December 18, 2022 - 'Lemon Cake' Is the Perfect Recipe for Casual Gamers

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'Lemon Cake' Is the Perfect Recipe for Casual Gamers I can't remember the last time I finished a video game. I've had my Nintendo Switch Lite for two years now, and it's riddled with a number of titles I've abandoned for one reason or another. I often scroll through the Nintendo eShop, watching dozens of trailers in search of a game that might hook my ADHD brain, but nothing ever feels quite tantalizing. And now I feel guilty that my Switch sees most of its days tucked away in a drawer. As a kid, I was always into simulation-style games (The Sims, Mall Tycoon, and Nintendogs, to name a few) and that has carried over into my adulthood. I've long struggled to find a game that scratches this itch though—devoid of side quests, intense customization, multiple storylines, and tough levels. That is, until a couple of months ago, when a TikTok video about "cozy Nintendo Switch games" appeared on my For You page.  Continued here

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Spectacular Anglo-Saxon burial uncovered - here's what it tells us about women in seventh-century England A village with the Old English name “Filthy Pool” wasn’t an auspicious location to discover one of the most spectacular burials of the Anglo Saxon period. Nevertheless, excavations by the Museum of London Archaeology at Harpole, Northamptonshire, in England’s Midlands, have uncovered an astonishing Christian burial of the seventh century, a period when the religion was relatively new in England. Continued here

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Musk suspends NYT and WaPo reporters from Twitter, claims they doxxed him Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk is now suspending some journalists who write about him, including reporters from The New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN. The journalist suspensions seem to be part of Musk's quest to erase references or links to the now-suspended ElonJet account that used publicly available data from ADS-B Exchange to track Musk's private jet. Continued here

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The Republican Party Is in a Strange Place The GOP is in a strange place. After falling short of expectations in the midterms, some Republicans blame Donald Trump, and some want to anoint a challenger for 2024. But with Trump already announced and a GOP-controlled House set to spend two years investigating Joe Biden, is the party at all likely to move on from Trump? The Atlantic staff writers Mark Leibovich and Elaina Plott consider that question, as well as the ascent of Marjorie Taylor Greene as Congress prepares for its 2023 session, on this week’s episode of Radio Atlantic. Continued here

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The Pressure Increases on Sam Bankman-Fried Just after 6 P.M. on Monday, Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested, in response to a request from U.S. law enforcement, at his home at the Albany, a luxurious Bahamas beach resort. Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency platform FTX, had been staying there since his company collapsed, in November, issuing public statements along the lines of “fuck regulators” and “I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing.” He appeared at a Bahamian magistrate’s court on Tuesday in a blue suit. There, according to the local press, an attorney for Bankman-Fried argued that he should be released on bail, stating that Bankman-Fried is a vegan, and has suffered from depression, insomnia, and A.D.D. The attorney also said that his client is prepared to fight any effort to extradite him to the United States. He has deep ties in the Bahamas, owns property there, and would be willing, the attorney reportedly added, to pay two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash bail. The judge expressed concern that Bankman-Fried could be a flight risk, given the amount of money he is believed to still have access to. At the end of the hearing, the judge denied the bail request. It was a day of competing FTX-related spectacles. As the Bahamian bail hearing wound down, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, held a press conference in lower Manhattan, where he said that the allegations represented one of the largest financial-fraud cases in history, and he issued an ominous warning about what was to come. “To anyone who participated in wrongdoing at FTX or Alameda Research”—a hedge fund also controlled by Bankman-Fried—“and who has not yet come forward, I would strongly encourage you to come see us before we come see you,” Williams said. “We are not done.” That same day, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the FTX collapse, at which Bankman-Fried had been expected to testify. Continued here

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How to Get Through the Holidays Without Going Broke While your friends and families may not all be dealing with the same pressures you face — finding a job, making rent, and generally, figuring out your life and career — everyone knows that it’s been a tough 12 months. Your loved ones likely won’t be disappointed if you can’t give them lavish gifts (and if they are, they might not be the best people to have in your circle). Continued here

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How the Families of American Hostages Created Bipartisan Support for Prisoner Swaps Paula and Joey Reed had no idea what to do when their son Trevor was arrested in Moscow, on August 16, 2019. Trevor, who had been drinking heavily at a party with his girlfriend, said he felt nauseated and asked to step out of the car as he rode home with acquaintances. Trevor was badly intoxicated and began running around a busy street. His acquaintances called the police for help. Officers took him into custody and brought him to a nearby police station. When his girlfriend came back in a few hours to pick him up, Trevor, a twenty-eight-year-old former marine and an eighth-generation Texan, was questioned by officials from the F.S.B., the Russian equivalent of the F.B.I., without a translator or an attorney. She was informed that Trevor was being charged with intentionally endangering the lives and health of police officers, a charge that carries a sentence of up to ten years in prison, for allegedly grabbing the arm of the police officer who was driving and elbowing another. Trevor’s girlfriend called his parents in a panic. She told the Reeds that their son had bruises on his body and may have been badly beaten by the police. The Reeds immediately called the U.S. Embassy. The lackadaisical response of American diplomats intensified their fear. “This was on a Friday, midday, and we asked if they were going to check on him,” Joey Reed recalled. “And they said we’ll check on Monday. That gives you a pretty good sense of our relationship with the United States Embassy for the first year.” A month later, with Trevor still in a Russian pre-detention center, Joey Reed, a retired fire chief, moved to Moscow to be closer to his son and to monitor the legal proceedings. Paula, a health-care-office manager who left her job to focus on Trevor’s case, stayed in Texas and tried to pressure officials in Washington. Trevor’s lawyers maintained that surveillance video from street cameras never showed the police car dangerously swerving, as officers claimed occurred when Trevor allegedly grabbed the officer, but he was not released on bail, and his case dragged on for months. Joey pushed to get U.S. diplomats to engage in his son’s case, and the embassy sent a Russian-speaking consular officer to attend Trevor’s criminal trial, which concluded in July, 2020, nearly a year after his arrest. In Washington, meanwhile, the Reeds’ calls to White House officials went largely unanswered. Part of the problem, they assessed, was the desire of the Trump Administration to preserve its relationship with Russia. “President Trump never discussed hostages until they were freed, and then he claimed full responsibility,” Joey Reed told me. It was only after a Russian judge sentenced Trevor to nine years in prison, he said, that some U.S. officials began to take the case seriously. The punitive and unprecedented sentence made clear that Trevor was being used as a point of diplomatic leverage with the U.S. Continued here

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Long COVID Isn't the Only Post-Viral Illness In the 1980s, many people in the medical community treated chronic fatigue syndrome as a punchline. Some doctors dismissed patients’ debilitating symptoms, including crushing fatigue and crashes after exercise, as figments of their imaginations. Media outlets even dismissively nicknamed the condition “yuppie flu,” since many cases were reported among affluent white women. In the infectious-disease clinic where Dr. Lucinda Bateman was at the time finishing her medical training, some doctors didn’t want to bother treating chronic-fatigue patients. When Bateman left to go into private practice, she remembers her old colleagues recording a message on their clinic’s answering machine, directing anyone with chronic fatigue syndrome to call Bateman so they wouldn’t have to get involved. Continued here

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RSV treatments for young children are lacking, but the record 2022 cold and flu season highlights the urgency for vaccines and other preventive strategies For many parents, respiratory syncytial virus – or RSV – which has been causing record numbers of hospitalizations of children during the fall of 2022, may sound like a relatively new and unheard-of threat. But in fact, RSV is a common respiratory virus that circulates every fall and winter and is a common cause of lung infections in young children. RSV can be difficult to distinguish from other respiratory infections since the symptoms are common to other illnesses – runny nose, sneezing, congestion, coughing, fever, decreased appetite and wheezing. In most cases, RSV is mild and will improve at home. However, in certain cases, it can cause severe illness and require hospital treatment. Continued here

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Ina Garten: Cooking Is Hard With the help of countless viral videos and her Food Network program “Barefoot Contessa,” Ina Garten has become a household name. An essential element of her success is her confiding warmth, and her encouragement for even the most novice home cook. She talks with David Remnick, a longtime friend, about her new book, and why her own childhood experiences at dinner were filled with dread. We take a look at the craft of narrating an audiobook with a master of the form, Robin Miles, who has lent her voice to hundreds of titles from “Charlotte’s Web” to Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste.” And Susan Orlean, in an installment of her column “Afterword,” remembers a Texas man with a passion for rattlesnakes. The food guru explains why she hated dinnertime growing up, and how she learned to love it. Garten takes questions from listeners on everything from bay leaves to her scarves. Continued here

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Wealthy individuals are giving billions to solve the climate crisis - is it working? One of the best parts about being The Conversation is when we actually have a conversation in real life. And finally, we did just that recently with a fascinating event, co-sponsored by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Associated Press and GBH. Here is a recap from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Major philanthropists have poured billions into fighting the climate crisis in recent years amid a growing sense of urgency. Their investments have sparked broader questions over philanthropy’s approach to confronting the crisis, which activists say will require trillions of dollars yearly to solve. Continued here

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'Vaccinating' frogs may or may not protect them against a pandemic - Scientists have found this pathogen on every continent that amphibians inhabit, and the extensive global amphibian trade has likely spread highly lethal strains around the world. The amphibian chytrid fungus is widespread in some geographic regions, and, like the virus that causes COVID-19, it can mutate rapidly and take new forms that cause varying disease severity. Conservation translocation is an increasingly popular way to recover species that have experienced extensive population declines. It involves moving organisms to reestablish populations that have gone extinct, supplement existing ones or establish new ones in areas where the species was not previously present. However, when the amphibian chytrid fungus is prevalent in the landscape, frogs are likely to get sick again, hampering the success of translocation. Continued here

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No One Wants Your Cold Paul Sax is a Harvard infectious diseases specialist who likes to play poker. Every few weeks, he plays with friends in Boston. Recently, when it was Sax’s turn to host, one of the game’s regulars came down with a cold. The player, Sax told me, tested negative for COVID—but offered to stay home anyway. Sax took him up on it. “Why go through the hassle of getting a cold?” he told me, offering some practical advice: “If you’re going to the house of an infectious-disease doctor, don’t come with a cold.” Continued here

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Video of college student arrest raises questions about use of police on campus When a video emerged of a 20-year-old Black student being arrested at Winston-Salem State University on Dec. 14, 2022, after she got into a verbal argument with her professor, it brought renewed attention to the often controversial role of campus police. Here, Jarell Skinner-Roy, a University of Michigan doctoral student who is examining how students of color view police and surveillance on college and university campuses, breaks down the significance of the episode at the historically Black college in North Carolina. For me, this is additional evidence of how colleges and universities often function as an extension of what some scholars refer to as the “carceral state.” That includes penal institutions, but it also involves people’s views on when law enforcement should get involved in disputes and altercations. Continued here

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Holiday foods can be toxic to pets - a veterinarian explains which, and what to do if Rover or Kitty eats them During the holidays, it’s typical for people to indulge in special foods. Being a pet owner myself, I know that many pet parents want to give their fur babies special treats as well. Here are some of the most common food-related crises we veterinarians encounter in the animal ER during the holidays, and what to do if they happen. Continued here

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Over the holidays, try talking to your relatives like an anthropologist How is it possible to spend so much time with your parents and grandparents and not really know them? This question has puzzled me as an anthropologist. It’s especially relevant for the holiday season, when millions of people travel to spend time with their families. Continued here

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Trump Drops More Superhero Collectibles Follow @newyorkercartoons on Instagram and sign up for the Daily Humor newsletter for more funny stuff. © 2022 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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A Better Way to Map Brand Strategy Companies have long used perceptual mapping to understand how consumers feel about their brands relative to competitors’, to find gaps in the marketplace, and to develop brand positions. But the business value of these maps is limited because they fail to link a brand’s market position to business performance metrics such as pricing and sales. Other marketing tools measure brands on yardsticks such as market share, growth rate, and profitability but fail to take consumer perceptions into consideration. Continued here

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Asylum claim rejections show the UK government has little understanding of what people are fleeing - and it's costing lives After yet another tragedy in the Channel, there is no doubt that something needs to be done to improve the processes overseeing asylum seekers coming to the UK, through whatever route. The UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has outlined a five-point plan to fix Britain’s broken immigration system. New laws will criminalise those who enter the country “illegally”, allowing people to be more rapidly deported. Newly arrived migrants will find it more difficult to open bank accounts, and definitions of modern slavery will be changed to make it harder to claim asylum on this basis. More case workers will be drafted in to help remove people more rapidly and deal with the backlog of asylum claims. Continued here

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Medieval great halls were at the heart of the festive season - here the community kept warm by staying together The great hall is one of the most enduring images from the middle ages – and with good reason. Surviving written sources as well as archaeological and architectural analysis all attest to the importance of the hall within manor houses, castles and palaces during festive periods. Taking mostly English examples, it’s clear that the social dynamics of a great hall were all-important to its role. But the warmth of the hall is also mentioned frequently. Continued here

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1918 flu pandemic upended long-standing social inequalities - at least for a time, new study finds Racial disparities in influenza deaths shrunk by 74% in U.S. cities during the 1918 flu pandemic due to an odd coincidence of virus and history. That’s the key finding of our recently published study in the journal Demography. This conclusion contradicts the common claim that crises like pandemics make social inequalities worse. The 1918 influenza pandemic was a surprising exception. Continued here

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The Good-Better-Best Approach to Pricing Companies often crimp profits by using discounts to attract price-sensitive customers and by failing to give high-end customers reasons to spend more. A multitiered offering can use a stripped-down product (the “Good” option) to attract new customers, the existing product (“Better”) to keep current customers happy, and a feature-laden premium version (“Best”) to increase spending by customers who want more. Continued here

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Phosphorus supply is increasingly disrupted - we are sleepwalking into a global food crisis Without phosphorus food cannot be produced, since all plants and animals need it to grow. Put simply: if there is no phosphorus, there is no life. As such, phosphorus-based fertilisers – it is the “P” in “NPK” fertiliser – have become critical to the global food system. Most phosphorus comes from non-renewable phosphate rock and it cannot be synthesised artificially. All farmers therefore need access to it, but 85% of the world’s remaining high-grade phosphate rock is concentrated in just five countries (some of which are “geopolitically complex”): Morocco, China, Egypt, Algeria and South Africa. Continued here

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Children born today will see literally thousands of animals disappear in their lifetime, as global food webs collapse Climate change is one of the main drivers of species loss globally. We know more plants and animals will die as heatwaves, bushfires, droughts and other natural disasters worsen. But to date, science has vastly underestimated the true toll climate change and habitat destruction will have on biodiversity. That’s because it has largely neglected to consider the extent of “co-extinctions”: when species go extinct because other species on which they depend die out. 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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No One Wins in Elon Musk’s Battle With Journalists Last night, several well-known journalists, including Ryan Mac of The New York Times and Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, were suspended from Twitter. The suspensions were ostensibly related to the journalists’ reporting on an account—@ElonJet, operated by the 20-year-old Jack Sweeney—which was dedicated to publishing the location of Elon Musk’s private jet based on public data. Musk had once promised that his commitment to free speech would prevent him from ever suspending or banning @ElonJet, but he pivoted this week after an apparently unrelated alleged stalking incident. Continued here

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Interest rates: why your mortgage payments are going up but your savings aren't - and how better monetary policy could help The Bank of England, the UK’s central bank, has raised its main interest rate by 0.5% to 3.5%. This is the ninth in a series of increases over the past year that have had a ripple effect across the economy. A central bank rate rise feeds into the rates that banks, businesses and people are charged to borrow, but it should also boost savings rates. These rates can – and are – being affected to different degrees, however. In central bank jargon, this is called the transmission of monetary policy varying across markets. For instance, while mortgage rates have rocketed in recent months, deposit rates for many savings accounts just haven’t kept up. Continued here

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Why Wellcome closed its Medicine Man exhibition - and others should follow suit In November the Wellcome Collection closed their Medicine Man gallery. In a Twitter thread, they acknowledged that “the display still perpetuates a version of medical history that is based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language.” Medicine Man told history from a narrow, eurocentric perspective. As such, the Wellcome’s decision to rethink its gallery is not a matter of erasing history, but of deepening it. 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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With 'Ragnarök,' 'God of War' Keeps Growing Up Before the long-running God of War series was reestablished with a 2018 entry that moved the story from a mythological ancient Greece to a mythological ancient Scandinavia, its protagonist, Kratos, was an unparalleled jerk. Mouth fixed in a permanent sneer, hell-bent on revenge against the pantheon of gods who tricked him into murdering his family, the earlier Kratos roared, growled, and ripped apart every deity in his way until he'd toppled an entire civilization's metaphysical framework. With God of War's Norse reimagining, though, Kratos started to grow up. In Santa Monica Studio's new vision, he was depicted as a sullen widower now left to forge a relationship with his son, Atreus, after heading north to escape his past. Its being an action game starring a living god means it isn't long, of course, before that past catches up to him and he's forced to reckon with his child, learning the family history and protecting him from the unwanted attention of the Norse gods. Over the course of the story—which tones down much of the previously over-the-top gore and does away with the goofy, rhythm game sex scenes of the Greek series—Kratos eventually learned how to talk to his son in more than monosyllables and grunts, becoming something like a functional parent over the course of their journey to scatter his late wife's ashes. 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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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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Work Speak: The Right Way to Network Networking used to make me cringe. It felt dirty and didn’t come naturally to me. I would enter a networking event and find a seat in the very last row, preferably the corner with the least amount of light. I would much rather spend lunch breaks cleaning up my inbox than meeting new people. I joined virtual group meetings a minute late so I didn’t have to indulge in small talk. 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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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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GPs don't give useful weight-loss advice - new study The advice general practitioners give to patients with obesity in the UK was found to be “highly varied, superficial and often lacked an apparent evidence base”, according to a new study from the University of Oxford. GPs in the UK are in a trusted position as guides and managers of health in their communities. Expectations of them are often high: they are the personal advisers, taking stock of their patients’ physical and mental health, and delivering tailored advice and treatments. Continued here

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Poll: Most People Want to Know Elon Musk’s Location so They Can Avoid Him SAN FRANCISCO (The Borowitz Report)—Shortly after Twitter suspended accounts that were tracking billionaires' private planes, including Elon Musk's, a new poll shows that most people who seek Musk's precise location are doing so to avoid him. The poll, from the University of Minnesota's Opinion Research Institute, reveals that a visceral fear of encountering Elon Musk is what drives eighty-nine per cent of those who follow his movements. Continued here

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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 S44 Muslim Brotherhood at the crossroads: Where now for Egypt's once-powerful group following leader's death in exile, repression at home? Ibrahim Munir, the leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, died on Nov. 4, 2022, in exile in London. While the news generated few headlines around the world, Munir’s death marks a critical moment in the evolution of a group founded nearly 100 years ago, as a social and religious movement. Over the years, the Brotherhood grew into the most significant social movement and political opposition in Egypt. Its Islamist ideology – which calls for public policies in line with its interpretation of Islam – became widely influential around the world. Continued here S27 The Rise and Rise and Rise of the Supertall Skyscraper The first sign of trouble was the crane. Its thin finger appeared over the old brick building outside my window, scratching at the sliver of sky I could just make out above the rooftops. My sky. In a city where you can sprain your neck searching for sky, I relished this shard of blue, so tiny that I could cover it with my thumb. I consoled myself about the crane with the flimsy logic I once used after discovering a bedbug: It’ll go away! Continued here S18 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 S17 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 S8 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 S29 How to Intervene When Your Team Has Too Much Work Fortunately, there are ways to get the most important items done and stay sane in the process. First, be honest with yourself; an overloaded department won’t get everything done. Second, prioritize consciously about what you’ll do — and what you won’t. Third, communicate your plan with your boss, including data, if necessary. Fourth, delegate projects to other teams or to external contractors. Fifth, reset expectations with stakeholders. Finally, request more staff. Even if it’s not in the cards right now, making the case early might put you at the top of the list when budget allows. Continued here S15 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 S55 'Untraditional' Hanukkah celebrations are often full of traditions for Jews of color Hanukkah, the Jewish “festival of lights,” commemorates a story of a miracle, when oil meant to last for one day lasted for eight. Today, Jews light the menorah, a candelabra with eight candles – and one “helper” candle, called a shamas – to remember the Hanukkah oil, which kept the Jerusalem temple’s everlasting lamp burning brightly. Each year, the holiday starts with just the shamas and one of the eight candles and ends, on the last night, with the entire menorah lit up. But because the reason for the light is oil, Jews also celebrate by eating food cooked in oil. In the United States, most people think of those oil-soaked foods as latkes, or potato pancakes, and jelly doughnuts called sufganiyot. For most American Jews, these are indeed important holiday foods, replete with memories – both of their heavy, greasy deliciousness and of the smells that permeate the house for days after a latke fry. Continued here S33 Why indecision makes you smarter In the TV series The Good Place, the character Chidi Anagonye is defined by his inability to make even the simplest of decisions – from choosing what to eat, to proclaiming love for his soulmate. The very idea of making a choice often results in a serious stomach-ache. He is stuck in continued ‘analysis paralysis’.  We meet Chidi in the afterlife, and learn that his indecisiveness was the cause of his death. While standing in the street, endlessly equivocating on which bar to visit with his best friend, an air-conditioning unit from the apartment above falls on his head, killing him instantly.  Continued here S61 Common Anatomies of Disappointing Men Unlucky in love? Don’t despair. Here’s an illustrated taxonomy of deeply disappointing men to help you identify some anatomies common to a few subspecies of Homo sapiens so that you can spot the signs that someone is about to waste your time before it actually happens. Homo sapiens immaturis is a creature of habit: he loves the status quo. In fact, he would prefer to keep things the way that they are between you two, if that’s cool. Though research indicates that he may one day evolve to become able to commit to someone, it will not be to you. The part of this man’s brain that would normally feel bad about this is biologically reserved for more pressing issues, like the cancellation of his favorite HBO Max series. Continued here S6 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 S65 Brittney Griner and the Role of Race in Diplomacy Thirty-nine years ago this month, an African American Navy bombardier-navigator named Robert Goodman was taking part in a mission to destroy Syrian munitions in Lebanon when his plane was shot down. The pilot, Mark Lange, died, and Goodman, who was twenty-seven, suffered fractured ribs and other injuries. Syrian soldiers found him and took him to a military compound in Damascus. His capture immediately provoked a complex international standoff. The Syrian government viewed him as a prisoner of war and said that he would not be released until the United States withdrew its forces from Lebanon. (Hundreds of Americans were stationed there, as part of a multinational force deployed to stabilize the region.) The incident presented a dilemma for the Reagan Administration, which had come to power in part by attacking President Jimmy Carter’s failed efforts to release fifty-two American hostages held in Iran. The White House’s inability to negotiate Goodman’s release also fostered an impression that Ronald Reagan, who had a long record of antipathy toward civil-rights causes, was unconcerned about a Black P.O.W. As the civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson saw it, according to his biographer, Marshall Frady, Reagan’s policy was in effect “just to leave Goodman there to rot.” Later that December, in an effort to secure Goodman’s freedom, Jackson himself left for Syria with a sprawling retinue that included his personal physician, a number of reporters, and the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. After three days of negotiations, the Syrian President, Hafez al-Assad, agreed to release Goodman, as an act of good will. But, despite that triumph, Frady wrote, Jackson returned home to a cascade of criticism. Reagan invited Goodman, Jackson, and their families to the White House, but an Administration official reportedly said that Assad had released Goodman to Jackson mostly to embarrass Reagan—a possibility that likely did not escape Jackson, who made his first Presidential run the next year. Continued here S7 Our Favorite Hair Dryers and Diffusers If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED Hair is a fun and annoying thing. You can cut it, dye it, straighten it, curl it, or let it sit in a knot for days on end. When you want to get a polished look or just need to dry your hair quickly, you may consider a blow-dryer. Continued here S30 Warren Buffett's Measure for Success in Life Comes Down to This One Number. It's a Lesson for Every Human Leader  Hint, hint: It doesn't have a dollar sign in front of it. Continued here S52 Antibiotics shortages: what's causing them and how countries can minimise the impact A variety of antibiotics are currently in short supply across Europe. In the UK, for example, the availability of amoxicillin and penicillin, which are used to treat infections such as strep A, is low. Medicine shortages are a significant problem around the world, affecting patient welfare and costs of care. A 2021 survey of community pharmacists in 27 European countries confirmed that shortages are a persisting issue. Continued here S34 Suavecito: The love song that became an anthem On Cinco de Mayo, 1980, Latino-American singer and songwriter Richard Bean joined Jorge Santana, Carlos Santana's younger brother, on stage at an outdoor concert in Los Angeles. Years before, Bean had written a song called Suavecito, and he never realised how iconic it had become until the two began playing it. As its slow groove flowed over the loudspeakers, the 20,000-person crowd in the city's Lincoln Park erupted in a roar. "As I was singing to the crowd, four huge Chicano (Mexican-American) guys marched behind the band on stage and unfurled a giant green, white and red Mexican flag," Bean tells BBC Culture. The flag was so large it took all four men to hold it, he explains. "Get them off the stage," the roadies began shouting, according to Bean. "Get them off." But the four stood proud. "No, not until the song is over," they said. "Not until Suavecito is done." When he looked behind him at the huge flag, and looked out at the all-Latino audience, Bean began to tear up. It wasn't until that moment, he said, that he knew Suavecito, informally called the "Chicano National Anthem" by some, lived up to that name as a true symbol of America's Mexican-Americans and Latino people. Continued here S28 Space Exploration Could Always Use a Little Serendipity The Mars rover was out and about, doing its normal rover things inside one of the red planet’s craters, when there was a sudden shift in the atmosphere. A vortex of air and dust had swirled into shape, and it was fast approaching. The rover, named Perseverance, didn’t move from its spot. The whirlwind slammed into the robot, tiny particles pinging its exterior. Within seconds, the bombardment was over, and the vortex was gone. Perseverance was fine. Although the dusty column of air was nearly 10 times wider than the rover and about 55 times as tall, the whirlwind wasn’t strong or dense enough to tip a spacecraft over. In fact, Perseverance was more than fine, because its microphone was on. In the midst of the windy commotion, Percy managed to do something historic: capture the sound of a Martian dust devil for the first time. You hear the usual calm of Mars, the low hum of wind, a flurry of fine grains hissing and crackling upon impact, and then quiet again as the plume twirls away. Continued here S39 Iran: dissent by public figures has amplified the protest across the country - and the world Iran’s Islamic Republic continues to violently suppress ongoing pro-democracy protests, which broke out in September in response to the killing of a young woman who had been arrested for not wearing a proper head covering. According to the NGO Iran Human Rights at least 458 protesters have been killed, including 63 children. Death sentences have been issued to at least 11 people. Mohsen Shekari, a 22 year old Tehran café worker, was executed on December 8 after being found guilty of charges of using a weapon with intent to kill and “enmity against God”. Amnesty International called it “a grossly unfair sham trial” with no due process. Continued here S36 The 20 best films of 2022 Delightfully bonkers on the surface, this inventive extravaganza from the directing team called Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) has a deep layer of family feeling and a well-earned emotional pull at the end. Michelle Yeoh is ideal and comically straight-faced as Evelyn, a harried laundromat owner with tax problems who enters a multiverse of alt-Evelyns. Exploding with colour, at times the film is a phantasmagoria of morphing identities and shifting universes – in one Evelyn does laundry, in another she's a movie star ­– yet it always remains true to its believably humane characters. It's the rare art film that can make audiences cry, and also rake in a ton of money, taking in more than $100 million at the box office worldwide. (CJ) A belated sequel to 1986's Top Gun seemed like a bad idea. But when Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) returned to the US Navy's elite fighter-pilot school, the resulting blockbuster wasn't just a thrilling showcase for some spectacular aerobatic displays, but a touching, bittersweet drama about getting older. It was also the year's most successful film. So... how did Cruise and co do it? Simple, really. They brought back all the elements from the original Top Gun, and then they improved every single one of them. Of course, it helps that Cruise looks better today than he did in 1986. (NB) Continued here S16 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 S9 The Best Sleep Gadgets and Apps If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED Insomnia is a waking nightmare that can rob you of your health and sense of well-being. Everyone knows we need to prioritize sleep to stay healthy and clear toxins from the brain, but getting to sleep when you’re anxious can prove impossible, and obsessing over it is counterproductive. Sadly, there is no quick fix or cure for insomnia, but the best sleep gadgets and apps can help some. Continued here S13 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 S32 Keep Forgetting Things? Neuroscience Says These 8 Brain Habits Improve Memory and Leadership A brief introductoin to some of the most interesting studies from the last couple of years: Continued here S26 The Childish Drama of Elon Musk This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. For the past few days, Elon Musk has been throwing a gigantic temper tantrum on his platform, Twitter. It is not usually a matter of public interest when a narcissist like Musk goes haywire, but just as Donald Trump’s anger warped our public life, Musk’s conniptions could affect our culture and how we get information. Continued here S12 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 S38 How wildlife in ponds has evolved to survive frozen water - and how you can help more animals stay alive When filled with ice-skaters or a clumsy Bambi on a Christmas card, a frozen pond is a merry sight. But spare a thought for the living things trapped below. The aerial wizardry of dragonflies and summer sculling of pond skaters are long gone. As the cold grips and shadows lengthen over the pond, its inhabitants face a terrible enemy: ice. But while the cold of winter is a threat to most wildlife, it can be endured. Many land-based creatures – particularly amphibians such as toads and newts, and other animals without spines known as invertebrates – have evolved the ability to cool their bodily fluids down to below zero. This allows them to sit out the lean months of winter without freezing. Continued here S19 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 S10 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 S37 How pink became fashion's colour of controversy: a brief history From the blush pink of royal mistresses to the hot pink of tabloid party girls, pink has gained a reputation for being a provocative colour for those who dare to wear it. Despite its various shades and the complexities of its cultural significance, it is a colour that is often branded with the same connotations of feminine frivolity and excess – whether girlish and innocent or womanly and erotic. Continued here S54 UN biodiversity conference: what does living in harmony with nature look like? Alexandra Zimmermann is the chair of the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence Specialist Group. The 196 countries meeting for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada, are negotiating a new set of targets for reversing the loss of Earth’s biodiversity. They have set themselves a formidable challenge: ensuring humanity is “living in harmony with nature” by 2050. Continued here S35 The Muppet Christmas Carol: A festive classic's dark backdrop "I didn't want to do it," Henson admits to BBC Culture. He had good reason, too. Not only was this his feature film debut as a director, but he was stepping into the shoes of his father Jim Henson, the puppeteer and filmmaker who had created the Muppets and turned them into pop culture icons, before tragically dying at the age of 53 in May 1990. "We'd lost Jim. We were all really still mourning," says Steve Whitmire, who, like Brian, was tasked with replacing Jim Henson in The Muppet Christmas Carol, this time by voicing and puppeteering Kermit the Frog. "We were also just trying to move forward. We were not completely sure whether we would. That's one of the most interesting things about the film on the inside, it was really a bit of a test. Could we continue without Jim?" Continued here S31 Everything You Know About How to Sell Yourself Is Wrong, According to Wharton Psychologist Adam Grant Whether you're pitching a startup, making a speech, or applying for a job, don't follow this common advice. Continued here Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Followers Blog Archive ►  2024 (51) ►  December (1) ►  October (2) ►  August (2) ►  July (4) ►  June (3) ►  May (5) ►  April (4) ►  March (2) ►  February (10) ►  January (18) ►  2023 (834) ►  December (20) ►  November (54) ►  October (44) ►  September (108) ►  August (91) ►  July (29) ►  June (68) ►  May (104) ►  April (33) ►  March (30) ►  February (99) ►  January (154) ▼  2022 (208) ▼  December (117) January 1, 2023 - This Scientist Fled a Deadly Wil... January 1, 2023 - This Scientist Fled a Deadly Wil... January 1, 2023 - Man charged in Idaho student mur... January 1, 2023 - When the Times Square Ball Drop ... December 31, 2022 - Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin... 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