Did Me Too change the workplace for Gen Z?

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Did Me Too change the workplace for Gen Z? Like many women, I remember watching the Me Too movement mushroom as I scrolled through Facebook and Twitter in October 2017. While the hashtag #MeToo was first used in 2006 by black feminist activist Tarana Burke, who wanted to tackle sexual violence within her own community, it gained momentum following a viral tweet by actress Alyssa Milano after Harvey Weinstein’s crimes were exposed. Women around the world also began posting about how the misuse of power and privilege enabled sexual misconduct in the workplace. For many women in the workforce, the Me Too movement triggered conversations about the inappropriate (and often illegal) behaviours we’d encountered in our own careers, prompting a mix of anger, catharsis and, for some, painful re-lived trauma. But that wasn’t the case for Gen Z who were still children or teenagers. Born between 1996 and 2012, only the oldest, now workforce-aged, were in university, or applying for their first jobs, when #MeToo trended across social media and grabbed headlines. Continued here

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User-Friendly Self-Deception: Philosopher Am “Life is a dream. ‘Tis waking that kills us. He who robs us of our dreams robs us of our life,” Virginia Woolf wrote as she considered how our illusions keep us alive, shining a sidewise gleam on an elemental fact of human nature: We are touchingly prone to mistaking our models of reality for reality itself, mistaking the strength of our certainty for the strength of the evidence, thus moving through a dream of our own making that we call life. It can only be so — given how many parallel truths comprise any given situation, given how multifarious the data points packed into any single experience, given that this very moment “you are missing the vast majority of what is happening around you,” we are simply not capable of processing the full scope of reality. Our minds cope by choosing fragments of it to the exclusion, and often to the erasure, of the rest. But what we choose and how we choose it defines the measure of our sanity, and how we go about choosing our adaptive delusions over the maladaptive ones defines our fitness for life. That is what philosopher Amélie Rorty (May 20, 1932–September 18, 2020) explores in a marvelous 1994 paper in the Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, marvelously titled User-Friendly Self-Deception. Recognizing that “many varieties of self-deception are ineradicable and useful,” Rorty writes: Continued here

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The Stunning Mystical Paintings of the 16th-Century Portuguese Artist Francisco de Holanda In 1543 — the year Copernicus published his revolutionary treatise on the heliocentric universe and promptly died — the Portuguese artist Francisco de Holanda (c. 1517–June 19, 1585) began working on a series of mystical paintings, which would consume the next three decades of his life, eventually culminating in his book De Aetatibus Mundi Imagines: Images of the Ages of the World. Francisco was only twenty when he became a professional illuminator of religious manuscripts, following in his father’s footsteps. By thirty, he had studied with Michelangelo in Italy. It was during that period, as he was finding his artistic voice and spiritual footing, that he began working on his paintings exploring the relationship between the human and the divine. Continued here

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Naatu Naatu: Will this song make Oscars history? "Not salsa, not flamenco, my brother. Do you know naatu?," asks a handsome, bearded Indian of a befuddled-looking Englishman. Without waiting for a response, and accompanied by his friend, he breaks into a song and dance that is one of the most high-octane, foot-stomping numbers to grace a cinema screen. Using only their wide smiles and elastic suspenders as props, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan Teja) and Komaram Bheem (NT Rama Rao Jr) kick up a mini dust storm with their energetic and perfectly synchronised steps, their elegant European suits in sharp contrast to their vigorous moves. The villainous Englishman – we know him only as Jake – calls their performance "disgusting" and "filthy" before joining in a dancing competition, only to drop to the ground with exhaustion. Raju and Bheem, meanwhile, dance on and on, in triumph. The song is the very catchy Naatu Naatu – the viral sensation from 2022 Telugu blockbuster RRR – short for Rise Roar Revolt. Continued here

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Grattan on Friday: Could Josh Frydenberg still have a path to the Liberal leadership? One of those closely watching the extraordinary legal face-off between independent Monique Ryan and her former high-profile staffer, Sally Rugg, will be Josh Frydenberg, who lost Kooyong to the “teal” at last year’s election. The outcome of the case, going to whether Rugg was forced to work unreasonable hours, could have significant ramifications for parliamentary staffs’ conditions. Continued here

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Strikes bill could breach UK workers' human rights and expose the government to legal challenges UK workers’ human rights are at risk under government plans to curb strike activity, according to a report by parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights. The strikes (minimum service levels) bill 2023 aims to set requirements for the level of service needed in certain key sectors during strike action. The bill is making rapid progress through parliament. But it has already sparked concern from various quarters, including unions and the International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency set up to protect social and economic justice via labour standards. Continued here

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Rugby injuries: how pre-season training can help players avoid the sidelines The list of injured players in the Six Nations Championship is, once again, long. Unsurprising you may say, given the physical nature of the sport. That’s often cited as one of the elements that captivates fans and attracts players. Nevertheless, there is a fine line between the beautiful brutality of the game and the potential health implications of injury. So we set out to discover how important pre-season training is for preventing rugby injuries during the competitive season. Continued here

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COVID poetry: how a new genre is helping readers to comprehend the pandemic Research has shown that in the early months of the COVID pandemic people in the UK both reported reading more and used reading to cope with the anxieties brought on by sudden changes to their lifestyle. Since those early lockdown days, people have been writing about their experiences of the pandemic. And now, nearly three years since the lockdowns began, books are still being written and being published on COVID. Like other significant catastrophic events (think wars, 9/11, Brexit), this new genre of writing could continue for some time. Continued here

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The government's plan to remove asylum seekers will be a logistical mess - and may not deter people from coming to the UK In its new illegal migration bill, the UK government has introduced some surprisingly radical proposals designed to discourage people from crossing the Channel in small boats to claim asylum. Chiefly, it targets people who arrive in Britain through irregular routes, barring them from seeking asylum. And the UK does not offer many legal routes, with exceptions such as the schemes for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees. Continued here

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Teacher pensions are becoming a bigger share of educational costs The 2022 stock market plunge has taken a toll on some of the nation’s largest state and municipal pension funds, making it harder for governments to pay for future retirement benefits to millions of K-12 teachers and other public employees. Yes and no. There is enough money to pay pension benefits to current retirees. But there is not enough money to pay all promised benefits to future retirees. Continued here

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Body dysmorphic disorder is more common than eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, yet few people are aware of its dangers Eva Fisher works for Colorado State University Global. She is affiliated with the International OCD Foundation. While eating disorders have been widely publicized for decades, far less attention has been given to a related condition called body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD. Continued here

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Nonprofits serving or led by people of color get less funding than similar groups led by white executive directors To measure the level of financial pressures these groups faced, we created an index, ranging from 0 to 18, with higher numbers indicating the biggest shortfalls. The average was 11 for all of the groups. However, we found that among comparable organizations, the index was an average of 1.8 points higher for nonprofits serving mostly nonwhite clients and 1.4 points higher for nonprofits led by nonwhite executive directors. We also determined that the main reason for this disparity is that nonprofits led by or serving nonwhite people raise less revenue through both donations and grants – whether from the government, foundations or corporations. Continued here

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The Biden administration has called for protecting mature US forests to slow climate change, but it's still allowing them to be logged Forests are critically important for slowing climate change. They remove huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – 30% of all fossil fuel emissions annually – and store carbon in trees and soils. Old and mature forests are especially important: They handle droughts, storms and wildfires better than young trees, and they store more carbon. In a 2022 executive order, President Joe Biden called for conserving mature and old-growth forests on federal lands. Recently Biden protected nearly half of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska from road-building and logging. Continued here

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Jimmy Carter's African legacy: peacemaker, negotiator and defender of rights When historians and pundits praise Jimmy Carter’s achievements as the US president and extol his exemplary post-presidential years, they mention the recognition of China, the Panama Canal Treaties and the Camp David Accords. Almost no one mentions what Carter achieved in Africa during his presidency. This is a serious oversight. The archival record supports the former president’s claim. Reams of documents detail Carter’s sustained and deep focus during his presidency on ending white rule in Rhodesia, and helping to bring about the independence of Zimbabwe. Continued here

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Kenya's first skyscraper closes - and leaves a complicated legacy Research for this article was funded as part of a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship, grant number MR/S015558/1 The Hilton Hotel was Nairobi’s first skyscraper. The iconic cylindrical tower was opened in 1969 by President Jomo Kenyatta, six years after Kenya’s independence from Britain. Continued here

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The world's first Islamic art biennale shines a light on Muslim African artists The inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale is underway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Biennales are large and prestigious international art exhibitions held every two years.) This important new event for the Muslim world features numerous African artists. And the biennale’s artistic director is Sumayya Vally, a South African architecture professor and principal of Counterspace design studio. A rising star in the art and architecture worlds, Vally was intent on creating the biennale to connect with the diverse experiences of being Muslim through ritual, practices and philosophies. The Conversation Africa asked her five questions about the biennale. The field of “Islamic art” was defined by Europeans in the 1800s – and hinged on geography, style and historical chronology. So it was inherited from definitions outside the faith. It’s my hope that this biennale puts forth a different definition of and for Islamic arts – one that recognises Islamic philosophies for our present and future, and one that honours the daily lived experiences of the Muslim world. Continued here

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Depression, anxiety and childhood trauma: South African study explores links, prevalence and who's most at risk University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA. Mental health problems among adults are an ever-increasing public health concern. These include depression, anxiety, and conditions associated with bad childhood experiences such as abuse. Continued here

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Georgia: 'foreign agent law' protests show disconnect between pro-Moscow government and west-leaning population The Georgian government has been forced to withdraw its controversial “foreign agent” law after days of mass protests against what many saw as Russian-inspired legislation which would limit press freedom, making its chances of ever joining the European Union near impossible. Over two nights this week, thousands of protesters have packed the streets of Tbilisi demanding “No to Russian law”. Riot police used teargas and water cannons. More than 60 people were detained. But the scale of protests led the ruling Georgian Dream party to back down, saying in a statement it would “unconditionally withdraw the bill we supported without any reservations”. Continued here

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Iran: unions and civil rights groups demand democracy and social justice Forty-four years after Iranians rose up against their hated monarch in February 1979, a group of 20 organisations engaged in long-term social and economic struggles – including labour unions, teachers, women’s groups and youth and student movements – issued an ultimatum to the government of the Islamic Republic. The Charter of Minimum Demands of Independent Trade Union and Civil Organisations of Iran contains 12 demands concerning social justice, democracy and political reform. The charter is a protest: Continued here

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Economic growth doesn't have to mean 'more' - consuming 'better' will also protect the planet Around 30 years ago, many developed countries started a process of absolute decoupling of their emissions of CO₂ and energy use from economic growth. This means keeping emissions stable, or better yet, shrinking them, while still growing the economy. As a result, GDP is now much higher than it was in 1990 in the UK, France, Germany and the US, but CO2 emissions are lower. This is not just because of the deindustrialisation of the west: emissions decrease even if we include our imports from countries like China. Continued here

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'You rarely see abuse directed at men': a look at the sexist abuse women police officers face online The third series of BBC police drama Happy Valley marked the end of a beloved programme, and the end of Sergeant Catherine Cawood’s career navigating Yorkshire’s criminal underworld. Cawood’s age and gender is not ignored in the show. Throughout, she faces misogyny from criminals she encounters on the job, as well as her own colleagues. While police forces themselves are currently addressing the fallout from decades of endemic sexism, women police officers – whether in fiction or reality – senior or rookie, regularly face sexist criticism of their appearance and abilities. Continued here

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Netflix's You: the real monster of series four is 'dark academia' Since its release in 2018, Netflix’s drama You has sparked both intrigue and controversy. Based on the fictional novel of the same name by Caroline Kepnes, the show follows the life of Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley). Goldberg seems to be a charismatic and misunderstood literary lover, but soon reveals himself as an obsessive serial killer who stalks women. Continued here

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ChatGPT can't lie to you, but you still shouldn't trust it “ChatGPT is a natural language generation platform based on the OpenAI GPT-3 language model.” Why did you believe the above statement? A simple answer is that you trust the author of this article (or perhaps the editor). We cannot verify everything we are told, so we regularly trust the testimony of friends, strangers, “experts” and institutions. Continued here

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Becoming Frida Kahlo: new BBC documentary paints a compelling portrait of the Mexican artist Nearly 70 years after her death the brilliant Mexican artist Frida Kahlo continues to fascinate for her unique artistic language that interprets her physical and emotional pain, her unconventional relationships with men and women, and her complex marriage to the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. She has been the subject of many books, the best known of which is Hayden Herrera’s biography and a Hollywood film, with Kahlo played by Mexican actress and producer Salma Hayek. Her now-iconic face continues to be emblazoned across bags, t-shirts, prints, fridge magnets, jewellery, cushions and myriad other products. Continued here

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Sue Gray quitting to work for Keir Starmer does cause problems for the civil service - it's also a sign she thinks he's heading for government The last few years of drama at Westminster have set the bar pretty high for shock and surprise, but the sudden departure from government of Sue Gray, second permanent secretary to the Cabinet Office, and her proposed appointment as chief of staff to the Leader of the Labour Party really was quite the plot twist. It would have been a striking piece of news at any time for such a senior civil servant to swap sides and accept a job with the opposition. But this was not just any senior civil servant. Sue Gray became something close to a household name last year for her investigation into the partygate scandal, and must therefore rank as the most high-profile Whitehall official of recent times. Continued here

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Music and mental health: the parallels between Victorian asylum treatments and modern social prescribing Music has a powerful effect on the listener. It is linked to better mental health, and it has been shown to alleviate loneliness, pain, anxiety and depression. For this reason, it is increasingly being prescribed by doctors as a form of medicine. This practice – where patients are referred to various activities such as running groups, art classes and choirs – is known as social prescribing. Continued here

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Why does music bring back memories? What the science says You’re walking down a busy street on your way to work. You pass a busker playing a song you haven’t heard in years. Now suddenly, instead of noticing all the goings on in the city around you, you’re mentally reliving the first time you heard the song. Hearing that piece of music takes you right back to where you were, who you were with and the feelings associated with that memory. This experience – when music brings back memories of events, people and places from our past – is known as a music-evoked autobiographical memory. And it’s a common experience. Continued here

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The Liberal government is in serious crisis mode on Chinese interference A series of leaked documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) have revealed the ways in which the Chinese government has attempted to tamper with Canadian elections. This gives support to a number of allegations regarding the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) behaviour that have been circulating for a number of years. This includes the Conservative Party of Canada’s claim that the interference cost it a number of seats in the 2021 federal election, along with allegations about the operation of illegal “police stations” used by China to gather information on the Chinese diaspora in Canada. Continued here

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Unlocking secrets of the honeybee dance language - bees learn and culturally transmit their communication skills The Greek historian Herodotus reported over 2,000 years ago on a misguided forbidden experiment in which two children were prevented from hearing human speech so that a king could discover the true, unlearned language of human beings. Scientists now know that human language requires social learning and interaction with other people, a property shared with multiple animal languages. But why should humans and other animals need to learn a language instead of being born with this knowledge, like many other animal species? Continued here

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Is the honeybee's iconic waggle dance learned or innate? New research provides the answer As we progress through life, we learn many essential behaviours from more experienced people around us. For example, through observing adults, we go from being babbling babies, to using single words, to speaking in full sentences. Honeybees also have a language, expressed through dance, which they use to communicate the location and quality of food sources to hive mates. This behaviour plays a crucial role in the functioning of a hive, which can sometimes have more than 60,000 bees. Continued here

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Banshees, wives, women and mavericks: our predictions for the Oscars 2023 best pictures Of the ten films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, six are really good. That’s a high percentage for a year – 2022 – in which most cinematic offerings seemed drab. This year sees films that are less moralistic than usual and less pretentious. The worst thing you can say about the worst film is that it’s boring. In other words, there are no absolute duds, although there is only one true standout, with over-length continuing to hamstring otherwise excellent films. Continued here

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Friday essay: Lola waited 25 years for her wartime rapist to be convicted. But he is still not in jail I still vividly remember the moment when Lola told me her wartime rapist was not in jail. I had phoned Lola, a Bosnian woman raped during the 1992 war, to discuss how all the challenges she’d faced during the trial had paid off. I cheerfully said, “Finally, he was prosecuted. Twenty-five years later, but still there is a justice and he is in jail now.” Continued here

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Fairy-wrens are more likely to help their closest friends but not strangers, just like us humans Multilevel societies are among the most complex societies known in nature. They are organised like Russian nesting dolls – individuals belong to family groups, which belong to clans, which belong to tribes. At each level, the relationships between these social units (individuals, families, clans and tribes) are stable and predictable. Continued here

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A tonne of fossil carbon isn't the same as a tonne of new trees: why offsets can't save us This week, the Albanese government is attempting to reform the safeguard mechanism to try to make it actually cut emissions from our highest polluting industrial facilities. Experts and commentators see Labor’s plan as a cautious, incremental change that doesn’t yet rise to the urgency of the intensifying climate crisis. But it could generate momentum after a wasted decade of climate denial and delay under the previous government. Done right, it could set our biggest industrial polluters on a pathway to cut their emissions and be a springboard for more ambitious changes. Continued here

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Carers of older Australians need more support - but we found unpaid extended leave isn't the best solution Aged care is being hit both ways by the ageing of Australia’s population. While population ageing is increasing the number of Australians in need of formal care, it’s also reducing the proportion of working age people able to provide formal care. To help bridge the gap, we are going to need to make it easier for working age Australians to provide informal care for parents and partners living at home. Continued here

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The road to March 15: 'networked white rage' and the Christchurch terror attacks The massacres of March 15 2019 at two Christchurch mosques confirmed the far right remains a constant threat to public order and safety in New Zealand, and that this threat was largely overlooked by security and intelligence agencies. Both elements were corroborated by the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the attacks that was released in November 2020. The country was not exempt from such activist, murderous politics, despite widespread complacency. Continued here

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Three years into the pandemic, it's clear COVID won't fix itself. Here's what we need to focus on next On March 11 2020 the World Health Organization classified COVID as a pandemic. Three years on, it remains just that. As much as we don’t want it to be, and as much as it is off the front pages, COVID is still very much with us. Continued here

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New Zealand's childcare is among the most expensive in the world. But tax rebates are not the answer Some eight months out from this year’s election, the National Party has launched a new tax rebate policy to help reduce childcare costs. At the same time, Australia and Canada are abandoning their own rebate policies for failing to really address childcare affordability issues. Childcare in Aotearoa New Zealand is some of the most expensive in the world, despite the government spending about NZ$2.3 billion annually on childcare through subsidies and payments to the sector. Continued here

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Backlash against K-pop star Hanni shows Vietnam still struggles with the legacy of the war The Vietnamese-Australian singer Hanni of the K-pop group NewJeans recently came under fire and faced online harassment for her family’s supposed links to the former Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). In February 2023, a K-pop Facebook group called K Crush Động published pictures that allegedly showed members of Hanni’s family in Australia. K Crush Động is one of the biggest K-pop forums in Vietnam, with more than half a million members. Continued here

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Junos 2023 reminds us how Canadian content regulations and funding supports music across the country As we celebrate another year of Canadian music at the Juno Awards, let’s consider the broader music ecosystem that facilitates a vibrant component of our multifaceted culture and identity. An essential component of this ecosystem supporting musical artists has been the policy of Canadian Content (CanCon) regulations for music radio. Continued here

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Suicide attempts rose among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for girls Assistant professor, School of Psychology, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa Will the kids be alright? There was hope that children and adolescents would “bounce back” as the pandemic progressed, but sadly, the data suggest otherwise. Continued here

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Women in politics: To run or not to run? Despite progress towards gender equality, women’s representation in Canadian politics continues to fall short. With only 30 per cent of seats in the House of Commons held by women, there is still a long way to go for Parliament to capture the diversity of the population it represents. The first is that voters might have gender bias. This is the idea that, for various reasons, voters might prefer a man over a woman candidate. Continued here

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Can seaweed save the world? Well it can certainly help in many ways Seaweed is increasingly seen as a solution to many of the world’s most pressing problems. Interest in farming seaweed has exploded. There’s such a wide range of applications, from fertilisers to foods, bioplastics, textiles, supplements and carbon sinks. It’s hard to think of another substance with so much potential. Continued here

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Albanese visit hopes to strengthen ties with India amid China's rise. But differences remain Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made a landmark visit to India this week in the hopes of boosting ties in trade, education and security. Australia’s relationship with India has been marked by short bursts of enthusiasm, interspersed with long periods of disinterest. Continued here

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Trapped in Robert McKee’s “Story” This year's list of Best Picture nominees feels dispiritingly familiar. "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Avatar: The Way of Water" are two colossally budgeted sequels written to internationally crowd-pleasing Hollywood specifications. And, though the non-sequel "Everything Everywhere All at Once" has been celebrated as a burst of cinematic creativity, its strenuous visual and sociopolitical exertions do not mask its adherence to the storytelling tropes of a superhero picture. No element of its narrative, in other words, would surprise the script guru Robert McKee, whose popular guide to screenwriting, "Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting," was published more than twenty-five years ago. Among those averse to genre spectacle and Oscar-baiting melodrama, McKee has become a byword for screenwriting structures as cynical and manipulative as they are widely employed. (Akiva Goldsman, a specialist in big-budget adaptations of existing properties—"The Client," "Batman & Robin," "The Da Vinci Code"—is probably McKee's most notable adherent.) When I lived in Los Angeles, it wasn't unusual to be in a café, surrounded by aspiring screenwriters with laptops running Final Draft, who were obsessing aloud over Inciting Incidents, Turning Points, and Major Dramatic Questions. In "Story," McKee bestows these concepts (and many more) with capital letters. Continued here

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The Latest Attack on the Abortion Pill Is Forty Years in the Making In 1987, Ms. magazine asked me to write about RU-486, a new medication that caused the uterus to expel a fertilized egg before it could gestate. It wasn’t a contraceptive, but it wasn’t what most people considered an abortion, either. At the time, anti-abortion campaigners were brandishing ultrasound images that purported to show fetuses crying out in pain as they were being surgically removed. RU-486, which was developed in France but not yet available in the United States, threatened to stymie this tactic: there would be no fetal development to flaunt. Even the president of the National Right to Life Committee acknowledged that there was little P.R. value in images of what appeared to be menstruating women. This disarming of the pro-life movement, and the drug’s seemingly benign effect, I wrote, “may serve to decimate the ranks of abortion foes.” Étienne-Émile Baulieu, the primary developer of RU-486, which is better known as mifepristone, was even more hopeful. With this drug, he declared, abortion “should more or less disappear as a concept, as a fact, as a word in the future.” Mifepristone, administered in conjunction with the drug misoprostol, now accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States. The F.D.A. approved it for use within the first seven weeks of pregnancy, in 2000, and, sixteen years later, extended its use to within ten weeks. In 2021, the F.D.A. removed the requirement that the drug only be dispensed in medical settings; that way, it could be sent through the mail. In January, the agency allowed retail pharmacies to apply for a certification to sell it by prescription in their stores. But, by then, a Tennessee-based group called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine had sued the F.D.A. in the Northern District of Texas, claiming, among other things, that the agency erred in approving the drug twenty-three years ago. If the group prevails, there is a chance that mifepristone will no longer be available anywhere in the country, even in states where abortion is legal. Continued here

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Life Imitates the Oscars Follow @newyorkercartoons on Instagram and sign up for the Daily Humor newsletter for more funny stuff. © 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

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2024 Trump Is Even Scarier Than 2020 Trump In politics, as in life, there is a tendency to overcomplicate things. And the simple truth about the 2024 campaign is that, like the two Presidential elections that preceded it, the race is all about Donald Trump. On the Republican side, no potential candidate has registered in the national polls as anything close to a Trump-toppler, and that includes, so far, the much touted governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. I was reminded of this while listening to the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt interview the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie the other day. Christie is considering running again for President as a former Trump friend who’s seen the light, but it’s hardly clear whether there is a path for him in the field. Hewitt summed up the state of the Republican electorate as being divided into four categories: Never Trump, Sometimes Trump, Always Trump, and Only Trump. The Only Trump category constitutes a more or less immovable twenty-five to thirty per cent of the Party, Hewitt said—which is also the estimate he gave for the percentage of Republicans who will never again vote for Trump. The Party, in other words, is stuck in a Trump doom loop, and the primary will come down to a referendum one way or the other on the former President. Continued here

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Jessica Chastain’s Close Listening in “A Doll’s House” For the long quarter hour before "A Doll's House" begins, Jessica Chastain sits looking at the audience in the Hudson Theatre as people fill up the seats. She's in a plain dark dress on a plain wooden chair on a plain bleak stage. A turntable moves her in slow circles—she looks like the last lonely dish left on a lazy Susan. The air throbs with dread-inducing electronic tones; the five other cast members enter and sit with their backs to her, not yet caught up in her sad merry-go-round. Whatever else Chastain's Nora will be, at least we know she has sufficient inner resources to keep herself company while staring through the fourth wall. In the current Broadway production of Henrik Ibsen's 1879 drama, adapted by Amy Herzog and directed by Jamie Lloyd, Nora has three children (present only as giggling voice-overs); a husband, Torvald (Arian Moayed); a nanny (Tasha Lawrence); a family friend, Dr. Rank (Michael Patrick Thornton), who adores her; and an old friend, Kristine (Jesmille Darbouze), who wants to fix her. Nora also has a creditor turned blackmailer, Krogstad (Okieriete Onaodowan), who comes the closest to understanding her. On the surface, Nora is a dizzy, much indulged wife, skilled at twining Torvald around her finger. That laughing manipulation, though, hides her big secret, a loan, from Krogstad, that she's been paying off. As the play begins, Nora seems almost in the clear—blue skies ahead! But the real thundercloud is her marriage: a perpetual (and still familiar) weather system of condescension, mutual untruth, and socially endorsed sexism. Continued here

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I’m Lydia Tár, and I’m in Awe of This Three-Layer Bean Dip A riddle. That's what this is. A question, asked not with words but with the grammar of cheese, refried beans, and sour cream. Asked not in anger—though the spices do quicken one's heart rate—but in urgency. And what is that question? "Why?" Why risk blending these ingredients? Why fly so close to the sun? Why create a finger food that challenges the heavens? That was a joke. Humor, much like the very food we're discussing, provides comfort. Or so I'm told. But, then again . . . what is the recipe? Let's find out. Let us, for a moment, cast ourselves as gastronomic Dantes and journey down the three scorching layers of this munchable inferno. And, yes, I anticipate your predictable criticism: Dante would scoff at my invoking his Inferno when this dip is decidedly Paradiso. But, as the only one here who actually visited the man's birthplace the summer that I conducted the Florence Philharmonic, I think Alighieri would appreciate the irony. He did, after all, invent irony. Continued here

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Half the World Cooks With Toxic Solid Fuels -- But That Could Change Last year, archaeologists combing the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash (located in modern-day southern Iraq) unearthed the remnants of a 4,700-year-old restaurant. Within its walls, those researchers uncovered benches, storage vessels, and even an ancient oven. Millennia before people switched on gas stoves, electric ranges, or microwaves, that tavern’s mighty cooks of old might have fed this oven’s flames with wood or dried animal poop. Nowadays, large parts of the world don't look too different: Nearly half of people around the globe cook with these types of solid fuels, according to a 2019 report from the Health Effects Institute. Continued here

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You Need to Watch the Sexiest Vampire Movie Ever Made on HBO Max ASAP Stories that subvert vampire tropes are almost as common as vampire stories themselves. More than any other horror subgenre, vampires are defined by how much they do or don’t fit with the tradition that came before. But in 1983, one underrated movie set a new standard for how contemporary vampires would look and feel. For undying bloodsucker aficionados, David Bowie’s turn in Tony Scott’s The Hunger is worth another look before it leaves HBO Max. The movie’s first five minutes tell you everything you need to know about it. Although it famously stars Bowie as a vampire named John Blaylock, he’s not the singer who opens the film. Instead, Peter Murphy, the lead singer of Bauhaus, sings the band’s 1979 hit “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” This, of course, references the actor who made Dracula famous in 1931. Bauhaus singing in a goth club about how old-school vampires are dead is essentially the movie’s message: these aren’t your parents’ vampires! They’re goth bisexuals now, so watch out! Continued here

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The Playdate at 1: Not the Second Coming of the Game Boy Nearly a year after it was released to the world, developer Panic’s first piece of hardware isn’t a revolution, but it’s still a revelation. We got the Playdate wrong. The little yellow handheld with a crank was breathlessly covered like the second coming of the Game Boy leading up to its April 18, 2022 release date, but nearly a year later, the impact hasn’t been as profound. Continued here

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You Need to Get the Most Underrated Metroid Game Before the 3DS eShop Closes On March 27, 2023, the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShops will close, making certain games inaccessible — a huge blow to game preservation. And while many of those titles are available physically, retail copies are now more expensive than their digital counterparts. One example is the fantastic Metroid: Samus Returns, a 3DS remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus for Game Boy. This game not only perfectly recreates the original 1991 classic, but it also adds a slew of new features that make it more approachable. Since the 3DS eShop will close so soon, we recommend buying this game right away, because the physical version will only become more expensive as time goes on. But what makes this game so special? Metroid: Samus Returns sends the titular bounty hunter Samus to SR388, the Metroid’s home planet. Samus’ mission is to find out what happened to a group of Galactic Federation teams that disappeared on the planet while also destroying the Metroid species for good. Continued here

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How to Unlock Both Endings in 'Hogwarts Legacy' Not sure what just happened in the closing chapter of Hogwarts Legacy’s main story? Don’t worry, we’re here to explain. Not every witch or wizard will have chosen the same path, which means there are some differences to account for. Even if you’ve chosen to delve into Dark magic like Unforgivable Curses, other factors determine how your story ends. If you chose one ending and you’re curious about what else could’ve happened in this part of the Wizarding World, or you’ve finished the main path but you haven’t seen the credits roll, then you’ve come to the right place. Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of Hogwarts Legacy. Continued here

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NASA Uncovers a Massive Galactic Mystery 9 Billion Light-Years from Earth X-ray and optical telescopes suggest that an ancient galaxy gobbled up its neighbors and likely lives alone in the distant Universe. The bright, churning heart of ancient galaxy 3C 297, visible just right of center in a new NASA image, has fascinated astronomers. And when Valentina Missaglia, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH in Greece, led a team to peer into the invisible world of X-ray and radio emissions surrounding the galaxy, she found something unexpected. Inspired by the data, the team titled their December 2022 study in The Astrophysical Journal with vivid descriptors for the galaxy: “powerful yet lonely.” Continued here

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Why the Directors of '65' Made Adam Driver Fight a Dinosaur “Why aren’t there as many dinosaur films as there are superhero movies?” Scott Beck asks Inverse. “It’s such an incredible canvas.” It’s a good question, the answer to which must be inseparable from the colossal impact of Jurassic Park. But Beck and his partner Bryan Woods, the original writers of A Quiet Place, are wading into the dinosaur market now. They’re the writer-directors of 65, which stars Adam Driver as Mills, an astronaut who crash-lands on an extraterrestrial planet full of terrifying creatures. The reveal? This is Earth, 65 million years ago, and all the creatures are dinosaurs. Continued here

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Here's How Long It Takes to Beat 'Metroid Fusion' -- and Unlock Every Ending Now that Metroid Fusion is available on Switch via Nintendo Switch Online, many players will finally get to experience one of the best games in the series. Originally released in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance, Metroid Fusion was the last 2D entry in the series before Metroid Dread. Previously, Fusion was sort of hard to get your hands on, as it was only available on GBA, Wii U, and 3DS (restricted to ambassador members only). With its release on Switch via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service, now’s the perfect time to give Fusion a try. But how long will it take you to finish Metroid Fusion? Here’s what you need to know. While completion times will vary from person to person, it will take you around five hours on average to finish Metroid Fusion if you only focus on reaching the end. Grabbing some optional items and gear will likely bump up the play time to around six or seven hours. Continued here

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'House of the Dragon' Season 2 Doubles Down on the Best Part of Season 1 Vhagar, Dreamfyre, Caraxes, Meleys, Syrax, Seasmoke, Tyraxes, and Vermax. So far, only eight dragons in House of the Dragon, HBO’s critically acclaimed blend of prestige fantasy and family drama set three centuries before Game of Thrones, have been claimed. However, showrunner and source material author George R.R. Martin wrote about at least eight other dragons crucial to the rise (and fall) of House Targaryen that haven’t yet appeared on-screen. Many are linked to integral players on Team Green (Hightower-Targaryen) or Team Black (Targaryen-Velaryon) that haven’t been introduced yet either. Continued here

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This Is the Most Complex Reconstruction of a Brain Ever -- And It's Tiny Have you ever wondered what a fruit fly thinks about? Perhaps it ponders how often to buzz by your ear or where the optimal landing place is on your slice of watermelon. The contents of Drosophila melanogaster’s thoughts remain a mystery, but neuroscientists and bioengineers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Cambridge are beginning to understand the neural pathways underpinning its every move. In a study out this week in the journal Science, the team of researchers reconstructed a baby fruit fly’s brain, neuron by neuron, and the possible highways between those brain cells. This map is called a connectome, and it’s the first time researchers have achieved this with a fruit fly. The new chart of neural connections could even reveal something about our own minds and behavior, the authors of the paper say. Continued here

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Bees and Babies Have One Important Thing in Common Many young animals learn by mimicking their elders — and researchers just found out how important that practice is for honeybees. When a honey bee returns to the nest after foraging for food, it breaks into dance. Moving in a figure-eight shape while shaking its abdomen helps the bee communicate to others how far away the tastiest flowers are in a performance called the waggle dance. Continued here

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Mini's New Cooper EV Has a Retro Dashboard and Range You Can Rely On It may feature a bigger battery, but it’s still the Mini we all know and love. Mini introduced its refreshed all-electric hatchback, which has been rebranded to just Cooper. Mini’s upcoming model is expected to offer more range and power, but feature some design elements that remind us of the classic Minis from the 2000s, as first reported by Autocar. Even though the next all-electric Cooper will be upgraded with a more capable battery and an OLED display that replaces the centered speedometer, the Mini included several throwback elements, like its larger, oval headlights, physical buttons across its center console, and even an ignition key, according to Autocar. Continued here

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Everything We Know About Momoka, 'Genshin Impact's New Catgirl It’s been a while since Genshin Impact players have revisited Inazuma. Momoka, the latest leaked character, apparently hails from the Electro-centric country. The cat-eared girl popped up on leakers’ radars shortly after the Genshin Impact 3.5 update and ahead of the official version 3.7 beta. At first glance, she appears to be a female version of Inazuma’s dogged general, Gorou, but the leaks suggest there’s more to her than meets the eye. The earliest Momoka can come to Genshin Impact is around May 24, 2023. That’s the estimated date of the Genshin Impact 3.7 update. She might also come in the later half of the update around June 14. Continued here

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'65' Review: A Lean, Mean Dino Thriller as Straightforward as Its Title Or: The tale of two characters trying to coolly walk away from our planet’s biggest explosion. Alfred Hitchcock emphasized film as a visual medium above all else — a teaching that has developed a nearly cult-like reverence. 65, the newest film from writer-director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, is a genre apart from the Master of Suspense but clearly worships from that same church. The Adam Driver-starring thriller is a lean, mean exercise in sci-fi suspense set far in our planetary past (if only by sheer misadventure). Continued here

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'Creed' is Becoming a Cinematic Universe -- Including an Anime Series Michael B. Jordan, Creed franchise star and loud and proud anime enthusiast, is spearheading the CCU. Creed will not only be getting the cinematic universe treatment, but an anime adaptation redux, too. Continued here

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How To Turn Off Clean Energy Charging in iOS 16 Apple's new Clean Energy Charging feature is designed to make phone charging more eco-friendly, but could result in slower charging. Saving the environment is great, but so is waking up to a fully-charged phone. If you’ve noticed your phone isn’t fully charging overnight, it could stem from one of Apple’s newest features: Clean Energy Charging. Continued here

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Does 'Scream 6' Have a Post-Credits Scene? The New Sequel Breaks a Franchise Rule There’s never been a Scream movie post-credits scene before. But there’s also never been a movie quite like Scream 6. So does this latest entry in Wes Craven’s horror franchise get one final laugh (or stab) after the credits are over? Here’s what you need to know. Yes! If you stick around after the credits roll, you’ll be treated to one final moment of Scream 6. Continued here

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'Scream 6' Ending, Explained: How It Sets Up 'Scream 7' -- and Beyond A new Scream movie has arrived, and that means it’s time to play every horror fan’s favorite game: Who’s! That! Ghostface!? Scream 6 is out now and features so many twists and turns that you probably won’t see its final reveal coming. Even if you do, you may have trouble understanding exactly what went down and why. So if you’re confused about the ending of Scream 6, or just want to know more about what it means for Scream 7 and the future of the franchise, we’ve got you covered. Continued here

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13 Years Ago, the Most Underrated Final Fantasy Game Changed the Series Forever Nobody can pinpoint what makes a Final Fantasy game, that is the nature of the anthology series, but it hasn’t stopped people from trying. With 16 mainline entries, there are bound to be some titles that fans feel stray from the “correct” path. For a large part of the fanbase, the worst offender against traditional Final Fantasy is Final Fantasy XIII. Despite its initial bad reputation, the game has been re-evaluated since its original release, and thirteen years later, its impact on the franchise's modern direction is undeniable thanks to one innovation — the stagger system. Final Fantasy has been struggling in recent years, something that the team working on Final Fantasy XVI has openly stated, but this isn’t a new problem. In many ways, the series has struggled to find its footing since franchise creator Hironobu Sakaguchi left following Final Fantasy IX. Since then, each new entry has sought to appeal to a global audience with a taste for high-octane action-oriented games. Continued here

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You Need to Watch the Angriest Revenge Thriller on Netflix ASAP The Glory — Netflix’s beautiful, brutal revenge drama about a woman who devotes her life to bringing her high school bullies to justice — is back today with the second half of its story. The first eight episodes dropped at the end of last year, quickly moving onto the streamer’s Global Top Ten list, and staying there for five weeks. Today, we get the rest of Moon Dong-eun’s (Song Hye-kyo) story, which means, if you haven’t been watching, now is the time to start. Continued here