   
CEO Picks - The best that international journalism has to offer!
 S63'Starfield' Is the Ultimate Bethesda RPG -- and That's a Problem   For years, the gaming industry has chased Bethesda’s specter, dutifully recreating (and sometimes evolving) conventions that built a role-playing-game empire worth billions. But with Starfield, the Microsoft-owned company has the rare chance to show the world what a modern Bethesda RPG actually looks like.Some have walked away flattening Starfield as just another Bethesda game, but to the developer’s credit, it’s tried to reconfigure how some of its genre conventions work in its latest release. The reimaginings don’t really pan out, though, and the more standard aspects of the Bethesda formula disappoint, despite their ubiquity in the genre at large.
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S58'Picard' Season 3's Alternate Ending Could Have Given One Star Trek Character Justice  Despite the absolutely triumphant ending of Picard Season 3, even the most ardent advocate for the entire series would agree that taken as a whole, this Trek spinoff is thematically incongruent. Season 1 told a bold story about the rights of sentient AI, forced to live in secret. Season 2 was a psychological story about Jean-Luc’s trauma, wrapped up in a time-travel romp. And then, Season 3 was a classic Star Trek galactic action-adventure mystery with personal stakes for the entire Next Generation crew. Each of these seasons, essentially, had a different showrunner, Michael Chabon in Season 1, Akiva Goldsman in Season 2, and then, Terry Matalas, with complete control in Season 3. (Though Matalas worked on Season 2, also.)For most fans, the journey of Picard had an endpoint that very clearly stuck the landing: Seeing the Next Generation crew all together, playing poker, just like in 1994’s finale episode “All Good Things...” That said, it seems that there was one other ending in mind for Season 3, one which Sir Patrick Stewart himself suggested. And, within this alternate ending, it seems possible that one discarded character could have made a big comeback.
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S41Michael Gambon: an unshowy actor of enormous range and charm  Sir Michael Gambon, who died on September 28 at the age of 82, was a hugely versatile actor who enjoyed numerous and varied roles in film and television throughout the course of his long career. Gambon was also a titan of the theatre. His major theatrical roles include Shakespeare’s Othello, King Lear and Falstaff, and Brecht’s Galileo, together with starring roles in works by the finest contemporary playwrights of his era: Beckett, Pinter, Churchill, Hare, Gray and Ayckbourn.
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S69Change Management Requires a Change Mindset  Every organization of every size struggles with change in some way. While midsize companies are no exception, their size offers a competitive advantage. Unlike small companies with limited resources, or large companies saddled by bureaucracy or “this is how we do it” norms, midsize companies are in the sweet spot for rethinking how to relate to change and uncertainty effectively. Helping your team develop and strengthen their change mindset should be a priority. Team discussions about one’s orientation to change could unlock hidden superpowers and create new pathways for internal mobility. This article discusses how to integrate scenario mapping into your strategic planning process to boost your “flux capacity” (your tolerance for change) and contribute to the kinds of futures you’d like to see.
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S53NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Just Accidentally Broke The Spaceflight Record  NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who returned home from the International Space Station (ISS) this week, has shattered the American record for the longest time spent in space.Rubio spent a whopping 371 days onboard the ISS. He traveled a staggering 157 million miles over the course of 5,936 orbits around Earth, which, according to NASA, is roughly equivalent to 328 trips to the Moon and back. This wasn’t how he had planned to spend his first mission to space, however.
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S15Maya Feller's Rastafarian ital stew  In Jamaica, there's nothing more comforting than a bowl of ital. The popular island stew eaten by the Rastafarian community is a medley of fresh vegetables, herbs and spices, all simmered in coconut milk.Rastafarians are practitioners of Rastafari, a religion founded in Jamaica in the 1930s. It is also classified as a social movement to oppose systems of oppression by the country's then-dominant British colonial rule. Historically, as Rastafarians continued to challenge Jamaica's colonial society by expressing themselves through their African roots, they wore their hair in dreadlocks, which represented a connection to Africa and a sense of pride in African physical characteristics. They smoked marijuana because they believed its use was directed in biblical passages, and they played reggae music as a voice of the oppressed.
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S57S644 Distractions that Derail Meetings -- and How to Handle Them  Most of us have had the experience of attending a meeting that veered off course, leaving us feeling confused or like we wasted our time. But meetings don’t have to be time consuming, unproductive, or otherwise painful. Understanding a few common dysfunctional behaviors can help managers turn meetings to instruments for team success. The author presents four dysfunctional behaviors that cause meetings to derail, as well as what managers need to know to make their team’s meetings more effective, efficient, and productive.
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S60S47The Powerful New York Law That Finally Brought Trump to Book  After a New York court ruled that Donald Trump had persistently committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets, the former President called Justice Arthur F. Engoron, who issued the ruling, “deranged,” and accused New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, whose office brought the case, of being a racist.Given that the judgment could bar Trump from doing business in New York and force him to cede control of some of his prized business assets in the state—including Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street—it’s not surprising that he’s enraged. But at least some of his fury should be directed at a fellow-Republican who died more than thirty-five years ago and is now best known for a convention center named after him: Jacob Javits.
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S66How to Build Wealth When You Don't Come from Money  The first step to attaining wealth — at least for people who are not born into it — is much more personal than building millionaire habits or investing wisely. Such approaches often fail to address the systemic and mental barriers faced by many of the marginalized groups who grew up without access to wealth. The author argues that changing your mindset, or building a mindset conducive to wealth, is the real first step.
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S56'Gears 6' Release Window, Plot, Platforms, and New Game Director for the Anticipated Sequel  Gears 5 was a spiritual reboot to the 14-year-old Gears of War series that laid the foundations for more generations for many more years to come.Besides the obvious name change seemingly inspired by The Fast and the Furious' reduction to Fast & Furious and eventually just Fast, Gears 5 shifted its focus away from JD Fenix to make Kait Diaz its protagonist, experimenting with an RPG element during a pivotal moment of the story. This change in direction, coupled with sharpened controls expected from any modern sequel, made Gears 5 the uncontested best Xbox exclusive of 2019.
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S65Innovation Doesn't Have to Be Disruptive  The era of international travel began in the mid-19th century, with the golden age of transatlantic ocean-going. The British company Cunard, a leader in the industry, transported millions of immigrants from Europe to the United States around the turn of the 20th century. By the end of World War II it had emerged as the largest Atlantic passenger line, operating 12 ships to the United States and Canada as it captured the flourishing North Atlantic travel market in the first postwar decade.That golden age came to an end with the advent of commercial jet flights. Whereas one million passengers crossed the Atlantic by boat in 1957, air travel caused that figure to fall to 650,000 by 1965, with roughly six people flying for each passenger going by sea. Ocean liners simply could not match the speed and convenience of jet planes.
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S29How the age of mammals could end  Throughout the past 500 million years, our planet has experienced a total of five mass extinctions. One of these – the Permo-Triassic mass extinction event – led to the demise of roughly 90% of Earth’s species. Most of these events have coincided with the formation of a supercontinent, where Earth’s tectonic plates slowly come together and combine.
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S54'The Boys' Finally Exposes a Dark Truth About Marvel's X-Men  Being a teenaged superhero has never been a walk in the park, but Gen V is exploring that reality from every angle.It’s hard not to see superheroes at school without thinking of the X-Men. As much as superheroes have dominated the zeitgeist in recent years, stories depicting their higher education are usually neglected in favor of more exciting endeavors. That makes Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters one of the definitive schools for supes. And even as pop culture turns a more cynical eye towards hero worship, Professor X’s academy still feels like a utopia.
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S6230 Years Ago, Gaming's Most Controversial Company Was Born -- And It's Still Pushing the Limits  Household names are not a meritocracy. Rarely is the thing you know and love surviving independent of some conglomerate. Ritz crackers? That’s Mondelez. NBC? That’s Comcast. Dairy Queen? That’s Berkshire Hathaway. On and on it goes. It feels sinister, but it’s just economics (unless capitalism itself is flawed hahaha no way). Successful companies buy other successful companies to be more successful. Be big or be bought, as the saying goes. And thirty years ago, one of gaming’s biggest companies got its start.Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. likely triggers some subliminal recognition among gamers who have seen its logo flash thousands of times as they booted up some of the biggest IPs in the business. Grand Theft Auto. BioShock. Sid Meier’s Civilization. These are just some of the brands in the Take-Two portfolio, a company estimated to be worth nearly $24 billion today. Thirty years ago, however, the future was far from certain.
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S24US Supreme Court refuses to hear Alabama's request to keep separate and unequal political districts  For the second time in three months, the U.S. Supreme Court has rebuffed Alabama’s attempts to advance its legislature’s congressional maps that federal courts have ruled harm Black voters.The court had first rejected the maps in its stunning June 8, 2023, decision that upheld the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But in an act of defiance, Alabama lawmakers resubmitted maps that didn’t include what the court had urged them to do – create a second political district in which Black voters could reasonably be expected to choose a candidate of their choice.
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S59Hands Down the 50 Weirdest, Most Clever Things on Amazon Under $35  If you’ve ever been scrolling and wondered how people find those clever products that instantly go viral, this is the list you’ve been hoping for. These 50 weird and clever things on Amazon range from a tap-to-dim nightlight shaped like an exhausted duck to a gadget that helps you carry in all the groceries at once. Not only are these the hands-down weirdest products out there, but they’re also all under $35 — with items starting at just $5.This sleek desk lamp is highly customizable because the LED light bars are adjustable. Simply push them together for a classic desk lamp look, or pull them apart to create two slim lights on each side (perfect to tuck behind your laptop). To make it even more customizable — it comes with a reading light setting and two different charging ports.
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S16The incomparable Bombay sandwich  If there is one thing people in India never tire of debating, it is whether Mumbai or Delhi is the better city. More accurately, the argument centres around which metropolis has the better food. Delhi often comes up tops with its incredible range of street eats, but Mumbai trumps any competition when it comes to the sandwich.The sandwich may have come to India through the British, but the people of Mumbai (as Bombay is now called) have added their own fillings and spices to make it their own.
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S55How to Join the Obligatory Evil Corporation Ryujin Industries in 'Starfield'  Starfield is full of endless possibilities for players to experience thanks to its expansive universe. While you can follow the main story, some of the best content is found in the three main factions. One is the seedy corporation, Ryujin Industries, which offers the perfect opportunity for players to get up to some of the more illegal activities Starfield has to offer. Ryujin is located in the cyberpunk city of Neon. Here’s to how to find it and get started on your next space-faring adventure.Once the main story of Starfield takes you to the central hub of New Atlantis, you can immediately head off to find Neon. New Atlantis is located in Alpha Centauri, so to navigate to Neon on the star map, plot a course to the right. Head toward Olympus and then keep moving right toward the Volii system. Once you have the course plotted, make the jump to the Volii system.
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S43S25S67Conservatives Are More Open to Seemingly Inferior Products Than Liberals Are  Dartmouth College’s Nailya Ordabayeva and Arizona State University’s Monika Lisjak photographed the purchases of customers at a Boston farmers market and surveyed the shoppers about their political leanings. They rated each person’s items on aesthetics and mapped the results against the survey responses and found a correlation: Conservatives were more likely than liberals to have bought misshapen or blemished produce. Eight subsequent studies found a similar pattern with other goods. The conclusion: Conservatives are more open to seemingly inferior products than liberals are.
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S50The Worrying Democratic Erosions in South Korea  Americans may not know much about the South Korean President, Yoon Suk-yeol, but some will have noticed that he’s not a bad singer. In April, when Joe and Jill Biden hosted Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon-hee, for a state dinner in Washington, D.C., Yoon ingratiated himself, East Asian-style, by performing a nostalgic ballad. During a round of musical performances, he brought a microphone to his lips, at Biden’s invitation, and launched into an a-cappella version of one of his favorite tunes, “American Pie,” by Don McLean: “A long, long time ago, I can still remember / How that music used to make me smile.” Biden beamed and pumped his fists. Yoon looked the part of jovial statesman and ultimate U.S. ally.South Korea is widely seen as an American-made democracy that, along with Japan, supports U.S. efforts to counter China in East Asia—and around the world. This trilateral unity was exhibited publicly, in August, when Biden met with Yoon and Fumio Kishida, the Prime Minister of Japan, at Camp David. But, since taking office last year, after being elected by a margin of less than one per cent, Yoon, a career prosecutor with no previous experience in politics, has started to scrape away protections for women, the right to associate and organize, and, most strikingly, freedom of the press.
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S70Marketing When Budgets Are Down  The general rule of enterprise finance is that marketing budgets drop like a stone at the first sign of trouble and rise like a feather once the environment is more settled. In mid-2023 we’re far from a settled state — projected GDP growth in western markets is depressingly flat, inflation is proving to be rather stubborn, and those disruptions just keep on coming. It’s tough to see a significant increase in marketing budgets in the near term. Gartner’s annual survey of hundreds of CMOs charts the evolution of marketing spending over recent history, offering guidance for how enterprise leaders can deliver results and build the capabilities to fuel growth in a time of less.
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S517 Years Ago, Star Wars Jumped the Shark With an Iconic Scene That Made Zero Sense  In 2016, millions of fandom voices cried out in triumph, when perhaps they should have been expressing some concern. As Darth Vader sliced and diced his way through hapless Rebel soldiers in the climax of Rogue One the mood, for many longtime fans, was celebratory. Finally, Vader was unleashed! This was a level of badassery that had never been glimpsed in the faraway galaxy. And yet, seven years after releasing to almost universal critical acclaim, one has to wonder; was the big Darth Vader moment in Rogue One all that great? Or had Star Wars jumped the fanservice shark?Notably, Rogue One was directed by Gareth Edwards, who’s making a splash with his new science fiction film The Creator. It looks very much like a Gareth Edwards movie: as he did in Rogue One and the 2014 Godzilla, Edwards is good at bringing high concepts down to Earth. It’s something countless sci-fi movies and TV shows claim to want, but few pull off. In 2022, the prequel series Andor upheld Rogue One’s mantle by becoming Star Wars’ most realistic and character-driven series. Even if you don’t love Rogue One, no one can deny the film has a grown-up vibe.
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S22S14How to Survive a Recession and Thrive Afterward  According to an analysis led by Ranjay Gulati, during the recessions of 1980, 1990, and 2000, 17% of the 4,700 public companies studied fared very badly: They went bankrupt, went private, or were acquired. But just as striking, 9% of the companies flourished, outperforming competitors by at least 10% in sales and profits growth.
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S61S11Case Study: When the CEO Dies, What Comes First: His Company or His Family?  Shortly after the sudden death of her beloved husband, Priya Gowda learns that the company he built from a small dairy farm into a major Indian conglomerate is in deep financial trouble. Unbeknownst to her and his investors, her husband had taken on a lot of short-term, high-interest loans, and the company is struggling to make its payments. As sole heir to his majority stake in Splendid Ice Cream, Priya is now its de facto CEO. Her creditors advise her to sell or liquidate the company, but Priya is determined to preserve her husband’s legacy. Her daughters, however, worried that the business is taking too high a toll on her, beg her to let it go. Should she give in to them or keep trying to save Splendid? Expert commentators weigh in.
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S17S52 Star Wars Needs To Learn One Classic Character Lesson From Star Trek  It’s lucky the most famous droids in the galaxy — C-3PO and R2-D2 — are always willing to do Luke and Leia’s dirty work. In Ahsoka, Episode 7, Hera narrowly avoided getting kicked out of the New Republic military, all thanks to C-3PO showing up and conveying a message on behalf of Senator Leia Organa. Why Leia didn’t come in person, and triumphantly confront Senator Xiono is somewhat obvious. At this point in the timeline, Leia is about 28 years old. And, clearly, Lucasfilm didn’t feel like doing a de-aged/CGI Carrie Fisher — not even as a hologram!Just like when R2-D2 ferried Grogu in Luke’s X-wing to Tatooine in The Book of Boba Fett — all to avoid another appearance from a de-aged Mark Hamill — the Doylist canon constraints of Star Wars are frequently at odds with the Watsonian reality of the faraway galaxy. In other words, it's time to just recast Leia.
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S49What to See in the New York Film Festival's First Week  The New York Film Festival begins Friday. As I noted last year, the festival's main slate is increasingly given over to movies by major Hollywood figures. (This year's opening night brings Todd Haynes's "May December," starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.) So, for now, I'll concentrate on films by independent and international filmmakers who don't yet have instant name recognition for most viewers but whose work deserves (and needs) the serious attention that a festival showcase brings. (One of the best films on display, "All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt," the first feature by Raven Jackson, premièred at Sundance this year; I wrote about it then and will reënthuse about it closer to its November 3rd theatrical release.)Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's latest film, "Evil Does Not Exist" (Oct. 5, Oct. 7, and Oct. 11), is both a great film in itself and a retrospective illumination of the filmmaker's previous masterworksâ"Happy Hour," from 2015, and "Drive My Car," which won the Oscar for Best International Feature in 2022. In the new film, Hamaguchi boldly stands cinematic dramaturgy on its head, starting the film with an extended sequence of images that don't tell much of a story and keep the audience guessing. The opening scene occurs in a snowy forest, where the camera seems to plunge from treetops toward the ground. Yet it gradually becomes clear that the forest is being viewed from the groundâthe camera looks upward fixedly while in relentless forward motion, in a way that no walker ever could. There is a walker, though: a girl is making her way through the woods, eventually accompanied by the sound of a power saw. The scene that follows could be considered absolutely pointless or absolutely sublime, a dichotomy that turns out to be at the moral core of the movie. A man with a power saw is cutting long logs into shorter pieces. Then he stands each piece on its end, atop the smoothed surface of a wide tree stump, splits it with an ax, and moves on to the next piece. This is all in one long take, at the end of which the man has a neat pile of firewood. He steps back, lights a cigarette, and takes a contemplative break.
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S12The Leadership Odyssey  A paradox of business is that while leaders often employ a hands-on, directive style to rise to the top, once they arrive, they’re supposed to empower and enable their teams. Suddenly, they’re expected to demonstrate “people skills.” And many find it challenging to adapt to that reality.
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S68Should You Launch Products During a Recession?  Economic downturns are frightening. Consumers curb spending, companies cut costs, and we all wait anxiously for the economy to recover. In such a climate, launching a product—an expensive and uncertain endeavor in the best of times—would seem to make little sense. But a new study finds that products launched during recessions outperform on several important measures.
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S46Olivia Rodrigo, the Voice of Generation Z; Plus, Stephen Kotkin on Ending the War in Ukraine  The pop singer and songwriter Olivia Rodrigo’s rise to fame was meteoric. She talks with David Remnick about her models for songwriting, dealing with social media as a young celebrity, and how it feels to be branded the voice of Generation Z. Plus, the Russia scholar Stephen Kotkin says that, realistically, Ukraine must come to accept the loss of some Russia-held territory in exchange for security guarantees. But the U.S. must do more to threaten Vladimir Putin’s hold on power.The pop artist’s rise to fame was meteoric. She talks about her models for songwriting, dealing with social media as a young celebrity, and getting out from the shadow of Disney.
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S40Aziz Pahad: the unassuming South African diplomat who skilfully mediated crises in Africa, and beyond  Aziz Goolam Pahad, who has died at the age of 82, was a South African anti-apartheid activist, politician and deputy minister of foreign affairs in the post-1994 government. Together with a small group of foreign policy analysts, I worked with Aziz over the span of 30 years, shaping the post-apartheid South African government’s approach to international relations and its foreign policy. We spent countless hours debating foreign affairs and the numerous crises and challenges government had to face as a relative “newcomer” in continental African and global affairs.
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S45Jellyfish: our complex relationship with the oceans' anti-heroes  Ding! The courier hands me an unassuming brown box with “live animals” plastered on the side. I begin carefully unboxing. The cardboard exterior gives way to a white polystyrene clamshell, cloistering a pearly sphere-shaped, water-filled bag. Lightly pulsing, I spot them: three cannonball jellyfish (Stomolophus meleagris). Each the size of a 50-pence coin. Cannonball jellyfish are an unusual pet choice. Whether stinging beachgoers, clogging power station intake pipes, or outcompeting more popular ocean wildlife, jellyfish are often labelled nuisances.
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S18S28South Africa has one of the strongest navies in Africa: its strengths and weaknesses  The deaths of three members of the South African Navy (SA Navy) on 20 September 2023, when a freak wave swept them off the deck of the submarine SAS Manthatisi, has put the spotlight on the organisation and its work. André Wessels is a military historian; his latest book is A Century of South African Naval History: The South African Navy and its Predecessors 1922-2022. The Conversation Africa asked him for insights.The South African Navy has always been one of the strongest naval forces in sub-Saharan Africa.
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