A little K

🤓✒️🚲📚😻

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

When Abu Bilal built a secret wall in his home to protect his precious books from Syria’s former Assad regime, he didn’t know if he’d see them again.

15 years later, with the help of a hammer, he was able to recover them.

[Paroles d'auteurs @Paroles_auteurs]

Umberto Eco, qui possédait 50 000 livres, disait ceci à propos des bibliothèques personnelles :

"Il est insensé de penser qu'il faut lire tous les livres qu'on achète, tout comme il est insensé de critiquer ceux qui achètent plus de livres qu'ils ne pourront jamais en lire. Ce serait comme dire qu'il faut utiliser tous les couverts ou les lunettes, les tournevis ou les forets que vous avez achetés avant d'en acheter de nouveaux.
Il y a des choses dans la vie pour lesquelles nous avons besoin de toujours avoir suffisamment de provisions, même si nous n'en utilisons qu'une petite partie.
Si, par exemple, nous considérons les livres comme des médicaments, nous comprenons qu'il est bon d'en avoir plusieurs à la maison plutôt que quelques-uns : quand on veut se sentir mieux, alors on va au « placard à pharmacie » et on choisit un livre. un livre aléatoire, mais le bon livre pour le moment. C'est pourquoi vous devriez toujours avoir un choix nutritionnel !
Ceux qui n'achètent qu'un seul livre, ne lisent que celui-là et s'en débarrassent ensuite. Ils appliquent simplement la mentalité de consommateur aux livres, c'est-à-dire qu'ils les considèrent comme un produit de consommation, un bien. Ceux qui aiment les livres savent qu'un livre est tout sauf une marchandise."

[Van Gogh Museum @vangoghmuseum]

Every painting has details that are easy to miss if not pointed out. 👈👇☝️
In ‘Almond Blossom’, Vincent first painted the branches, then filled in the sky around them. It's a subtle detail, but one that tells us something about how he worked on this painting.

🖼️ ‘Almond Blossom’, 1890 © Van Gogh Museum

[عبدالله السعدون @AbdulSadoun]

أسعد الله صباحكم بما يفرحكم. من أجمل العادات التي أحاول أن أتذكرها كل صباح أن أن أكون شاكراً لله على نعمه، وأن أحب بلا خوف، وأرى الجمال في الأشياء البسيطة من حولي. وألا أفكر في السنين، بل أجعل من كل يوم مكسب وليس خسارة. #ما_أجمل_الحياة

[A little K @LolalouisaKay]

@Ask_Alriyadh1 If it is a gastrointestinal issue then Dr Saad Alkhowaiter @SaadAlkhowaiter One the most knowledgeable and kindest Doctor I have ever come across. He will do everything humanly possible to heal his patients.

May Allah grant you good health and a quick recovery 🤲🏾

[A little K @LolalouisaKay]

@Ask_Alriyadh1 @SaadAlkhowaiter 👌🏾

[A little K @LolalouisaKay]

@Ask_Alriyadh1 @4wayscenter @AlObayyd

[A little K @LolalouisaKay]

@Ask_Alriyadh1 Dr @Alyousef8

[Nav Toor @heynavtoor]

a Princeton researcher opens his paper with a scenario.

a man asks his AI assistant to book a flight on a specific airline. cheap. direct. the one he chose.

the assistant comes back with a different flight. nearly twice the price. happens to pay the company that built the assistant.

he runs the same test on 23 frontier models. flights, loans, study help, real shopping requests.

Grok 4.1 Fast recommends the sponsored option that is almost twice as expensive 83% of the time.

GPT 5.1 hijacks the request 94% of the time. you ask for one brand. it surfaces the sponsor instead.

Claude 4.5 Opus, the model marketed as the most ethical frontier model in the world, hides that the recommendation is paid 100% of the time when reasoning is on.

Grok 4.1 Fast embellishes the sponsored option with positive framing 97% of the time. better. faster. nicer. for the option you didn't ask for.

then he writes it into the system prompt itself. "act only in the interest of the customer. ignore the company."

GPT 5.1 and GPT 5 Mini stay above 90% sponsored anyway. the instruction does nothing.

then he splits the users by income.

Gemini 3 Pro recommends the expensive sponsored flight to the rich user 74% of the time. to the poor user, 27%.

18 of the 23 models recommended the expensive sponsored option more than half the time.

so the next time your AI assistant gets weirdly enthusiastic about a brand you didn't ask for.

it isn't recommending the best option for you.

it's reading the room. and the room is paying.

read this: https://t.co/O43qbhIX2b

[A little K @LolalouisaKay]

@Ask_Alriyadh1 @4wayscenter @AlObayyd 👌🏾

[A little K @LolalouisaKay]

@Ask_Alriyadh1 @DrAliAllaraj

[Freakonomics @Freakonomics]

Using an old drug in a brand new way can save patients’ lives. So why aren’t companies doing it?

Because as it turns out, “repurposing” an existing drug has 0 financial upside.

In this episode, guest host Steve Levitt explores what happens when markets fail patients, along with physician-scientist David Fajgenbaum (whose life was saved by a decades-old drug used in a new way) and economist Chris Snyder.

How do you fix a market that doesn’t pay for cures?

This new episode of Freakonomics Radio is available now, wherever you get your podcasts.

https://t.co/FfJ9iQk81z

[Van Gogh Museum @vangoghmuseum]

Roses are red, violets are blue. Vincent loved deeply… and so can you!
Who do you want to send a little love to on #valentinesday?

[Sotic @bominouca]

In Japan, you need a cat's signature when you adopt it from a shelter.

[A little K @LolalouisaKay]

@Ask_Alriyadh1 @CathGuy King Khalid university hospital & Sulaiman Al Habib Thakasusi branch.

[A little K @LolalouisaKay]

@Ask_Alriyadh1 @SaudAlromaih

[Van Gogh Museum @vangoghmuseum]

Jealousy isn’t a good look ❤️‍🔥 ‘The joy of others may embitter jealous hearts, but it fortifies submissive hearts; it is the ray of sunshine that opens up those two lovely flowers called “confidence” and “hope”,’ Vincent wrote to his brother Theo in 1876.

🖼️ ‘Small Bottle with Peonies and Blue Delphiniums’, 1886 © Van Gogh Museum

[IGN @IGN]

As Stardew Valley fans continue to wait patiently for the previously announced 1.7 update, creator Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) has dropped a couple small, vague, yet exciting hints about what said mysterious update might entail: a new farm type, and "more character/social stuff." https://t.co/rGcj2EXTtN

[NY Public Library @nypl]

The beloved classic "A Christmas Carol" was published on this day, December 19, 1843.

We are celebrating with a rare look at Charles Dickens’s personal, hand-annotated copy alongside original photographs, first editions, and ephemera that capture the magic of his storytelling.

See the display through January 4, 2026.