IMDb's scoring system is useless and conceptually poor, unless you account for that ahead of time and assume it's wrong.

In the fall of 2021, Renato Borras-Chavez, a marine mammal ecologist at the University of Rhode Island, spotted a leopard seal on an ice floe. Borras-Chavez was on a research expedition to a glacial fjord in Chile's Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America, one of the places leopard seals take up residence outside of Antarctica. He was thrilled; this was the first leopard seal he'd ever seen in Chile, where he is from. As he peered through his binoculars, he noticed another, smaller seal: a pup. "I got so excited, and then we got there, and it's dead," he said. ... Scientists are often resistant to call behavior like this "grief" to avoid accusations of anthropomorphism, the act of interpreting animal behavior through human terms. Borras-Chavez offered "after-death caregiving" as a friendlier alternative than "post-mortem attentive behavior." As Sperou makes clear, "Do we know if she's actually grieving? No, we don't." But, she added, "I think it's understandable to say this could be some type of grieving behavior"—emphasis on the could ... Sometimes animals guard their dead as a matter of territorial protection; others tend to a corpse as curiosity. But in certain cases, King believes, behavior such as grooming a body, carrying it around, and vocalizing distress can suggest something more. "When we see that quality of sorrowful care emergent from profound relationality during life, we shouldn’t be reluctant to introduce and discuss an emotion-based term," she said. When King read the report of how Nora acted around her dead pup in 2023, she fixated on the details of the paper—how the mother maintained "intense focus" on the carcass and "often rested her head on top of" the body. Questions swirled in her mind. "How likely is it that a pinniped mother—an intelligent mammal—would carry out all these behaviors in a complete absence of any emotion?" she asked herself. "It’s possible, of course." But, she added, to assume the absence of emotion would enact anthropodenialism, a term coined by the primatologist Frans de Waal, referring to the a priori rejection of human-like traits in animals or animal-like traits in us. "Are the risks greater of claiming grief is expressed by this mother, or of denying her these emotions completely?" King said. "I value recognition of the expression of profound feelings in animals without insisting on impossible standards of confirmation of that interpretation, standards we would never apply to our own species," she added

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents collided with a car driven by a person they were attempting to apprehend in a Mesa neighborhood last week, as crashes involving ICE become more common across the country. Over the weekend ICE confirmed to the Arizona Mirror that its agents were involved in the collision where “no one on scene sustained serious injuries.”

Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in years is still burning. It has left at least 44 people dead and 279 reported missing with rescuers pulling residents from blazing high-rise apartment buildings into the morning.

China has reported its exports to the United States fell 27% in September from the year before, even though growth in its global exports hit a six-month high.

The suspect has been taken into custody and the scene is secured after a "targeted shooting", officials say.

Should states write their own AI laws, or should David Sacks? Last week, I was following up on several rumors that Donald Trump would sign an executive order that would fulfill a longstanding goal of the AI industry: legal preemption that would prevent states from passing their own AI laws. Mostly, I was calling sources trying to get a sense of how the Trump administration planned to approach it: Which agency would be spearheading it? What legal arguments would they use? How would it interact with Congress, which was trying to pass a similar moratorium in the National Defense Authorization Act? And then I got a copy of the draft order itself — possibly a sign that someone in the administration deeply, deeply loathes David Sacks, Trump’s Special Advisor on AI and Crypto. Even though he’s not a permanent government employee — he is, in fact, a billionaire tech venture capitalist with a provisional employment status similar to the one Elon Musk previously held — Sacks has become deeply influential in setting the administration’s AI and crypto policies. (Just look at Trump’s recent statements about federal AI preemption.)

As I plunged into the squall of messages, the landmarks of my own world receded. I was no longer a person but a great, universal ear receiving the worries and doubts of those in search of housing—that inescapable circumstance all of us, at one point or another, are bound to endure.

A woman with a family connection to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere.

Inside the most important, and also least important, story of our time

Indie horror game Horses is preparing to launch on December 2, on the Epic Games Store, GOG, Itch.io, and the Humble Store. But one place it won't be is on Steam, because Steam has banned the game for unclear reasons. And according to the developer, this ban seems likely to result in the shutdown of their entire studio.

Man from Borgo Virgilio investigated for benefit fraud and hiding body since woman’s death in 2022

Ex-president to start serving term in 12 sq metre bedroom in police base in Brasília after time for appeals elapses

Immigration and Customs Enforcement lifted a $180 million cap on a proposed immigrant-tracking program while guaranteeing multimillion-dollar payouts for private surveillance firms.

Venues designed for people to smash things up safely are seeing an enormous rise in bookings. But why? And what explains the pronounced gender gap?

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the European Union needs to change its digital regulations in order to get a deal to lower steel and aluminum tariffs. “We are talking to them about” rolling back EU tech rules, Lutnick said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “In exchange for that, we will come up with a cool steel and aluminum deal.” Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were in Brussels on Monday for their first official visit since reaching a trade deal with the EU in July. The deal set a 15% US tariff on many EU goods, while the EU pledged to erase tariffs on US industrial products as well as some agriculture and food items. The two sides also vowed to keep working to lower other tariffs, including a 50% levy on EU steel and aluminum, which the bloc has now matched with its own 50% tariff on steel imports above a certain quota. What bothers European officials and companies is the changing scope of President Donald Trump’s sectoral tariff authority — far beyond the ability to target the raw metals themselves. Since the US-EU deal, Washington has broadened the steel tariffs to include many items that weren’t subject to duties at the time.

Look beyond the petty celebrity feuds, and you'll see a plan to transform American media companies into outlets for MAGA agitprop.

The coffee giant shuttered a store in Colorado Springs in 2022 shortly after its workers voted to unionize. A federal agency later ordered Starbucks to reopen that store, along with 22 others.

From the boat bombings to deportations to prosecutions, the evidence mounts. And the speaker of the House could get to the bottom of it if he wanted to. Yeah, right.

Jimmy Cliff, the reggae legend who helped spread the genre’s reach from Jamaica to the world with ‘The Harder They Come,’ has died at the age of 81.