Johannesburg fire: there was a plan to fix derelict buildings and provide good accommodation - how to move forward

Writing fellow at the African Centre for Migration Studies, University of the Witwatersrand Centennial Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Architecture and Planning, Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies, University of the Witwatersrand

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The puzzling link between air pollution and suicide

How do you prevent people from taking their own lives? There are no easy answers, but one thing is clear: suicide is a major public health problem. More than 700,000 people kill themselves worldwide every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).Every year, on 10 September 2023, the WHO marks World Suicide Prevention Day, aiming to focus attention on the scale of the death toll and its causes.

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The Best Meal Kit Delivery Services for Every Kind of Cook

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 WIREDTrying to choose the best meal kit delivery service? It's easy to feel overwhelmed by all the options. Whether you're going vegan, cooking for a family of six, or are a complete newbie in the kitchen, there's probably a service that caters to your needs. Some meal kits provide ingredients paired with recipes, while others send groceries or premade meals. All of them are meant to make the process of planning and cooking meals more convenient.

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The worst prediction in all of science

A successful scientific theory is one that makes precise and accurate predictions. Scientists are even happier when two distinct theories make predictions that agree with one another. Thus, physicists are a bit chagrined when they use their two best theories to predict the simplest possible quantity, and the result is that they disagree spectacularly enough that it is often called “the worst prediction in the history of science.”Empty space is, well, empty. Containing nothing, it would seem that calculating the energy of empty space would be simple and the prediction would be zero. However, that expectation is not correct.

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Could we burn iron for energy instead of fossil fuels?

Try burning an iron metal ingot and you’ll have to wait a long time — but grind it into a powder and it will readily burst into flames. That’s how sparklers work: metal dust burning in a beautiful display of light and heat. But could we burn iron for more than fun? Could this simple material become a cheap, clean, carbon-free fuel?In new experiments — conducted on rockets, in microgravity — Canadian and Dutch researchers are looking at ways of boosting the efficiency of burning iron, with a view to turning this abundant material — the fourth most common in the Earth’s crust, about about 5% of its mass — into an alternative energy source.

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The truth is out there: Celebrate 30 years of The X-Files with our 30 favorite episodes

In September 1993, fictional FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) made their broadcast TV debut on The X-Files and went on to investigate alien abductions and all manner of strange phenomena for nine full seasons and two feature films, followed by two additional limited-run seasons in 2016 and 2018. This hugely popular and influential series celebrates its 30th anniversary this month, giving us a prime opportunity to pay homage to our favorite episodes and characters.

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Photos of the Week:

The World Tango Championship in Argentina, devastating floods in Greece, a scene from the 80th Venice Film Festival, a cricket game in Afghanistan, a light festival in South Africa, a buffalo police patrol in Brazil, a muddy mess at the Burning Man Festival, and much more This picture taken on September 2, 2023 shows a player scoring a try during the Water Rugby Lausanne by jumping into Lake Geneva from a floating rugby field. The match was part of a three-day tournament organized by the LUC Rugby that gathered more than 240 players in Lausanne, Switzerland. #

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Three Cheers for Partisanship

My most vivid memories of my early years at sleepaway camp, when I was 10 and 11, focus on the bizarre institution of color war. The campers were divided randomly in half for a wide-ranging competition between teams defined around no common identity, status, experience, or prior allegiance—just pure partisan competition. For one entire day, half of my bunkmates and possibly one or both of my brothers would become the sworn opposition. Despite knowing these divisions were both temporary and arbitrary, I engaged in the competition with the utmost seriousness—in relay races, basketball games, and whatever else was on the packed schedule.At day’s close, two climactic showdowns involved the whole camp, each team gathered on opposite sides of a ball field. The first competition required us to shout self-congratulatory cheers; the victory was awarded to the team that impressed the judges as louder and, thus, more spirited. I would scream myself hoarse. The finale, a tug-of-war, relied less on an umpire’s subjective assessment. We lined up alongside a massive rope stretched across the field and pulled with all our collective might. I can still picture the anchor of my team during one of those summers, a stout boy with a low center of gravity from the oldest age group, wrapping himself with the far end of our rope, his face red from the strain. I also remember the magical feeling, after what seemed like an endless and titanic effort, when the rope began to edge slowly but decisively in our direction.

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The 9/11 Speech That Was Never Delivered

The long-hidden drafts of Condoleezza Rice’s remarks offer a portrait of a lost world—and some lessons for the present.William Safire wrote in the introduction to his classic compendium Lend Me Your Ears that “what makes a draft speech a real speech is the speaking of it.” But I’ve found that some of the most interesting speeches written were never delivered at all. I spent years collecting examples of the words that went unspoken because events intervened, or a leader had a change of heart, or history took a sudden turn.

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The Origin Revisited

— After a visit to the Yaak Valley in Kootenai National Forest, Montana, where the U.S. Forest Service has announced a logging project called Black RamWhat is there to be done now, but enter against abandonment, become a hollow sound

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'He'll Ruin Your Life the Way His Daddy Ruined Ours'

My father and mother met in the winter of 1976. I’ve seen photos. There they are, looking as young and untroubled as any two high-school students on a Friday-night date. Not yet parents, not yet weighed down with the responsibility of caring for four children, both are smiling, my father standing behind my mother, who sits on a stool with her head nestled into his chest.My parents were introduced by my father’s cousin Larry, whose easy smile and welcoming personality marked him as a charmer. Larry and my mom attended school at J. O. Johnson High in Huntsville, Alabama, where he was two years ahead of her. Intrigued by the sly older boy, my mother dated him, but after the second outing, she opted to let him down easy by introducing him to her friend Wanda. Larry, in turn, suggested that my mother meet his cousin Esau, who went to school out in the country, at Gurley High.

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Red States Are Rolling Back the Rights Revolution

The struggle over the sweeping red-state drive to roll back civil rights and liberties has primarily moved to the courts.Since 2021, Republican-controlled states have passed a swarm of laws to restrict voting rights, increase penalties for public protest, impose new restrictions on transgender youth, ban books, and limit what teachers, college professors, and employers can say about race, gender, and sexual orientation. Some states are even exploring options to potentially prosecute people who help women travel out of state to obtain an abortion.

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The Joy and the Shame of Loving Football

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer reveals what’s keeping them entertained. Today’s special guest is the staff writer and author Mark Leibovich. Mark has recently written about the long-shot presidential candidate who has the White House worried, and how Moneyball broke baseball.

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Where End-of-Life Care Falls Short

Advance directives are meant to honor a person's final medical wishes. Why do so few Black Americans have them?When Kevin E. Taylor became a pastor 22 years ago, he didn’t expect how often he’d have to help families make gut-wrenching decisions for a loved one who was very ill or about to die. The families in his predominantly Black church in New Jersey generally didn’t have any written instructions, or conversations to recall, to help them know if their relative wanted—or didn’t want—certain types of medical treatment.

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Earthquakes Are a Special Kind of Nightmare

Morocco is facing the particular trauma that comes from watching the world around you crumble in an instant.On Friday, around 11:11 p.m. local time, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake exploded through the High Atlas mountains in Morocco, not far from the populous city of Marrakesh. People as far away as Spain and Portugal felt a strange vibration ripple beneath their feet. But millions in Morocco felt the planet shake and splinter, jolt and disintegrate, before thousands of the most unfortunate were greeted by tectonic rage. At least 2,100 people are dead, and that number is expected to rise. According to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center, an NGO, several aftershocks convulsed through the area earlier today.

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The 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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Dumb 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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Mangosuthu 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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Mangosuthu 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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Ancient 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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A 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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Naomi 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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You 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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Scientists Debunk the Most Advanced Space Tech We've Ever Seen in Star Wars

Ahsoka is about to make Star Wars history by traveling to another galaxy. Could humanity do the same thing one day?Ahsoka is taking familiar Star Wars characters to a place they have never gone before: a different galaxy, promising to be every bit as sprawling and vibrant and beautiful as the one we’ve long seen.

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'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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You 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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Why 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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You 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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The 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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These 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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Webb 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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2023'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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Of 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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'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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So, 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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Message 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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Large 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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The 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 â¦ 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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A Summer of Record Heat Deals Costly Damage to Texas Water Systems

This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.The hottest summer on record for many Texas cities has brought millions of dollars in damage to municipal plumbing and the loss of huge volumes of water during a severe drought.

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Your 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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The 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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The 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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A 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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Algorithm 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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Why 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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Book 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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Xi 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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Ignore 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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Why 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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Oyster 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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Early 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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Biden'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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Bertrand Russell on the Salve for Our Modern Helplessness and Overwhelm

“A way of life cannot be successful so long as it is a mere intellectual conviction. It must be deeply felt, deeply believed, dominant even in dreams.”

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The 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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Ireland'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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Hong 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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How 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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Olivia 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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The 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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The 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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Heatwaves and hot temperatures are hard on the body - but a series of in-built adaptations make it easier to cope

Record-breaking temperatures have been recorded in many countries in 2023. In some parts of Europe, summer temperatures even exceeded 45℃.While this kind of heat can be uncomfortable, our body is built with many adaptations that help it continue to function when it’s hot.

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The 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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The 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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Why managers' attempts to empower their employees often fail - and even lead to unethical behavior

A majority of American workers right now are not feeling very motivated on the job, a new survey suggests.Management experts often encourage business leaders to motivate employees by empowering them. The idea is that when workers are free to make decisions and manage their workday they become more motivated, perform better and work more creatively.

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Philadelphia police rarely release body camera videos - here's why it happened in the fatal shooting of Eddie Irizarry

After weeks of public pressure, Philadelphia police on Sept. 8, 2023, released body camera footage capturing the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry by police in August. The Conversation spoke to Jordan M. Hyatt, associate professor of criminology and justice studies and the director of the Center for Public Policy at Philadelphia’s Drexel University, to explain the rules controlling when the public gets to see body cam footage – and how Philadelphia’s legal framework compares to other places in the U.S.

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Ukraine'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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Anemia afflicts nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide, but there are practical strategies for reducing it

Anemia is a major health problem, with nearly 2 billion people affected globally. It afflicts more people worldwide than low back pain or diabetes – or even anxiety and depression combined. Despite this, investments in reducing anemia have failed to substantially reduce the massive burden of anemia globally over the last few decades.

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Bharat: 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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