The Missing Discipline Behind Failure to Scale 
In 2018, Best Buy announced that it would enter the health market. It was an unexpected move for a consumer electronics retailer, but it was consistent with then-CEO Hubert Joly’s passionate advocacy for making Best Buy a company with a deep sense of purpose.1 Starting with a focus on helping the elderly to age safely at home, the company broadened the strategy to make Best Buy Health a provider that “enables care at home for everyone.”2 It was also a lucrative opportunity: Home health is forecast to be a $265 billion market by 2025.3
Over the next few years, Best Buy Health tested its key assumptions about the opportunity, seeking out the sweet spot that would allow it to build a new business to sit alongside the company’s existing retail franchise. By 2022, it was a $525 million business, projected to grow at a 35% to 45% compound annual growth rate through 2027. The initiative created a new growth vector for its parent company and gave it a measure of resilience in the turbulent consumer retail sector.
Best Buy succeeded where many companies fail. It moved through the three innovation disciplines required to build new businesses: ideation, incubation, and scaling. It came up with a new idea for solving the customer problem of aging safely at home, incubated it by running in-market experiments to test value propositions, and then scaled it to a revenue-generating business unit. This is a relatively rare accomplishment. Our research finds that while 80% of companies claim to ideate and incubate new ventures, only 16% of companies successfully scale them.4
Continued here  S30What are passkeys? A cybersecurity researcher explains how you can use your phone to make passwords a thing of the past 
Effective passwords are cumbersome, all the more so when reinforced by two-factor authentication. But the need for authentication and secure access to websites is as great as ever. Enter passkeys.Passkeys are digital credentials stored on your phone or computer. They are analogous to physical keys. You access your passkey by signing in to your device using a personal identification number (PIN), swipe pattern or biometrics like fingerprint or face recognition. You set your online accounts to trust your phone or computer. To break into your accounts, a hacker would need to physically possess your device and have the means to sign in to it.
Continued here |
| � |  | S2Ai Weiwei interview: Everyday objects that reveal the truth 
Ai Weiwei is one of the best-known artists alive today. But asked recently when he first realised he wanted to be an artist, he responded: "Do I really want to be an artist? I'm still undecided." For anyone who has followed the Chinese contemporary artist-and-activist's 45-year-long career, such a response is unsurprising. While Ai has spent decades pushing the boundaries of art, questioning the practices of several institutions, and bringing social issues to the fore, he has always also offered a sense of provocation and humour. Ai's oeuvre transcends mediums, having worked with sculpture, printmaking, photography, installation, writing, film-making and architecture. Ai Weiwei: Making Sense at London's Design Museum explores the 65-year-old artist's work through a design lens. "It will wrestle with what humans have made and continue to make; how they make; what they chose to keep and what to destroy," the museum's director Tim Marlow writes in the exhibition catalogue, noting that it will question "what all this reveals about our changing values socially, culturally, economically and, of course, politically."
Continued here |
S68Meet the Jailbreakers Hypnotizing ChatGPT Into Bomb-Building 
If there’s one rule about rules, it’s that they’re bound to be broken. That goes for life, law, and, on a much more specific note, ChatGPT.In fact, that rule may go doubly for ChatGPT. As the chatbot’s popularity has ballooned, so too has the uncontrollable urge to make OpenAI’s language model do things it shouldn’t — for example, telling you step-by-step how to build explosives.
Continued here |
| � | | S5In the turbulent Drake Passage, scientists find a rare window where carbon sinks quickly into the deep ocean 
Looking out across the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, I can see whales and seabirds diving in and out of the water as they feed on sea life in the lower levels of the food web. At the base of this food web are tiny phytoplankton – algae that grow at the ocean surface, taking up carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, just as plants on land do.Because of their small size, phytoplankton are at the mercy of the ocean’s swirling motions. They are also so abundant that the green swirls are often visible from space.
Continued here |
S19 | � | | S22Seven tips for a healthier relationship with your phone 
How long do you spend staring at a screen every day? According to one report, the average person spends about seven hours a day on screens connected to the internet. And that figure is going to be even higher if your job is mainly done in front of a computer. Most of us over-use digital devices, spending too long either working or enjoying being distracted on phones, tablets, laptops or even VR headsets. We are accused of being addicted to tech and warned of the dangers to our physical and mental health.
Continued here |
S70How Ben Schwartz Became the Best at Being the Wooorst 
Ben Schwartz is used to being called “the worst.” Usually, it’s by total strangers, but it’s a fairly common occurrence — and not so surprising considering the undying GIF-ability of his fan-favorite Parks and Recreation character, Jean-Ralphio. He of the bird’s nest hair, the loose scarves, and the hysterical monologues became Schwartz’s breakout role and the one the actor is still most recognized for. But Schwartz doesn’t mind.“I love that role,” he tells Inverse. “That’s the one that still, to this day, if someone sees me on the street, they cup their hands near their mouth, and they try to sing at me.”
Continued here |
S10Livestock are threatened by predators - but old-fashioned shepherding may be an effective solution 
Carnivores like leopards, lions and hyenas have been killing livestock for centuries, causing financial losses to farmers. In many parts of the world, farmers respond by killing these predators. This has greatly reduced the populations of some top predators like leopards and lions. Killing predators may decrease their numbers in the short term. But there is no evidence that it is an effective way to protect livestock in the long term. For example, in South Africa, populations of the medium-sized predators like caracals and jackals that also predate on livestock increased or migrated into the area in response to lethal control efforts.
Continued here |
S8State battles over abortion are leading to state constitutional amendments - an option in all states and available directly to citizens in 18 states 
The battles over abortion – who can get one, when they can get one – largely shifted from a focus on the U.S. Supreme Court back to state lawmakers and judges in June 2022. That’s when the Supreme Court ruled that there was no federal constitutional guarantee of the right to get an abortion. States, they said, should be making the rules.That decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, has meant a lot of activity in the past year in both state legislatures and courts. Two contradictory rulings early in April 2023 about whether women should have access to mifepristone, one of the two kinds of prescription abortion pills typically taken together for abortion, make it clear that federal courts still play a role in abortion policymaking. But states remain an important battleground.
Continued here |
S23S14The Super Mario Bros. Movie: don't watch it for the story but for how it successfully represents gameplay 
The first videogame I ever played was the arcade game Donkey Kong. Released in 1981, it took us into a blocky-looking world where a carpenter in overalls raced along platforms and up ladders in a building site to rescue a lady kidnapped by a large ape. Its humble hero, Mario, went on to feature in scores of multi-million dollar grossing games, becoming an icon as popular as Mickey Mouse.Having grown up in the 1980s, the new Super Mario Bros. Movie meant more to me than the average fantasy animation film. Watching Mario and Donkey Kong have it out on a massive screen – at a resolution so high you can see a single hair or wrinkle on these crisp-looking, toy-like characters – was remarkable.
Continued here |
S39'Build back better' requires a framework that focuses on the full life of a house - from materials to its end of life 
In the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle, New Zealand is again talking about “building back better”. But how do we build back better when we don’t necessarily understand what “better” means? Or how to achieve this across a country with significantly different risk profiles?At its most basic level, build back better is an opportunity to rebuild homes and other buildings in a way that is responsive to future risks and sustainability needs. To achieve this, we need to address knowledge gaps around building within a circular economy. A circular economy is one that swaps the typical cycle of make, use, dispose in favour of re-using and recycling as much as possible.
Continued here |
S17What the WWE-UFC merger means for the future of wrestling and MMA 
World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) “WrestleMania” is the biggest event in the professional wrestling calendar. Marketed for 2023 as the event where “WrestleMania Goes Hollywood”, the two nights of glitz, glamour and grunting pugilists turned out to be somewhat prophetic.On April 2, the second day of WrestleMania 39, CNBC broke the news that WWE is to be sold to Hollywood talent agency, Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.
Continued here |
S24Not doomed: How the right coping mechanisms can save trauma victims from PTSD 
Those who have experienced the horrors of war see their lives clearly delineated between a “before” and an “after”. This singular ordeal does not, as is often believed, mean that it is impossible to live, but generally forces people to live in a very different way. The disruption of the life process that results from this situation causes upheavals that each individual faces by drawing onto their capacity to adapt. But not everyone reacts in the same way.To describe the mechanisms at work, health psychologists have coined the concept of “coping”, which is closely linked to that of adaptation. However, its outcome varies depending upon whether it is geared toward impacting upon the situation through action, or managing associated emotional states stemming from it.
Continued here |
S15S9Community health workers in Ethiopia set out to promote health - in the process they've empowered girls in other ways too 
Ethiopia has made significant progress in supporting gender equality and girls’ empowerment. Rates of child marriage and teenage pregnancy have decreased substantially. Access to sexual and reproductive health services has increased. There has also been progress in the education sector. School attendance rates at all levels have risen, and the gender gap in enrolment is narrowing. Despite these positive trends, inequalities and entrenched patriarchal norms remain. Adolescent girls and young women in Ethiopia continue to face challenges, especially in rural areas. For example, the national rates of child marriage remain among the highest in Africa. Data from 2016 estimated that 58% of girls and 9% of boys were married before the age of 18. Improvements in education attainment for adolescent girls also remain sluggish. Only 15% of women have completed secondary or higher education. For men, the figure is 23%.
Continued here |
S3Obsession review: Netflix's erotic BDSM thriller is excruciating to watch 
There is a dialogue-free scene in Obsession that is likely to excite some comment. Can you guess from its closed captions alone what is happening? "Groans softly." "Unsettling music playing." "Unsettling music intensifies." "Sniffing. Grunting." "Moans softly." "Gasps." "Exhales sharply." "Gasps." "Unsettling music continues." "Inhales deeply. Grunts." "Belt buckle clinking." "Sobbing."
Continued here |
S33S13Ukraine war: the devastating effects of conflict on infant mortality rates - new research 
The brutal war in Ukraine is now over a year old. While estimates of the numbers of civilians killed and injured vary, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has estimated that 8,317 civilians have been killed and a further 13,892 injured from the beginning of the war on February 24 2022 to March 20 2023, the most recent date for which figures are available. On March 16 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it had recorded 859 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine. Russian attacks on civilians and the most vulnerable targets, including maternity hospitals, have been a feature of the conflict from its beginning. On March 9 2022, the now-infamous Russian missile attack destroyed Maternity Hospital No.3 in the besieged city of Mariupol. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack constituted a war crime, adding:
Continued here |
S29Gender-blind policies ignore the disproportionate effects of water crisis on women 
The demand for water resources is higher than ever before. The growing global population, expanding industrial development and the impacts of climate change are exacerbating the global water crisis. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report highlighted the rising threats to water security and irreversible losses in freshwater ecosystems as climate change worsens. The UN Water Conference 2023, which took place in New York last month, called attention to the slow progress on water-related sustainable development goals globally.
Continued here |
S21Seven ways to recycle heat and reduce carbon emissions 
Heating of space and water in buildings accounts for about 44% of all energy consumed globally according to the International Energy Agency. This heat is still overwhelmingly generated by burning fossil fuels, making it an enormous source of the carbon emissions driving climate change. But you might be surprised to learn just how much heat is wasted each day. Finding ways to recover and recycle it could drastically reduce emissions.Consider a standard petrol or diesel car. The engine provides the momentum and produces excess heat that a radiator removes. This heat is largely wasted, except in winter when it warms the windscreen and passengers. Generators that supply electricity to the grid work in a similar way – their excess heat could be diverted to heat buildings instead. In the UK, there are many gas engines on standby to supply the power grid when needed. I was part of the team that linked the heat from a gas power generator to a building central heating system.
Continued here |
S18S48S34S6Is the US in a space race against China? 
The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Defense, or of any organization the author is affiliated with, including the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space ForceHeadlines proclaiming the rise of a new “space race” between the U.S. and China have become common in news coverage following many of the exciting launches in recent years. Experts have pointed to China’s rapid advancements in space as evidence of an emerging landscape where China is directly competing with the U.S. for supremacy.
Continued here |
S11S58What Really Happened at Waco 
The federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound, thirty years ago, was flawed from the start. The Branch Davidians were a fringe offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and, in the early nineties, they were led by David Koresh, a charismatic long-haired man who believed that the end of days was imminent. The Davidians lived on a compound called Mount Carmel, twenty miles northeast of Waco, and were well known to local law enforcement, who considered them relatively benign.The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms suspected the Davidians of illegally converting semi-automatic rifles into fully automatic weapons. (The weapons allegations seemed to inspire more reason for action than reports that Koresh was sexually assaulting his followers’ underage daughters.) During the ensuing investigation, A.T.F. agents repeatedly overestimated their capacity for subterfuge. When a group of undercover agents posing as college students moved into a house across the street from the Branch Davidian compound, their rental cars gave them away. The agents hosted a party to deflect suspicion, but it had the opposite effect: “Some of the Branch Davidians showed up, mingled, and reported back to Koresh that these were federal agents for sure,” Jeff Guinn writes, in the recently published “Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage.” Another agent, Robert Rodriguez, posed as a potential follower to gain access to the group. Koresh quickly pegged him as a Fed but kept inviting him to Bible study anyway; after all, as he reminded his followers, Jesus had preached to a Roman centurion.
Continued here |
S44Binding Ties explores celebrated artist Catherine Opie's world of transitions 
Oliver breastfeeding. Oliver at five dressed in a tutu. Oliver at ten with his pet mouse in his vest pocket, an exquisite re-staging of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Lady with an Ermine from 1489. These portraits of Oliver, the son of Catherine Opie, one of the world’s leading photographic artists, are among the highlights of Binding Ties, the first Australian survey exhibition of Opie’s work at the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne.
Continued here |
S27S66Project Necromancer? 'The Mandalorian' Episode 7's Opening Scene, Explained 
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 7 finally answered a question fans have been asking from the pilot: What is going on with the Empire? The answer came in the form of a meeting of the minds led by Moff Gideon, in his first appearance this season. After speaking with his woman on the inside, Elia Kane, he convenes a meeting of the “Shadow Council” — the remaining leaders of the Empire. But just who are these people, and what’s their plan? Let’s break down some of the biggest players and reveals from the opening scene of The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 7. Warning: Major spoilers ahead!
Continued here |
S32S46S49S20How racism and inequality affect even 'desirable' EU migrants in the UK 
Everyone knows Italy, as soon as you come here they’ll be like, “Oh Italian, cool! I’ve been there,” so it’s a way of chatting, breaking ice […] but I don‘t know if it’s the same for other foreigners. Like my friend from Bulgaria, if she says, “I’m from Bulgaria,” people are like, “[silence] I’ve never been there.”The referendum had a profound emotional effect on EU migrants in the UK who had built families and long-term relationships. To them, the UK’s decision to leave the EU felt like a shock and betrayal.
Continued here |
S64Disney May Be On the Verge of Fixing Star Wars' Biggest Problem 
Thanks to this year’s Star Wars Celebration event in London, fans have gotten everything from new looks at upcoming shows like Ahsoka to game-changing casting announcements. In case that wasn’t enough, Lucasfilm also used the event to share several updates that have drastically redefined the big-screen future of the Star Wars franchise. Of those updates, the most exciting was Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy’s announcement that the Disney-owned studio has three new Star Wars films in development.One of the movies will take place in the New Republic era of The Mandalorian and will be directed by Mandalorian director and Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni, while another will take place after the events of Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker and will follow Daisy Ridley’s Rey as she attempts to build a new Jedi Order. The latter film will be directed by Ms. Marvel and Saving Face director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Meanwhile, the third of the three live-action films will be directed by Logan filmmaker James Mangold and will take viewers back to the dawn of the Jedi.
Continued here |
S47The much-anticipated JUICE mission to Jupiter launches today. Here's what it might discover 
The European Space Agency’s JUICE mission (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) is launching today at 10:15pm AEST from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana.JUICE will be targeting three water-rich worlds – Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto – to check out potential habitats and evidence of past alien life, both on and below the surface. There’s an excellent reason why these worlds in particular are the mission target – they might be habitable for life as we know it.
Continued here |
S31Farewell Liddell: what to expect when Australia's oldest coal plant closes 
After more than five decades, the last operating units of the Liddell coal-fired power station will close this month. The station’s owner, AGL, is Australia’s largest carbon polluter. Liddell’s closure will reduce the company’s emissions by 17%.Liddell, in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, is Australia’s oldest coal station. It started operations in the early 1970s – about the same time the Datsun 180B was released, and before the Sydney Opera House officially opened!
Continued here |
S65'The Last of Us Part I' on PC Is a Major Missed Opportunity 
I’ve never played Part I or II, and my first true experience with the series was watching the HBO show. Even with the award-winning accessibility features found within Part II, I was unable to play alongside my disabled peers due to the lack of accessible hardware for PlayStation systems. Now that Part I is finally on a system with mouse and keyboard functionality, I find myself quite frankly disappointed at the lack of care with certain options.Iron Galaxy and Naughty Dog have finally brought the acclaimed PlayStation console exclusive to the PC, but fail to fully implement key accessibility features for people with motor disabilities. Traversing America while fighting infected and humans is emotionally and physically draining. Unfortunately, the limited motor accessibility features in this port do little to make that daunting task easier.
Continued here |
S55A New Phase in the Rollback of Abortion Access 
This past Friday, the national debate around reproductive rights entered a new phase, with the filing of competing rulings on the fate of mifepristone, the first pill in a two-drug regimen used in more than half of abortions around the country. In Amarillo, Texas, a federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion medication, which had been in wide use for more than two decades, arguing that the federal agency had based its decision on “plainly unsound reasoning.” Kacsmaryk was nominated by Donald Trump, in 2017, and it wasn’t a coincidence that the case landed in his court: last year, the lead plaintiff, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a coalition of anti-abortion groups, incorporated in Amarillo just a few weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.Less than an hour after Kacsmaryk’s opinion became public, Judge Thomas Rice of Washington State’s Eastern Federal District Court ordered the F.D.A. to preserve the status quo. “The public interest favors a preliminary injunction,” Rice wrote in his decision, which stemmed from a suit brought by a group of Democratic attorneys general from seventeen states and Washington, D.C., seeking to broaden access to mifepristone. The Justice Department, which is representing the F.D.A., also filed a notice of appeal, and some legal analysts have predicted that the issue could soon wind up before the Supreme Court. “This is not the end of the fight,” Jamila Perritt, an obstetrician-gynecologist and the head of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said. “We are deeply in the middle of it.”
Continued here |
S61This Bird's Ingenious Survival Skill Could Inspire Revolutionary Technology 
Water is one of the scarcest — yet most crucial — resources for desert-dwelling organisms. So these creatures have devised some creative ways to get enough of it. Some munch on water-rich cacti and succulents; others collect fog as it condenses on their backs. Camels were once believed to store water in their humps (though we now know that these are actually energy-dense layers of fat).But one type of desert bird lives up to these camel dreams — it can haul around water in its feathers. Now, scientists know precisely how the Namaqua sandgrouse does it, according to new research published in the journal The Royal Society Interface. This remarkable feather physics could be used to design better water bottles, nasal swabs, or even techniques to harvest drinking water from the air.
Continued here |
S63You Need to Watch Nic Cage's Trippiest Crime Thriller for Free Online ASAP 
It’s a missed opportunity that Nicolas Cage’s first role as one of Universal’s Classic Monsters isn’t Frankenstein, as his performance in Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans provides robust scaffolding for a turn as The Monster. He’d make a respectable Victor Frankenstein or Igor too, so let’s hope for a gutsy auteur to triple-cast him in a high-concept outré take on Mary Shelley’s classic novel. For now, we have Cage’s blueprint of what could be, packaged in a post-Katrina black comic crime masterpiece.Bad Lieutenant is dominated by Cage’s frame. Most people won’t reach for “tall” as their first descriptor of Cage; “crazy,” of course, is a popular one, or “zany,” or perhaps “unhinged.” But Cage stands at a sturdy six feet, and Peter Zeitlinger, Herzog’s cinematographer, takes every opportunity to emphasize his height, the way he stands out in the frame not simply because of his raw nerve but because he’s big. His character, corrupt and coked-out New Orleans Police Sergeant Terence McDonagh, cuts a commanding figure. He’s imposing, physically and figuratively. McDonagh looms over just about everyone he encounters, but he’s a larger-than-life spirit, too, one whose shadow is cast over all wherever he goes.
Continued here |
S56The Folly of Censoring “Joyland,†a Sublime Film About Family 
Last year, a film called "The Legend of Maula Jatt," based on a 1979 cult classic, became the most successful Pakistani film in history. The opening scene depicts the grisly murder of the Jatt family; young Maula survives, and vows to exact revenge against the perpetrators, namely Noori Natt. The two men spend the rest of the movie hacking up each other's associates. When the film first came out in the U.K., some of the gore had to be edited out; the British Board of Film Classification warned potential viewers of "frequent scenes of strong bloody violence," noting that, in one, "a woman decapitates a man and holds up his bloody severed head. . . . In another scene a man buries a baby alive." Nonetheless, the uncut film cleared censorship boards in Pakistan. It attracted hordes of moviegoers, some of whom presumably couldn't even understand the Punjabi dialogue. Everyone who spoke to me about the film deemed it too much fun to resist.Also last year, an indie film about a middle-class Punjabi family sent Pakistan into a moral panic. "Joyland," a film directed by Saim Sadiq that won awards at Cannes and the Film Independent Spirit Awards, and which Pakistan submitted to the 2023 Oscars, had to be cleared by the country's three censor boards in order to be screened in Pakistan. After a series of edits, the censor boards certified the film. Then, just before its release, it was banned. After lobbying by supporters of the film, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif assembled a review committee, which recommended more changes. The carefully edited film was screened in the province of Sindh, but remained banned in Punjab, Pakistan's most populated province and the film's primary setting.
Continued here |
S16S12S67You Need to Play 2022's Most Underrated Thriller on Xbox Game Pass ASAP 
One of the most essential pieces of any horror game is its atmosphere, and a fittingly creepy vibe can help elevate even a mediocre experience. Tango Gameworks, the developer behind The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush, has proven time and again that it's a master of atmosphere, and never has that been more true than with 2022’s most underrated horror game, Ghostwire: Tokyo. It’s an unforgettable virtual trip through a painstakingly detailed supernatural version of Tokyo, but it’s not just the horror element that stands out, as Ghostwire’s combat and surprisingly poignant story turn it into something truly special.
Continued here |
S62What Lies Beneath the Ice of Jupiter's Moons? Two Missions Will Investigate 
Jupiter's icy moons may soon reveal some of their secrets to Europe's JUICE and NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft.Jupiter is like an ogre, with one arm made of gravity, and the other made of radiation. These metaphorical arms stretch, squeeze, and bathe the menagerie of objects orbiting the giant planet. A pair of missions will soon go towards this planet to study ice-encrusted moons within its grasp that may harbor oceans where life might be huddled away — but will each use different strategies to avoid the ogre arms.
Continued here |
S43S54Increasingly Unhinged Jim Jordan Subpoenas Himself 
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—House Republicans expressed alarm after an increasingly unhinged Rep. Jim Jordan subpoenaed himself to testify before Congress.In a blistering statement, the House Judiciary Committee chairman demanded that he comply with his subpoena and called himself a “toadying Soros-backed flunky.”
Continued here |
S41S45S57Some Reasons That You Might Own a Collection of Fancy Third Reich Table Linens 
After ProPublica revealed that billionaire and GOP megadonor HarlanCrow spent decades lavishing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomaswith pricey gifts and globetrotting trips, follow up stories notedCrow is an ardent collector of Nazi memorabilia. . . . What’s ondisplay at his Dallas mansion includes two Hitler paintings, a signedcopy of Mein Kampf, and swastika embossed linens. —Mother JonesThe fancy Third Reich table linens were a steal compared with the fancy Confederate table linens.
Continued here |
S60How Waco Became a Right-Wing Rallying Cry 
Donald Trump recently staged the first major rally of his 2024 Presidential campaign in Waco, Texas. Thirty years ago, a botched federal raid on the compound of the Branch Davidians—a heavily armed splinter group of the Seventh-day Adventist Church dominated by the charismatic David Koresh—led to a harrowing fifty-one-day siege. Just twenty miles from Waco, this standoff ended with federal tanks, tear gas, a fire, and more than seventy dead. Trump’s people claim the rally’s timing is coincidental, the location chosen for its convenient travel from four major Texas metropolitan areas. But in the past thirty years the siege of Waco has become a rallying cry for right-wing extremists, including Timothy McVeigh and Alex Jones. Rachel Monroe is a contributing writer at The New Yorker, where she covers Texas and the Southwest. She joins Tyler Foggatt to talk about what happened in 1993, and how its mythology remains a galvanizing political force thirty years later.© 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices
Continued here |
S40S50S42S59What We Still Don't Know About Periods 
In 2013, the researchers Christine Metz and Peter K. Gregersen proposed what is now considered to be one of the most important investigations in the study of endometriosis. The substance they wanted to analyze was abundant and easy to collect: menstrual blood, or "effluent," as it's better described, since much of this substance is not only blood but endometrial cells, hormones, and vaginal secretions. Their idea was simple. Participants would collect their menstrual flows using cups or specialized sponges, and mail the samples to their research center. There, the material would be studied for potential markers for endometriosis, a lifelong, incurable condition in which tissue similar to that which lines the uterus grows outside the womb. Endometriosis is notoriously painful and affects at least ten per cent of people with uteruses. Diagnosing the condition takes, on average, a decade, and often requires a laparoscopic procedure in which a viewing instrument is inserted, through an incision, into the abdomen and tissue is retrieved and biopsied. By testing menstrual blood, they were hoping to make endometriosis diagnoses faster, less invasive, and more accessible.Some of their colleagues responded to their study with disgust and unease. "When we started promoting our study and trying to recruit women to the study," Metz tells the midwife and podcaster Leah Hazard, "we found that most physicians were not going to help us. They were very reluctant to talk about the study with their patients. They said, 'Oh, my patients aren't going to give you menstrual effluent. No way. They wouldn't like to do that.' " Medical professionals, as Hazard writes in her new book, "Womb," are not immune to shame around periods—the embarrassment that induces menstruating people to hide tampons up their sleeves when walking to the bathroom, or experience a sense of deep mortification over a bloodstain. What she calls the "yuck factor" associated with periods leads many doctors and scientists to avoid the subject. In a review of scientific papers, Hazard finds that there are about four hundred studies on menstrual effluent compared with more than fifteen thousand for semen or sperm.
Continued here |
S51Weeds: the good, the bad, and the sometimes beautiful 
Investigadora posdoctoral Beatriu de Pinos en Malherbologia, Universitat de Lleida Spring is here and many fields of crops are dotted with red poppies. Farmers know that this is not a good sign, even if hundreds of people show up, mobile phones in hand, in search of the best photograph.
Continued here |
S53Elliott from “E.T.†'s College Essay 
When I was ten years old, suburban and average, something happened that changed the course of my life. We were the first house on our street to experience the phenomenon, though to me it felt like we were the first on the planet. That year, my family received a surprise visitor—divorce.I wish that I had something uniquely harrowing to share—something to demonstrate my will and my ability to face adversity. Unfortunately, I've lived a largely uneventful adolescence. I even took comfort in my family's averageness. When my parents first separated, I didn't tell anyone at school. Dad moving out was my little secret, something I kept tucked away, metaphorically hidden among my stuffed animals. I didn't want my peers to see me differently, but I had never felt so isolated. With the exception of my alien friend, whom I nicknamed E.T., I felt alone in the world.
Continued here |
S52Traditional masculinity is a vague, unhelpful term we should abandon - here's why 
Most of us think we know what we mean when we talk about “traditional masculinity”. A term commonly used to describe a broad range of men’s traits and behaviour, it includes things like violence and aggression, emotional restraint, and hunger for power and dominance, to more positive characteristics such as reliability, stability, physical strength, independence and integrity. Men’s homophobia and misogyny can be framed as traditional masculinity, yet when men sacrifice their comforts and health to provide for family, or give their lives to defend their country, this is regarded as traditional masculinity too. The term has many meanings, yet these are rarely explained.
Continued here |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment