How to unlock your creativity -- even if you're a conventional thinker

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How to unlock your creativity – even if you're a conventional thinker Many people believe that creative thinking is difficult – that the ability to come up with ideas in novel and interesting ways graces only some talented individuals and not most others.  The media often portrays creatives as those with quirky personalities and unique talent. Researchers have also identified numerous personality traits that are associated with creativity, such as openness to new experiences, ideas and perspectives. Continued here

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Learn the art of journaling and archive your life | Psyche Ideas When researching other people’s lives, authors often visit archives to dig into the ephemera that made that person who they were. But when exploring our own lives, we seem to forget that we have our own personal archives, including old journals, email, text threads and voice memos. Lately, I’ve been dipping into my personal archives – specifically, my old journals – to reacquaint myself with the person I was 20 years ago, doing remote fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic for eight weeks each summer. I’m writing a book, you see, about my experiences as a field scientist, and though my memories of that time seem strong, I’m still surprised by some of what appears in my journals. For example, I didn’t remember arriving in the field as early as I did one year, or the level of frustration I had when some of my equipment didn’t work. My journals bring these events back to me, in full colour and precise detail, allowing me to add lyrical descriptions and scenes to my book. Continued here

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Everybody is not an entrepreneur -- and that's okay India is among the world’s top three startup ecosystems. The country has witnessed a massive entrepreneurial boom, registering an eye-popping 15,400% rise in the number of startups — from just 471 in 2016 to 72,993 in mid-2022. This growth has been supported by several government initiatives, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship program called Startup India. But the startup euphoria is also leading many entrepreneurs to ignore the risks and pitfalls of starting a business, Shrijay Sheth, founder of Legalwiz.in, which offers business professional services and legal compliance assistance to startups, told Rest of World. Globally, data shows that most startups don’t succeed — some estimates say that nine out of every 10 startups fail. Sheth, whose company has over 7,000 clients, says the Indian government can play a role in ensuring that people think twice before diving into this risky territory. Continued here

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Is football really the most dangerous sport? An expert explains. We're a new publication dedicated to reporting on how the most important trends, challenges and opportunities of the day connect to one another - and require connected solutions. Learn more. Football remains a high-risk sport, and head injuries can still occur when a helmet is used. Continued here

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What Makes You Procrastinate (Which Isn’t Always a Bad Thing) Greater GoodScience Center •Magazine •In Action •In Education Are you procrastinating? I am. I have been delaying writing this article for the last few days even though I knew I had a deadline. I have scrolled through social media, and I have gone down a rabbit hole looking up houses on Rightmove—even though I do not need a new house. Continued here

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Are the rich ruining thrifting? Thrift shopping was once primarily known as an affordable way for lower-income people to find secondhand clothing, but in recent years, it has become popular among the wealthy, leading to rising prices. What are the ethical questions behind this practice, and how has it changed thrift stores for people in need? Here's everything you need to know: "Thrifting" is shopping at thrift stores rather than buying new merchandise. The term accounts for any item found in a thrift store but especially refers to clothing. Since the clothing is secondhand, prices tend to be far lower than regular retail prices. Buying used clothing is also beneficial from a sustainability standpoint because it helps to reduce textile waste.  Continued here

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Waste Not, Want Not - JSTOR Daily Sewage is a vital part of a circular economy—and we have the tech to make good use of it. Why don’t we? The precepts of circular economy—reusing water, using biodegradable plastic, composting food leftovers so they can be returned to the soil rather than become landfill—are among the hottest ideas of our century.  But what about recycling what our food becomes after we eat it? Yes, that means excrement, a critical substance in the thoroughly functioning circular economy, seems to be left out of the equation. Continued here

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Add These 7 Steps to Your Nighttime Routine to Support Healthy Aging | Livestrong.com When it comes to building sustainable, healthy habits, we spend a lot of time focusing on our morning routine: nosh on a nutritious breakfast, mix in a meditation, add in a sweat session, etc. (You get the picture.) While starting your day off right is a smart strategy, your nighttime routine is just as important. Continued here

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Research: Where Managers and Employees Disagree About Remote Work Survey research suggests that managers and employees see remote work very differently. Managers are more likely to say it harms productivity, while employees are more likely to say it helps. The difference may be commuting: Employees consider hours not spent commuting in their productivity calculations, while managers don’t. The answer is clearer communication and policies, and for many companies the best policy will be managed hybrid with two to three mandatory days in office. Remote work is one of the biggest changes to working since World War II, but it’s being held back by a major disconnect between managers and employees. Case in point is Elon Musk. He decreed in November that employees must come into the office, only to walk it back after it threatened to speed up the pace of resignations. It was a “hardcore” mistake by Musk, but a less dramatic version of the same story is playing out across the economy.  Continued here

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She's a Happiness Professor. Her Lessons Are Helping Her Beat Burnout A dental emergency was Laurie Santos’ wake-up call. It wasn’t even her own: One of Santos’ students at Yale University needed her sign-off before getting some work done. Instead of feeling sympathy for her student, Santos mostly felt annoyed about the extra paperwork she’d need to complete. That reaction was unusual and concerning for Santos, a psychologist who teaches Yale’s single most popular course, on the science of happiness. She knew that cynicism, irritability, and exhaustion—all of which had been gnawing at her recently—were telltale signs of burnout, a condition that almost 30% of U.S. workers say they experience at least sometimes, according to a 2022 McKinsey Health Institute survey. Continued here

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The Hidden Cost of Cheap TVs The television I grew up with—a Quasar from the early 1980s—was more like a piece of furniture than an electronic device. It was huge, for one thing: a roughly four-foot cube with a tiny curved screen. You couldn’t always make out a lot of details, partially because of the low resolution and partially because we lived in rural Ontario, didn’t have cable, and relied on an antenna. I remember the screen being covered in a fuzzy layer of static as we tried to watch Hockey Night in Canada. This whole contraption was housed in a beautifully finished wooden box, implying that it was built to be an heirloom. The price implied the same. My parents don’t remember what they paid for the TV, but it wasn’t unusual for a console TV at that time to sell for $800, or about $2,500 today adjusted for inflation. That’s probably why our family kept using the TV across three different decades—that, and it was heavy. It took three of us to move it. Continued here

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How to be happier - YOU Magazine There’s a simple science to contentment – it’s about reframing your time around life’s little pleasures.  Near the end of the programme, the interviewer Kirsty Wark quoted Cave’s wife – fashion designer Susie Bick – back to him. ‘Your wife Susie says it takes great courage to be happy.’ Continued here

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What’s next for mRNA vaccines mRNA vaccines helped us through the covid-19 pandemic—but they could also help defend against many other infectious diseases, offer universal protection against flu, and even treat cancer. Cast your mind back to 2020, if you can bear it. As the year progressed, so did the impact of covid-19. We were warned that wearing face coverings, disinfecting everything we touched, and keeping away from other people were some of the only ways we could protect ourselves from the potentially fatal disease. Continued here

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Can Scientists Save the World’s Tiniest Rabbit? In Washington State, the race is on to save a diminutive bunny as wildfires threaten its already shrinking habitat The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit relies on sagebrush for food and shelter, but the shrub has nearly disappeared. It's also slow to regrow: it takes about two decades, or ten pygmy rabbit lifetimes. Continued here

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‘It altered my entire worldview’: leading authors pick eight nonfiction books to change your mind Steven Pinker, Mary Beard, Rebecca Solnit and others reveal the books that made them see the world differently Shortly after publishing my book The Better Angels of Our Nature, on the historical decline of violence, I attended a conference sponsored by a foreign policy magazine at which a journalist asked me: "What would it take to eliminate extreme poverty worldwide?" Thinking it was a trick question, I quipped: "Redefine 'poverty'." An eavesdropping economist said to me: "That was a cynical answer", and recommended a short new book by the development expert Charles Kenny called Getting Better. Continued here

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Secret Meetings, Tequila and Black Adam vs. Superman: How Dwayne Johnson’s Bid for DC Power Flamed Out And that is certainly the hope in the new year when it comes to the DC Extended Universe, which endured the most tumultuous 12 months of any studio division in 2022. Amid the upheaval, the release plan for the upcoming “The Flash” teetered following a series of arrests and meltdowns involving its star Ezra Miller, closely guarded “Aquaman” deal points were laid bare in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, and the $78 million “Batgirl” movie was permanently shelved in post-production as a write-down. All that was just an appetizer for an executive shake-up that landed James Gunn and Peter Safran in the DC driver’s seat. But perhaps nothing was as dramatic as Henry Cavill returning briefly as Superman in a “Black Adam” cameo in October, only to lose the gig two months later.  As 2023 kicks off, DC bosses Gunn and Safran continue to sift through the rubble and will soon reveal their three-year interconnected vision for the cinematic universe, which won’t include Cavill’s Superman or Wonder Woman at all. But things could have gone in an alternative direction: Behind the scenes, a different group made a play for control of DC. Not long after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed in April, Dwayne Johnson directly pitched CEO David Zaslav on a multiyear plan for Black Adam and a Cavill-led Superman in which the two properties would interweave, setting up a Superman-versus-Black Adam showdown, sources say. “Black Adam” producers Hiram Garcia, who is Johnson’s former brother-in-law, and Beau Flynn also were part of the brain trust looking to take DC down a new path. Other sources confirmed the meeting but downplayed any discussion of Black Adam’s future.  Continued here

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The Universe Is More in Our Hands Than Ever Before Pity the poor astronomer. Biologists can hold examples of life in their hands. Geologists can fill specimen cabinets with rocks. Even physicists get to probe subatomic particles in laboratories built here on Earth. But across its millennia-long history, astronomy has always been a science of separation. No astronomer has stood on the shores of an alien exoplanet orbiting a distant star or viewed an interstellar nebula up close. Other than a few captured light waves crossing the great void, astronomers have never had intimate access to the environments that spur their passion. Until recently, that is. At the turn of the 21st century, astrophysicists opened a new and unexpected era for themselves: large-scale laboratory experimentation. High-powered machines, in particular some very large lasers, have provided ways to re-create the cosmos, allowing scientists like myself to explore some of the universe’s most dramatic environments in contained, controlled settings. Researchers have learned to explode mini supernovas in their labs, reproduce environments around newborn stars, and even probe the hearts of massive and potentially habitable exoplanets. Continued here

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Here's what 2023 has in store, as predicted by experts in 1923 The start of 2023 is the perfect time to revisit experts' century-old predictions about the world. Forget flying cars. When scientists and sociologists in 1923 offered predictions for what life might look like in a hundred years, their visions were more along the lines of curly-haired men, four-hour workdays, 300-year-old people and "watch-size radio telephones." Continued here

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How to Save Your Smartphone's Battery Life One benefit of larger smartphones is that there’s space for bigger batteries. Battery life isn’t quite the nuisance it used to be, but anxiety about running out of power is still common. Much of the advice out there about how to save your smartphone’s battery life is dated or dubious, so we’ve put together some battery-saving advice on what works and what doesn’t. You may also be interested in how to look after your smartphone battery to ensure it lasts as long as possible and how to get a battery replacement when the time comes. If you’re looking for ways to keep your phone charged up, check out our Best Wireless Chargers, Best Portable Chargers, and Best Apple 3-in-1 Wireless Chargers guides. Continued here

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A Teenager Solved a Stubborn Prime Number 'Look-Alike' Riddle When Daniel Larsen was in middle school, he started designing crossword puzzles. He had to layer the hobby on top of his other interests: chess, programming, piano, violin. He twice qualified for the Scripps National Spelling Bee near Washington, DC, after winning his regional competition. "He gets focused on something, and it's just bang, bang, bang, until he succeeds," said Larsen's mother, Ayelet Lindenstrauss. His first crossword puzzles were rejected by major newspapers, but he kept at it and ultimately broke in. To date, he holds the record for youngest person to publish a crossword in The New York Times, at age 13. "He's very persistent," Lindenstrauss said. Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research develop­ments and trends in mathe­matics and the physical and life sciences. Continued here

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How to Use the iPhone 14's Emergency Satellite SOS One of the new features that arrived alongside the iPhone 14 handsets in September 2022 was a feature that Apple calls "Emergency SOS via satellite"—and the name tells you pretty much all you need to know. Apple says it's intended for "exceptional circumstances when no other means of reaching the emergency services are available." When you're in trouble and you can't get a Wi-Fi signal or a lock on a cell tower, your iPhone 14 will make contact with a satellite and send out your plea for help that way. Continued here

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Ask a physicist: Do humans have souls? Have you ever considered the possibility of transferring your consciousness into a computer? Sabine Hossenfelder, a German theoretical physicist, believes that this may one day be possible.  According to Hossenfelder, the fundamental laws of physics as described in the standard model of particle physics can explain everything in the universe, including human consciousness. She suggests that we are simply a collection of elementary particles, but it is the arrangement of these particles that gives us our unique qualities and abilities.  Continued here

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DARPA wants scientists to find a drug that keeps you warm Over the years, countless drinkers have experienced the warm embrace of a “booze blanket.” Consuming alcohol can make imbibers feel impervious to cold because the drug dilates blood vessels, ultimately shifting blood flow to the body’s borders. Here, the hot liquid brushes past thermoreceptors in the skin that transmit signals of warmth to the brain, which in turn translate into cozy feelings. But the “booze blanket” is a big lie. While the warm sensations are genuine, having blood flow near the skin permits the body’s heat to be more easily drained by cold weather, increasing the likelihood of hypothermia. Continued here

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New mRNA universal flu vaccine against all known subtypes takes promising first steps A new mRNA flu vaccine provides “broad protection” from lethal challenges by a variety of flu viruses, researchers have announced. The animal study, published in Science, represents yet another step towards vaccinology’s holy grail: a universal flu vaccine. Continued here

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ChatGPT has investors drooling, but can it bring home the bacon? When ChatGPT—the ingenious, garrulous, and occasionally unhinged chatbot from OpenAI—was asked this week how much the company behind it is worth, its responses included: “It is likely that its worth is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more.” Continued here

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COVID, RSV and the flu: A case of viral interference? Three years into the pandemic, COVID-19 is still going strong, causing wave after wave as case numbers soar, subside, then ascend again. But this past autumn saw something new—or rather, something old: the return of the flu. Plus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)—a virus that makes few headlines in normal years—ignited in its own surge, creating a “tripledemic.” Continued here

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The Surprising Reason for the Decline in Cancer Mortality This is Work in Progress, a newsletter by Derek Thompson about work, technology, and how to solve some of America’s biggest problems. Sign up here to get it every week. Last year, I called America a “rich death trap.” Americans are more likely to die than Europeans or other citizens of similarly rich nations at just about every given age and income level. Guns, drugs, and cars account for much of the difference, but record-high health-care spending hasn’t bought much safety from the ravages of common pathogens. Whereas most of the developed world saw its mortality rates improve in the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, more Americans died of COVID after the introduction of the vaccines than before. Continued here

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The Joy of Watching ‘Wednesday’ With Daughters Gal Beckerman’s culture picks include two must-preorder spring books, Michelle Williams, and Indiana Jones. 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. Continued here

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Today I Love Being Alive My god, I’m so obsessed with you. You’re new. You’re tall. You make me feel like never putting clothes on. Who’s to say if you’ll still be around when anyone’s reading this poem. Or if the Earth will continue (it’s getting very hot!) or if we’ll get it right in language exactly how we feel about each other. I don’t care about being remembered. I care about a great glass of wine. Strong men. Beautiful sentences. Italian leather. Continued here

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She Never Meant to Write a Memoir Janet Malcolm’s autobiography presents an argument about the fundamental murkiness of autobiography itself. Janet Malcolm once emailed to tell me she found an introduction I had written for my book on writers’ deaths, which included my own thoughts on a childhood illness, to be “surprising” but “powerful.” I understood this to be her diplomatic way of referring to the possibly showy or undignified decision to put myself into a book that was otherwise a work of biography and journalism. I think she was telling me she was surprised that she liked it. I was also surprised, given that she had communicated to me, in a thousand direct and indirect ways, her deep suspicion of autobiographical writing. Continued here

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Quit Your Job And Move Abroad: 10 Cheapest Places To Live This is the year to pursue the dream: Quit your job and move to one of the cheapest (and best) places to live in the world, a country where it costs so little you might be able to stop working. For the past six years, I have been examining the cheapest countries to live around the globe (you can see the reports from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017). For 2023, I once again tapped into the experts at International Living, which releases an Annual Global Retirement Index of the top places to retire. Continued here

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Want to improve your memory? Try these unexpected tips. The brain is an extraordinary organ, with many wonderful qualities, including the ability to forget — which may actually be a good thing. “If we remembered everything that we experienced, our brains would be hoarders, clogged with all sorts of useless crap that gets in the way of what we really need,” says Charan Ranganath, a professor of psychology and the director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California Davis. In today’s constantly plugged-in, always-on world, people are faced with a barrage of information — emails, news, pointless meetings, traffic updates, chitchat from family members — far more than anyone can process, Ranganath explains. “Instead, evolution favored quality over quantity,” he says. “We get good quality memories for the stuff that we are paying attention to, and that is often the important stuff. But if we’re not paying attention to something, we will never really get a good memory of it to begin with.” Continued here

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3 Simple Reasons So Many Adults Still love LEGO. It’s a Lesson for Every Brand It's not an accident that everyone loves LEGO. Continued here

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Emotionally Intelligent People Know How to Listen. Here Are 5 Things They Do Different Emotional intelligence gives you the knowledge and power not just to listen, but to learn. Continued here

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4 Simple but Powerful Tools That Will Help You Keep Track of Everything You Want to Remember They're free or cheap and they'll keep you amazingly organized. Continued here

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How Should Leaders Prepare for The Challenges Ahead? LinkedIn Execs Offer 3 Key Workforce Strategies Three strategies to build a more resilient organization for the future. Continued here

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3 Toxic Phrases People With High Emotional Intelligence Actually Use On Purpose, and Why It can be used for good or ill, and for altruistic or self-serving goals. Continued here

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Why cholera continues to threaten many African countries Cholera is a disease caused and spread by bacteria – specifically Vibrio cholerae – which you can get by eating or drinking contaminated food or water. It’s an old disease which has mostly affected developing countries, many of which are in Africa. Between 2014 and 2021 Africa accounted for 21% of cholera cases and 80% of deaths reported globally. Continued here

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Farming in South Africa: 6 things that need urgent attention in 2023 Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC). South Africa’s agriculture remains an important sector of the economy and holds great potential to reduce poverty. It’s also central to the political economy of the country, as evident in the governing African National Congress’s (ANC) recent policy documents. Continued here

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The Origins of Joe Biden’s Document Mess On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate the handling of classified documents found in the private office and home of President Joe Biden. The documents are believed to date from the Obama era, when Biden was Vice-President. In early November, less than a week before the midterm elections, Biden's legal team uncovered the office documents and turned them over to the National Archives, which then alerted the Department of Justice. (The Biden team did not itself reach out to D.O.J.) A month later, the legal team discovered additional classified documents in Biden's garage. The initial White House statement on the matter, which was made on Monday, mentioned the office documents but omitted the garage ones. (On Thursday, the White House confirmed the existence of the garage documents, and of one additional classified document found in an adjacent room.) This is the second special counsel that Garland has appointed to look into cases involving Presidents and documents. Late last year, he asked Jack Smith to oversee the case involving Donald Trump and the classified materials he had stored at Mar-a-Lago. (In that case, Trump refused for many months to turn over all of the documents, which led to an F.B.I. search of the property.) Robert K. Hur, who served in the Trump Administration, will oversee the Biden inquiry. Continued here

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How Eric Adams Started Mentoring a Con Man About a year ago, not long after Eric Adams was sworn in as the mayor of New York, an old friend and church leader named Lamor Whitehead went to an auto shop in the Bronx, to drop off a Mercedes-Benz G-Class S.U.V. that had been in a crash. Whitehead led a small church in Brooklyn called Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries. People called him Bishop. The shop he visited, No Limit Auto Body, was operated by a man named Brandon Belmonte, who was involved in real estate. Federal prosecutors would later refer to Belmonte as “a businessman.” The Mercedes was a twenty-five-thousand-dollar job. Belmonte paid the thirteen-thousand-dollar bill for a rental replacement while the work was getting done. Whitehead wanted more. “He basically says, ‘You got to give me another five grand,’ ” Belmonte recalled. “I said, ‘Bro, the job was only twenty-five thousand. Thirteen and five is eighteen. The parts were seven grand. I’m gonna make zero.’ ” It occurred to Belmonte that Whitehead wasn’t trying to negotiate—he was asking for a kickback. He promised to make it worth Belmonte’s while. “I got City Hall in my back pocket,” Whitehead said, according to Belmonte. Continued here

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Kevin McCarthy and the Republicans’ Rocky Road Ahead The simplest thing, usually, for a new congressional majority to do is elect a Speaker of the House. Often, the choice has been made in advance: the candidate grins, the chyron gives the tally, a press conference announcing the legislative agenda awaits. This month, the House Republicans, who won a slim majority in November, took fifteen votes and nearly a week to settle on Kevin McCarthy, even though he has led the Party since 2019 and had no serious opponent. The holdouts were about twenty members of the Party's far-right wing, but, even as each vote ended and the next one began, no one really seemed able to say what the conflict was about. John James, whose election in November made him the first Black Republican to represent Michigan in Congress, and who supported McCarthy, pointed out that the last time it had taken so many votes to pick a Speaker was in 1856. "The issues today are over a few rules and personalities," James said. "While the issues at that time were about slavery and whether the value of a man who looks like me was sixty per cent or a hundred per cent of a human being." The dividing line between the large number of Republicans backing McCarthy and the smaller, obstinate group standing in his way wasn't exactly ideological. Each camp included some of the prominent election deniers of the House Freedom Caucus. Ohio's Jim Jordan, long one of the most prominent hardliners, was in position to chair the Judiciary Committee, and had allied with McCarthy; so had the Georgia conspiracist Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had reportedly been promised a top committee assignment. The rebels included the Stop the Steal stalwarts Paul Gosar and Scott Perry, as well as the media-focussed right-wingers: Lauren Boebert, of Colorado, who faced calls to be stripped of committee assignments after making anti-Muslim slurs about her Democratic colleague Ilhan Omar; and Matt Gaetz, of Florida, who has been the subject of a federal investigation for sex trafficking but has not faced any charges. Up close, the distinction between these factions sometimes collapsed into personal grievances or turf war. The most dramatic moment came when the McCarthy ally Mike Rogers, of Alabama, lunged toward Gaetz, and was physically restrained. Only later did Politico report that Gaetz had been lobbying to run a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, which Rogers was set to chair. Continued here

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Sam Raimi tried to make a 'Last of Us' movie — and it was almost a disaster HBO is poised to break the stigma surrounding video game adaptations with the long-awaited premiere of The Last of Us. The series, which comes from Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and Last of Us game creator Neil Druckmann, is a big-budget adaptation of the post-apocalyptic game. Early reviews suggest it may very well be HBO’s newest smash hit. For fans of Naughty Dog’s games, that likely won’t come as much of a surprise. The 2013 original has long been regarded as one of the best games ever made, and discussions about adapting it circulated throughout Hollywood for years. Mazin isn’t the first high-profile Hollywood name who tried his hand; shortly after the game was released, a highly esteemed filmmaker signed on to oversee an adaptation that never saw the light of day. Continued here

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You need to watch the most brilliantly stupid thriller on HBO Max ASAP It seems unlikely the pioneers of 3D cinema ever envisaged their technology being used to gross out audiences with a disembodied penis belched up by a prehistoric piranha. Still, you can’t stop progress. Now streaming on HBO Max, Piranha 3D arrived in 2010, a year after the monumental success of Avatar left every major studio haphazardly attempting to capitalize on the returning appetite for all things three-dimensional. While a handful of films managed to create a similarly impressive immersive experience (see Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, space disaster Gravity), the majority – particularly those converted to the format retroactively – were ugly-looking affairs that left cinemagoers reaching for the aspirin. Continued here

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15 years ago, a spacecraft swung by Mercury to beat the Sun's gravity The MESSENGER mission needed a few gravitational assists to enter orbit around the smallest planet. Anyone who has visited the small island of Venice, full of its romantic canals and pedestrian paths with abrupt dead ends aplenty, knows that distance does not always go hand in hand with navigational ease. Fifteen years ago, NASA performed one of its most complex navigational routes to reach the Solar System’s smallest planet: Mercury. The MESSENGER mission made its first flyby of Mercury 15 years ago today, January 14, 2008, with two more flybys of the planet after, with NASA finally inserting it into orbit on April 4, 2011. Continued here

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How to choose between the male and female protagonists in 'Persona 3 Portable' The Persona series is full of complicated mechanics and systems to master, and players will spend hours making constant choices related to combat and forming social links. But before you even get started in Persona 3 Portable, the game will ask you to choose between playing as a male or female protagonist. While there are some similarities between the two paths, each protagonist has unique experiences that the other does not have access to — and the game doesn’t tell you this beforehand. Here is a guide to help you decide if you should play as the male or female protagonist in Persona 3 Portable. In its original release for PlayStation 2, Persona 3 had only one protagonist. Like the rest of the modern Persona games (4 and 5), players could only play as a male protagonist. With Persona 3 Portable, those who have never played the game might want to consider playing as the male protagonist to experience the game’s original narrative. Continued here

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The best Tom Cruise sci-fi movie on Netflix predicted a chilling technology Can you arrest someone for murder before they’ve even committed the crime? It might seem like a farfetched notion, and when 2002’s Minority Report came out, it probably seemed like just that — a Hollywood sci-fi interpretation of policing gone rogue. But twenty years later, this futuristic Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller feels chillingly relevant to our modern world. In the movie — based on a short story by Philip K. Dick and set in the year 2054 — special humans known as “precogs” predict the future. Police officer John Anderton (Tom Cruise) pieces together the precog’s visions in his “Precrime” unit to identify murder victims and stop perpetrators before the crime actually occurs. Continued here

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Will milk and orange juice curdle and make you sick? Here's the truth about the breakfast combo Milk and orange juice are staples of the classic American breakfast, along with eggs sunny-side-up, and bacon, of course. Some believe, however, that chasing OJ with milk is a recipe for puking. The idea behind this myth is that when you mix orange juice with milk, it curdles in your stomach, making you feel nauseous. Continued here

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You need to play the gnarliest shooter of the decade ASAP Adrenaline is awesome. For our ancestors, it gave them the juice they needed to stay in trees and avoid predators. For us, its an excuse to go skydiving. We chase adrenaline now because there is very little chasing us. This is why we love a movie with a great chase sequence or thrash to heavy metal. Video games are great at tweaking our adrenal glands, though one recent title stands out among all others. Doom: Eternal from id Software is the epitome of first-person shooting prowess. It’s a carnal, chaotic smorgasbord of brutality and velocity, pitting players against the forces of hell as they invade Earth. Its intensity belies its delicate balance and bold innovation, especially for a franchise that could trade on name recognition alone. Pick it up and your pulse quickens. Continued here

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California flooding reveals an unexpected solution to endless droughts California has seen so much rain over the past few weeks that farm fields are inundated, and normally dry creeks and drainage ditches have become torrents of water racing toward the ocean. Yet, most of the state remains in severe drought. All that runoff in the middle of a drought begs the question — why can’t more rainwater be collected and stored for the long, dry spring and summer when it’s needed? Continued here

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This bold new mission will try beaming solar power down from space While the technology behind solar cells has existed since the late 19th century, generating solar power in space presents some serious challenges. Solar power, long considered the leading contender among renewable energy sources, has advanced significantly over the past few decades. The cost of manufacturing and installing solar panels has dropped considerably, and efficiency has increased, making it price competitive with coal, oil, and fossil fuels. However, some barriers, like distribution and storage, still prevent solar power from being adopted more aggressively. In addition, there’s the ever-present issue of intermittency, where arrays cannot collect power in bad weather and during evenings. Continued here

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These 50 things on Amazon are so damn good at fixing problems around your home Sometimes, living in a house or apartment requires hiring a full-time maintenance person. The sink is clogged, there are drafts coming through the doorway, you need shelves hung properly, and there isn't nearly enough storage space. But it isn't a repairperson you need — it's these Amazon products that can help fix your household problems. Thankfully, I've included a bunch right here on this list. Whether it's hair in the drain or bathroom counter clutter that's making you want to throw a shoe through a window, the products in this roundup can help solve your household issues. There's even a vacuum made specifically for pet hair — but if most of your frustrations can only be solved through plumbing and tech fixes, don't despair. These things will come to your rescue, and nothing here is too expensive or hard to use. Continued here

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2,454 years ago, one eerily familiar event led to the downfall of Ancient Athens During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Thucydides was cited frequently, and for a good reason. The second anniversary of the January 6, 2021, insurrection is upon us. And each new revelation about that brutal mob assault on our government raises a host of fresh questions about what transpired in the days prior to January 6, notably who was involved in planning the events of that day. Why, for instance, did former President Donald Trump reportedly consider a blanket pardon for all the insurrectionists? Continued here

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How much microplastic are we inhaling? Scientists still aren’t sure Any plastic product you interact with, be it a trash can or coffee maker, or lamp, is jettisoning little bits of itself as it ages. Take a look around. If you’re on a bus or train, you’re likely sitting on a plastic seat surrounded by people in synthetic clothing, all of it shedding particles as they move. If you’re on the couch or in bed, you’re sunk into the embrace of microfibers. The carpet underneath you is probably plastic, as is the coating of a hardwood floor. Curtains, blinds, TVs, coasters, picture frames, cables, cups — all of it’s either wholly plastic or coated in plastic. Continued here

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How to watch 'The Last of Us': HBO’s next mega-hit is finally here The wait is nearly over. After much hype and fan-fueled expectation, the highly anticipated live-action adaptation of the beloved video game The Last of Us kicks off soon on HBO and HBO Max. Based on the Naughty Dog title first released on the PlayStation 3 a decade ago, The Last of Us drops audiences into a post-apocalyptic United States where civilization has been ravaged by a mutant strain of the Cordyceps fungus that transforms infected humans into zombie-like cannibalistic creatures. HBO and the show’s creators (Craig Mazin of Chernobyl acclaim and Neil Druckmann, the original writer and co-director of the game) will hope to avoid the typical problems with video game adaptations — and initial reviews of the big-budget series agree the network has another blockbuster genre hit on its hands that will more than satisfy diehard fans and new viewers alike. Continued here

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Amazon keeps selling out of these 50 weird but genius products with near-perfect reviews I love finding things on Amazon that may seem a little weird or slightly quirky, but they’re actually so helpful around the house. Probably the best part about these finds is that when you have people over. Why? They’re bound to point out how fun, on-trend, or adorable it is, and then you get to show off how useful it is. That’s probably why Amazon keeps selling out of these 50 weird but genius products, and I’ve rounded up all of the rave reviews to let you know just how useful they are. Continued here

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You need to watch the best vampire dystopia movie on HBO Max ASAP Vampires invading the realm of science fiction aren’t unheard of. Colin Wilson’s 1976 novel The Space Vampires became the basis for the 1985 sci-fi bomb Lifeforce. Both the 1966 Star Trek and the 1979 Buck Rogers dealt with sci-fi vampires in different guises. But it wasn’t until 2009 that mainstream science fiction really took vampires into the future. Daybreakers is both a massively underrated vampire flick and a fascinating sci-fi movie, and it’s well worth another look on HBO Max. Continued here

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The First Americans – a story of wonderful, uncertain science | Aeon Essays Footprints dated to 23,000-21,000 years ago at the White Sands National Park, New Mexico. All images courtesy Matthew Bennett/Bournemouth University Footprints dated to 23,000-21,000 years ago at the White Sands National Park, New Mexico. All images courtesy Matthew Bennett/Bournemouth University Continued here

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What is it like to be a paramedic, navigating human emergency? | Aeon Videos The short documentary Blaulicht (Blue Light) follows two paramedic teams in Switzerland, one in the country’s mountainous centre, the other in the city of Zurich. With a fly-on-the-wall style, the Swiss filmmakers Roman Hodel and Lena Mäder capture the first responders’ work as they aid those in need, in situations that range from a traffic accident to an at-home fatality. As the teams focus their attention on their patients, Hodel and Mäder focus their cameras solely on the paramedics. In doing so, the directors capture their emotions as they provide everything from wellness checks to life-saving care with a mix of expertise, compassion and composure – and attempt to find respite in the quiet moments in between. Fifty years ago, a train collided with Jack and Betty’s car. Here’s how they remember it Continued here

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To Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking, Stop Thinking About Yourself Even the most confident speakers find ways to distance themselves from their audience. It’s how our brains are programmed, so how can we overcome it? Human generosity. The key to calming the amygdala and disarming our panic button is to turn the focus away from ourselves — away from whether we will mess up or whether the audience will like us — and toward helping the audience. Showing kindness and generosity to others has been shown to activate the vagus nerve, which has the power to calm the fight-or-flight response. When we are kind to others, we tend to feel calmer and less stressed. The same principle applies in speaking. When we approach speaking with a spirit of generosity, we counteract the sensation of being under attack and we feel less nervous. Continued here

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How to Stop Saying "Um," "Ah," and "You Know" When you get rattled while speaking — whether you’re nervous, distracted, or at a loss for what comes next — it’s easy to lean on filler words, such as “um,” “ah,” or “you know.” These words can become crutches that diminish our credibility and distract from our message. To eliminate such words from your speech, replace them with pauses. To train yourself to do this, take these three steps. First, identify your crutch words and pair them with an action. Every time you catch yourself saying “like,” for example, tap your leg. Once you’ve become aware of your filler words as they try to escape your lips, begin forcing yourself to be silent. Finally, practice more than you think you should. The optimal ratio of preparation to performance is one hour of practice for every minute of presentation. Continued here

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How To Run a Meeting Why is it that any single meeting may be a waste of time, an irritant, or barrier to the achievement of an organization’s objectives? The answer lies in the fact, as the author says, that “all sorts of human crosscurrents can sweep the discussion off course, and errors of psychology and technique on the chairman’s part can defeat its purposes.” This article offers guidelines on how to right things that go wrong in meetings. The discussion covers the functions of a meeting, the distinctions in size and type of meetings, ways to define the objectives, making preparations, the chairman’s role, and ways to conduct a meeting that will achieve its objectives. Continued here

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Writing a Rejection Letter (with Samples) I have a friend who appraises antiques — assigning a dollar value to the old Chinese vase your grandmother used for storing pencils, telling you how much those silver knickknacks from Aunt Fern are worth. He says the hardest part of his job, the part he dreads the most, is telling people that their treasure is worthless. Continued here

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How to Ask for a Promotion First, reflect on what you want. Is there a job you covet or do you wish to create a new role? Do you want to move up — or might a lateral move interest you? Answering these questions helps you position your request. Second, build a case. Prepare a memo that outlines your strengths, recent successes, and impact. Next, talk to your boss and make your intentions clear. Beware that asking for a promotion is rarely a “one and done” discussion; rather, it’s a series of ongoing conversations. Your objective is to plant the seed and then nurture that seed over time. Finally, don’t get discouraged if you don’t get what you want right away. Continue to do good work and look for ways to elevate the level at which you operate. Continued here

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To Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking, Stop Thinking About Yourself Even the most confident speakers find ways to distance themselves from their audience. It’s how our brains are programmed, so how can we overcome it? Human generosity. The key to calming the amygdala and disarming our panic button is to turn the focus away from ourselves — away from whether we will mess up or whether the audience will like us — and toward helping the audience. Showing kindness and generosity to others has been shown to activate the vagus nerve, which has the power to calm the fight-or-flight response. When we are kind to others, we tend to feel calmer and less stressed. The same principle applies in speaking. When we approach speaking with a spirit of generosity, we counteract the sensation of being under attack and we feel less nervous. Continued here

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Choose Courage Over Confidence Self-doubt is a pervasive and often paralyzing concern, and research has repeatedly shown that it impacts women more than men. So what makes high-achieving women power through their self-doubt? According to the author’s research, they focus on building up their courage, not their confidence. She offers three strategies to help women take bold actions in the face of self-doubt and fear: 1) Don’t underestimate the impact of small, yet significant, acts of courage; 2) Practice courageous acts in all areas of your life; and 3) Try again tomorrow. Continued here

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Power and Politics in Organizational Life There are few business activities more prone to a credibility gap than the way in which executives approach organizational life. A sense of disbelief occurs when managers purport to make decisions in rationalistic terms while most observers and participants know that personalities and politics play a significant if not an overriding role. Where does the error lie? In the theory which insists that decisions should be rationalistic and nonpersonal? Or in the practice which treats business organizations as political structures? Continued here

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Choose Courage Over Confidence Self-doubt is a pervasive and often paralyzing concern, and research has repeatedly shown that it impacts women more than men. So what makes high-achieving women power through their self-doubt? According to the author’s research, they focus on building up their courage, not their confidence. She offers three strategies to help women take bold actions in the face of self-doubt and fear: 1) Don’t underestimate the impact of small, yet significant, acts of courage; 2) Practice courageous acts in all areas of your life; and 3) Try again tomorrow. Continued here

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The Great Resignation Didn't Start with the Pandemic Covid-19 spurred on the Great Resignation of 2021, during which record numbers of employees voluntarily quit their jobs. But what we are living through is not just short-term turbulence provoked by the pandemic. Instead, it’s the continuation of a trend of rising quit rates that began more than a decade ago. Five main factors are at play in this trend: retirement, relocation, reconsideration, reshuffling, and reluctance. All of these factors, the authors argue, are here to stay. They explore each in turn and encourage leaders to examine which of them are contributing most to turnover in their organizations, so that they can adapt appropriately as they move into the future. Continued here

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Our Social Media Addiction As an introverted, socially awkward teenager whose in-person interactions never seemed to go right, I liked the way Facebook allowed me to portray myself as I wanted. I created a profile that showcased my favorite quotes from classic movies and the music I had on repeat. In the digital world, I was more open and candid. I got to know people that I wouldn’t talk to face-to-face—and I often used the platform to vent about my classes. Continued here