Stunning "El Gordo" Webb Telescope Image is a Bounty of Early Universe Science

In an image description NASA published on Wednesday, the space agency showcases a galaxy cluster and its vibrant science cornucopia. Astronomers can piggyback off galaxy clusters, like one called “El Gordo” (The Fat One), to peer deep into the distant universe. The hundreds of galaxies packed together wield a heavy concentration of mass, and if astronomers look towards a cluster on the hunt for sluggish or worm-like features, they might stumble upon light from the ancient past.

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What Rises from the Ruins: Katherine Anne Porter on the Power of the Artist and the Function of Art in Human Life

Each month, I spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars keeping The Marginalian going. For seventeen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor has made your own life more livable in the past year (or the past decade), please consider aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. Your support makes all the difference.When the dust of the centuries settles, what is left of every civilization are not its dogmas and its ideologies, not its reasons for going to war, but its arts — those emblems of our search for meaning, reaching for a reality realer than fact, deeper than doctrine; those records of our reckoning with what the world is and what it can be; those supreme revelations of who and what we are. Rebecca West understood this when she wrote in her exquisite meditation on storytelling and survival that “art is not a plaything, but a necessity, and its essence, form, is not a decorative adjustment, but a cup into which life can be poured and lifted to the lips and be tasted.” Saul Bellow understood it when he insisted in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech that “only art penetrates what pride, passion, intelligence and habit erect on all sides — the seeming realities of this world,” while a more genuine reality is “always sending us hints, which without art, we can’t receive.” Toni Morrison understood it when she observed that “art reminds us that we belong here.”The writer and activist Katherine Anne Porter (May 15, 1890–September 18, 1980) understood it uniquely, having lived through two World Wars and tremendous upheavals, making art — poems and essays, short stories and novels — that made life richer and more livable for generations.

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Are You Failing to Prepare the Next Generation of C-Suite Leaders? - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM DAGGERWING

For many people leaders, that’s been the mantra for the past three years. “Let’s just get through this moment in time, focus on the short-term solutions for our immediate needs, and when things go back to normal, we’ll deal with all the issues we’ve been putting on the backburner.”

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What Great Data Analysts Do -- and Why Every Organization Needs Them

“Full-stack” data scientist means mastery of machine learning, statistics, and analytics. Today’s fashion in data science favors flashy sophistication with a dash of sci-fi, making AI and machine learning the darlings of the job market. Alternative challengers for the alpha spot come from statistics, thanks to a century-long reputation for rigor and mathematical superiority. What about analysts?Whereas excellence in statistics is about rigor and excellence in machine learning is about performance, excellence in analytics is all about speed. Analysts are your best bet for coming up with those hypotheses in the first place. As analysts mature, they’ll begin to get the hang of judging what’s important in addition to what’s interesting, allowing decision-makers to step away from the middleman role. Of the three breeds, analysts are the most likely heirs to the decision throne.

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How Outlawing Collegiate Affirmative Action Will Impact Corporate America

Our summer special report helps leaders gain a comprehensive view of risks, learn how to overcome market disrupters, and manage the analytical tools that provide predictive insight for decision-making.Our summer special report helps leaders gain a comprehensive view of risks, learn how to overcome market disrupters, and manage the analytical tools that provide predictive insight for decision-making.On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 in favor of outlawing the use of race and ethnicity as factors in college admissions. This was a momentous decision that stands to have widespread societal and organizational implications. Although the scope of the ruling was limited to college admissions, we can draw upon existing data to forecast the impact on corporate America. The evidence clearly points to two key outcomes: First, collegiate patterns of racioethnic diversity will change fairly dramatically; and second, these changes will have considerable downstream consequences for workplace composition as well as patterns of racioethnic inequity across a host of other measures.

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Does a 'performance improvement plan' always spell the end?

Jonathan began struggling just weeks into his new job at a cloud service provider. The New York-based tech worker says he was offered a senior position: instead, it was a junior role, offering basic IT support at a call centre.Following complaints of low ticketing numbers – records that document customer service issues – and failing to stick to the company’s call flow, Jonathan’s manager pulled him aside. “We had some conversations that they [later] said were verbal warnings,” explains Jonathan. “Then, they gave me a performance improvement plan (PIP).”

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Eight forgotten forerunners of hip-hop, from jazz 'hep cat' Slim Gaillard to 'dirty blues' singer Lucille Bogan

Hip-hop is a culture, and rap flourishes from a far-ranging lineage. There will always be hot debate about the first rap record – 1979 gave rise to both the legendary Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang, and (the slightly earlier release) King Tim III by funk outfit The Fatback Band – but generations of poets, polemicists, multi-genre artists and entertainers resonate through rap's expressions. And while this art form was certainly sparked and shaped in African-American communities, the broader heritage of that diaspora – and within hip-hop's NYC birthplace – significantly played a part as well.Rap music arguably traces its roots through centuries of oral tradition – including West Africa's griot storytellers and South African kwaito music – as well as street competition and recorded song. It is a vivid patchwork of conscious lyrics and subconscious influences: big band leaders; loquacious radio DJs; sporting legends (Muhammad Ali proclaiming his GOAT status with knockout rhymes and moves), even nursery rhymes. As Run DMC declared in their anthem Peter Piper: "Now Dr Seuss and Mother Goose both did their thing/ But Jam Master's getting loose and DMC's the king". Rap's enduring power might also derive from its very human impulse – to tell a tale, raise a laugh, assert identity, make a lasting point before the ultimate mic drop. Here are eight vocalists and lyricists who were arguably channelling the spirit of rap decades before 1973.

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How opera is aiming for net zero amid worsening climate change

A night at the opera is not typically equated with restraint, instead conjuring images of chandelier-filled theatres and arias performed in exquisite costumes against transportative stage sets. Yet, recent years have seen opera companies across the globe make a determined effort to operate more sustainably, implementing numerous strategies in a bid to reduce their carbon emissions and overall impact on the planet.This is, in part, the result of climate activists, who have increasingly targeted the arts and entertainment industries over the past few years with the aim of drawing greater attention to their cause. At the end of 2022, for instance, responding to mounting protests, the Royal Opera House cut ties with its long-time sponsor, the oil giant BP. Yet, it is also a response to the shifting expectations of audience members: according to a UK study conducted in 2022, 77% of audience members now expect theatres to address the climate emergency in their work – and opera houses are no exception.

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Living in Nairobi's slums is tough - residents are 35% more likely to suffer from high blood pressure than those in rural areas

Hypertension, commonly referred to as high blood pressure, is a non-communicable disease that occurs when there is a sustained elevation in the pressure of the blood that flows through the arteries. High blood pressure is a manageable condition through regular monitoring, lifestyle changes and treatment. However, untreated blood pressure, also known as uncontrolled hypertension, can lead to damage to organs such as the kidneys, heart and brain. All this increases the risk for heart attack, stroke and other serious health issues.

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How algae conquered the world - and other epic stories hidden in the rocks of the Flinders Ranges

Earth was not always so hospitable. Evidence of how it came to be so beautiful and nurturing is locked in the rocks of South Australia’s Flinders Ranges – a site now vying for World Heritage listing.The changes gave rise to algae. Their legacy is the oxygen we breathe and the evolution of the first animals more than 500 million years ago. The soft bodies of these animals have been exceptionally preserved at the new Nilpena-Ediacara National Park, which opened in April 2023.

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Hunting for a 'golden unicorn': how NZ charities find banks constantly get in the way of them helping people

Aotearoa New Zealand is home to 28,560 registered charities and some 90,000 not-for-profits without charitable registration. From disability advocacy groups and local theatres to sporting clubs, all do vital work in our communities. Around 89,000 of these are “small” not-for-profits, which means they have under NZ$2 million operating expenses.

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In 1951, corroboree dancers in Darwin went on strike: their actions would reverberate as far as Melbourne

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people.“No Fred – No Lawrence – No Corroboree” ran the February 16 1951 headline in the Darwin newspaper The Northern Standard.

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Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad watched Saddam's statue topple in 2003. His 'standout' war memoir de-centres the West

Baghdad native and former architect Ghaith Abdul-Ahad traces his start as a journalist to the day Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled in central Baghdad, on April 9 2003 – two weeks after US troops invaded the city.Framed as a watershed moment, Western media coverage at the time “heavily implied” the statue was taken down by “a large crowd of cheering Iraqis”.

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How climate change will affect your pet - and how to help them cope

Earth has just experienced its hottest month since records began and Australia is now gearing up for an El Niño-fuelled summer. Extreme heat isn’t just challenging for humans – it brings suffering to our beloved pets, too.Research I was involved in examined how climate change affects the welfare of animals, including pets. My colleagues and I used a concept for assessing animal welfare known as the “five-domains model”. It’s a science-based structure for examining an animal’s:

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Is red meat bad for you? And does it make a difference if it's a processed burger or a lean steak?

But is eating a beef burger worse for your health than eating a lean grass-fed steak? And how much red meat should we really be eating? Read more: Talking about eating less red and processed meat provokes strong feelings. That's why this new evidence-based report is welcome

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Too many school students are falling behind: how do we help those most at risk?

Joanne Quick is a member of Learning Difficulties Australia and the Dyslexia Association Australia.There is increasing concern about Australian students falling behind in numeracy and literacy.

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How does the South Australian Voice to Parliament work and what does it tell us about how a national Voice might work?

Australia will go to the polls later this year to decide whether to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the Constitution. Meanwhile, South Australia created its own First Nations Voice in March. South Australia used ordinary legislation rather than a referendum. But just like the proposed federal Voice, the South Australian Voice is a response to the call for structural reform in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

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Plastic rocks, plutonium, and chicken bones: the markers we're laying down in deep time

Rocks keep time. Not on our human-scale time, but deep time: the almost unimaginable span of billions of years which have already come and gone. Let’s say you’re in the far future and you’re looking for evidence of previous civilisations. Where would you look? The first place would be in the rocks.

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Spooky, stealthy night hunters: revealing the wonderful otherworld of owls

The calls of owls come to me most nights through the open window of my bedroom. Mostly it is the soft, repeated, rhythmic more … pork, more … pork of a pair of boobooks. Sometimes, more grandly, it is the deeper, slower woo hoo … woo hoo of a powerful owl, hunting for possums in the creek-side forest. Even less common but more unnerving is the truly weird screaming and distinctive whistling (likened to a falling bomb) of a sooty owl.

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Foreign interference through social media is an active threat. Here's what Australia can do

This article was written in Sarah Kendall's personal capacity as a PhD Candidate at The University of Queensland School of Law. It does not reflect the views of any organisation with which the author is affiliated.Last week, a special Senate committee released a report on foreign interference through social media.

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Do I have the right bicycle helmet and how can I tell if it's any good? A bike helmet researcher explains

Senior lecturer in Department of Mechanical Engineering and Product Design Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology If you ride a bike and want to cut your risk of traumatic head injury, you should wear a helmet. A major Australian review of 40 different studies and 64,000 injured cyclists worldwide showed wearing a bicycle helmet reduces the risk of serious head injury by nearly 70%.

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Former dancers have initiated legal action against Lizzo, reminding us arts workers deserve the same workplace protections as any other industry

Last month, multi-Grammy winner Lizzo graced stadiums across Australia with her electrifying performances. Glowing five-star reviews celebrated Lizzo, the stage name of Melissa Viviane Jefferson, for attracting audiences of that are inclusive and celebrate love. Over the past three years, Lizzo has shifted from cult performer to a global icon with her fourth album and international tour. Lizzo is known for her unique blend of self-acceptance and body positivity. Her personal brand radiates “unbridled joy and unapologetic self-confidence.” As a vocal supporter of fat positive language, Lizzo has faced significant criticism and hostility online.

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New report into Lehrmann prosecution mires case in yet more controversy

The ACT government on Monday officially released the report from the inquiry into the prosecution of former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann over the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019. Lehrmann has consistently denied the allegation. The inquiry is only one of at least seven legal proceedings linked to the high-profile, politically-charged case.

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The Violent Delights of "Harley Quinn"

Batman doesn't get much crime-fighting done in the Max animated series "Harley Quinn," a bright-hued, pointedly buoyant riff on a comics franchise that's come to be defined by its shadows. For most of the show's run, Gotham's best-known millionaire orphan has been in a coma, in convalescence, in a swoon over an ambivalent Catwoman, or in prison (for tax evasion, because Batman is nothing if not a problematic fave). The city is up for grabs, and every baddie is eager to make his name. Supervillainy is a kind of stardom, after all; you have to be camera-ready, create a memorable spectacle, and know your competition. Reputation is everything. That's why, when the Joker (voiced by Alan Tudyk) is dumped by his girlfriend, Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco), he's quick to spread the narrative that she's a "crazy bitch," and that he broke up with her. Tired of being seen as a mere sidekickâa cutesy accessory to some guyâHarley sets out to earn her own fame as one of Gotham's premier scoundrels.Like "The Boys"âa live-action melodrama on Amazon, and the only other series I've found that's capable of overcoming my chronic superhero fatigueâ"Harley Quinn" is a wry show-biz satire with a distinctly anti-corporate streak. (This is the kind of Batman story that implicitly argues Bruce Wayne would do more good by funding public education than by playing dress-up as a flying rat.) Referential and potty-mouthed, the cartoon is no less blood-spattered than "The Boys," but Harley's fantastical exploits are anchored in more earthbound struggles, even when her rivals are attending a business conference on the moon. In the first seasonâthe show is currently in its fourthâHarley has to be dragged kicking and screaming by her new friend Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) to the realization that she lost her sense of self in her entanglement with the Joker. (Before meeting him, in Arkham Asylum, Harley was Harleen, a promising young psychiatrist who had clawed her way out of a dysfunctional childhood through academic achievement. The Joker, her patient turned lover, persuaded her to quit and become his mallet-swinging muscle.) Harley spent much of the rest of that season dealing with the shame of having stayed so long in an unequal, arguably abusive relationship. The series' willingness to traverse such difficult emotional terrain distinguishes it from more straightforward female-empowerment tales, including the 2020 movie "Birds of Prey," in which Margot Robbie, playing a flesh-and-blood Harley, underwent a similar but less developed journey of self-rediscovery.

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20 Years Ago, Disney Redefined a Classic Sci-Fi Genre

It’s common to hear Disney fans complain about the studio’s onslaught of remakes and reboots, with the term “IP Movie” going from industry jargon to a derogatory label. But while The Lion King and The Little Mermaid may be getting all the attention, this isn’t a new practice. Twenty years ago, another wave of live-action reboots swept over the Disney catalog. And while many are best left forgotten, one turned a genre that was the stuff of hokey B-movies into a powerhouse.In the ‘90s and ‘00s, Disney refurbished a wide variety of lesser-known live-action movies: The Parent Trap, The Love Bug, and Freaky Friday were all remade, and those were just the ones that starred Lindsay Lohan. Less-than-stellar duds were given a facelift with new stars, like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes with Kirk Cameron and The Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen.

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Zack Snyder Has a Plan to Fix His Most Controversial Sci-Fi Movie

Twelve years ago, Zack Snyder tried to subvert the male gaze that’s come to define his hyper-stylized oeuvre. Those efforts culminated in Sucker Punch, his first (and only!) film told from a female perspective. It was a bold move, but if its divisive legacy (and Rotten Tomatoes score) is any indication, those efforts backfired spectacularly.Sucker Punch may very well be the biggest bomb of Snyder’s career, as derided for its gratuitous set pieces as it was for its twisty girl-power message. The film follows an asylum patient named Babydoll (Emily Browning) through an inner battle for her own autonomy. Much of Sucker Punch (specifically its epic, nonsensical action sequences) takes place in Babydoll’s head — in the real world, she’s actually been lobotomized — and it’s this trippy premise that ended up alienating audiences.

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34 Years Ago, Nintendo Changed How We Play Video Games Forever

The best-selling console currently on store shelves today is the Nintendo Switch, which is coming close to 130 million units sold. While the plethora of iconic games from Nintendo is one reason to buy the system, the biggest selling point is the hybrid design. It can be played on a TV or in your hands and marks the combination of Nintendo's long history of home and handheld consoles. But it wouldn’t exist without the industry-changing release of the company’s first handheld console in 1989 — the Game Boy.

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Play the Classic RPG That Inspired a Cult Icon on Switch Online ASAP

Shigesato Itoi did not come from the world of video games. First, he put his creativity to commercial use through copywriters for ads. Then, in 1981, he published a book of short stories with the now world-famous Haruki Murakami, although reviews describe it less as a collection of short stories and more a “collection of random, aimless pieces of light-hearted writing that Murakami and Itoi clearly enjoyed making.” Jumping from medium to medium, he also voiced a character in the Japanese version of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro.Like many restless creatives in the 1980s, Itoi became interested in digital work. While visiting Nintendo for some work as a copywriter, he shot his shot with Shigeru Miyamoto. Walking into Nintendo and pitching a game to Miyamoto — it’s hard to imagine a bigger gamer fantasy. While clearly a rising star, neither the industry nor Miyamoto was yet at the height of their power.

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The "Barbie" Movie Reveals the Messy Contradictions of Motherhood

I couldn’t help but see “Barbie” as a film that, at its core, is about mothers and daughters.The wildly popular “Barbie” movie has been touted for its celebration — and critique — of femininity.

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These 4 Phenomena Are What's Actually Driving This Year's Extreme Heat

Between the record-breaking global heat and extreme downpours, 2023’s weather has been intense. Between the record-breaking global heat and extreme downpours, it’s hard to ignore that something unusual is going on with the weather in 2023.

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The 50 Coolest, Most Clever Things for Your Home Under $30

No matter how long you’ve been settled into your home, there are always clever tools and gadgets you can add to make your life easier. The hidden gems on this list are just as useful as they are budget-friendly. Each one is less than $30 and will quickly prove itself to be worth every penny, whether you’re looking for something to make cooking a bit easier, keep your garage in order, or make your space more comfortable. Scroll on to see what’s actually worth the money.Made of super absorbent microfiber material, these pair of towel balls will quickly dry your hands to keep counters and floors neat and dry. They have durable loops for convenient hanging and almost look like decor on the wall. A blue-toned pair is also available within the listing.

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75 Awesome Things on Amazon That Are So Damn Cheap

In the past year, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve stepped foot in a mall. The reason? Amazon has just about anything I could possibly need, including plenty of brilliant problem-solving items. Perhaps my favorite finds, however, are the cheap things on Amazon that are actually impressive. Scroll on for great ideas for every facet of your life. Many have thousands of five-star ratings to back them up, and the vast majority of these picks are $30 or less. Proof that you don’t have to choose between cost and convenience.

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Should You Take Vitamin D Pills or Go Out in the Sun? The Best Answer Might Surprise You

Vitamin D has been in vogue lately, with claims that seem to exalt it to panacea status. Some research suggests it can help treat depression and even help prevent Covid-19 (though this claim remains rickety). And many Americans are vitamin D deficient, after all. Does that mean everyone should be popping these supplements?Vitamin D, also called calciferol, is vital to human health. It improves calcium absorption and keeps bones strong, and helps prevent osteoporosis in older adults. A vitamin D deficiency may cause bones to become brittle or misshapen. Its also thought to reduce inflammation and promote cell growth.

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Barbieheimer Was a Triumph for Hollywood -- Why Are Studios Squandering It?

Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past two weeks, you’ve probably heard that things are going surprisingly well for theaters. That’s thanks to the same-day release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, which became a pop culture event even bigger than Top Gun: Maverick’s summer run last year. Not only is Barbie primed to cross the $1 billion mark in just three weeks, but Oppenheimer, an R-rated 3-hour drama, has already grossed over $400 million.Together, the two movies led AMC Theaters to its best week in its 103-year history, and have renewed American moviegoers’ interest in the shared theatrical experience. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Insidious: The Red Door also posted impressive box office returns, as have smaller dramas and comedies like Asteroid City and No Hard Feelings. It’s been years since Hollywood had a theatrical lineup this interesting, diverse, and successful.

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Sharif Hussein and the campaign for a modern Arab empire | Aeon Essays

is associate professor of history at Duke University in North Carolina. He is the author of Arab Patriotism: The Ideology and Culture of Power in Late Ottoman Egypt (2017), Primordial History, Print Capitalism, and Egyptology in Nineteenth-Century Cairo (2021) and Modern Arab Kingship: Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East (2023).In December 2022, Abdullah II, the king of Jordan, gave an interview to the CNN anchor Becky Anderson. Sitting close to the Jordan River, not far from where Jesus is believed to have been baptised, this Muslim ruler expressed his concerns about the status of Jerusalem and the Christians under pressure from the new, extremist Israeli government. He emphasised that the ‘Hashemites’, his family, are the custodians of both Christian and Muslim sites in the holy city. Abdullah II cited his great-great-grandfather Sharif Hussein. It was from Hussein’s time, sometime at the end of the First World War, according to Abdullah II, that the Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem’s holy sites originates. His ancestor even gave sanctuary to Christian Armenian refugees in Jordan, said the king proudly on CNN.

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The Business Case for Understanding Generation Alpha - SPONSORED CONTENT FROM Journey

Close your eyes and imagine a time and place where children receive their allowance in virtual currencies. Picture kids having a gaming experience on a soccer field where they are able to play sports aided by augmented reality (AR) as they sit in the shopping cart their parents are filling with groceries. Envision a time when a youngster can build a roller coaster online before actually riding their creation for real at a theme park. Visualize people expressing themselves in virtual worlds through their avatars, which they prefer buying clothes and accessories for, and being able to make calls to loved ones using AR filters while wearing virtual AR outfits. Now open your eyes because this world isn’t the future. It’s the world that Generation Alpha is currently growing up in.

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Innovation in Data-Driven Health Care - SPONSORED CONTENT FROM ROCHE

Innovative uses of data in health care are helping solve the most challenging problems in patient health and operational efficiency. Today, many health care organizations understand that a data-driven approach can improve patient health outcomes, enable faster clinical decisions, and improve treatment and hospital workflows.

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Wildfires: The changing face of the Mediterranean landscape

The contrast is stark – where vast swathes of land were once rich with life, they are blackened and smouldering ruins, decimated by fire. In just 12 days, 135,000 hectares (521sq miles) of land were left burnt in southern Europe after fires broke out in mid-July. Italy and Greece were worst hit, including the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Sicily.Wildfires, supercharged by strong winds and a heatwave with temperatures exceeding 40C (104F), have left the land scorched, at least 40 people dead and thousands more forced to flee. On the opposite side of the Mediterranean huge wildfires in Algeria and Tunisia have claimed dozens of lives and led to widespread evacuations.

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Hiroshima's Anniversary Marks an Injustice Done to Blast Survivors

On this date 78 years ago, the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. Survivors involuntarily provided key medical data for years, without receiving any helpOn August 6, 1945, the U.S. used an atomic bomb for the first time in history, against the city of Hiroshima. The U.S. dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki three days later. Experts estimate that the two bombs instantly killed more than 100,000 people.

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How to Play All of Those Old Flash Games You Remember

Flash is dead and has been for years. Every major web browser disabled the infamous plug-in back in 2020 (the main thing we all remember about that otherwise uneventful year). Most of us didn't mourn the buggy, overused service, which was a security nightmare and a frequent cause of browser crashes by the time it died. One group does miss Flash, however: casual gamers.Before smartphones and app stores, the best place to find quick, free games were sites like Addicting Games and Newgrounds, which offered up all sorts of Flash-based games. These sites are also an important piece of video game history—some indie classics, including Meat Boy and VVVVV, started life as free Flash titles.

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Hey Students, You Can Get Discounts With Your College Email. Here's How

Going to college is expensive. Between tuition, textbooks, and beer, there isn’t always a lot of wiggle room in the budget. Tack on skyrocketing inflation, and you might be wondering just how you’re supposed to manage your money. One way to stretch those dollars further is by taking advantage of student discounts. A valid .edu email address can help you save on plenty of academic necessities, with a little left over for binge-watching on Netflix or cheap food delivery. We’ve rounded up our favorite student discounts below.Updated August 2023: We refreshed this guide with updated links and added deals on Peacock Premium, 1Password, Babbel, and more.

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The Best Carpet Cleaners to Resurrect Your Rugs

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 WIREDOver time, tramping feet, molting pets, and spilled drinks can take a heavy toll on our hard-working carpets. That pristine pile loses its shine and bounce, fibers get tangled with hair, and stains settle in for the long haul. Surface crumbs and dust might get sucked up regularly by your vacuum, but there’s only so much it can do. For a deep clean that will wet-wash your rugs to lift ingrained dirt and lingering odors, you need a carpet cleaner.

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Ancient necromancy: A skull-filled cave near Jerusalem was a gateway to the underworld

Archaeologists exploring the Te’omim Cave in the Jerusalem Hills have found more than 120 oil lamps dated to the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods tucked away in narrow, difficult-to-reach crevices. Because of their placement, not to mention their proximity to several human skulls, it’s unlikely they were used for lighting. But if they weren’t used for lighting, then what were they used for?Eitan Klein of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Boaz Zissu of Bar-Ilan University believe that the lamps may have been used in necromantic rituals. In a new research paper, the duo turned to ancient sources for verification.

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Why "anomie" is eroding the soul of our society

In 2015, Peter Maddox bought a yellow car. Within a few months, people were going ballistic — well, as ballistic as people get in a quaint British village. What the retired Maddox hadn’t considered was that there were rules to living in Bibury. And one of those rules is, “Don’t buy a garishly colored hatchback.”Bibury is a tourist’s dream: a hamlet of thatched cottages framing a gently babbling brook. Buses full of tourists offload in Bibury every day for selfies, postcards, and overpriced pastries. So, what Bibury didn’t need was Peter Maddox and his yellow car ruining it for everyone else. The thing about small communities like Bibury is that they have mores. “Mores” is a somewhat antiquated word, but it means those intangible expectations a social body places on its individual members. It’s a bit more than etiquette, but a bit less than morality. It’s something more like “rules of behavior.”

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T cells burn out just a few hours after encountering cancer tumors

A key function of our immune system is to detect and eliminate foreign pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Immune cells like T cells do this by distinguishing between different types of proteins within cells, which allows them to detect the presence of infection or disease.

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SpaceX conducts a mostly successful test of its Super Heavy booster

SpaceX on Sunday performed a static fire of a new Super Heavy booster at its launch site in South Texas. The ignition of 33 engines proved to be a spectacle, and there were positives and negatives to be taken away from the short-duration test firing.

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Photos of the Week:

Widespread flooding in China, a horse cart race in India, drone training in Ukraine, a wildfire in the Mojave National Preserve, a water polo match in Japan, a trampoline championship in England, a flooded St Mark’s Square in Venice, an air show in Ireland, and much more A member of the Crane Valley Hotshots works to light a backfire as the York Fire burns in the Mojave National Preserve on July 30, 2023. The York Fire has burned over 70,000 acres, and has crossed the state line from California into Nevada. #

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Why the Populist Right Hates Universities

American conservatives are taking cues from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán because elite education is a convenient enemy for authoritarian populists.hen in the spring of 2017 Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, made it illegal for the Central European University to offer U.S.-accredited degrees at its Budapest campus, everyone there knew that this was more than an attack on George Soros, the Hungarian American businessman and philanthropist who’d founded the CEU. I was then the university’s president and rector, posts I held from 2016 to 2021, so I witnessed the more than 50,000 citizens of Budapest who marched past our windows one Sunday a few weeks later in defense of our academic freedom. Chanting “Szabad orszag, szabad egyetem” (“Free country, free university”), they knew that their freedom was at stake too. Since coming to power in 2010, Orbán had neutered the country’s supreme court, rewritten Hungary’s constitution, radically curtailed the free press, and stigmatized foreign donations to its civil-society organizations. The chanting crowds knew that the attack on the university was another step in the consolidation of single-party authoritarian rule.

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A Sweet, Surrealistic TV Show

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.Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer reveals what’s keeping them entertained.

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The Unspoken Language of Crosswords

Solvers must develop strong intuitions about what entries are possible and how they can be clued.Although no one ever taught it to you, odds are that if you solve a lot of crossword puzzles, you’re fluent in the grammar of crosswords. Most crossword enthusiasts could explain that nouns clue nouns, verbs clue verbs, and so on. They also come to know—subconsciously—that answers must be interchangeable with their clues in a sentence, even for categories too particular to have a name.

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College Football's Power Brokers Are Destroying It

The kickoff to the college-football season is a few weeks away, but fans are already seeing 2023’s biggest showdown—one that pits the long-term interests of schools and conferences against their own insatiable greed.When a major football power switches from one conference to another—disrupting existing rivalries in favor of new opponents less familiar to fans—it’s always controversial. But numerous recent conference changes have disrupted the landscape to an unusual degree. Amid widespread complaints that college players’ newfound ability to profit from endorsement deals is harming a supposedly amateur sport, what’s really chewing college football to pieces are conference realignments fueled by schools’ and conferences’ avarice.

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How to Apologize to a Customer When Something Goes Wrong

Businesses are bound to make mistakes and disappoint their customers. But how you build your apology message and your careful attention to executing it appropriately can make the difference between losing those customers or increasing their loyalty. When delivered well, your apology message can improve the customer relationship to the point where it is stronger than if the mistake had never happened — a phenomenon known as the service recovery paradox. In this article, the author outlines five steps for writing an effective apology message, and explains why it’s important to share the apology process internally and with external stakeholders. It not only shows vulnerability from the organization, but also shows other customers that the company can be relied upon in times of distress.A tired employee is updating shipping orders late at night at a textbook brokerage. They make a mistake in the code and accidentally ship outdated management textbooks to an important customer. Three days later, classes have begun, and with demanding course loads, the students already feel behind. Many are seeking immediate replacements. Cue the angry phone calls and emails.

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Using Technology to Create a Better Customer Experience

A compelling CX demands balancing customer empathy with technology to avoid falling into the trap of what we call “engineered insincerity,” or using automation to simulate interest in who you are as a human being. Engineered insincerity shows up from brands in various ways, such as a constant flow of emails from a retailer that bear no understanding of your current situation, chatbots that use slang and informal language to make them appear human, and daily text messages that force you to unfollow. Don’t let your automation strategy set the tone for your relationship with your customers.

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How to Be Animal: An Antidote to Our Self-Expatriation from Nature

Each month, I spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars keeping The Marginalian going. For seventeen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor has made your own life more livable in the past year (or the past decade), please consider aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. Your support makes all the difference.“You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves,” Mary Oliver wrote in one of her finest poems. And yet in an age when we have come to see ourselves as disembodied intellects channeled by machines, we seem to have forgotten that there is a soft animal of the body, that it purrs with agency in every aspect of our lived experience, from hunger to love; we seem to have forgotten that our intelligence is not the crowning curio of nature but just one particular accoutrement of one particular animal, while all about us are creatures “aflame with shades of brilliance we cannot fathom… far more vibrant, far more holy, than we could ever imagine.” In How to Be Animal: A New History of What It Means to Be Human (public library), poet turned environmental historian and philosopher of science Melanie Challenger traces our slow self-alienation from our own nature and invites an urgent recalibration of the organizing principles by which we perceive, respond to, and reverence the world.

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The Human Scale: Oliver Sacks on How to Save Humanity from Itself

Storm Antoni: why naming storms is a risky business

Since 2015, the UK’s Met Office has used forenames to label storms, as a strategy for improving people’s awareness of severe weather warnings. The list of names for the 2023 storm season was compiled in conjunction with the Irish forecaster Met Éireann and KNMI, the Dutch national weather forecasting service. The list includes forenames suggested by the British public – Daisy, Glen, Khalid, Owain – as well as the winner of a public vote on Twitter, Betty. KNMI has honoured famous Dutch scientists with its selections: Antoni, Hendrika, Johanna, Loes, Tobias and Wouter. And Met Éireann has plumped for Cillian, Fleur, Íde, Ruadhán and Nelly.

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Shane Drumgold resigns after sweeping criticisms of his conduct in the Lehrmann case

The ACT Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, has resigned in the wake of an independent inquiry’s sweeping criticisms of his conduct in the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann. The report from the inquiry by Walter Sofronoff, a former Queensland judge, commissioned by the ACT government, accuses Drumgold of serious misconduct and dishonesty.

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Tax advisers who promote exploitation schemes to face $780 million penalty

An extensive federal government crackdown on misconduct will increase maximum penalties for advisers and firms promoting tax exploitation schemes from the present A$7.8 million to more than $780 million.Sparked by the PwC scandal, which involved the consultancy’s use of confidential government information for commercial gain, the planned measures will also expand tax promoter penalty laws to make it easier for the Australian Taxation Office to apply them to advisers and firms who promote tax avoidance.

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Ghana's housing policy and regulation is failing - COVID proved as much

Access to decent housing is a fundamental human right. Across sub-Saharan Africa, however, this right remains an elusive dream for many households. In Ghana, for example, the government estimates a staggering deficit of 1.8 million homes. Many households don’t get basic services either: 28.6% rely on wells for water, over a third use public latrines and one in ten dispose of waste indiscriminately.

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An expanded Brics could reset world politics but picking new members isn't straightforward

Acting Director: Institute for Pan-African Thought & Conversation, University of Johannesburg University of Johannesburg provides support as an endorsing partner of The Conversation AFRICA.

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The Cryptic Crossword: Sunday, August 6, 2023

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15 Years Ago, One Incredibly Weird Sci-Fi Sequel Signaled The End Of An Era

The last great experiments in science fiction cinema ended 15 years ago. While it's undeniable that we currently live in a glut of legitimately great filmed sci-fi, the days of direct-to-video movies arguably resulted in creativity that can never be recreated. From the early 1990s to the end of the 2000s, these sci-fi flicks allowed for the creation of abominable sequels, which sometimes scanned as distant spoofs of the original movies upon which they’re based. (Ever seen Highlander: The Source?) The strangest of these not-so-great sci-fi franchises is easily the Starship Troopers franchise, which spawned four spinoffs and a spinoff cartoon. But 15 years ago, on August 5, 2008, Starship Troopers 3 came the closest of any of the sequels to actually capturing the spirit of the 1997 classic.

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Scientists Just Scanned the Brain of an Animal That's Been Extinct for 87 Years

Using a 140-year-old piece of brain tissue, we may know more about the Tasmanian tiger’s brain than beforeResearchers often think about how and when their results will be published. However, many research projects don’t see the light until decades (or even centuries) later, if at all.

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57 Years Later, One Underserved Star Trek Character Finally Gets Justice

In Strange New Worlds, Uhura has become the person Nichelle Nichols always wanted her to be.In the very first Star Trek episode ever, “The Map Trap,” Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) says, “Mr. Spock, sometimes I think if I hear that word ‘frequency’ once more, I’ll cry.” Right from the beginning, The Original Series floated the idea that the Enterprise’s communications officer was a little overworked and more than a little underappreciated.

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'Mario Kart 9' Could Borrow a Surprising Forza Mechanic for Switch 2

Nintendo struck gold with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a Switch game that eventually went on to sell 55.46 million copies. Despite it being one of the bestselling games of all time, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe offers little incentive to keep revisiting it, especially if you’re a solo player. Sure, the gameplay is top-notch, but there are very few systems in place that incentivize players to stick around. It could certainly use an engaging story, deeper customization, or light upgrades to unlock. But with Mario Kart 9, which will presumably launch for the Switch 2, Nintendo can change that, making it a bit more like Forza Horizon in the process.

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Scientists Who Study Heat Say This One Type Is the Most Deadly.

Because of climate change, summers are getting hotter and more humid — much more humid. SciLine interviewed Dr. W. Larry Kenney, professor of physiology and kinesiology at Penn State University, who discussed why humid heat can be dangerous to human health and, in some cases, life-threatening; how heat stresses the body, particularly the cardiovascular system; and why infants, athletes, and older adults are especially susceptible.Below are some highlights from the discussion. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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You Need to Play Bethesda's Best RPG on Xbox Game Pass ASAP

Fantasy is hard. It’s bound only by the limits of imagination, which may sound easy. You can just make whatever you think of, right? Wrong. Because it needs to work. It needs to make sense. The more details you add, whether its new characters, plot twists, or easter eggs, the more you need to balance before it crumbles under its own weight. The masters of fantasy make crafting intricate worlds look easy. Great video games do, too. What better medium for sprawling, captivating worlds than a digital simulacrum literally at the tip of your fingers? But fantasy is hard. Even among the greats, there can be only one.

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Astronomers are Watching a Planet Get its Atmosphere Blasted Away into Space

What do you get when a hot young world orbits a wildly unstable young red dwarf? For AU Microsopii b, the answer is flared from the star tearing away the atmosphere. That catastrophic loss happens in fits and starts, "hiccuping" out its atmosphere at one point and then losing practically none the next.That frenetic activity is kind of shocking. Usually, interactions between stars and their planets are more constant. But not this one. "We've never seen atmospheric escape go from completely not detectable to very detectable over such a short period when a planet passes in front of its star," said Keighley Rockcliffe of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. "We were really expecting something very predictable, repeatable. But it turned out to be weird. When I first saw this, I thought, 'That can't be right.'"

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The psychopathic path to success

Think of a psychopath, and any number of Hollywood villains might come to mind, from charming killers like Hannibal Lecter to Anton Chigurh, portrayed with chilling menace by Javier Bardem in the film No Country for Old Men. But the traits and symptoms of psychopathy run along scales that range from weak to strong. So, someone may be mildly psychopathic or severely so. There could be a psychopath sitting next to you right now.Some psychologists argue that the focus on violent and criminal psychopathic behavior has marginalized the study of what they call “successful psychopaths” — people who have psychopathic tendencies but who can stay out of trouble and perhaps even benefit from these traits in some way. Researchers haven’t yet reached a consensus on which traits distinguish successful psychopaths from serial killers, but they are working to clarify what they say is a misunderstood branch of human behavior. Some even want to reclaim and rehabilitate the concept of psychopathy itself.

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