Author: Jenni Sidey

Meet Me in Paris by Kristin Harmel

Meet Me in Paris by Kristin Harmel

Published by Jenni Sidey

Some novels want you to think. This one wants you to feel, and it makes no apology for that. Meet Me in Paris by Kristin Harmel gathers a cluster of Americans in the French capital across a single spring week and lets their lives graze against one another the way strangers do at a crowded café, close enough to change everything without quite noticing. If you have ever walked a foreign city and wondered about the private histories carried by the people passing you on a bridge, this book hands you several of them at once. A Familiar Recipe, Baked Fresh Harmel has said she wanted to write something in the spirit of Love Actually, and the shape is right there on the page: separate stories that overlap, cross, and quietly feed one another until the city itself starts to feel like the matchmaker. What lifts the book above simple homage is the second flavor folded into the batter. Beneath the present-day romance runs a wartime thread that reaches back to 1943, and this is …

If you struggle to sit cross-legged, a Pilates instructor suggests opening your hips with these four exercises

If you struggle to sit cross-legged, a Pilates instructor suggests opening your hips with these four exercises

Published by Jenni Sidey

If you ever look wistfully back on the days you had the hip mobility to sit cheerfully for long periods cross-legged, you are not alone. Most adults rarely sit in that position and some have lost the range of motion to even try. Jill Drummond, a NASM-certified personal trainer and vice president of fitness at BODYBAR Pilates, explains that a cross-legged position requires a combination of hip joint mobility, and muscle flexibility and strength. Latest Videos FromFit&Well “If any of these qualities are compromised, an individual may experience tight hips and difficulty sitting cross-legged,” she says. “To combat this, we must address tightness and strength in the glutes, hip flexors, inner thighs, hamstrings and surrounding connective tissue.” You may like She notes that if the natural shape of your hip joint also contributes to immobility, rather than your muscles, then a cross-legged position may never be the most comfortable position for you. That said, you can still benefit from hip strengthening and stretching and can still gain some additional range of motion. Start your week …

2,700 year-old Italian cemetery reveals how status, gender, and diet impacted people’s lives

2,700 year-old Italian cemetery reveals how status, gender, and diet impacted people’s lives

Published by Jenni Sidey

Scientists studied bones from 148 people buried nearly 2,700 years ago in an Italian cemetery to see what they ate and where they came from. People buried with fancy items like amber jewelry or weapons didn’t actually eat better than people buried more plainly, and men generally had more meat in their diet than women. A small number of people, mostly men, appear to have moved to the area from elsewhere, showing this ancient community had contact with distant regions. In grave 57 at an ancient Italian cemetery lies a teenage girl buried with a bone and amber brooch, a rare piece that closely matches jewelry found hundreds of kilometers to the north. Yet the chemical signature locked inside her bones points somewhere else entirely: southern Italy. Her grave goods and her own body are telling two different stories, and that mismatch sits at the heart of a new study into daily life 2,700 years ago. The girl was one of 148 people whose remains were examined as part of an international project led by …

Is the Mind Reducible to the Brain? The Debate in Krakow

Is the Mind Reducible to the Brain? The Debate in Krakow

Published by Jenni Sidey

News July 28, 2026 2 Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind Free will, abstract thought, and all the rest…? News July 28, 2026 2 Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind The debate in Krakow, Poland, sponsored by education foundation Fundacja En Arche is now available, with translation, at YouTube: Yes, the mind is merely a product of the brain: Prof. Leszek Kaczmarek – Molecular biologist and neuroscientist, Full Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Head of the Laboratory of Neurobiology at the Nencki Institute. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of brain plasticity and learning. He argues that the mind is a product of the brain, while emphasizing that it cannot be reduced simply to chemistry or isolated molecular processes. Dr. Paweł Boguszewski – Neuroscientist and behavioral scientist at the Nencki Institute. His research examines the neural mechanisms underlying behavior and consciousness. He argues that consciousness is an emergent property of complex neural networks and that contemporary neuroscience provides no evidence for immaterial explanations. No, the mind is not merely a product of the brain: Prof. …

9 Things Smart Gen X & Millennial People Have Stopped Enjoying

9 Things Smart Gen X & Millennial People Have Stopped Enjoying

Published by Jenni Sidey

With age comes wisdom, and Gen Xers and millennials are a testament to that fact. They’ve reached the stage in life where the things they enjoy are much simpler and less tied to approval and status. When you’re young, it’s normal to follow trends and seek adventure at every turn, but as mid-life approaches, your tastes become more refined, and the smartest Gen Xers and millennials know that indulging intentionally is where it’s at. Smart Gen Xers & millennials happily no longer feel the need to engage in these once enjoyable things: 1. Keeping up with the Joneses Halfpoint | Shutterstock People like to blame social media for comparison culture, and while it plays a part in chasing unrealistic expectations of everything from beauty to success, the truth is people have always quietly competed with each other to be the best. Whether it’s having the nicest house in the neighborhood or having the perfectly curated relationship on Instagram, only the stage has changed. One of the great things about getting older is that you stop …

Dustin Yellin Has A Hot Take For Viral ‘Subway Takes’ Show

Dustin Yellin Has A Hot Take For Viral ‘Subway Takes’ Show

Published by Jenni Sidey

Dustin Yellin has a hot take: “Religion should be a product of art, not art a product of religion!” Um, sure! The multidisciplinary artist and Pioneer Works founder made the comment in a recent appearance on SubwayTakes, the internet talk show hosted by Kareem Rahma. In the episode, posted to Instagram Tuesday, a befuddled Rahma responds, “100 percent disagree. Don’t even know what the f—k you’re talking about.” Related Articles As is perhaps to be expected from an out-there personality like Yellin, he had quite a bit more to say. Yellin explained that his point was about how humans treat religion as “literal and real,” which in his estimation creates division and killing. He went on to say that he thinks religion should be taught in schools as a beautiful form of narrative art, rather than as a representation of reality. “We are on a rock flying through space and we have no idea what’s f—king going on. We are in deep space, deep time,” he said. “We are just as much aliens as aliens.” Ultimately, …

11 High-EQ Things People Do When Their Parents Did An Outstanding Job Raising Them

11 High-EQ Things People Do When Their Parents Did An Outstanding Job Raising Them

Published by Jenni Sidey

Our childhood experiences influence the way we live our lives as adults. Some people establish their independence from an early age, while those who had helicopter parents may be reluctant to try new things. But when someone has high emotional intelligence (EQ), it’s likely their habits reflect that, and indicates that their parents raised them well. When kids are taught how to regulate their emotions in productive ways, they’re better able to cope in certain situations. They’re highly aware of their feelings and have great problem-solving skills, which affects the hobbies and interests they eventually develop. If you have these high-EQ habits, your parents did an amazing job raising you 1. You set affirmations padnob | Shutterstock It’s not easy to push back against the narrative your inner critic sets for you, but keeping up a daily practice of affirmations helps you believe in yourself and your capabilities. Affirmations are a way to take stock of your life and create an action plan for transforming what no longer serves you. Speaking to yourself with loving …

MIT engineers create a stretchy yarn designed to be melted down and recycled

MIT engineers create a stretchy yarn designed to be melted down and recycled

Published by Jenni Sidey

MIT engineers made a new stretchy yarn out of polyethylene, the same plastic used in milk jugs and grocery bags, instead of spandex blends that can’t be recycled. The new yarn can be melted down and respun into new yarn over and over, and it stayed just as strong after ten rounds of recycling. Because most stretchy clothing today mixes materials that can’t be separated, almost none of it gets recycled, so this single-material design could help close that gap. The average American throws away about 81 pounds of clothing a year. Add that up across the country and it comes to more than 11 million tons of textiles sent to landfills and incinerators annually. Bottles and cans have a recycling system. Old clothes, for the most part, do not. A team of MIT engineers thinks part of the fix could be a new yarn. Made from polyethylene, the same plastic used in milk jugs and grocery bags, the yarn has the stretch and strength of spandex, but unlike spandex it can be melted down …

UK Jury Convicts Activists Who Covered Picasso With a Gaza Image

UK Jury Convicts Activists Who Covered Picasso With a Gaza Image

Published by Jenni Sidey

Two activists affiliated with Youth Demand, a group calling for the British government to end economic trade with Israel as well as the cessation of new licenses for fossil fuels, were found guilty of criminal damage after covering a Picasso painting with an image of a mother and child in Gaza. Jai Halai, age 25, and Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, 23, were convicted by a jury over the incident at the National Gallery in London in October 2024.   As reported by Jewish News, “During the protest, they placed a large photograph of a mother and child from Gaza over the protective glass protecting Picasso’s 1901 painting Motherhood before pouring water-based paint onto the gallery floor and chanting slogans calling for Britain to end trade with Israel.” The painting was not damaged as a result of the action, but the floor of the gallery required repair after paint seeped down. Michael Willie, the National Gallery’s head of security and facilities, reportedly said during the trial: “Paint was on the marble skirting, stanchion, rope barriers, and it was …

Artworks by Basquiat, George Condo, caught in Vancouver fraud lawsuit

Artworks by Basquiat, George Condo, caught in Vancouver fraud lawsuit

Published by Jenni Sidey

There is a new development in an ongoing fraud lawsuit against the leader of the collapsed Vancouver-based developer Coromandel Properties, whose chief executive allegedly misappropriated funds to acquire an art collection, reports The Vancouver Sun. In 2023, Junchao Mo, a Chinese seed investor and part-owner of Coromandel Properties, and his two sons, Zhao Ming “Robert” Mo and Zi Hao “Calvin” Mo, filed a lawsuit now headed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia against Jerry Zhong, the company’s chief executive and co-owner. They allege that Zhong deceived them into investing over $100 million in the company’s Vancouver-area real estate projects, and deliberately misused those funds to purchase property, feed his own slush fund, and, among other expenditures, acquire 14 artworks worth about $4.9 million. Related Articles The plaintiffs argue that the art acquisitions were then used to secure a loan of up to $2.4 million, while Coromandel Properties, now indebted by some $497 million, was already in financial hot water. Zhong “misappropriated the line of credit funds for his own use,” according to court documents, …