0:09
Female Friendships Going Wrong
Write to me with any problem or dilemma at [email redacted] Subject to Terms and Conditions
Hi Philippa,
Sharp intake of breath, there’s a first time for everything so here goes… I’ve had some cracking friendships with women over my 50 plus years, but as night follows day, they eventually crash and burn, where am I going wrong? Why is my relationship with the “sisterhood” bittersweet? Can you help me to keep my finger off the Self Destruct button? I’m finally saying “enough is enough” as three long term (interconnected) friendships have fizzled out.
0:43
VB-G RAM G will guarantee only centralisation, financial stress on States: Congress
Jairam Ramesh said the PM Modi Government, "vengeful and petty" as ever, bulldozed the repeal of MGNREGA through Parliament without any thorough consultation with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development, State governments, or other relevant stakeholders
1:06
K. Bhagyaraj: Tamil film fraternity bids farewell to one of its finest storytellers
K. Bhagyaraj passed away on Saturday, and the Tamil film world is already echoing with the grief of his peers. Actors, directors and writers have been sharing memories of his five‑decade‑long journey, recalling how his scripts and direction shaped the industry’s storytelling style.
Colleagues describe him as a storyteller who could blend humor with heart, noting the countless films he wrote, directed and starred in. Many point to his knack for turning everyday moments into cinematic moments that still feel fresh today.
The outpouring of tributes underscores how deeply his work resonated, marking the end of an era for Tamil cinema.
1:48
Lost your crypto access code? Be wary, there‘s a scam for that too
A niche type of fraud is lucrative enough for criminals to set up fake websites with dodgy software to harvest your data
After holding them for a few years, you have decided it is time to cash in your cryptocurrency holdings. The problem is, it is so long since you set up the digital wallet which manages them on your laptop, you have forgotten the lengthy access code.
Stressed at the thought of losing thousands of pounds, you search and download a program which promises to recover the 24-word “seed phrase” which gives you access to your cypto assets.
Continue reading...
2:26
Will Andy Burnham ‘go big’ in expanding the role of the state?
In the first of a series on nationalisation, we look at the critical tests ahead for the PM-in-waiting, from choosing a chancellor to the future of Thames Water
As he swept towards victory in the Makerfield byelection, Andy Burnham told voters he wanted to see “the essentials of life being run primarily for the public interest, not for the private interests”.
Citing the Bee Network of buses and trams across Manchester city region, brought together on his watch, Burnham repeatedly highlighted the need for more “public control” over the necessities of life. Water, energy, transport and housing are at the top of his list.
Continue reading...
3:08
Never Again Will I Ever
I’m continuing my slower summer rhythm, writing with a little less frequency. In my stead is Carmen Radley, editor and community manager here at the Isolation Journals. It’s a fun one today, so please enjoy! —Suleika
When I took my first real job as a middle and high school English teacher, my mom—a teacher herself—tried to warn me.
“Teaching is hard,” she said. How hard could it be? I thought. I’d get to spend my days talking about books, and I’d have summers off to write and travel!
But it turned out my mom was right. Each morning I woke before dawn, drank enough coffee to set my nervous system to permabuzz, cobbled together lecture notes, then hurried to school before 7 to be first in line at the good copier. It was mental whiplash to shift between my sweet but chaotic thirteen-year-olds and my seniors, who were at turns apathetic, defiant, and overly familiar. (They wanted to call me “Rad-Rad.”) Each afternoon, I came home and collapsed in a post-work slumber to rival the dead. Then I’d wake up, make dinner, grade papers, and plan the next day’s lesson. Over and over again.
I truly admire teachers. I believe teaching is a vocation—a sacred calling—and necessary for the flourishing of society. But there’s almost no scenario where I can imagine myself in the classroom again.
It was the prompt in last week’s newsletter—about chaos days and jobs that shape us—that called to mind those teaching days and what they taught me. I got my first inklings that I was an introvert and began to understand the difference between working harder and working smarter. I also learned I don’t like talking about literature with people who don’t share my love of it. (I’m not sure what I was expecting from those kids—for each class to unfold like a scene from Dead Poets Society?)
But one of the joys of being the editor of the Isolation Journals is that I get to read all the time—books, poems, essays—in search of voices to bring to this community. They find their way to us in all sorts of ways: a writer reaching out, a moving story tucked in the comments section, a fabulous tale I hear over lunch with a friend, like today’s essay by Mary Pauline Lowry. And then comes the best part: we share it with you, and what I’d hoped would happen in my teaching days happens. You fall in love, too.
So with that, I’ll step aside and let Mary spin that tale for you. Her essay, “Helplessly, Hopelessly, Gloriously Human,” is about an airport fiasco—and also about strangers and loved ones showing up with curiosity and grace. I hope it makes you laugh and helps you appreciate some previously underappreciated part of yourself.
—Carmen
The first sign my travel had not gone as planned was the huge photo collage that read Edmonton. Each letter contained an unfamiliar locale. A river with a large, arched white bridge. A courthouse. A museum.
It was 2016, and I’d been on the last leg of a flight from Austin via Seattle back to Boise, Idaho. Why, I thought, my brain still fogged by Dramamine I’d popped on the layover in Seattle, is there a sign for Edmonton in the Boise airport?
The next one was more startling. An arrow with the word Customs. I asked the woman behind me, in a voice three octaves higher than usual, “What country are we in?”
“Um, Canada,” she said. The word—Canada!—was shocking, like a fuse blowing in my brain.
Hurrying to a customs official behind plexiglass, I said, “I was supposed to fly to Boise.”
“Can I see your passport?” the official asked flatly.
“I don’t have a passport!” I said in my new high-pitched voice. “I have a boarding pass—to Boise! My husband is waiting for me! At the airport! In Boise!” I shoved my boarding pass through the slot, relieved to have proof that my presence in Edmonton—Northern Alberta, Canada—was a colossal mistake.
It was almost eleven o’clock. The customs guy directed me to the airline counter to see about getting an early flight to Boise, where I was supposed to teach a nine a.m. class the next day. The airline employee said a ticket home would cost $1700. My grad student stipend for teaching freshman composition was $800 a month—not much for the drudgery. The curriculum was a wall between me and my students. I longed to apologize, to tell them I loathed making them “write about writing” in unwieldy academic terms. I sensed they’d like me better if I taught them something real. To supplement my income, I wrote profiles of real estate agents for an online magazine. Seventeen hundred dollars would be a lot of profiles.
Another customs official appeared, blonde with a mustache. He told the airline employee that if the airline charged me for my ticket to Boise, they’d face a $200,000 fine for letting me onto a plane to another country without a ticket. I wanted to hug him.
After I was booked—free of charge—for an early morning flight home, I pulled out my phone to text my husband, George.
7:44
Suspected brain cancer turns out to be pork tapeworm infestation
Doctors in Spain were looking at a man with persistent headaches and, after a routine scan, saw a cluster of fuzzy spots that usually point to metastatic cancer. The images were enough to set off alarms and they prepared for the worst.
When they ran a higher‑resolution MRI, the picture changed completely—those lesions turned out to be tiny cysts packed with pork‑tapeworm larvae, the classic sign of neurocysticercosis. It’s a reminder that parasites can masquerade as tumors, especially when they settle in the brain.
The team started the standard antiparasitic regimen, paired with steroids to calm the inflammation, and the patient is now on the road to recovery, his headaches easing as the cysts shrink.
8:30
SpaceX stock took a predictable trajectory
SpaceX’s shares jumped to $251 right after the launch, then fell back to $149 today, just under the $150 opening price that followed the $135 IPO.
Most investors who bought in after the bell on day one are now in the red, with their holdings below the initial purchase price.
The surge and retreat reflect a classic hype‑and‑reality cycle, where early excitement gave way to a more sober market assessment.
Even Elon Musk’s net worth slipped below the trillion‑dollar mark as the stock’s volatility took its toll.
9:03
Australia’s social media ban not working, study finds
Australia’s ban on social media accounts for children has failed to produce an immediate drop in use among adolescents, according to an analysis published this week in The BMJ. The study casts doubt on the world’s first national age-based restriction, even as governments in Europe and North America attempt similar measures.
Researchers su…
9:28
Ram temple ‘fraud’: SIT finds blatant SOP violations
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) like deploying a security guard during a counting process, frisking of personnel while entering and leaving the counting room, and preserving CCTV footage of the donation-counting process for 180 days were violated
