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 S66Living to 120 is becoming an imaginable prospect - The Economist (No paywall)   Want to live longer? For centuries the attempt to stop ageing was the preserve of charlatans touting the benefits of mercury and arsenic, or assortments of herbs and pills, often to disastrous effect. Yet after years of false starts, the idea of a genuine elixir of longevity is taking wing. Behind it is a coterie of fascinated and ambitious scientists and enthusiastic and self-interested billionaires. Increasingly, they are being joined by ordinary folk who have come to think that the right behaviour and drugs could add years, maybe decades, to their lives.Living to 100 today is not unheard of, but is still rare. In America and Britain centenarians make up around 0.03% of the population. Should the latest efforts to prolong life reach their potential, living to see your 100th birthday could become the norm; making it to 120 could become a perfectly reasonable aspiration.
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S1For Valentine's Day, red roses and heart-shaped chocolates are out. Self-care is in  At 1-800-Flowers, shoppers can easily snap up a dozen red roses ready to ship for Valentine's Day. But this year, they'll also have the choice to purchase a social media-inspired "Girls Night In" flower arrangement, complete with Ghirardelli chocolate, Popcorn Factory kettle corn and rosé spritzers."We're constantly looking out for the next big thing, evaluating different colours, styles, varieties and add-ons that may be appropriate for the brand and our products – and attract a younger consumer," says Jason John, chief marketing officer at 1-800-Flowers, a US gifting conglomerate.
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S2Super Bowl 2024 announcement: Why Beyonc  She's the artist who mastered the surprise album drop back in 2013, and last night Beyoncé proved she can still catch us off-guard when, midway through the Super Bowl, she dropped two brand new tracks, announced details of her upcoming album, and revealed that she is heading in a whole new direction: country music.More like this: - The real meaning of the song Slut - One of modern music's greatest enigmas - How Amazing Grace has transcended its links to slavery
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S3Why the trailer for blockbuster musical Wicked has been slammed  Among all the film and TV trailers that dropped during this weekend's Super Bowl game, none has been more discussed than the first teaser for the upcoming two-part movie adaptation of Wizard of Oz-inspired musical Wicked. In the opinion of certain sections of the internet, the result, far from defying gravity – to namecheck the show's most beloved song – is a flop.- The 1979 cult hit that shows an ultra-violent New York- Ten of the best films to watch in February- The 'motiveless' crime that shocked the US
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S4European farmers are angry: addressing root causes would overcome polarisation  On Wednesday February 1, I stood side-by-side with the farmers who had taken over Place Luxembourg and the streets adjacent to the European Parliament in Brussels. On my way, long lines of tractors with Belgian, French and Dutch plates could be seen almost a kilometre away from the square. As I drew closer to the scene, the sound of their horns and the smell of burned tires saturated my ears and nose. In truth, there were at least two squares in one. Close to the entrance, a banner cloaking the statue of English-born industrialist John Cockerill called on farmers to “Say no to despotism” and organize against environmental measures. Further down to the central garden, members of an Italian farmers’ confederation gave interviews on the need to liberalize New Genomic Technologies to boost productivity, and yet others discussed the limitations of animal welfare laws, while lining up to eat a sandwich with some grilled meat.
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S5Ten of the best romantic films to watch this Valentine's Day  The shape of love and romance seems to be an ever-evolving facet of the human experience, but somehow the marketer’s dream of Valentine’s Day never seems to move beyond cliché. However the nature of love and the portrayal of different kinds of relationships have always been explored on film, right from the early days of “talkies”.So if we must indulge in Valentine’s Day, let’s do it with ten very different romantic films that examine the variety of configurations of this most human of conditions. From throuples, to “just friends”, to the unforgettable blush of first love and the one that got away, there’s something here for everyone.
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S6Tea, weather and being on time: analysis of 100 million words reveals what Brits talk about most  Lovely weather today, isn’t it? Time for a cuppa? The way someone talks, and the words they use, tell us quite a bit about where someone is from, their social background and even their age. Language both reflects and shapes society – as a linguist, it’s my job to find out how. One way to do this is by analysing large collections of language, which linguists call corpora (or “bodies”). By measuring the frequency of words, we can determine what a particular society or group prioritises and values.
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S7As US-China tensions mount, the UK will need to work closer with Europe in the Indo-Pacific  US-China rivalry – already a growing concern of global leaders, policymakers, pundits and business elites – is set to heat up further as we head into a US election year. The UK’s strategy for the Indo-Pacific region is built around its alliance with the US. This was formalised in September 2021 with the announcement of Aukus, a military alliance with the US and Australia. Yet its major interests there – in security, economy, diplomacy and human rights – appear more closely aligned with Brussels than Washington.
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S8Giving birth in Sweden: outcomes are worse for foreign-born mothers  Sweden has consistently reported some of the lowest rates of maternal and child mortality in the world. Unfortunately, these achievements don’t extend to foreign-born mothers who face higher risks for all forms of negative pregnancy outcomes.The COVID pandemic was a strong reminder of the gaping health inequities when providing care to these women. Foreign-born mothers reported higher rates of infection, intensive care admission, preterm birth, underweight babies and stillbirths compared with Swedish-born mothers.
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S10Forever chemicals in ski wax are being spread on snowy slopes  Every February half-term, I think back to the French ski trips I went on as a teenager. I remember the freshness of the cold, crisp air as I snow-ploughed my way down the slopes. Escaping to somewhere seemingly so pristine felt like a world away from where I grew up in London. Back then, I never considered that snow could be a potential source of exposure to a harmful chemical. However, recent evidence suggests that persistent, synthetic chemicals are being transferred into snow and soil from waxes applied to the surfaces of skis to enhance performance.
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S11Dating apps: how the order you view potential matches can affect which way you swipe  If you’re planning to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a new partner, there’s a good chance that you met online, which surveys suggest is fast becoming the most popular way people get together. Of course, searching through profile after profile brings with it a variety of difficulties. We also know that people’s judgements of facial attractiveness show this bias. The direction of the effect can go in one of two ways – the attractiveness of the current face is either pulled towards our opinion of the previous one (assimilation) or pushed away from it (contrast).
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S12Changes are coming to Ontario's kindergarten program -- what parents and caregivers need to know  Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce recently announced Ontario’s full-day kindergarten program is undergoing an “overhaul” which will help “to create more systemic approaches to reading instruction and the introduction, in a very basic way, of mathematical skills and numeracy skills.”The Right to Read inquiry revealed Ontario’s public education system was not using evidence-based approaches to teach children with reading disabilities (and others) how to read. The education minister also said curricular updates are in keeping with the Right to Read report’s recommendations.
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S13One of NZ's most contentious climate cases is moving forward. And the world is watching  In recent weeks, the Supreme Court of New Zealand has delivered a landmark decision on a case brought by Māori elder Mike Smith against a group of New Zealand’s largest corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters.The Supreme Court overturned lower court rulings which had struck out Smith’s ambitious claim seeking to establish civil (tort) liability for those emitters’ contributions to climate change. Smith argued these contributions had a negative impact on his family’s and tribe’s land, water and cultural values.
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S14S15Can ChatGPT edit fiction? 4 professional editors asked AI to do their job - and it ruined their short story  Writers have been using AI tools for years – from Microsoft Word’s spellcheck (which often makes unwanted corrections) to the passive-aggressive Grammarly. But ChatGPT is different. ChatGPT’s natural language processing enables a dialogue, much like a conversation – albeit with a slightly odd acquaintance. And it can generate vast amounts of copy, quickly, in response to queries posed in ordinary, everyday language. This suggests, at least superficially, it can do some of the work a book editor does.
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S166 tips to maximise your concert experience, from a live music expert  Stadium concert attendance is on the rise in Australia. This month, more than one million people are expected see P!NK and Taylor Swift on their Australian tours, which quickly sold out the country’s biggest stadiums. Both artists added extra dates to meet demand, following extended runs by Ed Sheeran and Foo Fighters in 2023.What’s drawing such massive crowds to these events? And how can you maximise your fun (in a safe way) when sharing a space with 100,000 other people?
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S17S18The private sector housing experiment has failed: Ottawa must now step up on social housing  Politicians of all stripes say that housing affordability is a top priority. But few are saying much about social housing — the kind that’s needed for low-income households in greatest need of affordable rental housing.Social housing is non-market housing, either publicly owned or non-profit, and substantially subsidized to ensure low-income renter households pay no more than 30 per cent of their gross income on rent. Canada was committed to this kind of housing after the Great Depression, but began to step away from it in the early 1990s.
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S19Newborn gas planets may be surprisingly flat -  A new planet starts its life in a rotating circle of gas and dust, a cradle known as a protostellar disc. My colleagues and I have used computer simulations to show that newborn gas planets in these discs are likely to have surprisingly flattened shapes. This finding, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, could add to our picture of exactly how planets form.Observing protoplanets that have just formed and are still within their protostellar discs is extremely difficult. Until now only three such young protoplanets have been observed, with two of them in the same system, PDS 70.
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S20Do feminists have better sex? Yes, they do  You might’ve heard the stereotype that feminists are just angry women who need to find a man who can satisfy them sexually. It is an old trope that has been with us since at least the 1970s. Unfortunately, just when we think we may have moved on from toxic myths like these, rhetoric reminds us they are still very much around.
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S21S22Which day of the week gets the most people to vote? We analysed thousands of international elections to find out  In the aftermath of elections, one of the issues usually discussed in the media is the amount of people who turned out to vote. This is known as “participation” or “voter turnout”. Several factors, such as the weather, can affect turnout. For example, the Republican primaries in Iowa on January 15 were held in very cold temperatures (subzero wind chills and a blizzard). Commentators have identified the cold as a factor that negatively influenced turnout, as many Republican voters decided to stay at home, even though Iowa is (almost) always cold in January.
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S23A theatre production ... in the pool? This new play in Perth leaves the audience buoyed  My obsession for public pools began when I was growing up in Perth at the iconic 1960s Beatty Park. Living in Melbourne I swam in the “aqua profonda” of the Fitzroy pool, listened to the underwater music (which in the 1980s was novel) at the Prahran pool and lapped at the pool that attracts attention for being named after a drowned prime minister — the Harold Holt. So, I was looking forward to Black Swan State Theatre Company’s new production The Pool, and it doesn’t disappoint.Playwright Steve Rodgers’ love of swimming is the play’s genesis. A regular lap swimmer, Rodgers was struck by the diversity of people who gathered at pools and started to imagine their stories. What followed were interviews with workers at community pools and in aged care, teenagers, family and friends, and a play that celebrates the pool and its capacity to create community.
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