The last time Lucien Greaves got into this much trouble over a photograph, he had his genitals out.In July 2013, Greaves gained nationwide media attention for resting his scrotum on the gravestone of the Reverend Fred Phelps’s mother—a stunt designed to protest the homophobia of the Westboro Baptist Church, an ultra-conservative group that was then regularly featured on the news. Greaves was trading offense for offense. Phelps’s church had a habit of protesting soldiers’ funerals with placards telling gay people that they were going to hell. So Greaves claimed to have performed a “Pink Mass” that turned the mother of Westboro’s patriarch gay in the afterlife.

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Making the Case for the Resources Your Team Needs

Advocating for resources goes beyond the act of getting a “yes” to acquire more tools, personnel, or funds. It represents a deep commitment to your team’s success. It shows those you lead that you’re someone who understands their challenges, values their efforts, and is willing to champion their needs. Plus, with more resources at your disposal, your team can work more efficiently, innovate more effectively, and deliver higher-quality results, directly contributing to the bottom line. In this article, the author offers tips to help you make a compelling case.

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Want More Clarity on Generative AI? Experiment Widely | Lynda Gratton

Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.The launch of generative AI represents an era-defining moment. Never before have so many people become so excited by a technology program. Within five days of ChatGPT’s release in November 2022, more than 1 million people (including me) had logged on to try it out. If financial investments are a predictor of growth, then the $12 billion invested in generative AI in the first five months of 2023 shows the depth of commitment.

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Foe review: Sci-fi thriller starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal is 'endlessly engaging'

Most futuristic films are so distracted by the neon, Blade Runner-inspired landscapes and high-tech gizmos that they lose sight of any human dimension. The wonder of Foe is that Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan, as a rural couple with an intense bond yet a fraying marriage, anchor the film to reality even as it gradually evolves into psychological horror and on to a purely sci-fi ending. Foe plays to the strengths of its actors, two of the most natural and subtle on screen, and is endlessly engaging even though it eventually stumbles into head-spinning narrative problems.More like this: - A 'jaw-droppingly distinctive' sci-fi - Emily Blunt is the only reason to watch Pain Hustlers - Lee could be Winslet's best role yet

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Siya Kolisi: the South African rugby star's story offers valuable lessons in resilience

In the world of sports, some stories transcend the boundaries of the game and become symbolic of something greater. Siya Kolisi’s journey from an adverse upbringing to becoming captain of a World Cup-winning South African rugby team, the Springboks, is one such story. Kolisi made history as the first black captain of the Springboks in a country where, because of apartheid and separate development, the professional sport was once an all-white affair. Rugby was firmly associated with white national pride, and now a black man from a humble background has become a national hero, reshaping the sport’s image.

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Early indicators of dementia: 5 behaviour changes to look for after age 50

Dementia is often thought of as a memory problem, like when an elderly person asks the same questions or misplaces things. In reality, individuals with dementia will not only experience issues in other areas of cognition like learning, thinking, comprehension and judgement, but they may also experience changes in behaviour. It’s important to understand what dementia is and how it manifests. I didn’t imagine my grandmother’s strange behaviours were an early warning sign of a far more serious condition.

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Safety on the line: Drivers who juggle multiple jobs are more likely to take risks on the road

PhD Candidate, Management of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources, McMaster University The driving profession is unsafe. Taxi drivers and ride-hail drivers, who drive for apps like Uber and Lyft, face many safety risks on the road, from accidents and injuries to harassment and violence.

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We got the beat: How we perceive rhythm involves neurological processes that control movement

When you hear a song playing somewhere, you might find yourself tapping your fingers or moving your head to the rhythm. If you’re walking, your footsteps may fall in line with the beat. Whether or not you’re a musician, somehow you know intuitively when to speed up or slow down to stay in time. A wide range of living and non-living systems show synchronization, the tendency to coordinate rhythmic activity across interconnected groups. Pendulum clocks hanging on the same wall eventually sync up, and large groups of fireflies may start to flash as one.

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Family doctor shortage: Medical education reform can help address critical gaps, starting with a specialized program

Recent reports indicate that over six million Canadians are without a family doctor. This not only has a massive impact for those individuals, but also for the entire health-care system. Given current caseloads, about 4,000 family doctors would be required to address the current shortfall.Education reform is part of the solution to this crisis. A new family medicine program in Ontario is designed to ensure that candidates who are the most qualified and motivated to pursue a community-based family practice get appropriate and comprehensive training.

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Pierre Poilievre is a career politician: Is that good or bad?

The Conservative Party is currently riding high in the polls with a 15-point lead over the Liberals. Political commentators credit this polling success to the popular appeal of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre’s political messaging on the housing crisis and inflation, in particular, seems to be resonating with Canadians.

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Wartime hijinks, wilderness survivors and contemporary dance: what we're streaming this October

If you’ve made your way through our September picks and are looking for something new, this month’s streaming picks have something for everyone. There is a classic romantic comedy, some British crime drama and even some contemporary dance. The weather might be turning, and the sun might be shining – but these picks will have you wanting to spend some more time on the couch.

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Are NFTs really dead and buried? All signs point to 'yes'

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are in dire straits. With the market in a severe downturn, it’s safe to assume the NFT bubble has well and truly burst.It was never clear why these digital collectables traded for such large amounts of money. Now they mostly do not. What’s behind their turn of fate? And is there any hope for their future?

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Avoid cramming and don't just highlight bits of text: how to help your memory when preparing for exams

With school and university exams looming, students will be thinking about how they can maximise their learning.If students understand how memory works, they can prioritise effective study habits. This will help for exams as well as their learning in the longer term.

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Replacing gas heating with reverse-cycle aircon leaves some people feeling cold. Why? And what's the solution?

Researchers and policymakers are advocating all-electric housing to reduce energy bills and emissions. Using energy-efficient reverse-cycle air conditioners is a core element of the shift from gas.However, not everyone is happy with the change. “I just don’t feel warm,” said some people we interviewed after they switched to reverse-cycle air conditioning.

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Our mood usually lifts in spring. But after early heatwaves and bushfires, this year may be different

When we think of spring, we might imagine rebirth and renewal that comes with the warmer weather and longer days. It’s usually a time to celebrate, flock to spring flower festivals and spend more time in nature.Spending time in nature or doing things outside, such as exercising or gardening, lifts our mood.

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Closer relations between Australia and India have the potential to benefit both nations

The structure of Andrew Charlton’s Australia’s Pivot to India is built on three promises: the promise of India; the promise of the Australia-India relationship; and the promise of the Indian diaspora becoming a powerful mainstream force in Australian politics. At a time when the Indian diaspora is attracting attention globally, this book – launched on Wednesday by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – will be read, and read widely.

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What kind of Australia will we wake up to if the Voice referendum is defeated on October 14?

It was Robert Menzies, father of the modern Liberal Party, who famously remarked: “to get an affirmative vote from the Australian people on a referendum proposal is the labour of Hercules”. Menzies knew this from bitter experience. The politician with the electoral Midas touch was the sponsor of three unsuccessful referendums. Most notable was Menzies’ (thankfully) failed 1951 attempt to win public support for amending the Constitution to grant his government the power to outlaw the Communist Party of Australia.

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Too hard basket: why climate change is defeating our political system

This article is part of a series by The Conversation, Getting to Zero, examining Australia’s energy transition.When I was first asked to write an opening piece in The Conversation’s series on climate change and the energy transition, I wanted to say no. I didn’t want to think about what I and anyone else who has been paying attention knows is coming; not just next summer, which is likely to be a scorcher like the one the northern hemisphere has just endured, but in the summers after that for centuries to come.

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The road is long and time is short, but Australia's pace towards net zero is quickening

This article is part of a series by The Conversation, Getting to Zero, examining Australia’s energy transition.The marks of industry have forever changed the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, edged by the Blue Mountains to the south and ancient rainforests to the north. Coal has been mined here for more than 200 years, providing generations of people with good livelihoods and lives. But the end of coal in the Hunter does not spell the end of communities. Quite the opposite.

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Emperor penguins face a bleak future - but some colonies will do better than others in diverse sea-ice conditions

Over the past two years, Antarctic sea ice has declined dramatically, prompting scientists to suggest it could reach a “new state”. A study based on satellite images shows that sea ice broke out early in Antarctica’s Bellingshausen Sea in 2022, potentially resulting in breeding failures across several Emperor penguin colonies in that region.

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Why do I suddenly owe tax this year? It could be because the Low and Middle Income Tax offset is gone, forever

Ever since Australia’s transition to self-assessment for income tax returns, we have been primed to expect an annual refund.That’s by design. Thinking we will get a refund acts as an incentive to get us to fill in the form.

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Organisms without brains can learn, too - so what does it mean to be a thinking creature?

The brain is an evolutionary marvel. By shifting the control of sensing and behaviour to this central organ, animals (including us) are able to flexibly respond and flourish in unpredictable environments. One skill above all – learning – has proven key to the good life.But what of all the organisms that lack this precious organ? From jellyfish and corals to our plant, fungi and single-celled neighbours (such as bacteria), the pressure to live and reproduce is no less intense, and the value of learning is undiminished.

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Utopia gone wrong: identity and history intersect in Jenny Erpenbeck's haunting new novel

Jenny Erpenbeck’s new novel Kairos, translated by Michael Hofmann, is a story about a relationship between a young woman and an older married man, set against the backdrop of the final years of the German Democratic Republic. But Kairos is much more than a story about an affair. It is about chance encounters and finding one’s place in a world on the cusp of disintegration.

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Should I be getting my vitamin D levels checked?

Australia has seen a surge in vitamin D testing of children, with similar trends reported for adults around the world. GPs are now being urged not to test for vitamin D unnecessarily.So when is low vitamin D a potential concern? And when might you need to get your levels tested?

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'The boss of Country', not wild dogs to kill: living with dingoes can unite communities

Girringun Aboriginal Corporation Communications Officer and Founder of Dingo Culture, Indigenous Knowledge Girringun Aboriginal Corporation Indigenous Protected Areas Coordinator and Acting Executive Officer, Indigenous Knowledge

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Introducing The Conversation's new climate series, Getting to Zero

Australia, like many other countries, has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 – just 27 years from now. The Albanese government has also committed to sourcing 82% of all electricity from renewables by 2030 – just seven years from now.To meet these targets, and to avoid the potentially catastrophic effects of unchecked global warming, requires Australia to play its part in a transformation that former Chief Scientist Alan Finkel describes as “the most profound economic change to civilisation of all time.”

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How women's environmental action across the Global South can create a better planet

Patriarchal culture is the cause behind this. We often do not involve women in responding to environmental problems. To often, we exclude them in discussions on solutions to climate crisis. Patriarchal culture also creates unequal gender relations, with women being considered only capable of managing household and domestic work.

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Disability royal commissioners disagreed over phasing out 'special schools' -

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability delivered 222 recommendations on Friday after four and a half years of investigation and deliberation. In its 32 hearings and nearly 8,000 submissions, people with disability shared difficult stories of personal and systemic violence. The commission’s final report showed Australians of all ages with disability continue to experience injustice that must be addressed. As signatories to the Convention for the Rights of People with Disability and the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the commission concluded children and young people have a right to inclusive education.

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Great Expectations: new theatrical adaptation sets Dickens novel in partition-era Bengal

We set eyes on Pip, the protagonist of Charles Dickens’s 1861 novel Great Expectations, for the first time in the churchyard where his parents and brothers are buried. The vision of the boy in front of the ruins of his family is one of rude survivalism. It’s a trait that will see Pip through the misadventures ahead – but the sorrow of surviving on these terms is unmistakable. However, Tanika Gupta’s adaptation of Great Expectations, currently showing at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, opens with “Pipli” buzzing around, doing cartwheels, at ease in his world. Gupta’s version is set in Bengal in 1899, where alarming rumours of an imminent partition of the province have spread.

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Party conference season is here - but decades of polling evidence suggests these events barely move the dial

From late September to early October, the UK’s political parties gather for their autumn conferences. The Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party will be among the parties bringing their members and MPs together at some expense in a season that lasts about three weeks. Party conferences fulfil a lot of important political functions in the British party system. Florence Faucher-King, a political scientist based at Sciences Po in Paris, has written the definitive study of British party conferences in the form of an anthropological analysis.

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Political leaders need a grand narrative - Rishi Sunak's is a story of decline

During a January 2023 speech on “building a better future” the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, insisted that “we can change our country’s character. We can reverse the creeping acceptance of a narrative of decline.”Months later, this narrative has manifested in Tory malaise and division, low approval ratings, and collapsing buildings. Sunak recently watered down his climate change mitigation policies, and refused to “speculate” on the future of rail project HS2. The Sunak government is seemingly unable to reverse a harmful narrative or maintain its own.

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Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells Channel Two Pals from Junior High

History, as Florida has taught us, is constantly being rewritten. Just ask Anthony King and Scott Brown, whose “Gutenberg! The Musical!”—a hilariously apocryphal two-man show about the invention of the printing press—started previews on Broadway this month. (Their musical “Beetlejuice,” meanwhile, has cropped up in recent stranger-than-fiction headlines.) The other morning, they stood outside the Morgan Library & Museum, waiting to see two of the Morgan’s three Gutenberg Bibles, and tried to reconstruct their friendship origin story.“Eighth grade, Carrington Junior High, Durham, North Carolina. Working on ‘Oliver!’ ” Brown recalled.

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55 Years Ago, a Legendary Director Made a Cult Classic Thriller -- And Invented a New Genre

The grandfather of modern horror tapped into cultural anxieties... but he also made a taut thriller.Despite the copious amounts of gore and self-seriousness that define the genre’s contemporary outings, American cinematic horror has gone through some seismic shifts in its 100+ year history. Prior to the ‘60s, horror films usually fell into three camps: sci-fi in the shadow of the Atomic Age, cheap dime-a-dozen B-movies, or theatrical adaptations of Gothic literature. The Hayes Code meant these films had to have some degree of restraint, and the horrors on-screen felt fantastical and removed from reality.

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Trees Are Dying at Shocking Rates -- Understanding How Could Ultimately Save Them

To predict the fate of the world’s woods in the face of climate change, researchers need to understand how trees die.As we hang far above the ground on a sunny October day, it would be easy to focus on the blue crests of hills and the small towns tucked in between. But Richard Peters, who’s with me inside a metal gondola mounted onto the maneuverable arm of a crane, points me instead to the tree canopy below, flushed with the gold and copper shades of fall. “That guy is definitely on his way to die,” he says of one tree.

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'Baldur's Gate 3' Can't Escape D&D's Racist and Restrictive Roots

For good reason, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a massive critical and commercial success. Its characters are complex and vivid, its world is full of intrigue, and it offers unparalleled freedom for players to engage with it on their own terms. But it could be so much better if it weren’t built on such a shaky foundation.Like Baldur’s Gate 3, Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition is an extraordinarily popular game. Unlike Baldur’s Gate 3, it isn’t a particularly good one. Compared to older editions, D&D 5e is far more flexible and encourages improvisation. That’s part of why it works so well in popular play shows like Critical Role. But what makes for a good podcast is different from what makes a good game.

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2023's Most Exciting Sci-Fi Filmmaker Could Teach Hollywood a Vital Lesson

Director Gareth Edwards returns with his first movie in seven years this week. The Creator, an ambitious, AI-centric original sci-fi thriller, is Edwards’ long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. That film was famously plagued by behind-the-scenes conflicts and reshoots that, according to numerous accounts, ended up taking a lot of Edwards’ creative control of the project away from him. He has now returned with a sci-fi film that was, for better and worse, seemingly made exactly how he intended.Produced on a shockingly limited $80 million budget, The Creator is not only Edwards’ attempt to prove himself again as a creative force to be reckoned with in Hollywood but also a rallying cry for more filmmakers and producers to start making large-scale blockbusters that don’t all cost north of $300 million. While it falls short of the mark in several ways, The Creator pulls off both of those things with flying colors.

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This Controversial Breathing Technique Could Dramatically Improve Your Running

Breathing through your nose may actually be a better technique to use during intense exercise. Breathing is subconscious. We don’t have to think about it — it just happens. But when we exercise, many of us become more aware of it than we normally are — sometimes thinking about every breath we take.

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The 50 Cheapest, Coolest Home Upgrades That'll Impress The Hell Out of People

Cool home upgrades that solve annoying problems and make your home look and run better don’t have to be a major expense. Every item on this list combines style and function: There are functional picks like a one-handed jar opener and pieces of decor like a statement-making arched mirror that looks like it costs way more than it does. Even better, these easy-to-install yet dramatic changes are all budget friendly, starting at just $8.Whether you pick them up in matte black, shiny gold, brushed silver, or bright white, this set of four stainless steel hooks will be a great addition to any room in your home. They can hold your coat next to the front door, your robe in the bathroom, or umbrellas in the garage. They can support up to 11 pounds and come with all hardware necessary for installation.

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Scientists Finally Discovered The Mystery of the "Octopus Garden" Gathering Site

Two miles below the ocean surface off Monterey, California, warm water percolates from the seafloor at the base of an underwater mountain. It’s a magical place, especially if you’re an octopus.In 2018, one of us, Amanda Kahn, was aboard the research vessel E/V Nautilus when scientists discovered the “Octopus Garden.” Thousands of pearl octopuses (Muusoctopus robustus) were curled up into individual balls in lines and clumps. As Nautilus Live streamed the expedition online, the world got to share the excitement of the discovery.

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These All-Electric Vans Making Camping Look Luxurious

The idea of living in your van had humble beginnings with people tackling budget DIY conversions of decommissioned utility vans. But it didn’t take very long for influencers to spark the #vanlife movement, making life on the road seem glamorous. The surge in popularity has led to pre-built camper vans made by boutique startups with outrageous price tags, and now, big-time automakers are offering pre-built camper vans complete with sleeping quarters, kitchens, and bathrooms.

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50 Smart Things Under $30 on Amazon You'll End Up Using at Least Twice a Day

There are things you buy that you use once every so often — a power drill, ice cream maker, or set of champagne glasses, for example — and then there are the standby items that are on regular rotation. I’ve rounded up a bunch of clever things on Amazon that all fall into that latter category — you’re pretty much bound to reach for them multiple times a day. From tech gadgets to ingenious kitchen inventions to storage solutions, you’re about to discover some of the smartest things that’ll streamline your day-in-and-day-out routine.Rather than let your belongings clutter up your shelves, organize them with these fabric bins. You can also use them to tidy up your clothing drawers — use one for socks, another for underwear, and so on. You get 12 bins in a variety of small, medium, and large sizes, allowing you to arrange them in a way that best works for your space.

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At-home Facial Exercises Claim to Reverse Aging --

Influencers say these exercises can improve face sagging and reduce wrinkles. Experts aren't so sure. In 2021, the anti-aging industry’s worth was estimated at $62.6 billion. Much like aging itself, the industry shows no signs of slowing down. With all the serums, creams, peels, procedures, and even surgeries out there, getting older has gotten perpetually more expensive and time-consuming.

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'Ahsoka' Episode 8 Runtime Reveals a Disappointing Fact About the Finale

Even for Star Wars, a franchise that encompasses everything from laser swords to ghosts, Ahsoka is pushing the limits of what’s possible in that galaxy far away. Already this season, we’ve gotten everything from galaxy-hopping space whales to Clone Wars flashback hallucinations. But the show’s runtimes have remained surprisingly consistent. Aside from a short Episode 3, every episode so far has been 40-something minutes long, which feels consistent with a classic hour-long broadcast series (minus commercials).If any episode were to be extra long, it would be Ahsoka’s Season 1 (or perhaps series?) finale, which presumably needs to wrap up all the loose ends established so far, from Thrawn’s ongoing threat to just how Ahsoka and company will return to their home galaxy. However, the leaked runtime of the episode suggests we may have to wait longer for all the answers.

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'Ahsoka's Most Disappointing Reveal Sets Up Episode 8 for Failure

Ahsoka has spent the majority of its eight-episode season building to the intergalactic return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), a character so formidable that he could, according to multiple characters, single-handedly lead an Imperial resurgence. Despite that fact, many of Thrawn’s scenes throughout Ahsoka’s sixth and seventh episodes have been utterly devoid of tension. The character has been so coolly confident and blasé about every obstacle that has entered his path that it’s been hard to get truly invested in his storyline.That’s particularly true of Thrawn’s scenes throughout Ahsoka Episode 7, which see him respond to the arrival of Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) with several decisions that fail in surprisingly spectacular fashion. Rather than expressing frustration or anger over his failures throughout the episode, he explains them away and lays out his entire plan for escaping Peridea.

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Experts Say Whole-body MRI Scans Aren't As Revolutionary As They Seem

Is worrying about your health keeping you up at night? Well, for the low cost of a couple of grand, you can achieve peace of mind with a full-body MRI scan.It’s the latest healthcare trend taking the rich and famous by storm and setting a precedent for companies marketing full-body MRIs as a proactive health tool with a simple goal: to detect and catch the first stirrings of diseases like cancer or brain aneurysms before they strike. Already, companies like California-based Prenuvo have glowing reviews from celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Maria Menounos, and equally enthusiastic financial backing from venture capitalists and tech moguls like 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki.

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11 Years Later, The Scariest Sci-Fi Thriller of 2023 Borrows One Brilliant Cinematic Trick

The celebrated horror director reveals the secret to making a great found-footage movie — and his dream sci-fi project.A serial killer stalks the streets of a town, leaving a trail of violence and gore behind him. The local police (including a videographer capturing everything on his Super 8 camera) track the murder futilely. Their only clue is a series of videotapes that show up at the station, revealing footage of each murder somehow recorded days before they take place.

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For socialism and freedom: the life of Eugene Debs | Aeon Essays

is lecturer in political theory in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.A shot rang out from the jailhouse at Woodstock, Illinois on a quiet summer’s morning in 1895. One of the inmates had pulled the trigger on an old Civil War musket after thrusting it between the iron bars of a window. The gun was fired by the union leader Eugene V Debs to mark the Fourth of July: this was no prison break, but a demand for another kind of freedom. Later that day, he would write in praise of liberty, while delivering the grim verdict that, in the United States, it now ‘lies cold and stiff and dead’. Soon to be the country’s most influential socialist, how had Debs come to find himself contemplating the prospects of US liberty from behind the bars of McHenry County Jail?

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Why one man spent 15 years in 'self-imposed' island exile | Aeon Videos

Born on Jersey in the Channel Islands (part of the British Crown Dependency), Alphonse Le Gastelois (1914-2012) moved to the small, only seasonally inhabited Écréhous island chain roughly six miles away in 1961, after being wrongly suspected of a series of heinous sexual assaults. Relocating for his own safety and peace of mind, he remained there, living mostly in isolation, until 1975, even after he was proven innocent when the string of attacks continued in his absence and the real culprit was finally caught in 1971. First broadcast in 1978, this clip from the BBC series Nationwide: Remote Britain tells Le Gastelois’s incredible story of ‘self-imposed exile’, including his formal attempt to become ‘King of the Écréhous’ – a request that would ultimately go unfulfilled in law, if not in legend. Depicting the power of unfounded rumour and gossip to derail a life, his story is one that echoes with amplified intensity in the internet age.An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’

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How AI Can Help Cut Energy Costs While Meeting Ambitious ESG Goals - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

At the same time, consumers, investors, and regulators increasingly expect companies to embrace environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles and speed up with factual decarbonization. In most industries, thriving in the long term requires urgent progress on ESG. Many enterprises have set ambitious goals for reducing their carbon footprints but are struggling to achieve them.

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The Great Resignation Didn't Start with the Pandemic

Covid-19 spurred on the Great Resignation of 2021, during which record numbers of employees voluntarily quit their jobs. But what we are living through is not just short-term turbulence provoked by the pandemic. Instead, it’s the continuation of a trend of rising quit rates that began more than a decade ago. Five main factors are at play in this trend: retirement, relocation, reconsideration, reshuffling, and reluctance. All of these factors, the authors argue, are here to stay. They explore each in turn and encourage leaders to examine which of them are contributing most to turnover in their organizations, so that they can adapt appropriately as they move into the future.

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McKinsey's Three Horizons Model Defined Innovation for Years. Here's Why It No Longer Applies.

In the 20th century McKinsey created a model called the Three Horizons to explain how businesses must invest in current products, incremental innovations, and breakthrough innovations. The framework relied on time as a guiding factor; it assumes that truly breakthrough innovations will take years to develop. Technology has made that assumption incorrect: Today innovations like Uber and Airbnb can be rolled out extremely quickly. Because established companies tend to move slowly and must invest resources in existing products, this means that unlike in the 20th century, attacking disruptors now have the advantage.The Three Horizons allowed senior management to visualize what an ambidextrous organization would look like — the idea that companies and government agencies need to execute existing business models while simultaneously creating new capabilities — and helped to prioritize innovation products and programs.

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How Brands and Influencers Can Make the Most of the Relationship

Even as companies devote increasing shares of their marketing budgets to paying social media influencers to tout their products, researchers know little about the tactic’s effectiveness or its overall impact on influencers, their followers, and their partner brands. So, a team of researchers decided to investigate. HBS assistant professor Shunyuan Zhang and doctoral student Magie Cheng analyzed more than 85,000 influencer videos posted on YouTube from August 2019 to August 2020. Comparing similar posts with and without paid promotions, they found that putting out a sponsored video caused significant numbers of followers to doubt the influencers’ authenticity and drop off. The study’s findings suggest several ways for influencers and brands, along with the platforms hosting their content, to minimize the damage.

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Analytics for Marketers

Advanced analytics can help companies solve a host of management problems, including those related to marketing, sales, and supply-chain operations, which can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. But as more data becomes available and advanced analytics are further refined, managers may struggle with when, where, and how much to incorporate machines into their business analytics, and to what extent they should bring their own judgment to bear when making data-driven decisions.

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What Makes a Great Leader?

Tomorrow’s leaders master three key roles — architect, bridger, and catalyst, or ABCs — to access the talent and tools they need to drive innovation and impact. As architects, they build the culture and capabilities for co-creation. As bridgers, they curate and enable networks of talent inside and outside their organizations to co-create. And as catalysts, they lead beyond their organizational boundaries to energize and activate co-creation across entire ecosystems. These ABCs require leaders to stop relying on formal authority as their source of power and shift to a style that enables diverse talent to collaborate, experiment, and learn together — a challenging yet essential personal transformation.

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Above-Elbow Bionic Arm Can Control Every Finger

Researchers have created the first nerve-controlled prosthetic hand that can be used in daily lifeMost bionic limbs are controlled by electrical signals generated by muscles moving near the attachment site. But when an arm is amputated above the elbow, the remaining muscles aren't enough to control every joint in an artificial hand. “The higher the amputation, the more joints you have to replace, and the fewer muscles you have to do it,” says Max Ortiz Catalán, a bionicist at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

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Your Project Management Software Can't Save You

When I worked as a copywriter at a dog-toy-slash-tech company, we used Airtable and Basecamp to organize our workflows. At my next job, the marketers made us learn Asana (“same as Airtable but much better”), but the product team pushed their work and sprints through Jira. I was laid off before I had to learn Jira, and at my next gig they swore by Airtable, which, phew, I already knew. But efficiencies were still being lost, apparently, and Airtable took the blame. As I was leaving that job, I heard someone mention that a new program, Trello, was going to replace Airtable and “change everything” for us. I came back as a contractor a few years later, and everything had not changed. The company had moved on from Trello and was now in the thrall of something called Monday.com. It, too, promised big changes.If you work as an “individual contributor”—engineer, copywriter, designer, data analyst, marketer—in the modern white-collar workforce, you’ve probably encountered one of these project-management software (PM software) enterprises. Your onboarding will include an invitation to collaborate from the likes of Smartsheet, Notion, Udemy, ClickUp, Projectworks, Wrike, and Height. The list seems endless and yet is somehow still growing. More than a hundred proprietary apps and planners are currently vying for companies’ business, all promising increased productivity, seamless workflow, and unmatched agility. And if, like me, you’ve ping-ponged between a couple of jobs and project teams over a few years, you’ve had to come to terms with the fact that misunderstandings and confusion are natural in any large workforce. But in an increasingly digital, increasingly remote age of work, you might still imagine that a “killer app” really would win. And yet none of these PM software services make work work. The key to these deficiencies lies in the history of workplace efficiency itself—starting with the original business consultants.

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The Game Theory of the Auto Strikes

The United Auto Workers strike against Detroit’s Big Three—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis—escalated into its third week on Friday. Workers at two additional plants operated by Ford and GM walked off the job, taking the number of union members striking for better pay and benefits to more than 25,000.The dispute looks unlikely to end soon. As they try to understand where things are headed, economists, philosophers, labor experts, business professors, and a handful of boutique consulting firms see a juicy opportunity to put a 100-year-old economic theory into practice. Guys. It’s time for some game theory.

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How Insect Brains Melt and Rewire During Metamorphosis

On warm summer nights, green lacewings flutter around bright lanterns in backyards and at campsites. The insects, with their veil-like wings, are easily distracted from their natural preoccupation with sipping on flower nectar, avoiding predatory bats, and reproducing. Small clutches of the eggs they lay hang from long stalks on the underside of leaves and sway like fairy lights in the wind.The dangling ensembles of eggs are beautiful but also practical: They keep the hatching larvae from immediately eating their unhatched siblings. With sickle-like jaws that pierce their prey and suck them dry, lacewing larvae are “vicious,” said James Truman, a professor emeritus of development, cell and molecular biology at the University of Washington. “It’s like ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in one animal.”

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A Soviet doctor's wild experiment to create hybrid human-ape super warriors

The 1973 film The Wicker Man is one of the most quietly disturbing movies. One reason is that it features people dressed in animal masks. They appear from time to time, often just standing there in silence, and they’re watching you. Seeing a fully grown man wearing a fish face should be comical. In The Wicker Man, few in the audience are laughing.There is something primal about the fear of man-beast hybrids. The earliest stories we know of contain many of these “chimeras” — humans but with an aspect of a beast. We have the minotaur, mermaid, harpy, or wendigo. The Hindu and ancient Egyptian pantheon are full of chimerical deities. These stories often represent tension between our human rational side and our animalistic drives. They’re also scary folk stories to tell around the campfire.

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Get a whiff of ancient Egyptian mummified organs

We expect death to stink. In our olfactory memory, the idea of decaying organic remains rarely conjures a pleasant odor: sour, fetid, nauseating. But in ancient Egypt, death—and therefore the afterlife—had a different aroma.“They [ancient Egyptian texts] say that when ‘people die, they rot, they decay, they stink, and they will become countless worms.’ This is how they describe it,” says Barbara Huber, doctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany. “If you stink it means your body is already decaying—a bad, bad thing. So in order to be able to live for eternity, you need to smell good.”

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The Indian Ocean has the world's largest gravity hole. Now we know why

Dear Indian Ocean, please don’t take offense, but: Why is your gravity hole so big? That question had been baffling scientists ever since the hole was discovered back in 1948. Now a team from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) thinks they have found the answer: The “hole” in the Indian Ocean is caused by fragments from the sunken floor of another, much older ocean.In a mysterious part of the Indian Ocean, the pull of gravity is much weaker than anywhere else on Earth. This gravity hole, the world’s largest (and deepest) gravitational anomaly, is officially known as the Indian Ocean Geoid Low (IOGL). (A geoid is a theoretical model of sea levels worldwide, with its irregularities corresponding to variations in the Earth’s gravity.)

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Is psychology good for anything?

After all, many published studies fail to replicate, and influential researchers have admitted to wrongdoing, from engaging in questionable research practices to committing outright fraud. Just this summer, allegations of data tampering have thrown into question numerous studies about (ironically) honesty by high-profile psychologists Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino. Has discarding these findings affected our understanding of human psychology in any meaningful way?According to a recent piece by Adam Mastroianni, who is now a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School, the answer may be: meh, not really.

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Sleep apnea is surprisingly deadly. One in five adults has it

A pernicious scourge strikes an estimated one in five American adults as they sleep, and most are unaware of it: sleep apnea.Sleep apnea is a condition in which your breathing frequently stops and restarts during sleep, simultaneously depriving the body of vital oxygen and forcing you to repeatedly and unknowingly wake up, often preventing adequate rest. Its most common form, called obstructive sleep apnea, is caused when the muscles supporting the throat and nose relax to such a degree that they entirely block your airway.

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An Octogenarian Horror Villain Still Racking Up Scares

The long-running Saw franchise is back, and finally putting its most defining antagonist in the spotlight. Hollywood’s biggest horror franchises have lately been lacking in all-star villainy. This isn’t to demonize long-running hit series such as The Conjuring, Insidious, and The Purge, none of which rely on one big bad guy. But many of scary cinema’s most infamous adversaries—Michael Myers, Leatherface, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees—have grown quite long in the tooth, without any obvious contemporary heirs. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that Saw X, one of the biggest horror-movie offerings this Halloween season, centers on a man in his early 80s.

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Humans Can No Longer Ignore the Threat of Fungi

Back at the turn of the 21st century, valley fever was an obscure fungal disease in the United States, with fewer than 3,000 reported cases a year, mostly in California and Arizona. Two decades later, cases of valley fever have exploded, increasing roughly sevenfold by 2019.And valley fever isn’t alone. Fungal diseases in general are appearing in places they have never been seen before, and previously harmless or mildly harmful fungi are becoming more dangerous for people. One likely reason for this worsening fungal situation, scientists say, is climate change. Shifts in temperature and rainfall patterns are expanding where disease-causing fungi occur; climate-triggered calamities can help fungi disperse and reach more people; and warmer temperatures create opportunities for fungi to evolve into more dangerous agents of disease.

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Low Stakes, High Drama

Some of our writers’ most entertaining—and controversial—opinions on everyday mattersThis 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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The Supreme Court Cases That Could Redefine the Internet

In the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, both Facebook and Twitter decided to suspend lame-duck President Donald Trump from their platforms. He had encouraged violence, the sites reasoned; the megaphone was taken away, albeit temporarily. To many Americans horrified by the attack, the decisions were a relief. But for some conservatives, it marked an escalation in a different kind of assault: It was, to them, a clear sign of Big Tech’s anti-conservative bias.That same year, Florida and Texas passed bills to restrict social-media platforms’ ability to take down certain kinds of content. (Each is described in this congressional briefing.) In particular, they intend to make political “deplatforming” illegal, a move that would have ostensibly prevented the removal of Trump from Facebook and Twitter. The constitutionality of these laws has since been challenged in lawsuits—the tech platforms maintain that they have a First Amendment right to moderate content posted by their users. As the separate cases wound their way through the court system, federal judges (all of whom were nominated by Republican presidents) were divided on the laws’ legality. And now they’re going to the Supreme Court.

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How the U.S. Ended Up on the Brink of Government Shutdown

The American government on the brink of shutdown: With the federal government about to run out of money, we explore how the country got to this point, who will be affected, and how U.S. support for Ukraine has become a divisive political issue. Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic and moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, this week to discuss these issues and more: Anne Applebaum, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent at The New York Times; Leigh Ann Caldwell, an anchor at Washington Post Live and a co-author of the Early 202; and Asma Khalid, a White House correspondent at NPR and a co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast.

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Kevin McCarthy Finally Defies the Right

The speaker made a last-minute reversal to avert a government shutdown. It could cost him his job.For weeks, Speaker Kevin McCarthy seemed to face an impossible choice as he haggled over spending bills with his party’s most hard-line members: He could keep the government open, or he could keep his job. At every turn, McCarthy’s behavior suggested that he favored the latter option. He continued accepting the demands of far-right Republicans to deepen spending cuts and dig in against the Democrats, making a shutdown at tonight’s midnight deadline all but a certainty.

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Taylor Swift Is Too Famous for This

The celebrity-gossip industrial complex is about to crash into the savagery of sports media. Cover your eyes.Has Taylor Swift ever been more popular, more all-powerful, more white Beyoncé than she is right now? She’s in the middle of an era-defining tour that is literally called the Eras Tour. A concert-film version of the show is about to arrive in theaters nationwide—she dropped the news a few weeks ago, and within hours, Hollywood studios were scrambling to get their movies out of her way. The bracelets are everywhere. And now, to her vast dominion, she has added untold millions of football-loving (mostly) men, thanks to her escalating flirtations with the Kansas City Chiefs’ sexy goofus tight end, Travis Kelce.

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