30 Years Ago, an Amazing Time-Travel Movie Cemented an Unkillable Franchise
How do you top one of the best zombie movies of all time? By turning its sequel into a time-traveling epic through Arthurian legend, of course. That’s the approach director Sam Raimi took in Army of Darkness, his follow-up to the cult classic Evil Dead II and the final entry in his genre-redefining trilogy. But thanks in part to the subversive brilliance of Army of Darkness, the Evil Dead franchise remains as unkillable as the Deadites that relentlessly pursued Bruce Campbell’s cocksure hero Ash across space and time. Continued here |
The Schools That Ban Smartphones
Phones can be addictive and distracting, and take a toll on teen mental health. Some schools are pushing back. Last October, I accepted an invitation to speak (for—full disclosure—an honorarium) at St. Andrew’s, a small Episcopal boarding school in Middletown, Delaware. It was beautiful in the expected ways: the lake on which the school’s champion crew teams practice, the mid-autumn foliage, the redbrick buildings. But it was also beautiful in one unexpected way, which revealed itself slowly. Continued here |
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The Soul of a Start-Up
But all too often, companies lose their souls as they mature. Firms add new systems and structures and bring in experienced professionals—and in the process somehow crush their original energizing spirit. In research into more than a dozen fast-growth ventures and 200-plus interviews with founders and executives, the author has discovered how firms can overcome this problem. His work shows that there are three crucial dimensions to a start-up’s soul: business intent, or a loftier reason for being; unusually close customer connections; and an employee experience characterized by autonomy and creativity—by “voice” and “choice.” All three provide meaning to stakeholders. Continued here |
Scientists have discovered how to make almost any vaccine more potent
Northwestern University researchers have found that they can supercharge cancer vaccines simply by structuring their ingredients in a precise way — and if the discovery translates from mice to people, it could forever change how we design vaccines. “The collective importance of this work is that it lays the foundation for developing the most effective forms of vaccine for almost any type of cancer,” said study author Michelle Teplensky. “It is about redefining how we develop vaccines across the board, including ones for infectious diseases.” Continued here |
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Marvel's Inability to Explore the Blip Is Phase Four's Biggest Failure
In a now infamous 1997 episode of The Simpsons, “The Itchy & Scratchie & Poochie Show,” Homer Simpson — who has inexplicably become the voice of the ill-received “Poochie” cartoon character — tries to save his job by pitching to a room of writers ways to elevate Poochie’s importance. Instructs Homer: “Whenever Poochie’s not onscreen, all the other characters should be asking, ‘Where’s Poochie?’” Continued here |
TNG reunion injects a little fun into Star Trek: Picard's uneven final season
Few involved in the making or watching of 2002's Star Trek Nemesis would say that it was a fantastic send-off for the beloved characters of The Next Generation. Over seven seasons, TNG became one of Trek's most nuanced and consistent entries (though still one that was capable of producing terrible, silly, and just plain weird episodes). But Nemesis is a flat action movie defined by thin characterization, a cheesy one-note villain, and distracting plot contrivances, and it did so poorly ($67 million on a $60 million budget, in a time before "maybe it will make a lot of money in China" was a thing) that it foreclosed any possibility of another sequel. The cast and those characters, the thinking generally went, deserved better closure. Continued here |
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When New-Age Music Gets Real
If you’d told any music connoisseur living in the year 1994 that one of the hottest albums of the year 2023 would sound like Pure Moods, the relaxing compilation CD then being sold on TV commercials for $17.99 (plus shipping and handling), that person might have laughed. But if you’d told me the same thing in 1994, I’d have said that the future sounded cool. I was 7 years old. Pure Moods ads, laden with unicorns and Enya, were welcome bursts of enchantment between Nickelodeon episodes. Caroline Polachek, a 37-year-old pop innovator, may well have had the same relationship with those ads. During childhood, many of us Millennials only ever got to catch glimmers, like rare fireflies, of the sound known as new age. A calming blend of electronic instrumentation and global folk traditions, the style had its roots in the hippie era but became a commercial phenomenon in the late ’80s. During the ’90s, it was absorbed back into pop and rock, thanks to trip-hop and Tool and Madonna’s Ray of Light, leaving the purest of mood music to circulate mainly in crystal-healing shops. As my generation grew up, new age seemed a bit like a lost world—a faerie realm we were promised but never got to go to. Continued here |
Paleotsunamis Offer a Quiet Warning
A boulder that weighs more than 40 tons sits on the sand high above the ocean. Dwarfing every other rock in view, it is conspicuously out of place. The answer to how this massive anomaly got here likely lies not in the vast expanse of the Atacama Desert behind it but in the Pacific Ocean below: Hundreds of years ago, a tsunami slammed into the northern Chilean coast, sweeping boulders landward like pebbles. The tsunami that lobbed this behemoth happened before written records existed in this part of Chile. But we know about it today thanks to the detective work of a small group of researchers who are uncovering signs of ancient tsunamis around the globe. Using a diverse array of scientific techniques, these paleotsunami researchers have found evidence of previously undocumented colossal waves. In the process, their work is revealing that coastal communities could be in far more danger from tsunamis than they realize. Continued here |
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Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro review: More than enough buttons, too much software
If you've ever wished your keyboard had more buttons, Razer's BlackWidow V4 Pro may be for you. It expands the full-size keyboard layout to include a column of macro keys and three non-mechanical buttons on the keyboard's left edge. The keyboard also has a volume roller and a so-called Command Dial, which lets you twist your inputs to control zoom, scroll through a long spreadsheet, or tweak the size of a Photoshop brush. Continued here |
What Are Your Personal Values?
Early this year, I attended a three-week long workshop to help me improve my productivity and wellbeing. Walking into my first session, everything seemed normal. I met 19 other people from across the globe, we introduced ourselves, and then, we were asked to complete a self-reflection exercise. We were each handed a sheet of paper with a circle printed at its center. The circle was divided into eight equal segments: Career. Romance. Health. Family. Relationships. Spirituality. Fun. Finances. Continued here |
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Encyclopedias: Pliny the Elder's radical idea to catalog knowledge
Among the achievements of the ancient Roman Empire still acclaimed today, historians list things like aqueducts, roads, legal theory, exceptional architecture and the spread of Latin as the language of intellect (along with the Latin alphabet, memorialized nowadays in many popular typefaces). Rome was not known, though, for substantially advancing basic science. But in the realm of articulating and preserving current knowledge about nature, one Roman surpassed all others. He was the polymath Gaius Plinius Secundus, aka Pliny the Elder, the original compiler of scientific knowledge by reviewing previously published works. Continued here |
These Are the 13 Android Phones Worth Buying
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED The best Android phone means something different to everyone—it's hard to find one that'll cater to your every need. But chances are, there's a smartphone that comes close to what you're looking for. From the bottomless pit of phone choices, these are our favorite Android handsets, including the Google Pixel 6A, our top pick. All the phones we've selected here have their own advantages, and we've laid them out as best we can based on our extensive testing. Continued here |
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You Need to Play the Most Underrated Final Fantasy Before It Leaves Xbox Game Pass
Final Fantasy XIII stands out as a black sheep in Square Enix’s long-running franchise. For many, it is seen as the breaking point of the franchise, where it deviated too far from the norm. Part of this is due to the original intention of making the world of FF13 its own franchise of sorts — the Fabula Nova Crystallis — which included turning the numbered entry into a trilogy. None of these ideas would go to plan due to the less-than-stellar response of the original Final Fantasy XIII. While time has been kind to FF13, and critics are starting to come around to its charms and important contributions to the franchise, the final chapter in this period of Square Enix’s history continues to be derided. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is an even further departure from what would be considered normal for Final Fantasy but acts as a poignant finale for the Fabula Nova Crystallis, and you only have till February 28th to play it before it leaves Xbox Game Pass. Continued here |
Twitter's Two-Factor Authentication Change 'Doesn't Make Sense'
Twitter announced yesterday that as of March 20, it will only allow its users to secure their accounts with SMS-based two-factor authentication if they pay for a Twitter Blue subscription. Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, requires users to log in with a username and password and then an additional "factor" such as a numeric code. Security experts have long advised that people use a generator app to get these codes. But receiving them in SMS text messages is a popular alternative, so removing that option for unpaid users has left security experts scratching their heads. Twitter's two-factor move is the latest in a series of controversial policy changes since Elon Musk acquired the company last year. The paid service Twitter Blue—the only way to get a blue verified checkmark on Twitter accounts now—costs $11 per month on Android and iOS and less for a desktop-only subscription. Users being booted off of SMS-based two-factor authentication will have the option to switch to an authenticator app or a physical security key. Continued here |
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Why Does Chocolate Taste So Good? A Scientist Unwraps the Volatile Chemistry
Whether it is enjoyed as creamy milk chocolate truffles, baked in a devilishly dark chocolate cake, or even poured as hot cocoa, Americans, on average, consume almost 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of chocolate in a year. People have been enjoying chocolate for at least 4,000 years, starting with Mesoamericans, who brewed a drink from the seeds of cacao trees. In the 16th and 17th centuries, both the trees and the beverage spread across the world, and chocolate today is a trillion-dollar global industry. As a food scientist, I’ve conducted research on the volatile molecules that make chocolate taste good. I also developed and taught a very popular college course on the science of chocolate. Here are the answers to six of the most frequent questions I hear about this unique and complex food. Continued here |
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: You've Seen This Before
There's a new 200-megapixel camera and a boxier frame, but otherwise, Samsung's biggest non-folding phone is eerily similar to the S22 Ultra. One thing is true about consumer electronics in 2023: if you’re in the market for a smartphone, the reasons to upgrade year after year have slowed to a crawl. Continued here |
'Last of Us' Episode 6 Trailer Reveals the Return of a Major Episode 1 Character
After one emotional tale of brothers last week, we move onto another in Episode 6 of The Last of Us, as Joel finds Tommy at long last. Following the early release of the previous installment, The Last of Us returns to its normal weekly spot on Sunday night this week. Even though Episode 6 features the reuniting of family, things might not be all that warm and fuzzy as Joel and Ellie traverse new territory. Now that they’ve reached their destination, what’s next? Who will bring Ellie to the Fireflies facility out west? Continued here |
You Need to Watch the Most Disturbing Psychological Thriller on HBO Max ASAP
The events of March 30, 1981, will live on forever in a frustrating and stubborn kind of infamy. While President Ronald Reagan was leaving the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., an aggressively unremarkable 26-year-old named John Hinckley Jr. fired at him six times with a .22 caliber revolver. Reagan would survive the attack, and Hinckley Jr. would be tried and declared not guilty by reason of insanity. But perhaps more crushing to the would-be assassin was the utterly deserved rejection he received from actress Jodie Foster, for whom he believed himself to be committing the act for. Foster, of course, had been seen in a certain 1976 New Hollywood classic, a controversial effort from director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader. In a chilling case of life imitating art, the film that influenced Hinckley Jr. follows a disturbed young man who plots to assassinate a presidential candidate after being romantically rejected by a campaign aide. Although the connection is undeniable, the truth is a bit more nuanced. Continued here |
Want to use your project before dark? These 5 options offer bright images in broad daylight
You don’t need to sit in total darkness in order to view films (or any other form of media) on a projector. High-quality projectors can deliver crystal clear images in brightly lit settings, including the outdoors. The best projectors for daylight viewing have enough lumens to hold up on a bright day and deliver an image quality that meets your standards, whether that’s 4K resolution or a high-contrast picture. Brightness is the single most important factor when shopping for good projectors for daylight use. This is typically measured in either lumens or a more accurate and standardized value known as American National Standards Institute (ANSI) lumens. If you’re using a projector before sunset, you’ll ideally want to look for a minimum of 3,000 lumens or 1,000 ANSI lumens to ensure that images won’t be dull or washed out by the sun. However, projectors with this much brightness tend to be cost-prohibitive. If budget is a factor, you may want to opt for a budget projector with fewer lumens and make adjustments to your environment for optimal viewing (e.g., draw the shades, or if you’re outside, set the screen up in a shady area). You can also sift through customer reviews to see how the projector performs in brighter conditions. Last, it’s also important to keep in mind that the larger the screen size, the more lumens are required for premium image quality. Essentially, the best projector screen for daylight use will be on the smaller end of the spectrum, but you can also set expectations for large-screen viewing accordingly. Continued here |
How High Achievers Overcome Their Anxiety
A surprising number of extremely successful people are often wracked by anxiety, the author writes. They suffer from what psychologists call thought traps and others might refer to as cognitive distortion or thinking errors: negatively biased and untrue patterns of thought that arrive automatically and often ensnare us, preventing us from seeing clearly, communicating effectively, or making good reality-based decisions. To combat thought traps, some anxious achievers turn to overwork, others to coping mechanisms such as substance use, avoidance, or passive-aggressiveness. Aarons-Mele explains the 11 most common thought traps—all-or-nothing thinking, labeling, jumping to conclusions, catastrophizing, filtering, discounting the positive, “should” statements, social comparison, personalization and blaming, ruminating, and emotional reasoning—and recommends strategies for overcoming all of them. Continued here |
The US plan to become the world's cleantech superpower
In a huge hangar in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, welders are aiming blazing torches at sheets of aluminum. The hulls of three new ships, each about 27 meters long, are taking shape. The first will hit the water sometime in the spring, ferrying workers to service wind turbines off the New England coast. Continued here |
Can Low Expectations Make You Happy?
This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. At the end of each issue of The Atlantic is a short ode by my colleague James Parker. He has praised many of life’s realities, most of them completely ordinary: naps, barbecue potato chips, chewing gum, cold showers. Continued here |
Paul Mashatile is set to become South Africa's deputy president: what he brings to the table
Keith Gottschalk is an ANC member, but writes this article in his professional capacity as a political scientist. University of Western Cape provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA. Continued here |
Is Data Scientist Still the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century?
Ten years ago, the authors posited that being a data scientist was the “sexiest job of the 21st century.” A decade later, does the claim stand up? The job has grown in popularity and is generally well-paid, and the field is projected to experience more growth than almost any other by 2029. But the job has changed, in both large and small ways. It’s become better institutionalized, the scope of the job has been redefined, the technology it relies on has made huge strides, and the importance of non-technical expertise, such as ethics and change management, has grown. How it operates in companies — and how executives need to think about managing data science efforts — has changed, too, as businesses now need to create and oversee diverse data science teams rather than searching for data scientist unicorns. Finally, companies need to think about what comes next, and how they can begin to think about democratizing data science. Continued here |
Tech Talent Is Flooding the Job Market
Unlike other economic downturns, when employers cut roles no longer critical to business operations, laid-off workers from the tech sector offer a wide range of highly sought-after skills, including artificial intelligence, automation, data science, and more. By recruiting and hiring from the former ranks of the world’s leading digital companies, traditional companies can gain access to new talent who can help turn their stagnant business models into digitally agile models to prepare for increasingly turbulent business environments. In this article, the authors identify the reasons for these layoffs and explain how non-tech companies can benefit from the sudden influx of tech talent. Continued here |
3 Productivity Tips You Can Start Using Today
When a major product is about to launch or your team is scheduled to make an important presentation, it’s easy to ride the wave of deadline-induced adrenaline spikes and push yourself to work every waking moment. But of course that’s not sustainable, and we inevitably crash. So how can you make productivity habitual and lasting? Continued here |
Amazon's CEO Just Did the 1 Thing No Leader Should Ever Do Andy Jassy sent an email to employees ordering them back to the office starting May 1. Continued here |
A Low-Budget Character Drama With Maximalist Thrills
Freddie Benoît, the 25-year-old protagonist of Return to Seoul, presents herself as a nomad who’s wandered into a foreign country on a whim. The viewer meets her mid-drink at a bar in Seoul and quickly figures out that the friends she’s sitting with are essentially strangers, a random assortment of new pals she’s enticed while holding court and pouring soju. Freddie, short for Frédérique, is a French woman who was adopted from South Korea at birth. She’s come back to find her biological parents, a search that turns into a jagged and frustrating journey of self-discovery. She’s made the trip without informing her adopted family and with little preparation—an approach that suits the rebellious vibe she seems to be trying out for the first time in Seoul. Played by the actor Park Ji-min in her debut role, Freddie is a whirlwind of charm and chaos, somehow coasting by even though she doesn’t speak Korean and is a novice to all of the customs. As she’s repeatedly reminded, politeness dictates that you pour drinks only for others, not for yourself, in Korean social situations; to keep her own cup full, she keeps inviting strangers to her table. But she’s also motivated to make friends because she’s trying to find new answers to questions she often can’t articulate—about her identity, her place in the world, and her path forward. The writer-director Davy Chou’s film, which had a brief Oscar-qualifying run in theaters last fall but is finally being properly released this weekend, is one of the most surprising dramas of the year thus far. Continued here |
Panafricanisme : 4 questions cl
L’Union africaine (UA) – composée de 55 pays membres – a fait des progrès considérables pour intégrer les pays du continent et leur donner une voix dans la politique mondiale. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, elle a élaboré des politiques significatives en matière de paix et sécurité et de commerce, comme la Zone de libre-échange continentale africaine. La Commission de l'Union africaine contribue à définir l'agenda et à représenter les intérêts africains dans les forums mondiaux aux côtés de partenaires importants comme les Nations unies et l'Union européenne. Continued here |
'Quantumania' Proves Marvel Still Isn't Over 'Avengers: Endgame' -- And That's a Good Thing
Four years later, Marvel still isn’t over the events of Avengers: Endgame. But maybe that’s a good thing. After all, half of the people (and aliens) living in this cinematic universe were unceremoniously snapped out of existence, only to reappear five years later in a world that was just starting to move on. So it’s no huge surprise that Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania opens with a reference to the damage done by Thanos even as this movie introduces us to an entirely new Avengers enemy. Quantumania sneaks several small but impactful references to Avengers: Endgame into its opening scenes. Scott Lang’s (Paul Rudd) new book about his adventures as Ant-Man includes a brief nod to the challenges everyone has faced in recent years. But the bigger moment comes from Scott’s daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), who winds up in jail after using some Pym Particles to shrink a cop car. Continued here |
How to Become a Digital Nomad
If you could work from anywhere, where would you go? For more and more people, it’s not a hypothetical question: Young or old, single or with a family, full-time employee or contractor, the digital nomad life is more accessible than ever before. But of course, becoming a digital nomad isn’t without its challenges and risks. From determining where you can legally and safely travel to making sure you’re set up for success when you arrive, this comprehensive guide offers tactical steps to help anyone truly put the “remote” into remote work. So ask yourself: Are you ready to take the leap? In 2007, I had just finished up a freelance telecommunications project in Australia. My next client was based in Europe, but instead of hopping on the first plane home, I decided to start working on the project remotely from Southeast Asia. It was my first experience with digital nomadism — and it wouldn’t be my last. Today, I continue to embrace the digital nomad lifestyle, working and living along with my family all around the world. Continued here |
How you can tap into the power of giving (and not get taken advantage of)
Like Aesop’s Fables or Grimm’s Fairy Tales before it, Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree is as a dark tale that serves as a warning for children. The story centers on the relationship between a Boy and a Tree. The Tree desires nothing more than to make the Boy happy, and so she gives him whatever he wants. At various stages of his life, she offers him her fruit to sell, her branches to build a home, her trunk to carve a boat, and, when she is nothing more than a stump, herself as a place for him to rest. The moral of the story is clear: Giving is a sucker’s game. Better to be the taker and get what you want. It’s a lesson many seem to carry into adulthood. Consider the qualities commonly perceived to drive success. Are they kindness, generosity, and compassion? Nope. Successful people are viewed as savvy, ambitious, results-driven, and on a mission to own all the apples. And there’s some truth to that. Continued here |
Everything Is About the Housing Market
My neighborhood, Bernal Heights, has a number of excellent purveyors. The tasty BagelMacher opens at 8:30 a.m. on the weekends, at which point my sons have been up shrieking and destroying things for three hours. Chicken Dog, which sells the best salt bagel I have had in California, opens at the downright brunch-ish hour of 9 a.m. I come from the Bagel Belt, to co-opt a term. In my mind, bagel shops open at 6 a.m. That’s standard. That’s how it works. You should be able to feel caffeinated and carb-loaded at 6:03 a.m. every day of the year, including Christmas. But not here in the Bay Area. And the housing shortage is to blame. That’s my pet theory, at least. San Francisco has built just one home for every eight jobs it has added for the past decade-plus, and rents are higher here than they are pretty much anywhere else in the United States. The city could stand to increase its housing stock fivefold, according to one analysis. What does that have to do with bagels? Few people can afford to live here—and especially few families who have to bear child-care costs along with shelter costs. Thus, San Francisco has the smallest share of kids of any major American city. Meaning a modest share of parents. Meaning not a lot of people who might be up at 5:51 a.m. on a Sunday morning, ready to hit the bagel store. Continued here |
Fences: August Wilson's play powerfully affirms the value and struggles of black life
University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA. Fences, a creative examination of a black family’s experience, is one of the most frequently performed plays in the US. It was first developed in 1983 by celebrated African American dramatist August Wilson, becoming a successful Broadway production in 1987. Continued here |
Turkish President Erdogan's grip on power threatened by devastating earthquake
The earthquake that struck Turkey on Feb. 6, 2023, is first and foremost a human tragedy, one that has taken the lives of at least 45,000 people to date. The disaster also has major implications for the country’s economy – the financial loss from the damage is estimated to be US$84 billion – and its politics. Continued here |
Refugee families being moved from London to Leeds - our research shows what is lost when newcomers have to leave a neighbourhood
Just over a year after fleeing the Taliban and seeking asylum in the UK, more than 150 Afghan refugees, including children, are facing more upheaval. In a matter of weeks, the Home Office has given dozens of refugee and asylum seeker families short notice that they will be moved from their accommodation in London to hotels in Yorkshire and Bedfordshire, hundreds of miles away. Our work involves speaking to newcomers, learning about their experiences since arrival, spending time in local places that feature in their lives, and working alongside people that provide services and support. Continued here |
A Year of Putin’s Wartime Lies
On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, ordered the invasion of Ukraine, unleashing the full force of his military on an unthreatening neighbor, and the full force of his propagandists on his own population. He had little doubt about his prospects. For years, he had been regarded in the world press as a singularly cunning strategist; at the same time, he methodically crushed civil society in his country and sidelined any dissenting voices in the Kremlin. So who was going to stop him on the road to Kyiv? Hadn't Donald Trump, during his Presidency, exposed and deepened the fissures in the NATO alliance? Under Joe Biden, the United States seemed finished with foreign adventures—humiliated by its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and distracted by its internal divisions. And what of Ukraine itself? It was a pseudo-nation, hopelessly corrupt and led by Volodymyr Zelensky, a former sitcom actor with an approval rating south of thirty per cent. Putin's serene presumption was that, within a week, his forces would overrun Kyiv, arrest Zelensky and his advisers, and install a cast of collaborators. Putin was counting on historians to celebrate his rightful restoration of Imperial Russia. Continued here |
A Coolant Leak Stranded Three Astronauts in Space -- and a New One has Appeared
Two months ago, a coolant leak left three spacefarers stranded aboard the orbiting laboratory. Members of the spaceflight community are puzzled by Russia’s second case of coolant leak at the International Space Station in two months. Continued here |
Chinese balloon saga is part of a long history of U.S.-China tensions
It’s not surprising the recent Chinese “weather balloon” incident has set off alarm bells. Concerns inevitably mounted as the massive sphere slowly and very visibly sailed from Montana to its destruction by a Sidewinder missile off the South Carolina coast. Continued here |
3 Mistakes First-Time Marketers and Product Designers Make
A common mistake among first-time marketers who are increasingly involved not just in promoting a new product, but also contributing to the design and testing of it is assuming that the customer is just like them. Whether designing a product, marketing a brand experience, or selecting a present for a loved one, it comes down to giving others the gift of understanding. It’s the singular way to become a more thoughtful gift giver and and more customer-centric with the power to surprise and delight others. Here are three common gift-giving errors to avoid. Continued here |
Zillow Rate Your Neighbors? A Designer Reimagines Apps
Back in 2015, the music streaming company launched Wrapped, a year-end recap for each user that offered insights into their music listening habits and the year’s most popular artists. Other brands began borrowing the idea, a shameless if entertaining ploy to ratchet up engagement. This December, Iverson, a digital designer, wondered what Wrapped would look like when applied to our most basic apps. Using the interface design tool Figma, Iverson mocked up a Wrapped for Google Maps, Robinhood, and Starbucks and shared the images to Twitter. The tweets received a modest amount of attention, garnering hundreds of likes each, but Iverson was just getting started. Nearly every day since, he has imagined clever new features that add unexpected touches to our most well-worn apps. There’s ChatGPT, but in Apple Messages. Instagram, but with the option to pay a fee to undo “deep likes.” Lyft-style reviews, but for Tinder (“Looked Like Pics!”). And, the ones that went certifiably viral: Beat Minesweeper to cancel your subscription, and iOS alarms, but for the whole household, so the alarm is only disabled once everyone is up. Continued here |
Amazon Keeps Selling Out Of These Weird & Fascinating Products With Near-Perfect Reviews
The word “weird” gets a bad rap, but some of the weirdest products are actually low-key gems that can solve a variety of issues or satisfy a craving you didn’t even know you had. If you’ve ever wondered: Why can’t there be more crispy corners when you bake brownies? Keep scrolling to find the strangest, coolest brownie pan designed with three times as many corners. Maybe you’re frustrated with constantly dropping crumbs in between appliances; say hello to a stove gap cover you can cut to size. Prepare to see “weird” in a whole new light. These are among the weirdest, most fascinating products with near-perfect reviews that Amazon can’t keep in stock. Continued here |
Neuromarketing: What You Need to Know
The field of neuromarketing, sometimes known as consumer neuroscience, studies the brain to predict and potentially even manipulate consumer behavior and decision making. Over the past five years several groundbreaking studies have demonstrated its potential to create value for marketers. But those interested in using its tools must still determine whether that’s worth the investment and how to do it well. Continued here |
New Zealand's Plan to Tax Cow Burps Misses a Crucial Point
New Zealand, where agriculture is one of the largest contributors to climate change, is proposing a tax on cow burps. The reason seems simple enough: Cows release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and New Zealand has a goal of reaching net-zero emissions by the mid-century. Right now, the country’s effects on climate change come roughly equally from carbon dioxide and methane. Worldwide, 150 governments have committed to cutting methane emissions, both from agriculture and by cracking down on the largest source — fugitive leaks from natural gas pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Continued here |
The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Movie on HBO Max Reveals a Controversial Branch of Pseudoscience
Weathering with You features a way to make the rain disappear — and it has a message for our warming planet. Since time immemorial, humans have prayed to the gods to change the weather — usually in the form of dances to summon rain to Earth. But in the Japanese animated sci-fi movie, Weathering with You, director Makoto Shinkai flips that idea on its head, featuring a so-called “Sunshine Girl” who can pray away the rain and make the sun appear again. Continued here |
Cuba: why record numbers of people are leaving as the most severe economic crisis since the 1990s hits -- a photo essay
Record numbers of Cubans are fleeing their country as the island suffers its worst socio-economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The number of Cubans seeking entry to the US, mostly at the Mexican border, leapt from 39,000 in 2021 to more than 224,000 in 2022. Many have sold their homes at knockdown prices to afford one-way flights to Nicaragua and travel through Mexico to the US. Continued here |
Wash Your Hands and Pray You Don't Get Sick
In one very specific and mostly benign way, it’s starting to feel a lot like the spring of 2020: Disinfection is back. “Bleach is my friend right now,” says Annette Cameron, a pediatrician at Yale School of Medicine, who spent the first half of this week spraying and sloshing the potent chemical all over her home. It’s one of the few tools she has to combat norovirus, the nasty gut pathogen that her 15-year-old son was recently shedding in gobs. Continued here |
Astronomers Design a Futuristic Telescope Concept To Find Far-Off Earths
There has long been a limiting factor in the development of space-based telescopes — launch fairings. These capsules essentially limit the overall size of the mirrors we are able to launch into space, thereby limiting the sensitivity of many of those instruments. Despite those limitations, some of the most successful telescopes ever have been space-based. But even with all the advantages of being in space, they have so far failed to find an exoplanet in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. Enter a new project called the Diffractive Interfero Coronagraph Exoplanet Resolver (DICER), which recently received funding from NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC). Continued here |
Reintroducing top predators to the wild is risky but necessary - here's how we can ensure they survive
Large carnivores are critical to the balance of an ecosystem. In Yellowstone National Park in the western US, grey wolves keep elk populations at a healthy level. This prevents vegetation from being overgrazed and leads to taller woody plants which allow other species, such as beavers, to flourish. But habitat loss and persecution have eliminated many large carnivores from their historical environment. The Eurasian lynx could be found in the UK over a thousand years ago and wolves roamed the country until the mid-18th century. Continued here |
The Floods, the Farms, and the River That Roared Back
This story originally appeared on High Country News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On the surface, the Salinas River, which courses through the agricultural heart of California’s Central Coast, seems more like an ex-river. Even after major winter storms, it is rarely more than a creek. In Paso Robles, California, an old Spanish outpost that has since become a wine-growing mecca, the mostly dry riverbed cuts through an unprepossessing stretch of land surrounded by heaps of garbage and makeshift structures built by the city’s growing unhoused population. Continued here |
The Age of AI Hacking Is Closer Than You Think
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Its feasibility depends on the specific system being modeled and hacked. For an AI to even begin optimizing a solution, let alone develop a completely novel one, all of the rules of the environment must be formalized in a way the computer can understand. Goals—known in AI as objective functions—need to be established. The AI needs some sort of feedback on how well it is doing so that it can improve its performance. Continued here |
How Jazz Can Unlock Your Team's Next Breakthrough
“Generative conversations,” in which multiple perspectives are integrated to kindle new solutions, are a powerful way to address the complex challenges facing organizations. Experts from Wharton and SEB explain the neuroscience behind why they work. As a society, and as organizations, we are struggling with complex challenges with no easy solutions. So called “generative conversations,” in which multiple perspectives are integrated to kindle new solutions, are a powerful way to address these challenges. The Swedish bank SEB reported breakthroughs and new opportunities after implementing structured generative conversations to make progress on complex business problems. In this article, Wharton scientists Vera Ludwig and Elizabeth Johnson, Wharton professor Michael Platt, and SEB’s Per Hugander describe neuroscientific insights that may explain how generative conversations enhance creative idea generation and lead to novel, impactful solutions. They also explain how Hugander introduced a surprising element — jazz — to facilitate these conversations. Continued here |
Are Eggs Healthy for You? A Chicken Expert Weights In
Like caviar and bubbly, eggs are now for fancy people. A bad case of avian flu has egg production way down and prices way up, as many have remarked. Some have even resorted to building their own private flock on the hypothesis that it’s cheaper to raise chickens than buy supermarket eggs. While eggs typically join milk, bread, and butter as shopping list staples, this egg inflation creates an appropriate moment to pause and meditate on how good eggs really are for us. Sure, they’re versatile and offer protein, but what else is going on behind that shell? Continued here |
Here's How to Create the Perfect Morning Routine for You, According to a Time Management Coach Instead of following Tim Cook's morning routine, how about one designed just for you? Continued here |
In 3 Shocking Moves, M&M's Gave Tucker Carlson a Masterclass in Brand Strategy. And Broke the Internet. Never has candy been so controversial. Continued here |
Saying the Ineffable: Poetry and the Language of Silence
Language is not the content of thought but the vessel into which we pour the ambivalences and contradictions of our thinking, afloat on the current of feeling and time. When the vessel becomes too small to hold what we pour into it, language spills into poetry. In this respect, poetry serves the same function as prayer: to give shape and voice to our unspoken and often unspeakable hopes, fears, and inner tremblings — the tenderest substance of our lives, to be held between the palms and passed from hand to compassionate hand. Poetry thus becomes an instrument of self-transcendence — an instrument that, in Adrienne Rich’s abiding words, “can break open locked chambers of possibility, restore numbed zones to feeling, recharge desire.” That function of poetry as the language of the unsaid is what the Canadian poet and Native American culture scholar Robert Bringhurst explores in the final pages of his altogether fascinating book The Tree of Meaning: Language, Mind and Ecology (public library). Continued here
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