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Woodside Energy Group Ltd. said that pre-commissioning work at its $12 billion Scarborough liquefied natural gas export project off the coast of Western Australia was paused after Greenpeace protesters climbed aboard the gas platform.

Bloomberg: Filing: Disney agreed to hire 60+ staff from Character.AI and pay them ~$180M over three years, plus $30M for retention awards; a bankruptcy judge must approve  —  More than 60 workers at Character.AI are being offered a lifeline from the media giant … Soft Landing  —  Layoffs are common in bankruptcy.

Founder teams anxiously wait for the leaderboard to update at 9 a.m. at a reality-style incubator in rural Pennsylvania. Truman Dickerson There was only one thing on the minds of the founders at this reality-show-style startup incubator. It wasn't sex. Founder teams had two weeks to become profitable, and potent social media was paramount. At 9 p.m. on a recent Friday night, Max Harding had just returned from a barefoot run in the woods. The eccentric 20-year-old Californian was back in a large barn in rural Pennsylvania — still barefoot — alternatively working on his startup and asking me about the point of life. Though not an especially adept programmer, Harding possesses a more adroit, perhaps unteachable skill that has never been more valuable in the current landscape of founder culture. "Max captures the attention of the camera, keeps us center stage," said his cofounder, Skyler Ji, who added that Harding's role includes "spreading our philosophy" while he runs the operation behind the scenes. "Max brings some of the grander things," Ji told me. The pair's startup, Hivemind Research, aims to build "digital brains" in the form of social media. Harding and Ji were among 66 mostly young, mostly imaginative startup founders taking part in a two-week "incubator" workshop called Launchpad. The novel event was hosted by Stan, the company behind a moderately successful platform for independent creators to advertise and sell their services. At the last meetup Stan organized, startup founders jet-skied the East River at golden hour. At the incubator event, the entirety of which was filmed for use in a reality show that Stan plans to release sometime soon (though it is uploading Instagram clips daily), magnetic personalities were among the most valuable commodities. Max Harding (left) with his startup team at the launchpad event. Max Harding Stan cofounder Vitalii Dodonov told me that the 30 participating teams were chosen from a pool of 700 applicants, primarily for their existing social media followings and their ability to grow them. "It's not the building that gets you to revenue, it's the distribution," he said of today's startup culture. Of the many metrics competing teams were required to meet daily (10 sales calls, for example), social media videos were among the most heavily weighted. Everywhere I looked, people were talking about their companies into phones attached to tripods. Their products ran the gamut of usefulness — ranging from an AI facial scanner that tracks acne to an AI app that connects parents with babysitters. Startup founders film social media content while having dinner. Truman Dickerson Dodonov and John Hu, Stan's other cofounder, were trailed at all times by multi-person film crews, who glared should you emit an ill-timed sound while the cameras rolled. (The Velcro rip of my messenger bag earned me some leers.) Even outfits were choreographed. On the advice of the camera crews, Hu wore a "cream" colored getup while Dodonov donned a "charcoal" number to emphasize what was described to me as the "yin and yang" paradigm between the two. I spent about 16 cumulative hours at the event over two days earlier this month, at Stan's invitation. I ate meals with the founders, did a 7:30 a.m. cold plunge in the on-site lake alongside a Danish guy selling an AI to-do list, and commiserated with the startup founders who routinely pulled all-nighters to hit their metrics. Yours truly, soon before jumping into a freezing lake at 7:30 a.m. The visible mist is fog, not steam, in case you're wondering. Truman Dickerson Here's what I learned from the experience. Reality TV meets hackathon The event was billed as a sort of reality-TV-style game show-slash-incubator in the vein of hits like "Love Island" and "Squid Game." As in those shows, founder teams at Launchpad were subject to firepit eliminations, discreet alliances, and competitive drama under the ever-watchful lenses of dozens of expensive cameras. Except instead of a bunch of promiscuous co-eds doing risque challenges on a tropical island somewhere, contestants at Launchpad were mostly tech geeks with an unhealthy number of hours notched building software on their MacBooks. "There's no sex," laughed Jacob Snarr, a 24-year-old from Philadelphia. "Nobody here is thinking about that." Snarr and his cofounder, RJ McLaughlin, built a web browser game that lets friends debate their tastes and preferences, from their favorite foods to other everyday questions. The pair enlisted me as a product tester one morning, and we debated the merits of empanadas in the chilly barn. McLaughlin and Snarr were in second place on the leaderboard when I talked to them on Saturday morning — saving them from elimination. Rey Mendoza, who at 41 was one of the oldest founders in the competition, had already been eliminated. When I spoke with him, he was fighting for a chance at redemption. He showed me his sleep tracker for the six days. He hadn't slept more than six hours a night. Stan cofounder John Hu explains marketing to Rey Mendoza during a closed-door meeting. Truman Dickerson "Here, you're just fucking building, like 24/7," Mendoza, fatigued, said reverently. Event organizers added a number of less-intense, more fun-oriented events to the schedule, which were largely ignored by teams scrambling to upload more videos to social media. A "Mario Kart" meetup in a room adjoining the cafeteria was attended by precisely nobody. Two TVs showed the game's start screen, while maybe a dozen people sat at tables squinting at laptops. It's hard to imagine binge-watching some 60 sweatshirt-clad nerds drearily prompting chatbots to refine source code for yet another quirky AI startup. After all, everyone and their cousin is vibe coding their way into progressively nicher business models these days. In 2025, a record number of business applications — about 5.7 million — were submitted by Americans, according to census data. However, the number of businesses the government estimates will be successful enough to require employees actually declined. Those kinds of numbers mean it takes more to stand out. In our interview, Hu pointed at my phone and said I could use AI tools to start three or four businesses today — but, of course, they likely wouldn't be profitable. That, Hu said, is where the founders' personalities are supposed to come in, together with a bit of manufactured drama and endless streams of social media content. In the first challenge of the event, held on the first day, for example, teams were required to submit one social media video for public review around the firepit. Then, in front of everyone, Hu tore into them. "I was very honest," he said of one particular "roast" that produced tears from the submitters. "I was like, 'Guys, would anyone ever watch this? No. The answer is no, because of the quality — you never have a shot." The moment would certainly make for good television. It also, Hu told me, mimicked the real-life struggle inherent in starting a company in a saturated market. "They're going through the true ups and downs of a true cofounder relationship and a startup experience," he said of the team that was subjected to his roast, who were initially so dejected they discussed "breaking up." Overall, most of the teams I talked to said they enjoyed the ramshackle experience of trying to make a company profitable in two weeks. At the very least, it was all happening in a picturesque setting. Vitalii Dodonov poses at the retreat spot. Truman Dickerson A $3 million investment Stan spared no expense to pull off the event. It was held at a luxury, 400-acre villa two hours north of New York City that has in the past hosted retreats for high-flying companies like J.P. Morgan, whose executives, according to one staff member at the retreat at least, are keen for employees to embrace buzzwords like "team-building" and "company culture" among the illusion of rustic calm far from Manhattan. We were in the sticks of eastern Pennsylvania — so deep in the woods, in fact, that cell service was nonexistent. There was fiber-optic internet, however, and the setting, though far-flung, could hardly be called rustic. A squadron of golf carts staffed by the venue's seasonal workforce, many of whom were from Ireland or Australia, patrolled the grounds. I was personally given the cellphone number of one such seasonal worker and encouraged to notify her anytime I wanted to go anywhere, at which point she would materialize with the golf cart. Dodonov told me that Stan spent a combined $3 million renting the place for two weeks, booking camera crews, and making other necessary arrangements to host the founders, some of whom had traveled from as far away as Spain and Denmark. For a company whose cofounder told Business Insider this year that it has an annual recurring revenue of "nearly $41 million," that's a significant sum. "It's a very expensive experiment," Dodonov said. He said that, in his view, the return on investment is to see if "the playbook works" — the playbook being his and Hu's belief that building a successful company requires, perhaps above all, promoting yourself on social media. "Anyone can systematically establish and build support through the power of content," Dodonov said. Read the original article on Business Insider

Seventeen's Jeonghan and Joshua are debuting as a duo on October 19 — and hyping up the album with a joint Pinterest diary. Pinterest Jeonghan and Joshua from the boy band Seventeen are debuting as a duo. To promote their much-hyped album, they've launched a visual diary on Pinterest. The duo told Business Insider about their chemistry, their music — and their joint mood board. Jeonghan and Joshua from the mega K-pop boy band Seventeen are offering fans a dream to lose themselves in and a mood board for shopping. The two vocalists are debuting as a much-hyped unit, a spinoff of the 13-member band's activities. As of Monday, they'll be working under the name JxJ — releasing their album, "DREAMSCAPE," and hitting the road together for a concert tour in six Asian cities. In the meantime, they've been populating not only their Instagrams, but also a sprawling visual diary on their joint Pinterest account. It's an interesting choice, as far as K-pop goes — usually, teasers are limited to platforms like YouTube or the K-pop-centric social network, Weverse. In a written interview with Business Insider, the duo described their interest in Pinterest as a means of introducing the "visual world," concept, and vibe of "DREAMSCAPE." The mood boards and the buffet of photos they've posted for fans to feast on are also a "little gift" to their audience. "JxJ Diary is a space we created to share the concept and vibe of the album more directly with fans before its release. We spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of content they would enjoy, and decided to launch our first-ever Pinterest channel featuring different sides of ourselves," the duo said. The singers said they wanted to explore the concept of "dreams" with the posts on their joint account. They've curated a collection of photographs and behind-the-scenes moments, including everything from candid shots to sneak peeks of their album photoshoots. "We hope fans will take inspiration from the album's imagery and vibe, and express it in their own ways," they added. "It would be really fun to see them create their own version of 'DREAMSCAPE' on Pinterest by collecting photos, experimenting with styling, and curating images that reflect their personal tastes." The business around the boys That invitation for fans taps into a K-pop fan economy in which an album is not only heard or watched but also worn, collected, decorated, and remade. The two Seventeen members belong to a group whose fan base collects their photo cards, travels to their concerts, and goes all in on albums and merchandise. Seventeen's 2023 album, "FML," still holds the record for first-day sales for a K-pop album, with more than 6.4 million copies sold. The band's "NEW" tour from 2025 to 2026 saw them play 31 shows in stadiums across Asia and four US cities, drawing close to a million fans, in person and online. JxJ now gives Seventeen's fandom something else to get invested in: Jeonghan and Joshua together, and the similarities in their personal style. Ayumi Nakajima, Pinterest's APAC head of content partnerships, told Business Insider the platform had seen a surge in interest in K-pop, making it prime territory for JxJ to establish a foothold. Nakajima said that the collaboration with the duo's agency stemmed from the idea that K-pop fans connect with more than just the music. Pinterest gives fans a space to "explore the visual inspiration behind the artist's stories" and "save what resonates with them." Pinterest has seen a strong surge in interest for all things Korea on the platform. Searches for "K-pop style" rose 19% globally year over year, while "K-beauty" searches rose 114%. In Japan, searches for "K-pop fan art" climbed 368%, while "trading card decoration" rose 77%. "What visual experiences like the JxJ diary do is bring fans into an artist's creative world earlier, giving them more time to engage with the aesthetics, ideas and storytelling behind a release," Nakajima said. "That early engagement can really shape fandom-led commerce, because fans aren't just showing up at the point of purchase," Nakajima added. "A look, a mood or a visual reference can spark interest weeks before someone decides what to wear to a concert, what beauty look to try, or what pieces they want to buy." Chemistry JxJ's album, "DREAMSCAPE," drops on October 19. Pinterest As for the boys behind the Pinterest board, they're prepped to serve up seven tracks spanning genres they're "exploring for the first time" on the new album. The duet songs, from early teasers of the music, involve experiments with house, synthpop, and dance rock. There are also two solo tracks — Joshua's punk rock offering, "Not Personal," and Jeonghan's dreamy bop, "Coloring." "Seventeen has a certain energy when all 13 members are together, but we think the two of us have a different kind of chemistry when we are together," they told Business Insider. "Rather than trying to showcase something entirely new, we wanted to bring out our natural sides and individual charms as much as possible." The album is also the product of "a lot of conversations" about the kind of art they each wanted to create. "By sharing our ideas and the images we each had in mind, we were able to understand each other's tastes on a deeper level," the duo said. They took a couple of trips together, too, which helped them "get to know each other better and shape a direction that felt uniquely ours." "We also experimented with our vocals to show a new side of ourselves, so we hope fans will enjoy and support this album," they added. "DREAMSCAPE" launches on October 19 at 6 p.m. Korea time. Read the original article on Business Insider

Joanna Stern / The New Things: An interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on the Nvidia RTX Spark-powered Surface Laptop Ultra, plans to make Windows a safer OS to run AI agents, and more  —  My exclusive interview with Satya Nadella on the new Surface Laptop Ultra and Microsoft's plan to make Windows safer for AI agents

A deepening selloff in US technology stocks is exposing a new vulnerability in Asia’s artificial intelligence trade: mounting financing costs could choke off the spending needed to sustain the boom, threatening earnings across a supply chain that has powered the region’s stock-market rally.

Google: Google says “magic state cultivation” works in practice on its Willow quantum processor, calling it a breakthrough that reduces errors by about 40x  —  We've shown that magic state cultivation works on Google Quantum AI hardware.  —  Research Scientist, Google Quantum AI Quantum Software Engineer, Google Quantum AI

A Meta spokesperson insisted that the updated terms did not reflect a change in the way Meta crawls the web.

NVIDIA celebrated the arrival of its RTX Spark laptops with retail launch events in six cities on October 16, 2026, including a Berlin gathering where founder and CEO Jensen Huang made a surprise appearance and gave away five personally signed laptops, the company said in a recap published October 17, 2026. Berlin Celebration at the Festival of Lights The Berlin event coincided with the Festival of Lights, an annual autumn art festival that transforms the German capital's landmarks, streets and…

The author with her 3 freshman year drop-offs over the years Courtesy of the author I spent years preparing my kids for college, but I overlooked some essential life skills. I never properly taught them to clean toilets, repay debts, or recognize health problems. Now I'm trying to fill those gaps and accept that parenting doesn't end when kids leave home. Last week, a friend asked if I knew of any jobs for her recent graduate. Between his rigorous academic load, sports, and club activities that landed him in a prestigious university, he'd never held a job. "My fail," she confessed. My kids have had jobs, but I have parenting fails of my own. I'm concerned that, in the grand scheme of middle-class privileges, we forgot to teach our children some basic life skills: scrubbing bathrooms, repaying debts, and self-attunement. I crammed as much as I could into the first 18 years of their lives, but juggling my small business while parenting didn't leave time for everything. I found myself tossing last-minute advice like grapes while driving each to their respective dorms: Carry your drinks with you at all times — even to the bathroom. Know where Student Health is located. Sit in the front rows; meet your professors. Skip the jugs of BORG. We didn't teach them everything they need to survive, let alone thrive, but I'm hoping it's not too late to offer some guidance. Cleaning their toilet The bathroom might be the most inhospitable location in either of my sons' living quarters. The filth lurking below the interior rim is as confronting as the overspray of urine where the lid hinges. To protect them from chemical toxins, I reflect that I never handed my kids a cleaning wand. They'd wiped down sinks, vacuumed, and washed clothes, but the toilet was off limits. Instead, I'd taken the plastic brush into my own hand or, worse, hired a housekeeper. It should have transitioned at some age, but between my own squeamishness about cleanliness and their protests at reaching inside the bowl, I failed. I'm consoled that it appears statistically unlikely that anyone would catch a disease from their lack of sanitization, but in the interest of raising functional adults within accepted cultural parameters, I'm impressing upon them the virtues of hygiene and housekeeping as attractive to a future partner, while clamoring to provide motivation. My kids had no fiscal responsibility To teach financial awareness, my husband and I set up checking accounts and outlined budgets with our kids in their last year of high school. What we failed to do was teach them the importance of paying bills or repaying debt — imperative when adulting to secure credit, rent your own accommodations, and eventually live a fiscally independent life. We felt like we were on the right path when our kid bought his first (used) Toyota Tacoma, and we helped by providing a partial private loan to make it possible. The idea was for him to pay us back in monthly installments, no matter how small, but that quickly fell by the wayside when he felt $20 too nominal a transaction to matter. The infamous first motor vehicle purchased by the author's oldest son. Courtesy of the author He eventually paid off the entire debt in a lump sum, and we blew off his breach of our contract, but when a second kid dismissed our financial agreement, I knew we'd made a mistake. It's a lesson worth reworking in the interest of said kids' futures — perhaps we should've enforced stricter consequences for non-payment or suggested a bank loan that has natural repercussions for non-compliance? Idk, but that's my hot tip. I told them to 'read the room,' but also, they should read themselves This broad term refers to an individual's ability to assess themself in their environment, mentally and physically. I'd always advised my kids to "read the room," but now I implore them to read themselves — better. By the end of high school, I'd encouraged my kids to schedule their own doctor appointments but still played caregiver when advising them to stay home from school (with a fever) or insisting on their attendance (to avoid truancy). Collectively considered, I might have disabled their agency given that one of our kids landed in the emergency room after ignoring cold symptoms that manifested as chest pains in the middle of the night, his freshman year of college. Diagnosed with an acute case of pericarditis, his heart was stressed. He spent three harrowing nights in the hospital and continued with six months of follow-up as an outpatient; it was scary. I couldn't conceive how quickly an active young person's health had plummeted so drastically. "This must be super rare?" I asked the attending physician. "Not really, it's a textbook response to strep throat," the doctor replied. Then, turning toward my kid, he asked, "Didn't your throat feel sore?" The author with her son, recovering from complications of strep throat that led to a heart scare and three three-night hospital stay Courtesy of the author "Not really." Dropping our youngest child to start her college career on the opposite coast this fall, we kissed and hugged. "Have fun — these years are the best!" Then I added, "but it's normal to feel lonely at times. It's OK to be uncomfortable." I reminded her exactly what I probably needed to hear: "Discomfort breeds growth." And maybe that's how I'd reframe my embarrassing "fails" — as an opportunity for growth, because isn't that why we all went to college in the first place? Read the original article on Business Insider

<p><strong><a href="https://leanrada.com/notes/inline-rendering-currentscript/">Inline rendering with document​.currentScript</a></strong></p> Lean Rada describes a neat trick that takes advantage of the <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/currentScript">document.currentScript</a> property. You can use that to drop in a tiny inline <code>&lt;script&gt;</code> element that replaces itself when the page loads:</p> <pre><code>The year is &lt;script&gt; document.currentScript.replaceWith( new Date().getFullYear())&lt;/script&gt; </code></pre> <p>If you define a shortcut function like this:</p> <pre><code>$=(...n)=&gt;document.currentScript.replaceWith(...n) </code></pre> <p>You get a tiny template language:</p> <pre><code>The year is &lt;script&gt;$(new Date().getFullYear())&lt;/script&gt; </code></pre> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/javascript">javascript</a></p>

A four-hour documentary about Elon Musk continues to meet resistance from social media platforms.

Walter Schulze / Startup Fortune: Anomaly Innovations, behind coding agent OpenCode, says a breach hit ~1.4% of OpenCode Console users and their API keys, in a “large scale distillation attack”  —  A large-scale distillation attack against the company behind the open-source coding agent OpenCode exposed stored OpenAI …

The composition of Anthropic’s workforce and the type of work getting done have changed significantly in the past year.

The author and her daughter drove 2,000 miles to drop her off at college. Courtesy of the author My daughter and I took the scenic route from Oregon to her college in Missouri. We camped near Yellowstone, explored Wyoming, and visited South Dakota landmarks. The trip gave us precious time together before she started her independent life. After buying a car for my daughter to take to college, the problem was getting the little Mazda from Portland, Oregon, to Fulton, Missouri. Maria and I are fun in the car, but awful at driving long distances. We checked the miles, over 2,000, and groaned. "Are we doing this?" I asked. "Remember Eugene?" We laughed, thinking about the time after an exhausting day, we couldn't manage the usual three hours from Eugene, Oregon, to Portland without stopping every 10 to 15 minutes. We took turns saying, "Your turn," as we blasted cold air and chomped Good 'n' Plenty licorice to stay awake. Eventually, we napped at a rest stop. I finished the drive and let Maria sleep. We took the scenic route to college "Let's make it an adventure," Maria said when we were debating whether to take the scenic route. She knows I love sleeping in a tent and waking up outdoors. Being in nature would ease my aching heart, already missing her. I savored our time before we even started. We mapped our route, picking the long way. In Yellowstone, we tented next to a motorhome complete with a satellite and TV. We cracked up as we popped up our two-person tent in the RV's shadow. In the morning, it was a quick coffee and on to gawking our way through the park, pointing at bison, moose, elk, deer, wolves, and more. At a geyser view spot, a tourist tried to touch a bull moose with a huge rack of horns while onlookers poised their phones. We made so many memories together We drove across Wyoming with its wide-open spaces and the prettiest blue skies. Then camped at Custer State Park, our tent site flanking a river. In the morning, we plopped on a log and sipped cowboy (unfiltered) coffee. "So much better than flying," I said, surprising myself. Our awe was mild at Mt. Rushmore, where we snapped bad tourist pictures, pretending to squish the presidents' heads between thumb and index finger as a curly-haired woman in white pointy Keds glared at us. The author and her daughter made of the trip an adventure. Courtesy of the author Then, onto Crazy Horse: a massive monument of Crazy Horse, the Lakota leader, still being carved out of the mountain. I cried at its mass, its beauty, its story. For scale, Mt. Rushmore could fit in the finger that points to his people's land. Next was the iconic Wall Drug, where we stretched our bodies, then drove on to the Corn Palace. "All corn?" I asked. Yes, beautiful, detailed murals crafted of corn and other grains covered the Moorish building. The road trip made me less sad to see her go Endless signs in Kansas enticed us with the World's Largest Prairie Dog, a live five-legged cow, plus rattlesnakes. Even though the prairie dog turned out to be a 15-foot-tall, four-ton concrete statue, it topped our list for fun roadside attractions and included a bonus rattlesnake "pit" in a gift shop where rattlers slept in terrariums. The cashier's nametag said Suzy. She hit the tops of the cages with a cane, startling the snakes to shake their rattling tails. We jumped too. "It's OK," I told Suzy, my hand up in the universal sign for stop. "Let them rest." "You paid to see 'em," she rasped, whapping another terrarium as Maria gave her the side-eye. We held our belly laughs in until we reached the car. The author and her daughter camped throughout their trip. Courtesy of the author We stopped at rest stops and gas stations. Drank sparkling water (me) and soda (her). Snacked on chips and Wheat Thins. Took rinse showers at campsites. The only time we drove semi-sleepily was through Kansas with the obligatory, "Are we there yet?" And "Can you drive?" It wasn't as bad as that haul from Eugene home, but the straight flat is hypnotizing. "My turn. I got you," Maria said, tightening her ponytail and her resolve. I saw her on the cusp of her grown life as she drove the last leg, singing full tilt, our playlist a mix of Garth Brooks, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Chicks, and more. Willie Nelson sang us across the country. We played "On the Road Again" every morning, every time we restarted, every time we crossed a state line. Whenever I hear "Making music with my friends" it's my daughter I think of. Once we reached Fulton, Missouri, I knew I could fly home without my girl. We were both ready. While it was bittersweet to drop my dream-chasing kids — first my son, then my daughter — at college, that year my excitement for her overshadowed my sadness. We'll always have the rattlesnakes. We've laughed about them ever since. Read the original article on Business Insider

Zack Abrams / The Block: Turkish police detained Hex and PulseChain founder Richard Heart on Oct. 14, seizing $7M+ in cash and six cold wallets; HEX fell nearly 50% on initial reports  —  Turkey's justice minister said Heart's wife and three bodyguards were also detained, and that searches turned up guns, ammunition, watches and jewelry.

Steven Zeitchik / The Hollywood Reporter: Bleecker Street says TikTok suspended the Musk documentary account for “political policy” violations and called the suspension “permanent”; Bleecker's appealing  —  Move comes just as Alex Gibney doc film expands to nearly 500 screens.  Distributor Bleecker Street says it is appealing.

Chase DiBenedetto / Mashable: MapQuest adds a Surveillance Layer to its mobile app showing license plate readers and cameras from 10+ companies including Flock, using OpenStreetMap data  —  MapQuest will not go gentle into that good night.  —  The navigation software — which debuted in 1996 and was later eclipsed …

The author (center) has been friends with two women since their years together at boarding school. Motherhood, she said, has brought them closer. Courtesy of Shea Karssing. Our friendship formed over questionable decisions, break-ups, hangovers, and, eventually, the messy business of becoming adults. Then, three baby girls born in three cities over three weeks started a completely new chapter. Our connection became our parenting lifeline, proving that the best friendships grow with you. "What a night!" "I barely slept." "I don't even know what time I went to bed." The same statements can have very different meanings in different stages of life. My friends and I used to worry about where everyone was at 2 a.m. Now, we worry about whether everyone's baby has pooped that day. Laura-Kate (Lauks), Kirsten (Kirst), and I met 25 years ago at an all-girls boarding school in South Africa, then partied our way through university and early adulthood. For years, our biggest problems were nursing sore heads with painkillers and junk food, who was dating whom, where we were going that weekend, and whether anyone had taken a particularly unflattering photo. Then, the three of us had babies all within three weeks of one another, reaffirming our bond and allowing us to evolve together in new and exciting ways I never imagined. The author (center) said that life took her and her friends in different directions, but motherhood helped them bond in a new way. Courtesy of Shea Karssing. Real adulthood happened Lauks got pregnant unexpectedly, bravely navigating the challenges of being a semi-single mom with a husband who works abroad for up to three months at a time. In the same period, Kirst and her American husband settled in the US, and I was undergoing IVF treatment. We all had our own challenges. Fast forward a bit, and Lauks told us she was expecting another unplanned surprise. It was a contrast to my own fertility journey, which had been a roller coaster of disappointments, including a failed embryo transfer. I was about to undergo a second transfer when she gave us the news over group text. Lauks lives in a town about an hour from me. It happens to be on the way to my fertility doctor. On one drive home, soon after sharing her good news, I stopped to see Lauks to congratulate her. I was also six weeks pregnant at the time. I remember sitting there in the cafe trying to get the words out: "I'm pregnant." Cue the ugly crying. Of course, my next phone call was to Kirst in the US. Little did I know that she had some news she was itching to tell me too. All three of us were pregnant at the same time. The tone of our WhatsApp group changed immediately After comparing and complaining about our pregnancy symptoms for months, one baby arrived, then another, then another. We all arrived at motherhood differently, but we each welcomed a baby girl into the world within three weeks across three different cities (and two continents), and our friendship acquired an entirely new vocabulary. We had once bonded over crushes, kisses, and hangovers. Now, we talked about latching, snot-sucking, and the intricate details of every strange rash. The conversations may have been less titillating, but somehow, they were even more intimate. Our WhatsApp group became a kind of 24-hour maternal helpline. "Does this look normal?" Reply at 3 am: "Yes, unfortunately." We sent memes when we were too exhausted to form sentences. We celebrated first smiles and first rolls. We talked about periods, pimples, sex, husbands, and everything else that apparently becomes acceptable conversation once you've been friends for 25 years. Then, the group chat blew up with more surprises Earlier this year, Kirsten let us know that baby number two was on the way. This time, it was me bubbling over inside, dying to tell them that I had gotten pregnant naturally. In August, Kirst gave birth to a baby boy, and my baby girl arrived in September. Although we haven't been in the same room since Kirst moved to the US three years ago, we remain as close as ever, if not closer. My girls are my cheerleaders, doulas, online health advisors, and a massive reason why I've stayed sane (enough) as a mother. They've shown me the power of long-term friendship and the ways women can lift each other up. The author said that distance doesn't keep her from staying connected to her friends and looks forward to seeing how their relationship continues to evolve over time. Courtesy of Shea Karssing. In another 25 years, we'll be in our 60s I can't help but imagine what another 25 years will do to our friendship. We'll be in our 60s, and the kids will (hopefully) be fending for themselves out in the world. Along with the gray hairs and wrinkles, our priorities will have probably changed once again. After the first 25 years, I've learned that the best friendships don't stay the same, they grow with you. So I know my besties will still be there for me, just with entirely new things to commiserate over, cry over, and kill ourselves laughing about. Read the original article on Business Insider