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 S3220 Years Ago, An Unassuming War Game Launched A Multi-Billion Dollar Behemoth   Twenty years ago, a WWII game competing with the then-king of battle games served as an unsuspecting springboard for the biggest, and arguably most important, video game franchise of the last 25 years. The game was Call of Duty, and it redefined gaming for both players and those working in the industry.The original Call of Duty was a well-reviewed, respected game in its day, but nothing about the WWII shooter indicated this would be one of gaming’s most successful franchises. The genre was just gaining momentum, and at the time, it was largely competing with other similar titles, most notably Medal of Honor. Several members of the team that created Medal of Honor actually went on to help build Infinity Ward, the company that crafted CoD.
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S16Gabrielle Carey's affectionate life of James Joyce is a story of contingency, vulnerability and sadness  Gabrielle Carey cast a distinctive shadow within Australian writing, one you miss acutely only when it is no longer bodily present, even as elements of her essence remain as words on the page. She was a writer who brought her own life into writing in ways that challenged ordinary assumptions about the nature of autobiography, since she was not only interested in events or things, but also in ideas – ideas that exist as a state of longing or emotion, as much as they exist as intellectual givens or facts.
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S22S24Brain tumours can bring long-term disability - but some diagnosed are being refused NDIS support  Kathy Boschen was formerly a senior compliance officer for the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, an advisor for the NDIA Administrative Appeals Tribunal Team, and an NDIA subject matter expert on mental heath access.The ABC is reporting how terminally ill patients are being left in limbo as the states and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) argue over disability supports. The reports share the experiences of Australians with brain tumours and highlight the distress of getting a diagnosis, as well as the lack of support people can experience.
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S23S3420 Years Later, One Critical Star Wars Canon Rule Was Secretly Rewritten  Star Wars is intertwined with the concept of destiny. Anakin is the Chosen One according to a Jedi prophecy, and Luke is destined to defeat him because of his bloodline. Prophecies add a power bigger than the characters, a way for the Force itself to influence the story. But two more prophecies ripple throughout the series, and a fascinating fan theory suggests they may be one and the same. The Rise of Skywalker introduced the concept of the Force Dyad, two people intrinsically connected through the Force. Palpatine thought he could use Ray’s power, but instead, it’s the prophecy Rey and Kylo fulfill when they join forces to defeat Palpatine. In The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, we see this prophecy in its original Sith Runes.
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S14Geopolitical chess game: Why India has no interest in serving as a western pawn  Canada’s deepening divide with India following its accusation that the Indian government was responsible for the murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar has revealed a cynical truth: the West’s interest in democracy and rules-based international order is largely empty rhetoric. Canada’s western allies have offered some support in its confrontation with India. However, this support is extremely limited. India is too important to American efforts to contain China.
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S27Why humans aren't as egocentric as you might think - new research  If you’ve read much about psychology or evolution, it’s easy to get the idea that humans are hardwired to act as if the world revolves around themselves.A common claim in psychology is that humans are egocentric creatures, fundamentally biased towards our own beliefs. Indeed, one explanation of why children until around the age of four don’t readily understand that other people can have different beliefs to them, is that ignoring their own beliefs is just too difficult for pre-schoolers.
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S12Pup Play: Kink communities can help people build connections and improve their body image  In recent years, the world of kink lifestyles and subcultures has gained increasing attention. Kink is a general term that includes various expressions of unconventional or non-traditional sexual desires. This encompasses a wide array of practices, including power dynamics, intense sensations/stimuli, role-playing and more. One such form of role-play that is often misunderstood is known as pup play. Pups are consenting adults who roleplay by dressing and acting as young canines, or pups.
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S35El Ni  El Niño is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon, and the atmosphere also plays a crucial role.During a normal year, the warmest sea surface temperatures are in the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, in what’s known as the Indo-Western Pacific warm pool.
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S17Slashing salt can save lives - and it won't hurt your hip pocket or tastebuds  Peter Breadon's employer, Grattan Institute, has been supported in its work by government, corporates, and philanthropic gifts. A full list of supporting organisations is published at www.grattan.edu.au.Lachlan Fox's employer, Grattan Institute, has been supported in its work by government, corporates, and philanthropic gifts. A full list of supporting organisations is published at www.grattan.edu.au.
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S19S33Amazon's Selling a Ton of These 75 Clever Gifts Because They're So Freaking Cheap  It’s pretty much always gifting season. Whether you’re looking to find a present for a friend, that special someone, or yourself, this list is a good place to start — because these gifts are super clever, cool, and cheap.From a DIY cold brew maker to a headband with built-in headphones, here are 75 clever gifts that Amazon is selling a ton of because they’re great — and just so happen to be budget-friendly.
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S396 Years Later, 'Rick and Morty' Redefines Its Most Important Crusade  For a show that kicked things off with a storyline about a grandfather forcing his grandson to smuggle Mega Seeds through interdimensional customs in his butt, Rick and Morty can be surprisingly thoughtful. Look no further than Morty’s heartfelt speech to his sister Summer in Season 1 Episode 8, “Rixty Minutes.” But one topic where the show still continues to surprise us is its evolved perspective on mental health and the benefits of therapy.Ever since her first appearance in Season 3’s “Pickle Rick,” whenever Dr. Helen Wong (Susan Sarandon) shows up as Rick’s therapist, we know she’s going to take him to task for his toxic behavior. While her calm, analytical demeanor is often played for laughs in stark contrast to Rick’s belligerence, she’s often quick to offer poignant insights about how important it is to work on yourself — even if you’re basically the immortal god of the multiverse.
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S3650 Things That Make Your Home Look Significantly More Expensive for Less Than $35 on Amazon  Sometimes, I fantasize about hiring a glamorous interior designer to make my home look fabulous. But just because I can’t afford to pay a celebrity stylist doesn’t mean I can’t have nice things. There are a ton of decor items on Amazon that look lavish but are actually super affordable.Instead of scrolling through Instagram, despairing that you’ll never be able to keep up with whoever is featured in Architectural Digest this week, try scrolling through this list of low-cost-yet-luxe items.
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S68The Old-Fashioned Charm of The Golden Bachelor  This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer reveals what’s keeping them entertained. Today’s special guest is our Science editor Sarah Laskow. Sarah recently investigated whether salsa is gazpacho—and whether gazpacho is salsa. She’s also explored how America’s lost crops rewrite the history of farming.
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S61A brief history of hell  Dante Alighieri’s Inferno is a pillar of the Western literary canon. A whirlwind tour of the nine circles of hell, the allegorical poem has had volumes of scholarship dedicated to unpacking its secrets. Its vivid, and often grotesque, imagery has inspired artists such as Sandro Botticelli, Auguste Rodin, and William Blake. It was even made into a video game.Alighieri’s other two poems of The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio and Paradiso, explore the realms of purgatory and heaven, respectively. But they don’t receive the love, attention, and adoration of the hell-bound original. That’s because heaven is — let’s face it — a little one note. Hell is where the drama happens.
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S25S9Shepherd Ndudzo's celebrated sculptures tell an untold history of southern African art  The work of award-winning Zimbabwe-born sculptor Shepherd Ndudzo is instantly recognisable. Fluid, elongated black bodies and body parts flow from white rock in a typical work. The bodies are dancing or praying, holding hands or reaching out. The work by the artist (born in 1978) was displayed as a celebration of the sculpture of Botswana, where he lives and works. The show was dedicated to his father, Barnabas Ndudzo, the famed creator of realistic, often life-size sculptures. In a documentary produced by the gallery, Shepherd tells how he was taught to sculpt by his father. He says that his works speak about migration and help tell his family story.
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S15United Auto Workers union hails its tentative strike-ending deals with Ford and Stellantis that would raise top assembly-plant hourly pay to more than $40 as 'record contracts'  The United Auto Workers union agreed on tentative new contracts with Ford Motor Co. on Oct. 25, 2023, and Stellantis, the global automaker that makes Chrysler, Dodge and Ram vehicles in North America, on Oct. 28. The tentative deals halted a six-week strike that remains in place for General Motors. The strike, the industry’s longest in 25 years, began on Sept. 15, when the UAW’s prior contracts with all three automakers expired.Ford released a statement in which it said it was “pleased” to have reached a deal and “focused on restarting Kentucky Truck Plant, Michigan Assembly Plant and Chicago Assembly Plant.” Stellantis, likewise, looks forward to “resuming operations,” one of its executives said in a statement.
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S21We must assess 'cumulative impacts' to protect nature from death by a thousand cuts  Australia’s national environment protection law ignores the big picture. Like a racehorse wearing blinkers, decision-makers focus on a single project in isolation. If they dropped the blinkers and considered the combined effects of multiple projects, they might shy away from allowing so many harmful impacts. Urgent reform is needed because nature is suffering death by a thousand cuts. We have more than 2,000 threatened species and ecological communities – groups of plants and animals that live together and interact, such as Western Australia’s iconic Banksia woodlands. That number is likely to grow, as hundreds more await assessment for listing.
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S20S37Toyota's New Prius Is the Most Important Car That Nobody Is Talking About  It became, firstly, attractive — even sleek — shedding its ugly-duckling M.O. No, it didn’t suddenly become an EV; it’s still a hybrid, but with a ridiculous 57 mpg and a damn cheap $27,450 price tag, it’s one of the smartest, most affordable ways you can reduce your carbon footprint.If you’re questioning that first sentence, I get why. For a quarter century, the Prius was a virtue-signaling king, right down to that mandatory “Coexist” bumper sticker.
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S51S60The Real Reason You (Still) Watch Reality TV  On day one of shooting season five of Love Is Blind, a junior staffer walked into the control room and told executive producers Chris Coelen and Ally Simpson, who oversee every aspect of the popular Netflix dating series, that there was a problem. “There’s two people who know each other and appear to have had a relationship of some sort,” the staffer said to them. In the show’s short but relatively iconic run, this was a first.Coelen and Simpson’s initial instinct was to send the participants home. “We said, look, the essence of the experiment is that you get to know someone without knowing anything about them in the material world,” Coelen told them. “We don’t know how we can keep you here.” The show, which attempts to pair 30 men and women together over the course of seven weeks, testing their compatibility and emotional endurance with the sole intention of getting married, is bound by a contract of mutual anonymity upon entering the first phase of the experiment, where daters chat intimately in walled-off pods unable to see one another. The producers reached a compromise, and both contestants—Lydia Velez Gonzalez and Uche Okoroha—were allowed to stay under one condition: their previous romance would remain a secret until one of them made a genuine connection with another dater.
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S13Revelations about Buffy Sainte-Marie's ancestry is having a devastating impact on Indigenous communities across Canada  This isn’t a story about whether Buffy Sainte-Marie — musical icon, activist, community member and beloved Auntie — is biologically Indigenous. Rather, it’s more important to understand the deep impact a CBC report casting doubts on the singer’s ancestry is having across Indigenous lands — and how the fallout from the report shows what reconciliation is not.But before I go there, allow me to situate myself. It will shed some light about why this story may not sound like the one you are looking for — like most Indigenous peoples, I still need time to digest this news about Buffy — but why the impact of the story is something non-Indigenous people need to hear.
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S30The Israel-Hamas war benefits Russia, but so would playing peacemaker  The recent official visit to Moscow by representatives from Hamas and Iran was roundly condemned by Israel. A spokesperson for Israel’s foreign ministry called the visit an “obscene step that gives support to terrorism and legitimises the atrocities of Hamas terrorists”.The Hamas delegation was led by Mousa Abu Marzook, a founder and political leader of the militant group. Iran was represented by deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, who was received by his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Galuzin.
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