December 18, 2022 - Instagram Is a Site of Protest for the Chinese Diaspora

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Instagram Is a Site of Protest for the Chinese Diaspora As I made my way to the Chinese Consulate on New York's Upper West Side on a Tuesday evening, I was met with a crowd of Chinese youth, united in their grief over the apartment fire in Urumchi and their anger at the Chinese government's draconian zero-covid policy. The rally quickly became a condemnation of the authoritarian regime, with cries of "Down with Xi Jinping! Down with CCP!" filling the air. My friend and I held up a banner reading "Freedom or Death" and joined the march to Pier 84. As we crossed the street, he said to me, “A few hours later, we are gonna see ourselves on one of the meme pages. ” The “meme pages” are an array of Instagram accounts that have been considered central information hubs for the protest—most notably, @CitizensDailyCN and @Northern_Square. Six months ago, they posted a mix of historical photos, pandemic memes, and China news. Now, they crowdsource and make visible protest footage, political posters, and first-hand narratives from around the world; some of them also mobilize followers and publish mini think-pieces. All these are connected to the ongoing Chinese civil unrest, the largest wave since the 1989 pro-democracy movement. The protests have reverberated across the globe, at a scale that surprised even the most optimistic China pundits. Continued here

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The Best Tech Deals From Walmart To Shop Right Now We only recommend products we love and that we think you will, too. We may receive a portion of sales from products purchased from this article, which was written by our Branded team. To alleviate the stress of holiday shopping, we've sifted through some of the best tech deals from Walmart to help you find thoughtful, easy gifts for everyone on your list. This year, Walmart has already kicked off a series of weekly deals on high-ticket tech items like tablets, TVs, and wearables, along with smaller-scale gifts like warm slippers and Instax cameras that make for perfect stocking stuffers. Continued here

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Sullys stay together: Jake's family in 'Avatar 2,' explained A family can be an alien, a human-turned-alien, their kids, a human, and a Sigourney Weaver. Avatar: The Way of Water has been a long, long time coming, and lots has happened on Pandora since we last checked in. The biggest change is that Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have settled down and started a family, who will become key contributors to the sequel's plot. Continued here

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'Hellboy Web of Wyrd' is a game that oozes style — here's what to know The 2022 Game Awards had a lot of big reveals for fans to get excited about. One of the most unique and unexpected announcements was Hellboy Web of Wyrd. The hellspawn investigator that many people will know from the Guillermo del Torro movies is getting a new video game of his own that looks like a comic book come to life. Here is everything you need to know about Hellboy Web of Wyrd, including who is making it and how the game will play when it finally releases. Yes! The game was announced during the 2022 Game Awards with a snazzy trailer that puts a focus on the game's comic-accurate art style as well as the beat-em-up gameplay. Take a look: Continued here

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Inside the surprisingly complex life, sex, and death of a woodlouse Woodlice are tiny, don’t bite, move slowly and are generally unthreatening. They are part of biological processes essential to life. So what’s not to like? Lots of adults dislike woodlice. Some are physically revolted by them. But this distaste is cultural rather than innate since most small children are well-disposed towards woodlice and happy to handle them. Some people even keep them as pets. Continued here

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You need to play 2022’s wildest sci-fi shooter on Xbox Game Pass ASAP Laughter is a mystery. Science can’t explain what laughter is, even though it can tells us why we laugh when its “wrong” and why laughter is good for us. We even know rats have an adorable little ultrasonic laugh when they get tickled. We humans love a good comedy, but a comedy video game? Those are harder to pin down. Funny for 90 minutes is a lot different than funny for 90 hours. But 2022’s funniest game may just pull it off. High on Life from the twisted minds at Squanch Games (more famously the twisted minds behind Rick and Morty) is a hilarious FPS draped in the hit-TV formula. You play an average teen who, through exposition, ends up lost in space with a bitchy sister and a pistol that talks. Hijinks ensue. Continued here

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How to stay warm while working from home: 4 body temperature hacks If you’re working from home all or part of the time, the chances are that your home working space is getting chillier as winter sets in. But with heating so expensive right now, having it on all day isn’t really an affordable option. So what can we do to stay warm? In evolutionary terms, we are tropical animals: when naked and at rest, we’re most comfortable in the air around 28° Celsius, with an average skin surface temperature of 33° C. But to survive and function normally, we must also maintain our deep body (core) temperature close to 37° C. The process of doing so (thermoregulation) involves our body “sensing” its temperature — we have sensors just beneath the skin’s surface as well as in deeper tissues like the brain — then adjusting our heat production, gain and loss accordingly. Continued here

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What the FTX Collapse Means for the Cryptocurrency Market The rapid fall of FTX makes clear that better regulation is necessary to protect investors and reduce crime in the cryptocurrency market. Wharton’s Kevin Werbach, a longtime advocate of stronger oversight, explains why the path to regulation isn’t a straight line. Wharton’s Kevin Werbach speaks with Wharton Business Daily on SiriusXM about the fall of FTX and the need for better cryptocurrency regulation. Continued here

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The Era of One-Shot, Multimillion-Dollar Genetic Cures Is Here Some of Steven Pipe’s hemophilia patients consider themselves cured. In a trial Pipe led from 2018 to 2021, they received a one-time gene therapy meant to override a DNA mutation that causes spontaneous bleeding episodes, some of them severe and life-threatening. Unlike most drugs, which relieve symptoms, gene therapy addresses the underlying cause of a disease. Thanks to the treatment, they haven’t had to worry about serious bleeding for years.  “They don’t have to think about their hemophilia anymore,” says Pipe, a hematologist at the University of Michigan Health System. “For all intents and purposes, this looks like a cure.”  Continued here

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The 10 best electric cars you can't buy in the U.S. The EV market may be growing in the U.S., but there are still a ton of eye-catching EVs that won’t be coming stateside. Electric cars are on the rise in the U.S., but they haven’t quite taken over the streets as they have in Europe and Asia. That difference in popularity means there are certain EVs that aren’t available in the U.S. Continued here

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I am Superman: The Trek EXe mountain e-bike, reviewed I rediscovered my bike after a few weeks in lockdown. At first, I just pedaled my cheap, steel-framed bike around the neighborhood. After a few rides, It dawned on me that this was a mountain bike! So I took it to my closest trail. Continued here

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What is artificial banana flavor made of? A food neuroscientist reveals the truth There are bananas, and then there are banana-flavored things. Laffy Taffy is my personal favorite, but Runts, Hi-Chews, and jelly beans also capture perhaps not this fruit’s essence but an idea of it. Where did this banana-like flavor come from? The popular narrative is a tale of two bananas: the Gros Michel and the Cavendish. The Gros Michel was the dominating supermarket banana until the 1950s. That’s when the fungus Fusarium oxysporum all but wiped it out. Then the Cavendish, more resilient to the fungus, took Gros Michel’s place in the produce section. But, the story goes that the Gros Michel was the basis for artificial banana flavoring. Since most of us enjoying banana candy today are only familiar with the Cavendish, that’s why banana flavor differs from actual banana. Continued here

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Hawaii Tackles Invasive Little Fire Ants With Vigilance, Slingshots, and Gooey 'Sputter' On any given day, Wailua River State Park in eastern Kauai is jam-packed with tourists. They fill parking lots and hiking trails and riverboat cruises, eager to experience the 1,100-acre preserve’s cultural and geological treasures, everything from temple ruins to the 151-foot Opaekaa Falls. But in October, officials announced a discovery that could put a serious crimp in the park’s popularity. After all, no one wants to spend their vacation being showered with thousands of tiny stinging insects. It seems an uninvited guest has found its way to the park: the dreaded little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata). A native of Central and South America, the ant has been named one of the “world’s worst invasive species” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Continued here

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Iran’s Protest Culture - JSTOR Daily The civil unrest that erupted in Iran after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was allegedly beaten to death by the Islamic Republic’s morality police in September continues to spread across the country. Demonstrations initially aimed at abolishing compulsory hijab laws are now calling for a complete dismantling of the republic itself. Overnight, protestors went from taking off their headscarves to lighting them on fire, from tearing down portraits of their Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to shouting, “Death to the Oppressor!” in the streets. Many reports present these developments as unprecedented, and for good reason. As Assal Rad, a research director at the National Iranian American Council, says in a Zoom call, the current level of civil disobedience would have been “unimaginable” a few months ago. Continued here

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65 cheap gifts skyrocketing in popularity on Amazon that are cool as hell For many people, gift shopping is done at the last minute (or, if you learned a lesson from last year's midnight shopping adventure, a few days or weeks in advance). Either way, even if shopping isn’t your strong suit, it’s very possible to be a bearer of the perfect gifts — no matter the occasion. Who doesn’t want that unwrapping moment when the present you chose goes down as memorable and fun? The challenge here is to bring a bit of creativity and, perhaps, some research to the task. I did the research for you — and so did the Amazon customers who left reviews. Together, we unearthed these 65 cheap gifts that are skyrocketing in popularity on Amazon and are cool as hell. Continued here

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Podcast: Duke Riley and the Poly S. Tyrene Maritime Museum In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we meet artist Duke Riley, who has turned trash into a medium, like clay or paint, and an indictment. His exhibit DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash will run through April 23, 2023, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their stories. Join us daily, Monday through Thursday, to explore a new wonder with cofounder Dylan Thuras and a neighborhood of Atlas Obscura reporters. Continued here

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Fiber optics take the pulse of the planet Andreas Fichtner strips a cable of its protective sheath, exposing a glass core thinner than a hair — a fragile, 4-kilometer-long fiber that’s about to be fused to another. It’s a fiddly task better suited to a lab, but Fichtner and his colleague Sara Klaasen are doing it atop a windy, frigid ice sheet. After a day’s labor, they have spliced together three segments, creating a 12.5-kilometer-long cable. It will stay buried in the snow and will snoop on the activity of Grímsvötn, a dangerous, glacier-covered, Icelandic volcano. Continued here

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Why Are We Awkward? This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. Like most other humans I know, I’m still trying to remember how to act normal when socializing. At the first parties I went to after complete pandemic isolation, I talked too loudly; I spilled drinks; I asked questions that were either too personal or too boring; I stood with my arms outstretched and said, “Are we hugging? Yes? No?” As many of us have begun to socialize more regularly, it’s gotten easier. But a question continues to circulate among my friends: Were we always this awkward? Continued here

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7 years later, the decade's most influential RPG has finally reached its full potential RPGs had a great year in 2022, but the best of them all came in an update to a seven-year-old game that continues to be the best modern RPG of the last decade. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is now available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles with a myriad of graphical and quality-of-life enhancements. As opposed to a game like No Man’s Sky, which took several years to become great, The Witcher 3 was a masterpiece from day one. But the new updates show that it still had room to grow and become the best version of itself possible. On December 14, The Witcher 3 next-gen update was released on current consoles (as well as PC) as a free update for players who already own the game. The update brings with it many changes that breathe new life into the modern classic. Perhaps most notable is the graphical enhancements this update brings to the game, which increase the resolution of textures throughout the game. Continued here

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A Brief History of Silent Protests Activists in China are using blank sheets of paper to speak out against the country’s draconian zero-Covid policies The cry in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park rose over the syncopated sounds of a jazz combo and a loudspeaker blasting rap. Clustered near the park’s iconic arch, about 200 protesters joined a chant. “End the lockdown!” they shouted. “Abolish ‘Covid zero’!” A college student threaded past the participants, handing out blank sheets of white paper. Continued here

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Transparency: The Key to building Data Trust “Trust is that nebulous thing that is hard to quantify but that everyone wants” — Kyle Kirwan, CEO of Bigeye. As companies grow, they tend to invest more in democratizing and operationalizing data. More stakeholders are given access to data, and more data projects are created. This has resulted… Continued here

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Liberica, a rare type of coffee, could dominate by the end of the century For the past century, the coffee market has been dominated by two species: Arabica and Robusta, respectively comprising 55% and 45% of global production. Pricier, sweeter Arabica beans are more typically used in fancier beverages over the more bitter Robusta beans, which pack twice the caffeine. But as the climate changes, a rare species could push these two mainstays to the minority. As a group of plant scientists from the UK and Uganda described in a comment published Thursday in Nature Plants, Coffea liberica, more simply known as Liberica, wasn’t always the relative unknown that it is today. At the dawn of the 20th century, it was the second most traded species, behind the ever popular Arabica. Robust and high-yielding, with resistance to pests and disease as well as an ability to tolerate warmer temperatures, Liberica flourished, particularly in southern Asia. Continued here

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Why short-sightedness is on the rise In the late 1980s and 1990s, parents in Singapore began noticing a worrying change in their children. On the whole, people's lives in the small, tropical nation were improving hugely at the time. Access to education, in particular, was transforming a generation and opening the gates to prosperity. But there was a less positive trend, too: more and more children were becoming short-sighted. Nobody was able to stop this national eyesight crisis. Rates of short-sightedness – also known as near-sightedness or myopia – continued to rise and rise. Today, Singapore has a myopia rate of around 80% in young adults, and has been called "the myopia capital of the world". Continued here

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'Crisis Core Reunion's standout feature is the best video game love triangle ever Final Fantasy VII features some of the most beloved characters in video game history, and a key part of that has always been the dynamic love triangle of Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith. For decades fans have had differing opinions on who’s a better fit for Cloud, but the spinoff Crisis Core, first released on PSP in 2007, pretty eloquently puts that debate to bed. A core focus in the prequel’s story is the budding romance between Zack Fair and Aerith, and Crisis Core Reunion makes that relationship more heartwarming — and heartbreaking — than ever before. As a warning, there will be some spoilers ahead for Crisis Core. It’s likely many fans aren’t very familiar with Crisis Core, as the game never saw a release outside of the PSP, and never even saw a digital release at that. This prequel begins seven years before the events of Final Fantasy 7, and following SOLDIER 2nd-class Zack Fair. Continued here

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You need to watch the most misunderstood sci-fi show on HBO Max ASAP In 2016, HBO’s next great hope for prestige science fiction and fantasy was Westworld. What a difference six years make. In the blink of a pop culture eye, Westworld has gone from a critically acclaimed sci-fi hit to the junk pile. Like the show’s discarded robot Hosts, it’s about to be kicked to the curb. Here’s why you should binge this contradictory, frustrating, and unique sci-fi series before it’s too late. Following an uneven but bold Season 4, it was reported that Westworld would not be renewed for Season 5. Considering that most life on Earth was wiped out at the end of Season 4, the lack of a Season 5 wasn’t that shocking, but showrunner Lisa Joy has hinted that there were ways the story could have moved forward for a final season. Continued here

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What if TikTok really just wants to sell you stuff? Keep abreast of significant corporate, financial and political developments around the world.Stay informed and spot emerging risks and opportunities with independent global reporting, expertcommentary and analysis you can trust. Continued here

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A Refresher on Marketing Myopia Every year, a large majority of product launches fail. There’s debate about exactly what percentage—some say it is 75%, others claim it’s closer to 95%. Regardless of which number is right, there is no doubt that a lot of time and energy go into marketing products that will no longer exist in a year. Why is this? Some of the failure is likely attributable to the fact that many company leaders, including executives, have what’s called marketing myopia—a nearsighted focus on selling products and services, rather than seeing the “big picture” of what consumers really want. Continued here

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Is Superman’s strength possible? Scientists debunk DC's most iconic hero The superhero genre isn’t exactly known for adhering to the laws of physics or other scientific principles, whether it’s making time travel possible in Avengers: Endgame or slinging from buildings on spiderwebs in Spider-Man: No Way Home. On the surface, Superman is no exception to this science-defying logic — the brawny superhero leaps vast distances, bends steel, and can lift up to two billion tons of mass without breaking a sweat. Continued here

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That annoying ringing, buzzing and hissing in the ear – a hearing specialist offers tips to turn down the tinnitus Not a week goes by when I don’t see someone in my clinic complaining of a strange and constant phantom sound in one of their ears, or in both ears. The noise is loud, distracting and scary – and it doesn’t go away. The kind of sound varies from patient to patient: buzzing, blowing, hissing, ringing, roaring, rumbling, whooshing or a combination thereof. But whatever the sound, the condition is called tinnitus. And one thing tinnitus patients have in common is that the sound is not an external one. Instead, the noise is literally inside their head. Continued here

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'Last of Us Part 3' leaks suggest it's in development — everything we know Given the success of the first two installments in The Last of Us series, it makes sense that Sony would greenlight a third entry. The first two games launched to critical acclaim and sold millions of copies, making them some of the most successful PlayStation games ever. The series became so successful that it spawned an HBO TV adaptation, set to launch in January 2023. But what about a third The Last of Us game? While one has not been officially announced by Sony or Naughty Dog, a reliable source indicates that a new entry is, indeed, in the works. Here’s what we know about a potential The Last of Us Part 3. However, a leaker/insider by the name of ViewerAnon says the game is currently in development. Continued here

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Sri Lanka's most beautiful train journey I was woken by the long, forlorn sound of the siren. The brakes hissed and screeched as our train chugged up the hill and pulled into Radella, a station along one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world: the Colombo to Badulla railway. "The journey is so enthralling that you don't want to take your head out of the window," said Dayawathie Ekanayake, who has travelled extensively by train across the island during her career as a finance consultant. "It makes you feel constantly in awe. You wonder about what comes next – is it a waterfall? A stupa-like tea garden? Or is it mist-clouded peaks? You never know. You just have to keep looking." Continued here

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3 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My First Job Almost two decades ago, I entered the workforce with what I was taught was the recipe for success: a college degree, hard work, and relentless focus. What I wasn’t taught was the fact that there is so much more to success than these ingredients. Like any exceptional dish, I had to add spices, herbs, and condiments to make my contributions to stand out. Continued here

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How to Spot a 'Short Snorter' At first glance, the dollars look like any others, tinted with age with some bearing the familiar visage of George Washington and others adorned with faces that aren’t easily as identifiable. But upon closer inspection, these bills are covered with signatures and are taped to one another, like an odd and expensive celebratory banner. This is a “short snorter,” part secret society badge and part autograph book. The short snorter in the Air Mobility Command Museum collection belonged to Tom Farrow, a B-17 crew member of the 384th Bomb Squadron who escaped the burning wreckage of his bomber before being taken as a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II. After being rescued, he retired to Delaware and donated his short snorter to the museum, along with his diary and dog tags. It would have been rolled up for easy transport, only unrolled when a new bill or signature was added from a colleague or famous figure. Continued here

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How mud boosts your immune system "Don't get dirty!" was once a constant family refrain, as parents despairingly watched their children spoil their best clothes. Whether they were running through farmers' fields, climbing trees or catching tadpoles, it was inevitable that children's whites would turn brown before the day was over. Today, many parents may secretly wish their children had the chance to pick up a bit of grime. With the rise of urbanism, and the allure of video games and social media, contact with nature is much rarer than in the past. For many, there is simply no opportunity to get muddy. Continued here

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Billionaire Richard Branson Calls This 1 Skill the Most Important Skill Every Leader Should Have Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, explains the critical skill that makes the world go around. Continued here

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How Grant Wahl Changed the Place of Soccer in America When Grant Wahl was a sophomore at Princeton, in 1994, he received funding to spend a summer studying the culture of fútbol in Argentina. Wahl was from eastern Kansas; he’d never left the United States. He asked the coach of the Princeton soccer team, Bob Bradley, whom he’d met while reporting for the Daily Princetonian, where he might be able to practice his Spanish. Bradley suggested Boca Juniors, the legendary sports club in Buenos Aires, best known for its beloved fútbol team. Wahl watched games standing in the terraces of Boca’s stadium, called La Bombonera, and was caught in the surge that swelled toward the fence every time Boca scored. He drank Quilmes beers with locals, including one of Boca’s most prominent and notorious fans, Quique Ocampo, who had a grocery and was known as the Butcher. Wahl travelled on a bus with Boca Juniors fans to Rosario for a weekend. He fell in love with the songs, with the old stadium in Buenos Aires, with the tidal movements of the crowds. And, of course, there was the beautiful game itself. Continued here

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How Jenna Ortega conquered horror in 2022 — and reinvented a classic movie trope Films like Smile and Terrifier 2 smashed expectations at the box office. Ti West shocked fans with a surprise follow-up to his slasher hit X, turning Pearl into another showcase for rising genre star Mia Goth. But if anyone can be said to have ruled 2022 in the horror sphere, though, it’s the year’s indisputable scream queen Jenna Ortega. The young actress appeared in four horror features this year (including X) and starred in Netflix’s spooky hit series Wednesday. Between carrying existing franchises on her back and experimenting with different shades of horror within the genre, Ortega became 2022’s reigning horror champion. Continued here

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How to Reimagine the Second Half of Your Career By becoming a recognized expert in your chosen domain or discipline you can attract new opportunities and career directions. When I graduated from college in 1995, the last thing I imagined being was a manager in UX design, which was a relatively young field where we ensured the customers and users of our websites, apps, and software could easily use and enjoy these services. My dream was to be a professional musician — a rock star — and I pursued that goal for several years. Continued here

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A Witching Hour with Sarah Ruhl Sarah Ruhl’s theatre career is a bridge. Particularly in her most experimental work, she builds on an artistic lineage that includes her teachers Mac Wellman and Paula Vogel, writers with poetic backbones and haunted brains. Ruhl’s plays—which have been nominated for Pulitzers and for the Tony Award—include the eerie technological fever dream “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” the magic-in-everyday-things reverie “Melancholy Play,” and the epic, erudite triptych “Passion Play.” Her work delights in odd stage pictures, metaphorical flights, and slippery, lyrical logic. In “Melancholy Play,” characters overcome by grief sometimes turn into almonds. Ruhl is best known, though, for crossing that experimental tradition with the more conventional “drama of ideas,” particularly in her most recent works. As wild as events get in her feminist plots, her protagonists are often capable women of the middle class, almost always married, grappling with how to surrender to larger mysteries. Lincoln Center—hardly an avant-garde stronghold—is her primary artistic home in New York and the place where she has brought such comic dramas as “The Clean House,” “How to Transcend a Happy Marriage,” and “The Oldest Boy.” (It also produced “In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play,” her only venture on Broadway.) Now she brings Lincoln Center “Becky Nurse of Salem,” and, though it’s recognizably Ruhl-esque, the problems confronting her central character seem darkened by some new knowledge and anger. Deirdre O’Connell plays Becky, a many-times-removed descendant of a victim of the Salem witch trials, who decides that the solution to her problems is, ironically, a bit of sorcery. O’Connell, who recently won the Tony for “Dana H.,” gives a ribald, earthy, hilarious performance. At one point, Becky learns from her neighborhood witch that she’ll need to supply some of her own, shall we say, “intimate excretions” for a love charm, so she turns her back, unbuttons her pants, and goes straight to the source. Continued here

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Cheap liver drug could prevent COVID Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that a cheap, readily available drug used to treat liver disease can also prevent COVID-19 infections. “We are optimistic that this drug could become an important weapon in our fight against COVID-19,” said lead researcher Fotios Sampaziotis. Continued here

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What's the right age to get a smartphone? It is a very modern dilemma. Should you hand your child a smartphone, or keep them away from the devices as long as possible? As a parent, you'd be forgiven for thinking of a smartphone as a sort of Pandora's box with the ability to unleash all the world's evils on your child's wholesome life. The bewildering array of headlines relating to the possible impact of children's phone and social media use are enough to make anyone want to opt out. Apparently, even celebrities are not immune to this modern parenting problem: Madonna has said that she regretted giving her older children phones at age 13, and wouldn't do it again. Continued here

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The World Cups Forgotten Team Hundreds of thousands of Nepalis were part of an army of migrant workers who remade Qatar for its World Cup moment. But in chasing desperately needed paychecks abroad, many pay a heavy price. A mosaic made of thousands of photographs of the workers who built the World Cup stadium in Lusail, Qatar, decorates the stadium’s exterior.Credit...Tasneem Alsultan for The New York Times Continued here S11 A Recession Looms Over the Posh World of Influencers When Lydia Millen’s heating broke in late November, she checked into Britain’s oldest luxury hotel, the Savoy, where gilded rooms go for anywhere from $700 to $5,500 a night. “I’m going to make full use of their wonderful hot water,” the British influencer told her 797,000 TikTok followers. The response—3.9 million views later—was predictably vehement. Many commenters compared Millen to Marie Antoinette; others cracked jokes like “My TV is broken so I’ve hired a private jet to fly me to Qatar so I can watch the footie.” One comment with more than 14,000 likes summed up the sentiment best: “The room (a very cold one) has not been read.” Continued here S39 The 10 best RPGs of 2022, ranked Role-playing games have always been a centerpiece of the video game industry, and 2022 was still a landmark year. From turn-based titles and action RPGs to MMOs and monster collecting, 2022 quite literally had something for everyone. With dozens of titles released each month, especially in the fall season, it can be hard to keep track. Still, there are a handful of RPGs that either dominated the conversation or were so acclaimed that they simply cannot be overlooked. Here are the 10 biggest RPGs of 2022. Continued here S51 The 'Perpetual Broths' That Simmer For Decades When Magdalena Perrotte arrived in the U.S. from France in 1982, she had a secret stashed in her purse—a large jar, filled with a precious golden liquid. “I had it carefully wrapped in a scarf, as well as some raw milk cheeses and cured saucisson—French ingredients you couldn’t buy in Florida,” Perotte, a former owner of Orlando institution Le Coq au Vin, recalls. “I became an expert at hiding food from customs officials.” Four decades later, Perrotte still uses the same smuggled broth in her cooking. She boasts that this magical elixir, lovingly concocted by her mother in her Normandy kitchen, “is older than Taylor Swift.” Continued here S54 You've Been Called Out for a Microaggression. What Do You Do? As a person who wants to be an ally to members of marginalized groups, how should you respond after a colleague calls you out for committing a microaggression? First, make sure the other person feels heard. Replace your instinctive defensiveness with curiosity and empathy. Listen with an open heart and mind. Be grateful: Your colleague is telling you how you’re showing up in the world in order to help you become a more evolved person. Next, offer a sincere apology. Say something like, “Thank you for telling me. I appreciate that you trust me enough to share this feedback. I am sorry that what I said was offensive.” Finally, commit to doing better in the future. Say, “I care about creating an inclusive workplace and I want to improve. Please keep holding me accountable.” Continued here S15 Don't Waste Your Time on Networking Events Large business networking events are traditional, and the question often is not whether you should attend, but how to make the most of such events when you do attend. Theoretically, they’re one of the best ways to grow your business. The problem is that you’re probably not getting the consistent results you’d like because your success is directly tied to your ability to interact with people looking for the exact same things as you are. Networking can be defined as any activity that increases the value of your network or the value you contribute to it. The best way to do this is to avoid traditional networking events almost entirely. Some alternative strategies are: host your own get-togethers, giving you more control; double date – invite a client to an event, and ask them to bring someone they think you should meet, while you do the same; and reconnect with dormant ties, such as former classmates and any contacts from a previous career. Continued here S46 New star maps could dash hopes of finding life on the nearest exoplanet to Earth The nearest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri, hosts a small rocky world in the habitable zone of that star. The nearest known exoplanet to Earth, a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, experiences some pretty nasty space weather from its parent star. But previous work on the space weather of Proxima relied on a lot of assumptions. The bad news is that new research has confirmed the grim picture. Continued here S14 How to Write Email with Military Precision When you send an email, the first thing your recipient sees is the subject line, so make sure it’s as clear as possible: What is your email’s purpose? What do you want your recipient to do? Take a page from military personnel. Their subject lines use keywords in all caps to note the email’s purpose. For example: Continued here S5 Is gossip really so bad? In 2022, anonymous stories became the news Some statements made on this account have not been independently confirmed. This account does not claim information published is based in fact. So goes the Instagram bio of @Deuxmoi, an account that trades in sightings and supposed secrets of famous people around the world. Whether or not the information is true is incidental for some of the 1.7m people who follow the account, instead, the proposition that privileged intel can be served up by anyone standing near Ed Sheeran in Wholefoods keeps people scrolling. Continued here S16 Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45 It’s widely believed that the most successful entrepreneurs are young. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg were in their early twenties when they launched what would become world-changing companies. Do these famous cases reflect a generalizable pattern? In fact, the average age of entrepreneurs at the time they founded their companies is 42. But what about the most successful startups? Is it possible that companies started by younger entrepreneurs are particularly successful? Research shows that among the top 0.1% of startups based on growth in their first five years, the founders started their companies, on average, when they were 45 years old. Continued here S60 Apple May Allow Rival App Stores on Some iPhones and iPads Apple’s gonna do what Apple’s gonna do—unless government regulations compel it to change. A string of recent European Union regulations have forced Apple to loosen control over its tightly guarded product line. EU rulings have led to Apple establishing self-repair programs and will soon require Apple devices sold in the region to use USB-C charging ports. Now, Apple will allow some users to install third-party app stores and programs without having to go through its official App Store. Continued here S13 How to Support Your Jewish Colleagues Right Now In 2021, antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in the U.S. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), this increase represents the highest number ever recorded since the organization began tracking them in 1979. In addition to these attacks — assault, harassment, and vandalism — we’ve seen a number of influential individuals over the years making headlines for antisemitic comments and hate speech. It’s time organizations acknowledged the experiences of Jewish employees and included them in DEI efforts. The author, a DEI leader, reached out to Jewish leaders to understand and include their perspectives. Based on their input, here’s how leaders and individuals can support their Jewish employees and colleagues and fight antisemitism in their workplaces. Continued here S6 Your Favorite YouTube or TikTok Star Now Probably Owns a Restaurant From MrBeast’s mall burger restaurant to David Dobrik’s pizzeria and Dylan Lemay’s ice cream shop, YouTube and TikTok’s biggest stars are getting in on owning restaurants Dylan Lemay had worked at Cold Stone Creamery for eight years before he started posting on TikTok in early 2020, motivated by a friend’s goal of becoming “TikTok famous.” Through POV-style videos of himself decorating ice cream cakes and tossing balls of ice cream into the air, he became the platform’s top food and beverage creator by the end of 2021. Continued here S12 How an Indian student made Sanskrit’s ‘language machine’ work for the first time in 2,500 years Support Scroll.in Your support is crucial: India needs independent media and independent media needs you. A grammatical problem which has defeated Sanskrit scholars since the 5th Century BC has finally been solved by an Indian PhD student at the University of Cambridge. Continued here S17 After 25 Years, Google Made a Major Change to Your Search Results. It’s Hard to Believe It Took So Long Making it easier to find what your users arelooking for is always a good strategy. Continued here S8 Are We Loving Venice to Death? “The Venice of to-day,” wrote Henry James back in 1882, “is a vast museum . . . and you march through the institution with a herd of fellow-gazers.” A century and a half after James wrote those words, some 30 million visitors overwhelm La Serenissima each year. Its resident population meanwhile has shrunk to fewer than 53,000, from a peak of 175,000 in 1951. Mammoth cruise ships damage its centuries-old foundations and its fragile lagoon, and there is even talk of putting up permanent turnstiles for Piazza San Marco, Italy’s most iconic square. Continued here S35 Why pink snow could spell peril for the American West Researchers are trying to understand what drives snow algal blooms and how they could alter water supplies. Jim Elser scanned the snowfields clinging to the lower slopes of Clements Mountain in Montana’s Glacier National Park. While nearby tourists snapped pictures of soaring rock faces and searched for wildlife, Elser, an ecologist at the University of Montana and the director of the Flathead Lake Biological Station, concentrated on just one thing: finding snow algae. Continued here S18 11 Simple Habits That Will Make You Happy Every Day, According to a UCLA Happiness Researcher They're fun, free, and easy to fit in your schedule. Continued here S52 Who Keeps Putting Potatoes on a Prussian King's Grave? Walking the grounds of Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, you might stumble across a peculiar gravestone that is covered with potatoes. Perhaps even more confusingly, the stone bears the name of King Fredrick the Great of Prussia. While this may seem odd, it is actually a sign of respect and gratitude to Der Kartoffelkönig (“the potato king”). Though potatoes are a large part of diets around the world, this was not always the case. The potato plant, which is native to South America, didn’t even find its way to Europe until well into the 16th century. Even then, it was often used as an ornamental plant. Potatoes are part of the family Solanaceae, which includes a number of plants that are poisonous to humans—like deadly nightshade. Because of the resemblance to such toxic plants, many people were wary of eating potatoes. Continued here S10 In search of an attainable New Year’s resolution It’s that time of year again — when seemingly every advertisement, social media post, or well-meaning loved one is quick to remind you how you’re due for a refresh, a restart, a rebrand. Self-improvement is difficult any time of year, but you may feel extra pressure to embark on a life change at the top of the new year. The desire to set goals often comes on the heels of the start of a new week, month, year, semester, or birthday, dubbed the “fresh start effect.” When the slate is wiped clean in any capacity, people feel more compelled to conquer a challenge. New Year’s resolutions get a bad rap for being notoriously unattainable. Studies and surveys show that people aren’t great at sticking to resolutions, ditching them within the first month. However, the process you take in reaching the goal holds more weight than simply making a choice to change. Continued here S34 Who is Kiri's father? 'Avatar 2's biggest mystery sets up a shocking twist Sigourney Weaver returns from the dead as her own 14-year-old daughter in Avatar: The Way of Water. Confused? Let's break it down. James Cameron can’t help himself. The master of blockbusters has a thing for writing in Sigourney Weaver as the hero (see: Aliens). He did the same for Avatar. And even though Weaver’s badass and brilliant character, Dr. Grace Augustine met her maker at the end of that movie, the actress still manages to return in Avatar: The Way of Water. But that return raises more question than answers about the world of Pandora and the future of the Avatar series. Continued here S38 The 6 best wireless soundbars you can buy right now From single soundbars that pack an impressive punch, to full home theaters in a box, these are the six soundbars you should consider. Unless you’re ready to drill holes in your ceiling and run wires all over your living room, soundbars are still the best way to get earth-shaking and immersive sound in your home theater. Continued here S36 How Amazon's 'Nanny' fixes the problem of "exotic" horror tropes The biggest scares in Nikyatu Jusu's eerie horror film work because of their West African origins. For almost as long as the genre has existed on-screen, horror movies have used real cultural mythologies to frighten us. Exorcisms, spirits, and vampires are all familiar tropes that have international origins — even more niche subgenres like folk horror owe themselves entirely to pagan and foreign religions. Continued here S32 'Barbie' trailer has a brilliant reference to a Stanley Kubrick sci-fi classic It’s almost time for summer camp, folks. And by “summer camp,” we mean sitting down for the most anticipated (and campiest) 2023 theatrical release next July: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The titular and tentpole Mattel doll has had over 200 careers, but no role on her résumé has ever been “live-action movie star” ... until now. Brought to life by Margot Robbie and featuring Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu as Ken dolls, Barbie’s plot details are being kept tightly under wraps. Continued here S37 Faceplanting frogs and sneezing sponges: 10 discoveries show nature's weirdness of 2022 We might think we know a lot about animals, but some of their weirdest behaviors remain hidden under our noses. Faceplanting frogs, growling bats, and a vast deep sea fish nest were just some of the findings that made headlines this year. Continued here S19 The ICC upholds 25-year jail term for Ongwen - why it matters for Africa Tonny Raymond Kirabira worked as a Visiting Professional in the Office of Public Counsel for Victims at the International Criminal Court in 2020. The views he expresses are his own, and not for the Court or its affiliates. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has upheld its 25-year jail term against former Ugandan rebel commander Dominic Ongwen. In a decision delivered on 15 December, the ICC Appeals Chamber confirmed, by majority, the punishment imposed in May last year. Continued here S31 This Cybertruck camper mod gives your Tesla a kitchen, bathroom, and office We're still waiting for the Cybertruck to hit the market, but you can still reserve the Space Campers mod now. The Tesla Cybertruck may not be out yet, but we already have the option to transform it into the ultimate home-on-wheels. Space Campers previewed its camper mod for the Cybertruck that attaches to the truck bed and can be quickly reconfigured as a sleeping space, kitchen, workspace, or bathroom. Continued here S33 28 years ago, James Cameron made his most underrated action movie ever What do you do after you’ve blown up Hollywood with one of the biggest movies of all time? Blow stuff up some more. After James Cameron rocked the world with one of the biggest, most ambitious sci-fi blockbusters to define the ‘90s (at least until The Matrix in 1999), the Hollywood auteur had some fun by blowing up suburban malaise. Continued here S30 Henry Cavill isn't going back to 'The Witcher' — he's doing something even cooler Henry Cavill isn’t your average movie star. He brought Geralt of Rivia to life in The Witcher partly because it’s a perfectly cast role, but also because he just really, really, loves The Witcher. The Superman actor once posted a five-minute-long video of himself building a gaming PC in a tank top, and he’s always been keen to talk about Warhammer 40000, a miniature wargame; the man is just really nerdy. After a tumultuous week following an even more tumultuous few months, it looked like Cavill had gone from two huge jobs to zero, but it was all for the best: His dream job just fell in his lap. 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