Pope And Simile

Is Pope Leo Targeting Peter Thiel?

Nate Anderson | ArsTechnica | 26th May 2026

Close reading of a papal encyclical about AI to determine whether the Bishop of Rome is quoting Gandalf in order to make an example of Peter Thiel, "the onetime PayPal co-founder and current Antichrist alarmist". Thiel, it should be noted, "is a Tolkien fanboy in the worst way". Pope Leo uses Tolkien's character to make a case against "tech messianism" and for love and charity in AI implementation (1,800 words)

Comparisons As Predictable As The Sunrise

Russell Samora | Pudding | 27th May 2026

Data-driven exploration of the simile in fiction. They're everywhere: this dataset focused just on the "as X as Y" format and contains over 200,000 examples. Each common adjective — "dry", "broad", "real" — has a unique distribution between clichéd instances and unique comparisons. The ironic similes listed are especially fun, such as Ian Rankin's excellent "as welcome as haemorrhoids at a rodeo" (2,500 words)