December 31, 2022 - Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher Said This Simple Choice Separates Great Leaders From Everyone Else

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Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher Said This Simple Choice Separates Great Leaders From Everyone Else "That really is the way that it works and its not a conundrum at all." Continued here

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Are we naturally hedonists? Here's what Epicurus thought. From Living for Pleasure by Emily A. Austin. Copyright © 2022 by Emily A. Austin and published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Epicurus considers it obvious that we, like every other animal, pursue pleasure and avoid pain by nature. The point requires no rational demonstration — we observe it in other animals and feel it in ourselves. We have never asked for a reasoned argument that fire feels hot and snow feels cold. We just feel it. Epicurus considers it likewise self-evident that pleasure and pain serve as the motivational starting points for all sentient creatures. Continued here

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This Book Can Help Entrepreneurs Prepare for the Next 30 Years Rapid changes--and opportunities--are coming. Here's what you need to know. Continued here

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Our Favorite Management Tips of 2022 Our Management Tip of the Day newsletter continues to be one of HBR’s most popular newsletters. In this article, we list 10 of our favorites from 2022 — covering topics like how to become a more inclusive leader, balancing the competing pressures of compassion and performance, taking control of your career trajectory, getting comfortable with failure, moving on after being laid off, and sharpening your written communication skills. Continued here

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Dealing with Guilt: Our Favorite Reads I know that my own anxiety is likely the root cause of all this guilt. I know that it paints an unrealistic picture of what’s actually happening around me. And I know that I’m being harder on myself than my (I swear, incredibly nice and supportive) boss and coworkers ever would be. But it can be hard to break free of these feelings of guilt, especially after years of fighting perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and other insecurities. Continued here

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6 global creators who broke through in 2022 A Kazakhstani hype-house star. A beauty guru mired in scandal. A South African anime cosplayer. In 2022, creators demonstrated just how quickly unknown personalities from any corner of the world can build an international following on social media. Rest of World surveyed the creator ecosystem in several regions in order to spotlight six of those creators. Some broke into the upper echelon of the most-followed accounts in the world. Others found new audiences through bilingual content or had to rebrand after controversy. Follower counts aside, each — in their own way — made a mark on their respective creator spaces. Continued here

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Coming Soon: More Ways to Be Yourself in the Metaverse The limitless variety of fashion items, skin colors, body shapes, hair styles and other options for digital identities on today’s immersive platforms already allow millions to be whomever they want to be in these environments. 2023 will be a breakout year for people bringing their fully realized selves into the digital space, as increasing innovation for this fun, even life-changing, form of self-expression and identity comes to more people of more ages, in deeper ways. We believe the wave of innovation that will make people’s digital identities more compelling and real than ever is the gateway that will usher in broader global adoption of metaverse experiences among people of all ages.  Continued here

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Here’s The One Thing Leaders Need to Be Mindful of In the New Year: Mindfulness You made it through this year, here's what you need to do now to thrive in the next Continued here

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Great Entrepreneurs the World Lost in 2022 They worked across an array of industries, but all of these individuals share one thing in common: the entrepreneurial spirit. Continued here

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Your Response to Stress Improves as You Grow Older In good news, our reactions to stressful events improve as we age. But living in uncertain times will still take a toll No one is a stranger to stress. Decades of research make it clear that major life events, such as the death of a spouse or start of a new job, can take a lot of our energy and attention. But more recently scientists have made inroads in understanding how smaller daily stressors shape our mood and experience. David Almeida, a developmental psychologist and professor of human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University, has been following the stressors of daily life in a group of more than 3,000 adults since 1995. Almeida spoke with Mind Matters editor Daisy Yuhas to discuss some of the silver linings of aging that he has discovered—and how difficult national or global events can tip the scales against us. Continued here

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Ars Technica's favorite films in 2022 In 2022, film lovers weary of two years of a raging pandemic started gingerly dipping their toes back into the theatrical movie experience. And while the pickings might have been a bit slimmer than in pre-pandemic years, there were still plenty of tantalizing options, from the usual blockbuster superhero movies from the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, to quirky indie features and surprise gems from Netflix. Continued here

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Lab-Made Motors Could Move and Glow in Cells One of nature’s best strategies for movement at the cellular scale involves powerful molecular motors: complex molecules that transform chemical energy into mechanical energy to complete tasks such as transporting components within the cell, contracting muscle fibers and snipping apart strands of DNA. Since 1999 chemists have been designing synthetic molecules that rotate 360 degrees in response to light or chemical stimuli. These single-function motors can generate forces on a surface, shuttle cargo to sensors and power nanoscale devices. But researchers cannot easily control or track them when they’re placed within opaque biological tissue. Continued here

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The lost nuclear bombs that no one can find On January 17, 1966, at around 10:30am, a Spanish shrimp fisherman watched a misshapen white parcel fall from the sky… and silently glide towards the Alboran Sea. It had something hanging beneath it, though he couldn’t make out what it was. Then it slipped beneath the waves. At the same time, in the nearby fishing village of Palomares, locals looked up at an identical sky and witnessed a very different scene – two giant fireballs, hurtling towards them. Within seconds, the sleepy rural idyll was shattered. Buildings shook. Shrapnel sliced towards the ground. Body parts fell to the earth.  Continued here

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The Best New Feature of the New AirPods Pro Are the Sounds the Case Makes. Here’s What Each One Means Sometimes the little things make all the difference. Continued here

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'A brilliant football mind': Mike Leach's unique life and football legacy A former rugby player with no college football playing experience? A Pepperdine Law grad who coached in Finland and then won in Lubbock, Pullman and Starkville? A coaching tree that includes Lincoln Riley, Dave Aranda and Dana Holgorsen? A list of former players that ranges from Kliff Kingsbury to Josh Heupel? It all sounds like a Dan Jenkins fever dream. Continued here

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23 Unconventional New Year's Resolutions You Need to Make in Your Business in 2023 Resolve to have a more productive business in 2023 with these smart tips. Continued here

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A.I. Could Be Great for College Essays Every year, the artificial intelligence company OpenAI improves its text-writing bot, GPT. And every year, the internet responds with shrieks of woe about the impending end of human-penned prose. This cycle repeated last week when OpenAI launched ChatGPT—a version of GPT that can seemingly spit out any text, from a Mozart-styled piano piece to the history of London in the style of Dr. Seuss. The response on Twitter was unanimous: The college essay is doomed. Why slave over a paper when ChatGPT can write an original for you? Chatting with ChatGPT is fun. (Go play with it!) But the college essay isn’t doomed, and A.I. like ChatGPT won’t replace flesh and blood writers. They may make writing easier, though. Continued here S6 5 secret, pretty places to visit in Derbyshire The creator of the dictionary should probably have consulted his own work for the definition of “exaggeration” but he wasn’t too far wrong. The River Dove contorts and snuggles its way from the summits to the flat lands of Derbyshire and is at its prettiest in the two-mile-long gorge that comprises Dovedale valley. Bring your wellies if there’s been rain – the walk can be boggy – but you’re only four miles or so from respite and warmth in the market town of Ashbourne. Continued here S69 4 Rare Workplace Habits of Exceptionally Happy Employees Happy workers are more productive workers. Continued here S9 Where to find cherry blossoms in Japan This magnificent beauty has become a vital part of life in Japan. The cherry trees only blossom for a short time, so a trip to see the cherry blossoms – known as “hanami” in Japanese – is the pinnacle of celebrating Japanese spring season in all its glory before the leaves flutter to the ground in a grand finale known as “sakura fubuki” Continued here S14 The 20 best holiday destinations in May Europe will be emerging into summer proper in 2023, everywhere from Tuscan hilltop towns to golden Grecian beaches – and, if you’re sustainably-minded, you can reach most of these dreamy destinations by train. And further afield, corners of Africa, the Caribbean and Canada will peak as well. So why wait a minute longer? It’s high time you hit the road. These are our favourite holiday destinations in May for sun, adventures and sightseeing. Continued here S44 TV Technica 2022: These were our favorite shows and binges of the year It's been another banner year for television, in which streaming continued to dominate with a vengeance, giving us spy thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, comedy, tormented superheroes, gritty inner-city drama, and feel-good dramedy. In fact, this is the first year without a single major network series on the Ars year-end list. Continued here S8 Win a staycation for two in the beautiful British countryside at Billesley Manor The Billesley Estate is steeped in history, and there have been settlements on this pristine portion of British countryside since the eighth century. The site is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book, and purportedly welcomed Shakespeare himself, who allegedly married wife Anne Hathaway in All Saints Church, next to what is now the magnificent hotel and spa complex. This link to the bard is celebrated throughout the property – seek out artworks celebrating not just this literary great, but also centuries of local history. Continued here S15 The traps of online shopping are hiding in plain sight A cursory Google search reveals all sorts of marketers advertising their tools to help merchants boost sales. They boast countdown timers that are “a great way of creating urgency and encouraging shoppers to buy your products” and low stock counters that employ “psychological triggers” to ignite a sense of scarcity and increase sales. Some companies offer sellers tools to show how many people have added an item to their carts, ordered it, or looked at it, and they’re open that these numbers can be real or random — as in, made up. Continued here S62 The fascination and complexity of the world's hardest math problems Mathematics has been a fascinating and challenging subject for centuries. From the ancient Greeks to modern-day mathematicians, the pursuit of understanding and mastering math has been a source of intrigue and intellectual curiosity.  But have you ever wondered what the hardest math problem is? What could be so challenging and complex that even the most brilliant mathematicians have yet to find a solution?  Continued here S58 How to buy a social network, with Tumblr CEO Matt Mullenweg But talking about Twitter in a vacuum seems wrong. There are lots of other social networks and community-based products, and they all have basically the same problems: some technical (you have to run the service), some political (you have to comply with various laws and platform regulations around the world), and some social (you have to get millions of users to post for free while making sure what they post is good stuff and not bad stuff). Continued here S37 7 major science and tech breakthroughs of 2022 The release of several advanced generative AI systems was inarguably the biggest science and tech story of 2022 — DALL-E 2, ChatGPT, and others like them simply wowed the world this year with their ability to imitate human creativity. Those AIs weren’t the only breakthroughs of 2022, though, and while you were busy writing screenplays with ChatGPT or creating new Pokémonwith Stable Diffusion, you may have missed some of the less celebrated, but still remarkable science and tech achievements of the past year. Continued here S23 3 Ways Ikea Instructions Get Communication Right When training or delegating, follow these three principles from Ikea's furniture instructions. Continued here S28 Don't be scared of ChatGPT, the latest AI chat fad When ChatGPT went live, it convinced a good chunk of the internet that the end was nigh. This artificial intelligence that can write sonnets, code, and help you cheat on your exams has been harkened as the end of human agency.  We’ve been here before. It was not long ago that the end of truth was declared with the arrival of deep fake content, which would be able to slap anyone’s face on an avatar or stranger’s body, and make them say or do something they’d never done. Continued here S59 The many, many controversies surrounding the 2022 World Cup, explained The 2022 FIFA World Cup is set to kick off in Qatar on November 20, stirring excitement and anticipation in soccer fans around the world. But even if you’re not a die-hard soccer fan, you’ve probably heard something about the many controversies swirling around this year’s edition of the most famous sporting event in the world. Continued here S11 Lanserhof Sylt, Germany spa review That life is a distant memory – now Sylt is a playground with 25 miles of pale-quartz sands, boutiques and restaurants. As New Yorkers flock to Martha’s Vineyard, so do north Germans to Sylt, swelling the population in summer like the migrant birds. The fishermen’s cottages are now prime real estate, joined by droves of immaculate replicas festooned with summer roses and parked up with the latest Mercs and Porsches. But Sylt’s real charms are eternal: those dunes coated with marram grass and heathers, and a sky cornflower and overcast by turns (On the same latitude as County Durham, it is sunshiney yet gusty). Continued here S38 Arrakhis: the tiny satellite aiming to reveal what dark matter is made of The European Space Agency (Esa) recently announced a new mission of its science programme: a small telescope orbiting the Earth dubbed Arrakhis. But although its name is inspired by the sci-fi novel Dune, it will not be looking for sandworms or “spice” on a desert planet.  Instead, this nimble satellite will punch hugely above its weight and try to track down one of the most elusive and mysterious substances in the universe: dark matter. This is the term given to the hypothetical invisible matter that is thought to be more abundant than normal matter and have a similar gravitational effect on its surroundings. Continued here S13 The best dog-friendly pubs in London Dog-friendly pubs in London, the ones that welcome punters and pooches alike, are golden, and make the process of meeting up with pals for a pint (and a refreshing bowl of water for the tail-wagging brigade) a whole lot easier. From canal-side haunts in Islington, armed with doggy bowls, biscuits and blankets, to Bethnal Green boozers that often hold events especially for their punter’s pets and a perfectly-placed pub in Lambeth that sits right beside Waterloo Millennium Green so that ‘walkies’ are never too far away.  Continued here S65 SpaceX may have to come to the rescue of the stranded ISS crew if the Russian plan fails Reuters reports that NASA and SpaceX are discussing the possibility of sending a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) to bring back three astronauts who don't have a way to get home. The crew is stranded after a severe leak was detected in the Russian-built Soyuz capsule. A severe leak that saw coolant shooting out of the Russian capsule occurred two weeks ago on the Soyuz spacecraft that carried the Americans Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev, and Dmitri Petelin to the ISS in September. Continued here S36 The physics of entropy and the origin of life How did life on Earth originate? Scientists still aren’t sure, and this remains one of the world’s most fascinating and mind-boggling mysteries. One way of approaching the question is to think generally about how complex systems emerge from chaos. Since the 1800s, scientists have known that entropy is always increasing, with everything in our Universe tending toward disorder over time. Continued here S68 Starbucks Just Made a Change to Its Rewards Program and It’s the 1 Thing No Company Should Ever Do Free coffee is about to cost you more. Continued here S10 The best spas in Europe Whether for cutting-edge treatments that tackle a specific issue such as insomnia or stress, or a cosseting retreat that rebalances and energises, this is our pick of the top game-changing spas in Europe that really deliver on wellness. Continued here S34 The 10 Best and Cruelest Games of 2022 After several years of boom times for wholesome stories and colorful worlds, 2022 reminded us that sometimes there’s no truer form of fun than failing horribly, repeatedly.  FromSoftware often leads that charge, thanks to series like Dark Souls. This year, it rose to its own challenge. Elden Ring, maddening in its difficulty and unusually cruel in its creative ways to kill you, took center stage as players picked apart its every secret. Speed-runners found new ways to make the game even harder by racing against the clock. Not to be reduced to one punishing game, however, 2022 also brought with it a handful of roguelikes, pushing the genre while teaching players about patience and perseverance. Continued here S3 Mandarin Oriental Bosphorus, Istanbul hotel review On arrival, it wasn’t the lobby that struck me so much as its scent; a heady blend of Judas tree, jasmine, sandalwood and vanilla emanating from the marble interiors. To the right, find the lounge, restaurants and shops stacked with fine jewellery and couture wear, while check-in is to the left. Past the sun-lit lobby is the terrace overlooking the shimmering Bosphorus. On a winter's stay, sun-loungers and beach towels are replaced with pop-up igloos and cosy blankets. But no matter the season, the views will always be breathtaking – where old juts up against new and minaret towers stand graciously by iconic landmarks. Continued here S22 Build an Authentic Brand in the New Year How you can bring authenticity to your brand in 2023. Continued here S2 The 19 best South London restaurants Whether you're on the hunt for morning coffee and pastries, a leisurely weekend brunch, supper with friends or a drink somewhere a little more special than your local pub, head for the green awning of Rarebit in Elephant and Castle. Opened in June 2022, this deli-restaurant bar has quickly become a neighbourhood hotspot for relaxed dining. Interiors are industrial without feeling sterile, transforming from bright and cheery by day to dimly lit and intimate as evening falls but equally welcoming any time of day while resident mini-Schnauzer Herman can occasionally be found snoozing in a cosy corner. Continued here S5 Win an indulgent all-inclusive escape for two with Ikos Resorts The sixth resort in Ikos’ portfolio, and the second on the island of Corfu, Ikos Odisia is set to open its complex to discerning Grecophiles in May 2023. In a secluded bay across from sister resort Ikos Dassia, guests can appreciate sweeping Ionian Sea views thanks to its elevated position. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Old Town Corfu is within easy reach – ideal for breaking up beach days with island exploration and culture. Continued here S43 Could getting rid of old cells turn back the clock on aging? James Kirkland started his career in 1982 as a geriatrician, treating aging patients. But he found himself dissatisfied with what he could offer them. Continued here S52 The 35 Best Podcasts of 2022 Widespread remote work may have changed where people listened to podcasts, but many are back to their prior routines and hitting “Play” like it’s 2019. Fittingly, certain trends from yesteryear have stuck around for this resurgence: The audio space is still packed with true crime, which is often entertaining yet rarely remarkable. Shows about right-wing extremists and conspiracy theories are still popular. (Now, though, we’re finally hearing about the left’s fringe, too.) But a lot of what’s emerging in 2022 seems to be a rebuttal to two years of vegetation. Dating shows have guests who are meeting in person again, and the latest podcasts are heavy on the fieldwork. Makers went back out into the world; some revisited their hometowns, some headed abroad, and others journeyed through ungoverned waters. We also observed the inverse of travel—burrowing deeper into one’s own headspace. Podcast hosts read poetry or, like so many people, came to terms with sorrow and grief, both private and shared. One thing remained constant: The best material we heard subverted popular tendencies or flat out surprised us. Continued here S54 Readers Share Their 2023 Resolutions 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. This week I asked you all to send in your New Year’s resolutions for 2023, and you answered the call: We had hundreds of responses. But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic. Continued here S16 Phil Knight still has plenty to say about college sports. Is anyone listening? Phil Knight turns 85 in February, and in response to the age-old what-do-you-get-the-man-who-has-everything dilemma, Nike is giving him a basketball tournament. It’s not an original idea; Knight got the same gift five years ago. But, hey, when something is a hit, who among us hasn’t regifted? As these things tend to go, the PK85 is bigger, with an eight-team women’s field added to the 16-team men’s slate. Continued here S20 3 Great Reasons to Sharpen Your Writing Skills in 2023 Good writers save time, stand out, and get ahead. Continued here S7 8 places on earth we should protect before it's too late Over the last century or two, with the arrival of industrialisation on a grand scale and a booming population, humankind's impact on the planet has become much more dramatic. Fires, uncontrolled deforestation, rising temperatures, wars, pollution, growing social inequalities, and massive agricultural, fishing, and livestock exploitation are all reshaping the earth. The list of ways in which we are altering the planet could go on and on. Continued here S40 2022's US climate disasters, from storms and floods to heat waves and droughts The year 2022 will be remembered across the US for its devastating flooding and storms—and also for its extreme heat waves and droughts. Continued here S49 The IRS Really, Really Should Have Audited Trump Six years after Donald Trump should have disclosed his tax returns to the public, they have finally been released. This took advocacy, congressional action, and litigation that went to the Supreme Court—all to obtain basic financial transparency from a president. But the House Ways and Means Committee’s report on its investigation, released last week in conjunction with the committee’s vote to disclose Trump’s tax returns, revealed new information that may be as astonishing as anything in the returns themselves: The IRS did not even begin auditing Trump’s taxes until 2019, on the same day the committee began asking the agency about them. This is outrageous, and it must be investigated. Continued here S55 Three Pioneering Scholars Who Died This Year Over the summer, the popular Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough died at age 89. Revered by history buffs, his best sellers were lauded for the way he spun the complex lives of famous Americans—from John Adams to the Wright brothers—into compelling narratives. The stories he told were not new, but the innovative, captivating ways he told them inspired millions of Americans to learn more about their past. This year, the United States also lost scholars in a category that’s almost the inverse of McCullough’s: those who painstakingly collected stories from undercovered communities that had rarely been studied before. These researchers aren’t widely known, and they didn’t focus on America’s famous chapters or heroes. Instead, they broke ground. They built the foundations of entirely new fields of study, chronicling groups that academia had long overlooked or failed to take seriously. Continued here S63 Metaverse fails to meet expectations as VR headset sales shrink in 2022 Virtual reality (VR) technology, once hailed as the next big thing in the tech industry, has yet to live up to its hype. According to data acquired by CNBC from research firm NPD Group, sales of VR headsets in the U.S. declined 2% to $1.1 billion in 2022, while analyst firm CCS Insight reported that worldwide shipments of VR headsets and augmented reality devices fell 12% to 9.6 million during the same period. These figures represent a setback for companies like Facebook, which has invested heavily in the development of its metaverse and VR technology. In 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be rebranding as Meta and investing billions of dollars in the development of the metaverse, a virtual world in which people can interact and do business. Zuckerberg has stated that he expects it to take up to a decade for the metaverse to go mainstream and that it will eventually host hundreds of billions of dollars in commerce. However, the slow adoption of VR technology and the decline in sales and shipments of VR headsets suggest that this goal may be more difficult to achieve than Zuckerberg anticipated. Continued here S47 My Mother Just Died of COVID in Wuhan She was one of millions left virtually defenseless by China’s sudden abandonment of its failing zero-COVID policy. When I got the news, I was in the United States, thousands of miles and 13 time zones away. It was the end of a tough semester teaching modern Chinese literature to American students. I had just finished grading all of their final papers. I was in a cheerful mood, washing dishes, when my phone rang. Continued here S4 The biggest travel trends for 2023 In 2023, travellers will be going one step further as we look to deepen these experiences by having a lasting positive impact on the places and people we visit. We'll immerse ourselves in new, mind-bending wellness practices with benefits that continue far beyond checkout and make meaningful changes to the way we travel with protecting our planet top of mind. Continued here S42 Mastodon--and the pros and cons of moving beyond Big Tech gatekeepers As Elon Musk's Category 5 tweetstorm continues, the once-obscure Mastodon social network has been gaining over 1,000 new refugees per hour, every hour, bringing its user count to about eight million. Continued here S66 Want to Use a Brand Ambassador to Market Your Business, But Don't Know Where to Start? NASCAR Might Provide the Perfect Blueprint The Association's Chief Revenue Officer Darryl Wolfe on how your business can build effective, lasting, and profitable brand ambassador and partner relationships. Continued here S60 Argentina are the most tactically flexible World Cup winners we have ever seen This is how World Cups are won. They are rarely won by truly legendary sides, and they are often not won by the outstanding side in the tournament. The World Cup isn’t about playing spectacular football all the way through; it’s simply about finding a way. It usually involves shutting down the opposition, and generally depends upon fine margins. Continued here S33 The Best Wireless Earbuds for Working Out 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 Luxurious over-the-ear headphones are plush and comfortable, and they sound great. But for most everyday activities—working out, traveling, and wandering around my house pretending to put things away—I much prefer a pair of convenient, durable, wireless workout buds. Since I started testing them, their sound and comfort have improved dramatically. I trail run, hike, work on my yard, lift weights, and watch mildly embarrassing barre and yoga videos on my laptop, all while testing the best wireless workout headphones around. Continued here S12 Where is hot in May? Our top 10 destinations With every wannabe influencer and their mother draping themselves over Santorini and Mykonos this summer, it might be time to turn your attention to another Cyclades stunner. Antiparos’s quiet beauty has increasingly drawn seclusion-seeking celebs: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson bought a villa here 15 years ago, while Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Matthew McConaughey have all been spotted enjoying an under-the-radar getaway (no, not with each other). The excellent selection of private villas with ridiculous Aegean views (Villa Melissa from White Key, Villa Emerald with Elite) probably helps. There’s also the many, many sandy beaches lapped by electric-blue shallows; the unpretentious fun of ’til-dawn cocktail bars (Boogaloo, Loco); and even a beach club/restaurant/boutique hotel, The Beach House, hidden in its own secret cove. Continued here S53 The Method in the Markets’ Madness Predicting stock-price moves is usually a mug’s game—but beneath this year’s wild gyrations is an underlying logic. The stock market was down sharply on Wednesday this week. It was up sharply on Thursday. And it will surprise no one if it ends up or down sharply today, the final trading day of the year. That’s because, though the market will finish the year down almost 20 percent (per the S&P 500 index), stocks have not taken a steady downward path to get there. Instead, they’ve been on an extraordinarily bumpy ride, oscillating between bouts of optimism and gloom, regularly adding or erasing trillions of dollars of market capitalization in a matter of weeks. Continued here S56 In Praise of Walking: A Poetic Manifesto for Our Simplest Instrument of Discovery, Transformation, and Transcendence When you walk, you move more than the body — you move the mind, the spirit, the entire system of being. As you traverse spatial distance, you gain vital spiritual distance with which to see afresh the problems that haunt your day, your work, your life. Ideas collide and connect in ways they never would have on the static plane. Pains are left behind in the forward motion. Doubts fall away by the footfall. I do my best writing on foot — the rest, what happens at the desk, is mere transcription. Nietzsche saw the link between walking and creativity. “There is nothing more revealing than to see a thinking person walking,” wrote Thomas Bernhard, “just as there is nothing more revealing than to see a walking person thinking.” A passionate walker herself, Rebecca Solnit has defined the act as “a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned.” But no writer has composed a more succinct and symphonic manifesto for walking than the Scottish poet Thomas A. Clark in his 1988 chapbook In Praise of Walking (public library). Continued here S48 74 Things That Blew Our Minds in 2022 Where The Atlantic’s science, technology, and health reporters found wonder in a sometimes-sobering year The writers on The Atlantic’s Science, Technology, and Health desks have learned a lot this year. Our coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has continued, but this year, more so than in 2020 and 2021, we’ve also had the chance to report on topics that have filled us with awe and delight. Though the past 12 months have not been free of concerns about infectious disease, climate change, and even nuclear war, we’ve embraced more fascination and curiosity in our coverage this year, and we wanted to share and reflect on some of the most compelling tidbits we’ve stumbled across. We hope you find these facts as mind-blowing as we did. Continued here S61 The year's worst video game writing I’m going to pick on Neon White, which is still a very good game that I would recommend. It’s a first-person speedrunner with clever level design — a combination of readable elements and mechanics that make parkouring across the map intuitive and satisfying. I’m neither a twitchy perfectionist nor a completionist, but the game compelled me to shave milliseconds off of my time. (A sneaky leaderboard shows you scores from your friends, and I suddenly became very competitive with Jay.) Continued here S46 Photos of the Week: Confetti Test, Food Battle, Glowing Waterfall A moment of peace on Ukraine’s front line, a Boxing Day hunt in England, scootering across a dry riverbed in China, beach cleaning in Bali, frozen structures along the Great Lakes, a forest fire in Chile, colorful ice sculptures in China, yacht racing in Australia, and much more Sunlight passes through Keyhole Arch during sunset at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur, California, on December 24, 2022. # Continued here S64 Watch: A Chinese fighter jet flew within 20 feet of US recon plane this month A Chinese fighter jet came dangerously close to an American aircraft belonging to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, forcing the U.S. pilot to evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision, The New York Times reported. The U.S. Air Force has declassified the video of the incident and published it. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is part of the U.S. Air Force tasked with protecting the national interests of roughly three dozen countries in the South China Sea region, where China has begun flexing its muscles in the past few years. Continued here S35 Ask Ethan: Can hidden variables save quantum physics? Ever since the discovery of the bizarre behavior of quantum systems, we’ve been forced to reckon with a seemingly uncomfortable truth. For whatever reason, it appears that what we perceive of as reality — where objects are and what properties they possess — isn’t itself fundamentally determined. As long as you don’t measure or interact with your quantum system, it exists in an indeterminate state; we can only speak of the properties it possess and the outcomes of any potential measurements in a statistical, probabilistic sense. But is that a fundamental limitation of nature, where there exists an inherent indeterminism until a measurement is made or a quantum interaction occurs? Or could there be a “hidden reality” that’s completely predictable, understandable, and deterministic underlying what we see? It’s a fascinating possibility, one that was preferred by no less a titanic figure than Albert Einstein. It’s also the question of Patreon supporter William Blair, who wants to know: Continued here S45 Busting a myth: Saturn V rocket wasn't loud enough to melt concrete The 1967 Apollo 4 mission was an uncrewed flight to test the Saturn V rocket as a viable launch vehicle for future manned missions. The test was a smashing success and a critical step in the US space program. But the Saturn V was also incredibly loud—so loud that a rumor emerged claiming that the acoustic energy was sufficient to melt concrete. That is not the case, according to an August paper published in a special educational issue if the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA). Continued here S57 The mystery of rising prices. Are greedy corporations to blame for inflation? Many economists and politicians on the left point to the war in Ukraine (for pushing up oil prices, which bleeds into most everything else), and also greedy companies, many of which, despite tales of supply chain snarls and rising costs, have been bringing in record profits. (Corporations, in aisle 4, with the price gun.) Continued here S50 Why Travel Inspires So Many Writers Journeys force us to consider where we’re headed and what we’ve left behind: Your weekly guide to the best in books The last few weeks of the year are marked by movement. Some people might return to their hometown to spend the holidays with their family and friends, while others may use the lull to take a much-needed vacation. Travelers flock to airports and train stations, anxious to reach their final destination. Tempers may flare as the stress of the season reaches a fever pitch. But it helps us all get where we’re going if we remember that, for the most part, everyone—even the weary parent trying to manage their child on a plane—is trying their best. Continued here S51 Harry, Meghan, and the Men Who Hate Them At the end of the first episode of Harry & Meghan—the five-and-a-half-hour exploration into the tender center of everlasting love; rat-bastard English people and the nasty things they get up to; heady, “Goodbye to You” defection from the British Royal Family; and the reality-show-within-a-reality-show miniseries Fifteen Million Dollar Listing—I informed my husband that henceforth he should call me “C” and I would call him “R.” This would put us in league with the glamorous young couple, and also allow us to imagine that we are characters in a Victorian novel whose names must never be revealed, not even to each other. This project was immediately undermined, because it is just about impossible to impose a new nickname on someone you’ve known intimately for three decades, and with whom—even in the early years, back in the rent-controlled apartment with your big dreams and your red wine—you have never achieved even an ounce of the “Band on the Run”/Sentence Finishing/Pillow Talk Spectacular of the famous couple. These kids are so in love that absolutely any obstacle—bad press, frosty English sister-in-law, mean American half sister-in-law, disappointing fathers, paparazzo in a boat—only makes their love more passionate, their need to review their wedding videos and photo albums more urgent. 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December 13, 2022 - Russia’s McDonald’s succes... ►  November (6) ►  October (23) ►  September (5) ►  August (8) ►  June (12) ►  May (3) ►  April (9) ►  March (14) ►  February (5) ►  January (6) ►  2021 (107) ►  December (9) ►  November (6) ►  October (3) ►  September (6) ►  August (45) ►  July (4) ►  June (23) ►  May (10) ►  February (1) ►  2020 (59) ►  July (4) ►  June (16) ►  May (39) ►  2010 (19) ►  September (11) ►  August (1) ►  February (1) ►  January (6) ►  2009 (44) ►  December (2) ►  October (21) ►  September (6) ►  August (15) About Me Prem Kumar View my complete profile