How to Use the iPhone 14's Emergency Satellite SOS
One of the new features that arrived alongside the iPhone 14 handsets in September 2022 was a feature that Apple calls "Emergency SOS via satellite"—and the name tells you pretty much all you need to know. Apple says it's intended for "exceptional circumstances when no other means of reaching the emergency services are available." When you're in trouble and you can't get a Wi-Fi signal or a lock on a cell tower, your iPhone 14 will make contact with a satellite and send out your plea for help that way. Continued here |
The Universe Is More in Our Hands Than Ever Before
Pity the poor astronomer. Biologists can hold examples of life in their hands. Geologists can fill specimen cabinets with rocks. Even physicists get to probe subatomic particles in laboratories built here on Earth. But across its millennia-long history, astronomy has always been a science of separation. No astronomer has stood on the shores of an alien exoplanet orbiting a distant star or viewed an interstellar nebula up close. Other than a few captured light waves crossing the great void, astronomers have never had intimate access to the environments that spur their passion. Until recently, that is. At the turn of the 21st century, astrophysicists opened a new and unexpected era for themselves: large-scale laboratory experimentation. High-powered machines, in particular some very large lasers, have provided ways to re-create the cosmos, allowing scientists like myself to explore some of the universe’s most dramatic environments in contained, controlled settings. Researchers have learned to explode mini supernovas in their labs, reproduce environments around newborn stars, and even probe the hearts of massive and potentially habitable exoplanets. Continued here |
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‘It altered my entire worldview’: leading authors pick eight nonfiction books to change your mind
Steven Pinker, Mary Beard, Rebecca Solnit and others reveal the books that made them see the world differently Shortly after publishing my book The Better Angels of Our Nature, on the historical decline of violence, I attended a conference sponsored by a foreign policy magazine at which a journalist asked me: "What would it take to eliminate extreme poverty worldwide?" Thinking it was a trick question, I quipped: "Redefine 'poverty'." An eavesdropping economist said to me: "That was a cynical answer", and recommended a short new book by the development expert Charles Kenny called Getting Better. Continued here |
Can Scientists Save the World’s Tiniest Rabbit?
In Washington State, the race is on to save a diminutive bunny as wildfires threaten its already shrinking habitat The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit relies on sagebrush for food and shelter, but the shrub has nearly disappeared. It's also slow to regrow: it takes about two decades, or ten pygmy rabbit lifetimes. Continued here |
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A Teenager Solved a Stubborn Prime Number 'Look-Alike' Riddle
When Daniel Larsen was in middle school, he started designing crossword puzzles. He had to layer the hobby on top of his other interests: chess, programming, piano, violin. He twice qualified for the Scripps National Spelling Bee near Washington, DC, after winning his regional competition. "He gets focused on something, and it's just bang, bang, bang, until he succeeds," said Larsen's mother, Ayelet Lindenstrauss. His first crossword puzzles were rejected by major newspapers, but he kept at it and ultimately broke in. To date, he holds the record for youngest person to publish a crossword in The New York Times, at age 13. "He's very persistent," Lindenstrauss said. Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developÂments and trends in matheÂmatics and the physical and life sciences. Continued here |
Here's what 2023 has in store, as predicted by experts in 1923 The start of 2023 is the perfect time to revisit experts' century-old predictions about the world. Forget flying cars. When scientists and sociologists in 1923 offered predictions for what life might look like in a hundred years, their visions were more along the lines of curly-haired men, four-hour workdays, 300-year-old people and "watch-size radio telephones." Continued here |
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Secret Meetings, Tequila and Black Adam vs. Superman: How Dwayne Johnson's Bid for DC Power Flamed Out
And that is certainly the hope in the new year when it comes to the DC Extended Universe, which endured the most tumultuous 12 months of any studio division in 2022. Amid the upheaval, the release plan for the upcoming “The Flash” teetered following a series of arrests and meltdowns involving its star Ezra Miller, closely guarded “Aquaman” deal points were laid bare in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, and the $78 million “Batgirl” movie was permanently shelved in post-production as a write-down. All that was just an appetizer for an executive shake-up that landed James Gunn and Peter Safran in the DC driver’s seat. But perhaps nothing was as dramatic as Henry Cavill returning briefly as Superman in a “Black Adam” cameo in October, only to lose the gig two months later. As 2023 kicks off, DC bosses Gunn and Safran continue to sift through the rubble and will soon reveal their three-year interconnected vision for the cinematic universe, which won’t include Cavill’s Superman or Wonder Woman at all. But things could have gone in an alternative direction: Behind the scenes, a different group made a play for control of DC. Not long after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed in April, Dwayne Johnson directly pitched CEO David Zaslav on a multiyear plan for Black Adam and a Cavill-led Superman in which the two properties would interweave, setting up a Superman-versus-Black Adam showdown, sources say. “Black Adam” producers Hiram Garcia, who is Johnson’s former brother-in-law, and Beau Flynn also were part of the brain trust looking to take DC down a new path. Other sources confirmed the meeting but downplayed any discussion of Black Adam’s future. Continued here |
How to be happier - YOU Magazine
There’s a simple science to contentment – it’s about reframing your time around life’s little pleasures. Near the end of the programme, the interviewer Kirsty Wark quoted Cave’s wife – fashion designer Susie Bick – back to him. ‘Your wife Susie says it takes great courage to be happy.’ Continued here |
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Canada, a superpower? Here's how the country might one day fit the bill
For the foreseeable future, the United States will probably remain the world’s most powerful nation. Yet, like any champion, it must watch for challengers and head them off. At present, China’s rise on the global stage troubles Washington. A few decades ago, it was the Soviet Union. But will future contenders for superpower status be much closer — specifically, north of the U.S. border? The British Empire ended in the mid-20th century when it was outmanoeuvred not by one of its longtime rivals, France or Germany, but rather by its ally, the U.S. Could Canada do the same? Continued here |
How to Save Your Smartphone's Battery Life
One benefit of larger smartphones is that there’s space for bigger batteries. Battery life isn’t quite the nuisance it used to be, but anxiety about running out of power is still common. Much of the advice out there about how to save your smartphone’s battery life is dated or dubious, so we’ve put together some battery-saving advice on what works and what doesn’t. You may also be interested in how to look after your smartphone battery to ensure it lasts as long as possible and how to get a battery replacement when the time comes. If you’re looking for ways to keep your phone charged up, check out our Best Wireless Chargers, Best Portable Chargers, and Best Apple 3-in-1 Wireless Chargers guides. Continued here |
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An Impactful Way Every Leader and Brand Can Honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Legacy, Today and Everyday Both your team and the customers you serve want you to demonstrate your admiration and commitment to Dr. King's legacy beyond just saying you do. Continued here |
Information literacy courses can help students tackle confirmation bias and misinformation
When it comes to the news these days, what we choose to regard as trustworthy has more to do with our own world view than what kinds of news practices are worthy of trust. Many people are seeking out news that aligns with their politics. But there’s just one problem with this: we are not always good judges of what constitutes trustworthy information and news. Continued here |
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10 years ago, Brad Pitt made the most underrated apocalypse thriller of all time
Brad Pitt deserves better than 66 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Sure, the Oscar-winning actor wasn’t exactly taking a huge risk when he lurched into the zombie subgenre, but the end result is a captivating and unique take on the unkillable horror trope that still holds up a decade later. With HBO’s The Last of Us set to push zombies into a bold new direction, there’s never been a better time to revisit World War Z and the rocky behind-the-scenes story that brought Max Brooks’ novel to the big screen. Here’s how Pitt and a ragtag team of filmmakers redefined the zombie genre and made an underrated thriller. Continued here |
Gen Z and young millennials' surprising obsession
If asked to guess what under 25-year-olds are listening to, it's unlikely that many of us would land upon orchestral music. And yet a survey published in December 2022 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) found that 74% of UK residents aged under 25 were likely to be tuning into just that at Christmas-time, compared with a mere 46% of people aged 55 or more. These figures reflect not only the RPO's broader finding that under 35-year-olds are more likely to listen to orchestral music than their parents, but also the widespread surge in popularity of classical music in general, particularly among younger generations. There are plenty of reasons for this, from the playlist culture spawned by streaming platforms that make it easy for listeners to discover new artists and types of music to fit their mood, to the solace it provided during the pandemic, not to mention the profusion of classical music in pop culture hits like Squid Game. But perhaps highest on the list is the global wave of Gen Z and young millennial classical artists who are finding new ways to be seen and heard, and – just as vitally – new means of modernising what has long been branded music's most elite and stuffy genre. Continued here |
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You need to play the most barbaric brawler on Nintendo Switch ASAP
If a video game does well, and the studio still exists in a couple of years’ time, chances are there will be a sequel. This isn’t exactly surprising for anyone who plays games, but the nature of sequels has radically changed since the industry’s earlier days. Take a game like 1989’s Golden Axe, which feels like it sums up a decade’s worth of medieval fantasy. Taking inspiration from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan and the popular albeit confusing Altered Beast, Sega developed a fun hack-n’-slash side-scroller for the arcade. Like most arcade games, it was meant to be challenging enough to keep sucking in quarters. It sold well enough to earn a port to the Genesis as well as a sequel. Continued here |
Spotted hyenas all sound different when they call - they can tell friend from foe
On quiet nights across large swaths of the African bush, you may hear a series of whooping calls in the distance. This unique sound is the long-distance vocalisation used by spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) to communicate with each other. For hyenas, it’s advantageous to know who is calling before deciding to respond. They don’t treat every member of their group the same – and the caller could even be an intruder in their territory. Continued here |
Can we suck the water out of asteroids? New research may solve one obstacle
If and when we ever get an asteroid mining industry off the ground, one of the most important decisions to be made in the structure of any asteroid mining mission would be how to get the resources back to where all of our other infrastructure is — somewhere around the Earth. That decision typically will focus on one of two propulsion methodologies — chemical rockets, such as those we already use to get us into space in the first place, or solar sails, which, while slower and unable to get us into orbit, don’t require any fuel. So, which propulsion methodology is better for these future missions? A study by researchers at the University of Glasgow looked at those two scenarios and came out with a clear-cut answer: solar sails. Continued here |
The Hidden Cost of Cheap TVs
The television I grew up with—a Quasar from the early 1980s—was more like a piece of furniture than an electronic device. It was huge, for one thing: a roughly four-foot cube with a tiny curved screen. You couldn’t always make out a lot of details, partially because of the low resolution and partially because we lived in rural Ontario, didn’t have cable, and relied on an antenna. I remember the screen being covered in a fuzzy layer of static as we tried to watch Hockey Night in Canada. This whole contraption was housed in a beautifully finished wooden box, implying that it was built to be an heirloom. The price implied the same. My parents don’t remember what they paid for the TV, but it wasn’t unusual for a console TV at that time to sell for $800, or about $2,500 today adjusted for inflation. That’s probably why our family kept using the TV across three different decades—that, and it was heavy. It took three of us to move it. Continued here |
Thinking about cosmetic surgery? At last, some clarity on who can call themselves a surgeon
When is a surgeon not a surgeon? It’s a riddle that’s long puzzled regulators and consumers. But it may soon be solved. State and territory health ministers have decided to restrict the title “surgeon” to specialist doctors. The move represents a significant change in Australian medical regulation. Continued here |
What's next for mRNA vaccines
mRNA vaccines helped us through the covid-19 pandemic—but they could also help defend against many other infectious diseases, offer universal protection against flu, and even treat cancer. Cast your mind back to 2020, if you can bear it. As the year progressed, so did the impact of covid-19. We were warned that wearing face coverings, disinfecting everything we touched, and keeping away from other people were some of the only ways we could protect ourselves from the potentially fatal disease. Continued here |
Meet te mokomoko a Tohu: a new species of New Zealand gecko hidden in plain sight
Aotearoa New Zealand is home to an incredible diversity of lizards (mokomoko) – more than 120 species are identified, and counting. Elusive species are being (re)discovered in cracks and crevices in remote areas, while geneticists are using DNA to untangle hidden diversity in widespread populations. Continued here |
Waste Not, Want Not - JSTOR Daily
Sewage is a vital part of a circular economy—and we have the tech to make good use of it. Why don’t we? The precepts of circular economy—reusing water, using biodegradable plastic, composting food leftovers so they can be returned to the soil rather than become landfill—are among the hottest ideas of our century. But what about recycling what our food becomes after we eat it? Yes, that means excrement, a critical substance in the thoroughly functioning circular economy, seems to be left out of the equation. Continued here |
How to Build a Product That Builds Avid Fans Hint: It starts by having a mission behind your product Continued here |
6 Realities to Consider Before Starting Your Own Business Starting and running your own business requires considerations that you probably did not anticipate. Continued here |
Basquiat: A multidisciplinary artist who denounced violence against African Americans
Doctorant en littérature et arts de la scène et de l'écran (concentration cinéma), Université Laval The exhibition Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music, currently running at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, demonstrates that the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, which is usually associated with painting, also calls upon other media, including music — the main theme of this exhibition — literature, comic strips, cinema and animation, a much lesser-known aspect of his work. Continued here |
Research: Where Managers and Employees Disagree About Remote Work
Survey research suggests that managers and employees see remote work very differently. Managers are more likely to say it harms productivity, while employees are more likely to say it helps. The difference may be commuting: Employees consider hours not spent commuting in their productivity calculations, while managers don’t. The answer is clearer communication and policies, and for many companies the best policy will be managed hybrid with two to three mandatory days in office. Remote work is one of the biggest changes to working since World War II, but it’s being held back by a major disconnect between managers and employees. Case in point is Elon Musk. He decreed in November that employees must come into the office, only to walk it back after it threatened to speed up the pace of resignations. It was a “hardcore” mistake by Musk, but a less dramatic version of the same story is playing out across the economy. Continued here |
The Getty Family’s Trust Issues
For the very rich, private wealth managers are in a separate class from other retainers, even from the trusted pilots, chefs, and attendants who maintain their life styles. Guarding the capital—the "corpus," as it's known in the business—puts you in contact with a family's most closely held secrets. Managers handle delicate tasks; one professional in the Cayman Islands described the sensitivity of making a financial plan for an out-of-wedlock child that "has to be kept totally private from the wife." Others specialize in keeping clients out of the news by minimizing public transactions. The most devoted liken themselves to clergy or consiglieri, and tend to get prime seats at the kids' weddings and the patriarch's deathbed. Marlena Sonn entered the wealth-management industry in 2010, and found a niche working with what she called "progressive, ultra-high-net-worth millennials, women, inheritors, and family offices." She sought to create a refuge from jargon and bro culture. "Women and young people are talked down to," she told me. "A level of respect for people is refreshing." Continued here |
Alberta's new policy on psychedelic drug treatment for mental illness: Will Canada lead the psychedelic renaissance?
Patients in Alberta will now be able to legally consider adding psychedelic-assisted therapy to the list of treatment options available for mental illnesses. Alberta psychiatrists and policymakers suggest that they are getting ahead of the curve by creating regulations to ensure the safe use of these hallucinogenic substances in a therapeutically supported environment. As of Jan. 16, the option is available only through registered and licensed psychiatrists in the province. Continued here |
Is football really the most dangerous sport? An expert explains.
We're a new publication dedicated to reporting on how the most important trends, challenges and opportunities of the day connect to one another - and require connected solutions. Learn more. Football remains a high-risk sport, and head injuries can still occur when a helmet is used. Continued here |
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What Makes You Procrastinate (Which Isn't Always a Bad Thing)
Greater GoodScience Center •Magazine •In Action •In Education Are you procrastinating? I am. I have been delaying writing this article for the last few days even though I knew I had a deadline. I have scrolled through social media, and I have gone down a rabbit hole looking up houses on Rightmove—even though I do not need a new house. Continued here |
Everybody is not an entrepreneur -- and that's okay India is among the world’s top three startup ecosystems. The country has witnessed a massive entrepreneurial boom, registering an eye-popping 15,400% rise in the number of startups — from just 471 in 2016 to 72,993 in mid-2022. This growth has been supported by several government initiatives, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship program called Startup India. But the startup euphoria is also leading many entrepreneurs to ignore the risks and pitfalls of starting a business, Shrijay Sheth, founder of Legalwiz.in, which offers business professional services and legal compliance assistance to startups, told Rest of World. Globally, data shows that most startups don’t succeed — some estimates say that nine out of every 10 startups fail. Sheth, whose company has over 7,000 clients, says the Indian government can play a role in ensuring that people think twice before diving into this risky territory. Continued here |
5 Wintery Books to Fill Up Cold January Nights The days are short and the weather is miserable, but at least that gives you lots of time to curl up with a good book. Continued here |
Are the rich ruining thrifting?
Thrift shopping was once primarily known as an affordable way for lower-income people to find secondhand clothing, but in recent years, it has become popular among the wealthy, leading to rising prices. What are the ethical questions behind this practice, and how has it changed thrift stores for people in need? Here's everything you need to know: "Thrifting" is shopping at thrift stores rather than buying new merchandise. The term accounts for any item found in a thrift store but especially refers to clothing. Since the clothing is secondhand, prices tend to be far lower than regular retail prices. Buying used clothing is also beneficial from a sustainability standpoint because it helps to reduce textile waste. Continued here |
3 ways Marvel Phase 5 can fix the MCU's biggest problems
The Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 started off with a bang. Not only was it the first time TV shows were a part of the main canon, but these TV shows were launching on a barely year-old streaming service. Thanks to movie delays, TV shows were about all we had for much of 2020 and 2021. But that was okay. Fans just assumed the big crossover movies would come later. Well, more than two years later, that still hasn’t really happened. We got the introduction of variants in Loki, saw some meta-crossover in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and were introduced to swaths of new characters in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Eternals. But what was Phase 4 for, and how can Phase 5 learn from it? Here are three ways that the MCU’s Phase 5 can learn from the biggest mistakes of Phase 4. Continued here |
The UK needs a national energy advice service
The UK government recently launched “It all adds up”, a campaign aimed at providing “simple, low or no-cost actions that households can take to immediately cut energy use and save money”. The campaign speaks to persistent calls to increase the assistance provided to households across the UK. Rapid energy price rises have pushed millions into fuel poverty, with an estimated 9 million people spending Christmas 2022 in cold and damp homes. For many, independent advice on safely reducing energy use and accessing financial assistance can make a vital difference in confronting the combined cost of living and energy crises. Continued here |
Martin Luther King Jr. Was a Truly Great Leader. This 15-Minute Speech Proved It (Long Before 'I Have a Dream')
It started on December 5, 1955.Continued here
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