CATEGORIES

The Truths and Distortions of Ruby Franke -The Mormon mother of six built a devoted following by broadcasting her family's wholesome life on YouTube. How did she end up abusing her children?

In 2015, Ruby Franke, a 32-year-old Mormon woman in Utah, became another parent sharing her family’s life on YouTube. The first video on her now-defunct channel, 8 Passengers, begins with old footage of her standing in a modest kitchen, her five children gathered around in anticipation as she cuts into a cake to reveal the gender of her sixth child. The video jumps to a scene at the hospital shortly after her new daughter’s birth. Resting in bed, Ruby cradles the baby and her youngest son, a serious-faced 3-year-old boy in blue overalls. “Can you show me where her nose is?” she asks him as he points. “Where’s her eyes?” When an elder son reports that the camera is almost out of battery, Ruby replies softly, “Go ahead, turn it off. That’s okay.”

Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.

SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”

SENSORY OVERLOAD

A wild Danish restaurant combines avant-garde dining with immersive theatre.

CLOSE QUARTERS

Jen Silverman's \"The Roommate\" and Celine Song's \"Family.\"

UNCOMMITTED

Among the Gaza protest voters in Michigan.

FAMILY STYLE

\"La Maison,\" on Apple TV+.

Ambrose

Lily wants to live in the old days. Her mom, Debra, says, No, you don’t, because in the old days all women did was cook and sew and die in childbirth, but Lily still wishes she could travel back in time.

RHYTHM COLLECTOR

Eblis Álvarez's Meridian Brothers unites the many strands of Latin music.

THE ESCAPE ARTIST

The Italian priest who helps women in the Mafia flee the criminal underworld.

MERELY PLAYERS

Race, politics, and the theatre collide in Alan Hollinghurst's

MOVE TO TRASH

Is it time for a new Constitution?

IMMATERIAL GIRL

Sophie is gone. Her music lives on.

It's Not Complicated - Ta-Nehisi Coates's writing on race fueled a reckoning in America. | Now he wants to change the way we think about Israel and Palestine.

It was mid-august, roughly a month and a half before his new book, The Message, was set to be published, and Ta-Nehisi Coates was in my face, on my level, his eyes wide and aflame and his hands swallowing his scalp as he clutched it in disbelief and wonder and rage. At the Gramercy Park restaurant where we’d met for breakfast, Coates, now 48, looked noticeably older than the fruit-cheeked polemicist whose visage had been everywhere nearly a decade before, when he released Between the World and Me, his era-defining book on race during the Obama presidency, and the stubble of his beard was now frosted with white. But he was possessed still with the conviction and anxiety of a young man: deeply certain that he is right and yet almost desperate to be confirmed. He spoke most of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, a central subject of his book. “I knew it was wrong from day one,” he said. “Day one—you know what I mean?”

A Shiksa Love Story

Erin Foster has spent the past decade turning her Hollywood life into content, to mixed results. Her new Netflix rom-com series, based on her own conversion to Judaism, might change that.

Soho Will Get a New Artists' Restaurant

Manuela, from the founders of Hauser & Wirth, is equal parts showroom and dining room.

900 Lives of Tana Mongeau

Is one of the internet's most infamous chaos agents capable of cleaning up her act?

How's the Hyssop?

Cafe Mado is a worthy return to locavore eating.

Hot Commodity

In Sally Rooney's novels, love is always being bought, sold, or reduced to tropes. But this is also what makes it real.

Understanding Mesh Circuits How to Use and Calculate Them

Microcontrollers and other digital systems concern mostly ones and zeros but when connections to the real word are needed it can get messy. Stuart writes about mesh analysis and how mesh circuits can be calculated and applied in practical scenarios.

Intelligent Automotive Battery Sensor

Shunt Resistors and Evaluation Electronics Offer Two Key Components

Datasheet: Very Cool Micro Machines

Smartphone Cooling Rounds Out Parade of Advanced MEMS

Learn to Program MCUs with uLISP

Part 1: Crash Course Offers Insight Into Pioneering Language

Improving Patient Outcomes

Device Technology Advances Medical Practices

Build an Interactive Kinetic Wall

Using a Raspberry Pi 4 and Kinect V1 Camera

Are mosquitoes getting more dangerous? - It's not news that mosquitoes carry a number of viruses and parasites that can be harmful to human health, including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, West Nile virus, and eastern equine encephalitis.

Mosquitoes seem to be everywhere this year, and they're not just a nuisance at outdoor gatherings. Health experts say they're carrying some serious diseases—a fact that's hitting home in the U.S., as some towns in Massachusetts have shut down public parks and other outdoor areas in the evenings, after mosquitoes in the region were learned to be carrying eastern equine encephalitis, a rare but deadly virus. And Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's former top infectious-disease expert, was recently hospitalized with a West Nile virus infection he is believed to have acquired from a mosquito buzzing through his backyard.

Not-so-Great Expectations: Students Are Reading Fewer Books in English Class - Chris Stanislawski didn't read much in his middle school English classes, but it never felt necessary.

Chris Stanislawski didn't read much in his middle school English classes, but it never felt necessary. Students were given detailed chapter summaries for every novel they discussed, and teachers played audio of the books during class.

Silver Linings

The woes of Portland created fresh opportunities for Black-owned start-ups.

The Next Frontier

With deep pockets and mighty ambitions, Saudi Arabia is building a high-end resort area with serious green cred.

Just Dive In

The most nautical Four Seasons has to be this scuba-centric ship, which sails a rarely visited corner of the Pacific.

Carnivore diet before + after

More than 1.5 billion people have clicked on social media posts about the carnivore diet-and it's left a lot of folks wondering: Is this another passing fad or can eating like a lion really make our health and metabolism roar? Paula Kish, 54, once had the same question. At the time, her debilitating migraines weren't responding to any treatment. So when she heard a doctor on YouTube say going carnivore might work when modern medicine fails, she put it to the test. \"I never looked back,\" shares the Michigan grandmother, now pain-free and down five sizes. Read on for more from Paula and other inspiring carnivore dieters. Plus, a top doc explains how the meaty strategy works and how to tell if it might transform your body.