him: Your father must've been a thief.
Her: Let me guess... Because he stole the stars for my eyes?
Him: No. Because you're black."
Pizza shop workers take down armed robber, only to find it’s their former boss - "A former pizza shop employee in Massachusetts is accused of trying to rob his old workplace. Police say a man wearing a mask and carrying what turned out to be a fake gun walked into Northeast Pizza in Barre"
Scooby Doo, where are you?
Meme - "Back in my day there was no twitter, so you had to write your crazy ramblings on poster board and try to get on national tv"
"Destineys child and TLC are lesbians" *WWE match*
Man Showed Up 25 Minutes Early To An Interview, And Lost The Job. See Viral Post - "Matthew Prewett, the owner of a cleaning service based in Atlanta, shared his experience on LinkedIn, revealing that a candidate for an office administrator role arrived 25 minutes before the scheduled time-something he cited as a major factor in his decision not to hire the applicant. "I had a candidate show up 25 minutes early to an interview last week. That was a major deciding factor in why I didn't hire him," Prewett wrote, inviting opinions on whether arriving "significantly" early to an interview is appropriate. As the post began gaining traction, Prewett further clarified the reason, stating that while arriving slightly early is generally advisable, turning up far ahead of time can signal poor time management or a lack of social awareness. "Showing up early is good. Showing up extremely early can suggest someone isn't good with time or expects to be accommodated. It also made me feel rushed," he explained, adding that in his small office, the early arrival made him uncomfortable as the candidate could overhear business calls. Prewett emphasised that interview etiquette typically allows for candidates to arrive five to fifteen minutes ahead of time, but anything beyond that could come off as inconsiderate."
The staff ate it later - Wikipedia - ""The staff ate it later" (Japanese: この後、スタッフが美味しくいただきました, romanized: Kono ato, sutaffu ga oishiku itadakimashita) is a caption shown on screen when food appears in a Japanese TV program to indicate that it was not thrown away after filming (it is generally not socially acceptable to discard food in Japan). Some question this statement or believe the caption lowers the quality of TV programs."
Meme - "Minute Burger will soon be selling:
N_GGE_S
Hint: it's related to fried chicken"
Wife (36F) wanted open marriage, after I (38M) started dating she wants to add more rules. What would you do in my position? : r/relationship_advice - " Two and a half years ago my wife "Sarah" (36F) asked me to open our marriage, she strongly implied the alternative was divorce. After thinking it through I said yes, primarily because we do have two children, I worked long hours and divorce sounded horrible. So I set up some ground rules. Not bringing dates into our house, no dating mutual friends, acquaintances, family members, collages, keeping things private. For the next two years I focused on my job and on my kids. I worked long hours, little free time I had I devoted to my kids. I didn't had the time for dating so I wasn't even trying. I moved to another room because the thought of Sarah having sex with another man, then sleeping in my bed felt horrible, our relationship became purely transactional, we became partners at raising kids. I didn't want to know anything about her sex life. This summer I managed to fulfill my financial goals. I do not have any debt whatsoever, both of my kids have enough money in their college fund, and all I have to do is to keep adding some savings every month into the fund I made for their first home deposits. So I did some math and decided to cut my work from 74 hours to just 30 per week. Sarah wanted to get indebted again to buy another house and a new car, I said no. I used my free time to finally have a vacation I really needed, took older son with me to tour US together. Did some renovation work on our house, turned basement into man cave. Started working out play sports, leading a healthier life. Then I actually started trying to land a date. For me just having sex with somebody is... not my thing. I want to atleast be a friend before that. To go out together, watch movies, have fun AND have sex. So I dated a couple of women and found a "Jane" with whom I clicked. With Jane I was going out to concerts, art galleries, comic cons, movies... AND we would "boink" too. Sarah wanted to talk about my dates. I said no. Then I caught Sarah snooping through my phone and we had a very strongly worded argument. Now Sarah want's to update the terms of our open marriage. She want's us repair our marriage by going to the counselor, she want's us to sleep in the same room, to go outside and have fun together. Our outside of marriage relationships are to be strictly sexual and nothing else. And we are to talk about our sexual partners. I told her that I am content with the situation as it is, and I don't mind if she finds a partner to go out with. I encouraged her to. And i don't want to talk about our partners. She is holding her ground. At this point I'm split between trying to fix our marriage and handing her the divorce papers. I need an advice guys.
TLDR - After opening our marriage and me starting to date wife want's to change the rules."
Meme - "6.9mm. iPhone 6
5.6mm. iPhone Air
*Due to camera, iPhone Air is actually thicker at its thickest point*
*Sedan* 6.9mm
*Tractor unit truck* 5.6mm *wheels only*"
Meme - Dinosaur to Jellyfish: "GET OuT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE! EMBRACE DISCOMFORT TO EVOLVE!"
*YEARS LATER *
Jellyfish: "STILL EMBRACING DISCOMFORT?"
Chicken: "SHUT UP"
Why social media posts could invalidate your home insurance - "Insurers are increasingly rejecting claims made by customers whose houses have been burgled while on holiday if they have shared the fact that they are away from home on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram... Insurers invoke a clause that exists in a majority of policies that requires customers to take “reasonable care” in keeping their property safe... “If no precautions were taken to limit who can see the photo on social media, and your name and address were posted alongside then the general condition could come into play.”"
Enfield council spends £500k debating LTN while seven libraries go bust - "A Labour council has “wasted a staggering” £575,000 planning a low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) with money that could have saved seven libraries. A freedom of information request has revealed that Enfield council has ploughed the funds into consultation and design work and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras for the Edmonton Green LTN. However, critics claim there is widespread opposition to the proposed scheme, which is feared could increase traffic and pollution."
Clearly, the problem is austerity and they need to 'tax the 'rich'' to pay for everything
Chinese students pocketed £157k train refunds in delay repay scam - "Two university students amassed about £157,000 in train ticket refunds by defrauding the delay repay system. Chinese students Li Liu, 26, and Wanqing Yu, 25, “exploited a loophole” in the rail refund system to make a small fortune while living together at their flat in Leeds, West Yorks. Under the delay repay scheme, passengers can claim compensation when a train arrives late. But Liu and Yu discovered that there were no automatic cross-checks to find out whether a customer had already had their ticket refunded, a flaw that proved central to their fraud. The pair would first claim refunds for train tickets – pretending they no longer wanted to travel – then pocket extra cash by applying for delay repay compensation on the same journeys if the trains ran late... The court heard that they had multiple bank accounts and had created 16 fictitious identities to help conceal their fraud. They also used a 20-SIM card adapter in a single phone so they could closely monitor their scam, and make it appear that contact was from different phones and people. The pair even did research to discover which services across the country were often late, and would buy tickets to these in advance. When the trains were late, they would then apply through the national scheme for compensation, having already claimed a refund for the tickets."
EU watchdog attacks Britain over iPhone ‘backdoor’ demand - "The European Data Protection Board (EDPB), which monitors tech privacy, said British demands to break Apple’s encryption “would create systemic vulnerabilities and pose a risk to the integrity and confidentiality of electronic communications”. In January, the Home Office demanded that Apple create a way to get around the end-to-end encryption in its iCloud storage system, sparking a dispute with the White House... The Government dropped the demand after interventions from Trump administration officials including Vice President JD Vance, but has since issued a new order related explicitly to the UK. European officials have stayed quiet on the matter, but on Monday, the EDPB became the first EU body to raise objections. It said the European Commission should take the Government’s demands into account when deciding whether to allow data transfers between Britain and the EU."
Why is Trump trying to violate privacy? What a fascist!
Segregating the sexes would admit we’re now incapable of keeping women safe - "it wouldn’t work in practice. London’s trains are busy and increasingly walk-through; any “women’s car” would be porous unless you flood the network with inspectors and fines. That’s how Dubai does it, and even with enforcement, their metro police still reportedly fine around 100 men each day for entering the women and children cabins. Indeed, the evidence abroad is hardly reassuring. Where women-only cars exist, harassment on the rest of the network persists. In Rio, a recent World Bank study on 22,000 train rides found that while reserved cars can reduce harassment inside them, they simultaneously entrench backwards norms: the majority of both men and women in the Rio study said that women who chose to ride in the mix-gendered cars are more “sexually open or inviting”. The study also found that women who believed others held that norm were 79 per cent more likely to use the women-only car, even when it offered no extra protection because men had crowded in. In short: a short-term fix that backfires. Even in Tokyo, despite long-standing women-only cars, authorities still record hundreds of molestation cases and railways continue to battle groping with other tools – surveillance, plain-clothes patrols, bystander interventions – because gender segregation carriages alone don’t eliminate the offence. The solution is policing and deterrence, not signage."
London Tube mosquito came from ancient Egypt - "The mosquito – Culex pipiens f. Molestus – was first noticed during the Second World War when it started snacking on Londoners sleeping in Tube stations during bombing raids. Experts thought it had evolved from the UK common house mosquito, which feeds on birds, and it was held up as an example of a species’ ability to rapidly adapt to new environments and urbanisation."
Farmer, 31, dies after being bitten by fly - "Father-of-one Andrew Kane, 31, was bitten on the elbow by a horsefly while working, his mother said... Mr Kane was taken to hospital where he found he had developed sepsis. He spent weeks in a coma before passing away on Sept 18."
Egypt says stolen pharoah’s bracelet sold for US$4K, melted down - "Egyptian police said on Thursday they arrested a museum employee and three alleged accomplices after a priceless ancient gold bracelet was stolen from Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, sold for about $4,000 and then melted down. The 3,000-year-old bracelet, a gold band adorned with lapis lazuli beads, dated back to the reign of Amenemope, a pharaoh of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty (1070-945 BC)."
Luckily, it wasn't consigned to a truly horrific fate, like being in the British Museum
reactions on X - "I’m an empath sometimes I can tell how people are feeling simply by deciding how I think they feel in my own mind and instantly believing it"
Pop Base on X - "Kim Kardashian tells Call Her Daddy that she would like to know the cost of a milk carton: "I mean, I don't have a concept of what like certain simple things cost, which really, um is, you know, I'd like to know a little bit more about what like a milk carton cost."
itsagundam on X - "Remember this when a celebrity tires to tell you how to vote."
Meme - "Sam Bankman-Fried's girlfriend and actor portraying her in The Altruists Netflix series.
A role Bella Ramsey's actually suited for, and they fumble it."
On Caroline Ellison
Frodo Watches Amazon's Lord of the Rings Show... - YouTube - "Elrond has summoned a meeting in Rivendell to decide the fate of Amazon's Rings of Power... a TV-show that spreads terror and darkness across all of Middle-earth. But the Fellowship is starting to suspect that Gandalf and Elrond might be hiding something..."
How is Ramsay the only person to bring up the fact that Jon might be a Night's Watch deserter? : r/freefolk - "Because all nuance and logic went out the window past season 4"
"Exactly.many ppl say Season 8 was a distraer and ruined GoT. But season 5 was the real point where quality went out the window"
"Didn't get how the reviews stayed good for so long--especially in Season 7."
"Reviewers are shepherds. They earn a living from pleasing their readers and only turn on something after the crowd has."
George R.R. Martin Is Never Going to Write 'The Winds of Winter' After His 'Game of Thrones' Reveal : r/HouseOfTheDragon - "More words have been dedicated to how Winds of Winter has not been released yet, than there will be words in the actual Winds of Winter"
"He actually was written more words I think in blog posts than what the book would even be ."
"Well, Martin keeps insisting he writes a few hours a day. Let’s be very gracious and say he averages 1 page per day (which would be extremely low for an author). That’s about 600-800 words worth of raw manuscript per day. Let’s say 700 words. That’d be about 3.6M words since the last book came out. 2.8M if he stoped working on Winds while writing F&B. If we assume he’s had to rewrite every page three times, Winds would still be around 3000-5000 pages long if we are to trust George’s self-described writing habits. In other words, about twice the size of LOTR, the Silmarillion, and the Hobbit all together. But, George has also for five years said the book is about 80% done. Since he claims to still be writing, that must mean the book is still growing. Accounting for this, the Winds of Winter will be ~7000 pages, or about the size of three Bibles. It’d take the average reader about two weeks of non-stop reading (12 hours per day) to finish it, and the audiobook would be around 330 hours long. My god, it’ll be glorious /s"
"throughout the series there has pretty much always been two books remaining, until just before a book is released when a book is "split" or something changes to add a new book. It was originally proposed as at trilogy and had just grown from there. He has written in a style that is expanding both the world and the open questions, not closing them. It's probably possible to finish in two books, but nothing in the books preceding this have indicated that he is working to a mode to actually work towards his conclusion, and has only made that more and more difficult for him. I am very confident that if a Winds of Winter were to ever be released, it'd be released along with an admission that either it, or the last book was being "split in two" so that he'd again have two books remaining. But at this point I'm doubtful Winds will ever be released at all, and wish that he'd just acknowledge that. We're not owed anything, but stringing along and all the talk of progress just seems disingenuous. But I'm honestly guessing there's a bit of denial on his end as well, I don't think he's trying to trick anyone."
What is the most unnecessary scene in Game of thrones? : r/freefolk - "isn't it weird how the show starting showing less T&A and it also got worse? Unrelated correlation but I just think it's funny. GOT Seasons 1-4 were full of nudity and violence yet the other seasons had that shit on and were worse."
Meme - "Not using source material RINGS OF POWER
Running out of source material and yoloing it GAME OF THRONES
*** on the source material THE WITCHER
Working with the author to improve upon the source material ONE PIECE
Pissing off the author so much that he revamps the series out of sheer spite DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION"
