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eulagisca gigantea looks like something evolution designed after watching too much sci fi. it’s a giant antarctic scale worm that lives in cold deep water, grows up to around 8 inches long, and has a retractable throat armed with large jaws for grabbing prey. the weird golden “fur” along its sides is actually part of its segmented body.

basically proof that the deep ocean has been quietly making monsters this whole time.

i decided to look a little more closely at norway, since it is one of those countries we seem to envy for almost everything.

i was honestly stunned. the story is almost too good.

norway had been in a union with sweden until 1905, when it broke away and became fully independent.

the norwegians wanted to remain a monarchy, but there was one small problem. they had no king and no royal family of their own.

so they literally went looking for a king.

yes, looking for a king. it sounds ridiculous, but that is basically what happened.

their first choice was the swedish royal family they had just separated from. norway essentially asked whether sweden might spare one of its princes so they could make him king. sweden declined.

so they turned to denmark.

there they found a suitable candidate, prince carl of denmark. he was scandinavian, had naval training, was young, and already had a son.

when the offer reached him, he did not simply jump at the chance. he insisted that he would only accept the crown if the norwegian people actually wanted him.

a referendum was held in november 1905, and the monarchy was approved by a large majority. prince carl accepted the throne and took the name haakon vii, reviving the name of earlier norwegian kings and tying the new monarchy to the country's older traditions.

and norway later discovered that it had chosen an extraordinary king.

during world war ii, haakon vii refused to submit to nazi germany and became one of the great symbols of norwegian resistance. this man had essentially been invited in from another country to become king, yet when norway faced its darkest moment, he stood by it completely.

you could not ask for much more from a monarch.

he also strongly respected norway's parliamentary system and became a lasting symbol of constitutional monarchy during the development of the modern norwegian state.

it is often described as the rarest personality type. it usually comes across as wise and deeply empathetic, but its darker side can be genuinely intense.

although it is introverted, its fe cognitive function plays a major role. it tries to act logically, but concern for how other people feel often takes priority. it may sometimes be grouped alongside the analyst types.

people with this personality type tend to enjoy thinking about abstract ideas and exploring fields such as sociology and psychology, which examine human behavior and society. from what i have seen on forums, many of the people with extensive knowledge of mbti who type others seem to belong to this personality type.

their level of self awareness is usually very high, and they often try to serve as a mirror that helps others develop greater self awareness as well. they may develop a savior complex or even a god complex.

their empathetic nature can leave them emotionally drained, but they may also use that same ability to understand others for darker purposes.

knowing you're loved

a player said to have switched teams at 42 to chase a ring.

a country with pluses and minuses, but one whose pluses far outweigh its minuses.

speaking from personal experience, i'm reporting this straight from the bottom of my heart.

he's gotten a little too tall. it looks like he's lost some of his quickness in tight spaces. if he doesn't adjust to his new frame this season, there's a good chance his career will start to decline and he'll never reach his full potential. kind of a weird thing to say about a professional soccer player.

you open instagram. one friend's in the maldives, sand white, sea turquoise, legs flawless. another just got promoted, champagne on the table, a motivational caption underneath. another one got married, they're dancing, the dress, the makeup, everything perfect. and you, meanwhile, are at home, slippers on your feet, tea in hand, the evening news on tv. in that moment something happens. a tightness in your stomach. you think you're unhappy. when five minutes ago you were doing just fine. this, right here, is what this app does to you.

social media is a giant stage. everyone's the lead. nobody shows what's behind the curtain. that friend in the maldives is going to be paying off the debt for six months and has no idea. the one who got promoted couldn't sleep that night out of fear of getting fired. that dancing couple had a mother-in-law meltdown a week after the wedding. but you don't see any of that. everyone shares the trailer for their life, while the full movie is always packed with the same boring details.

psychologists call this social comparison theory. you compare yourself against other people's best moments. naturally, you lose. because the material you've got is a real life, while theirs is a filtered, staged, well-lit display window. it's like looking through a bakery window and expecting to feel full. impossible.

all over the world civilization is going backward. nobody gives a damn about the rules, social contracts are going bankrupt, individualism is on the rise. the world is heading toward a more and more absurd place by the day. i just hope all this stupidity doesn't end up leading to some nonsense like another world war.

retro fashion can be thought of as bringing the iconic styles of the past back to life with today's production technology. the difference from vintage is that the garment isn't old, it's new in an old style. it describes new clothes that capture the spirit of a particular era (usually 20 to 50 years ago).

nostalgia, and i've stopped to talk about its psychological effects on people in my entries before, forms an emotional bond that makes people feel safe. fed by a longing for the aesthetic values of the past, this trend is the greatest proof of the fact that fashion is "a cycle that repeats itself." these days the retro elements combined with modern pieces (like a crop top over a pair of high-waisted retro pants) are thought to create a balanced style that blends the past with the future.

every decade has its own particular retro influence. for example, the 50s' poofy skirts and polka dots, the 60s' mini dresses and geometric patterns, or the 70s' bell-bottoms...

the opposite of doomscrolling. the act of browsing social media with content that will fix a person's mood and morale by way of watching happy content, cat videos, and so forth.

the other person getting too absorbed in their phone on a first date is actually one of the biggest red flags. because if they're choosing to escape into the screen instead of being present in that moment, this isn't just a momentary lapse in attention. it seems like a quiet indicator of the value they place on the person across from them too. on a first date a person is a little curious, listens a little, and tries a little to get to know the one across from them. constant notification checking, scrolling, and texting, on the other hand, break this natural flow.

messi doesn't need to prove anything anymore at this point in his career.

unlike ronaldo, who became hugely popular through his hairstyle, facial expressions, flashy lifestyle, and iconic goal celebrations, messi just scores when he can, creates assists when he can't, plays his game, and moves on.

even as a ronaldo fan, it's pretty easy to see that the scales have started to tip in messi's favor.

years ago i witnessed a man cheating on his wife, and what's more, he was telling everyone about it shamelessly, without an ounce of embarrassment, laughing his head off. i couldn't sleep for nights, ate myself up over it thinking this is just too much, and if i'd seen his wife i'd have told her purely because of this brazenness. about a year later or so i heard that this idiot of ours got caught by his wife with someone else. by the way, they're still married...

when the internet first came about there was a more qualified user base, if we think about the bbs era, there were even networks you could reach by dialing a number. you'd pick the source directly and move forward. right now people who don't even know how to read and write properly are using the internet, and technology has actually evolved to a level that people at that level can understand and be steered toward purchases, and everything falls apart from here. everything gets tried in order to draw engagement with garbage content.

i definitely miss the old news server days, it was like small neighborhoods of a few thousand people. right now if i said "xor," there are plenty of people from my generation on ekşi sözlük who'd get it and crack a smile.

i think there could be a solution and a way out of this. in my opinion what's needed is an indexing website, but one that'll imitate instagram and be text-based. people will create blog pages with their own domains, and everyone will publish their content on their own website, and the indexing website will present the daily published posts to followers with an interface similar to instagram reels. on the index, users will be able to follow relevant blogs, and they'll also be able to follow tags and discover different sites. a site like this might not gain acceptance among general users, but it'll be popular among qualified researchers or people who love to read.