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 S69'Ahsoka' Episode 4 Easter Egg Reveals a Tragic Star Wars Romance   Given that Ahsoka is a direct continuation of Rebels, it’s safe to expect the latest series to reference the animated show whenever possible. And it’s not like all these nods to Rebels aren’t warranted: while Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) only played a minor role in the animated show, her supporting cast in live-action were the heroes of that story. Sabine Wren’s (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) tenure as a Mandalorian warrior will eventually come into play, and references to Hera Syndulla’s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) lover, Kanan Jarrus, are all but inevitable, especially now that their son Jacen (Evan Whitten) is old enough to participate in Hera’s adventures.Episode 4 of Ahsoka sees Hera taking Jacen along for what could be a particularly risky mission. She and a handful of New Republic pilots are headed to the planet Seatos, which has become a temporary base of operations for Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and the Eye of Sion, the massive hyperspace ring that will allow her to rescue Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) from a distant galaxy. The hunt for the Imperial Grand Admiral is driving the first half of Ahsoka, and “Fallen Jedi” brings Hera, Ahsoka, and Sabine closer to their goal.
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S1The Half-Life of Hope  After breaking out of timidity with “Spell Against Indifference,” an offering of another poem — this one inspired by a lovely piece of science news that touched me with its sonoro…
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S2Dumb Money review: GameStop comedy is 'funny, irreverent and crowd-pleasing'  There's a strange disconnect whenever a major Hollywood studio releases a film that seems to be about little guys beating a big, bad system. It's a jarring undertone that Dumb Money, based on the real-life story of how small-time investors briefly thwarted Wall Street, can't escape. Sony stands to make lots of money on the film, which mocks the rich and powerful. But it may be best not to think about that for a couple of hours and just enjoy the show.Dumb Money is not as smart or skewering as it pretends to be – on-screen text at the end claims that Wall Street has permanently changed because of this financial blip – but it is funny, irreverent and crowd-pleasing, with a kaleidoscope of likeable characters and actors. Director Craig Gillespie (Cruella and I, Tonya) has turned a saga that ended up before a Congressional finance committee into a breezy entertainment.
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S3Mangosuthu Buthelezi was a man of immense political talent and contradictions  Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, who has died, was a history maker. He was born on 27 August 1928 into a tumultuous global century, and into the local conditions of racist rule.A man of singular political talent, Buthelezi was among the country’s most influential black leaders for the majority of his long and remarkable life. Yet he occupied an anomalous position within the politics of the anti-apartheid struggle. He brokered Zulu ethnic nationalism, feeding a measure of credibility into apartheid ideals of “separate development”. This, against growing calls for unity under a democratic, South Africanist banner. But he claimed his position to be a realistic strategy, as opposed to armed struggle.
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S4Mangosuthu Buthelezi: the Zulu nationalist who left his mark on South Africa's history  Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi played a prominent role in South African politics for almost half a century. He was one of the last of a generation of black South African leaders who influenced the transition from the white minority apartheid regime to a society under a democratically elected government. Prince Buthelezi (95) was born on 27 August 1928 in Mahlabatini into the Zulu royal family. His mother Princess Magogo ka Dinuzulu was the daughter of King Dinizulu. His grandfather was the prime minister of King Cetshwayo. So, he was the first-born in line to the Buthelezi chieftainship.
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S5Ancient shoes: tracks on a South African beach offer oldest evidence yet of human footwear  When and where did our ancestors first fashion footwear? We cannot look to physical evidence of shoes for the answer, as the perishable materials from which they were made would no longer be evident. Ichnology, the study of fossil tracks and traces, can help to answer this unresolved question through a search for clear evidence of footprints made by humans who were shod – that is, wearing some kind of foot covering. We also considered the areas where ancient hominin tracks have been reported. This revealed that there are two prime places on the planet to look for footprint evidence of early shod hominins: western Europe and the Cape coast of South Africa. We followed up with a little crafting of our own to create the types of footwear that might have been worn. Most of the tracksites we have found are between about 70,000 years and 150,000 years in age, so that is the time period we focused on.
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S6A Departure from Reality, by Viet Thanh Nguyen  In order to re member yourself and your mother, you examine the paper fragments of your past. Sometime before the fall of 1990, you visit your mother in what you remember as the Asian Pacific Psychiatric Ward. In a fitful, fragmentary journal you keep in college, you describe yourself as feelingNone of the patients, your mother included, appears to be a member of your reality. Seven or eight months later, while you are a sophomore at Berkeley, you try to write about the Asian Pacific Psychiatric Ward in a seminar led by Maxine Hong Kingston. In your essay, you describe how a woman named Trinh rolls on the floor before a ward attendant, a Black woman, gently picks her up. Then
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S7Naomi Klein Sees Uncanny Doubles in Our Politics  In 2008, in a Profile for this magazine, Larissa MacFarquhar described Naomi Klein as “the most visible and influential figure on the American left—what Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky were thirty years ago.” Klein became famous in 1999 for “No Logo,” her manifesto about globalization and consumption; she published “The Shock Doctrine,” in 2007, about disaster capitalism, and 2014’s “This Changes Everything,” about the climate crisis. She’s been a prominent Bernie Sanders campaign surrogate and public advocate for the Green New Deal.Klein’s books are serious, though not humorless; she cuts a reliably resolute figure, modelling for her audience that one’s mind can be on dissolution and disaster while one’s person remains entirely poised, even cool. And so her new book, “Doppelganger,” comes as something of a surprise. Its leaping-off point is not global warming or the expansion of government surveillance but, rather, the fact that Naomi Klein, for more than a decade, has been regularly mistaken for Naomi Wolf. “We both write big-idea books,” Klein writes, and “have brown hair that sometimes goes blond from over-highlighting. . . . We’re both Jewish.” Both had partners named Avram. (Klein’s husband, who in 2021 ran for office with Canada’s socialist party, goes by Avi.) And though they had once had distinct areas of expertise, their specialties eventually began to converge. I can attest to the durability of this confusion: before I interviewed Klein at The New Yorker Festival in 2017, I received multiple texts from friends saying, “Good luck with Naomi Wolf!”
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S8You Need to Watch the Greatest Sci-Fi Movie Ever Made on Amazon ASAP  In the late ‘60s, one movie somewhat amazingly united the niche sci-fi audience, hardcore film snobs, and a chunk of mainstream viewers like no movie before (or since). This Stanley Kubrick masterpiece wasn’t an overnight success, but well-received theatrical revivals in 1971 and 1974 changed its perception. Well before the Lucas-Spielberg sci-fi movie renaissance of the 1980s, the standard was, in many ways, 2001. At one point in the ‘70s, John Lennon claimed he watched this movie “every week.”But does it deserve its crown as the greatest sci-fi movie ever? Is its story of an evil AI still relevant today? And what is it that makes 2001: A Space Odyssey so unique? The short answers are kind of, very much so, and because there was never a collaboration like this in the history of sci-fi before or since. Read on for the long answer.
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S9S10'Ahsoka' Embraces the Best Part of Star Wars' Sequel Trilogy  The Battle of Yavin may be the event the entire Star Wars timeline officially revolves around, but the destruction of the Jedi Order at the end of Revenge of the Sith is arguably more important. The Star Wars franchise has begun to feel increasingly separated into two eras: Before Order 66 and After. Despite that, fans haven’t seen many characters fully grapple with the fallout of the Jedi Order’s dissolution.That’s what makes Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and his role in Ahsoka so compelling. While the character’s plans remain shrouded in mystery, Baylan’s entire personality seems to be a direct reaction to Order 66 and the downfall of Anakin Skywalker. He says as much during his confrontation with Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) on Seatos, making his bitterness over the fate of the Jedi tragically clear. Through Baylan, Ahsoka has begun to explore the true psychological impact the Jedi Order’s destruction had on its few surviving members.
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S11You Need to Play the Most Underrated Metroid Game on Nintendo Switch Online ASAP  In the early 2000s, selling two games at once became something of a trend. Blame it on Pokémon, whose Red and Blue sold approximately a bajillion copies. The only difference between the Red and Blue versions was which Pokémon you got, and the mandate to “catch ‘em all” made grabbing both irresistible.It was also a period of technological shift, as the second generation of 3D consoles became the unquestioned top dogs. But Pokémon had shown that the consoles no longer had to operate alone. Games like Pokémon Stadium had shown that big consoles like the N64 could operate in cohesion with their handheld siblings.
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S12Why Does My Cat Eat Plastic? Veterinarians Reveal The Surprisingly Simple Answer  For all the tasty kibble, pâtés, treats, and home-cooked meals you offer your pets, sometimes they still gobble up strange non-food items. But perhaps nothing is as bizarre as a cat’s obsession with plastic. Whether it's ribbons or bandaid ends, even the most well-fed cats seem to jump at the chance to chow down on plastic. It turns out there is a reason for this odd behavior.The general term for eating an item that isn’t food is called pica (PIE-ca). Anyone — not just our pets — can have this condition, but pica can be especially dangerous to pets because it may cause a life-threatening intestine or bowel obstruction. Molly DeVoss, a cat behavior specialist, tells Inverse that she doesn’t know of any particular chemical compound that cats and dogs might be attracted to.
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S13You Need to Play the Year's Biggest Sci-Fi RPG on Xbox Game Pass ASAP  Zeitgeists are typically unpredictable. In a world full of so many movies, shows, games, and gadgets, it’s almost impossible to predict what will sweep through the collective consciousness and coalesce into almighty trends. There are rare exceptions. Sometimes we know well in advance that a colossal cultural force is coming and are still taken aback by how popular it becomes. And right now, that means Starfield.An epic space RPG released by Bethesda Game Studios on September 6 (or August 31 for the early access bourgeoisie) Starfield is already boasting upwards of 6 million players. It is the subject of countless memes and takes. The internet is stuffed with guides and advice. It’s the game everyone is talking about right now. Is it worth playing?
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S14The Webb Telescope Peered Deep Inside a Nearby Supernova Remnant  In November of 1572, Tycho Brahe noticed a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was the first supernova to be observed in detail by Western astronomers and became known as Tycho’s Supernova. Earlier supernovae had been observed by Chinese and Japanese astronomers, but Tycho’s observations demonstrated to the Catholic world that the stars were not constant and unchanging as Aristotle presumed. Just three decades later, in 1604, Johannes Kepler watched a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus brighten and fade. There have been no observed supernovae in the Milky Way since then.More than three centuries passed. Galileo pointed his first telescopes to the heavens. Astrophotography revolutionized our view of the heavens, as did radio astronomy. We launched telescopes into space, landed on the Moon, and sent robotic probes to the outer Solar System.
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S15These Easy Home Upgrades Look Stunning & Are Shockingly Affordable on Amazon  It can feel overwhelming to think about the time, money, and potential professional help it might take to give your home the upgrade it deserves. However, cleverness prevails as shown by these easy home upgrades that look stunning and are shockingly affordable on Amazon. Swap in LED Edison light bulbs for vintage character, put up authentic-looking weathered wood wallpaper as a stylish accent, or change out tired old dish rags for gorgeous Turkish hand towels for a touch of luxury. This exciting list proves that even the smallest of changes can work decor miracles.
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S16Webb Telescope Peers at an Enigmatic Object Astronomers Call "The Brick"  There’s an unusual object near the Milky Way’s heart that astronomers call “The Brick.”There’s an unusual object near the Milky Way’s heart that astronomers call “The Brick.” It’s a massive cloud of gas called an infrared dark cloud (IDC). The Brick is dense and turbulent like others of its type, but for some reason, it shows few signs of star formation.
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S172023's Most Satisfying Thriller Still Manages to Surprise  There’s something comforting about an old-fashioned murder mystery. You’ve got a colorful cast of characters, an intrepid detective, a puzzling premise, and the guarantee of a satisfying ending. It’s why Agatha Christie became a literary phenomenon and the reason starry murder mystery films helped form the backbone of the film industry. But somewhere along the line, the starry ensemble movie fell out of fashion — considered too predictable and generic to justify itself.However, over the past few years, the murder mystery has crept back into pop culture’s good graces. It might be because when the world becomes more unpredictable and chaotic than ever, audiences want to flock to the comfortable predictability of a detective story. Or maybe it’s because of the enduring appeal of a silly little guy in a mustache. Whatever the case, no movie franchise has nailed the old-fashioned satisfaction of watching a silly mustache guy solve mysteries more than Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot series.
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S18Of All the Weird, Popular Products on Amazon, These 50 Are Worth the Hype  You know a product’s popular if it has thousands of positive, four- and five-star ratings (or, of course, if Amazon customers are leaving stellar reviews about it). This list is full of popular products that check those boxes — but they aren’t the typical items you’d see on the shelves. In fact, these are some of the weirdest, most unique products on the web that have tons of customers backing them. They’re worth the hype, too. From solar-powered garden lights to colorful wine chillers, I’ve made sure to fill this list with items that are so worthwhile you’ll quickly see how they became such a hit with shoppers.
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S19'The Walking Dead's Latest Spinoff Could Finally Reclaim the Franchise's Old Glory  This weekend, AMC will unveil its second Walking Dead spin-off of the year. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon takes place on a separate continent from this summer’s The Walking Dead: Dead City, and seems primed to build off its parent series’ conclusion in unique ways. It also features the long-awaited return of Norman Reedus’ fan-favorite character, Daryl Dixon, whose popularity seemed to eclipse that of The Walking Dead itself in the series’ later seasons.Daryl Dixon has the potential to be the biggest Walking Dead spin-off yet. And, if it fixes some of the issues that dragged its 11-season-long predecessor down, it could bring The Walking Dead back into the pop cultural conversation for the first time in years.
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S20So, You Want to Get Noticed at Work?  Many well-intended many managers overlook highly skilled employees for management positions. These “team players” are often viewed as reliable collaborators as opposed to strategic thinkers who have the vision to set big picture goals. While some of these problems are systemic and need to be addressed at the organizational and management levels, there are strategies you can start practicing today to help you gain visibility.
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S21Message sticks: Australia's ancient unwritten language  The continent of Australia is home to more than 250 spoken Indigenous languages and 800 dialects. Yet, one of its linguistic cornerstones wasn't spoken, but carved.Known as message sticks, these flat, rounded and oblong pieces of wood were etched with ornate images on both sides that conveyed important messages and held the stories of the continent's Aboriginal people – considered the world's oldest continuous living culture. Message sticks are believed to be thousands of years old and were typically carried by messengers over long distances to reinforce oral histories or deliver news between Aboriginal nations or language groups.
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S22Large Herbivores Can Help Prevent Massive Wildfires  Reintroducing large herbivores into fire-prone areas can help combat the global rise in megafiresIn 2019 and 2020, a megafire scorched eastern Australia, destroying some 24 million hectares of land, and adding to the hole in the ozone layer. Another massive fire ate away parts of Northern California in 2018, and slowly animals are starting to return. Over the years fires have scorched parts of Africa, including a 15,000-hectare disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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S23The iPhone Is Finally Getting USB-C. Here's What That Means  The first devices with the USB-C charging port arrived in 2015. Now, USB-C is everywhereâAndroid phones, laptops, wireless earbuds, mirrorless cameras, gaming consoles, PC monitors, and even electric scooters. Well, almost everywhere. The longest holdout has been the iPhoneâdespite adding USB-C to every new MacBook and iPad in the past few years, Apple has opted to stick with its proprietary Lightning connector for its smartphone. Every iPhone since 2012 has used Lightning ⦠until now.Apple has already confirmed the iPhone's Lightning port will be replaced with a USB-C port, but numerous rumors indicate it will begin with this year's iPhone 15 lineup. Apple is expected to unveil the new iPhones at its annual event on September 12 in Cupertino, California. Here's everything you need to know about the transition.
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S24S25Your New Car Is a Privacy Nightmare  Last week, WIRED published a deep-dive investigation into Trickbot, the prolific Russian ransomware gang. This week, US and UK authorities sanctioned 11 alleged members of Trickbot and its related group, Conti, including Maksim Galochkin, aka Bentley, one of the alleged members whose real-world identity we confirmed through our investigation. Coincidence? Maybe. Either way, it's a big deal.In addition to the US and UK sanctions, the US Justice Department also unsealed indictments filed in three US federal courts against Galochkin and eight other alleged Trickbot members for ransomware attacks against entities in Ohio, Tennessee, and California. Because everyone charged is a Russian national, however, it is unlikely they will ever be arrested or face trial.
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S26The Best Gear for Your Home Emergency Kit  Preparing for an emergency is the last thing you want to be doing during an emergency. There's never enough food, flashlights, batteries, or fuel to go around once you hear of an impending hurricane, blizzard, or wildfire, because everyone else in town is going to out fighitng over the same limited stock of items. It's better to stock up in advance and avoid the battle royal. Forget the milk and eggs. We've rounded up all the essentials for your emergency kit.Be sure to check out more guides to keep your home stocked and yourself prepared, such as How to Build a Home Tool Kit, Essentials You Need to Keep In Your Car, Best Multi-Tools, and How to Winterize Your Home.
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S27The Best Lubes for Every Occasion  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 WIREDI'll scream it from the mountaintops as many times as I have to: Your bedroom should have a bottle of lube! Ideally more than one. Whether you're flying solo or with a copilot(s), too much friction is a bad time for everyone. Even if it doesn't seem like you need a lubricant, you'd be better off using a little just to protect yourself from chafing and micro-tears on sensitive tissues.
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S28A majority of dog owners in the U.S. are now "vaccine hesitant"  Remember when thousands of pet dogs in the U.S. contracted rabies every year, which resulted in the deaths of more than a hundred Americans annually after they were bitten and infected with the lethal virus? No, you don’t. Why? Because that happened more than a hundred years ago. Since the middle of the 20th century, dog owners in the U.S. have vaccinated their beloved pets against rabies along with a host of other concerning diseases. As a result, canine rabies was eliminated in the country in 2007, and there’s an average of just two human rabies infections each year in the U.S., almost always originating from wildlife.
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S29Algorithm finds a potentially hazardous asteroid missed by NASA  A new algorithm designed to spot potentially hazardous asteroids in telescope images just found its first threatening space rock — and it was in data that another NASA algorithm had already analyzed and cleared.Planetary defense: Asteroids are rocky bodies left over after the formation of our solar system. There are at least 1.3 million of them, and if a large one were to collide with Earth, it could flatten a city — or worse.
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S30Why Mount Shasta is a magnet for believers in the paranormal  There’s a well-known legend that says that somewhere deep beneath Northern California’s 14,179-foot-tall Mount Shasta is a complex of tunnels and a hidden city called Telos, the ancient “City of Light” for the Lemurians. They were the residents of the mythical lost continent of Lemuria, which met its demise under the waves of the Pacific (or the Indian Ocean, depending on who you ask) thousands of years ago. Lemurians believed to have survived the catastrophe are said to have settled in Telos, and over the years their offspring have been sporadically reported wandering around the area: seven-feet-tall, with long flowy hair, often clad in sandals and white robes.Lemurians aren’t the only unusual figures said to inhabit this stand-alone stratovolcano, easily seen from Interstate 5, about 60 miles south of the Oregon border. Mount Shasta is believed to be a home base for the Lizard People, too, reptilian humanoids that also reside underground. The mountain is a hotbed of UFO sightings, one of the most recent of which occurred in February 2020. (It was a saucer-shaped lenticular cloud.) In fact, the mountain is associated with so many otherworldly, paranormal, and mythical beings—in addition to long-established Native American traditions—that it’s almost like a who’s who of metaphysics. It has attracted a legion of followers over the years, including “Poet of the Sierras” Joaquin Miller and naturalist John Muir, as well as fringe religious organizations such as the Ascended Masters, who believe that they’re enlightened beings existing in higher dimensions. What is it about this mountain in particular that inspires so much belief?
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S31Book Publishing Has a Toys 'R' Us Problem  A private-equity acquisition will saddle Simon & Schuster with $1 billion in debt. What could go wrong?Earlier this year, the Department of Justice blocked Penguin Random House, owned by the German media giant Bertelsmann, from acquiring Simon & Schuster. The big five publishers—HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster—already control about 80 percent of the book market. The literary class was relieved.
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S32Xi Jinping Is Done With the Established World Order  The world’s most powerful leaders gathered in New Delhi for the year’s premier diplomatic event—the G20 summit—but China’s Xi Jinping deemed it not worth his time. His absence sends a stark signal: China is done with the established world order.Ditching the summit marks a dramatic turn in China’s foreign policy. For the past several years, Xi has apparently sought to make China an alternative to the West. Now Xi is positioning his country as a full-on opponent—ready to align its own bloc against the United States, its partners, and the international institutions they support.
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S33Ignore Jack Smith's Critics  Several distinguished individuals have recently expressed grave reservations about the prosecutions of former President Donald Trump. Notably, they appear to have no dispute about the seriousness of his wrongdoing. Rather, their main concern is that “terrible consequences” may result, because the prosecutions “may come to be seen as political trials … and play directly into the hands of Trump and his allies.” Although many Trump supporters will view the situation in just this way, any suggestion that prosecution is therefore unwise misconceives what is at stake here and, sadly, is evidence of America’s diminished national spirit.For a free society wishing to preserve its governmental system, the prosecutions of Donald Trump for trying to overturn our democracy and willfully mishandling national secrets is not optional. They are the essential step that must be taken if America’s rule of law is going to survive, and be worthy of the trust that is essential to that survival. More hopefully, they offer the nation its single best chance of escaping from the appalling thrall of Trump’s lies and insults since he came down that escalator eight years ago.
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S34Why Persuading People to Give Up Meat Is So Hard  Scientists have made impressive breakthroughs in lab-grown meat, but consumption of the real thing is more popular than ever.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.
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S35Oyster Insomnia is Real  In several quiet rooms in a marine lab in southwest France, dozens of Pacific oysters sit in glass tanks, quietly living their oyster lives. Each morning, the lights come up slowly, carefully mimicking the rising sun, but at night the test groups’ rooms never fully darken. The dim glow simulates the light pollution that plagues many marine species—even in natural habitats.The results of the experiment, which were recently published, found that artificial light at night can disrupt oyster behavior and alter the activity of important genes that keep the animals’ internal clocks ticking.
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S36Early Photos From Morocco's Deadly Earthquake  More than 1,000 people were killed by a powerful earthquake that shook Morocco late yesterday, forcing residents to flee their homes in the middle of the night. The 6.8-magnitude quake caused widespread damage in both small villages and the city of Marrakesh. Rescue operations are under way, though they are slowed by damaged roads and communication networks, in a race to find those who remain trapped. Below, a collection of early images from several of the hard-hit neighborhoods and villages. A woman reacts, standing in front of her earthquake-damaged house in the old city in Marrakesh on September 9, 2023. #
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S37Biden's Complicated Path to Reelection  President Joe Biden is attending the G20 gathering of world leaders in Delhi and meeting with Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi this week with the goals of strengthening key relationships and countering China’s influence in the region. His trip comes after National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned that North Korea would pay “a price” if it supplies arms to Russia.Back home, Biden’s path to reelection is complicated by voters’ concerns about his age, and his son Hunter’s possible indictment at the end of the month. Some congressional Republicans are also threatening impeachment.
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S38S39The perks and incentives coaxing workers back to the office  In August, when Zoom ordered its workers back to the office, shock rippled across the internet. The video conference platform, which has now become nearly synonymous with remote work, seemed to be flying in the face of the very thing they represented. The company now requires employees living within 50mi (80.5km) to work from the office at least twice a week. Zoom is just one of the latest businesses to issue an office return ultimatum. Amazon sent a warning email to employees they believed were disobeying its three-days-in-the-office rule. Google released a memo giving managers permission to factor unexcused absences from the office into performance reviews. Advertising network Publicis bluntly told US workers that failure to come into the office three times a week could impact salary increases, bonuses and promotion opportunities.
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S40Ireland's Yellowmeal Griddle Bread  Yellowmeal has been a cupboard staple of Irish kitchens for nearly 200 years. Its prevalence in Ireland is little known outside the country, as is the fact that it became a staple as a direct result of its use during the Great Irish Famine of the mid 19th Century.Yellowmeal, or yellermeal, also known as maize or cornmeal, is made of dried corn kernels that have been ground into a fine, medium or coarse texture. It was used as a bulking agent whenever flour was in short supply or too expensive. But unlike the potato, its association with famine times has persisted without stigma; anyone under 40 is surprised the same yellowmeal that makes their Instagrammable taco was the same shipped to Ireland to stem the tide of famine-related disease and death.
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S41Hong Kong must-eats: Iconic Cantonese dishes and where to try them  With around 17,000 places to eat in Hong Kong, you're never far from a steaming bowl of something delicious. The city's culinary landscape features world-class Michelin-starred tasting menus and fine dining, but the majority of restaurants are humble, local spots where the prices are low and the proudly Cantonese dishes are comforting.The combination of cramped home kitchens and expensive groceries means that for many, dining out is more cost-efficient than cooking at home. Consequently, brightly lit tea houses and noodle shops, busy takeaway stands and full-service restaurants all compete for an annual dining market where diners spend the equivalent of almost £9.2bn.
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S42How to dye clothes at home - naturally  Natural dye specialist Babs Behan laughs when asked about her favourite natural dye plant. "Like people, they all have such a beautiful variety of different characteristics," she says. "But, if I had to choose one, indigo stands out. It's not like any other dye. It's not water soluble – so you have to go through this charming, alchemical, almost mystical process, to make it bond with the fibre. Then you take the fabric out of the water and you'll see it turn from green to blue as it oxidises. There's something so special about that because it's the colour of our planet. It's the colour of the sky and the sea – and we can't capture it from anywhere except from this one indigo pigment." Behan, a pioneer in UK-based large-scale natural dye productions, is one of a cohort of committed natural dye specialists seeing a resurgence in their craft: the dyeing of fabrics with colours derived from plants. Online courses and communities have blossomed, with more and more practitioners wanting to share their skills. Bella Gonshorovitz's book Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear was a surprise hit in 2022, combining instructions on natural dye with plant-based recipes, vegetable growing and zero-waste clothing design. After her first successful publication Botanical Inks in 2018, Behan has just released a second, Botanical Dyes.
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S43Olivia Rodrigo's Guts proves she's far more than just a Gen Z star  Every decade has its pre-eminent pop stars – from The Beatles in the 1960s to Madonna and Michael Jackson in the 1980s, and on to Taylor Swift in the 2010s. At just 20 years old, California-born Olivia Rodrigo is already a defining voice of the 2020s. Her spiky, emotionally heightened pop-rock songs resonate not just with the singer's Gen Z peers, but older generations too. "Part of her appeal is that she gives you permission to feel everything and not to have to dilute anything, which is very necessary after the last few years," music writer Rhian Daly tells BBC Culture, pointing to our collective need for post-pandemic release.Out today, Rodrigo's second album Guts is comfortably among this year's most anticipated pop records. Consistently catchy and often stingingly witty, it demonstrates her range by blending deceptively delicate ballads including Lacy, in which Rodrigo eyes up a rival who's a "dazzling starlet, Bardot reincarnate", and retro-leaning guitar tunes. The alt-rock-flavoured Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl offers a crisply unsentimental account of social awkwardness that draws from Rodrigo's own experience of homeschooling as a teenager.
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S44The Boy and the Heron review: Miyazaki's 'last' film is a masterpiece  Hayao Miyazaki is one of the great masters of cinema, whose work happens to be animated, in hand-drawn films of exquisite delicacy and beauty. They are grounded by thoroughly believable young heroes and heroines who often find themselves in otherworldly landscapes, like the girl in Spirited Away (2001), who wanders into a country of ghosts, or the young woman in Howl's Moving Castle (2004), with its house that floats through time and space.The Boy and the Heron, the 82-year-old Miyazaki's first film in a decade, amounts to a summing up of many strands of his long career, with a magical castle, forays into the spirit world and the weighty reality of World War Two. Told through the eyes of a boy named Mahito, whose journey takes him from a bombing in wartime Tokyo to a land where he is menaced by pink parakeets bigger than he is, this may be Miyazaki's most expansive and magisterial film. If it is not the most instantly stunning, that might be because he takes the time to deliver worlds within worlds, layers under layers, to create an overwhelming experience by the end.
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S45The Boy and the Heron: Hayao Miyazaki's latest Studio Ghibli film is a skilled remix of his greatest hits  In the official pamphlet sold at Japanese cinemas for The Boy and the Heron, its 82-year-old director, Hayao Miyazaki, expresses concerns about his age: “Clearly, I believe the biggest problem is that the director is long in the tooth.” He needn’t have worried. The Boy and the Heron is Miyazaki’s masterclass in cel animation. This hand-drawn, traditional style – made by layering hand-painted images on celluloid on top of exquisite, painted backdrops – is Studio Ghibli’s signature. And in The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki brings over half a century’s worth of his animated masterpieces together into a single coming-of-age story.
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S46S47The Nun II successfully subverts the classic exorcism movie - a priest explains how  The Nun II is an arresting piece of storytelling which satisfies and subverts audience expectations in equal measure. On one level, it is an extremely watchable piece of action horror, comfortably divorced from reality. The demon from the previous film has resurfaced and is now stalking a group of thoroughly-likeable characters in a French boarding school. Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), the eponymous nun who previously defeated the demon, has been called in once again by the church authorities. She is assisted by Sister Debra (Storm Reid), a novice who doubts her own faith. This premise makes for a classic battle between good and evil. And there’s a steady stream of scares as the tension builds, before exploding into a jump-out-of-your seat moment.
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S48The beautiful pessimism at the heart of Jimmy Buffett's music  With the death of Jimmy Buffett, the feathers of his loyal network of fans – affectionately known as Parrot Heads – collectively drooped. Over the course of his career, Buffett earned their love by transforming himself into a kind of musical shaman who offered transport from the banalities of everyday life to the bounty of a never-never land of eternal sun, endless sandy beaches and bottomless boat drinks: Margaritaville.
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S49S50S51Ukraine's push for NATO membership is rooted in its European past - and its future  Kateryna Shynkaruk is affiliated as a nonresident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.During a recent meeting with the nation’s diplomatic corps, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave Ukraine’s ambassadors their marching orders for the rest of the year: Work to help secure Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. Zelenskyy also told the ambassadors to focus on helping Ukraine secure bilateral agreements for security guarantees between Ukraine and individual G7 countries, including the United States.
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S52S53S54Bharat: why the recent push to change India's name has a hidden agenda  The invitations to a state dinner to mark India’s hosting of this year’s G20 came not, as you’d expect, from the office of the president of India, but from the “president of Bharat”. This has prompted speculation from observers both at home and abroad about whether this signifies an official government intention to rename the country.Some have suggested that the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata arty) is rattled, and is responding to the adoption of the acronym INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) by a group of more than two dozen opposition political parties ahead of the general elections in 2024.
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S55S56How unions could help reality TV cast and crew win better pay and working conditions  “Just because you can exploit young, doe-eyed talent desperate for the platform TV gives them, it doesn’t mean you should.” Original Real Housewives of New York star Bethany Frankel recently issued this rallying call for unionisation of reality TV. She hopes to instigate a “reality reckoning” that will help other unscripted TV performers realise their rights to better pay and working conditions.And so just as actors and screenwriters are going on strike in the US, reality TV stars are asking whether it’s their time to demand better protections and rights as workers.
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S57S58Greece's record rainfall and flash floods are part of a trend - across the Mediterranean, the weather is becoming more dangerous  Recent images of the devastating flash floods caused by Storm Daniel in Greece hit close to home literally and figuratively. As a Greek who has completed a PhD and worked for the past eight years on flash floods, the scenes unfolding across my homeland are painfully real: a stark reminder of the broader environmental challenges we face both on a local and a global scale.These unprecedented flash floods were triggered by rainfall from the arrival of Storm Daniel on Monday September 4 which also affected Turkey and Bulgaria. The following day, in the village of Zagora, a record-breaking 754mm of rain fell in just 18 hours, leaving parts of the region of Thessaly in crisis and unable to respond.
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S59Why are those lost to COVID not formally memorialised? How politics shapes what we remember  Every Friday, volunteers gather on the Albert Embankment at the River Thames in London to lovingly retouch thousands of red hearts inscribed on a Portland stone wall directly opposite the Houses of Parliament. Each heart is dedicated to a British victim of COVID. It is a deeply social space – a place where the COVID bereaved come together to honour their dead and share memories.The so-called National Covid Memorial Wall is not, however, officially sanctioned. In fact, ever since activists from COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice (CBFFJ) daubed the first hearts on the wall in March 2021 it has been a thorn in the side of the authorities.
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S60The UK has joined the EU's Horizon science funding scheme - but if we want the UK to lead, the hard work has just begun  It’s been a tortuous journey to associate membership. There was a collective sigh of relief in December 2020 when the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which established arrangements for EU-UK cooperation post-Brexit, included a commitment on UK association. However, its implementation was delayed because of tensions between the UK and EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol. With these largely resolved following the Windsor Framework agreement in February 2023, the path was theoretically cleared for joining Horizon.
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S61S62S63What to Stream: Paul Schrader's "Hardcore" Is About Much More Than Pornography  Paul Schrader's second feature, "Hardcore," from 1979, is his version of John Ford's "The Searchers." Both movies are dramas of an isolated, stoic, rigidly principled man who takes it upon himself to rescue a young female family member from a way of lifeâcaptivity, or something like itâthat he deems unfit for her. But Ford's film, from 1956, is a Western, a philosophical drama set just after the Civil War, in a place and a time far removed from the director's birth in Maine, in 1894, whereas Schrader's is contemporaryâset in his home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan (where he was born in 1946), and in the religious community of rigorous Calvinists in which he was raised. Built on the very bedrock of Schrader's being, "Hardcore" is one of the key works of his career, a cinematic declaration of identity and principle that echoes throughout his body of work. It's now streaming on the Criterion Channel and is also available on other sites.In Ford's film, John Wayne plays a former Confederate soldier who spends years searching for his niece (Natalie Wood), who, as a child, was abducted by Native Americans who killed her parents. Schrader's drama is the story of a Michigan businessman, Jake VanDorn (George C. Scott), whose teen-age daughter, Kristen (Ilah Davis), vanishes during a church-run trip to California. Jake flies out there; consults with the police, who offer little help; and hires a private detective named Mast (Peter Boyle), who discovers a pornographic film in which Kristen performs. One of "Hardcore"Â 's exemplary scenes involves the cynical yet professionally dedicated Mast renting out a Grand Rapids adult theatre in order to give Jake a private viewing. The footage, which Jake has to look at but can't bear to see, lacerates his soul, and his raving agony propels him to take matters into his own hands. He takes a leave of absence from the furniture factory he owns, heads to Los Angeles, fires Mast, and searches for Kristen in the city's XXX-rated shadow world.
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S64David Grann on Turning Best-Sellers Into Movies  Two nonfiction books that topped the best-seller list this summer—“The Wager” and “Killers of the Flower Moon”—were both written by David Grann, a staff writer for The New Yorker and one of the most lauded storytellers of our time. Martin Scorsese has adapted “Killers of the Flower Moon” into a film opening in October, and is at work on an adaptation of “The Wager.” Grann talks with the editor of The New Yorker, David Remnick, about his beginnings as a writer, and about his almost obsessive research and writing process. “I’m not actually interested in making a film,” Grann admits. “I’m really interested in these stories, and so I love that somebody else with their own vision and intellect is going to draw on these stories and add to our understanding of whatever this work is.” Plus, as Netflix finally ends its two-decade DVD-rental business, the critic and passionate cinephile Richard Brody explains why owning a physical copy of a cherished film matters.The author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Wager” on his writing and reporting process, and adapting his work to the screen.
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S65Cash-Strapped DeSantis Forced to Sell Beloved Go-Go Boots  TALLAHASSEE (The Borowitz Report)—Faced with mounting campaign bills and dwindling donations, Ron DeSantis revealed on Friday that he had been forced to sell his beloved white go-go boots.The Florida governor appeared anguished by the loss of his go-go boots, which aides disclosed were by far the most cherished footwear he owned.
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S66Will the Rains Extinguish Burning Man?  Last Thursday was a typically atypical day at Burning Man—the last before a series of atypically atypical days. It began, for me, with a bike ride with some friends to the Temple for an orchestral performance. Burning Man is named after a large effigy that burns in a raucous extravaganza on Saturday night; the next night, most of the same crowd sits in silence watching a wooden temple, of a different design each year, go up in flames. Beforehand, people fill the Temple with messages, writing on the walls and stapling photos and personal effects to the structure. I wandered inside and perused the community’s contributions. Many of them memorialized lost loved ones, but the ones that hit me hardest addressed the search for self-love. “To my past self,” one message read. “You are more amazing than you realize. We’ve made it.” The note ended with a hint at the future: “See you there. xoxo.”I was in a receptive mood, and tears streamed down my face. I spent an hour reading. Then I headed to Burning Man’s makeshift airport, where I needed to reschedule a volunteer shift. The airport is a somewhat contentious spot: earlier in the week, climate protesters had blocked off the road leading to Burning Man to protest, among other things, the increasing number of private planes flying into the temporary metropolis that we call Black Rock City. For years, the community has struggled with how to deal with the influx of money. Wealthy individuals contribute to some stunning art, mutant vehicles, and theme camps on the playa, but the cash also allows people to insulate themselves in R.V.s set up by hired hands. In an official newsletter, the Burning Man Project reported that they “took action” last year against seventy camps for selling accommodations, amenities, or services. “Convenience camping (formerly described as turnkey or plug-and-play camping) is not permitted in BRC, and runs totally counter to the values of our community,” its Web site reads. Burning Man is supposed to be hard.
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S67A Departure from Reality  In order to re member yourself and your mother, you examine the paper fragments of your past. Sometime before the fall of 1990, you visit your mother in what you remember as the Asian Pacific Psychiatric Ward. In a fitful, fragmentary journal you keep in college, you describe yourself as feelingNone of the patients, your mother included, appears to be a member of your reality. Seven or eight months later, while you are a sophomore at Berkeley, you try to write about the Asian Pacific Psychiatric Ward in a seminar led by Maxine Hong Kingston. In your essay, you describe how a woman named Trinh rolls on the floor before a ward attendant, a Black woman, gently picks her up. Then
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S68You Need to Watch the Most Unfairly Forgotten Cult Thriller on Amazon ASAP  There are few things writers and directors love doing more than throwing a bunch of distrustful people in a room together and planting various seeds of doubt between them. Some of the most memorable thrillers of all time have followed that formula, including Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and John Carpenter’s The Thing. In some cases, those movies work in spite of their forgettable locations. In others, it’s the marriage between their central setting and their characters’ shared dilemma that makes them so interesting.That’s certainly the case for Bad Times at the El Royale. The 2018 film from Cabin in the Woods writer-director Drew Goddard is a 1960s-infused, single-location thriller that traps an assortment of intriguing, diametrically opposed people in a fictional hotel that is just as much of a character as any of them. When it was originally released, the film received mostly positive reviews, but it made little of a mark at the box office.
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S70How to Increase Your Ship Storage and Carrying Capacity in 'Starfield'  Starfield has dozens upon dozens of weapons, items, and resources you’ll need to collect on your lengthy adventure through the galaxy. Because Bethesda’s new game has a focus on crafting and building outposts, on top of all your unusual items, it’s extremely easy to become over-encumbered preventing you from fast travel. One of the first things you’ll want to do is increase your personal storage and carrying capacity, as well as the amount of storage you have available. Here’s everything you need to know about increasing your storage in Starfield. The simplest way of increasing your storage is to invest in the Weight Lifting skill. You’ll need four skill points to upgrade the skill completely, and the first level only grants 10kg of extra carrying capacity. Once you unlock the skill you’ll need to spend a certain amount of time running with at least 70 percent of your carrying capacity full, in order to unlock the next tier. Once you have every tier unlocked, you’ll be able to carry a total of 100kg extra, which will absolutely help.
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