Translating swear words is never simple. In this video of a Ukrainian soldier warning and threatening Russian troops, the words blayd (‘slut’ or ‘whore’), pizdetz (‘a messed-up situation’, deriving from pizda, or ‘cunt’), and khuy – three of the four words that form the basis of mat – are all translated as ‘fuck’, while ebat (which really does mean ‘fuck’, and is the root of the word Boris Nemtsov once used to describe Putin’s mental state) is never used. If that matters, it’s because in Russian khuy is stronger, by far, than the word for ‘fuck’. Tell a Russian acquaintance to fuck off, and he’s likely to laugh it off. But even among old friends, khuy and pizda are no laughing matter. (Pizdetz, on the other hand, is rather mild.) ‘Иди наxуй is the worst thing you can say,’ my sister Mariana tells me. She lives in Europe, and my Russian’s OK but hers is still fluent. ‘You can’t say it in jest, unlike pizdets or ebat. You can play with those two words. You can’t play with idi nakhuy. It’s a really aggressive, serious swear word.’ In that sense, ‘go fuck yourself’ isn’t wrong. (Mariana: ‘Pick the worst thing you can say in English.’) ‘Go the fuck, you fucks’ gets us closer, but only a bit. The truth is, there’s nothing in English that goes quite so far. (In Spinal Tap terms, our curses go up to ten, but Russian words go to eleven.) There’s no elegant solution, just as there is no way to convey the historically specific sense of resignation – of weariness and resolve – that I hear in that ‘nu, vsyo’ from Snake Island. (As a Soviet-born man with Ukrainian grandparents, it’s something I feel in my bones, but can’t capture in English, even though ‘that’s it, then’ is close on a literal level.)

In a TikTok video with 1.8 million views, a user who calls themselves Rama beams at the camera. "Like many young adults, I used to want an enjoyable and meaningful life," Rama says with a smile. "That is until I discovered capitalism. Now I live in a society where my productivity matters more than my well-being, and so I'm just depressed and anxious all the time. I'm smiling, but I'm deeply wounded. I work three jobs, and I still feel like I'm not doing enough." Anti-capitalism is taking over TikTok as users like Rama denounce America's glorification of the rat race. The pandemic prompted many American workers to rethink their life's purpose, and the youngest among them are questioning a life that endlessly pursues the next accomplishment.

'Brief and rapidly closing window' for action Climate change is upon us and humanity is far from ready, the United Nations climate panel warned in a major report on Monday. Noting that nearly half the world's population was already vulnerable to increasingly dangerous climate impacts, the report calls for drastic action on a huge scale: A third to a half of the planet needs to be conserved and protected to ensure future food and freshwater supplies. Coastal cities need plans to keep people safe from storms and rising seas. And more. read more "Adaptation saves lives," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said with the report's release. "As climate impacts worsen – and they will – scaling up investments will be essential for survival... Delay means death." The report is the latest in a series by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) detailing the latest global consensus on climate science. This report, however, focuses on how nature and societies are being affected and what they can do to adapt. read more On nearly all counts, the report makes clear that climate change is impacting the world far faster than scientists had anticipated. Meanwhile, countries have failed to rein in planet-warming carbon emissions, which continue to rise. "Unchecked carbon pollution is forcing the world's most vulnerable on a frogmarch to destruction," Guterres said in a video address Monday. "The facts are undeniable. This abdication of leadership is criminal."

"While making this game I rediscovered my love for making poison swamps," he told Game Informer. "I know how people feel about them but I suddenly realize I'm in the middle of making one and I can't help myself. It just happens."

Details here.

Federal legislation that would protect abortion rights nationwide and supersede state laws like Texas’ six-week abortion ban stalled out in the Senate on Monday after a vote to begin debate on the measure failed. The vote effectively blocks the Women’s Health Protection Act. After impassioned speeches on the Senate floor from both sides of the aisle, Democratic leaders couldn’t garner enough support to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to begin debate and eventually proceed to a vote on the bill.

This is a story about how to say my name. You’re probably reading it with your eyes, which isn’t the same as hearing it with your ears or saying it with your mouth. I’m sorry about that. My father was born in Russia’s Ural mountains, to one parent from eastern Ukraine and another parent of mixed Russian and Tatar ancestry. My last name, Plis, comes from that Ukrainian side. Most people with our name can trace their ancestry to a town that, today, is some 60 miles from the territory that Vladimir Putin claims is independent of Ukraine, and within earshot of the rockets that his troops are firing at buses and kindergartens. Both my parents were only children, which means I have zero aunts, uncles, or first cousins. But when I woke up on February 24 to my wife telling me that Russia had invaded, my first thought was to ask my dad if he’d heard from his cousin in Kharkiv. Plis was an odd name to have. It doesn’t mark gender like most Russian names, where your sons’ names end with -ov or -in or -skiy and your daughters’ match them with -ova or -ina or -skaya. Russians come from many places, and ours wasn’t the only name like this — my mom’s childhood neighbors included a Kim family with relatives in Korea — but it stood out. Plis has a drawn-out ee sound in Russian: if you type it into a Russian search engine, you’ll find teenagers writing it to spell the English word please.

Now that we’ve sold the agency, I’ll spill the beans: people don’t buy books, they buy souvenirs. The book isn’t the product; the book is the key chain, postcard, or novelty T-shirt. Most people don’t actually read all that much, but they like to think of themselves as smart, savvy readers. Books are ultimately aspirational purchases. People buy a book because they intend to read it, one day. People buy a book because they heard the author on a podcast and thought they were a pretty interesting guest. They were funny, engaging, and intelligent. They think, “Buying this book will make me like that too, right?” People buy a book because they want to see themselves as the kind of person who reads these kinds of things. We’re all in groups (and want to be in more)—what does our group do? People buy a book because they want other people to see it on their shelves on Zoom or at the next dinner party. Books are a set design for offices and living rooms; they are props for the performance of our lives. People buy a book because they’re thinking of starting a hobby or New Year’s resolution and this is the first, easy step. It’s far easier to plunk down a credit card for that paperback than to cut out gluten. The book isn’t the product. The idea, the aura, the movement, the group: that is what people are buying. A 300-page codex is just the packaging.

What it means to nominate a veteran public defender to the Supreme Court.

PORK RIBS

Early research suggests it spreads faster than the original omicron and in rare cases can sicken people even if they've already had an omicron infection. There’s mixed research on whether it causes more severe disease, but vaccines appear just as effective against it.

Leo Bersani, who over a 60-year career as a scholar of modern French literature had a profound influence on art and literary criticism, and who later played a central role in debates about gay and queer identity at the height of the AIDS crisis, died on Feb. 20 at an assisted-living facility in Peoria, Ariz. He was 90. His partner, Sam Geraci, confirmed the death. He said that the cause had not been determined, but that Dr. Bersani had entered the facility earlier this month after a brief hospitalization with septicemia. Dr. Bersani was best known for his 1987 essay “Is the Rectum a Grave?,” a dense, polemical critique of the tendency among some gay activists to respond to AIDS by downplaying their sexuality and emphasizing the need to replicate bourgeois heterosexuality.

I’m putting together a team. We still need a wisecracking demolitions expert, a haunted sniper with a checkered past, and a sexy computer hacker. The fat doofus post has been filled already, I repeat, has been filled already.

Cleveland’s Kurentovanje festival reflects the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood’s immigrant heritage, and its hopes for rebirth.

HUMANS HAVE A much longer and wider penis than the other great apes. Even the largest of gorillas, more than twice as heavy as a human, will have a penis just two and a half inches long when erect.

Makaziwe Mandela, the former president’s daughter, said her father’s watercolours represented “the triumph of the human spirit”. She said: “When my dad was on the island, he was surrounded by grey. Remember, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He never thought he would walk out of prison. But the paintings say we should never despair.” Offering the artworks as NFTs was a way of reaching new audiences, she added. “My dad was all about creating an accessible society. This is a way of democratising his art.”

The bomb tech reportedly said the volume and weight of the fireworks were too much before the blast that destroyed part of a South L.A. neighborhood.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has issued an order for the state to stop buying and selling vodka made by a Russian-owned distillery after the country invaded Ukraine earlier this week. (So glad my father doesn’t have to live through these dark times.)

A Florida jury acquitted retired Florida police captain Curtis Reeves in the shooting death of a man in a movie theater eight years ago. (He had to defend himself because the victim threw a bag of popcorn at him)

The invasion of Ukraine shines a harsh light on the obscene greed that has guided decision-making for decades.