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 S69The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj   When terrorists attacked the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, employees of the Taj Mumbai hotel displayed uncommon valor. They placed the safety of guests over their own well-being, thereby risking—and, in some cases, sacrificing—their lives. Deshpandé, of Harvard Business School, and Raina, of the HBS India Research Center in Mumbai, demonstrate that this behavior was not merely a crisis response. It was instead a manifestation of the Taj Group’s deeply rooted customer-centric culture that, the authors argue, other companies can emulate, both in extreme circumstances and during periods of normalcy.
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S1Excellent Advice for Living: Kevin Kelly's Life-Tested Wisdom He Wished He Knew Earlier  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.“No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life,” Nietzsche wrote as he reckoned with what it takes to find yourself. And yet where would the world be if each generation didn’t plank its crossing with the life-tested wisdom of its elders? Often, that wisdom comes so simply worded as to appear trite — but it is the simplicity of a children’s book, or of a Zen parable: unvarnished elemental truth about what it means to be alive, hard-won and generously offered. That is precisely what Kevin Kelly gathers in Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier (public library) — an herbarium of learnings that began as a list he composed on his 68th birthday for his own young-adult children, a list to which he kept adding with each lived year.
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S2 Protecting Society From AI Harms: Amnesty International's Matt Mahmoudi and Damini Satija (Part 1)  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.Amnesty International brings together more than 10 million staff members and volunteers worldwide to advocate for social justice. Damini Satija and Matt Mahmoudi work with Amnesty Tech, a division of the human rights organization that focuses on the role of government, Big Tech, and technologies like artificial intelligence in areas like surveillance, discrimination, and bias.
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S3Butter-poached scallops with coconut sauce  In Jamaica, "run down" – or rondón, run dun or rundung as it's also known – is a meltingly tender seafood stew or sauce made by cooking down coconut milk with spices and fish like salt cod or mackerel. It's traditionally served with Jamaican staples like yams, bananas and plantains. The dish is called run down because the fish is cooked down until it essentially falls apart. It's comfort food that chef Andrew Black grew up eating in his hometown of Barracks River, St Mary in Jamaica.Today, run down forms the foundation for a stunning dish of scallops in coconut sauce that is featured on the tasting menu at Black's Grey Sweater restaurant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This is a city long overlooked as a dining destination, but this perception is changing thanks to chefs like Black, who was awarded Best Chef: Southwest from the James Beard Foundation this past June.
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S4India's beloved mosur dal  The everyday dish of simmered lentils known as dal is more than just food to most Indians; it is comfort, it is nourishment and very often, it is the taste of home."For me, dal is comfort food and I have it every day. When I am tired, or when I'm having a bad day, dal with rice uplifts my mood in a way that nothing else can, not even coffee or chocolate," said cookbook author Archana Pidathala.
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S510 churches around the world given amazing new life  In a 19th-Century church built for the British Navy on an island in the Thames Estuary, one cantilevered staircase has been rebuilt, and the other has been conserved as a ruin. For the project's architect Hugh Broughton, this acts as a metaphor for his thinking behind a new use for this church.Completed in 1828, the grade II* listed Sheerness Dockyard Church had languished as a ruin since it was ravaged by fire in 2001. It now has a new lease of life as a workspace hub for young entrepreneurs on the Isle of Sheppey, one of the most deprived parts of Kent in the south of England.
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S7International ransomware gangs are evolving their techniques. The next generation of hackers will target weaknesses in cryptocurrencies  In May 2023, the Dallas City Government was hugely disrupted by a ransomware attack. Ransomware attacks are so-called because the hackers behind them encrypt vital data and demand a ransom in order to get the information decrypted. The attack in Dallas put a halt to hearings, trials and jury duty, and the eventual closure of the Dallas Municipal Court Building. It also had an indirect effect on wider police activities, with stretched resources affecting the ability to deliver, for example, summer youth programmes. The criminals threatened to publish sensitive data, including personal information, court cases, prisoner identities and government documents.
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S8S9Medication can help you make the most of therapy - a psychologist and neuroscientist explains how  There is mounting recognition in the scientific community that combining different treatment approaches for mental health conditions can create a benefit greater than the sum of its parts.Anxiety and depression are the most prevalent mental health conditions around the world. Globally, about 280 million people experience depression, and as many as 1 in 3 will meet the diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. There are numerous effective treatment options for both conditions, including medications, psychotherapy, lifestyle changes and neurostimulation.
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S10FDA's greenlighting of maternal RSV vaccine represents a major step forward in protecting young babies against the virus  With the Food and Drug Administration’s Aug. 21, 2023, approval of the first vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for use during late pregnancy, the U.S. will soon have a major new tool at its disposal to protect infants against the highly contagious virus. RSV is the most common cause of lower respiratory infections in young children and can be especially severe for infants under 6 months of age. It is the leading cause of infant hospitalization in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each year, RSV is associated with half a million emergency room visits, nearly 100,000 hospitalizations and 300 deaths in young U.S. children.
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S11Short naps can improve memory, increase productivity, reduce stress and promote a healthier heart  While some people view napping as a luxurious indulgence, others see it as a way to maintain alertness and well-being. But napping can come with drawbacks as well as benefits. As an orofacial pain specialist, I have extensive education in sleep medicine and how sleep impacts wellness, due mostly to the relationship between sleep and painful conditions such as headaches and facial pain. My training involved all aspects of sleep, especially sleep breathing disorders, insomnia and sleep-related movement disorders.
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S12Judicial orders restricting Trump's speech seek to balance his own constitutional rights  In each of former President Donald Trump’s four indictments, he has been allowed to stay out of jail before his trial so long as he abides by certain conditions commonly applied to most people accused of crimes in the U.S.In the New York state case regarding alleged falsification of business records, Trump has been ordered “not [to] communicate about facts of the case with any individual known to be a witness, except with counsel or the presence of counsel.” In the federal case in Florida, about his handling of classified documents, he is under a similar order. In the federal case in Washington, D.C., he is under a protective order with the same types of restrictions, barring him from speaking to people involved in the case except through or with his lawyers.
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S13S14What social change movements can learn from fly fishing: The value of a care-focused message  Summer and fall are prime times for getting outdoors across the U.S. According to an annual survey produced by the outdoor industry, 55% of Americans age 6 and up participated in some kind of outdoor recreation in 2022, and that number is on the rise. However, the activities they choose are shifting. Over the past century, participation has declined in some activities, such as hunting, and increased in others, like bird-watching.
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S15S16S17DRC: rising Twirwaneho rebel group highlights the unending volatility of the country's east  Christopher P. Davey is affiliated with Clark University and Education for Global Peace, and works for Binghamton University SUNY.The three-decade conflict in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has led to the proliferation of hundreds of armed groups. With the violence appearing to take an ethnic slant, several groups have emerged claiming to be protecting their communities from attacks. One such group is the Twirwaneho, which has become more active since 2019. Christopher P. Davey, who has extensively studied the drivers of conflict in eastern DRC, explains how the Twirwaneho’s claim of communal self-defence highlights the fractured nature of Congolese politics.
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S18Cannabis is illegal in Nigeria but provides a living for families - study calls for rethink of drug laws  Arriving at the tranquil village health facility in southwestern Nigeria, we were met by a small gathering of men – young and old – with thinly veiled excitement. Cannabis is a heavily criminalised plant in Nigeria. It can get its growers, traders and users long prison sentences. The National Drug Law Enforcement Act prescribes an imprisonment of not less than 15 years for possession and use of cannabis. Yet its very illegality ensures high prices and makes it lucrative to grow.
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S19S20Sylvia Mdunyelwa, one of South Africa's great jazz vocalists, kept music traditions alive  If Miriam Makeba is hailed as the South African vocalist of her generation who brilliantly embraced (and actually shaped) global music sounds, and Sathima Bea Benjamin as the experimenter who entranced the modern jazz scene in Europe and the US, then Ncediwe Sylvia Mdunyelwa joins that pantheon of late, great South African singers as the consummate vocal classicist. Known affectionately in her home city of Cape Town as “Mama Kaap”, Mdunyelwa passed away on 25 August at the age of 74. At the core of her music was a fierce insistence on respect for the tradition – of the great American jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan as well as the traditional music of her isiXhosa-speaking community – and for the song.
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S21How old is the universe exactly? A new theory suggests that it's been around for twice as long as believed  Early universe observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) cannot be explained by current cosmological models. These models estimate the universe to be 13.8 billion years in age, based on the big-bang expanding universe concept.Impossible early galaxies refer to the fact that some galaxies dating to the cosmic dawn — 500 to 800 million years after the big bang — have discs and bulges similar to those which have passed through a long period of evolution. And smaller in size galaxies are apparently more massive than larger ones, which is quite the opposite of expectation.
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S22Transcranial magnetic stimulation can treat depression. Developing research suggests it could also help autism, ADHD and OCD  Since the start of the COVID pandemic, there has been more attention given to problems of mental ill-health including depression than ever before. A new therapeutic option, especially for depression, transcranial magnetic stimulation, is slowly helping to address some of these considerable unmet needs in our community. Research is also exploring the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation in many other conditions, including obsessive compulsive disorder, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, chronic pain and perhaps to slow the progression of dementia symptoms.
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S23How Russian history and the concept of 'smuta' (turmoil) sheds light on Putin and Prigozhin - and the dangers of dissent  In Russia, failed coups portend turmoil and collapse. They also herald greater repression, and a tightening of centralised control. This is because Russian history has swung back and forth between chaos and autocracy, which have become mutually reinforcing symptoms of the same historical condition. Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has come to symbolise a new cycle of this history taking place in Russia today. While the fallout from his aborted mutiny in June and recent death remains uncertain, it is possible to see these events as the reverberations of a centuries-old power system grinding forward into new terrain.
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S24S25S26Talk of a new Cold War is overheated - but NZ faces complex challenges in the era of 'strategic competition'  As the general election nears, the campaign focus so far has been almost exclusively on domestic issues. And yet, over the past two months, no fewer than five government documents have been released outlining the significant defence and security challenges the country now faces.If there is one theme that unites these reports, it is captured in the Defence Policy and Strategy Statement’s observation that “New Zealand is facing a more challenging strategic environment than it has in decades”.
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S27How drought in Central America is pushing up the cost of living in Australia  What does a drought in Central America have to do with Australia’s cost of living? Quite a lot, if the drought affects the Panama Canal.The 425 square kilometre Gatun Lake was built in the early 1900s to store water for the Panama Canal. Water is needed to float ships so they can navigate the canal. Now drought has severely affected the lake’s water levels.
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S28S29Northern map turtles survive cold winter conditions by staying active under ice  Imagine it’s winter, and you’re standing on a frozen lake or pond, when suddenly below your feet you notice hundreds of turtles. What are they doing down there below the ice? Freshwater turtles in temperate regions like Canada spend several months of the year braced against frigid winter conditions of temperatures around or below 0 C and the formation of ice on water bodies.
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S30Tropical Storm Idalia is forecast to intensify over extremely warm Gulf waters, on track for Florida landfall as a powerful hurricane  Forecasters were closely watching Tropical Storm Idalia as it passed Cuba and headed over exceptionally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm was expected to intensify into a major hurricane before making landfall in Florida on Wednesday, Aug. 30. Hurricane warnings were posted along a wide stretch of Florida’s Gulf coast, from just north of Sarasota to the Panhandle, including Tampa Bay.Hurricane scientist Haiyan Jiang of Florida International University explained how two conflicting forces – unusually high ocean heat and strong wind shear – were determining Idalia’s future, and how they have made the 2023 hurricane season overall difficult to forecast.
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S31Children's early learning belongs in neighbourhood schools  The beginning of each school year brings an opportunity to reflect, for children, families and also for policymakers. Some important lessons pertain to effective ways provinces and territories can expand children’s and families’ access to early learning programs. Programs for four-year-olds (alternately known as pre-kindergarten, pre-primary, junior kindergarten or two-year kindergarten, depending on the area) belong in neighbourhood schools, closely tied into the cascade of schools’ curriculum, teaching and learning expertise. These programs establish a continuum of learning and healthy child development.
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S32AI is reshaping the workplace - but what does it mean for the health and well-being of workers?  The business landscape has undergone a significant shift over the past few years because of artificial intelligence (AI). This technological advancement has innovated business practices and is changing the way we work.Businesses are increasingly turning to AI to solve problems and perform tasks that have traditionally required human intelligence. Across different industries and occupations, AI is being used to detect patterns, make predictions and even create content.
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S33S34S35New study highlights the brain trauma risks for young athletes  The Boston University CTE Center today reported the results of the largest-ever study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in young athletes. The study, examining autopsied tissue, found signs of CTE in 63 out of 152 young athlete brains. The subjects of the study competed in youth, high school and college competitions, and all died before the age of 30.
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S36I think I have the flu. Should I ask my GP for antivirals?  If you test positive for COVID and you’re eligible for antivirals, you’ll likely ask your GP for a script to protect you from severe disease. Antivirals are also available to fight influenza viruses, via a doctor’s prescription. But they have a mixed history, with their benefits at times overstated.
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S37Finding a live brain worm is rare. 4 ways to protect yourself from more common parasites  News reports this morning describe how shocked doctors removed a live worm from a woman’s brain in a Canberra hospital last year. The woman had previously been admitted to hospital with stomach symptoms, dry cough and night sweats and months later experienced depression and forgetfulness that led to a brain scan. In the case study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, doctors describe removing the live 8cm-long nematode (roundworm) from the brain of the 64-year-old woman who was immunosuppressed. The worm was identified as O. robertsi which is native to Australia, where it lives on carpet pythons. The woman may have come into contact with worm eggs via snake faeces while foraging for Warrigal greens to eat.
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S38S39S40Queensland is not only trampling the rights of children, it is setting a concerning legal precedent  Last week, the Queensland parliament voted to override its own human rights law in order to enable children to continue to be detained in police watch houses and adult detention facilities. This was not the first time it had taken such a step. In March, the parliament passed amendments to override the state’s Human Rights Act to create an offence for children who breach bail conditions, require a sentencing court to consider a child’s bail history, and enable a child to be declared a serious repeat offender.
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S41S42Blue Beetle is a solid first outing for the Latino superhero  Recent university graduate Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) is coming home with big dreams, ready for what’s next. But he soon realises his family has been putting on a brave face in his absence and that their fortunes have taken a turn for the worse. A chance meeting with young heiress Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine) brings him into contact with an extraterrestrial artefact at the heart of Kord Industries’ covert plan to develop a military weapons system using alien biotechnology. But before that can happen, the object – a scarab that turns out to be a sentient being – latches itself onto his body, endowing him with superpowers he can’t control.
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S43Don't look there: how politicians divert our attention from climate protesters' claims  The right to protest is a distinctive feature of democratic, liberal societies. Yet the way in which many leading British politicians are currently talking about Just Stop Oil might make you think otherwise. Far from engaging with the issues at stake in these protests, politicians appear to be encouraging the wider public to ignore them or even oppose them. Having seen their initial protests largely ignored, Just Stop Oil members have been making more disruptive (but non-violent) protests lately. They’ve been present at high-profile sports events like Wimbledon and the World Snooker Championships.
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S44"Bottoms" Is a Major Film but Not a Good One  Laughter and tears are like sneezes, physiological responses without aesthetic substance. That's why I don't think less of a comedy that doesn't make me laugh. What matters is the style with which it tries. Though "Bottoms" gave me a few laughs through sheer relentlessness of effort, it's seriously style-challenged, not least because it tries so hard. The tone is one of near-realism, which seems to promise much in the way of character and situation, but the action stretches from exaggeration to absurdity with a wave of the hand. The plot centers on two lesbian best friends in a suburban high school: PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri). Social outcasts who are seen as (in their own words) "gay, ugly, and untalented," they have a further frustration: the girls they have crushes onâBrittany (Kaia Gerber) and Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), respectivelyâare cheerleaders who barely acknowledge their existence. In order to attract the cheerleaders' attention, PJ and Josie launch after-school, girls-only sessions purporting to teach women's self-defense training.To the girls' surprise, the ploy proves effective. They actually know nothing about self-defense; instead, the group becomes a kind of fight club, and the participants take pride and pleasure in giving and taking beatdowns. But, in courting the cheerleaders, PJ and Josie, plus their right-hand person Hazel (Ruby Cruz), run afoul of the football team and its lionized leaders, the airheaded quarterback Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), who has been dating Isabel, and his sharp-minded teammate Tim (Miles Fowler), who works up a scheme to expose the girls' self-serving motives. Meanwhile, a long-standing rivalry with another school puts the boys in danger, and PJ and Josie and their fighting cohorts conceive a desperate plan to save the day.
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S45The Trump Mug Shot's Art-Historical Lineage  Can we agree that, all else aside, the first mug shot of an American President is pretty visually compelling? The artist, a mystery for the time beingâlike Banksy, but less annoyingâhas made some fascinating choices: the off-center configuration; the cinematic lighting, which casts half of Trump's face in shadow; the high angle that fights for dominance with its subject. Compositionally, this is an arresting photo of an arrest. It's a picture that wants to say something. The background is rendered in a monochrome reminiscent of Amy Sherald. Its abject plainness, given the baroquely inclined subject, operates as a sort of visual joke. There's even a nod to classical form. Trump's shirt collar makes a triangle that echoes, above, in his face wrinkles. They both draw the viewer's gaze straight into the center of the imageâthe bloodshot eyes. Let us merely note that Da Vinci used a similar technique in "The Last Supper."Most famous mug shotsâBieber, O. J., Nolte, the Lohan seriesâstand out for the subject only. They're head on, neatly centered, no funny business. Trump's subverts the form. In structure, it most closely resembles Pablo Escobar's. The glower, it must be said, has a precedent in the arrest photograph of Hermann Göring, the president of the Nazi Reichstag. (Göring, like Trump, knew about the power of an image: he looted Renoirs, Monets, and van Goghs.) Traditionally, mug shots come with both frontal and profile viewsâa diptych. Valerie H. Campbell, a former director of photographic services for the N.Y.P.D. and a one-time assistant to the art photographer Jill Krementz, said that the side angle was essential for identification. "Ears, like fingerprints, are all unique," she told me. Curiously, Trump's picture is just a single panel. Perhaps the photographer felt that there were already better ways to identify the man; Alphonse Bertillon, who, in the eighteen-eighties invented the modern mug shot, conceived of it as just one item in an array of biometric data, including hand size.
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S46S47Trump's 2020 Trial Is Set to Dominate the 2024 Primary Season  If there were any remaining doubt that the 2024 election is going to be a political contest like no other, it was removed on Monday, when a federal judge set a trial date for Donald Trump's case involving charges of conspiring to overturn the result of the 2020 election: March 4, 2024. During a hearing at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected pleas by Trump's lawyers to delay the trial until after the election. "Setting a trial date does not depend and should not depend on the defendant's personal or professional obligations," Judge Chutkan said. "Mr. Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule."Government lawyers representing Jack Smith, the special counsel, had requested a trial date in January, 2024, arguing that the seriousness of the case demanded a prompt resolution. Molly Gaston, a Justice Department lawyer, told the court that the defendant stands "accused of historic crimes: attempting to overturn the Presidential election, disenfranchise millions of Americans, and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power." Trump's legal team, led by the attorney John Lauro, had asked for the case to be pushed back until 2026, so they could have sufficient time to examine all the evidence that prosecutors have gathered.
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S48The Case for Negotiating with Russia  If you want to hear a different perspective on the war in Ukraine, talk to Samuel Charap. A fine-featured Russia analyst with, at forty-three, a head of gray hair, Charap works at the RAND Corporation, a think tank that has been doing research for the U.S. military, among other clients, since the nineteen-forties. In the self-abnegating architectural spirit of many Washington institutions, it rents several floors of an office tower attached to a mall in Arlington, Virginia, not far from the Pentagon. The mall has a Macy’s and a Bath and Body Works, which are not places that Charap likes to go.Charap, who grew up in Manhattan, became interested in Russian literature in high school, and then became interested in Russian foreign policy in college, at Amherst. He got a Ph.D. in political science at Oxford and spent time researching his dissertation in both Moscow and Kyiv. In 2009, he started working at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in D.C. Russia had just fought a short, nasty war with Georgia, but the incoming Obama Administration was hoping to “reset” relations and find common ground. Charap supported this effort and wrote papers trying to think through a progressive foreign policy for the U.S. in the post-Soviet region. But tensions with Russia continued to increase. In the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and incursion into eastern Ukraine, in 2014, Charap wrote a book, with the Harvard political scientist Timothy Colton, called “Everyone Loses,” about the background to the war. In it, Charap and Colton argue that the U.S., Europe, and Russia had combined to produce a “negative sum” outcome in Ukraine. Russia was the aggressor, to be sure, but by asking that Ukraine choose either Russia or the West, the U.S. and Europe had helped stoke the flames of conflict. In the end, everyone lost.
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S49You Need to Watch Guillermo del Toro's Boldest Sci-Fi Movie on Max ASAP  The once-dominant superhero film has suffered a host of injuries lately, from the middling performance of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to the thunderous box office crashes of Shazam: Fury of the Gods! and The Flash. Many potential factors have been assigned blame, like behind-the-scenes drama, studio interference, excessive output, or superhero fatigue, but such a complex stew leaves little clear direction forward for Marvel or DC Studios. If the modern superhero movie needs saving, it could do worse than take influence from a very different kind of superhero film: monster maestro Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy.In 2004, years before the Marvel Cinematic Universe started with 2008’s Iron Man, Hellboy provided our cinematic introduction to the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. The BPRD, founded by Professor Bruttenholm in 1945 to thwart Hitler’s occult machinations, investigates and combats otherworldly and occult threats. The team’s superpowered members include the half-demon Hellboy (Ron Perlman), firestarter Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), and fishman Abe Sapien (Doug Jones, with David Hyde Pierce’s voice). The team works to prevent Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden) from unleashing the world-ending dragons Ogdru Jahad, despite the fact Hellboy’s Right Hand of Doom is destined to begin Ragnarok and unleash their reign on Earth.
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S50'Sea of Stars' Has the Most Obsession-Worthy Minigame of 2023  I always say “Morning” instead of “Good Morning.” Because if it was a good morning, I’d be fishing.A time-honored part of any self-respecting RPG is the presence of minigames. Sea of Stars is no different, and in the tens of hours I have spent with the game before its release I have found myself ignoring the high-stakes quest and taking a stroll down to the nearest fishing hole and casting out my line.
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S51Star Wars Theory Reveals a Shocking 'Ahsoka' Twist That Redefines the Force  All cultures have their folk stories, fables, and fairy tales. And it appears that the Jedi are no exception. In Ahsoka Episode 2, Morgan Elsbeth reveals her plan to rescue Grand Admiral Thrawn by traveling along a secret path that bridges the Star Wars galaxy with a new one: the fabled Pathway to Peridea.“The children at the Jedi Temple call it that,” Elsbeth’s lackey, the fallen Jedi Baylan Skoll, remarks. “It comes from old stories, fairy tales.”
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S5212 Years Later, 2 Brilliantly Weird Sci-Fi Characters Finally Get Their Due  It started out as Adventure Time fan art. Fan art by someone working on the show, but fan art nonetheless. Created on a whim by series character designer and storyboard revisionist Natasha Allegri, Fionna and Cake went on to become two of the most beloved characters in a vast multiverse full of lovable weirdos — despite only appearing in a handful of the show’s whopping 283 episodes.Now, over a decade after their debut, the gender-bent duo are getting a spinoff of their own, and expectations are high. Thankfully, not only does Fionna and Cake meet those expectations, but it manages to move the entire franchise forward by leaps and bounds, delivering one of the saga’s most emotionally mature entries, which, as Adventure Time fans will know, is saying a lot.
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S53'Dune 2' Will Feel Different From the Novel in One Major Way  If you’ve never read Frank Herbert’s novel Dune, one thing you may not know is that the book’s greatness largely stems from the fact that Herbert favors vibes over plot. The story of Dune is compelling, but the telling of the story of Dune is even more compelling. Future-tense epigraphs from Princess Irulan intentionally inform us of major plot twists, while Paul’s prescience allows for fascinating time jumps in the second half of the book. So, will all this nuance translate into Dune: Part Two? Maybe, maybe not. As spiceheads everywhere were rocked by the news that Dune: Part Two will not hit theaters this year, and instead, will be pushed back to March 15, 2024, a massive new preview of the film was published in Empire Magazine. Within all of this new info — including Denis Villeneuve teasing that he still wants to make a third film — is also the fact that the director views Dune 2 as a “war movie” in contrast to the previous film. But is that even true? And if it is, does that accurately capture what the second half of Dune is all about?
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S54Star Wars Just Got One Step Closer to Making Its Most Overlooked Era Canon  Star Wars Celebration 2023 featured announcements that would stretch the boundaries of the Star Wars timeline. Three new movies — one set during the dawn of the Jedi Order, another wrapping up the “Mando-verse” the current TV shows are exploring, and one following Rey as she re-establishes the Jedi — expanded the Star Wars canon to new boundaries, and yet that wasn’t the most exciting development. The official Star Wars website now features the canonical timeline shown off at Celebration 2023, and one of the franchise’s official eras exists without any projects set during it. That leaves room for the exploration of the most underrated chapter in Star Wars canon, one that’s already a fan favorite of the non-canon Legends universe.
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S55Zack Snyder's 'Rebel Moon' Director's Cut Reveals a Troubling New Hollywood Trend  Zack Snyder’s films are nothing if not ambitious, but his latest collaboration with Netflix is shaping up to be his biggest yet. The director never does anything in moderation, and his foray into science fiction with Rebel Moon is a dive into the deep end. The project began as an R-rated riff on Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai set within the Star Wars galaxy, and though it proved a bit too unwieldy for Lucasfilm, that didn’t stop Snyder from bringing it to life elsewhere.Rebel Moon retained much of its influences in its pivot to Netflix. While Snyder’s space opera now takes place in a very different galaxy, quite a few similarities to Star Wars remain. A long-lost princess, a warrior with laser swords, and a helpful robot are all present. But one aspect of Rebel Moon is decidedly Snyder: the existence of a director’s cut that will apparently add an hour of additional footage.
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S56The Best Build and Strategies to Take Down Balteus in 'Armored Core 6'  Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is a FromSoftware game through and through, right down to the tough-as-nails boss fights that stop you in your track. While Chapter 1 has a few tough fights, none of them hold a candle to Balteus, a hulking mech that’ll stop you in your tracks with its missiles and flamethrowers. This boss can easily be a roadblock that stops your progress for hours, which is why we’re here to provide you with some tips on how to get through it more easily. Keep in mind that you’ll likely be taking on Balteus multiple times, no matter how much guidance you have, so don’t get discouraged. Here’s how to beat Balteus in Armored Core VI.
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S57'Pok  Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are some of 2022’s most popular games, featuring a sprawling open world. The latest mainline entry in the long-running series continues the trend of two different versions. Their main theme involves the passage of time, with Scarlet focusing on the past while Violet focuses on the future. This theme is reflected in the kinds of Pokémon you’ll meet throughout the game.So which version should you pick? The main differences revolve around what kinds of Pokémon you can encounter, while others are simply cosmetic. Here are some of the key differences between both Scarlet and Violet to help you decide.
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S58Look! New Mars Images Hint at the Explosive History of an Iconic Landmark  A spacecraft has delivered fantastic images of Mars, showcasing textured terrain and a lone crater near the planet’s most famous landmark.Olympus Mons is the Solar System’s largest volcano. It’s so large, that the size of this shield volcano is roughly the size of the state of Arizona, according to NASA. Its height is roughly 2.5 times higher than Mount Everest rises above sea level on Earth, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). New images from Mars Express, a 20-year-old ESA mission, focus on an exciting place at the fringe of the volcano.
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S59'Ahsoka' Episode 3 Is About to Change Star Wars Forever  The newest chapter of Ahsoka's spotlight series is continuing Disney+'s biggest release gamble yet.Star Wars fans everywhere are getting used to a new schedule with Ahsoka. The series is bucking many trends — it’s the first live-action Star Wars show centered around a female character, the live-action debuts of multiple characters from Star Wars: Rebels including Grand Admiral Thrawn himself, and the first Disney+ original to garner an untraditional release schedule.
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S60How to Unlock the Bad, Good, and True Endings in 'Armored Core VI'  All good things must come to an end, and that includes FromSoftware’s latest banger. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon has a fascinating story that requires a bit of work to uncover, as the full picture doesn’t really become clear until you unlock the game’s three different endings. Luckily, Armored Core VI has a generous New Game Plus system that simplifies getting these endings, however, you’ll still need to do specific things in order to unlock them. If you need to know the specific way to unlock the Good, Bad, or True ending in FromSoftware’s new mech title, we’ve detailed the steps for all three below.
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S61Ozempic Makes Some Users Drink Less --  The effect of Ozempic and its sister drugs continues to confound users and researchers alike. The medications, which include Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, have been around since 2017, but have exploded in popularity over the past couple of years. The drugs, which belong to a class of medications called semaglutides, were originally designed and tested for Type 2 diabetes. Now, at least one has been approved for obesity, and as more users put the drugs to the test, researchers are finding ever-increasing ways they influence our bodies.There is a growing body of research showing that these medications seem to make people lose interest in long-term habits like drinking and smoking. But scientists have yet to pin down why this is the case. This week, NPR reported that scientists believe these drugs seem to temper the release of dopamine in the brain.
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S62'Ahsoka' Theory Explains Episode 5's Epic Run Time  Star Wars’ embrace of television and episodic storytelling has been a boon to the franchise. The Mandalorian’s use of single missions to form stories throughout a larger arc has shaken up how tales are told in this faraway galaxy, but it also hasn’t been afraid to experiment with standalone episodes... and that practice may reveal the answer to one of Ahsoka’s biggest mysteries. The Mandalorian made waves with Episode 3 of Season 3, which abandoned protagonist Din Djarin after the first few minutes to instead spend a significant amount of time catching up with minor characters Dr. Pershing and Elia Kane, who was previously an anonymous comms officer under Moff Gideon’s command.
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S63How to Ask Great Questions  Asking questions is a uniquely powerful tool for unlocking value in organizations: It spurs learning and the exchange of ideas, it fuels innovation and performance improvement, it builds rapport and trust among team members. And it can mitigate business risk by uncovering unforeseen pitfalls and hazards. But few executives think of questioning as a skill that can be honed—or consider how their own answers to questions could make conversations more productive.
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S64What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation  Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).
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S65How to Write Better Emails at Work  <span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span></span><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>
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S66Research: How to Be a Better Ally to the LGBTQ+ Community  Some straight, cisgender people think of themselves as allies to the LGBTQ+ community, maybe even going so far as to self-designate as such through signage in their workspace or on their personal effects. But do LGBTQ+ individuals actually perceive them to be allies? To answer this question, the authors completed a four-year project to investigate how LGBTQ+ individuals determine whether someone is an ally. They conducted six studies, including thousands of LGBTQ+-identified participants across the U.S., to understand the causes and effects of allyship. Based on their findings, they present three ways to be a good ally to your LGBTQ+ colleagues — and not just perform allyship.
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S67Your Rainbow Logo Doesn't Make You an Ally  It’s time for companies to reconsider how they approach marketing and branding during Pride month. Many members of the LGBTQ+ community are tired of “rainbow capitalism,” “pink washing,” and other forms of performative corporate allyship. In this piece, author Lily Zheng suggests that companies consider retiring their rainbow logos next year, in favor of more meaningful actions that can actually improve the lives of LGBTQ+ communities. “The bar for approval from LGBTQ+ communities in 2021 has risen, and rainbow marketing just doesn’t cut it anymore. Let your actions between now and Pride 2022 demonstrate your commitment to the LGBTQ+ community, instead,” Zheng writes.
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S68S70How Netflix Reinvented HR  When Netflix executives wrote a PowerPoint deck about the organization’s talent management strategies, the document went viral—it’s been viewed more than 5 million times on the web. Now one of those executives, the company’s longtime chief talent officer, goes beyond the bullet points to paint a detailed picture of how Netflix attracts, retains, and manages stellar employees. The firm draws on five key tenets:
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