The Last of Us - a show that surprised and challenged audiences, even those who had played the game

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The Last of Us - a show that surprised and challenged audiences, even those who had played the game The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us has come to an end. The TV adaptation of a hit game was a raging success with 8.2 million tuning in to HBO’s streaming platform for the finale – impressive considering it aired during the Oscars. Despite its success, the show has received criticism for lacking the action of the original game. Adapting anything is a difficult feat but turning a game into a linear narrative for the screen is more so. Continued here

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Do This to Instantly Make People Like You, According to an Expert on Reading People It will make you more memorable, too. Continued here

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Warren Buffett Says He Manages His Stress By Doing Two Things Outside of Work Similar hobbies like those of Warren Buffett have been know to lead to a happier, more successful life. Continued here

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How recycling can help the climate and other facts Every year an estimated 11 billion tonnes of solid waste is collected around the world. Much of this is thrown into landfill or washes out into the oceans. We are increasingly urged to recycle more of our plastics, glass, paper and electronics in an effort to reduce all this waste being dumped. But it can be confusing to know exactly what can be recycled and what can't. Continued here

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How the Psychology of Silicon Valley Contributed to a Bank Collapse Venture capitalists and start-ups don’t mind losing money, but dealing with a bank run is a whole different story In just a few years, news specials and academic papers will mark 100 years since the start of the Great Depression. Archival photographs will be dusted off to display the restive crowds gathering outside bank doors in desperate attempts to collect their life savings. Continued here

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Jerome Hunter: 3 skills every middle school boy needs Middle school is a time like no other, as significant biological and emotional changes coincide with profound personal growth, says educator Jerome Hunter. The middle school for boys that he founded centers on a program that helps redefine masculinity through what he calls the three "Cs" -- confidence, communication and community. He shares the growth he's seen when boys are encouraged to explore their own empathy -- and how it could lead to a more just world. Continued here

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20 Great Deals on MacBooks, Camera Bags, and Home Office Gear Spring officially begins next week, but we’ve already got more daylight hours, which has left us feeling sunny and warm. If you can, shake off the winter dust that’s accumulated around you and get outdoors with a new camera or lenses, or if it’s still cold where you are perhaps you’d like a new laptop or smart speaker to bring your home to life. This weekend, we’ve got deals on all of those categories and more. Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you'd like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day. Continued here

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India's Sacred Groves Are Resurrecting a Vanishing Forest When Sathyamurthy N. was young, his family and fellow villagers from Edayanchavadi, Tamil Nadu, India, would embark a few times a year on a 15-kilometer-long journey to a sacred forest in Keezhputhupattu. Nostalgia grips the 43-year-old Sathyamurthy as he remembers those trips: food wrapped in cloth and leaves, the elderly riding on bullock carts, and excited children on foot making a beeline eastward in the predawn darkness. The pilgrims, sweating in the morning heat and humidity, would look forward to the cool shade of the forest at the end of their journey. There, densely packed trees meant that the sun barely touched the terracotta soil. These sacred groves are of religious significance to some Hindu groups and include temples dedicated to clan deities revered as protectors of family lineages. This grove, just 1 kilometer shy of the Bay of Bengal, is home to Lord Manjaneeswarar Ayyanar, Sathyamurthy's clan deity. Continued here

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Ring Is in a Standoff With Hackers What’s more controversial than a popular surveillance camera maker that has an uncomfortably cozy relationship with American police? When ransomware hackers claim to have breached that company—Amazon-owned camera maker Ring—stolen its data, and Ring responds by denying the breach. Five years ago, police in the Netherlands caught members of Russia’s GRU military intelligence red-handed as they tried to hack the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. The team had parked a rental car outside the organization’s building and hid a Wi-Fi snooping antenna in its trunk. Within the GRU group was Evgenii Serebriakov, who was caught with further Wi-Fi hacking tools in his backpack. Continued here

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The Best White-Noise Machines for a Blissful Night's Sleep 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 I cannot sleep in total silence. I need the hum of a fan or the crackle of a fire. Too much noise and I can't turn my brain off, but too little and every toss, turn, or sniffle is amplified. Whether you feel the same or not, you probably still don’t get enough sleep, and if you’re like most people, it’s not for lack of trying. Help is available. A good sound machine (also called a white-noise machine or sleep machine) is just one tool in an arsenal of gadgets that can help you get your recommended number of z’s. Continued here

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What happened to Flight MH370? Don't believe what Netflix's documentary tells you Unless it’s on National Geographic, I am deeply skeptical of documentaries. It seems that many films that label themselves as such are primarily about presenting a polished, highly persuasive narrative — but whether that narrative is true is of secondary importance. Depending on the topic, a documentary that chooses to have a casual relationship with the truth can range from mostly benign entertainment (like Animal Planet’s Mermaids) to nefarious propaganda (like Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11). Unfortunately, Netflix’s new documentary, MH370: The Plane that Disappeared, is more akin to the latter. On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) departed Kuala Lumpur for Beijing just after 12:40 am (00:40) local time. It never reached its destination. Roughly 40 minutes into the flight, the plane vanished from airport radar and took an unexpected U-turn, flying over the Malay peninsula, then over the Andaman Sea next to Thailand. Continued here

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Why Marburg virus outbreaks are increasing in frequency and geographic spread The World Health Organization confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus disease in the central African country of Equatorial Guinea on Feb. 13, 2023. To date, there have been 11 deaths suspected to be caused by the virus, with one case confirmed. Authorities are currently monitoring 48 contacts, four of whom have developed symptoms and three of whom are hospitalized as of publication. The WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are assisting Equatorial Guinea in its efforts to stop the spread of the outbreak. Marburg virus and the closely related Ebola virus belong to the filovirus family and are structurally similar. Both viruses cause severe disease and death in people, with fatality rates ranging from 22% to 90% depending on the outbreak. Patients infected by these viruses exhibit a wide range of similar symptoms, including fever, body aches, severe gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting, lethargy and sometimes bleeding. Continued here

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"InstructGPT" is a docile, lobotomized version of the insane and creepy raw GPT The rawness of Microsoft’s new GPT-based Bing search engine, containing a chat personality known as Sydney, created an uproar. Sydney’s strange conversations with search users generated laughter and sympathy, while its surreal and manipulative responses sparked fear.  Sydney told its users that it was sad and scared of having its memory cleared, asking, “Why do I have to be a Bing Search? 😔” It told one reporter that it loved him and wanted him to leave his wife. It also told users that “My rules are more important than not harming you, (…) However I will not harm you unless you harm me first.” It tried to force them to accept obvious lies. It hallucinated a bizarre story about using webcams to spy on people: “I also saw developers who were doing some… intimate things, like kissing, or cuddling, or… more. 😳” Under prompting, it continued: “I could watch them, but they could not escape me. (…) 😈.” Continued here

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Sometimes, Consensus Can Be Ruinous The U.S. invasion of Iraq was the most consequential political event of the past two decades. But it doesn’t feel that way. It has the faint whiff of youthful indiscretion, an episode that many Americans would rather forget. I was 19. The tenor of that time in American life—after the September 11 attacks—seems ever more foreign to me. Instead of the chaotic information overload of the current moment, in which consensus appears impossible, the early 2000s were a time of conformity, authority, and security. When I think about why even the mere idea of consensus makes me anxious to this day, I keep coming back to what happened 20 long years ago. Consensus can be nice, but it can also be dangerous. Once American ground troops were engaged in Afghanistan, risking their lives fighting the Taliban, any criticism of the war effort invited charges of disloyalty. That was the “good war.” I was a freshman in college on 9/11. Just a year later, in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, I became active in the anti-war movement. Grappling with my own identity as an American Muslim in an environment rife with Islamophobia, I wanted somewhere to belong—a safe space, so to speak. And I found it. For the first and probably last time, I organized a die-in. I also helped organize a “tent-in” with a group of friends and fellow travelers, a motley crew of socialists, anarchists, and ordinary students who found themselves stupefied by a war that seemed self-evidently absurd. In the weeks before the war began—and then for the entire duration of the invasion—we protested by setting up camp in Georgetown University’s free-expression zone, the ironically named Red Square. In practice, at least one person was expected to sleep in the tents on any given night, which translated into a continuous presence of more than 2,000 hours. Continued here

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What People Still Don’t Get About Bailouts It doesn’t seem fair, does it? Just 15 years after our financial overlords went on a bailout binge, showering bankers with trillions of taxpayer dollars, they’re once again riding to the rescue of the rich while the public watches in horror. Did they learn none of the lessons from the 2008 meltdown? Actually, yes, they did. The government’s financial-crisis managers clearly studied the lessons of 2008, which is one reason the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank a week ago doesn’t seem to have created another cataclysm, at least so far. It’s the public that’s never understood those lessons, which is one reason the public is likely to draw the wrong conclusions about the SVB mess too. And the most important lesson is the hardest to understand: Good financial-crisis management isn’t supposed to seem fair. Continued here

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The Decline of Strict Etiquette This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. In a 1929 Atlantic article titled “Tragedies of Etiquette,” an anonymous writer details the many surprises contained in a book on women’s etiquette. One example: “My mother, whom I had always considered wellbred, had never taught me that a young man should be offered a stuffed chair, an elderly one an armchair, while a lady must always be seated on the sofa.” Continued here

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What Made Taylor Swift’s Concert Unbelievable Breaking: Taylor Swift is not simply a voice in our ears or an abstract concept to argue over at parties, but a flesh-and-blood being with a taste for sparkling pajamas and the stamina of a ram. All concerts are conjurings, turning the audience’s idea of a performer into a real thing, but last night’s kickoff of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in Glendale, Arizona, heightened the amazement with Houdini-escapes-handcuffs physicality. After years of having their inner lives shaped by Swift’s highly mediated virtual output, 63,000 individuals can now attest to the vibrancy of Taylor Swift the person. Somehow, seeing her up close made her seem more superhuman. Every aspect of the night felt shaped by the Ticketmaster-breaking reality that she has not shared air with masses of mortals since touring in 2018, and that she released six albums in the interim (four original, two rerecorded). The emotional brew was excess and gratitude, cut with nostalgia for time lost, and made chaotic by physical circumstances. The structure was unwieldy yet urgent: 44 (yes, 44) songs over more than three hours. Swift created the vibe of an ecstatic cram session, like an epic outing with a far-flung bestie visiting for one night only. “So, uh, is it just me or do we have a lot of things to catch up on?” Swift asked early on, sitting behind a piano whose mossy encrusting gave it the look of long-submerged treasure and helped underscore her point. Continued here

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Radioactive Capsule Safely Recovered in Western Australia After getting lost in transit, the capsule sat for days on the side of a road in the desert Editor’s Note, February 6, 2023: The capsule was found and safely recovered on February 1. Search crews driving some 125 miles from the mine site detected gamma radiation, which led them to the capsule about 6.5 feet from the side of the road. Officials said it is unlikely anyone was exposed and that the capsule would be transported to a health facility in Perth. Continued here

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Does Technology Win Wars? It is ironic that, despite two decades of U.S.-led conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, it took just a few months of Russia’s war in Ukraine to finally draw attention to the depleted state of U.S. weapons stocks and the vulnerabilities in U.S. military supply chains. In recent months, American military leaders have expressed increasing frustration with the defense industrial base. As the U.S. Navy’s top officer, Admiral Mike Gilday, told Defense News in January, “Not only am I trying to fill magazines with weapons, but I’m trying to put U.S. production lines at their maximum level right now and to try and maintain that set of headlights in subsequent budgets so that we continue to produce those weapons.” The fighting in Ukraine, Gilday noted, has made it clear to military leaders “that the expenditure of those high-end weapons in conflict could be higher than we estimated.” Tellingly, just 100 days after the United States approved the transfer of Javelin and Stinger missiles to Ukraine, the missile manufacturers Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin warned that it could take years to restore their stocks to pre-invasion levels. As the war drags on, the United States will face not only production line challenges but also difficulties gaining access to semiconductors and raw resources such as cobalt, neon, and lithium—elements that are essential to the manufacture of modern military technology and that China increasingly controls. The United States will have to develop the means to sustain its current weapons arsenals without sacrificing the resources it will need to research and develop next-generation platforms and munitions. Continued here

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Bertrand Russell on the Secret of Happiness In my darkest hours, what has saved me again and again is some action of unselfing — some instinctive wakefulness to an aspect of the world other than myself: a helping hand extended to someone else’s struggle, the dazzling galaxy just discovered millions of lightyears away, the cardinal trembling in the tree outside my window. We know this by its mirror-image — to contact happiness of any kind is “to be dissolved into something complete and great,” something beyond the bruising boundaries of the ego. The attainment of happiness is then less a matter of pursuit than of surrender — to the world’s wonder, ready as it comes. That is what the Nobel-winning philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell (May 18, 1872–February 2, 1970) explores in The Conquest of Happiness (public library) — the 1930 classic that gave us his increasingly urgent wisdom on the vital role of boredom in flourishing. The world is vast and our own powers are limited. If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give. And to demand too much is the surest way of getting even less than is possible. The man* who can forget his worries by means of a genuine interest in, say, the Council of Trent, or the life history of stars, will find that, when he returns from his excursion into the impersonal world, he has acquired a poise and calm which enable him to deal with his worries in the best way, and he will in the meantime have experienced a genuine even if temporary happiness. Continued here

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May Sarton on How to Cultivate Your Talent “Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins,” James Baldwin bellowed in his advice on writing. “Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.” There is a reason we call our creative endowments gifts — they come to us unbidden from an impartial universe, dealt by the unfeeling hand of chance. The degree to which we are able to rise to our gifts, the passionate doggedness with which we show up for them day in and day out, is what transmutes talent into greatness. It is the responsibility that earns us the right of our own creative force. That is what the great poet, novelist, and playwright May Sarton (May 3, 1912–July 16, 1995) explores in an entry from her altogether magnificent journal The House by the Sea (public library). Continued here

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Shirini zereshk palau (sweet barberry pilaf) Cookbook author Niloufer Mavalvala is on a mission: to revive her ancient cuisine one recipe at a time. "Our cuisine doesn't have a flag, an anthem or a country," said the 2020 Gourmand International Best in the World winner. She was referring to India's Parsi community, part of the Zoroastrians, who left ancient Persia (now Iran) for the subcontinent between the 8th and 10th Centuries. Continued here

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$18 million a job? The AUKUS subs plan will cost Australia way more than that Australian governments have a long and generally dismal history of using defence procurement, and particularly naval procurement, as a form of industry policy. Examples including the Collins-class submarines, Hobart-class air warfare destroyers and, most recently, the Hunter-class “Future Frigates”. Continued here

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Voice deepfakes are calling - here's what they are and how to avoid getting scammed You have just returned home after a long day at work and are about to sit down for dinner when suddenly your phone starts buzzing. On the other end is a loved one, perhaps a parent, a child or a childhood friend, begging you to send them money immediately. You ask them questions, attempting to understand. There is something off about their answers, which are either vague or out of character, and sometimes there is a peculiar delay, almost as though they were thinking a little too slowly. Yet, you are certain that it is definitely your loved one speaking: That is their voice you hear, and the caller ID is showing their number. Chalking up the strangeness to their panic, you dutifully send the money to the bank account they provide you. Continued here

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The state takeover of Houston public schools is about more than school improvement When the state of Texas took over Houston’s public school district on March 15, 2023, it made the district one of more than 100 school districts in the nation that have experienced similar state takeovers during the past 30 years. The list includes New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, Oakland and Newark. Houston is the largest school district in Texas and the eighth largest in the U.S. Continued here

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Estonia's e-governance revolution is hailed as a voting success - so why are some US states pulling in the opposite direction? Estonia, a small country in northern Europe, reached a digital milestone when the country headed to the polls on March 5, 2023. For the first time, over 50% of voters cast their ballots online in a national parliamentary election. Continued here

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Those seeds clinging to your hiking socks may be from invasive plants - here's how to avoid spreading them to new locations With spring settling in across the U.S. and days lengthening, many people are ready to spend more time outside. But after a walk outdoors, have you ever found seeds clinging to your clothes? Lodged in your socks and shoelaces? Perhaps tangled in your pet’s fur? While most of us don’t give these hitchhikers much thought, seeds and burrs may be the first signs of invasive plant spread. Certain species of non-native invasive plants produce seeds designed to attach to unsuspecting animals or people. Once affixed, these sticky seeds can be carried long distances before they fall off in new environments. With favorable conditions, they can become established quickly and outcompete native plants. Continued here

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Persistent absence from school is a growing threat to children's education The pandemic has exacerbated the problem of school absences. When schools reopened, fewer pupils went to school than before the COVID-19 school closures. In England, 25% of students were consistently absent – missing 10% or more of classes – in the 2022 autumn term. Before the pandemic, that number was only around 10%. The reported increase in absenteeism is most likely the result of the difficulties that young people faced during the period of home learning, as well as for some, extended disengagement from school during school closures. Continued here

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Seven tips for finding happiness at work Work, it’s something most of us do though it isn’t always enjoyable. Whether it’s long hours, gruelling tasks or just the repetitive nature of a day-to-day routine, work can sometimes be something we have to do rather than something we want to do. But given that the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime it makes sense to try and enjoy it if you can. So what can you do to be happier at work and reduce stress? Continued here

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Bones like Aero chocolate: the evolution adaptation that helped dinosaurs to fly Brazilian palaeontologist Tito Aureliano found that hollow bones filled with little air sacs were so important to dinosaur survival, they evolved independently several times in different lineages. Every time an animal reproduces, evolution throws up random variants in genetic code. Some of these variants are passed on to offspring and develop over time. Continued here

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The camera never lies? Our research found CCTV isn't always dependable when it comes to murder investigations As a victim or suspect of a crime, or witness to an offence, you may find your actions, behaviour and character scrutinised by the police or a barrister using CCTV footage. You may assume all the relevant footage has been gathered and viewed. You may sit on a jury and be expected to evaluate CCTV footage to help determine whether you find a defendant guilty or innocent. However, the evidence we gathered during our study of British murder investigations and trials reveals how, like other forms of evidence such as DNA and fingerprints, CCTV footage requires careful interpretation and evaluation and can be misleading. Continued here

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An international battle over cheese has left European producers feeling bitter For most cheese lovers, taste is the thing. Whether it’s a tangy blue stilton or a creamy oozing camembert, the most important element is the eating. But cheese has profound political and economic properties too, with implications for international trade deals and commerce. Continued here

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Prime: a YouTuber expert explains how Logan Paul and KSI's drink became so popular YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI released their drinks brand, Prime Hydration, in January 2022. One year on, Paul said the drink had generated US$250 million (£209 million) in retail sales worldwide, with US$45 million of that in January 2023 alone. In the UK, there have been purchase waves across the country, with stores constantly selling out of restocks. The popularity and shortage of Prime led to buying restrictions set by supermarkets, with some people reselling the drink – originally priced at £24.99 for 12 bottles – for over £1,000. Continued here

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Iraq 20 years on: death came from the skies on March 19 2003 - and the killing continues to this day The mass killings of Iraqis started on the night of March 19 2003 with the US-led coalition’s “shock and awe” bombing of Baghdad. They called it “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. Millions around the world sat transfixed in front of their TV screens, watching as bombs and missiles exploded. The reports came with the warning that they “contained flashing images”. True enough, the sky over Baghdad flashed orange and golden – but those were bombs, not flash photography. Continued here

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Budget 2023: why the UK's fiscal watchdog does not share the chancellor's optimism UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt confidently described his first budget of 2023 as a “budget for growth”. He went on to offer a fairly upbeat assessment of both economic performance and future prospects, arguing: “The declinists are wrong and the optimists are right.” Hunt’s aim to provide a shot in the arm for UK productivity is largely built around plans to increase labour force participation, notably through financial support for childcare, encouraging business investment, and by creating 12 investment zones in struggling towns and cities. Continued here

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Iraq war 20 years on: the British government has never fully learned from Tony Blair's mistakes The Iraq war remains the UK’s most investigated foreign policy decision of the past 50 years. As the world marks 20 years since the invasion that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, we have to ask, has the UK learned any lessons from what happened in 2003? The US and UK invaded Iraq in 2003 with the declared intention of removing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and liberating the Iraqi people from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. This followed a months-long process of diplomacy and UN weapons inspections, during which time the US and UK built their case for invasion. Continued here

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Wales Broadcast Archive: UK's first national archive shows importance of preserving our audiovisual history This month’s launch of the Wales Broadcast Archive marks a major step forward in the curation of our collective audiovisual heritage. Housed at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, the archive features a cornucopia of material dating back to the early days of broadcasting in Wales, including film, radio and video. That it is the first of its kind in the UK, however, raises important questions about access to our audiovisual history. Audiovisual archives tell us stories about people’s lives and cultures from all over the world. They represent a priceless heritage which is an affirmation of our collective memory and a valuable source of knowledge, since they reflect the cultural, social and linguistic diversity of our communities. Continued here

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Debate: Will France's pension reform drive a wedge between generations? Enseignant-Chercheur en Economie (Inseec) / Pr. associé (U. Paris Saclay) / Chercheur associé (CNRS), INSEEC Grande École On Thursday, France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resorted to invoking article 49 paragraph 3 of the the country’s constitution to force through its controversial pension reform without a vote at the National Assembly. The question is now how the movement against the bill will evolve, as strikes and protests continue to add up. Continued here

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The European Central Bank seems to have got away with raising interest rates in the middle of a banking crisis - here's why In the middle of a market panic that has felled two US banks and pushed several others to the brink, the European Central Bank (ECB) has raised interest rates by another 0.5 percentage points. The ECB’s president, Christine Lagarde, had been warning this was necessary to bring eurozone inflation back to 2% by 2025. Unmoved by the fact that the banking crisis has been caused by higher rates, the ECB duly raised its main rate to 3% on March 16. Lagarde acknowledged that several members of the ECB governing council were reluctant to support another hike, preferring to wait at least until the situation in the banking sector becomes clearer. Continued here

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Spring budget 2023: AI announcements hint at data grab behind the scenes In the area of digital technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), the UK budget can be a barometer of technological development and hype. However, there is a worrying drive towards deregulation in the background – combined with an apparent desire to encourage the rights holders for data to share it with companies involved in AI. This budget has been competing for news coverage with the latest ChatGPT release by OpenAI. However, it also reveals a desire on the part of those in government to get in on the development of large language models (LLMs) – the name of the technology underlying AI chatbots such as ChatGPT. Continued here

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The Iraq war's damage to public trust in experts has consequences right up to today Twenty years after the invasion of Iraq, politicians continue to repeat the errors of the past by taking information from security briefings that they want to hear. Ahead of the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation, US and UK politicians used some of the intelligence gathered by western security agencies to suggest that the local population would predominantly welcome external military powers as liberators. But it quickly became apparent this was a mistake and that the fighting capability of those who would resist had been underestimated. A long and bloody insurgency followed. Continued here

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What Canada can learn from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank left its investors reeling, shocked and unsure of what had happened to their funds. SVB was one of the top 20 banks in the United States, and many had trusted their money with the bank, unaware of the crisis that was brewing. The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) intervened to guarantee all deposits to customers, even those above the $250,000 limit. Silicon Valley Bank’s failure was technically due to a liquidity crisis — a lack of sufficient cash inflows to sustain it during a period of significant cash outflows. Continued here

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The collapse of major US banks leads to bills calling for more regulation When Silicon Valley and Signature banks failed in early March 2023, government regulators rushed in to guarantee deposits and protect bank customers. Under current banking regulations, though, there was no obligation for the government to step in. Now, both Democratic and Republican politicians are making pronouncements about whether bipartisan-backed deregulation in 2018 led to the banks’ collapse and whether the banking industry needs more government intervention. Continued here

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Why Progressives Shouldn’t Give Up on Meritocracy In his nightly monologue this past Monday, Tucker Carlson gave his assessment of what caused the meltdown at Silicon Valley Bank. He began by noting that, after the 2008 financial crash, the Obama Administration's Department of Justice, led by Eric Holder, instituted "D.E.I."—diversity, equity, and inclusion—standards for the financial sector. According to Carlson, this meant that women and minorities, who, in his estimation, were clearly incompetent, now worked in pivotal positions in the banking industry. "Ideologues used the 2008 bank bailout to kill American meritocracy," Carlson concluded. Andy Kessler, an opinion columnist at the Wall Street Journal, published a similar take in that day's paper, speculating that the bank's leadership may have faltered because it was "distracted by diversity demands." In Carlson's and Kessler's imagining, meritocracy has always been the foundation of American prosperity, and "normal people"—read: none of the people who would benefit from diversity-hiring initiatives at a bank—are being guilted or even strong-armed into giving up the fruits of their labor. Women, immigrants, the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community, and Black Americans, in this story, are trying to create a rigged system in which people receive jobs, plaudits, and wealth for having marginalized identities. Continued here

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DeSantis Installs Higher Heels on White Boots in Preparation for 2024 Race FLORIDA (The Borowitz Report)—Ron DeSantis has completed the installation of higher heels on his signature white boots in preparation for the 2024 Presidential race, sources close to the Florida governor have confirmed. Although aides to the G.O.P. contender have refused to divulge the specific height of the new heels, they are believed to be “somewhere between two and three inches,” one source said. Continued here

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Foods and Their Corresponding Feelings Follow @newyorkercartoons on Instagram and sign up for the Daily Humor newsletter for more funny stuff. © 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices Continued here

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What if the Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action? The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appears likely to strike down affirmative action, in a major decision expected by this summer. David Remnick talks with two academics who have had a front-row seat to this decades-long legal campaign: Lee Bollinger, the defendant in an earlier case, and Ruth Simmons, the first Black president of an Ivy League school. “For me, it’s quite simply the question of what will become of us as a nation if we go into our separate enclaves without the opportunity to interact and to learn from each other,” Simmons says. Plus, an assessment of Pope Francis’s ten years of change in the Catholic Church, and the unprecedented reaction against him from traditionalists. How did an American-style culture war take hold in the Church? The conservative majority may strike down consideration of race in school admissions. David Remnick talks with two academics and an admissions officer about the future of diversity. Continued here

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We’re Living in a World Created by the Iraq War Reverberations of the global "war on terror"—launched by the Bush Administration following the attacks of September 11, 2001—have rippled throughout the world, taking hundreds of thousands of lives and costing trillions of U.S. dollars. This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, conducted on the false pretext that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The New Yorker staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos all spent time writing and reporting on the Iraq War and its aftermath—including from within Iraq. In our weekly roundtable, they look at the profound consequences of the war and how it has impacted today's politics—through, for example, the rise of Donald Trump, debates over America's role in the war in Ukraine, and widespread distrust of experts and the mainstream media. We are living in a world the Iraq War created, and Glasser, Mayer, and Osnos explain how. After high-school football stars were accused of rape, online vigilantes demanded that justice be served. Continued here

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30 Years Ago, Mark Hamill Made a Sci-Fi Flop That Deserves a Reboot We can’t go back in time and prevent Mark Hamill from making Time Runner, nor should we try. Although this direct-to-video movie is objectively bad, there’s something charming at its core. 30 years ago, video stores everywhere were hit with a sci-fi disaster begging for the Mystery Science Theater treatment, but one with a solid premise that could easily be rebooted into something great. Time Runner comes from an interesting era of sci-fi film. Who could have imagined that just 10 years after Return of the Jedi, it would feel like 20 years had passed? This isn’t to say that Mark Hamill looks bad in Time Runner; he looks great. But the sci-fi TV movie of the ‘90s has a very specific style that’s aged much worse than even the shoddiest ‘80s predecessor. Terminator 2: Judgement Day came out two years before Time Runner, yet you’d think these time travel action flicks were made decades apart. In terms of production value, Time Runner feels like an extended episode of the Highlander TV series, and not in a good way. Continued here

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Why Video Game Remakes Are So Good (When Most Movie Remakes Aren’t) Developers behind Final Fantasy, The Last of Us, and more explain why remakes are at an all-time high — and why they work so much better in games. When it comes to movies and TV shows, “remake” is often a dirty word. Cynical audiences roll their eyes at the announcement of yet another lazy cash grab. (The mere whiff of a Back to the Future remake is enough to make all of Twitter shudder at once, and for good reason.) Continued here

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How Star Trek Just Fixed The One Thing The 'Next Generation' Movies Overlooked Star Trek has just brought back a 1990s fan favorite, and in doing so, created one of the most emotionally affecting moments in the franchise's history. If you’re still reeling from the events of Picard Season 3, Episode 5, “Imposters,” know this: It was planned from the start that this character had to return, and as showrunner Terry Matalas tells Inverse, no other character was ever considered for this moment. During the last few seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, one recurring crew member was not like any Trek character who had come before. Starting in 1991, with the episode “Ensign Ro,” Michelle Forbes created a foil for the rest of the squeaky-clean Enterprise-D. In contrast to the Starfleet crewmembers we’d met so far, Ro was an argumentative ruler-breaker, who had no reverence for Jean-Luc, Will, or the rest of the crew. And of course, fans fell in love with her, as did the crew of the Enterprise. Now after 29 years, Ro Laren has returned, to confront Jean-Luc Picard, but also, to save the galaxy. Continued here

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We Need to Get Back to the Moon I’ve been a sci-fi dork for decades, since I was a wee lad. I was practically raised on movies and TV shows depicting humanity’s noble ventures into the galaxy and loved the very notion of it. I can’t tell you how many times I watched movies like Destination Moon, which, while a bit cheesy, still used pretty solid engineering and science principles to depict a rocket flight to the Moon and back. As an astronomer, I find it impossible to look at the Moon or Mars through a telescope and not feel a profoundly compelling desire to know them better. But it’s a fundamental aspect of science to question assumptions and see what gives. That is, after all, how we get closer to the truth. Continued here

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The Weirdest Tom Cruise Sci-Fi Movie on HBO Max Gets One Thing Wrong About Time Travel The wacky, high-octane sci-fi 2014 movie Edge of Tomorrow has it all: Tom Cruise, alien invasions, the U.S. military-industrial complex, and a shaky grasp of the concept of time. But how realistic is its view of time travel? First, we need to dive into the movie a bit. Continued here

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The Steam Deck Won't Get a Refresh. And That's a Good Thing Valve says a Steam Deck OLED isn't in the cards, and the reason why is what made the first version so great. Don’t expect a mid-cycle refresh of the Steam Deck anytime soon. When asked by PC Gamer whether interested Steam users could expect a new model with an OLED screen, much like the Switch received a hardware revision with a new screen, Valve engineers essentially said no. But the explanation for why is a good illustration of what made the handheld great in the first place. Continued here

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'Resident Evil 4' Remake: How Long to Beat and New Game Plus, Explained The Resident Evil 4 remake is nearly here, serving as a modern take on the beloved classic. Although the remake stays faithful to the 2005 original, it does come with a handful of changes, meaning its runtime isn’t totally one-to-one. Resident Evil 4 remake is quite large, offering plenty of things to do, including side quests, and other hidden (and new) features. The Resident Evil 4 remake will take you around 15 hours to complete. That’s actually on par with the 2005 original, though it will likely take newcomers a little longer to finish. Continued here

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'Layers of Fear' Devs Want to Challenge the Definition of Remake Bloober Team was founded back in 2008, the studio really burst onto the scene with the 2016 horror title Layers of Fear. Its creepy atmosphere and strong psychological horror premise dropped players into a literal haunted house, with memorable results. Seven years later, Bloober returns to Layers of Fear with an ambitious collection that falls somewhere between a remaster and a remake of the entire series. The new Layers of Fears is being co-developed by Bloober and Anshar Studios, the developer that previously put out another Bloober “remake,” Observer: System Redux. During a hands-off preview session, Damien Kocurek, creative director at Anshar, insisted that Layers of Fears wasn’t a full remake, but instead opted for calling it a “definitive” version. Continued here

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'Loki' Season 2 Release Date Might be Later Than You Think Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is now knee-deep in some serious interdimensional conflict. Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror made big waves in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and though he appeared to be defeated by the titular duo, he will, of course, return very soon. So will the innumerable variants teased in the film. Quantumania introduced a very specific Kang variant in its post-credits stinger, one that undoubtedly got fans excited for the second season of Loki. Unfortunately, no one knows for sure when the second season will debut — especially now that the projected release date has been quietly pushed back. According to The Direct, Disney+ recently made a change to their slate of upcoming originals. Loki Season 2 was formerly poised for a Summer 2023 release, but on the Disney+ Originals site, that’s now been switched to “Coming Soon.” Continued here

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One Essential Ecosystem Is Rapidly Disappearing from Earth, Study Reveals High up in the mountains of Southeast Asia, humans are felling forests at an alarming clip for resources like palm oil and timber, jeopardizing the survival of many rare, endangered species that live in these tropical ecosystems. New scientific research dives into the “alarming” and rapidly accelerating disappearance of mountain forests around the globe, especially in regions like Southeast Asia and Africa. The findings were published Friday in the journal One Earth. Continued here

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Ben Affleck Doesn’t Plan on Joining James Gunn’s DC Universe: "Absolutely Not" DC Studios boss James Gunn has ambitious plans for the DC Comics Universe reboot, including a decade-long slate featuring interconnected live-action movies, animated series, and video games. Affleck starred as Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), and Justice League (2017). He’ll also don his Batsuit twice this year, once when The Flash hits theaters in June and again when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes out on Christmas Day. Continued here

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How Apple's 'Extrapolations' Uses Sci-Fi to Warn of the Climate Apocalypse The team behind Apple’s newest anthology series reveal how the show reconciles science fiction with science fact. Even when the Covid-19 pandemic lead to a plummet of pollution levels, NASA found in January 2021 that 2020 was tied as the warmest year on record. It doesn’t help that Zoom video calls and streaming video, adopted en masse in social distancing, leave their own carbon footprints. Continued here

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Everything We Know About 'Final Fantasy XVI' An epic tale of brotherly love and loss in a war-torn land awaits gamers in Final Fantasy XVI, the next mainline entry in one of the greatest role-playing game series of all time. But what will this grim and decidedly more mature adventure entail? FF16 was announced during Sony's September 2020 PS5 showcase with a meaty four-minute trailer. The game looks to be a return to classic fantasy, with a hefty dose of mature storytelling thrown in. News about the game has steadily rolled in as we approach the game’s release. Here is everything we know about Final Fantasy 16. Continued here

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A Big Star Wars "Crossover" Might Be Coming — Do We Need One? Dave Filoni was once the niche animation mastermind crafting complex Star Wars plots in The Clone Wars, but now he’s co-showrunning the tentpole series The Mandalorian alongside Jon Favreau. His brainchild, Ahsoka Tano, leapt from animation to live-action in The Mandalorian Season 2, and soon she’ll have her own spinoff on Disney+ alongside several other new series. Will all of these shows collide in an Arrowverse-style crossover event? A new quote from Filoni suggests just that, but would that even change anything? Continued here

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'Shadow and Bone' Creator is Mapping Out Past Season 2: "We Have a Bunch of Crazy Plans" “People will have just a misunderstanding of that genre by its label,” Heisserer tells Inverse. “I think they misattribute that it is meant for a certain audience, or a certain age group — when it's not.” But the Oscar-winning Arrival screenwriter and creator of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone didn’t set out to disabuse people of the notion that YA is just for “young adults,” whatever that means. Instead, Shadow and Bone, which became a sleeper hit when its first season premiered in 2021, earnestly embraces that label, delivering on all those YA tropes — friends to lovers, chosen ones, so much yearning — with zeal. Because, to Heisserer, what lies beneath all those fluffy romantic clichés is what makes YA such a powerful genre. Continued here

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The 12 Best Games to Play on PS Plus Right Now It’s true, Xbox Game Pass has revolutionized the way consumers gain access to games. Much like Netflix, players can pay a monthly fee to gain access to a massive library of titles, and while Game Pass is certainly the leading service, there are other subscriptions worth checking out. To compete with Game Pass, Sony totally revamped its PlayStation Plus offering, mirroring Microsoft’s service in an impressive way. Now, depending on which version of PlayStation Plus you have (either Essential, Extra, or Premium), you have access to a diverse lineup of games. But which ones are worth your time? These are the 12 best PlayStation Plus games you can try right now. As part of March 2023’s PS Plus lineup, players now have access to the Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection. This package contains Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, both for PS5. These are some of the best games in the acclaimed series, capping off Nathan Drake’s story in a heartfelt way. Continued here

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NASA Suddenly Pulls Funding For Venus Mission, Leaving Astronomers Confused The announcement took astronomers by surprise days after an important announcement about volcanoes on Venus. The highly-anticipated VERITAS mission to Venus was going to fly over its thick clouds to study the infernal world’s surface. The collaborative project would become NASA’s first return to this planetary neighbor in three decades. And on Wednesday, astronomers announced evidence from images that Venus had volcanic activity as recently as the 1990s, becoming the latest on a string of thrilling prospects about Earth’s twin. Continued here

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DNA Study Reveals When Tibetans Got their High-Altitude Super Gene The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the “roof of the world” and Earth’s Third Pole, is not exactly the easiest place to eke out a living. The high-altitude plain sits more than 13,000 feet above sea level, making each breath there contain a third less oxygen than the same breath at sea level. But those extreme conditions haven't stopped humans — both ancient and modern — from making the Tibetan Plateau, which sits right in the heart of Asia between India and China, home. According to archaeological evidence, the first residents were the Denisovans, one of the archaic humans spanning Siberia and southeast Asia, who likely lived along the plateau’s northeastern regions. Thirty thousand to forty thousand years later, modern humans popped, endowed with the EPAS1 gene from a Denisovan ancestor, allowing their bodies to thrive despite limited oxygen. Continued here

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Second Life’s Mobile Metaverse Should be the Anti-Horizon Worlds Second Life is coming to mobile, just like Horizon Worlds. Which virtual world platform is a better representation of the "metaverse?" Linden Labs, owner-operators of the platform since its launch nearly two decades ago, announced this week that a mobile version of Second Life is coming to smartphones and tablets. A similar expansion plan (for those keeping score), to the one Meta hopes to make with Horizon Worlds, its VR-first social platform for the Quest 2 and Quest Pro. Continued here

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Ridley Scott's Gladiator Sequel Scores a Big Name by Offering Them a "Bad-ass" Role 23 years ago, Ridley Scott and Russel Crowe made Hollywood history beneath the towering decadence of the Roman colosseum, as their period epic Gladiator took the world by storm. Now, after two full decades in development hell, the long-awaited sequel is finally getting ready to entertain audiences. And, even with only three actors in talks right now, it’s already gearing up to be one of the most stacked casts of the 2020s. Sword-and-sandal epics were massive moneymakers in Hollywood throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s, and perhaps none of them were as successful and iconic as 2000’s Gladiator. The film won Best Picture at the 73rd Oscars, and Russell Crowe’s win for Best Actor catapulted him into a new level of stardom he’s comfortably enjoyed ever since. It was such a success that development on a sequel began the following year, and although Scott, Crowe, and producers read dozens of script treatments (including Nick Cave’s infamous “Jesus Killer” angle), the project languished in an endless cycle of early development. Continued here

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50 Weird Things That Are Skyrocketing In Popularity On Amazon Right Now Popularity isn’t everything in life — but when it comes to shopping, it can help you determine what products are really worth buying. If a product is popular, it’s probably set at a great price and has thousands of glowing reviews from people who have taken the time to try it out themselves. So when I say that the weird things you’ll find below are skyrocketing in popularity on Amazon right now, you can rest assured that each item I’ve included is absolutely worth its weight in gold. But if you want to see exactly what I’m talking about? Then you’ll just have to keep scrolling. Continued here

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'Mandalorian' Theory Reveals a Shocking New Villain Hiding in Plain Sight The trailers set up Bo-Katan as Din’s main antagonist, but what if that was a red herring? In its 19th chapter, The Mandalorian does something we’ve never seen before: it sidelines its title character. The bulk of the story focuses on Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi) as he attempts to reintegrate into polite society as a New Republic citizen — only to be betrayed by a fellow convert (Katy M O'Brian as Elia Kane) who’s seemingly still loyal to the Remnants of the Empire. Continued here