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Your Brain Does Something Weird When You Look at Emojis

When the human brain sees an emoji face, it does the stupidest thing it could possibly do in that moment: it interprets it as a real human face. It’s not, though. It’s a silly, exaggerated cartoon interpretation of a human expression. And yet, according to research published in Psychophysiology , there is a measurable split-second bit of stupidity where the human brain doesn’t notice, or maybe doesn’t care, that it’s not a real face. Unfortunately, the study doesn’t clarify whether this applies only to faces or if something like the smiling poop emoji briefly registers as a living, breathing poop man. Maybe we’ll find out more about that in the future. Anyway, researchers at Bournemouth University found that the brain processes emoji expressions and real human faces in similar ways, especially in the first fractions of a second. Using EEG caps with 64 sensors, scientists tracked participants’ brain activity while they viewed photographs of people or emoji faces depicting emotions su...
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Daily Horoscope: April 27, 2026

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A brand new week and the sky’s already got opinions. Venus settles into Gemini, sharpening conversations and charging up connections that actually have somewhere to go. The Moon sextiles Jupiter, handing even the most reluctant signs a genuine shot at optimism today. Meanwhile, the Sun in Taurus keeps everything grounded enough to actually follow through. So what does that mean for you, stargazer? It means Monday isn’t the enemy this week. The energy is cooperative, the timing is decent, and the universe is essentially pointing at you and asking what you’re going to do with a wide-open week. Don’t waste it. Read your horoscope for the week , and see what the stars have in store for your sign today.  Aries: March 21 – April 19 Monday hit different when you actually want to be there. No major cosmic activity today, just Mars at home in your sign doing what it always does: keeping that internal engine running hot. The real question, Aries, isn’t whether you have the energy. It’s w...
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Why Making Friends as an Adult Is So Hard (and How to Find Your People)

At some point in your mid-thirties, you look around and realize your social circle has somehow dwindled. People got married, moved away, had kids, got weird about politics. The friendships you made effortlessly at 14 in a school cafeteria now feel like a distant, nostalgic memory. Back then, proximity was enough. You sat next to someone, complained about the same teacher, and that was it. Easy peasy.  Adulthood doesn’t work like that anymore, and the stats are pretty grim, honestly. According to the American Perspectives Survey , the percentage of U.S. adults with zero close friends has quadrupled to 12 percent since 1990, while those reporting 10 or more close friends have fallen by nearly three times. All of this while we’ve never had more ways to reach each other. The fix, according to Psychology Today contributor Nir Bashan, requires actual effort and a little creativity. Here’s where to start. Stop Being So Picky As kids, we played with whoever showed up. Nobody cared abo...
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Weekly Horoscope: April 26-May 2

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The biggest event on the sky map this week is the Full Moon in Scorpio on May 1, and it means business. Scorpio Full Moons don’t do surface-level—they root around in the places you’ve been avoiding and drag whatever they find into the open. Paired with a Moon square Pluto earlier that same day, this lunation has teeth. Whatever you’ve been postponing emotionally, financially, or relationally is about to stop waiting for your permission to surface. This is not a week for half-measures, stargazer. The rest of the week builds toward that peak in interesting ways. Venus makes a string of meaningful moves—sextiling Neptune, trining Pluto, and closing out with a grounding sextile to Saturn—while Mercury squares Jupiter early on before escaping into steady Taurus by May 2. The sky this week pulls you between big feelings and bigger ambitions, between dreams and the discipline it actually takes to realize them. Pay attention to what comes up. It’s trying to tell you something. How will your ...
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Arc Raiders Trials Gets Overhauled in Season 4 – Start Date & Rewards Revealed

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Embark Studios has revealed that the Arc Raiders Trials system is being changed in a really big way . Instead of points being tied to specific map conditions, players will now have new ways to earn progress. The Arc Raiders Trials Season 4 start date will now launch during the Expedition window and will have a new Recon Outfit. Arc Raiders Trials Season 4 Changes Explained Screenshot: Embark Studios Major changes keep coming to the extraction shooter. Last week, we reported that Arc Raiders Expedition feature was being overhauled, with rewards no longer being tied to stash value. Now, Embark Studios has announced that the Arc Raiders Trials system is also getting some major changes implemented to it as well. Specifically, Arc Raiders Trials Season 4 progress points will no longer be rewarded based on specific map condition s. As a trade-off, double progress points have also been removed. However, players will now be able to earn points on any map condition without any rest...
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Are Men or Women Bigger Gold Diggers? Science Finally Has an Answer.

Kanye West and Jamie Foxx wrote the definitive gold digger anthem back in 2005, and for the last two decades, the cultural assumption has largely held: women chase rich men, men get played, everybody loses. A new study out of Vienna would like to challenge that narrative. Researchers at the Behavioral and Social Sciences Institute, led by psychologist Lennart Freyth, published findings this year confirming what many people have probably suspected. “Gold digging, often stereotyped as female behavior, is in fact not limited to women,” the study authors wrote. The team even cited West and Foxx’s track directly in their analysis, pulling the lyric “she takes my money when I’m in need” to outline what they describe as the three core public assumptions about gold diggers: that they exploit money, avoid broke partners, and are always women. Two out of three, it turns out, have held up. The third one didn’t. The researchers polled 351 participants, all around age 30 and representing a rang...
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Influencers Won’t Stop Harassing Man’s Cows, So He Plans to Make Them Uglier

Alex Birch has a problem most farmers don’t anticipate. His cows are too damn cute for their own good.  Birch’s Highland cattle, with their thick shaggy coats and Instagram-ready faces , have become a destination. People drive to his 300-acre farm in Baslow Edge, Derbyshire, to hug them, film yoga videos beside them, yank their tails, and leave bags of vegetables as unsolicited snacks. A group of 30 tourists once cornered his entire herd with flashing cameras. “My cows don’t get any peace,” Birch told the BBC . His solution, arrived at after exhausting his patience and presumably every other option, is to make the cows less attractive. Birch, 39, plans to crossbreed his Highland cattle with the whitebred shorthorn, a breed he described as a “good, hardy cow” that lacks both the photogenic fluff and the horns that keep drawing crowds. The de-beautification process, he estimates, will take about six years. “The intention is to make them less photogenic,” he said. Crazy solution t...
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