All posts tagged: Confusing

Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program is no longer a confusing mess

Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program is no longer a confusing mess

Published by skeptic

Ed Bott / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Microsoft is making the Insider Program less complicated. Beta channel will be a more reliable preview of the next retail release. Other changes will allow testers to quickly enable/disable new features. Last month, Microsoft took official notice of its customers’ many complaints about Windows 11. Pavan Davaluri, the executive vice president who runs the Windows and Devices group, promised sweeping changes to Windows 11. Today, the company announced the first of those changes in a post authored by Alec Oot, who’s been the principal group product manager for the Windows Insider Program since January 2024. Those changes will streamline the Insider program, which has lost sight of its original goals in the past few years. (For a brief history of the program and what had gone wrong, see my post from last November: “The Windows Insider Program is a confusing mess.”) Also: If Microsoft really wants to fix Windows 11, it should do these …

Perfectionism’s Confusing Relationship With Feeling Special

Perfectionism’s Confusing Relationship With Feeling Special

Published by Jenni Sidey

You can’t suppress your beliefs merely by feeling guilty for having them. While it’s possible to exhibit only one form of perfectionism, many perfectionists present with several. So, for example, not only are many of them concerned with professional achievement (i.e., success-oriented perfectionism), they’re also preoccupied with being good people (i.e., moral perfectionism). And the values involved often conflict. To become extremely successful, arguably, one has to believe they’re special; thus, every comparison brings relief and motivation. This means that self-esteem and self-efficacy, the sense of mastery, are built, in some sense, on the backs of others. And that may conflict with moral perfectionism, which entails compassion, contribution, and humility. As children, perfectionists may be taught that they need to stand out but, simultaneously, need to present modestly. The implied message is: You can’t be yourself. And this, in turn, conflicts with another core value, that of authenticity. You aren’t allowed to be your special self because it hurts others’ feelings, but being disingenuous to avoid blowback is also cowardly. A State of Confusion For …

On confusing a Black theologian’s research with his beliefs

On confusing a Black theologian’s research with his beliefs

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — In late February, Vincent Lloyd, director of Africana studies at Villanova University, interviewed Dwight N. Hopkins, an influential scholar of Black liberation theology who teaches at the University of Chicago. When the interview was published on the Political Theology Network website, as “From James Cone to Donald Trump,” many in the world of Black church theology were taken aback, as Lloyd questioned whether Hopkins had become a supporter of President Trump and the MAGA movement. This would be a sharp departure from Hopkins’ mentor, James H. Cone, the father of Black liberation theology, who died in 2018. But Lloyd didn’t stop there. He speculated whether Hopkins had followed the supposed trajectory of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, “a strand of conservative Black nationalism that responds to the existential insecurity of Black men thrust into elite white spaces.” Within minutes of its publication, Lloyd’s interview circulated via social media around the world, sending shock waves through the academy. Scholars of religion, theology, biblical studies and related fields registered their confusion, frustration and, in many …

A New and Confusing Study About Acetaminophen and Autism

A New and Confusing Study About Acetaminophen and Autism

Published by Sam Flores

Last September, during a memorably bizarre press conference, President Trump told pregnant women—repeatedly and emphatically—not to take Tylenol. His health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., pointed to studies that “suggest a potential association” between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Kennedy was more adamant on The Joe Rogan Experience recently, insisting that he had read 76 studies on the subject over one weekend and concluded that the “science is really clear” in showing a link between the drug and the conditions. The science, in fact, is not at all clear. Although some studies have indeed found an association between prenatal acetaminophen use and autism or ADHD, others have not, including a recent systematic review of 43 studies. But a new study, carried out in Taiwan and published today in JAMA Pediatrics, seems poised to inflame the controversy anew. Kennedy’s confident assertions aside, the FDA has offered a more evenhanded assessment of prior evidence. On the day of the September press conference, the agency issued a notice to doctors acknowledging that “a causal relationship has …

11 Confusing Ways Loving Someone Who Learned To Keep Secrets Growing Up Affects You

11 Confusing Ways Loving Someone Who Learned To Keep Secrets Growing Up Affects You

Published by Jenni Sidey

Loving someone who learned early that silence equals safety can feel both intimate and distant at the same time. They may care deeply, show up consistently, and remain loyal, yet still keep parts of themselves just out of reach. You sense there’s more beneath the surface, but you can’t always access it. That gap can leave you questioning your own perception. Childhood coping strategies don’t disappear when someone enters a healthy relationship. If secrecy once protected them from criticism, chaos, or emotional instability, that instinct may still activate automatically. Their privacy isn’t necessarily about deception. It’s about protection. When you love someone like this, certain patterns tend to unfold in ways that can feel confusing if you don’t understand where they began. These are 11 confusing ways loving someone who learned to keep secrets growing up affects you 1. You feel close to them, but never fully inside their world Federico Marsicano / Shutterstock They share stories, laugh with you, and show affection. On the surface, the connection feels real. Still, there are layers you …

If Your Adult Life Feels Confusing Or Directionless, These 3 Childhood Experiences Probably Explain Why

If Your Adult Life Feels Confusing Or Directionless, These 3 Childhood Experiences Probably Explain Why

Published by Jenni Sidey

You may already be familiar with the ways negative childhood experiences can impact us as adults. Even if you can’t name the aftereffects, you feel them. Whether it’s feeling like a permanent victim even when you’re years removed from what traumatized you, acting passive-aggressively when upset, retreating into passivity, or creating a false always happy version of yourself, there are many ways childhood emotional experiences continue to affect you even after you’ve grown up. But you may be less familiar with how these experiences affect relationships. What happens to us as children can affect the attachment style we carry into our adult relationships. Trauma hugely influences attachment. Often, people who grew up in happy, healthy, and stable homes where caregivers were emotionally available and responsive to their needs have a secure attachment style. These people don’t push partners away or cling too tightly. While they may have troubles in their relationships, an unhealthy attachment style isn’t the cause. Many of us aren’t this lucky. If adult life feels confusing or directionless, these three childhood experiences might explain …

Bidets Are Confusing Visitors at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Bidets Are Confusing Visitors at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Published by skeptic

Bidets are now, once again, having a moment. As international athletes and journalists descend on northern Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, certain participants have wondered about the additional piece of equipment in their bathrooms. Europeans, quite familiar with the oval basins, have found themselves similarly perplexed by their confusion. Cultural exchange often has its hiccups. Last week, US broadcaster Alicia Lewis posted a TikTok asking if the Italian bidet in her room was, in fact, a bidet. An Associated Press report noted that “the fixture is de rigueur in Italian residences but often perplexes visitors—including some athletes whose room videos have done double-takes.” Most of the confusion on social media has dissipated, but interest in bidets has been on the rise. When New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, moved into Gracie Mansion last month, he spoke of having an “aspirational hope” of installing bidets there. WIRED has also been recommending them for some time. Still, they remain a mystery to many. So it seems only right to offer a bit of an explanation …

The Agriculture Secretary’s Confusing Dinner Recommendation

The Agriculture Secretary’s Confusing $3 Dinner Recommendation

Published by Sam Flores

At first, we didn’t think much of it, the One Other Thing. When Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested a meal of one corn tortilla, one piece of broccoli, one piece of chicken, and “one other thing”—all for a mere $3–we dwelled more on the other parts. The one corn tortilla, the unit of broccoli, the piece of chicken! How strange and bland a combination! How stingy in contrast to the birthday steaks our leaders enjoyed! If we’d only known then. Corn tortilla. Broccoli. Chicken. And one other thing. Maybe a carrot! Maybe a bit of cheese! We assumed that it had to be food. That was our mistake, I think. Assuming that the One Other Thing had to be food. And at first, after we signed on to receive the Recommended Meal, it was food. A mint. Some popcorn. An almond. Nothing too surprising. On the fifth night, we let the baby open it. He put it into his mouth immediately, and I had to fish it out. Something hard and black. That was when …

The Trump Administration’s Affordability Messaging Is Confusing Americans

The Trump Administration’s Affordability Messaging Is Confusing Americans

Published by Daniella Wilson

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. At a rally in Detroit earlier this month, Donald Trump told the crowd that his upcoming speech at the World Economic Forum would tackle one of his core issues: affordability. But the address he delivered in Davos yesterday was not quite what he’d telegraphed. In what my colleague David A. Graham described as a “stump speech,” the president strayed from that focus, roaming from Arctic defense to the Minnesota fraud scandal to the policies of “Sleepy” Joe Biden. When he returned to the topic of affordability, he claimed that grocery prices are “going down” (they’re not) and that drug prices have declined by “2,000 percent” (they haven’t). Although Trump campaigned on the economy, weak polling has recently spurred new plans to make life in America more affordable. At one point, Trump plugged a plan to curb predatory lending practices …