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Hansel and Gretel: The “Good Old Days” Weren’t That Good

Creatix / February 21, 2026 There is a persistent myth that the past was gentler, simpler, and morally superior. Many fall for the trap or reminiscing a golden age of strong families, honest labor, and tight-knit communities. We imagine candlelit homes, children playing freely in open fields, neighbors helping neighbors, and life moving at a slower, more meaningful pace. Compared to the noise, speed, and complexity of modern life, the “good old days” can feel comforting. But comfort in imagination is not the same as comfort in reality. For most of human history, life was defined by hunger, disease, violence, and fragility. A bad harvest could mean starvation. A minor infection could mean death. Child mortality was heartbreakingly common. Women routinely died in childbirth. There were no antibiotics, no modern anesthesia, no social safety nets, no reliable sanitation systems, no refrigeration, no vaccines, no public schooling for most, and no meaningful legal protection for children. Th...
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Best Summary of Supreme Court's Tariff Ruling - And Are we Going to War now?

Creatix / February 20, 2026 February 20, 2026 was a historic day in our constitutional republic. The Supreme Court invalidated the tariffs imposed by the Executive Power. Regardless of where you may stand on the issue, the decision reinforces the separation of powers under our Constitution.  The decision is known as  Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump (consolidated with Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc. ), delivered February 20, 2026 : ( Supreme Court ) Case Background The Court considered whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) authorizes the President to impose broad tariffs during a declared national emergency. ( Supreme Court ) Former President Trump used IEEPA to impose sweeping import tariffs (“Liberation Day” and other duties) in 2025. ( Wikipedia ) Multiple businesses and states challenged those tariffs as beyond presidential authority. ( Wikipedia ) Issues Before the Court The Supreme Court addressed two consolidated cases: Whether IEEPA autho...

Core Vocabulary of the Attention Economy. Do you speak the new language of money?

Creatix / February 20, 2026 Social media is here to stay and will most likely continue growing and changing society. From kids to senior citizens on almost every corner of the free world, everyone seems to be glued to social media. For sure, the technology does not sit on the edge; it seems to be at the very center of modern life.  Social media influences both what we think about and how we think about it. Social media platforms and their AI-powered algorithms influence how we behave, how we communicate, and how we participate in the global economy. By now, platforms are part of the "natural" environments where humans live and trade. Like all environments, social media generates its own vocubulary. This is not new. Every major transformative industry produces new terms and new definitions. The industrial age gave us factory , assembly line , and mass production terminology The information era gave us software , network ,  database, and more . The 2020s as the years of feeds, ...

Stocks YTD 2026: Rotation, Profit Taking, and Capital Self-Deportations

Creatix / February 19, 2026 Best-Performing Stocks YTD in 2026 According to recent market data tracking stock performance from January 1 through mid-February: Top YTD Gainers: KOS (Kosmos Energy Ltd.) — ~+90% (Energy sector) FSLY (Fastly, Inc.) — ~+85% (Tech/Internet) TROX (Tronox Holdings plc) — ~+82% (Basic Materials) DHX (DHI Group, Inc.) — ~+76% (Tech) VAL (Valaris Ltd.) — ~+75% (Energy) … plus others in energy and tech showing strong double-digit gains. ( Stock Titan ) Characteristics of this outperforming cohort: Energy & cyclical sectors lead , unknowns benefiting from higher commodity prices and stronger global demand. Small- and mid-caps are prominent , showing higher volatility and room for large percentage moves. Worst-Performing Stocks YTD in 2026 On the downside, some stocks are lagging significantly: Top YTD Laggards: CCXI (ChemoCentryx) — ~-80% – steep biotech selloff CALY (Topgolf Callaway Brands) – substantial loss U (Unity Software) – tech weakness L...

Therians: The Next "Mini Big Thing" and Golden Opportunity for Entrepreneurs

Creatix / February 19, 2026 Social media scrollers worldwide in early 2026 are noticing the now-familiar combo: animal masks + tails (“gear”) + running/jumping on all fours (“quadrobics”)—and the label "therian" attached to it. This  looks like a sudden bad, but the therian movement is older than the internet. What you’re seeing is a classic pattern: a long-running subculture finally finds a high-visibility format, then splits into identity, aesthetic, and even sports, creating a huge business opportunity field for clever entrepreneurs.  1) What “therian” actually means (and what it doesn’t) A therian (short for therianthrope ) is typically described within the community as a person who identifies as a non-human animal in a deep, integral way, while still understanding they are physically human. ( El País ) What it doesn’t mean (but often gets confused online): Not the same as “furry.” Furry fandom is centered on anthropomorphic animal characters and costuming/art as a hobby;...

The New Golden Rule: 10% in gold.

Creatix / February 17, 2026 The New Golden Rule: 10% of Your Portfolio in Gold For decades, conventional wisdom suggested keeping a small allocation to gold — maybe 2% to 5% — as “insurance.” But the world has changed. Persistent deficits, geopolitical fragmentation, monetary experimentation, and structurally higher debt levels have altered the macro landscape. In this new era, it may be time for a revised principle: The New Golden Rule: Keep 10% of your portfolio in gold. Not 50%. Not an all-in bet. A disciplined, structural 10%. Let’s explore why. 1. Gold Is Monetary Insurance in an Era of Monetary Experimentation Since 2008, central banks have expanded balance sheets at unprecedented scale. The era of quantitative easing (QE), near-zero rates, and aggressive liquidity injections permanently changed investor psychology. Gold performs one critical function:  It is no one else’s liability. Unlike bonds, it carries no default risk. Unlike cash, it cannot be printed. Unlike equities,...

Top 5 Mysteries of the Big Bang

Creatix / February 17, 2026 The Big Bang is often described as the moment the universe began. But in modern cosmology, it’s more precise to say that the Big Bang describes the early expansion of the universe from an extremely hot, dense, and unusually smooth state. We have strong evidence that this happened. What we don’t have are answers to some of the deepest questions surrounding it. Here are the five biggest mysteries that still keep cosmologists awake at night. 1. What Caused the Big Bang? The Big Bang theory works beautifully when describing the universe after it began expanding. But rewind the clock all the way back to time zero, and current equations break down. General relativity predicts a “singularity”, a point of infinite density and temperature. But infinities in physics usually signal that a theory has reached its limits. To understand what truly happened, we likely need a theory of quantum gravity , something that unifies quantum mechanics and gravity. Until then, we d...

Winter Olympics: Top 10 Things You Probably Don't Know

Creatix / February 16, 2026 1) The 2026 Winter Olympics Have Set a Modern U.S. Viewership Record The Milano-Cortina Games are averaging roughly 26.5 million U.S. viewers across NBC broadcast and streaming — about a 93% increase over early Beijing 2022 numbers. More than 200 million Americans have engaged with NBCUniversal winter coverage this season. Strong storytelling, marquee events, and digital access have reignited national interest. 2) Winter Sports Debuted at the Summer Olympics Before the Winter Games existed, figure skating appeared in 1908 and 1920, and ice hockey debuted in 1920. 1924 Winter Olympics was originally labeled “International Winter Sports Week” and only later recognized as the first Winter Games. Since 1994, Winter and Summer Olympics have been staggered two years apart. 3) The First Winter Olympic Gold Medalist Was American Charles Jewtraw won the 500m speed skating event in 1924, earning the first gold medal in Winter Olympic history. His victory permanently l...

Partially-Conscious Robots: Coming Soon?

Creatix / February 15, 2026 Why We May Not Be That Far from a Conscious Robot — Especially If Its “Mind” Lives in the Cloud For decades, the image of a conscious robot has been cinematic: a metal body with a glowing artificial brain inside its skull. But that picture may be technologically outdated. If consciousness is not a mystical substance but an emergent pattern of integrated information processing, then it does not require all computation to sit inside a head. It may require architecture, integration, embodiment, and continuity streamed over a computer server, not a single "brain". And that changes the timeline dramatically. The Substrate Shift Human consciousness runs on biological substrate — neurons, glial cells, electrochemical signaling. But many researchers argue that what matters most is not the biology itself, but the pattern of computation and integration. If that’s true, then a robot’s body could act as: a sensor platform, a motor system, a local reflex proces...

Your Brain on Chocolate and Romance: The Neuroscience of Valentine’s Day

Creatix / February 14, 2026 Happy Valentine’s Day!  Marketing mixes chocolate and romance. Let's take a look. I. The Neuroscience of Chocolate: Why It Feels So Good Chocolate is not just candy. It is a neurochemical event . When you eat chocolate, especially dark chocolate, several things happen: 1. Dopamine: The Motivation Molecule Sweet and fatty chocolate activates the brain’s mesolimbic reward system , the same circuitry that responds to winning, sex, novelty, and social approval. The key player is dopamine. Dopamine is anticipation. Desire. The signal that says: “This matters. Do it again.” Chocolate’s combination of sugar and fat is evolutionarily powerful. Your brain evolved in scarcity. Dense calories meant survival. So the circuitry is ancient and strong. 2. Endorphins and Opioid Signaling Chocolate stimulates endogenous opioid systems, contributing to that warm, comforted feeling. That’s why chocolate is often associated with emotional soothing. 3. Serotonin and Mood Carb...