This week's Reddit breach shows company's security is (still) woefully inadequate

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This week's Reddit breach shows company's security is (still) woefully inadequate Popular discussion website Reddit proved this week that its security still isn’t up to snuff when it disclosed yet another security breach that was the result of an attack that successfully phished an employee’s login credentials. Continued here

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What You Need to Know About Launching a Startup Right Out of College In the fall of 2020, when the world was in lockdown, Kris Christmon, a life sciences Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland, USA, was surprised to learn that entrepreneurship was a career option for her. When the university announced a competition to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture and environmental sustainability, Christmon decided to give it a shot. Her team pitched an idea around recycling plastics and won the first prize. Continued here

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Henry Ford, Innovation, and That "Faster Horse" Quote We’ve all been in conversations on the topics of creativity and innovation when Henry Ford’s most famous adage is (excuse the pun) trotted out, usually accompanied by a knowing smirk and air of self-evidence. Battle lines are quickly drawn. One side vehemently argues the merits of innovating vis-à-vis customer feedback; the other argues that true innovation is created by singularly gifted visionaries who ignore customer input and instead manufacture innovation based solely on their prophetic vision for a better future. Continued here

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How to Measure Inclusion in the Workplace In an era where companies are paying more and more attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), inclusion remains the most difficult metric to track. From new research, Gartner developed the Gartner Inclusion Index to measure what true inclusion looks like across an organization. The authors outline how to use the Gartner Inclusion Index to measure employee perceptions of inclusion, what effective action looks like from leaders, and common pitfalls to avoid. Continued here

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Digital Transformation Is Not About Technology Companies are pouring millions into “digital transformation” initiatives — but a high percentage of those fail to pay off. That’s because companies put the cart before the horse, focusing on a specific technology (“we need a machine-learning strategy!”) rather than doing the hard work of fitting the change into the overall business strategy first. Not only should they align tech investments with business goals — they should also lean more on insider knowledge than outside consultants, acknowledge fears about job loss that those insiders may have, develop deep knowledge of how changes will affect customer experience, and use process techniques borrowed from the tech world (experimentation, prototyping, etc.) to facilitate change. Continued here

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How Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Amazon Learn from Failure In May, right after he became CEO of Coca-Cola Co., James Quincey called upon rank-and-file managers to get beyond the fear of failure that had dogged the company since the “New Coke” fiasco of so many years ago. “If we’re not making mistakes,” he insisted, “we’re not trying hard enough.” Continued here

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What to Do When You Have a Bad Boss Despite the $15 billion companies spend annually on managerial and leadership development, bad bosses are common in the American workforce.  So why do employees end up working longer (two years, on average) for toxic bosses than nontoxic bosses? Quitting can be hard for a number of psychological reasons. But it’s not the only option for employees struggling with bad bosses. Before deciding to quit, employees should try a number of strategies to ameliorate their tough situations. Having direct conversations with their bosses, engaging with their support networks, making lifestyle changes outside of work, and exploring other opportunities within their current organizations are good places to start. It is, however, possible that quitting is the best option — and that’s okay. Doing so gracefully and strategically will help employees transition from bad situations to better ones. Continued here

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How to Write a Meaningful Message: Our Favorite Reads Until the advent of affordable internet services in India, maybe around 2005, I would write two letters every week. One to my paternal grandmother and one to my maternal grandmother. I was very close to both, and they loved listening to my stories and plans. I spent an hour every weekend putting my thoughts together and reflecting on the previous five days. I was selective with my sharing. There was only so much space on the Inland letterhead and I spent many minutes plucking the most important details from my head. Those messages were more than a means of communication. They were pieces of me, captured permanently, and they meant something to us all. Continued here

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How to Build Your Network as a First-Generation Student Before Covid-19, only 30% of the 1.3 million low-income and first-generation students in the U.S. who had enrolled in university graduated and landed a strong job or pursued further education. That means more than 900,000 students struggled to launch their careers, and these numbers are rising. Our research at Braven shows that the lack of a strong network is a large contributor to the problem. Continued here

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Being a Caregiver: Our Favorite Reads When I was 25, shortly after starting my first full-time job, my mom called with news that changed our lives. Over the past year, she’d developed a number of speech and balance issues that were getting worse. A neurologist had finally given her a definitive diagnosis: early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Back home, she was struggling to take care of herself and my younger brother, who has autism and an intellectual disability. At the time I had no idea what I could do. They lived halfway across the country. Continued here

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4 Ways to Follow Up After a Job Interview Much of the job application process involves waiting. You check job postings and wait for new opportunities that match your skills and interests. You put together a cover letter and a résumé, send them off, and wait to hear about a possible interview. If you land an interview, you prepare, give it your best shot, and then you wait for a response. Continued here

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15 Years Ago, Steve Jobs Said People Who Know What They're Talking About Don't Need PowerPoint. Research Shows He Was Right The better approach? Take a seat, and hash things out. Continued here

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Follow These Principles to Make Your Business Stand Out From the Crowd Breaking barriers and pushing boundaries should be in every entrepreneur's playbook. Continued here

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How This Tiny Company Makes Millions Throwing Super Bowl Parties for Shaq, Gronk, and Guy Fieri The co-founders of Medium Rare share their tips for growing a business through uncertain economic times. Continued here

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Jobless Claims Are on the Rise--but Companies Still Need Creative Ways to Reach Would-Be Workers The Labor Department reports an increase in claims for unemployment benefits. But companies need to reach unemployed workers. Continued here

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What Business Leaders Need to Know When They Decide to Take a Pay Cut Apple's and Morgan Stanley's CEOs took pay cuts. Here's what other leaders need to know if they do the same. Continued here

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5 Reasons to Consider Hiring a Veteran Many veterans find it difficult to find jobs after service. Here's why you should look twice at the talent pool. Continued here

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3 Strategic Areas Every Growing Business Should Focus On When Uncertain Economic Times are Upon Us Optimizing key areas will help ensure your vision is sharply focused on creating the most impact. Continued here

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How to Be an Ally to Colleagues After Violence Against Their Community How can you support a colleague after a mega-threat — a highly publicized, harmful, and often violent event outside of work that often targets historically marginalized groups? It can be difficult to know what — if anything — to say; in fact, employees often perceive these conversations as difficult, sensitive, and high-risk. But silence can be riskier, conveying that the threatened aspect of someone’s identity is not valued or important in the workplace. To help guide people who want to speak up but aren’t sure how, research suggests using three pillars of allyship — self-education, social support, and advocacy — to recognize a coworker and offer support. Continued here

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Practice Empathy as a Team Lifting up both individuals and teams and recognizing emotions builds stronger communities, more trust, and helps people feel cared for. With the environment continuing to feel uncertain, engaging employees in this way is more important than ever. While calls to reduce burnout, implement systemic fixes, and increase retention mount, managers in any industry can implement the authors’ 10 strategies immediately to listen deeply for emotions, reflect that understanding, and provide appreciation, connection, and community. These tactics can be used in both in-person and virtual environments, on a regular basis or as needed, in whichever order works for your team. Continued here

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Geopolitics Are Changing. Venture Capital Must, Too. For decades, the tech industry thrived based on a set of unique macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions. U.S. hegemony, globalization, and cheap money combined to allow tech startups to spread their products around the world. That era is ending and tech will have to change to keep up. In the new era, politics takes precedence over economics. But there will be new opportunities for tech in areas like health care, energy, and defense. The companies that rise to meet those challenges will require more capital, more patience, and more governance from investors. Continued here

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The unknown giants of the deep oceans If the Earth's oceans were the size of the island of Manhattan, then oceanographer and deep-sea explorer Edith Widder estimates that we've explored the equivalent of perhaps one block – but only at first-floor level. Oceans make up roughly 99.5% of the planet's habitats by volume, and within those largely unexplored depths there are thought to be scores of large marine animals unknown to science. When you consider smaller animals too, the number of unknown species rises to the millions. Continued here

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9 viral phrases that explain China's work culture In China, the culture of work has changed radically over the years. Alongside those changes came a whole array of viral phrases, forever immortalized in the lexicon of the Chinese workplace. What are those phrases, and how have their meanings shifted? Why do China’s entrepreneurs, who once wanted to “jump into the sea” of the private sector, now aspire to “swim ashore”? Why is the phrase “996,” once glorified by tech workers as a symbol of hard work, now declared illegal? Burned out by an endless cycle of competition, what does it mean for someone to “lie flat,” “run,” or “let it rot”? In 1992, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping embarked on his renowned “Southern Tour” to Guangdong province, calling for accelerated market reforms. The Chinese people began to leave their stable government jobs for the booming private sector — a process that became known as xia hai or “jumping into the sea.” The phrase, which once referred to women engaging in prostitution, now described those who pursued the daring path of the entrepreneur. Soon, everyone was taking the plunge: Party officials opened restaurants, professors moonlighted as corporate consultants, and an English-language teacher named Jack Ma quit his job to start an internet company. Continued here

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Could the Zombie Fungus in TV's  The Last of Us  Really Infect People? The pandemic fungus in the television program The Last of Us is real. But an expert says other fungi are much more threatening to humans In the fictional world of The Last of Us, a fungus has destroyed the world. The new hit TV show highlights Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, an actual “zombie ant” fungus, which compels an infected insect to climb onto a leaf, lay down and wait for spores to sprout from its head and into the wind. Continued here

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Turkey's Twitter Cutoff Harmed Earthquake Rescue Operations A temporary Twitter block after the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria shows how vital the platform has become for responding to disasters The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Continued here

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How ChatGPT Can Improve Education, Not Threaten it A professor explains why he is allowing students to incorporate ChatGPT into their writing process instead of banning the new technology To read the news, the sanctity of everything from college application essays to graduate school tests to medical licensing exams is imperiled by easy access to advanced artificial intelligence like ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that can produce remarkably clear, long-form answers to complex questions. Educators in particular worry about students turning to ChatGPT to help them complete assignments. One proposed solution is to roll back the clock to the 20th century, making students write exam essays using pen and paper, without the use of any Internet-connected electronic devices. The University of California, Los Angeles, where I teach, is considering making it an honor code violation to use ChatGPT for taking an exam or writing a paper. Continued here

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Why the Climate Fight Will Fail without India India is at an energy crossroads: if it chooses fossil fuels, it could undermine global climate targets It’s a test that aims to transform a nation marked by deep economic inequality and heavily polluting coal power to one where families drive electric scooters and cool their homes with the sun’s energy. And it could determine whether global temperatures exceed limits beyond which climate impacts become increasingly disastrous. Continued here

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How Fiber Optic Cables Could Warn You of an Earthquake Turkey and Syria’s 7.8-magnitude quake on Monday is a brutal reminder that deep down, planet Earth still hides secrets. Scientists know full well that faults are prone to earthquakes, but they can’t tell when a shaker will strike or how big it’ll be. If they could, the death toll wouldn’t stand at over 20,000 so far—and rescuers are still scrambling to find survivors.  Still, in recent years scientists have made progress in developing early earthquake warning systems, in which seismometers detect the beginnings of rumblings and send alerts directly to people’s phones. That alarm comes not days or hours before the quake strikes, but seconds. The planet’s seismic strikes are just too sudden for scientists to provide substantial warning times. Continued here

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The Best Soundbars for Every Budget If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED You probably already shelled out good money for a nice big TV and maybe a streaming gadget for your Netflix. But it doesn’t matter how large your screen is or how much it cost—the speakers in your TV probably sound awful.  Continued here

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'Arcane' Is a Work of Art Visit WIRED Photo for our unfiltered take on photography, photographers, and photographic journalism wrd.cm/1IEnjUH The Netflix series Arcane, a collaboration between Riot Games and Studio Fortiche, is an animated show based on the popular computer game League of Legends. Science fiction author Zach Chapman loved Arcane, despite having never played League of Legends. Continued here

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The FBI's Most Controversial Surveillance Tool Is Under Threat An existential fight over the US government's ability to spy on its own citizens is brewing in Congress. And as this fight unfolds, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's biggest foes on Capitol Hill are no longer reformers merely interested in reining in its authority. Many lawmakers, elevated to new heights of power by the recent election, are working to dramatically curtail the methods by which the FBI investigates crime. New details about the FBI's failures to comply with restrictions on the use of foreign intelligence for domestic crimes have emerged at a perilous time for the US intelligence community. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the so-called crown jewel of US intelligence, grants the government the ability to intercept the electronic communications of overseas targets who are unprotected by the Fourth Amendment. Continued here

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The 45 Best Shows on Netflix Right Now Netflix has something for everyone, but there are also plenty of duds. Our guide to the best TV shows on the platform is updated weekly to help you figure out what to watch. We include some less-than-obvious gems, so we're confident you'll find a must-watch series you don't already know about. You can also try our guides to the best movies on Netflix for more options. And if you've already completed Netflix and are in need of a new challenge, check out our picks for the best shows on Hulu and the best Disney+ shows. Continued here

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Where to Sustainably Buy Flowers Online Some things are hard to ship on your own. Flowers are near the top of that list. They’re pretty, but the industry has an ugly side. Between the amount of water flowers need to grow, the dangers of pesticides, the potential of unregulated and unfair working conditions, and the distance flowers travel, a lot can go wrong. Flowers are also an ornamental gift with an expiration date, which makes aiming for sustainability all the more important. If you’re shopping for flowers online, we’ve got some tips on how to keep things sustainable without emptying your wallet. When possible, look for arrangements that are seasonal and sourced directly from farms, especially those that are certified through environmental organizations like the Rainforest Alliance. A florist should be able to tell you where their flowers are coming from—and the closer to home, the better. If you aren’t shopping through a local florist (either in your town or in your recipient’s), seek out a larger service that works with them. Minimal, recyclable, and compostable packaging can help give your delivery an eco-conscious boost.  Continued here

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Ask Ethan: How do we know the timeline of our Universe? Today, it’s now 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang occurred. Our observable Universe extends for 46.1 billion light-years in all directions, and is made of: with no hint of other components like spatial curvature, cosmic strings, domain walls, or any other weird stuff we can imagine. Continued here

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The physics of time, entropy, and death Why does time move in only one direction? This still unsolved question was posed in 1927 by the British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington, and the concept came to be known as the “arrow of time.” As theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder explains, there’s a longstanding mystery in the foundations of physics: If we look at the laws for microscopic constituents, like elementary particles, they work the same way forward in time as they do backward in time. But the same does not hold true on macroscopic scales. Continued here

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Is life on Earth in harmony with the planet — or is it ultimately suicidal? Peter Douglas Ward, a paleontologist and professor at the University of Washington, really dislikes the Gaia hypothesis. “Gaia is not even a theory to me, it’s just New Age nonsense,” he told Salon in an interview late last year. For the unaware, the Gaia hypothesis, initially thought up by chemist James Lovelock and co-developed by evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis in the 1970s, views the Earth and all life dwelling on it as a synergistic system that collectively maintains optimal conditions for living beings. Flowery and nurturing, the idea is fittingly named after the Greek primordial goddess Gaia, the mother of all life. Continued here

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This map shows why FDR's New Deal was kind of a big deal Even if you’re no fan of the New Deal, you would have to agree it was kind of a big deal. It profoundly reshaped the United States, not just institutionally but also — as this map shows — physically. Each dot represents the tangible heritage of a New Deal project: a building, a mural, a park, and more. “New Deal” is the catch-all term for the reforms and programs implemented from 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to counter the devastating effects of the Great Depression. Before the New Deal, the federal government was small and interested mainly in regulating commerce. After, there was Big Government — but also Social Security. Continued here

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How meaning emerges from matter There is one way to tell the story of the Universe in which meaning doesn’t matter. In this telling, the cosmos begins with the Big Bang and a soup of quantum fields. Each field is associated with a quantum particle. As the Universe expands and cools, these particles combine (or don’t). After a while, you are left mostly with protons, neutrons, electrons, and photons. From then on, the story leads inevitably and inexorably to larger physical structures like galaxies, stars, and planets. On at least one of those planets — Earth — living organisms evolve. Then, in that world and in the heads of one particular kind of creature, neural activity allows for thoughts. Poof! Meaning has appeared.  In this story, meaning is not very important. It’s just an epiphenomenon, an add-on, to all the purely physical and more fundamental things happening with the fundamental particles. It is matter that matters in this tale, not meaning.I am not satisfied with this story. I think it misses some of the most fundamental aspects of our experience of the world. Just as important, it misses what science has been trying to tell us about us and the world together over the last century. There is, I believe, a very different story we can tell about meaning, and it’s a narrative that can rewire how we think about the Universe and our place in it. Continued here

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The "deep state" secret police is full of uneducated, incompetent underachievers Secret police organizations like Germany’s Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) or the Soviet Union’s Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB) have played clearly identifiable roles in history. The history of these organizations themselves, however, remains mysterious. The first state-run intelligence agency that resembled its modern-day counterparts in design and function seems to have been the Venetian Inquisition. It was managed by the Council of Ten, a governmental committee established in 1310 to investigate a plot to overthrow the city’s ruler, Doge Pietro Gradenigo. Continued here

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Windows 11 could replace bad gamer apps with built-in RGB lighting controls RGB lighting isn't for everyone, but a quick glance at PC-builder Reddit or the legions of glass-sided PC cases suggests it is for some people. If that's you, you're probably used to dealing with sub-par RGB control apps from the company that made your motherboard, keyboard, mouse, and/or fans. Not all of this software is awful, but it usually includes all kinds of features you don't need or want, and it's often difficult to use. Continued here

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Argentina lost one-fifth of its Atlantic Forest in the last four decades Deforestation not only causes the loss of important natural resources, it also contributes to global warming. Deforestation is the cause of about 20 percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally, which is higher than both passenger vehicles and trucks emit. Continued here

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AI-powered Bing Chat spills its secrets via prompt injection attack On Tuesday, Microsoft revealed a "New Bing" search engine and conversational bot powered by ChatGPT-like technology from OpenAI. On Wednesday, a Stanford University student named Kevin Liu used a prompt injection attack to discover Bing Chat's initial prompt, which is a list of statements that governs how it interacts with people who use the service. Bing Chat is currently available only on a limited basis to specific early testers. Continued here

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Neuralink transported brain implants covered in pathogens, group alleges The US Department of Transportation is investigating allegations that Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company, Neuralink, violated federal transportation regulations when it shipped contaminated implants removed from the brains of deceased research monkeys infected with multiple types of dangerous pathogens. The alleged violations could have put humans at risk of exposure to hazardous germs, including drug-resistant bacteria and a potentially life-threatening herpes virus. Continued here

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US will see more new battery capacity than natural gas generation in 2023 Earlier this week, the US' Energy Information Agency (EIA) gave a preview of the changes the nation's electrical grid is likely to see over the coming year. The data is based on information submitted to the Department of Energy by utilities and power plant owners, who are asked to estimate when generating facilities that are planned or under construction will come online. Using that information, the EIA estimates the total new capacity expected to be activated over the coming year. Continued here

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System Shock remake demo fuses modern design to a retro FPS/RPG package Nobody was expecting to see a PC demo for the System Shock remake this week, least of all me. I've been waiting to revisit Citadel Station and its malevolent AI since the project's announcement nearly seven years ago. Having spent a couple hours in the first level, I'm certainly impressed but curious about some of the decisions and focus areas. Continued here

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Unlike the first HomePod, the new model is not a nightmare to open up iFixit has published a short video of a teardown of the new, second-generation HomePod that launched on February 3 for $299. There's perhaps not as much to see as there is in an iPhone or Mac teardown, but the important thing is that it's relatively good news for repair shops or users who want to go the DIY repair route. Continued here

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Jason Momoa is out for revenge in action-packed Fast X trailer Vin Diesel's Dom Toretto finds his peaceful family man existence violently interrupted yet again in the trailer for Fast X, the 10th main installment (and 11th full-length film) in the wildly successful Fast and Furious franchise. Continued here

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The Last of Us episode 5 asks: What if prestige TV shows had boss monsters? Part of me tried to hold out hope that they might change that fate for the show—they've changed a lot of other stuff about the narrative, including a lot about Henry and Sam themselves. But really that was probably just wishful thinking born out of a deep connection with the characters. The specifics might change, but this plot beat needed to stay in there, precisely because it's so emotionally raw. Continued here

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Photos of the Week: Ice Canoe, Rainbow Mountain, Balloon Debris Deadly wildfires in southern Chile, a lantern festival in Taiwan, an extremely low tide in Venice, a freight-train derailment in Ohio, a volcanic eruption in Indonesia, a unique dining experience in China, scenes of earthquake devastation in Turkey, freezing temperatures in the American Northeast, and much more A base jumper leaps off the Kuala Lumpur Tower during the annual KL Tower International Jump Malaysia 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on February 3, 2023. # Continued here

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The Third Law of Magic He spent the night making snow. He packed it tightly into balls of different sizes and stored them in the freezer to keep them stable. For a long time, he had wanted to make something so simple and natural that no one would suspect concerted thinking had gone into it. He wanted the greatest possible concentration of thought along with the greatest possible efficiency in the execution of that thought. Continued here

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The Catch-24 of Replacing Joe Biden Democrats would like a new presidential candidate. The problem is that the current president is plugging along fine. Most Democrats don’t want Joe Biden to run for president again in 2024. And yet, as things look now, most Democrats are likely to vote for Joe Biden to run for president again in 2024. Continued here

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DEI Is an Ideological Test New College is not a weak target, and if Christopher Rufo wants to challenge an entrenched bureaucracy, then he will have a fair fight. During the past century or so, social scientists have observed that politics is, like sand after a day at the beach, in everything. It is especially present where you don’t think you’ll find it. You think you’ll find it on the campaign trail and on cable news—these are your beach towels and the floor mats of your car. But how the hell did it get into the glove compartment—or, in universities, into the math department? Rochelle Gutierrez, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has pioneered the teaching of “mathematx,” a form of math education attuned to politically marginalized groups. Politics is everywhere, and always has been. Continued here

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Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes Had to Disprove a Misconception A historic Super Bowl matchup defies professional football’s reluctance to let Black athletes call plays. The number of Black quarterbacks has soared in the NFL over the past 25 years, and it was only a matter of time before two of them faced each other in the Super Bowl. Continued here

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What’s the Smallest Amount of Therapy That’s Still Effective? The most common number of talk-therapy sessions that people attend in their lifetime is one. That very first meeting with a mental-health practitioner is usually focused on asking the patient introductory questions, not on providing substantial support, and it can fail to keep them coming back for subsequent meetings. Contributing to that lack of sustained engagement is the pervasive idea that years-long, weekly therapy is the only way to receive adequate mental-health treatment, which can be a daunting prospect for many. But some therapists and patients are challenging that idea and making the case for short-term therapy, a practice that can last anywhere from a single session to dozens over the course of a few months, and that tends to focus on immediate solutions to situational crises. They believe that treating short-term therapy, in addition to long-term care, as a viable option could actually help more people access the help they’re seeking. Growing cultural messaging suggests that therapy is something everyone should consider—due in part to changing generational attitudes about the stigma of mental-health disorders and the lasting mental-health strain of the coronavirus pandemic on the general population. Yet mental-health care is famously hard to access in this country, namely because there are more prospective patients than available providers, and it can be cost-prohibitive. Short-term therapy, which is offered by many therapists who also provide long-term care, can lessen the prolonged financial commitment of traditional therapy and allow therapists to take on more patients. Continued here

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The Death of the Smart Shopper This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.       Amazon is getting worse, but you probably already knew that, because you probably shop at Amazon. The online retail behemoth’s search results are full of ads and sponsored results that can push actually relevant, well-reviewed options far down the page. The proportion of its inventory that comes from brands with names like Fkprorjv and BIDLOTCUE seems to be constantly expanding. Many simple queries yield results that appear to be the exact same product over and over again—sometimes with the exact same photos—but all with different names, sellers, prices, ratings, and customer reviews. If you squint, you can distinguish between some of the products, which feels like playing a decidedly less whimsical version of “spot the difference” picture games. Continued here

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Why Do Fascists Love Dante? Italy’s far right has misguidedly claimed the medieval poet as one of its own for more than a century. The nightmarish visions of Dante Alighieri, with their many circles of hell, ringed in blood and fire, would seem perhaps a natural draw for politicians who traffic in the rhetoric of us versus them, good versus evil. But this doesn’t fully explain why the poet—who, after all, lived and wrote 700 years ago—finds himself quoted and adored like a medieval poster boy by Italy’s newly resurgent extreme right. Continued here

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What Politicians’ Libraries Tell Us What, and whether, our world leaders read provides crucial insight into their minds and priorities. What can we learn from the reading habits of our political leaders? Like any preference, they provide a window into the priorities, obsessions, and inspirations of some of world history’s most consequential figures. Gabriel Boric, Chile’s progressive president, is a “serious reader of poetry,” Lily Meyer writes. One might wonder how his reading has influenced his robust education platform, which promises free university and student-debt forgiveness. On the other end of the spectrum is former President Donald Trump. As David Graham writes, though Trump is, “in strictly literal terms, literate,” his disdain for the written word proved a significant hurdle in a job that demanded the daily ingestion and processing of text—whether in briefings, memos, or policy papers. Because of this, Trump was highly blunder prone—Graham wrote at the time that his “misstatements and missteps earn him mockery and undermine his stature around the world.” Continued here

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Blue States Got Too Comfortable The left has long believed that Democratic states are the future, whereas Republican states are the past. But migration data tell a different story. 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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India Wants to Replace Valentine's Day With 'Cow Hug Day' This year, India’s government is asking citizens to spend Valentine’s Day snuggling up with a cow. In a statement this week, the country’s government-run animal welfare department announced that “Cow Hug Day,” a new celebration of India’s traditions, will take place on February 14.  Continued here

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Fifteen Million People at Risk of Severe Floods From Melting Glaciers Rising temperatures could worsen glacial lake outbursts, unleashing massive inland waves on downstream communities, a study finds Melting glaciers are one of the most visible consequences of a warming planet. And as glaciers thaw amid human-caused climate change, they’re putting an estimated 15 million people around the world at risk of suffering sudden, deadly and destructive flooding events, according to new research. Continued here

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Gregory Peck's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Script Goes to Auction For decades, the late actor Gregory Peck has captivated audiences with his portrayal of Atticus Finch, the fictional lawyer in small-town Alabama who defends a Black man accused of rape, in the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Shown to this day in classrooms to accompany lessons about the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the movie garnered Peck critical acclaim and the 1963 Academy Award for Best Actor. Now, Peck’s admirers have a chance to own a small piece of his legacy. Nearly 250 items that once belonged to Peck and his wife, French journalist and philanthropist Veronique Peck, are up for grabs during a Heritage Auctions sale that runs through February 23. A portion of the auction’s proceeds will go to World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that helps provide meals for people suffering from humanitarian, climate and other crises. Continued here

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As Bird Flu Spreads to Mammals, Health Officials Urge Caution Transmission between minks has called attention to the potential risks to humans, though experts say not to panic Amid a global bird die-off from avian flu, officials have also noticed the deadly virus strain, called H5N1, infecting a growing number of mammals. This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged authorities to remain vigilant—but not panic—about the virus’s potential risk to humans. Continued here

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'Superbugs' Could Kill Up to Ten Million Additional People Each Year by 2050 A new U.N. report warns that climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss are helping create pathogens that can evade our medications The United Nations (U.N.) is sounding the alarm about drug-resistant superbugs—pathogens that are on track to kill millions of additional people around the world. Continued here

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Owl Escapes From Zoo, Becomes a New York Celebrity A Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco has been on the loose for a week after his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo was vandalized A Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco has been on the loose for a week in New York City after a vandal cut through his mesh enclosure at the Central Park Zoo. Despite efforts to trap him and almost around-the-clock monitoring by zoo staff, the owl has so far evaded capture.  Continued here

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Hirshhorn and Smithsonian Channel Team Up for New Reality Show In “The Exhibit,” a group of seven promising creators compete to become the “next great artist” In a new reality show, seven up-and-coming artists will compete for $100,000—and the chance to have their work exhibited at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.  Continued here

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Pentagon Releases Guantánamo Bay Prisoners' Art The Pentagon has officially ended a policy barring Guantánamo Bay prisoners from keeping their art when they're released. The news comes four months after current and former prisoners wrote an open letter to President Biden, urging him to reverse the Trump-era policy and free their art. The detainees can now take a "practicable quantity of their art" with them when they leave, said Cesar H. Santiago, a Pentagon spokesperson, to the New York Times' Carol Rosenberg.  Continued here

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Mathematicians Complete Quest to Build 'Spherical Cubes' | Quanta Magazine In the fourth century, the Greek mathematician Pappus of Alexandria praised bees for their "geometrical forethought." The hexagonal structure of their honeycomb seemed like the optimal way to partition two-dimensional space into cells of equal area and minimal perimeter — allowing the insects to cut down on how much wax they needed to produce, and to spend less time and energy building their hive. Or so Pappus and others hypothesized. For millennia, nobody could prove that hexagons were optimal — until finally, in 1999, the mathematician Thomas Hales showed that no other shape could do better. Today, mathematicians still don't know which shapes can tile three or more dimensions with the smallest possible surface area. Continued here

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‘iPhones are made in hell’: 3 months inside China’s iPhone city Chinese factory laborers call jobs like Hunter’s “working the screws.” Until recently, the 34-year-old worked on the iPhone 14 Pro assembly line at a Foxconn factory in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou. His task was to pick up an iPhone’s rear cover and a tiny cable that charges the battery, scan their QR codes, peel off adhesive tape backing, and join the two parts by tightening two screws. He’d then put the unfinished phone onto a conveyor belt that carried it to the next station. Hunter had to complete this task once every minute. During a normal 10-hour shift, his target was to attach 600 cables to 600 cases, using 1,200 screws. Every day, 600 more unassembled iPhones awaited him. Continued here

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Dinosaurs of the Sky: Consummate 19th-Century Scottish Natural History Illustrations of Birds Birds populate our metaphors, our poems, and our children’s books, entrance our imagination with their song and their chromatically ecstatic plumage, transport us on their tender wings back to the time of the dinosaurs they evolved from. But birds are a time machine in another way, too — not only evolutionarily but culturally: While the birth of photography revolutionized many sciences, birds remained as elusive as ever, difficult to capture with lens and shutter, so that natural history illustration has remained the most expressive medium for their study and celebration. To my eye, the most consummate drawings of birds in the history of natural history date back to the 1830s, but they are not Audubon’s Birds of America — rather, they appeared on the other side of the Atlantic, in the first volume of The Edinburgh Journal of Natural History and of the Physical Sciences, with the Animal Kingdom of the Baron Cuvier, published in the wake of the pioneering paleontologist Georges Cuvier’s death. Hundreds of different species of birds — some of them now endangered, some on the brink of extinction — populate the lavishly illustrated pages, clustered in kinship groups as living visual lists of dazzling biodiversity. Continued here

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You Have Your To-Do List All Wrong For one thing, your list is way too long. Continued here