How to solve our mental health crisis

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How to solve our mental health crisis     When BBC journalist Rory Carson sought online consultations for a potential mental health issue, three private clinics diagnosed him with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They charged between £685 and £1,095 for these consultations, which lasted between 45 and 100 minutes, and all prescribed him medication.ADHD is a highly controversial disorder which emerged in the US in the late 1950s during the cold war, and quickly became associated with stimulant drugs such as Ritalin. Now diagnosed throughout the world, ADHD is central to many debates about neurodiversity. Continued here

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How to Make the Most of Topaz and Numby, 'Honkai: Star Rail's New Dynamic Duo     With every major update, the roster of Honkai: Star Rail continues to grow. Phase 2 of version 1.4 continues this trend with the introduction of the latest character banner for Topaz and Numby, a package deal full of follow-up attack power. Alongside the returning Seele banner, Topaz and Numby offer even more DPS options for players to add to their team. If you are lucky enough to get Topaz and Numby before their banner ends, then follow this build guide to make the most of the new pair. Topaz is a five-star Fire Hunt character whose skillset prioritizes the CRIT Rate and ATK stats. Topaz relies on her adorable partner Numby to inflict follow-up attacks and keep constant pressure on the enemy. To take advantage of her skills, players should focus on increasing Crit Rate, which will improve follow-up attacks and ATK, as Topaz’s skills scales with this stat, through Ornaments and Relics. Due to her focus on follow-up attacks, players will find Topaz shares a lot of tactics and build sensibilities with Seele, who also has a returning banner in Phase 2 of Version 1.4. Continued here

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As the Israel-Gaza crisis worsens and the UN remains impotent, what are NZ's diplomatic options?     Global security involves managing a complex combination of law, ethics and politics. No situation exemplifies this more than what is happening now in Israel and Gaza.When United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres coupled an unequivocal condemnation of the October 7 Hamas terror attacks with the observation that they “did not happen in a vacuum”, Israel was quick to react. Continued here

S40

How apps and influencers are changing the way we sleep, for better or for worse     This is the final article in The Conversation’s six-part series on insomnia, which charts the rise of insomnia during industrialisation to sleep apps today. Read other articles in the series here.Insomnia is not just a personal issue that affects an individual’s health and wellbeing. It’s a public health issue, affecting public safety. It’s a socioeconomic issue, as poorer sleep is linked to a lower education and income. And, increasingly, it’s a commercial issue. Continued here

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Hulu Just Quietly Dropped the Most Surprising Exorcism Thriller of the Year     The scope and definition of horror is expanding all the time, and Hulu’s most underrated international shows are at the forefront of the growing conversation. The streamer has quietly dropped a handful of surprisingly-solid thrillers this year, most of which have flown under the radar. They’re not all going to reinvent the wheel, but hidden gems like Revenant prove that there’s still a lot to explore in the supernatural.One hesitates to label Revenant as an outright horror, at least initially. Like so many of South Korea’s best dramas, the series is a slow burn ... a really slow burn. Though it sprinkles in a handful of jump scares and jarring musical cues, supernatural shock is not Revenant’s immediate goal. It’s more of an avenue through which screenwriter Kim Eun-hee (Signal) can explore the fraught societal inequality in the region. Ghosts and evil spirits are not the only ones capable of violence: sometimes, the scariest entity one can face is actually made of flesh and blood. But before the series subverts its supernatural conceit, things do kick off with an appropriate dose of melodrama. Continued here

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Could This Weird New Material Be the Key to Superfast Computer Chips?     Chemists say their new semiconductor could cut processing speeds to femtoseconds, but there's a catch.Chemists accidentally invented an unusual new material that could make the next generation of computer chips much faster. Continued here

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'Alan Wake 2' Is a Huge Step Forward for Remedy -- And the Entire Horror Genre     There was an unsettling sense of dread as I stalked the streets of a twisted New York. Never sure which shadows could turn into enemies and which were harmless, I’d simply have to be ready to fight at any moment.Alan Wake 2 is a survival horror game unlike anything else out there, equal parts surreal, wonderful, horrific, and gripping. It’s a slow-burn, True Detective-style story with a supernatural twist that weaves layers of mystery and intrigue infused with intense action and horror. But the game’s defining feature is its dual-protagonist narrative, in which two parallel stories come together to reveal a groundbreaking work of interactive entertainment. Continued here

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5 Years Ago, 'Red Dead Redemption 2' Changed Open-World Video Games Forever     The American West inspired the stuff of legends. Literally. Most of what we think we know about America’s early 20th-century history comes from media based on cowboy stories, tall tales, and historical whitewashing. The West is a centerpiece of American mythology, stories of rugged individuals forming the backbone of the bootstrap mentality pervasive in our national self-perception. The Western genre, appropriately, treats the subject with reverence.So it should come as no surprise that the quintessential Western video game, Red Dead Redemption 2, is treated the same — only that has nothing to do with the setting. Five years after it debuted on October 26, 2018, RDR2 remains a triumph of game design that continues to inspire stuff from legends. Continued here

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Speaker Who?: The Rise of a G.O.P. Nobody in Trump's House     The new laws of American politics can sometimes seem to bear little resemblance to the old laws of American politics. It wasn't so long ago, after all, that our politicians aimed to get a majority of the vote and conceded defeat when they did not get it, that running from the center rather than the extremes was seen as a winning strategy, and that lack of experience was viewed as a political liability which, if not exactly fatal, needed somehow to be addressed. Criminal indictments were generally considered career-ending. Governing was at least theoretically the goal of those who sought to run the government. But in the eighth year since Donald Trump took over the Republican Party, the G.O.P. continues to do things that would seem to defy logic.For more than three weeks, amid a brewing crisis in the Middle East and with a national election year looming, House Republicans shut down the one branch of government that they control, having allowed a faction of just eight rebels to depose their leader and then finding themselves unable to agree on who should replace him. It was "perhaps the dumbest set of politics—or decision-making—a majority party in this institution could make," as Patrick McHenry, the North Carolina Republican who served as acting Speaker for the duration of the follies, bluntly put it. When they finally settled the matter on Wednesday, twenty-two days into the mess, their new chosen Speaker, the Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson, appeared to have two main qualifications for the post: his obscurity and his record of extreme fealty to Trump. Continued here

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'Spider-Man 3' Possible Release Window and Plot Details for the Inevitable Marvel Game     Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 landed on PlayStation 5 at the end of October to fantastic reviews. While there’s plenty in the game to keep players occupied for weeks to come, there’s also the question of what comes next. This being a massive game based on a popular Marvel property, there’s no doubt that we’ll see Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 at some point. It’s just a matter of when and what to expect.Keep in mind that Insomniac Games hasn’t said anything about Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 yet, but this is what we might expect based on what we know about the rest of the series. Continued here

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7 Features We Want To See in a Redesigned 12-Inch MacBook     Apple should only revive the smallest MacBook it’s ever made if it can include these improvements.The Apple rumor mill is as noisy as ever. The latest gossip suggests next week’s “Scary Fast” event will be related to gaming on new Macs (MacBook Pros and iMac?) — a big initiative that Apple has been pushing hard this year. Continued here

S45

Hurricane Otis and the World We Live in Now     In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Hurricane Otis crashed into the western coast of Mexico, just north of the resort city of Acapulco. A Category 5 storm, Otis brought sustained winds of a hundred and sixty-five miles per hour, with gusts that were even deadlier. “A nightmare scenario is unfolding,” the National Hurricane Center reported shortly before the storm made landfall. “There are no hurricanes on record even close to this intensity for this part of Mexico.” The storm knocked out electricity and phone service in the region, and landslides closed the main highway, so it was difficult to assess how much damage had been done. At least two dozen people were killed, a toll that seems likely to rise as more information trickles out. Images that emerged on Thursday showed utter devastation along Acapulco’s normally crowded beaches. “I don’t know how we are alive, but we are alive,” a survivor of the storm said in a video obtained by the BBC.What made Otis so dangerous was not just the fact of its strength but the surprise of it. As recently as Monday evening, it was classified as a tropical storm, and forecasts had it strengthening only slightly before hitting the coast. It wasn’t until after midnight on Tuesday that the first hurricane warning for the region was issued; at that point, Otis was expected to make landfall as a Category 1 storm. Then Otis really got busy. The National Hurricane Center defines a storm as undergoing “rapid intensification” if its wind speeds increase by thirty-five miles an hour in the course of a day. Otis’s wind speeds increased by a hundred and fifteen miles an hour in a day. What do you call something that’s three times faster than “rapid”? Continued here

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'Super Mario 64' in Mixed Reality is the Best Quest 3 Demo We've Seen Yet     If there’s one thing that could make the Quest 3 big, Super Mario in mixed reality might be a pretty good bet.On that front, believe it or not, we have some progress. Redditor u/llbsidezll showed off a demo that transposes the iconic world of Super Mario 64 into his room. It’s wild to think that one person could produce such a smooth demo but take a look for yourself below. Continued here

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Blumhouse's Most Exciting New Thriller Is Perfect For One Type of Horror Fan     Video game developer Scott Cawthon birthed a pop-culture phenomenon with his survival horror franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s. Cawthon’s evil Chuck E. Cheese reinvention is internet famous, especially captivating children who anxiously watch YouTube playthroughs, own Freddy Fazbear Funko Pop! dolls, and spread the restaurant mascot’s legacy across the internet. It’s younger audiences keeping Five Nights at Freddy’s relevant, just like the younger audiences that Blumhouse targets with its family-oriented PG-13 production. Director Emma Tammi treats Freddy’s Hollywood debut as a gateway not only for horror fans to experience Five Nights at Freddy’s, but for peewee video game fans dipping their toes into spooky cinema — maybe even for the first time.Josh Hutcherson stars as overnight security guard Mike Schmidt, the newest employee of the abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Those familiar with the surveillance monitor gameplay in Cawthon’s games will be happy to know this isn’t a movie that tethers Hutcherson to a chair for almost two hours. Cawthon, Tammi, and co-writer ​​Seth Cuddeback turn an anonymous watchman into a down-on-his-luck older brother with custody of lil’ sister Abby (Piper Rubio). The film isn’t solely about surviving five nights in Freddy Fazbear’s restaurant. Mike’s obsession with dream theory fantasies and Abby’s relationship with imaginary friends keep scenes away from the pizzeria connected to the supernatural happenings within Freddy’s domain, really veering from the repetitive actions of Cawthon’s click-and-hide programming. Continued here

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The Mysterious Fate of the MCU's Most Infamous Character Has Finally Been Revealed     No one has suffered in the MCU as much as Wanda Maximoff. After losing her parents, she lost her brother, and then, just after she found a new family in the Avengers, she lost Vision, the humanoid android she was going to grow old with. This tragic path led her to the evil book of magic dubbed the Darkhold, making her the villain of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But could we see Wanda again? A new glimpse at the latest MCU reference book makes the prospect very unlikely, which is a bad development for fans of a certain upcoming spinoff. Continued here

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'Loki' Season 3 Probably Won't Happen -- But There's Still Good News     The Marvel series was the first to get a second season, but don’t hold your breath for a third.After nearly two years of non-stop output, Marvel is finally putting the breaks on its TV multiverse. Since 2021, the studio has released a whopping 10 Disney+ series, but few have managed to translate prior cinematic success to the small screen. Most of Marvel’s steaming efforts feel like chopped-up, drawn-out movies, and after a string of duds, Marvel is finally starting to rethink its strategy, modeling future projects after its episodic, multi-season success story Loki. That means any upcoming series could get a second or third season... but will this new practice extend to the show that started it all? Continued here

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Chimps and Humans Have This Rare Reproductive Trait in Common     Menopause is one of nature’s greatest evolutionary mysteries. From a survivalist standpoint, there’s no advantage to a species for an individual to continue living beyond reproductive years. Menopausal individuals theoretically use up precious resources that could go to more reproducing members or their young. (Yikes, brutal.) In fact, most other mammals can reproduce their entire lifespan. Elephants can reproduce into their 60s, and baleen whales into their 90s.Humans are part of a privileged few (including some toothed whales) that cease menstruation and carry on living. Continued here

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The 10 Best EV Concepts From Japan Mobility Show 2023     Wild electric concept cars from Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are setting the groundwork for Japan's EV future.Japan's automakers may be behind the curve when it comes to production EVs you can buy right this minute, but if Japan Mobility Show 2023 is any indication, they aren't behind in their vibrant imaginings for the electrified future. Continued here

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A Friendship in Photography     Early in 1947, the Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank boarded a liberty ship in Antwerp, Belgium; almost a month later, he arrived alone in New York, to make his way as an artist. There he met his first American friend, a fellow-photographer, Louis Faurer. The two men regularly convened at night to traverse Manhattan with their cameras. Frank, who published his famous collection “The Americans” in 1958, and became one of the twentieth century’s most influential photographers, often praised Faurer for the way that he could see into and reveal people of the sort they encountered together.One person Faurer memorably captured, in 1947, was his friend Frank, fresh off the boat and out on the job, beginning to search his new country for photographs. In Faurer’s portrait, Frank is part of a crowd gathered to watch an unfolding off-camera event. As the pedestrians crane and peer, Frank stands with hands in the pockets of his weathered pinstriped suit, quietly taking them in. The picture conveys Frank’s uncanny skill at blending with his surroundings, a form of tradecraft that enabled him to photograph strangers up close, unposed and uninhibited. Faurer’s subtle composition places Frank in line with the other figures, yet also offers him richer focus, setting him apart as someone of intrigue. He exudes potential energy, primed as a piston to point and click. It’s as though Faurer had been waiting for just the right chance to capture his friend as he already knew him to be. Continued here

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10 Years Ago, Assassin's Creed Made a Shocking Pivot That Totally Paid Off     In any conversation about the best Assassin’s Creed game ever made, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (the sixth main entry in the series, despite the Roman numeral) will inevitably come up. The adventures of Edward Kenway continue to live large in the minds of franchise fans, even a decade after its release. Despite not being a great assassin game, Black Flag remains beloved. That’s because it’s one hell of a pirate game.There was a time when Assassin’s Creed was as much about the convoluted modern-day story of protagonist Desmond Miles as it was about frolicking through gorgeous historical settings. The first five entries in the series surrounded Desmond’s mission to stop the end of the world by collecting clues and technology from the memories of his ancestors through the Animus machine. But at the end of Assassin’s Creed III, Desmond kicks the bucket, and the world is seemingly saved. Continued here

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Loki' Episode 4 Ending Explained: Did Marvel Just Destroy [SPOILER] Itself?     Loki Season 2 is building to a bigger threat than we’ve ever seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not only are Loki and Sylvie at stake here, but the entire fabric of space and time is in the balance. Episode 3 followed Loki and Mobius as they ventured into 19th-century Chicago to find Victor Timely, a mild-mannered variant of Kang the Conqueror. Despite the fact Ravonna and Miss Minutes were also after him, Loki and Mobius managed to bring Timely back to the TVA. Episode 4 doubles down on the war between these two teams and ends with a shocking reveal. Continued here

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Taliban: why China wants them as a friend and not as a foe     The Taliban’s presence at the massive October jamboree in Beijiing to celebrate the 10th year of China’s ambitious trade plan, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is part of Beijing’s regional strategy.This was one of only a handful of foreign visits made by the Taliban since taking power after Nato’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Interim Afghan minister for commerce Haji Nooruddin Azizi even talked about the Taliban’s desire for Afghanistan to join the BRI. Continued here

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'Doctor Who' Has a Disney+ Release Date -- But There's a Disappointing Catch     Doctor Who, the longest-running sci-fi series in the world, is gearing up to celebrate its 60th anniversary. After the 13th Doctor regenerated into David Tennant (aka the 10th Doctor,) the hype was already built for the three upcoming specials, and with the new announcement of an official release date, the celebration is starting to seem a lot more real.The anniversary specials will premiere on Disney+ in America this November, but if you want to go back and study up on the Doctor past, like David Tennant’s first tenure as the time-traveling Gallifreyan, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Continued here

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How the Fiercest Fandom in Television is Changing Hollywood for the Better     The third episode of Our Flag Means Death’s much-anticipated Season 2 was about as bleak as it could be. Following the long-awaited kiss between “Gentleman Pirate” Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and Ed “Blackbeard” Teach in the penultimate episode of Season 1, they were torn apart. Ed, in a state of grief, had tormented his crew to the point that they bludgeoned him to death. By the second season’s Episode 3, he’s stuck in a purgatorial plane where he is forced to decide whether to live or die. He settles on death, tying himself to a rock and trying to drown himself. Just as he’s coming to terms with his own demise, he notices something swimming toward him. Continued here

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31 Years Later, Star Trek Just Rebooted Its Most Unexpected Villain Ever     Remember when bargain basement Tom Paris almost got Wesley kicked out of Starfleet Academy? In 1992, The Next Generation episode “The First Duty” featured a scandal involving a character with a face that became very familiar to Trek fans... three years later. Robert Duncan McNeill played the ambitious Nick Locarno before getting the role of Tom Paris in Voyager; as fans might know, Tom Paris was modeled on Nick Locarno, which makes the fact that these two rogue Starfleet characters are played by the same person a bit confusing canonically.Now, in the penultimate episode of Lower Decks Season 4, “The Inner Fight,” Nick Locarno is back, seemingly as a full-blown villain. Ingeniously, the return of Locarno also means that Lower Decks created a sequel not only to “The First Duty,” but also to the original TNG episode “Lower Decks.” Spoilers ahead. Continued here

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What Is the Core of Mars Made Of? Scientists Made a Surprising Discovery     Planet formation is a little like making a cake. If you haven't yet added an emulsifier, you will find that the liquids and fats separate in the bowl. Something like this happened when big celestial bodies in our Solar System were forming billions of years ago. Scientists now think Mars was once covered in a global magma ocean, and eventually, gravity began to separate the different stuff within this gooey ultra-hot blob into layers.Data from NASA’s Mars InSight mission suggests that its center is more decadent than expected. Rather than one single, sizable liquid iron core, there’s evidence that it's much smaller but topped with a coating of molten rock. Continued here

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What to wear for a climate crisis     Our context has changed. When we decide what clothes to buy, we now need to bring into play a wider range of values than the appearance of a garment, its newness and novelty and whether we like it or not. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states, if we are to have any hope of avoiding a world that is too hot and unpredictable to live in, we need to do everything we possibly can, right now, to cut greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. The fashion industry contributes up to 10% of global emissions – more than international aviation and shipping combined. It also contributes to biodiversity loss, pollution, landfill issues, unsafe work practices and more. Continued here

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38 Years Later, a Legendary Sci-Fi Screenwriter Makes His Shocking Comeback     The legendary screenwriter talks Re-Animator, his new movie Suitable Flesh, and the problem with At the Mountains of Madness.In 1985, a new master of horror emerged. Coming from the world of experimental theater and wielding the disturbing narratives of H.P. Lovecraft, Stuart Gordon cannonballed into an already crowded pool of scary movies with Re-Animator, an unrated sci-fi thriller equal parts Frankenstein and Rocky Horror Picture Show, which found its audience thanks in part to the support of prolific New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael. Continued here

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'Freaky' Writer Reveals Plans for a Wild Blumhouse Crossover: "We've Talked About It"     “In my head, the movies happened simultaneously and then they somehow meet or run into each other.”Ever since Happy Death Day 2U all but shed its slasher structure to become a bonafide sci-fi comedy, Blumhouse teen slashers have happily toed the line between horror and other genres. 2019’s Ma was a meme come to life. 2020’s Freaky was “Freaky Friday but as a slasher.” And M3GAN? Well, that’s just pure camp. Continued here

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'Spider-Man 2' Harnesses the Most Underrated Ingredient of a Good Superhero Story     Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a spectacular sequel that ups the ante in nearly every way, from massive action set pieces to some truly deadly and memorable villains. It’s a refinement of the last two entries in every sense. But crucially, Insomniac Games knew what needed to be the beating heart of the sequel, humanity. Yes, Spider-Man 2 has all the action and drama you could want, but its world and storytelling are uniquely empathetic, taking liberal time to let players get to know the people underneath the mask. Even when put up against the usual slate of AAA games we see these days, Spider-Man 2’s plot feels uniquely grounded and human. It helps push Spider-Man 2 from something great to one of the best superhero stories ever told. Continued here