“For me, the real litmus test of fluency has always been: Can I use this language to convince a native speaker that I exist?”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
Who Can I Dance With?
“From sneaking into underground basements in Tehran to learning to dance with almost no words in Northern California, I had done everything I could.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
He Called Himself an ‘Untouchable Hacker God’. But Who Was Behind the Biggest Crime Finland Has Ever Known?
“How would you feel if your therapist’s notes – your darkest thoughts and deepest feelings – were exposed to the world? For 33,000 Finnish people, that became a terrifying reality, with deadly consequences.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
DeafBlind Communities May Be Creating a New Language of Touch
Andrew Leland’s fascinating piece in The New Yorker explores Protactile, a system of tactile communication that has evolved into a national movement for autonomy among DeafBlind people across the U.S. Still, several linguists have come to believe that, among some of its frequent users, Protactile is developing into its own language, with words and grammatical […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
One Vigilante, 22 Cell Tower Fires, and a World of Conspiracies
“Inside the mind of the most prolific anti-5G arsonist in the world—and the incoherent, very online political violence of our era.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Meet the Oldest Rock in the West
“Wyoming’s 3.5 billion-year-old geologic history reminds us that Earth is ever-changing.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners
“My family is being ripped apart, and I firmly believe this phenomenon is central to why.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Remarkable Brain of a Carpet Cleaner Who Speaks 24 Languages
Vaughn Smith lives in Maryland. He’s 46 years old. He also learns languages with the seeming ease of a run around the block — including endangered indigenous tongues like Salish. In this fascinating profile that’s part ridealong and part science dive, Jessica Contrera takes you inside the life (and brain) of a man with a […]
