How to Use the iPhone 14's Emergency Satellite SOS

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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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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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‘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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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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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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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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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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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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Canada, a superpower? Here's how the country might one day fit the bill For the foreseeable future, the United States will probably remain the world’s most powerful nation. Yet, like any champion, it must watch for challengers and head them off. At present, China’s rise on the global stage troubles Washington. A few decades ago, it was the Soviet Union. But will future contenders for superpower status be much closer — specifically, north of the U.S. border? The British Empire ended in the mid-20th century when it was outmanoeuvred not by one of its longtime rivals, France or Germany, but rather by its ally, the U.S. Could Canada do the same? 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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An Impactful Way Every Leader and Brand Can Honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Legacy, Today and Everyday Both your team and the customers you serve want you to demonstrate your admiration and commitment to Dr. King's legacy beyond just saying you do. Continued here

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Information literacy courses can help students tackle confirmation bias and misinformation When it comes to the news these days, what we choose to regard as trustworthy has more to do with our own world view than what kinds of news practices are worthy of trust. Many people are seeking out news that aligns with their politics. But there’s just one problem with this: we are not always good judges of what constitutes trustworthy information and news. Continued here

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10 years ago, Brad Pitt made the most underrated apocalypse thriller of all time Brad Pitt deserves better than 66 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Sure, the Oscar-winning actor wasn’t exactly taking a huge risk when he lurched into the zombie subgenre, but the end result is a captivating and unique take on the unkillable horror trope that still holds up a decade later. With HBO’s The Last of Us set to push zombies into a bold new direction, there’s never been a better time to revisit World War Z and the rocky behind-the-scenes story that brought Max Brooks’ novel to the big screen. Here’s how Pitt and a ragtag team of filmmakers redefined the zombie genre and made an underrated thriller. Continued here

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Gen Z and young millennials' surprising obsession If asked to guess what under 25-year-olds are listening to, it's unlikely that many of us would land upon orchestral music. And yet a survey published in December 2022 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) found that 74% of UK residents aged under 25 were likely to be tuning into just that at Christmas-time, compared with a mere 46% of people aged 55 or more. These figures reflect not only the RPO's broader finding that under 35-year-olds are more likely to listen to orchestral music than their parents, but also the widespread surge in popularity of classical music in general, particularly among younger generations. There are plenty of reasons for this, from the playlist culture spawned by streaming platforms that make it easy for listeners to discover new artists and types of music to fit their mood, to the solace it provided during the pandemic, not to mention the profusion of classical music in pop culture hits like Squid Game. But perhaps highest on the list is the global wave of Gen Z and young millennial classical artists who are finding new ways to be seen and heard, and – just as vitally – new means of modernising what has long been branded music's most elite and stuffy genre. Continued here

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You need to play the most barbaric brawler on Nintendo Switch ASAP If a video game does well, and the studio still exists in a couple of years’ time, chances are there will be a sequel. This isn’t exactly surprising for anyone who plays games, but the nature of sequels has radically changed since the industry’s earlier days. Take a game like 1989’s Golden Axe, which feels like it sums up a decade’s worth of medieval fantasy. Taking inspiration from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan and the popular albeit confusing Altered Beast, Sega developed a fun hack-n’-slash side-scroller for the arcade. Like most arcade games, it was meant to be challenging enough to keep sucking in quarters. It sold well enough to earn a port to the Genesis as well as a sequel. Continued here

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Spotted hyenas all sound different when they call - they can tell friend from foe On quiet nights across large swaths of the African bush, you may hear a series of whooping calls in the distance. This unique sound is the long-distance vocalisation used by spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) to communicate with each other. For hyenas, it’s advantageous to know who is calling before deciding to respond. They don’t treat every member of their group the same – and the caller could even be an intruder in their territory. Continued here

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Can we suck the water out of asteroids? New research may solve one obstacle If and when we ever get an asteroid mining industry off the ground, one of the most important decisions to be made in the structure of any asteroid mining mission would be how to get the resources back to where all of our other infrastructure is — somewhere around the Earth. That decision typically will focus on one of two propulsion methodologies — chemical rockets, such as those we already use to get us into space in the first place, or solar sails, which, while slower and unable to get us into orbit, don’t require any fuel. So, which propulsion methodology is better for these future missions? A study by researchers at the University of Glasgow looked at those two scenarios and came out with a clear-cut answer: solar sails. 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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Thinking about cosmetic surgery? At last, some clarity on who can call themselves a surgeon When is a surgeon not a surgeon? It’s a riddle that’s long puzzled regulators and consumers. But it may soon be solved. State and territory health ministers have decided to restrict the title “surgeon” to specialist doctors. The move represents a significant change in Australian medical regulation. 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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Meet te mokomoko a Tohu: a new species of New Zealand gecko hidden in plain sight Aotearoa New Zealand is home to an incredible diversity of lizards (mokomoko) – more than 120 species are identified, and counting. Elusive species are being (re)discovered in cracks and crevices in remote areas, while geneticists are using DNA to untangle hidden diversity in widespread populations. 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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How to Build a Product That Builds Avid Fans Hint: It starts by having a mission behind your product Continued here

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6 Realities to Consider Before Starting Your Own Business Starting and running your own business requires considerations that you probably did not anticipate. Continued here

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Basquiat: A multidisciplinary artist who denounced violence against African Americans Doctorant en littérature et arts de la scène et de l'écran (concentration cinéma), Université Laval The exhibition Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music, currently running at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, demonstrates that the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, which is usually associated with painting, also calls upon other media, including music — the main theme of this exhibition — literature, comic strips, cinema and animation, a much lesser-known aspect of his work. 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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The Getty Family’s Trust Issues For the very rich, private wealth managers are in a separate class from other retainers, even from the trusted pilots, chefs, and attendants who maintain their life styles. Guarding the capital—the "corpus," as it's known in the business—puts you in contact with a family's most closely held secrets. Managers handle delicate tasks; one professional in the Cayman Islands described the sensitivity of making a financial plan for an out-of-wedlock child that "has to be kept totally private from the wife." Others specialize in keeping clients out of the news by minimizing public transactions. The most devoted liken themselves to clergy or consiglieri, and tend to get prime seats at the kids' weddings and the patriarch's deathbed. Marlena Sonn entered the wealth-management industry in 2010, and found a niche working with what she called "progressive, ultra-high-net-worth millennials, women, inheritors, and family offices." She sought to create a refuge from jargon and bro culture. "Women and young people are talked down to," she told me. "A level of respect for people is refreshing." Continued here

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Alberta's new policy on psychedelic drug treatment for mental illness: Will Canada lead the psychedelic renaissance? Patients in Alberta will now be able to legally consider adding psychedelic-assisted therapy to the list of treatment options available for mental illnesses. Alberta psychiatrists and policymakers suggest that they are getting ahead of the curve by creating regulations to ensure the safe use of these hallucinogenic substances in a therapeutically supported environment. As of Jan. 16, the option is available only through registered and licensed psychiatrists in the province. 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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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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5 Wintery Books to Fill Up Cold January Nights The days are short and the weather is miserable, but at least that gives you lots of time to curl up with a good book. 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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3 ways Marvel Phase 5 can fix the MCU's biggest problems The Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 started off with a bang. Not only was it the first time TV shows were a part of the main canon, but these TV shows were launching on a barely year-old streaming service. Thanks to movie delays, TV shows were about all we had for much of 2020 and 2021. But that was okay. Fans just assumed the big crossover movies would come later. Well, more than two years later, that still hasn’t really happened. We got the introduction of variants in Loki, saw some meta-crossover in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and were introduced to swaths of new characters in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Eternals. But what was Phase 4 for, and how can Phase 5 learn from it? Here are three ways that the MCU’s Phase 5 can learn from the biggest mistakes of Phase 4. Continued here

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The UK needs a national energy advice service The UK government recently launched “It all adds up”, a campaign aimed at providing “simple, low or no-cost actions that households can take to immediately cut energy use and save money”. The campaign speaks to persistent calls to increase the assistance provided to households across the UK. Rapid energy price rises have pushed millions into fuel poverty, with an estimated 9 million people spending Christmas 2022 in cold and damp homes. For many, independent advice on safely reducing energy use and accessing financial assistance can make a vital difference in confronting the combined cost of living and energy crises. Continued here

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Martin Luther King Jr. Was a Truly Great Leader. This 15-Minute Speech Proved It (Long Before 'I Have a Dream') It started on December 5, 1955.Continued here S41 Study reveals one brilliant brain hack that can unlock your creativity To test the link between creative thinking and emotional reappraisal, we surveyed 279 people. 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. Continued here S6 The companies that churn through young workers Sarah had always dreamed of working in the fashion industry. Aged 21, she decided to follow her dream, move to London and find a career she loved. “Like many young people, my passion was fashion,” she says. “But the reality wasn’t quite so glamorous.” After working for less than a year in fashion retail, Sarah secured an e-commerce assistant role in the head office of a global luxury brand. In both jobs, she was surrounded by like-minded twenty-somethings, all of whom wanted to succeed in the fashion world. “It’s like any creative industry: young people always see it as cool to work in,” she says. “And the perks are great, even in sales: we’d get heavily discounted items all the time.” Continued here S42 Do video games make you smarter? One surprising genre leads the rest If you spend more than an hour a day playing video games, that’s 5 percent of your life. Will this time investment do anything good for your brain? This is a question that my colleagues and I at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have been studying for the past two decades. We want to know whether playing video games can increase cognitive skills: In other words, can game playing make you smarter? We have performed experiments, conducted meta-analyses of research literature, and even produced a couple of books: Computer Games for Learning and Handbook of Game-Based Learning. Continued here S47 Are gas stoves dangerous? Here's why a federal ban is actually a good idea One gas stove can contribute more to your exposure than an entire highway full of vehicles. Cooks love their gadgets, from slow countertop cookers to instant-read thermometers. Now, there’s increasing interest in magnetic induction cooktops — surfaces that cook much faster than conventional stoves without igniting a flame or heating an electric coil. Continued here S16 They say we know more about the Moon than about the deep sea. They're wrong This idea has been repeated for decades by scientists and science communicators, including Sir David Attenborough in the 2001 documentary series The Blue Planet. More recently, in Blue Planet II (2017) and other sources, the Moon is replaced with Mars. As deep-sea scientists, we investigated this supposed “fact” and found it has no scientific basis. It is not true in any quantifiable way. Continued here S12 Canada's new COVID test rules: Targeting travellers from China will not stop globally circulating Omicron subvariant In a throwback to January 2020, when the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 began to be detected outside of China, many countries have again adopted measures targeted at travellers from China. These measures include flight restrictions, pre-departure testing and blanket entry bans. As of Jan. 5, 2023, air travellers from China, Hong Kong and Macau over two years of age entering Canada must provide proof of a negative COVID test prior to departure. Continued here S51 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 S33 Procrastination is linked to poor health - new study University students have a lot of freedom but not much structure. This can be bad for habitual procrastinators. Studies have shown that at least half of university students procrastinate to a level that is potentially harmful to their education. But this may not be the only negative result of putting things off until a later date. Studies have found a link between procrastination and poor health. It is associated with higher levels of stress, unhealthier lifestyles and delays in seeing a doctor about health problems. Continued here S59 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 S57 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 S38 A scientist explains how to alter your feelings about yourself -- for the better Do you think you are a friendly person? If you answer yes, then you might be a person with a positive self-schema. A self-schema is the information and beliefs you hold about yourself. This cognitive framework influences how you feel, how you react, your actual behavior, and your perception of your place in the world. A positive self-schema can bring benefits beyond light social interactions: Before going to a networking event with people in your industry that you admire, you might think about how you are, for example, and that check-in soothes your nerves. Continued here S37 'Marvel Snap' needs one major fix to become the best card game ever It’s easy to see why Marvel Snap was 2022’s best mobile game and even took home the award for it at the Game Awards in December. The variety in strategies, mechanics, and synergy between cards offers so many ways to play, wherein no two matches are the same. This, coupled with the smart integration of hero and villain abilities along with the gorgeous art make Marvel Snap an all-timer. The thing is, Marvel Snap has one fatal flaw that nearly ruins the entire experience. It’s all tied to progression and the rate at which you unlock new cards. For a game that’s all about building fun decks, you’d think Marvel Snap would be slightly more generous with its card to encourage more playstyles, but that isn’t the case. Continued here S50 DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis Urges Caution on AI Demis Hassabis stands halfway up a spiral staircase, surveying the cathedral he built. Behind him, light glints off the rungs of a golden helix rising up through the staircase’s airy well. The DNA sculpture, spanning three floors, is the centerpiece of DeepMind’s recently opened London headquarters. It’s an artistic representation of the code embedded in the nucleus of nearly every cell in the human body. “Although we work on making machines smart, we wanted to keep humanity at the center of what we’re doing here,” Hassabis, DeepMind’s CEO and co-founder, tells TIME. This building, he says, is a “cathedral to knowledge.” Each meeting room is named after a famous scientist or philosopher; we meet in the one dedicated to James Clerk Maxwell, the man who first theorized electromagnetic radiation. “I’ve always thought of DeepMind as an ode to intelligence,” Hassabis says. Hassabis, 46, has always been obsessed with intelligence: what it is, the possibilities it unlocks, and how to acquire more of it. He was the second-best chess player in the world for his age when he was 12, and he graduated from high school a year early. As an adult he strikes a somewhat diminutive figure, but his intellectual presence fills the room. “I want to understand the big questions, the really big ones that you normally go into philosophy or physics if you’re interested in,” he says. “I thought building AI would be the fastest route to answer some of those questions.” Continued here S43 Is your dog right or left-pawed? One factor could determine their dominant hand The vast majority of people use one hand or the other for most things — and for nearly 90 percent of the human population, this is the right hand. Some 10 percent to 13 percent of humans are left-handed, with men being three times more likely to be left-handed than women, though very few people are ambidextrous. Until relatively recently, it was assumed that “handedness” was unique to humans, but studies of animals suggest that “handedness” may be a fundamental feature of all mammals. What is less clear is how this is displayed in animals and whether this is the same as human handedness. Continued here S49 Pondering the peculiar one-sided intimacy of the client-therapist relationship | Aeon Videos Most people who’ve visited a therapist have likely contemplated the one-sidedness of the relationship – they regularly access your most private thoughts, but you often know very little about them. In this animation, the US photographer and filmmaker Josephine Sittenfeld contemplates the life of her own therapist, Linda, on the basis of the small hints she’s collected. From glimpsing her in an apron at her home office, to her ability to never yawn in sessions, Sittenfeld tries to imagine Linda’s life beyond their meetings – an effort that only seems to deepen the mystery. An amusing and perhaps relatable watch, Sittenfeld’s short ponders the seemingly innate desire for reciprocity in relationships, even when barriers have been raised for a reason. Fifty years ago, a train collided with Jack and Betty’s car. Here’s how they remember it Continued here S14 The 2023 Australian Open pauses a year of profound political tensions in tennis Over the past 12 months, significant challenges by way of policy and politics have impacted professional tennis. Chief among them have been participation constraints around the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by considerations about the eligibility or otherwise of Russian and Belarussian competitors following the invasion of Ukraine. Continued here S32 Dominic Ongwen: how the case of a former child soldier exposed weaknesses in international criminal law Guilt and innocence are rarely clear-cut, even in the most heinous of crimes. The recent appeal of Dominic Ongwen, former commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), shines a light on the complexity of defence in international criminal law. In December, the International Criminal Court (ICC) refused Ongwen’s appeal, cementing his conviction and 25-year prison sentence for numerous charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Continued here S20 On a tiny Australian island, snakes feasting on seabirds evolved huge jaws in a surprisingly short time When we think of evolution, we tend to picture slow changes occurring over very long periods of time, typically millions of years. However, evolution can actually happen much faster, over only a few generations: think COVID-19 strains, for example. And this fast evolution isn’t just restricted to viruses and microbes. Our study, recently published in Evolutionary Biology, documents rapid evolution in tiger snakes (Notechis scutatus). In less than a century, these snakes evolved the ability to swallow whole seagull chicks, allowing them to survive on a tiny island. Continued here S30 Most humans haven't evolved to cope with the cold, yet we dominate northern climates - here's why Humans are a tropical species. We have lived in warm climates for most of our evolutionary history, which might explain why so many of us spend winter huddled under a blanket, clutching a hot water bottle and dreaming of summer. Indeed all living apes are found in the tropics. The oldest known fossils from the human lineage (hominins) come from central and eastern Africa. The hominins who dispersed northwards into higher latitudes had to deal with, for the first time, freezing temperatures, shorter days that limited foraging time, snow that made hunting more difficult and icy wind chill that exacerbated heat loss from their bodies. Continued here S22 How to treat scars at home - and hopefully make them disappear Maybe you’ve had a skin cancer removed from your face or body. Perhaps you had an injury or accident and needed stitches. However you came by a cut on your skin, you probably want to make it appear as small as possible as quickly as possible and avoid a longer-lasting scar. In order to minimise scar formation we need to address wound healing, which is a complex process. Continued here S21 NZ aid worker remains missing in Ukraine: the tragedy of people motivated to help in war zones becoming victims themselves The humanitarian aid worker Andrew Bagshaw, who has dual New Zealand and British citizenship, has been missing in Ukraine for more than ten days. Bagshaw and his British colleague Christopher Parry worked as part of a team of Ukrainian and international volunteers delivering aid and carrying out evacuations of civilians, often under fire from Russian forces. They have not been seen since January 6, when they left the city of Kramatorsk for Soledar, in eastern Ukraine, which has since been claimed by the Russian mercenary company Wagner. Continued here S18 Birdsong isn't just competition for mates or territory. Zebra finches sing to bond When you hear beautiful birdsong, such as the warbling of the Australasian magpie, you might believe it’s a sign of intense competition for territory or showing off to attract a mate. After all, that’s the way birdsong is often thought of – a way for male birds to compete with each other. A prettier version of nature red in tooth and claw, as Tennyson put it. There’s some truth to it – in many species, even the most beautiful song by a male in another’s territory will invite attack. Continued here S48 We will never be able to live on another planet. Here's why | Aeon Essays Scientific researchers on a bat-collecting expedition in Sierra Leone. Photo by Simon Townley/Panos Scientific researchers on a bat-collecting expedition in Sierra Leone. Photo by Simon Townley/Panos Continued here S45 'The Last of Us' Episode 1 makes the game's best trick even better There are a number of ways to establish that nobody is safe in a story, but the best one is killing off a main character from the get-go. Game of Thrones dispatched with Ned Stark, and from then on it was clear anyone could be killed at any point (never forget the Red Wedding). Star Wars killed off one of the original trilogy characters, cementing Kylo Ren as a heartless villain and freeing Harrison Ford for another Indiana Jones movie. Even Hitchcock’s Psycho murders its protagonist in the first act. But this trick isn’t limited to film and TV. In fact, The Last of Us video game used a very similar tactic — a tactic that was finally given the time it deserves in the HBO series. Continued here S23 Disastrous floods in WA - why were we not prepared? Toni Hay is Director for Indigenous Climate Change providing climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction services. Courtney-Jay Williams works for Indigenous Climate Change providing climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction services. Continued here S26 What's next for the anti-Nato left after Ukraine? When Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, much of the political left across the western world were faced with a dilemma. Unlike in 2003 – when US oil interests seemed to explain the invasion of Iraq all too neatly – this time it was much more difficult to put a Marxist spin on things. The left, sections of which have traditionally been critical of the US-led Nato alliance, was presented with an unpalatable choice: either to back a state propped up by Nato, the world’s most powerful military alliance, or to end up excusing a war of aggression. Continued here S24 What can the Bildungsroman tell us about the Israel and Palestine conflict? The reactions to Australia’s decision to reverse the Morrison government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital ranged from outrage to endorsement. They confirmed, once again, that the territories involved are intensely contested. They also showed that there is almost no position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that can be understood as genuinely neutral or beneficial for both sides. In the wake of the Second Palestinian Intifada, the conflict seems to have arrived at an impasse. Bildungsroman is a German word that translates as “novel of education”. The genre emphasises development and progress. It is associated with the maturation of a young or naive protagonist. Such protagonists are formed more by circumstance than academic instruction. They are “schooled by life”. Continued here S44 These 50 hidden gems on Amazon seem expensive but are actually cheap as hell I love it when someone walks into my home for the first time and admires one of my many bargain finds, clearly thinking that I spent a fortune on it. I shouldn’t tell them, of course, that I didn’t. The smart play is to let them think I dropped big bucks while keeping my discoveries to myself. But I can’t help it. I always spill. Half the fun of shopping, I think, is finding a bargain. And half the fun of finding a bargain is sharing it with someone who will also enjoy owning it. I am not talking about the kind of bargain that’s a cheap knock-off or counterfeit. I like things that are authentically awesome. These are products that were designed to be effective at what they do, and high-quality, but also completely affordable for those of us who don’t own three sports cars and a summer home. There are more of them out there than you would imagine, too. In fact, here are 50 hidden gems on Amazon that seem expensive but are actually cheap as hell. I’m sure you will find something that will make your visitors think you spent a fortune. Tell them you found a bargain... or let them believe what they like. That’s up to you. Continued here S46 Last of Us Episode 1 ending explained: Why is Ellie [SPOILERS]? It’s the end of the world as we know it, but Ellie feels fine. HBO’s The Last of Us debuted tonight, and while the 90-minute premiere did plenty to explain this zombie post-apocalypse, if you haven’t played the games you probably have lots of questions. For example: what’s the deal with Ellie’s big reveal at the end of Last of Us Episode 1? Here’s what you need to know to understand the ending scene of The Last of Us’ first episode. Spoilers ahead! Continued here S27 Are the Clintons actually writing their novels? An expert uses 'stylometry' to analyse Hillary and Bill's writing In 2018, former US president Bill Clinton coauthored a novel with James Patterson, the world’s bestselling author. The President is Missing is a typical “Patterson”: a page-turner of a thriller, easy to read, with short chapters and large font. Patterson is accustomed to collaborative writing – much of his success can be attributed to novels he has written with others. Considered the first “brand-managed author”, Patterson brought the Hollywood model of film production to books. Continued here S19 Woman, modernist, West Indian: the haunted life of Jean Rhys The life of Dominican-born writer Jean Rhys is at once well-known and mysterious. Her career dipped and soared across both halves of the last century, across changes of name (Ella Gwendoline “Gwen” Rees Williams, Ella Lenglet, Jean Rhys) and changes of location (West Indies, England, Europe). Review: I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys – Miranda Seymour (Harper Collins). Continued here S29 NHS crisis: underlying problems are starting to be addressed The NHS is having its worst winter in recent memory with strikes, record ambulance and A&E waiting times, and fears of excess deaths caused by delays in treatment. What hope is there for improvement in 2023? It’s hard to find any cause for optimism in the current crisis. However, the worst elements of the crisis may be ameliorated as we move further away from the acute phase of the pandemic. Some recent trends in the workforce might also improve the situation. Continued here S28 Why food is such a powerful symbol in political protest Food is a hot issue in today’s activism. Last year, UK climate group Just Stop Oil hurled tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London. Later they smeared cake on a Madame Tussauds waxwork of King Charles. Protesters affiliated with the German group Letzte Generation (Last Generation) threw mashed potatoes on Claude Monet’s Grainstacks at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, Germany. An activist targeted Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa with cake at the Louvre Museum in Paris. All were intended as wake-up calls about the anthropogenic climate catastrophe. Food has a long history of being a weapon of protest. Historian E.P. Thompson proposed in 1971 that food was part of the “moral economy” of protest in pre-industrial England. Food riots in the 18th century (such as those that took place across England in 1766 over the rising price of wheat and other cereals) were partly a response to the breakdown of the old moral economy of provision, replaced by the new political economy of the free market. Continued here S25 Why does Nepal's aviation industry have safety issues? An expert explains A Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500 aircraft crashed in Pokhara in central Nepal on January 15 2023, killing at least 68 passengers on board. The aircraft was en route from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu to Pokhara, the country’s second largest city, situated under the picturesque Annapurna mountain range. While the picturesque landscape of the country appeals to tourists, it poses significant challenges to aviation operators, who need to embrace and navigate the challenging environment. Continued here Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Followers Blog Archive ►  2024 (50) ►  October (2) ►  August (2) ►  July (4) ►  June (3) ►  May (5) ►  April (4) ►  March (2) ►  February (10) ►  January (18) ▼  2023 (834) ►  December (20) ►  November (54) ►  October (44) ►  September (108) ►  August (91) ►  July (29) ►  June (68) ►  May (104) ►  April (33) ►  March (30) ►  February (99) ▼  January (154) A Physical Theory For When the Brain Performs Best... 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