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 S69'Ahsoka's Sneakiest Cameo Reveals a Dark Truth About Star Wars   The Mandoverse has been stuffed full of cameos of familiar characters from across the galaxy, whether they’re from movies (like Luke Skywalker), TV shows (like Ahsoka popping up in The Book of Boba Fett), or even from Star Wars books (like Cobb Vanth). In The Mandalorian Season 2, Boba Fett (Temeura Morrison) made his live-action debut, bringing the face of the Clone Wars — and the clones that fought in them — into contemporary Star Wars. But while Boba Fett got his own spinoff, one of the most beloved clone characters won’t get the same attention. Captain Rex, who formed a close bond with Ahsoka over the course of The Clone Wars, had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in Ahsoka Episode 5’s flashbacks. Does that mean we’ll see Rex in future Ahsoka episodes? Probably not, and it’s for a bleak reason.
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S2"I had big 'why not' energy": The workers sliding into recruiters' DMs  Before copywriter and creative director Sarah Jenkins went freelance, she spent three years at a small advertising agency – one she courted via "a combo of DM-slide and cold email".After admiring the agency's work from afar, she messaged the creative director, a casual acquaintance, on Facebook. After the director responded positively, 40-year-old Jenkins, based in Missouri, US, emailed the founder and CEO the same day.
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S3How female Fauvists were some of history's most audacious painters  She almost always wore black, but in Woman with a Hat (1905) so many colours swirl around the canvas that Amélie Matisse's dress is an indeterminate shade. She was a brunette, but her hair is a streak of fiery red paint, and her nose and forehead are green.Putting the wind up the snooty Paris art scene at the Salon d'Automne of 1905, works such as this one with their noisy, unnaturalistic colours and childish flattened forms were dubbed "Fauves" (wild beasts) by a critic − and the name stuck.
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S4Humility is the foundation to a virtuous life  The default psychological setting for human beings is an unavoidable self-centeredness. We each stand at the center of our own thoughts, feelings and needs, and thus experience them in a way that we cannot experience the thoughts, feelings and needs of others.“ … Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence … it’s pretty much the same for all of us.”
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S5How September 1993, when Latter-day Saints leaders disciplined six dissidents, continues to trouble the church  Lavina Fielding Anderson knew she was delivering a bombshell. Anderson, a dedicated Mormon who had previously edited the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ magazines, was also a scholar, writer and feminist. And on this day in August 1992, she was giving a conference presentation detailing how Latter-day Saints authorities had repeatedly silenced dissenting congregants. She punctuated her remarks with the revelation that the church had created files on members who had publicly criticized the church – files a spokesman later acknowledged.Thirteen months later, in September 1993, six intellectuals were either excommunicated or disfellowshipped from the faith, including Anderson. The episode around the “September Six,” as they were soon known, remains a controversial topic within LDS communities, especially since many of the underlying tensions remain in place today.
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S6Why the earth quakes - a closer look at what's going on under the ground  Earthquakes, large and small, happen every single day along zones that wrap around the world like seams on a baseball. Most don’t bother anybody, so they don’t make the news. But every now and then a catastrophic earthquake hits people somewhere in the world with horrific destruction and immense suffering. On Sept. 8, 2023, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco shook ancient villages apart, leaving thousands of people dead in the rubble. In February 2023, a large area of Turkey and Syria was devastated by two major earthquakes that hit in close succession.
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S7Summer 2023 was the hottest on record - yes, it's climate change, but don't call it 'the new normal'  Summer 2023 has been the hottest on record by a huge margin. Hundreds of millions of people suffered as heat waves cooked Europe, Japan, Texas and the Southwestern U.S. Phoenix hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) for a record 54 days, including a 31-day streak in July. Large parts of Canada were on fire. Lahaina, Hawaii, burned to the ground.As an atmospheric scientist, I get asked at least once a week if the wild weather we’ve been having is “caused” by climate change. This question reflects a misunderstanding of the difference between weather and climate.
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S8Why humans can't trust AI: You don't know how it works, what it's going to do or whether it'll serve your interests  Faculty Member and Chair, Cyber Intelligence and Data Science, National Intelligence University Mark Bailey is affiliated with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as a federal employee at National Intelligence University. He is also affiliated with the Department of Defense as an Army Reserve Officer. The author is responsible for the content of this article. The views expressed do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Intelligence University, the Department of Defense, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the U.S. Intelligence Community, or the U.S. Government.
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S9S10Ukraine war: why the G20 refused to condemn Russian aggression - and how that might change  The recent G20 summit in India concluded with a statement on Russia’s war in Ukraine that differs in a number of subtle but highly significant ways from the declaration made by world leaders at the end of the 2022 summit in Bali. At first glance, the New Delhi statement appears to offer support for Kyiv. It explicitly upholds the principles of sovereignty and opposes the threat or use of force to gain territory. It describes the use of nuclear weapons or threats to use them as “inadmissible”. It acknowledges the human suffering caused by the war.
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S11S12Kenyans don't trust the courts - the main factors behind this trend  The international reputation of the Kenyan judiciary is running high following a raft of judicial reforms brought on by the 2010 constitution. The reforms, displays of judicial independence, and largely positive personal experiences might lead one to expect that public trust in the courts has increased. But among the Kenyan public it has not.High-profile Supreme Court judgments have showcased a newfound judicial independence. The most notable include the nullification of a presidential result in 2017, the rejection of government efforts to force through constitutional changes in 2021 and confirmation in 2023 of the rights of LGBTIQ+ people to form associations.
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S13S14S15How Tripadvisor for hospitals and clinics can improve healthcare  Online reviews and ratings provided by the likes of Tripadvisor and Yelp have changed how people select their hotels, restaurants, flights, plumbers and hair salons. Even hospitals and health clinics have got in on the act, with websites such as Care Opinion, Doctify and Google Opinion. But healthcare is different from other sectors. The way patients write comments can have an effect beyond just helping other patients choose a doctor. We’ve found evidence it can lead to better healthcare.
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S16Possible hints of life found on distant planet - how excited should we be?  Data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shown that an exoplanet around a star in the constellation Leo has some of the chemical markers that, on Earth, are associated with living organisms. But these are vague indications. So how likely is it that this exoplanet harbours alien life?Exoplanets are worlds that orbit stars other than the Sun. The planet in question is named K2-18b. It’s so named because it was the first planet found to orbit the red dwarf star K2-18. There is a K2-18c as well – the second planet to be discovered. The star itself is dimmer and cooler than the Sun, meaning that, to get the same level of light as we do on Earth, the planet would need to be much closer to its star than we are.
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S17Flowering plants survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid - and may outlive us  If you looked up 66 million years ago you might have seen, for a split second, a bright light as a mountain-sized asteroid burned through the atmosphere and smashed into Earth. It was springtime and the literal end of an era, the Mesozoic. If you somehow survived the initial impact, you would have witnessed the devastation that followed. Raging firestorms, megatsunamis, and a nuclear winter lasting months to years. The 180-million-year reign of non-avian dinosaurs was over in the blink of an eye, as well as at least 75% of the species who shared the planet with them.
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S18Les amateurs de football africains ne pourront pas regarder les grands matches  La vente des droits de télévision est la principale source de revenus pour les organisations de football dans le monde entier, mais elle revêt une importance particulière en Afrique. Pourtant, la Confédération africaine de football (Caf) ne cesse de faire la une des journaux pour avoir renvoyé ses diffuseurs partenaires. Elle risque des poursuites judiciaires pour avoir récemment résilié un contrat de 415 millions de dollars avec la société qatarie beIN Sports, le deuxième contrat de télévision en quatre ans que l'instance dirigeante du football africain a unilatéralement annulé. Nous avons demandé à Chuka Onwumechili, expert en communication sportive et médias, de nous expliquer les raisons de cette décision et son impact.Les droits de télévision sont particulièrement importants car les autres recettes commerciales, telles que les parrainages et le merchandising, sont plus limitées en Afrique.
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S19S20Being an only child doesn't affect your development - family background matters more  What’s more, we wanted to find out whether only children’s differences or similarities to children with brothers and sisters might have more to do with their parents’ characteristics than whether or not they have siblings. We found that only children’s cognitive development by age 11 is more affected by things like their parents’ relationship and their family’s socioeconomic status than whether they have brothers and sisters. What financial and emotional resources there are in the household overall might matter more in determining children’s life outcomes than how many children they need to share these resources with.
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S21Should we give our children an allowance?  Instead of setting an allowance, many parents decide to give money on demand to their children. When figuring out if that’s a good option, we need to be aware that the key is not so much in giving or not giving an allowance, but in how you do so.Giving our children some money each week is an excellent way for them to learn to consume responsibly and to save. To achieve that, the money we give them must be accompanied by a little teaching.
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S22Remote work marks the path to a greener future  There is more to working from home than skipping the traffic and getting to wear pyjamas all day. In fact, for a lot of people it’s becoming the new normal. According to a recent report, 12.7% of full-time employees in the US are now working from home, with another 28.2% enjoying a mix of home and office work. This shift is far from temporary – it’s expected to nearly triple compared to what it was before the pandemic.
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S23Catalan, Basque and Galician are unlikely to become official EU languages, but alternatives to connect with regional language speakers are out there  The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is in a pickle. In August, he sent out a formal request to the rotating presidency of the Council of Europe for Catalan, Basque and Galician to become official EU languages. The request was part of a coalition agreement with the Catalan Independence Party, whose support he depends on to remain in power. The subject is also due to be discussed at the General Affairs Council on 19 September.As could be expected, Brussels coolly greeted the prime minister’s newfound appetite for polyglotism. EU diplomats fear that agreeing to the request could trigger a domino effect across the bloc, with other regional language communities demanding similar recognition. As it stands, the Council is taking a cautious approach, out of phase with the timeline of Sánchez’s domestic pressures.
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S24Russia's disastrous decision to invade Poland in 1920 has parallels with Putin's rhetoric over Ukraine  From the beginning, Russia has framed its invasion of Ukraine as necessary for the defence of the country. According to Vladimir Putin, Nato’s deliberate and aggressive encroachment into a region once dominated by Moscow is to blame, as the west seeks to dismember Russia. By extension, Ukraine – a country, according to Putin, without agency and turned into a Nato military outpost – is little more than a pawn in Washington’s nefarious game. Some conspiracies in Russian propaganda come and go – notably the absurd claims that the US had developed bioweapons sites across Ukraine. But Putin’s core geopolitical framing of the war has remained consistent: Nato and the forces of the “collective west” represent an existential threat to Russia.
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S25The signs that the EU has completely changed its perspective on adding new members since Russia invaded Ukraine  In her annual address on the state of the European Union, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has given her strongest signal yet of the intention to add Ukraine and other nations as member states. Her speech was the latest sign that Brussels is thinking completely differently about EU enlargement since the start of the war in Ukraine. The way in which von der Leyen has changed her tone on the addition of new EU member states also reflects the shift away from emphasising only the economic or legal roles of the EU. Replicating the practices of more established democracies, the annual state of the union speeches, which began in 2010, have increasingly invoked notions of the EU as a state-like, federal entity.
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S26In Iran and beyond, arrests of singers and dancers show how music can be a powerful tool of resistance  Iranian women are prohibited from singing and dancing in public. Yet many are posting videos on social media dancing and singing along to singer Mehdi Yarrahi’s song Roosarito (Your Veil). The wave of videos comes after Yarrahi’s August 28 arrest. The Islamic Republic of Iran deemed the song “illegal and inconsistent with the ethical and societal norms of the Islamic community”. Roosarito is one of many anthems that have formed the soundtrack to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement that began with the killing of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16 2022 by the morality police. Amini had been arrested for insufficiently covering her hair, in line with Iran’s compulsory veiling laws. Since then, the country has seen steady waves of protest for freedom and equality, including, but not limited to, women’s rights.
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S27S28How action over parliamentary spying scandal could affect the UK's economic relationship with China  Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden has also said there is a “strong case” for the government to officially designate China as a threat to the UK, but that it was unrealistic to “completely disengage”.This is an early Christmas present for the hawkish side of the Conservative party which has called for the UK to take a tougher stance on China for several years. A more critical engagement with China is long overdue, but clumsy mitigation policies won’t safeguard the UK’s relationship with China – economic or otherwise.
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S29S30How Canada can make better progress on disability inclusion  Sunil Johal is the Vice-President, Public Policy with the CSA Group. He is also currently a member of the Expert Panel on Portable Benefits providing advice to the Ontario government on the design and implementation of a portable benefits program.The reality is that most, if not all of us, will experience a disability at some point in our lives — whether individually or through providing support and care to a loved one.
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S31S32S33S34S35S36The aged care system has failed Aboriginal people. Here's what Elders say needs to change  The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recognised the aged care system has failed to provide culturally safe care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as they age. It recommended major reforms, including active partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This was at the centre of our study, led by the Dharriwaa Elders Group in its long-term partnership with UNSW, known as Yuwaya Ngarra-li.The study involved speaking with 22 Elders in the remote New South Wales town of Walgett about what ageing well means to them.
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S37Explainer: what is executive government and what does it have to do with the Voice to Parliament?  Gabrielle Appleby was a pro bono constitutional consultant to the Regional Dialogues and First Nations Constitutional Convention that delivered the Uluru Statement from the Heart. She is a member of the Indigenous Law Centre (UNSW Law & Justice) and supports the work of the Uluru Dialogues.In the upcoming Voice referendum, all Australian voters must decide whether to approve the proposed law to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through the mechanism of a Voice to Parliament and the executive government of the Commonwealth.
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S38Striking a balance: How the law regulates picket lines  Picket lines are often the most visible feature of a labour dispute. And with the recent uptick in strike action across the country — from port workers in British Columbia to grocery chain employees in Toronto — Canadians have been more likely than usual to encounter one.Picket lines are meant to disrupt business as usual, rally support and communicate a message — all in an effort to increase pressure on employers to reach a negotiated settlement.
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S39Why we must address the interconnected harms to people, animals and ecosystems in train derailments  On June 24, a train derailment in Montana caused a bridge to collapse, sending hot asphalt and molten sulfur spewing into the Yellowstone River. The derailment came nearly five months after the disastrous derailment near East Palestine, Ohio that raised awareness of rail transportation’s risks and prompted renewed efforts to increase rail safety measures. Here in Canada, we have seen comparable derailments in Ontario, Saskatoon — and the deadly Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in Québec in 2013.Still, rail companies continue to ignore safety warnings, cut corners on safety measures, and make job cuts.
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S40Alberta's electricity prices surged over the summer due to its deregulated market  This summer, Albertans faced a substantial increase in their electricity bills as prices surged. My own electricity bill more than doubled to around $115 compared to the usual $30 to $50 range for a single person in a condominium.In 2021, electricity prices in Alberta ranged from seven to 10 cents/kWh. In 2022, prices increased to between 10 and 17 cents/kWh. In response, the Alberta government introduced a $500 electricity bill rebate that was distributed in instalments from July 2022 to April 2023.
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S41S42What is USB-C? A computer engineer explains the one device connector to rule them all  Apple announced on Sept. 12, 2023, that it plans to adopt the USB-C connector for all four new iPhone 15 models, helping USB-C become the connector of choice of the electronics industry, nine years after its debut. The move puts Apple in compliance with European Union law requiring a single connector type for consumer devices.USB-C is a small, versatile connector for mobile and portable devices like laptops, tablets and smartphones. It transfers data at high speeds, transmits video signals and delivers power to charge devices’ batteries. USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. The C refers to the third type, following types A and B.
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S43Is it really safe to feed your cat a vegan diet?  Veterinary Specialist, PhD scholar (wild horse ecology & welfare), University of Technology Sydney Research Checks interrogate newly published studies and how they’re reported in the media. The analysis is undertaken by one or more academics not involved with the study, and reviewed by another, to make sure it’s accurate.
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S44S45S46What is 'budget Ozempic' that's all over social media? Can it help me lose weight?  Social media is lighting up over what influencers are calling “budget Ozempic”. These are drugs normally used as laxatives and stool softeners, but people are taking them to lose weight. The demand is so high in the United States, there are reports this is contributing to shortages in pharmacies.These laxatives are just the latest alternatives influencers are touting for the blockbuster drug Ozempic.
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S47Koalas need their booster shots too. Here's a way to beat chlamydia with just 1 capture and less trauma  Chlamydia is a major threat to koala populations across Australia. This bacterial disease infects between 20% and 90% of individuals in koala populations. It’s a major cause of the rapid decline of many wild populations, particularly in South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales. Our group at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has developed two vaccines to target chlamydial infections. One of these vaccines, now being trialled in collaboration with Dr Michael Pyne and his staff at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, has recently had some outstanding results in a wild koala population on the Gold Coast. This population had been declining rapidly due to high rates of the disease.
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S48S49This desk is mine! How noisy offices can make us more territorial  From colleagues chatting about their weekends or having intense phone conversations, to email alerts and loud tapping on keyboards, the evidence that open-plan offices take a toll on our wellbeing continues to mount. There’s a clear relationship between noise levels and physiological signs of stress such as heart rate. This stress can also manifest in unconscious actions to reclaim control – and while some of these behaviours are therapeutic and benign, others are more toxic.
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S50Are crows really that clever?  Mélissa Berthet a reçu des financements du Fond National Suisse et de l'Université de Zürich. Internet is awash with videos of crows imitating voices or solving complex brainteasers. But are these birds as intelligent as they are made out to be?
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S51France launches bird vaccination scheme, amid fears of a repeat of H5N1 outbreaks  Anthropologie, EHESS, CNRS, Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale, Collège de France, Auteurs historiques The Conversation France Of all the recently emerging and potentially pandemic viruses, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus H5N1 is one of the fiercest. First detected in Hong Kong in 1997, it spread to the rest of the world with a mortality rate of 60% when transmitted from birds to humans. The World Health Organization has declared in August 2023 that 878 cases and 458 deaths were recorded since 1997.
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S52The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Translated Literature  This week, The New Yorker is announcing the longlists for the 2023 National Book Awards. This morning, we presented the ten contenders in the category of Young People’s Literature. Check back tomorrow morning for Poetry.Five titles on this year’s longlist for Translated Literature are set in Latin American countries. Two novels, “Abyss,” by Pilar Quintana, and “The Devil of the Provinces,” by Juan Cárdenas, take place in Colombia. Astrid Roemer’s “On a Woman’s Madness” depicts a queer Black woman’s romance with an older woman in the capital of Suriname. Stênio Gardel’s “The Words That Remain” recounts its narrator’s upbringing in Northern Brazil. The stories in “This Is Not Miami,” by Fernanda Melchor, chronicle horrifying, quotidian violence in and around Veracruz, Mexico.
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S53Why Gen X Dads Can Appreciate Olivia Rodrigo  Six-year-olds are careless little obsessives. Some flashy thing—these days, they all seem to involve dogs and the police—grabs their attention and, for a very short period of time, nothing else matters. The fever breaks as soon as you finally pull out your wallet and buy the action figure or lunchbox or whatever else they’ve been asking for. The toy gets tossed, and then it’s on to the next law-enforcement animal trend. My daughter has gone through every fixation, including “Octonauts,” “Paw Patrol,” and Pokémon. She has read multiple book series about moody dragons. Still, every obsession has been entirely disposable to her.The only thing that seems to have stuck is the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” She has watched pretty much every incarnation of the Ninja Turtles, starting from the 1990 movie—which is how we recently found ourselves at a matinée showing of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” the most recent Turtles filmic adventure, from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. From the jump, there was something intergenerationally gratifying about this trip; I had gone to see the original T.M.N.T. film in the theatre with my parents. The filmmakers must have had viewers like me in mind. The movie’s soundtrack—which included M.O.P.’s “Ante Up,” De La Soul’s “Eye Know,” Blackstreet’s “No Diggity,” and A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?”—sounded like something I would have downloaded on LimeWire in my dorm room in 2001. My daughter has heard all these dad-rap songs because I play them in the car; now here we were, watching characters from both our childhoods.
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S54A Memoir of Contested Illness That Takes On the Legacy of Hysteria  Emily Wells is interested in what her doctors see when they look at her: a depressed or anxious woman, perhaps even one who is faking sickness for attention.In her wide-ranging début memoir, “A Matter of Appearance,” Emily Wells recounts an early memory of watching a videotaped performance in a ballet recital. She danced well: her movements were quick and precise, and her features carefully composed. But, as soon as she was safely back in the wings of the theatre, she winced in pain and collapsed on the floor.
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S55"They Didn't Know That We Were Here": New York's African Asylum Seekers  Sophie Kouyate had been living undocumented in New York City for more than a decade when she was referred to African Communities Together (A.C.T.), a small nonprofit organization, in 2015. One of A.C.T.'s organizers helped Kouyate apply for legal status. "She bring me up," Kouyate said. "Like, I was on the ground. And she said, 'Sophie, you can make it, if you want it, you can make it.'Â " Two years ago, after Kouyate finally obtained a green card, A.C.T. offered her a job. "You better pay me good," Kouyate recalled telling her new employers. "Because now I have my papers."Kouyate was born in France. Her father was born in Guinea, her mother in the West Indies. When she was twenty-two years old, she decided to move to New York Cityâshe hoped that it would be less racist than France. She met her husband in New York, and had three children. (Her oldest teaches third grade at a Harlem charter school, and her middle child is a captain of the men's basketball team at SUNY Maritime.) Now Kouyate is helping people navigate their very first days in town. She and her colleagues at A.C.T. are frontline workers in New York City's ongoing migrant crisis. "It is a crisis, point blank," Kouyate said. "A humanitarian crisis."
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S56The Secret Life and Anonymous Death of the Most Prolific War-Crimes Investigator in History  It was 4:17 A.M. on February 6th in Antakya, an ancient Turkish city near the Syrian border, when the earth tore open and people’s beds began to shake. On the third floor of an apartment in the Ekinci neighborhood, Anwar Saadeddin, a former brigadier general in the Syrian Army, awoke to the sounds of glass breaking, cupboard doors banging, and jars of tahini and cured eggplant spilling onto the floor. He climbed out of bed, but, for almost thirty seconds, he was unable to keep his footing; the building was moving side to side. When the earthquake subsided, he tried to call his daughter Rula, who lived down the road, but the cellular network was down.Thirty seconds after the first quake, the building started moving again, this time up and down, with such violence that an exterior wall sheared open, and rain started pouring in. The noise was tremendous—concrete splitting, rebar bending, plates shattering, neighbors screaming. When the shaking stopped, about a minute later, Saadeddin, who is in his late sixties, and his wife walked down three flights of stairs, dressed in pajamas and sandals, and went out into the cold.
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S5714 Years Later, a Modern Blaxploitation Classic is Launching a Cinematic Universe  It’s been over a decade since Michael Jai White starred in Black Dynamite, the bombastic 2009 film that perfectly satirized the blaxploitation capers of the ‘70s. Though White is probably best known for his work in knock-down, drag-out action flicks, Black Dynamite might just be his most iconic role — if only for the way it allows the actor, writer, and martial artist to flex his muscles as a comedic force. White served as a co-writer and a producer on Black Dynamite, but with his latest film, Outlaw Johnny Black, he takes on the role of director. The film explores another aspect of blaxploitation: westerns like Sidney Poitier’s Buck and the Preacher, or Jim Brown’s El Condor. White cites a handful of films directed by Poitier, as well as Eddie Murphy’s late ‘80s comedies, as inspiration for Johnny Black.
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S58Yoko Taro Wants Aliens to "Attack Earth" and Send Us Back to the 8-Bit Era  Every time Yoko Taro speaks, you get the feeling he is messing with you, just a little bit.It’s not unlike the twisting, surreal stories behind the Drakengard and NieR franchises he’s masterminded. And yet underneath all of Taro’s theatrics — including the large, moon-like mask called Emil that he is rarely seen without — there is always a kernel of sincerity behind every answer he gives.
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S595 Years Ago, Nicolas Cage Made a Wild Action Thriller -- And Saved His Own Career  From the meme-spawning Wicker Man remake, to the bizarre religious epic Left Behind, to all the direct-to-video slop in between, Nicolas Cage had one of the most bizarre career paths of any Oscar-winning actor. From the late 2000s to the mid-2010s, it was clear Cage wasn’t getting the meaty and dynamic roles he’d become known for embodying.He did enjoy some successes. David Gordon Green’s pre-Blumhouse drama Joe and Paul Schrader’s Dog Eat Dog earned positive reviews, with critics signaling Cage’s signature go-for-broke sensibilities as highlights. But it was Panos Cosmatos’ second feature, Mandy, that led to a wider cultural reappraisal, despite no one being able to predict that such a strange little movie would have so much influence on the actor’s career.
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S606 Years Later, Hulu's Creepy New Thriller Learns the Wrong Lesson From Jordan Peele  The spectrum of Black horror is more much psychological than it is physical. Black filmmakers know that there are scarier things than those that go bump in the night, but depicting the perils of police brutality or the necessity of code switching without alienating a particular audience is still a tricky balancing act. So much of the struggles that minorities face are impossible to point out to those that don’t live it themselves — so stories that make that experience tangible, that parse things out via metaphor, have become a necessity. Racially-coded horror is by no means a new thing, but it wasn’t until Jordan Peele made history with Get Out that Hollywood realized how profitable it could be. What began as a way to make tough concepts more digestible became something of a gimmick, one that most can now see from a mile away. Countless copycats have risen up since: some, like Lovecraft Country, manage to make the trend their own. Others — like Hulu’s latest series, The Other Black Girl — struggle to balance grounded thrills with a supernatural conspiracy.
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S61S62'Final Fantasy XVI' DLC Could Spotlight Two Underdeveloped Characters  Despite the massive amount of hype around Final Fantasy XVI, the development from Square Enix was adamant that future DLC plans would have to wait until after the game’s full release and would depend on player response. Well, Final Fantasy XVI has been about for almost three months now and the critical success of the game seems to have been enough for plans to fall into place. During PAX West 2023, Producer Naoki Yoshida revealed the game will be receiving two paid expansions in the future. While there aren’t any concrete details on who or what these expansions will focus on in the world of Valisthea there is one group that is overdue their moment in the sun — The women of Final Fantasy XVI.
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S63'FFXIV's Toughest Dungeons Are Here to Stay -- If Players Want Them  With the release of Patch 6.25, Final Fantasy XIV introduced a wildly popular new feature, Variant and Criterion dungeons. Variant dungeons are designed around choice and replayability, focusing on puzzles and branching paths in addition to battle content. Criterion dungeons are visually similar but incredibly difficult, on par with Extreme Trials or Savage Raids. With two Variant and Criterion dungeons now available in FFXIV, the features seem to be a hit with the player base.
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S64Astronomers Spot Rare Phenomenon That Einstein Predicted We'd Never See  Astronomers have just spotted a phenomenon in the sky that Albert Einstein predicted we’d never see — and it’s one of dozens observed so far.The four light blue spots surrounding the little orange blob in this image from the Very Large Telescope (yes, that is its official name, VLT for short) are actually four images of the same galaxy, projected by a gravitational lens in a rare formation called an Einstein cross.
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S65Rule the Galaxy With These 9 Awesome 'Starfield' PC Cheats  Our galaxy is vast. So it’s no surprise that Starfield is a very big game. It’s got tons of skills to use, companions to romance, and stuff to steal. The problem with all this bigness is that it can take a long time to get what you want. Grinding is a key part of most RPGs, but there’s no shame in taking shortcuts. PC players have access to console commands, essentially cheat codes, for Bethesda’s latest release. These require a smidgen of technical knowhow and aren’t meant to be user-friendly — their intended purpose is for game devs to easily make changes on the fly. Now, players can use them to summon 10,000 milk cartons in zero gravity. If you’re interested in god modes, infinite money, or just creating chaos then here’s everything you’ll need to know about console commands, including a comprehensive list to use for reference. Happy cheating!
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S66'Ahsoka' Episode 5 Wasted Its Wildest Sci-Fi Concept -- And That's a Good Thing  Sometimes, it feels like there are two different versions of Ahsoka. There’s the version that Rebels fans see, the epilogue they were promised at the end of the animated series but in live-action. Then, there’s the version that fans who have only seen the live-action Disney+ shows have seen, a glimpse into Ahsoka’s past from before we met her in The Mandalorian Season 2. Balancing these two levels of knowledge and emotional resonance has proven to be one of the most frustrating elements of the entire show. This reached a head in Episode 4, when Ahsoka has a near-death experience and wakes up in a mystical realm. This one location proves just how Ahsoka is dealing with its biggest issue — and why it’s the best-case scenario for the show.
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S67You Need to Play the Most Iconic Strategy Game on Xbox Game Pass ASAP  With huge numbers of interlocking systems, layers upon layers of tactics, and globe-spanning campaigns, strategy games can be intimidating for newcomers. Once they’ve got their hooks in you, though, the best among them are almost impossible to put down. The latest entry in one of the most venerable strategy series around is leaving Game Pass this month, and that makes this a great time to try it out.Sid Meier’s Civilization debuted in 1991, beginning one of the most popular and beloved series of strategy games that’s still running today. Each entry has tried new ways to reinvent itself and expand Civilization’s growing empire, and the newest installment benefits from those decades of refinement. Hardcore fans may prefer specific mechanics in earlier versions of the game, but they don’t need anyone telling them to play Civilization 6. If you’re looking to jump into the series or even try out strategy games in general for the first time, you’d be hard-pressed to get a better introduction than Civilization 6.
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S68Siege of Mandalore: Why Star Wars' Darkest Battle is So Important to Ahsoka  From the moment Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) reunited with Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) in the fourth episode of Ahsoka, fans knew they’d be in for a heartbreaking trip down memory lane. Episode 5 wasted no time reacquainting us with Skyguy and Snips, but it went even further by pulling Anakin and Ahsoka into the past.Ahsoka takes its heroine and her former Jedi master back to the events of the Clone Wars, where Anakin leads Ahsoka through the Battle of Ryloth, one of their first missions. The pair then jump forward to one of the Clone Wars’ defining battles, the Siege of Mandalore. Anakin, notably, doesn’t recognize it; Ahsoka fought alone, while he and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) were off on a very different mission.
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S70'Ahsoka's Princess Leia Easter Egg Reveals A Shocking Star Wars Canon Secret  When Senator Leia Organa is asked about her dad, she’ll talk about Jimmy Smits every single time. In the years after Return of the Jedi, within Star Wars canon, Leia did not make her true family lineage public knowledge — and with good reason. How would you feel if one of your elected officials was lying about being Darth Vader’s daughter? And, although Leia has not appeared in Ahsoka thus far, one brief Easter egg in Episode 5 touches upon a strange truth about “Senator Organa.” And the truth is: At this point in the timeline, Leia is living a double life. Spoilers ahead.In Ahsoka Episode 5, “Shadow Warrior,” much of the plot is focused on the New Republic forces, led by Hera, trying to figure out exactly how long they can hang out on the planet Seatos until they get busted. Hera and Carson are on an unauthorized mission, and therefore on borrowed time. (Though you really gotta wonder why the New Republic needs to send three massive starships to retrieve a few X-wings and the Ghost, but whatever.) Relative to the story of the hidden Skywalkers, we get a quick line of dialogue from Carson that is the first hint at what Leia is up to at this point in the timeline. As he and Hera bicker about how long they can keep going with their search mission, Carson says: “Senator Organa says she can only give us cover for so long.”
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