Is some of the body that collided with Earth to form the Moon still recognisable inside our planet?

Scientists have dated the birth of the Solar System to about 4.57 billion years ago. About 60 million years later a “giant impact” collision between the infant Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia created the Moon. The new study, led by Qian Yuan of Arizona State University and Caltech, argues that the heat generated by this collision was not enough to melt the whole of the Earth’s mantle, so the innermost mantle remained solid.

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To Be a Person: Jane Hirshfield's Playful and Poignant Poem About Bearing Our Human Condition

“To be a person may be possible then, after all.”

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The Leadership Odyssey

A paradox of business is that while leaders often employ a hands-on, directive style to rise to the top, once they arrive, they’re supposed to empower and enable their teams. Suddenly, they’re expected to demonstrate “people skills.” And many find it challenging to adapt to that reality.

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How to Survive a Recession and Thrive Afterward

According to an analysis led by Ranjay Gulati, during the recessions of 1980, 1990, and 2000, 17% of the 4,700 public companies studied fared very badly: They went bankrupt, went private, or were acquired. But just as striking, 9% of the companies flourished, outperforming competitors by at least 10% in sales and profits growth.

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Business in Russia: Why some firms haven't left

When the first airstrikes fell on Ukraine in February 2022, corporate executives with operations or holdings in Russia were forced to pick a side. This decision had significant implications. Russia remains a major business market, with a population of 145 million; its 2022 GDP was a staggering $2.24tn (£1.81tn), right behind France. Fleeing companies would leave a lot of revenue on the table.Yet amid a gruelling war, with tens of thousands of civilian casualties and widespread international condemnation of Russia, companies risked severe reputational damage by staying put. Plus, a mix of international pressure, sanctions and risks of Russian government interference offered strong reasons for companies to leave when the conflict began.

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The right way to make kouign-amann

On a Sunday morning in the French coastal town of Douarnenez, a queue snakes out the door of a boulangerie. This is a common enough sight across the country, where picking up freshly made bread is a daily ritual, but here the people aren't just buying a baguette. Most are also waiting to purchase one of the kouign-amann, dubbed 'the fattiest pastry in Europe', which sit in stacks behind the counter, their laminated pastry glinting as they're picked up and slipped into a greaseproof paper bag.Eaten warm, the cakes are an exercise in indulgence. The chewy, caramelised crust yields to expose the flaky pastry of the interior, bursting with a rich, buttery flavour. Translated from the Breton language, kouign-amann literally means 'butter cake', which is appropriate, because of the six ingredients in the traditional recipe, butter features in the highest quantity.

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From Zadie Smith to Anne Enright: 25 of the best books of the year so far

In her first historical novel, Zadie Smith examines 19th-Century colonialism, with several interwoven plots that take place over half a century. At the centre of the story is a real-life trial of a man claiming to be Sir Roger Tichborne, thought to have died at sea, and heir to a huge fortune. The trial is seen through the eyes of Eliza Touchet, with interludes depicting the life of Andrew Bogle, an older formerly enslaved man who is acting as a witness in the trial. It is an "exuberant" novel, says The Observer, and bears the author's usual trademarks: "the boisterous narrative intelligence; the ear for dialogue; the chronic absence of boring sentences". There is also a lightness of touch: "Every few pages I was struck by how light the novel feels, despite its length and epic themes. The short chapters glide tellingly between decades and scenes." The Conversation describes The Fraud as "a stunning, well-studied examination of Victorian colonial England," adding that "Smith is expertly able to interweave moments of levity and humour into a book that deals with some heaviness… Historical fiction suits her". (LB)US author and doctor Mason, who published his first book, The Piano Tuner (2002) while still at medical school, is now an acclaimed writer of historical fiction. His sixth novel – which explores four centuries of history through a house and its inhabitants on a small patch of New England land – has received rapturous reviews for its virtuosity and form-bending experimentation. "Daniel Mason's latest novel is one of those rare books that truly deserves the description 'spellbinding'", writes The Observer, while The New York Times calls it "eccentric and exhilarating". (RL)

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Africa-US trade: Agoa deal expires in 2025 - an expert unpacks what it's achieved in 23 years

African governments are seeking an extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) beyond 2025. The law was enacted in 2000 to “encourage increased trade and investment between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa”. We asked David Luke, who specialises in African trade policy and trade negotiations, what benefits Agoa has brought for qualifying African countries and how it can be improved.The duty- and quota-free access to the US market granted by Agoa has helped in boosting trade and investment between sub-Saharan Africa and the US. Many of the qualifying African countries have recorded specific successes in goods exported under Agoa to the US. These include textiles and apparel from Kenya, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Lesotho, Ghana and Madagascar. In Kenya, for instance, the apparel-dominated Agoa sales have grown from US$55 million in 2001 to US$603 million in 2022, accounting for 67.6% of the country’s total exports to the US.

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"The Curse" Holds a Mirror Up to Marriage

The mirrored exteriors of the houses for sale in the new Showtime drama "The Curse" are the first hint of the series' interest in distortion. They reflect nearby trees and the clear New Mexico skyâan illusion that leads some unsuspecting birds to an untimely death. To the human eye, their effect, like that of the show itself, is more than a little disorienting. The homes are the futuristic wares of Whitney Siegel (Emma Stone), an aspiring property developer who views her ultra-sustainable, sci-fi-on-the-outside, cozy-on-the-inside bungalows as works of art. But the buildings are costly to construct and niche in their appeal; it's a vanity project that can't be underwritten by Whitney's parents forever, even if they are millionaire slumlords. She and her husband, Asher (Nathan Fielder), think hosting an HGTV series will solve their problems, simultaneously stoking demand for Whitney's designs and raising the national profile of the small town of EspaÃ±ola. Ever mindful of optics, they foreground their support for the community and their dutiful efforts to offset gentrificationâso much so that the program they pitch, "Flip-lanthropy," is all broccoli, no candy. Their producer, Dougie (Benny Safdie), decides that the best way to salvage it is by mining the conflict between his two "characters." There's a lot more to excavate than the couple want to believe.Under his influence, "Flip-lanthropy" becomes a different sort of mirrorâone for the mismatched newlyweds' repressed tensions. Dougie, who has a wicked story sense as well as tragic reasons for eschewing any appearance of marital bliss, observes how often the telegenic Whitney rolls her eyes at her socially stilted husband when she thinks no one's looking. She's decidedly camera-ready, but Asher is picked apart by a network focus group. When one of the participants notes that the couple have "zero sexual tension," giving voice to a disconnect Whitney had tried to ignore, she can't help but fixate on her partner's shortcomings. Dougie gets her permissionâbut not Asher'sâto fashion their onscreen dynamic around her obvious superiority. Stitching together the narrative he wants involves creative use of hot mikes, the discreet nudging of day players, and confessionals filmed on the sly. But even a genre as artificial as reality television can bring out the truth.

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The Issue That Will Decide the 2024 Election

In this past week’s off-cycle elections, Ohioans voted to enshrine the right to abortion access in their state constitution; Virginia Democrats took full control of their General Assembly blue; and deep-red Kentucky reëlected Democratic Governor Andy Beshear. Abortion is “an incredibly powerful issue that has the possibility to realign the parties,” the New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer says, and could make a big difference in 2024. Democrats who have made reproductive rights a part of their platform have secured victories in local and statewide elections since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year. Yet a new poll, out this week, shows President Biden trailing Donald Trump in five of six key battleground states—all of which Biden won in 2020. The New Yorker staff writers Evan Osnos and Susan B. Glasser join Mayer to weigh in on the role that abortion might play in the politics of 2024 and also the current disconnect between the facts and public mood on the economy, Trump’s civil trial, and the presumed Biden-Trump rematch in 2024.By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

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The Long Wait of the Hostages' Families

Tal Levy may be six feet four, but he does not stand out in a crowd. He speaks softly and hesitantly, and prefers to look away whenever people stare at the poster he is holding, which has a photograph of his younger brother and a single word: “KIDNAPPED.” Levy’s brother Or is one of the two hundred and forty people held in captivity in Gaza. Last Saturday night, a throng of hostages’ families and hundreds of sympathizers gathered outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art—an area now known as Hostage Square—shouting “Achshav!” (“Now!”) Levy, who is thirty-five, joined, his voice rising to no more than a whisper.On the night of October 6th, Or slept over at his in-laws’ home, in the central town of Rishon LeZiyyon, with his wife and two-year-old son. At daybreak, Or, who is thirty-three, and his wife, Eynav, thirty-two, left their son sleeping in bed while they drove south to attend an outdoor music festival, Nova—music was a shared passion of theirs. They arrived at the party shortly after 6 A.M. Some twenty minutes later, Hamas militants breached the fence from Gaza and stormed the site. Or and Eynav took cover in a public bomb shelter, but dozens of gunmen were throwing grenades and firing into the shelters and the bushes where partygoers had been hiding. Speaking on the phone with his mother that morning, Or told her, “You don’t want to know what’s happening here.” At 7:33 A.M., all communication with him stopped.

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The Cryptic Crossword: Sunday, November 12, 2023

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Shudder Just Quietly Released the Most Subversive Thriller of the Year

Despite decades of screen adaptations and an iconic place in popular culture, Frankenstein remains misunderstood. New versions often take more cues from the 1931 movie than from Mary Shelley’s novel, reducing the lead to a mad scientist archetype. As a result, new viewers miss out on the sheer weirdness of Victor Frankenstein’s original characterization as an arrogant young student with an incestuous backstory, dogged by tragedy and raised on an intellectual diet of outdated alchemical pseudoscience. Most adaptations barely scratch the surface of his idiosyncratic personality.Laura Moss’ Birth/Rebirth does not have that problem. Marin Ireland stars as a Frankenstein-inspired pathologist, a peculiar and socially maladjusted woman with fascinatingly ironclad levels of self-belief. Only someone with unique values and motives could end up where she is, dedicating her life to a single, secretive mission: reanimating a human corpse.

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20 Years Ago, Ubisoft Made an Underrated Masterpiece that Failed Under Its Own Weight

Despite the failures that followed, this classic action-adventure game is worth remembering.I still recall the first time I set eyes on Jade. I was hanging out in my older cousin’s basement, and he gave me his copy of a new video game. Her image dominated its brutalist box art. Before too long, I was hooked on Jade’s kick-ass charisma and the futuristic dystopia she inhabited, designed like an ageless Venice. I marveled at Jade’s green lipstick and her martial arts prowess. She was everything I wanted to be in a world I could only dream of exploring.

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'Loki' Just Redefined a Foundational Norse Myth

Loki’s godliness has always been more or less a technicality. He’s a god in the Marvel way, meaning he’s got a special status as an Asgardian and a host of mystical powers, but we haven’t seen him exactly worshipped. People knelt to him, sure, but that was at scepter-point. He’s just not what you imagine when you think of a god, even in the MCU. But in the Season 2 finale of Loki, we finally see him realize what being a god means as he establishes a new role in the universe — and it’s rooted in a centuries-old Norse myth: Yggdrasil/

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Can You Love 'Call of Duty' While Hating War?

War is hell. Human beings place their bodies and souls at near-certain risk, using god-awful weapons against other human beings. As we witness warfare well into the 21st century, we see a repetitive kind of playbook: The ruling class sends their inferiors toward death, drumming up interest with inflammatory, othering rhetoric, and profiteers make money from the required resources. It’s the idea known as the military-industrial complex, the devilish, green-hued handshake warned by President Dwight D. Eisenhauer, a World War II five-star general, in his 1961 farewell address.War is also a game. And for publishing company Activision Blizzard, since its pre-merger days of 2003, it’s been a lucrative one. With myriad developers taking point on myriad iterations, the Call of Duty franchise puts players in the first-person perspective of soldiers and puts an 80 percent increase of operating income into the pockets of Activision Blizzard (and now, Microsoft). Elements of geopolitical conflict and face-to-face combat are gamified, codified, and incentivized into gigantic packages of mass entertainment. The idea of a mass culture may be gone, but Call of Duty comes awfully close. Heck, Nicki Minaj is a new avatar, making palatable the unthinkable ideas of state-sanctioned death and destruction with the visage of a four-quadrant pop-rapper.

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75 Gifts For Men Under $35 On Amazon Prime That Are Legitimately Awesome

If you prefer to forego the traditional tie this year, the massive list below is packed with unique — and pretty awesome — items that are sure to bring a smile to even the pickiest fella. And best of all, they’re all under $35 with Amazon Prime. Whether the guy you’re shopping for is a grill master, a coffee fanatic, or a handyman (or an aspiring one), there’s something here for him. Scroll on and see what’s asking to make the leap from your cart into his hands. Pocket this hockey-puck-sized camping lantern and take it to the patio or the wilderness. It pops up when you need light and throws a diffused, bright glow to illuminate a meal or campsite. Charge it with the sun or by plugging it into a USB port. Set it on a table, hang it from the ceiling of your tent, or carry it as a flashlight. It will even charge your phone.

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10 Years Later, the Most Thrilling Dystopian Franchise Pulled Off a Groundbreaking Trick

In 2008, The Dark Knight made history as the first mainstream movie to be partially shot with IMAX 70mm cameras. After its success, an explosion of films shot in IMAX was inevitable, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, and Avatar followed suit.But IMAX cameras are bulky. They’re loud, they’re heavy, and there are less than a dozen of them in the world.

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Should You Give Your Cat Cow's Milk? A Veterinarian Reveals The Surprising Answer

In the 1970 Disney movie The Aristocats, the genteel felines enjoy a bowl of milk from time to time. Other cartoons depict cats enjoying bowls of full-fat dairy, a privilege that some humans know would wreak havoc on their own stomachs. Disney never shows the potentially grisly aftermath cats may suffer after lapping up lactose.Maybe it’s crossed your mind to reward your own kitty (for being so perfect all the time) with a nice bowl of milk or cream. Despite representations of cartoon kitties, there are far better treats for your cat. Bruce Kornreich, veterinary cardiologist and director of the Cornell Feline Health Center, explains what Disney doesn’t show us when we give a cat some milk.

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Engineered 'living materials' could help clean up water pollution one day

It may be able to transform chemical dye pollutants from the textile industry into harmless substances.Water pollution is a growing concern globally, with research estimating that chemical industries discharge 300 to 400 megatonnes (600-800 billion pounds) of industrial waste into bodies of water each year.

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60 Things for Your Home Under $25 That Are Legitimately Amazing

There’s nothing quite like uncovering a hidden gem, and with so many items available, Amazon is absolutely chock-full of them. These clever problem-solving buys are easy on your wallet — each product included below costs less than $25 — but will make a huge difference in organizing and upgrading your home. Whether you need to tidy up your countertops, free up space in your drawers, or make your closet easier to navigate, scroll on to check out these reviewer-beloved items that will upgrade your home and make life better.The tiny deer that’s placed in the middle of this toothpick holder will add subtle but fun character to your dining table. The container is made of hard plastic and has a single hole at the top to prevent toothpicks from spilling out or getting dirty. One reviewer wrote, “Looks just like the pictures and [...] made of thick durable plastic and is very well made. Best toothpick holder we've ever had.”

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60 Rad Things for Your Home That Are So Freaking Cheap on Amazon

If your Amazon cart is rarely full of home goods other than the occasional hand soap refill, you have to take a peek at this list of clever finds to instantly elevate your space. They’re all practical and functional around the house, but they’ll also make your home look super impressive (with barely any effort). Best of all, these 60 home finds are all so freaking cheap that you’ll want to start redoing your home ASAP.Simply fill these small brush pens with paint, and you’re ready to touch up scuffed walls all around your house. It’s super easy to fill them with paint with an easy-to-use paint-filling syringe that’s the exact size you need. Possibly the best part — these ultra-precise pens keeps paint fresh for years, so you can easily touch up little nicks and chips.

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'Rick and Morty' Canon Is Finally About to Solve the Show's Biggest Mystery

Last week’s episode of Rick and Morty, “That’s Amorte,” delivered the single most deliciously gruesome story yet in which the Smith family feasts on the guts of human-like aliens…but only because when these aliens complete suicide, their innards transform into a delicious spaghetti bolognese. Would you try the forbidden pasta? Because I sure would.After a fun and provocative side adventure, Rick and Morty will refocus on the ongoing story of Rick trying to find the man who murdered his original family. And it’s bound to be a big one. Here’s everything you need to know about Rick and Morty Season 7 Episode 5 from the release date and time to the episode title and other details.

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A New Study Estimated The Number of Times An Average Person Lies Per Day

Prominent cases of purported lying continue to dominate the news cycle. Hunter Biden was charged with lying on a government form while purchasing a handgun. Republican Representative George Santos allegedly lied in many ways, including to donors through a third party, in order to misuse the funds raised. The rapper Offset admitted to lying on Instagram about his wife, Cardi B, being unfaithful.There are a number of variables that distinguish these cases. One is the audience: the faceless government, particular donors, and millions of online followers, respectively. Another is the medium used to convey the alleged lie: in a bureaucratic form, through intermediaries, and via social media.

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'Loki's Season 2 Finally Remembers What Once Made the Show Great

Even with the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe seemingly on the verge of crumbling around it, the Disney+ series has delivered a conclusion that is both satisfying and bittersweet in equal measure. The fact that it’s done so despite missing the mark several weeks in a row this year is a testament to not only the quality of Loki Season 2’s finale but also the strong foundation that was set when the show originally premiered back in 2021.There were moments throughout Loki’s second season where it felt like the series had lost track of itself. Fortunately, the show turned its focus back in its most recent two installments to the things that have always mattered the most. As a result, Loki Season 2 feels like the inverse of the show’s debut season. The two are both similar and wildly different, but together, they reveal a simple yet important truth about Loki.

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4 Distractions that Derail Meetings -- and How to Handle Them

Most of us have had the experience of attending a meeting that veered off course, leaving us feeling confused or like we wasted our time. But meetings don’t have to be time consuming, unproductive, or otherwise painful. Understanding a few common dysfunctional behaviors can help managers turn meetings to instruments for team success. The author presents four dysfunctional behaviors that cause meetings to derail, as well as what managers need to know to make their team’s meetings more effective, efficient, and productive.

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How Brand Building and Performance Marketing Can Work Together

To achieve performance- accountable brand building and brand-accountable performance marketing, firms must create metrics that measure the effects of both types of investments on a single North Star metric: brand equity. That is then linked to specific financial outcomes—such as revenue, shareholder value, and return on investment—and deployed as a key performance indicator for both brand building and performance marketing.

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Innovation Doesn't Have to Be Disruptive

For the past 20 years “disruption” has been a battle cry in business. Not surprisingly, many have come to see it as a near-synonym for innovation. But the obsession with disruption obscures an important truth: Market-creating innovation isn’t always disruptive. Disruption may be what people talk about. It’s certainly important, and it’s all around us. But, as the authors of the best-selling book Blue Ocean Strategy argue, it’s only one end of the innovation spectrum. On the other end is what they call nondisruptive creation, through which new industries, new jobs, and profitable growth are created without social harm. Nondisruptive creation reveals an immense potential to establish new markets where none existed before and, in doing so, to foster economic growth without a loss of jobs or damage to other industries, enabling business and society to thrive together.

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Bill Gates: This Is What the World Will Look Like When Everyone Has Their Own Personalized A.I. Assistant

Gates paints a detailed picture of what our world will look like when everyone has a personalized A.I. assistant.

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4 Unimaginable Ways AI Will Change Your Life Within the Next 5 Years, according to Bill Gates

Your AI personal assistant could become a voice in your ear.

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What Separates Successful People From Everyone Else Boils Down to 1 Gritty

If you can't master this habit, you may as well give up now.

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How Recognizing and Filling Gaps Can Transform Your Business

From unaddressed needs to underserved audiences, a roadmap to impactful ideas.

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Access to Capital is the Critical Need for Veteran Entrepreneurs

On Veterans Day, a reminder to invest in those who served.

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Lessons For Leaders From A San Francisco Startup That Improves Business Writing

Make the customer's pain go away better than the competition does and you are off to the races.

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7 Lessons On Creating A Service Experience That Does Your Marketing For You

Great service doesn't happen by accident.

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How Africa's first heat officer is protecting women in Sierra Leone

At the start of Sierra Leone's dry season in November, 26-year-old Adama Sesay sells fruits and vegetables at a busy market in the centre of the country's capital, Freetown. It's hard work, and one of the greatest challenges in her day is extreme heat."We suffer from extreme heat, suffocation and noise pollution," says Sesay, sitting on a cylinder brick in the overcrowded Bombay Street market, bustling with customers, traders, motorists and travelers.

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Egypt's Iconic Sphinx May Have Begun as Natural Carving by the Wind

Egypt’s famous Sphinx may have originated as a rock feature carved by erosion that ancient Egyptians further refined into the iconic monumentThe ancient Egyptians may have crafted the Sphinx, a 4,500-year-old monument at Giza that stands in front of the pyramid of Khafre not completely from scratch but rather on a natural feature that already looked surprisingly sphinx-like, a new study suggests.

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The unexpected way spirituality connects to climate change

Environmental activist Gopal D. Patel thinks the climate movement could learn a lot from one of the longest-standing social initiatives in human history: religion. Exploring three areas where frameworks from faith traditions could benefit the climate movement, Patel offers a playbook for discovering your big idea to build momentum towards powerful social change.

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Scientists Have Been Freezing Corals for Decades. Now They're Learning How to Wake Them Up

Arah Narida leans over a microscope to gaze into a plastic petri dish containing a hood coral. The animal—a pebbled blue-white disk roughly half the size of a pencil eraser—is a marvel. Just three weeks ago, the coral was smaller than a grain of rice. It was also frozen solid. That is, until Narida, a graduate student at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan, thawed it with the zap of a laser. Now, just beneath the coral’s tentacles, she spies a slight divot in the skeleton where a second coral is beginning to bud. That small cavity is evidence that her hood coral is reaching adulthood, a feat no other scientist has ever managed with a previously frozen larva. Narida smiles and snaps a picture.“It’s like if you see Captain America buried in snow and, after so many years, he’s alive,” she says. “It’s so cool!”

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Wegovy Slashes the Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke in a Landmark Trial

More than half the world’s population is expected to be overweight or obese by 2035. Excess weight is often linked with cardiovascular disease: It can lead to higher blood pressure or cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Now, the makers of the popular weight-loss drug Wegovy are making a case for its use as a treatment option for diseases of the heart and blood vessels.In a landmark trial of 17,604 overweight and obese patients with heart disease, weekly injections of semaglutide—the active ingredient in Wegovy and its twin Ozempic—for an average of 33 months reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death from cardiovascular causes by 20 percent compared with a placebo group. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting Saturday morning.

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I'm Wearing Wool Underwear, and I've Never Been Comfier

About a decade ago, I started noticing that certain clothes made my skin itch. Like, a lot. Then my infant son was diagnosed with eczema, painful rashes that covered his arms and legs. I started buying the gentlest detergents I could find and checking fabric content labels on all our clothes. When I started paying a little more for jeans, the gnarly itching stopped.Was it psychosomatic? Do I stop itching only when swaddled in the finest of denims and cotton flannel tank tops? According to fashion and sustainability journalist Alden Wicker, who runs the website Ecocult and recently published the book To Dye For, your clothes really could be making you sick. A lot of fast fashion is made from polyester, which requires special dyes. Manufacturers then add wrinkle- or stain-resistant agents, or spray fabric for soft-touch finishes. Finally, whole shipments get dusted with fungicides or pesticides to make it all the way around the world without getting eaten by moths.

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'The Beast Adjoins' Is Seriously Creepy Sci-Fi

Visit WIRED Photo for our unfiltered take on photography, photographers, and photographic journalism wrd.cm/1IEnjUHSlide: 1 / of 1.Caption: LENA SERDITOVA/GETTY IMAGES

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"Terminalism" -- discrimination against the dying -- is the unseen prejudice of our times

When you are dying, you are placed in a hospice. Often, this is a real, brick-and-mortar hospice with palliative care and psychological support. At other times, though, the hospice is a metaphorical one. The terminally ill are ignored by those too awkward or scared to face them. They are told not to work or exert themselves in the slightest. The dying exist as ghosts and live in the hinge space between society and “on the way out.” When you’re told you’re going to die, you become invisible.This has led the philosopher Phillip Reed to coin the expression “terminalism.” For Reed, terminalism “is discrimination against the dying, or treating the terminally ill worse than they would expect to be treated if they were not dying.” In other words, it involves treating those in a hospice — literally or metaphorically — as second-class citizens.

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Starts With A Bang podcast #99 - Varying and evolving stars

You might not think about it very often, but when it comes to the question of “how old is a star that we’re observing,” there are some very simple approximations that we make: measure its mass, radius, temperature, and luminosity (and maybe metallicity, too, for an extra layer of accuracy), and we’ll tell you the age of this star, including how far along it is and how long we have to go until it meets its demise.This also operates under a simple but not-always-accurate assumption: that all stars of a given mass and composition have the same age-radius and radius-temperature-luminosity relationships. That simply isn’t true! Stars vary, both over time as they evolve and also from star-to-star dependent on their rotation and magnetism. It’s a funny situation, because just a few years ago, people had declared stellar evolution as a basically “solved” field, and now it turns out that we might have to rethink how we’ve been thinking about the most common classes of stars of all!

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Are "paranormal" experiences due to infrasound, gas leaks, and toxic mold?

LONDON IS A GHOST HUNTER’S dream, dotted with potentially haunted sites like mass graves of plague victims and the pub where Jack the Ripper’s final victim was last seen alive. But in the early 2000s, one of its most reliably spooky locations was the front room of a ground floor flat in north London. People reported feeling a supernatural presence, dizzying sensations, and even abject terror. The apartment wasn’t the site of anything grisly or nefarious that could explain these experiences, though: It was part of a scientific experiment on external, physical causes of ghostly encounters.For decades, skeptics have attempted to find scientific explanations for hauntings. Several of their theories have shown promise. In 1921, the American Journal of Ophthalmology detailed two cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in which the victims experienced psychological symptoms, including delusions and hallucinations. “The paper reads like a ghost story in places, and certainly throws light on the question of haunted houses,” reported the British Medical Journal that same year. More recently, the writer Carrie Poppy experienced a haunting that turned out to be a near-fatal carbon monoxide leak.

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Japan sets new nuclear fusion record

A massive nuclear fusion experiment in Japan just hit a major milestone, potentially putting us a little closer to a future of limitless clean energy.Nuclear fusion 101: Nuclear fusion is a process in which two atoms merge into one (unlike conventional nuclear power, which relies on fission — splitting an atom into two). This releases an incredible amount of energy in the form of heat, so much heat, in fact, that it can power the Sun and other stars.

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Mummified baboons point to the direction of the fabled land of Punt

One of the most enduring mysteries within archaeology revolves around the identity of Punt, an otherworldly “land of plenty” revered by the ancient Egyptians. Punt had it all—fragrant myrrh and frankincense, precious electrum (a mixed alloy of gold and silver) and malachite, and coveted leopard skins, among other exotic luxury goods.

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The Timeshare Comes for Us All

Very early in my first marriage—I’m talking four or five days—I lay on a lounge chair on the white, powdery sand of an island paradise and took stock of my problems. First off, in that short time I’d already managed to lose both a piece of precious heirloom jewelry that my new mother-in-law had given me and also my new husband’s lucky Mets cap, which I’d left at a bar one island over. He’d taken both of these losses hard, and he’d felt that the missing jewelry had to be reported at once—long-distance and from the front desk—to his parents. The losses and the long-distance phone call were harbingers of the inevitable. But my biggest problem was immediate (aren’t they all?): Cheryl and Don, as I’ll call them.Cheryl and Don had grown children, were either world-class social drinkers or textbook alcoholics, possessed a font of knowledge on matters such as how to take advantage of a loophole in the island’s customs law so we could each bring home an extra gallon of rum, and had decided that these two honeymooning 25-year-olds (us) needed their company. No matter where we went or what we were doing—limbo-ing, eating dinner, bronzing ourselves under a punishing sun—we’d hear a little Cheryl-pitched shriek of delight and there they were.

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Finally, a Coral Success Story

Scientists have spent years cryopreserving coral in the hopes of restoring reefs. For the first time, some unfrozen specimens have reached adulthood.Arah Narida leans over a microscope to gaze into a plastic petri dish containing a hood coral. The animal—a pebbled blue-white disk roughly half the size of a pencil eraser—is a marvel. Just three weeks ago, the coral was smaller than a grain of rice. It was also frozen solid. That is, until Narida, a graduate student at National Sun Yat-sen University, in Taiwan, thawed it with the zap of a laser. Now, just beneath the coral’s tentacles, she spies a slight divot in the skeleton where a second coral is beginning to bud. That small cavity is evidence that her hood coral is reaching adulthood, a feat no other scientist has ever managed with a previously frozen larva. Narida smiles and snaps a picture.

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The Show That Transforms Our Understanding of History

Season by season, For All Mankind has become less a tale of an alternate future than a meditation on historical memory.For All Mankind treats the future as a matter of physics. The Apple TV+ series started its story with a national trauma: The United States loses to the U.S.S.R. in the race to put a man on the moon. That one change to the timeline bends the trajectory of everything that follows until, like a space capsule that has gone off course, the show’s version of history ends up far from the one we know. Some conflicts dissipate; new ones arise in their place. Some familiar technologies emerge; others never come. The superpowers, caught in a Cold War that never ends, establish separate colonies on the moon. Humans go to Mars. They bring Earth’s problems with them. The show’s universe is familiar and uncanny at once, and this is part of the joy of watching it: For All Mankind, as it merges the world-building powers of science fiction with the provocations of alternate history, turns time’s march into an endless cliff-hanger. What will change in this world? What will be constant?

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Albert Brooks Everlasting

A conversation with the legendary comedian and filmmaker about what annoys him, how you know when something is funny, and his theory about John LennonThere are two observations in Defending My Life, the new documentary about Albert Brooks by his lifelong friend and fellow filmmaker Rob Reiner, that perfectly capture the imprint that Brooks has made, and continues to make, on American culture.

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What We Do With Our Faces

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.In 2016, my colleague Olga Khazan saw a cultural difference playing out on the faces of those around her. “Here’s something that has always puzzled me, growing up in the U.S. as a child of Russian parents,” she wrote. “Whenever I or my friends were having our photos taken, we were told to say ‘cheese’ and smile. But if my parents also happened to be in the photo, they were stone-faced. So were my Russian relatives, in their vacation photos. My parents’ high-school graduation pictures show them frolicking about in bellbottoms with their young classmates, looking absolutely crestfallen.”

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What on Earth Is Nathan Fielder Up to Now?

Watching something made by Nathan Fielder can be an act of endurance. The creator, host, and star of shows such as Nathan for You and The Rehearsal has cultivated a reputation as a merry prankster and a mastermind of hallucinatory television. On-screen, he tends to be deadpan and awkward, making himself the butt of the joke as regularly as he messes with the ordinary people he meets. When he pushes uncomfortable bits to their extreme, you can feel like your mind is short-circuiting, the deluge of his off-kilter, often meta humor leaving you delighted and disturbed. So the best way to watch Fielder’s work, I’ve long accepted, is to persist until the punch line reveals itself.And yet, I was still caught off guard by The Curse, the new Showtime series Fielder co-created with the filmmaker and actor Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems). I needed breaks between episodes, even pausing in the middle of scenes the deeper I went into the season, fearful of what would happen next. The show is unlike Fielder’s previous output. For one thing, it’s fully scripted—a 10-episode story packed with surreal set pieces and cinematic plot twists. For another, Fielder acts, and not just as a version of himself.

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A Paradoxical Week for Democrats

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia’s announcement that he will not seek reelection in 2024 capped a paradoxical week for Democrats. Manchin’s news puts Democrats’ control of the Senate at greater risk at the same time that polling for President Joe Biden continues to decline. But there was good news for Democrats: They scored a number of victories in Tuesday’s off-year election, including swing state Ohio voting to codify the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution.Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic and moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, this week to discuss this and more are David Brooks, a columnist at The New York Times and the author of How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen; Eugene Daniels, a White House correspondent and a co-author of Politico’s Playbook; Asma Khalid, a White House correspondent at NPR; and Ed O’Keefe, a senior White House and political correspondent at CBS.

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London's Day of Creeping Extremism

How do you decide who owns a country? At 10:30 this morning in London, a group of black-clad men were gathered about 100 meters from the Cenotaph, Britain’s most famous war memorial. They were chanting. “We want our country back,” went one refrain, followed by “You’re not English, you’re not English, you’re not English anymore.”This group was—as another of their chants put it—“Tommy’s Army.” That refers to Tommy Robinson, the pseudonym of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a convicted mortgage fraudster who is the former head of a far-right, anti-Muslim group called the English Defence League. Robinson was here, somewhere, in person—and as of last week, he was back on X (formerly Twitter), five years after being “permanently suspended.” Violence and disorder follow him around, so London’s Metropolitan Police had drafted reinforcements from around Britain to deal with the situation. Walking down the Mall, a long, open road stretching from Trafalgar Square to Westminster, I saw police vans from Durham and Northumbria, in the north of England, and some officers wore caps reading HEDDLU, the Welsh word for police.

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The Work of Wonder: Phillip Glass on Art, Science, and the Most Important Quality of a Visionary

Epoch after epoch, we humans have tried to raise ourselves above other animals with distinctions that have turned out false — consciousness is not ours alone, nor is grief, nor is play. If th…

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Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel on the Challenges and Opportunities of Following a Visionary Leader

In the final episode of the season, HBR editor Adi Ignatius interviews Jason Buechel, the CEO of Whole Foods. Buechel discusses the challenges of succeeding a larger-than-life executive, the role of Whole Foods as a subsidiary of Amazon, and how the company is addressing changes in the business environment, such as climate change and hybrid work. Buechel emphasizes the importance of understanding the voice of team members during a leadership transition and being authentic as a leader. He also highlights Whole Foods’ focus on growth opportunities for employees and its commitment to sustainability. Buechel believes that AI will fundamentally change the retail and grocery shopping experience in the next decade. The episode concludes with Buechel sharing his favorite products from Whole Foods.

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From Riders to Tackle! - how Britain loves Jilly Cooper's raunchy novels

Despite being a nation with a reputation for prudishness about sex, the British don't seem to have any problem reading about it, at least not if you go by the enduring popularity of one the country's most successful writers, Jilly Cooper. Known as the Queen of the "bonkbuster" (a British term for a popular novel stuffed with salacious storylines and frequent sexual encounters), she even counts the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as one of her fans. For those who came of age in the UK in the 1980s or 90s, the covers of Cooper's raunchy books alone are forever imprinted on their memory, such was their ubiquity on bookshelves and sun loungers, or in schools, where they were shared like contraband by teenage girls.More like this:- Why the British are obsessed with footballers' wives - Why 'Slut' is Swift's call to arms - The greatest reality TV show never made

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COP28: a year on from climate change funding breakthrough, poor countries eye disappointment at Dubai summit

At the COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, an agreement to establish a loss and damage fund was hailed as a major breakthrough on one of the trickiest topics in the UN climate change negotiations. In an otherwise frustrating conference, this decision in November 2022 acknowledged the help that poorer and low-emitting countries in particular need to deal with the consequences of climate change – and, tentatively, who ought to pay. This following year has seen more extreme weather records broken. Torrential rains created flooding which swept away an entire city in Libya, while wildfires razed swathes of Canada, Greece and the Hawaiian island of Maui.

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Erdogan's stance on Israel reflects desire to mix politics with realpolitik - and still remain a relevant regional player

Visiting Scholar at the Fletcher School's Russia and Eurasia Program, Tufts University Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pulled his ambassador from Israel on Nov. 4, 2023. Less than a month earlier, he was offering diplomatic assistance to calm the situation in the Middle East.

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Specialized training programs using sensory augmentation devices could prevent astronauts from getting disoriented in space

When landing on the surface of the Moon, astronauts can become spatially disoriented, which is when they lose sense of their orientation – they might not be able to tell which way is up. This disorientation can lead to fatal accidents. Even on Earth, between 1993 and 2013, spatial disorientation led to the loss of 65 aircraft, US$2.32 billion of damages and 101 deaths in the U.S.

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UN's 'global stocktake' on climate is offering a sober emissions reckoning - but there are also signs of progress

When this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference begins in late November 2023, it will be a moment for course correction. Seven years ago, nearly every country worldwide signed onto the Paris climate agreement. They agreed to goals of limiting global warming – including key targets to be met by 2030, seven years from now. A primary aim of this year’s conference, known as COP28, is to evaluate countries’ progress halfway to the 2030 deadlines.

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Restorers uncover demon in a 1789 painting - and reveal the decline of superstition in the Age of Reason

Recent news that restorers had uncovered the image of a Gothic-looking demon in a late work by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) seems fitting for these long, dark evenings. The sinister face hovers above the head of a dying clergyman in The Death of Cardinal Beaufort, painted in 1789. Fake-or-Fortune-style reveals such as this, where Reynolds’s hollow-eyed fiend re-emerges, fanged and uncanny from the gloom of centuries of overpainting, are always popular with the public. But what are we to make of Reynolds’s devilish detail in his painting, and how does it fit into the larger story of demonic representation in the art and literature of the 18th century?

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Phoebe Philo's fashion frenzy: why her much-anticipated collection sold out within hours

British luxury fashion designer Phoebe Philo OBE, debuted her long-anticipated eponymous label to critical acclaim at the end of October. Despite the eye-watering price tags, the small range of clothing, accessories, jewellery and footwear – only available on the Phoebe Philo website – virtually sold out within hours. But Philo is no stranger to fashion frenzies. Her 2005 Paddington bag, created during her tenure as creative director at French designer Chloé, became an instant and enduring “It bag” that sold out before it even hit the shelves.

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Joe Biden to meet with Xi Jinping - what a good result looks like for the US president

US president, Joe Biden, is expected to meet China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in San Francisco as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) conference on Wednesday November 15. Their meeting has great significance, as the two leaders have not met since the G20 in 2022, and because of their lack of agreement concerning current global conflicts, particularly the Ukraine war.

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Shareholder activists can inadvertently raise CEO pay - here's how to help make pay rises more equal for all

Activist investors or shareholders can be a powerful force in the corporate world, capable of driving significant change within companies. Their influence can be a force for good. It can extend beyond financial decisions to advocate that a company makes important societal, ethical and, increasingly, environmental changes. Recently, shareholder collaboration initiatives like Say on Climate have led investors to influence companies’ environmental policies and practices. But investors are also speaking out on social issues such as income inequality.

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Proposed smoking ban would improve UK public health - but tobacco industry opposition could be a major roadblock

In his speech on Tuesday, King Charles III outlined what measures the government plans to introduce to cut smoking rates and create a smoke-free generation in England.Among the measures the government hopes to introduce as part of its new tobacco and vapes bill are plans to restrict sales of e-cigarettes so they’re less accessible to children and young people, as well as exploring the possibility of a new duty on vapes.

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English football is ready for a rule change when it comes to financial management

Christina Philippou has consulted with DCMS, teaches on the Premier League's Workforce Learning and Development program and is affiliated with the RAF FA.Football fans are frequently involved in heated arguments over the rules of the game. Soon it will be the turn of elected politicians to debate new regulations which govern how the sport in England will be run.

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Suella Braverman's comments comparing Gaza protests with Northern Ireland are a grave misunderstanding of the facts

The aim of Suella Braverman’s controversial Times article commenting on the ongoing protests over Gaza seems obvious. As with many of her recent and provocative statements, the assumption is that she is trying to undermine and ultimately replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader by appealing to the party’s right. However, the methods used – and particularly the comparisons she made between marches in Northern Ireland and demonstrations in London – are more confusing. This confusion is understandable, as Braverman herself seems confused in what she wrote. She linked marches over the Gaza conflict to “the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland”. She drew further comparisons when suggesting that some of those organising the London protests “have links to terrorist groups, including Hamas”.

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Palestine march: some opponents are politicising the Cenotaph to sow divisions - and it could work

The pro-Palestine protest planned to take place in London on Armistice Day has met with opposition from politicians and media pundits alike. Organisers of the Armistice Day protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have said the march will not go near the Cenotaph on Whitehall. Opponents, meanwhile, have argued that it nonetheless poses a “threat” to the national war memorial. The journalist Matt Ridley has said that “any protest which threatens the Cenotaph is a travesty”. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has echoed this sentiment, saying:

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