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S1May Sarton on Generosity   “Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you,” Annie Dillard wrote in her beautiful essay on generosity. “You open your safe and find ashes.” I feel t…
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S2 How to Engage People on Reskilling: A Language Lesson  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.Reskilling has become an imperative rather than merely a growth opportunity. Technology advancements like generative AI have led the World Economic Forum to project that 44% of employees will experience skill disruptions in 2023. On the surface, organizations seem to be rising to this challenge: Thirty-four percent of Fortune 50 companies have made reskilling and upskilling top strategic priorities and have designated a hefty 1.5% of their annual budgets to support them, according to research from Boston Consulting Group.
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S3 The Looming Challenge of Chemical Disclosures  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.New and emerging rules in the U.S. and Europe that make companies responsible for the environmental impacts of products through their entire life cycles are forcing brands to confront a striking knowledge gap: their often inadequate understanding of the chemicals found in their supply chains.
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S4Passive income: Can easy side hustles earn big money?  Sajan Devshi, 38, says that he first heard about passive income during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. With almost everyone at home, and many people on furlough, Devshi noticed more and more people on his Facebook and TikTok pages posting about the creative ways that they were making money with minimal effort."This ranged from cryptocurrency to drop-shipping to ecommerce," says Devshi, who is based in Leicestershire, UK. "I particularly liked the idea of starting something up and then letting it maintain itself with minimal input. This would mean I could still have time to do other things that are important to me and make money at the same time."
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S5Anarsa: India's deep-fried taste of Diwali  My 81-year-old father waits for Diwali for more than the festivities, family time and fun. He waits to bite into a crisp, crunchy, delectably sweet anarsa, a festive treat that's made during India's "Festival of Lights". The retired army man, who's travelled the length and breadth of the country and seen Diwali celebrations in numerous states, believes that the rice-based sweet treat is the taste of the festival.Professional and home chefs alike agree that a good anarsa is a work of fine art. The round, flaky disc, made from a dough of powdered rice and grated jaggery, is rolled in poppy seeds and deep-fried in ghee until it's a delicious golden brown colour and crunchy, inside and out. The crumbly rice biscuit is just the right amount of sweet, neither cloying, nor lacking, and melts in your mouth.
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S6The one thing George Orwell's 1984 got wrong  Almost four years ago, the novelist Adam Biles was talking to a friend about the fact that the work of George Orwell was due to enter the public domain on New Year's Day 2021. Under UK law, copyright expires 70 years after the end of the calendar year of the author's death; Orwell died in 1950. The two men joked about possible sequels: the aftermath of Nineteen Eighty-Four could be explored in Nineteen Eighty-Five, or Keep the Aspidistra Flying could spawn Keep the Aspidistra Still Flying. Perhaps there could even be a sequel to Animal Farm? "I didn't actively think any more of it for a few months but it kept coming back to me," Biles tells BBC Culture. "It was one of those frivolous ideas that stuck."More like this:- Why Orwell's 1984 could be about now- The world's most misunderstood novel- 25 of the best books of the year so far
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S7Dream Scenario review: Nicolas Cage is on peak form in this surreal, nightmare-filled dark comedy  In this delirious dark comedy, Nicolas Cage and director Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself) take us down a rabbit hole, with the eccentric, unclassifiable star ideally paired to a filmmaker with a wonderfully mordant imagination. Cage plays Paul, a nondescript professor who, for no reason, starts popping up in other people's dreams – first his family's, then his students' and strangers' all over the world.More like this:– Why Nicolas Cage is so misunderstood– 12 films to watch in November – Saltburn review: 'Luridly entertaining'
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S8First Folio at 400: The Shakespeare words you don't know you know  If the fact that William Shakespeare's First Folio, that legacy-defining collection of his plays, is turning 400 has passed you by, you can be sure he'd have had a zinger of a putdown to sling your way. Or better yet, a whole string of them. "Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood" might just do it, borrowed from King Lear railing against his daughter, Goneril. Then again, perhaps he'd settle for more aloof damnation, along the lines of Orlando's insult to Jaques in As You Like It: "I do desire we may be better strangers."That isn't a wish likely to be granted to Shakespeare himself any time soon. During his 52 years on Earth, he enriched the English language in ways so profound that it's hard to fully gauge his impact. Without him, our vocabulary would be just too different. He gave us uniquely vivid ways in which to express hope and despair, sorrow and rage, love and lust. Even if you've never read one of his sonnets or seen one of his plays – even if you've never so much as watched a movie adaptation – you're likely to have quoted him unwittingly. Speak the English language, and he's impossible to avoid.
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S9World Bank suspension of Uganda funds over anti-homosexuality law: what this says about the struggle over funds and sovereignty  The World Bank issued a statement on 8 August 2023, announcing that it had effectively suspended all new public financing to Uganda over concerns with the country’s anti-homosexuality law, which “fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group’s values”. According to Human Rights Watch, the anti-homosexuality act violates multiple fundamental rights guaranteed under Uganda’s constitution and a number of international human rights agreements which the government of Uganda has signed. The act was first proposed in March 2023, and adopted by the Ugandan parliament in early May.
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S10The Great Escaper: Michael Caine's final film is Britain's answer to Saving Private Ryan  The Great Escaper is an engaging exploration of love, loss, memory and trauma. It’s also the final film for its star, Michael Caine, as he has recently announced his retirement. The film tells the real story of Royal Navy veteran, Bernard Jordan, who “escaped” from his care home in June 2014 to attend the 70th anniversary of D-Day commemorations in Normandy. The film follows Caine’s “Bernie” as he embarks upon a deeply personal and emotional reckoning with his war, a journey he undertakes with the support of his stoic wife, Irene, beautifully played by the late Glenda Jackson.
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S11S12S13Generative AI like ChatGPT could help boost democracy - if it overcomes key hurdles  The dawn of artificial intelligence systems that can be used by almost anyone, like ChatGPT, has revolutionized business and alarmed policymakers and the public. Advanced technologies can feel like unstoppable forces shaping society. But a key insight from scholars of philosophy and of the history of technology is that people can, in fact, exert a lot of control over how and where we use these tools.
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S14S15S16Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Here's what investors need to know  In the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency, vast sums of money can be made or lost in the blink of an eye. In early November 2022, the crypto exchange FTX was valued at more than US$30 billion. By the middle of that month, FTX was in bankruptcy proceedings. And less than a year later, on Nov. 3, 2023, its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty of seven counts of money laundering and fraud, following a trial that featured less than a month of testimony and only about four hours of jury deliberation.D. Brian Blank and Brandy Hadley are professors who study finance, executives, firm governance and fintech. They explain how and why this incredible collapse happened, what effect it might have on the traditional financial sector and whether you should care.
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S17Your mental dictionary is part of what makes you unique - here's how your brain stores and retrieves words  The days of having a dictionary on your bookshelf are numbered. But that’s OK, because everyone already walks around with a dictionary – not the one on your phone, but the one in your head.Just like a physical dictionary, your mental dictionary contains information about words. This includes the letters, sounds and meaning, or semantics, of words, as well as information about parts of speech and how you can fit words together to form grammatical sentences. Your mental dictionary is also like a thesaurus. It can help you connect words and see how they might be similar in meaning, sound or spelling.
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S18Engineered 'living materials' could help clean up water pollution one day  As a team of materials scientists, we’re working on an engineered “living material” that may be able to transform chemical dye pollutants from the textile industry into harmless substances.Water pollution is both an environmental and humanitarian issue that can affect ecosystems and human health alike. We’re hopeful that the materials we’re developing could be one tool available to help combat this problem.
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S19S20British king acknowledges colonial atrocities in Kenya - here's what could happen next  On his official visit to Kenya, King Charles III acknowledged Britain’s colonial era “wrongdoings”. He also paid tribute to Kenyan soldiers who had participated in the first and second world wars on behalf of Britain. His visit coincided with Kenya’s 60th independence anniversary. British colonial rule in Kenya was characterised by injustices. Among these were forceful dispossession of indigenous people’s land, torture, detention and brutal suppression of anti-colonial movements.
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S21Israel-Hamas war: there is an important difference between a humanitarian pause and a ceasefire  The Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, has come under fire from members of his own party for refusing to call for a ceasefire in the Hamas-Israel war, instead pushing for a humanitarian pause in the conflict. As a result, 50 Labour councillors have quit the party. The controversy raises the question of the difference between a humanitarian pause and a ceasefire. The conflict began in the early morning of October 7 2023 when armed Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack against Israel, killing at least 1,400 Israelis and taking more than 200 civilians hostage.
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S22ADHD drug shortages are affecting patients in the UK - here's why they're happening  Millions of people in the UK who take drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are facing difficulties getting their prescriptions filled due to shortages. These shortages are currently affecting four of the five types of medicine licensed in the UK to treat ADHD. Certain products and dosages may be more affected than others.This severe disruption in supply is taking a toll on many peoples’ mental health and wellbeing and negatively affecting their daily life. Fortunately, it’s expected these shortages will be resolved by the end of 2023.
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S23Longer sentences? Overcrowded UK prisons are already failing society  The UK government plans to impose tougher sentences on those convicted of serious crimes, it announced via this year’s king’s speech at the state opening of parliament. Political pundits reacting to the speech on the BBC immediately questioned the rationale behind potentially putting more people in prison, when UK prisons are struggling to accommodate those already under their purview.The England and Wales prison watchdog has said that one in ten prisons in those two countries should be shut down because of overcrowding and inhumane regimes. Similar concerns have been voiced over prisons in Scotland and in Northern Ireland.
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S24S25S26How to know if your employer is serious about helping you find purpose in your work  Paychecks are important, of course, but many people also want their work to “matter”. Whether this means helping people in your local area, or contributing to a global cause like reducing waste and fighting the climate crisis, 70% of respondents to a 2020 survey said their personal sense of purpose is largely defined by their work. Organisations often use the promise of “purpose” at work to attract and retain employees. They may offer you the opportunity to personally contribute to doing some lasting good beyond just completing tasks and earning a wage. This could include positive social or ecological outcomes inside and outside the organisation, such as reducing carbon emissions or creating decent jobs in economically deprived communities.
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S27Frontotemporal dementia: we discovered a brain fold that may delay onset of symptoms  Few people had probably heard of frontotemporal dementia until earlier this year, when the family of actor Bruce Willis announced the 68-year-old had been diagnosed with the condition.Frontotemporal dementia is a rare disease – thought to account for only one in every 20 cases of dementia. Symptoms usually develop in a person’s late 50s, first affecting their behaviour, personality and language ability. Unlike other forms of dementia, memory only becomes impaired in the late stages of the disease.
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S28Boom in space tourism threatens to boost the amounts of space junk and climate emissions  Commercial companies are increasingly becoming involved in transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), as well as other activities in orbit. Some, such as Houston-based Axiom Space, eventually want to build their own space stations in orbit, where commercial astronauts could make extended stays.This could also provide more money and opportunities for science to be carried out in low Earth orbit. But it also raises a host of safety concerns, because it will add to the already troublesome issue of space junk. There are also implications for the environment, because rockets produce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
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S29S30Extreme weather may help invasive species outcompete native animals - new study  Non-native species appear to be better able to resist extreme weather, threatening native plants and animals and potentially creating more favourable conditions for invasive species under climate change. That’s the conclusion of a new study in the scientific journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.Wildfires, droughts, heavy rainfall and storms are all increasing, and predicted to become more frequent throughout the next century due to human-driven climate change.
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S31Overcoming the climate crisis with trade-based strategies  Global warming is making weather patterns more extreme and increasing inequalities across regions. However, economic growth is still possible, with economies showing a range of responses to the impacts of global heating.Production shifts induced by the changing climate may favour both the domestic and international markets depending on how interconnections across the globe facilitate the movement of goods. Taking into account conditions such as the geographical distance or the size of economies, the value of the exchange in goods between two trading partners is as large as their climatic conditions differ. Specifically, for an increase of 1 degree Celsius in the gap between the mean temperatures of two countries, the trade between them is expected to grow by 38% on average.
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S32S33S34AI-generated faces look just like real ones - but evidence shows your brain can tell the difference  Films like 2004’s The Polar Express made some viewers uneasy because the characters’ faces looked almost human but not quite, and so they fell into what we call the “uncanny valley”. This is when artificial faces (or robots more generally) look increasingly human and get very close to resembling us while still showing signs of being artificial, they elicit discomfort or even revulsion.Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology mean that we have well and truly crossed the valley. Synthetic faces now appear as real as genuine ones – if not more so.
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S35Over the past six years, governments proposed launching over one million satellites, but where will they all go?  In September 2021, Rwanda announced that it was planning to launch over 300,000 satellites. Three months later, a Canadian company, having previously launched two dozen CubeSats, said it would launch an additional 100,000. Then, a French company did likewise. And SpaceX, which has already launched around 5,000 satellites, now has plans for over 60,000 more. Before a satellite is launched, a nation state must file its proposed satellite system with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to coordinate radiofrequency spectrum on behalf of the satellite operator, which could be a company, university or government agency.
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S36How unionization is empowering Jamaican domestic workers to demand decent work  In thousands of households across Jamaica, domestic workers do the work of cooking, cleaning, gardening and caring for children, the elderly and people with disabilities. While this work is essential to the functioning of the economy and to the well-being of many Jamaican families, domestic workers often experience low pay, poor working conditions and informal work arrangements. Due to their isolation in the home, they’re also vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse.
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S37I've had enough of Sad Bad Girl novels and sensationalised trauma - but I'm hungry for complex stories about women  Stories about flawed young women have been favoured by the publishing industry for some time now. Bad Girl novels proliferated in the wake of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, while Sad Girl novels have evolved from the comic haplessness of Bridget Jones in the 1990s, to more sobering ground with Sally Rooney’s introspective bestsellers. Sad Bad Girl novels combine the best – or should I say the worst? – elements of these narratives. Titles like My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, Luster by Raven Leilani and Animal by Lisa Taddeo all feature disaffected or disturbed young women acting out, or wilfully sabotaging their lives.
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S38S39S40Luminous 'mother-of-pearl' clouds explain why climate models miss so much Arctic and Antarctic warming  Our planet has warmed by about 1.2°C since 1850. But this warming is not uniform. Warming at the poles, especially the Arctic, has been three to four times faster than the rest of the globe. It’s a phenomenon known as “polar amplification”. Climate models simulate this effect, but when tested against the past 40 years of warming, these models fall short. The situation is even worse when it comes to modelling past climates with very high levels of greenhouse gases.
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S41How do bacteria actually become resistant to antibiotics?  Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest global threats to health, food security and development. This month, The Conversation’s experts explore how we got here and the potential solutions.“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”, originally coined by Friedrich Nietzsche in 1888, is a perfect description of how bacteria develop antibiotic resistance.
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S42The rise and fall of antibiotics. What would a post-antibiotic world look like?  Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest global threats to health, food security and development. This month, The Conversation’s experts explore how we got here and the potential solutions.These days, we don’t think much about being able to access a course of antibiotics to head off an infection. But that wasn’t always the case – antibiotics have been available for less than a century.
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S43S4426 years ago, Howard chose fossil fuels over the Pacific. What will Albanese choose?  Hot on the heels of trips to Washington and Beijing, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is now in the Cook Islands for the Pacific Island Forum. There, he will aim to strengthen relations with Pacific countries and reaffirm Australia’s place as a security partner of choice.But to do that, he’ll have to repair a historic split from when former prime minister John Howard met with Pacific leaders on the same island, Aitutaki, a quarter of a century ago to defend his choice to expand Australia’s fossil fuel industries.
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S45S46S47S48In a crisis, Optus appears to be ignoring Communications 101  Millions of Optus customers are in the wilderness of a nationwide network outage that began at 4am.The initial response from Optus delivered by an unnamed company spokesperson on Facebook and X at 6.47am AEDT told Australians little they didn’t already know, that the network was down, and that the company didn’t yet know what had happened.
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S49S50Who will write the rules for AI? How nations are racing to regulate artificial intelligence  Artificial intelligence (AI) is a label that can cover a huge range of activities related to machines undertaking tasks with or without human intervention. Our understanding of AI technologies is largely shaped by where we encounter them, from facial recognition tools and chatbots to photo editing software and self-driving cars.If you think of AI you might think of tech companies, from existing giants such as Google, Meta, Alibaba and Baidu, to new players such as OpenAI, Anthropic and others. Less visible are the world’s governments, which are shaping the landscape of rules in which AI systems will operate.
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S51The Conversation wins a Telstra business award for producing journalism that builds community  Journalism is a competitive industry, with no shortage of reporters willing to use dirty tactics to win scoops and pump up circulation or ratings. But in spite of such lapses, most journalists also take seriously their role as a trusted source of information and custodians of a vital public service. Increasingly this is under threat. With so much more media now consumed online, attention-seeking has become an end in itself. In a recent book, “Traffic”, Ben Smith, the former editor of Buzzfeed, describes the dodgy things his publication did to win audiences, such as publishing deliberately offensive and procative opinions and stolen intimate photos. In a world in which everything is measured in clicks, talk of quality journalism sounds pretty glib.
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S52S53Where Does Antisemitism Come From?  Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, and Israel’s subsequent bombing and invasion of Gaza, antisemitic incidents have been rising across the world. Governments and civil-society groups in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Africa have reported a significant increase in attacks against Jewish people and their property. To try to understand these hate crimes, and the historical forces behind antisemitism, I recently spoke by phone with David Feldman, the director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, at Birkbeck College, University of London. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed how different ideological strains of antisemitism coexist and overlap, what makes the latest wave of incidents so disturbing, and whether there are dangers in focussing too much on the Middle East when talking about hatred in America.From the U.K., at least, it feels different, and it feels different in two ways. One is that I think the rise in antisemitic incidents recorded by the police over the last three weeks or so, since the 7th of October, has been more dramatic than anything we’ve experienced in the past. And also, as you’ll know, in recent years we’ve had—and not just in the U.K. but in other countries in Europe as well—debates and arguments about how to talk about Israel, the lines between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and what definitions are helpful. This has been happening since the war in Gaza in 2006. But this war is on a much greater scale, and of course was preceded by a massacre in Israel. Whereas previous instances were chiefly about how we should talk about events going on in Israel-Palestine, the current moment is about responses to dreadful slaughter.
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S54These Photos Are "Pure Fiction"  Talia Chetrit wants you to know that her partner, Denis, doesn't normally bottle-feed their son while wearing a Gucci bondage harness. Nevertheless, she understands the confusion. Chetrit is a photographer who has often made herself and her family the subjects of her work, which would seemingly situate her in a lineage of diaristic artists such as Sally Mann and Elinor Carucci. But she told me recently, when I visited her studio, in upstate New York, that she considers all of her work "pure fiction."Chetrit, whose first solo museum show in the United States is now on view at the Wadsworth Atheneum, in Hartford, Connecticut, has had what appears at first glance to be a peripatetic career in photography. In addition to her self-portraits and pictures of her family, she has done moody, telephoto street photographs, optically tricky still-lifes, and slick fashion shoots. She has even dived into heady conceptual waters, exhibiting photos that she made in high school, which take on poignant layers of meaning in retrospect. Ultimately, however, her disparate work is part of a unified quest to pick apart and play with photographic conventions and, by extension, to poke holes in our expectations of what an image can reveal or hide.
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S55Women Played an Unprecedented Role at the Pope's Synod. Will It Make Any Difference?  Last month, some four hundred and fifty Catholic leaders from around the worldâcardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and nuns, professors and students, laymen and womenâcame together in Rome for four weeks of structured conversations. It was one phase of an effort that began with national surveys of Catholics, in 2021, and will conclude in Rome next fall. The whole thing is known as the Synod on Synodality, after a Greek term for coming together. Pope Francis, who called for the synod, opened and closed the proceedings with Masses at St. Peter's's Basilica and, on many days, joined the conversations, which were held in the Vatican audience hall.The daily sessions were off limits to the media, but during the last week of talks I spoke with participants at nearby coffee bars and pilgrim houses. By that point, although the conversations had been going on for three weeks, it seemed that no one was yet sure what, exactly, the Synod on Synodality was meant to be. Was it a formal synod of bishops, as defined in the early nineteen-sixties, at the Second Vatican Council, or an informal assembly? Was it about the state of the Church, or about Church governance, or about a renewal in the everyday lives of Catholicsâwhich, in the United States, involve issues such as marriage, sexuality, gender and economic inequality, and the climate emergency? And could it have any real effect, given that a synod is convened not to set policy but to make recommendations to the Pope? None of that was clear. One participant noted that it was hard to know whether the synod was being over-managed, or not managed enough.
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S56Preparing to Fly in "Puffling"  A girl is peering out of her foggy car window, surveying the dark, quiet roads that signal a town that has gone to sleep. Outside, the only colors that appear are from hazy yellow and orange street lamps. She is searching for baby puffins, or "pufflings," in the night sky, as they drop from cliffs into the town. The teen-ager looks around for any flurries of whiteâas the birds' bright stomachs can be spotted against the dark. During their peak migration time, the bird species outnumbers the human population on the craggy Icelandic archipelago of Vestmannaeyjar. She is one of the young people on Vestmannaeyjar who, during a couple of weeks in the summer, carry baby puffins that are still getting used to flying, from land to sea, where they belong.The tradition has a long history. When electricity was introduced to Vestmannaeyjar, puffins, who navigate using moonlight, became confused and followed the artificial lights inland rather than out to sea. Jessica Bishopp's meditative short documentary, "Puffling," which was produced by Alice Hughes and Gannesh Rajah, shows the increasingly vital rescues against a backdrop of local environmental concerns, such as losses in biodiversity.
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S57The Most Timely Genre-Bending Thriller of the Year is a Painful Misfire  It’s a Wonderful Knife makes an all-too-common mistake: It wants to be way too many things all at once. Throughout its succinct 90-minute runtime, the new horror comedy tries to pay homage to not only the 1946 drama that its title riffs on, but also meta-slasher classics like Scream. It wants to bring a refreshingly queer perspective to the Christmas horror subgenre, while also packing in several cartoonishly over-the-top performances and just as many underbaked ideas about corporate greed and small-town gentrification.The Tyler MacIntyre-directed film is the latest in a growing line of cheeky, horror-centric twists on famous movie plots. Unlike Freaky, Happy Death Day, and even last month’s Totally Killer, though, It’s a Wonderful Knife proves unable to pick a single tone and stick to it. The new movie, which could have been a perfectly fun holiday horror romp in less saccharine hands, wants desperately to be everything. As a result, it ends up feeling a whole lot more like nothing.
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S5815 Years Ago, a Cult Sci-Fi Classic Revived a Dying Genre  Everyone, whether they show it or not, goes through a goth phase. Movies are no exception. Every few years, there’s a new wave of dark, Gothic-with-a-capital-G movies about the aesthetics of heavy eyeliner and lace veils as much as they’re about the macabre. The 2000s saw one of those goth revivals. And, 15 years ago, one movie took the trend to an entirely new level, blending in Victorian nostalgia and adding a bizarre yet perfect element: opera. Repo! The Genetic Opera, directed by Saw II, III, and IV’s Darren Lynn Bousman, is technically a rock opera, but it’s really a rock musical, a classic opera, a body horror dystopia, a social satire, and a tragedy all at once.
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S59'Spider-Man 2's Worst Flaw Reveals a Bigger Problem With the Sequel Game  Close your eyes and imagine the ideal Spider-Man game. It probably involves a lot of web-swinging through New York, a sprawling rogue’s gallery that includes fan favorites like Venom and the Green Goblin, and a heartfelt story about Peter Parker (or Miles Morales) struggling to balance the great responsibilities of being a superhero with personal commitment to friends, family, school, and work. One thing you probably didn’t picture? A Guitar Hero-esque DJ simulator mini-game. But apparently, that’s something Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac Games felt was a necessary part of the Spidey experience.Out now on PlayStation 5, Spider-Man 2 is absolutely lousy with useless mini-games. In my dozen hours so far, I’ve played carnival rides in Coney Island, piloted a drone to protect bees from predatory wasps in a high-tech laboratory, sprayed graffiti in Little Odessa, and, suffered through that bizarre DJ challenge. And that’s just a small sampling of the mini-games scattered throughout Spider-Man 2.
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S60The Perfect Storm of Chemistry Makes Cranberries a Holiday Staple  “Refreshing, cheering, encouraging… perhaps the prettiest berry… certainly the most novel and interesting,” renowned American naturalist Henry David Thoreau marveled at the humble cranberry in an 1852 journal entry.To this day, the tart berry takes particular precedence next to the formidable turkey on the quintessential American Thanksgiving dinner table. But how did it get there? Cranberries don’t claim a spot on your holiday table for no one reason. Peel back their firm flesh and autopsy the berry’s insides, and you’ll discover a fascinating chemical composition that transforms them into jelly superstars, forming a perfect partnership with turkey. Add their potential health benefits to the mix, and it’s no wonder we heap generous portions of this sweet sauce onto our plates every Thanksgiving.
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S626 Crucial Plot Points to Remember Before Playing 'Like a Dragon Gaiden'  The Like a Dragon franchise is having a busy year, with Like a Dragon Ishin in February and now Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name setting the stage for the next mainline entry. Gaiden also puts the spotlight back on former series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, chronicling the events after his send-off in Yakuza 6. Before you get intimidated by the loads of history baked into the series, there are really only a few vital plot points you need to be familiar with before jumping into Gaiden. Whether you’re looking to make this your first Like a Dragon game or simply need a refresher, here’s what you need to know. For the most part, you don’t need to be familiar with the entire Yakuza series to play Gaiden. There are plenty of references to find, but there are only a few essential story points you need to know beforehand — mostly relating to Kiryu’s adopted children.
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S63Take a Bite Out of Bubblegum Jupiter  While this multi-hued orb looks like a delectable gumball from a quarter machine outside your grocery store, it’s actually the gas giant Jupiter in ultraviolet disguise. This week NASA is celebrating Jupiter’s opposition in the night sky (when the Sun and the planet are opposite each other in relation to Earth) by publishing a fascinating UV image of the Jovian giant. Courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope, this photo takes a candy-colored departure from what the planet usually looks like in visible light because the image showcases ultraviolet data that’s usually imperceptible to the naked eye. Because our eyes can’t see UV, experts process the image using colors in the visible spectrum assigned to certain UV filters (in this case, Blue: F225W, Green: F275W, and Red: F343N), which captures the complex science at work while also creating a truly otherworldly image.
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S64'The Marvels' Final Trailer Sets Up an Original Avengers Cameo  Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is a lot of things, but she’s not a big team player. Sure, her first solo outing introduced her as a member of the Kree Starforce, and even paired her with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the Skrull to defeat their common enemy. Once she comes into her true powers at the end of Captain Marvel, however, Carol Danvers is very much in her own league. Despite swooping in to aid the Avengers in Endgame, Carol has largely been saving the universe on her own. She “kind of became a workaholic,” Larson told EW in July. “She lost touch with her heart and with family and friends.” Her upcoming adventure in The Marvels will force her to catch up with her connections on Earth. In Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), a Kree revolutionary and destroyer of worlds, Carol will face the biggest threat to the universe since Thanos. She won’t be able to stop her alone, as much as she may want to.
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S65'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate' Switch OLED Bundle Is Launching on November 19 for $349.99  Nintendo is squeezing every last bit of life out of the Switch OLED before it moves on to the Switch 2.Instead of the same ol’ Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Switch bundle that Nintendo offers every year, the gaming giant is mixing things up this time. For this holiday season, Nintendo is releasing a bundle that comes with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and two customized gray Joy-Cons. If you don’t already have the OLED model of the Switch, this bundle is a solid option that comes with a game that has just as much, if not more, replayability as Mario Kart.
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S66Here's Exactly How Long It Takes to Beat 'Like a Dragon Gaiden'  Kiryu is back yet again in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name ahead of his appearance in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the next mainline entry in the series. Gaiden offers more of the classic Yakuza-style combat and side activity-filled city streets, even if it can’t quite justify Kiryu’s return. It’s a shorter experience overall, and won’t take endless hours to finish. As a side story in the larger franchise, Like a Dragon Gaiden is a smaller experience. The developers of Like a Dragon Gaiden have estimated that the game will take roughly ten to 20 hours to beat depending on how much content players explore. This means it’s more in line with the earlier entries in the franchise, as opposed to the newer games, which can take up to 40 hours, such as in the case of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
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S67Marvel Has Finally Found a Solution to Its Most Alienating Problem  There are now well over 40 MCU films and TV shows, and keeping track of what ties into which upcoming projects has led to a terrifying term: Marvel homework, the concept of being obligated to watch a laundry list of other movies and shows just to understand a new one.The Marvels offers a clear example of this problem, as it connects to three separate Marvel Disney+ shows, which are usually given some degree of separation from the MCU’s cinematic side. Now, a new segment of the MCU is looking to eliminate this problem and refocus on storytelling.
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S68S69'Blade' Will be a Huge Test of Marvel's Bold New Strategy  Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige surprised everyone when he claimed the franchise had “barely scratched the surface.” It’s been 15 long years, and Marvel’s Cinematic Universe has churned out over 30 films and nearly half as many shows, which is a lot. Arguably, it’s been too much. Thematically, however, the MCU still has a lot of ground to cover. The franchise has been stuck in second gear since Avengers: Endgame. Its attempts to branch out, explore different tones and themes, and lean away from garden-variety white male heroism have yet to pay dividends, but that hasn’t stopped Marvel’s upcoming projects from trying to push the envelope.
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S70BioWare Workers Score a Major Victory in Pro-Union Protest  Every year, developer BioWare marks November 7 as N7 Day, encouraging fans to celebrate the Mass Effect franchise. But this year, former BioWare employees and contractors are claiming the corporate holiday as their own to raise awareness of what they consider to be unfair treatment by the developer.A group of former Dragon Age QA workers laid off by contractor Keywords Studios is taking the day to picket BioWare’s Edmonton offices. Meanwhile, former BioWare developers — some of whom are suing the company for better severance pay — are spreading awareness with the #N7SeveranceDay hashtag.
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