   
CEO Picks - The best that international journalism has to offer!
 S13S12Don't Underestimate the Power of Silence - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)   Many of us have forgotten (or even fear) quiet. We live in a world full of noise and chatter. A world wherein our daily routines are inundated with distractions and responsibilities. This practice, called the Sphere of Silence, is a 60-minute routine that can help you stay grounded, focused, and most importantly, remain hopeful when your mind wants to spiral. There is one ground rule: Follow the below steps in complete silence.
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S14Weird Lab-Made Atoms Hint at Heavy Metals' Cosmic Origins - Scientific American (No paywall)  The new heavyweights are isotopes of the metals thulium, ytterbium and lutetium. Isotopes are versions of atoms with irregular numbers of neutrons in the nuclei. In this case, researchers packed 113 and 114 neutrons in with thulium’s 69 protons, 116 and 117 neutrons next to ytterbium’s 70 protons and 119 neutrons alongside lutetium’s 71.Heather Crawford, a nuclear chemist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who was not involved in the study, says the facility’s early results are exciting. “Even with the facility just barely coming online, there were already new isotopes,” she says. “We knew that would be the case eventually, but the speed with which it came was just really nice to see.”
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S21Boiling tap water can remove 80 per cent of the microplastics in it - New Scientist (No paywall)  Eddy Zeng at Jinan University in China and his colleagues took samples of tap water and measured their levels of NMPs, finding an average concentration of 1 milligram per litre. They then boiled the samples for 5 minutes, before allowing them to cool. The levels of NMPs were then remeasured and found to have reduced by more than 80 per cent.“We estimated that intakes of NMPs through boiled water consumption were two to five times less than those through tap water on a daily basis,” says Zeng. “This simple but effective boiling-water strategy can ‘decontaminate’ NMPs from household tap water and has the potential for harmlessly alleviating human exposure to NMPs through water consumption.”
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S15Tiny magnet could help measure gravity on the quantum scale - New Scientist (No paywall)  Despite keeping you stuck to the ground, gravity is the weakest force we know of. Only very large objects, like planets and stars, produce enough gravitational force to be easily measured. Doing the same for very small objects, on the tiny distances and masses of the quantum realm, is extremely difficult, in part because of the miniscule size of the force, but also because larger objects nearby can overwhelm the signal.He and his team found that, with a 1 kilogram test mass spinning nearby, they could measure a force on the particle of 30 attonewtons. An attonewton is a billionth of a billionth of a newton. One limitation is that the test mass must be in motion at the right speed to create a gravitational resonance with the magnet, otherwise the force won’t be strong enough to be picked up.
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S11Why Money Manages Us - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)  We spend a great deal of time thinking about money. We talk about it, worry over it, wonder if we have enough to meet our immediate needs. If we’re lucky and have a lot of money, we think about using it to buy a new car, a new house, or a dream vacation. Since the days of our earliest ancestors, money has been one of our most important tools. But different from most other tools, money — even just thinking about it — influences our behavior in negative ways. We become more likely to prioritize our feelings, desires, and goals over getting along with and helping others. Money creates a tension between individualistic and interpersonal motives.
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S22How the C-suite got so bloated  The C-suite was once staffed by a few predictable titles: the chief executive officer at the top, plus a cabinet comprising the chief financial officer, chief operating officer and the general counsel. In recent decades, the chief technology officer has joined the executive team.Yet the executive suite has gotten much bigger. A corporate masthead may include chiefs of compliance, commerce, artificial intelligence, brand, integrity, innovation, information security, data, privacy, growth, marketing, development, sustainability, wellness and revenue. The chief diversity officer was the fastest-growing C-suite position in 2020 and 2021, according to a 2023 LinkedIn survey.
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S38This Tablet Uses AI To Convert Flat Images Into Glasses-Free 3D Content  We’ve come a long way since those red-and-blue 3D glasses from the movie theater. Now, you can enjoy a 3D movie on your own tablet without the need for any eyewear. At MWC2024, ZTE introduced its second-generation tablet that does glasses-free 3D content. The upcoming Nubia Pad 3D II tablet builds on its predecessor by leaning on artificial intelligence to make the 3D capabilities even better.Glasses-free 3D still hasn’t returned to its glory days from the Nintendo 3DS, but that’s not stopping companies from experimenting with it. Earlier this year at CES 2024, we saw Samsung and Lenovo showing off their take on glasses-free 3D monitors. Even at last year’s CES, Asus revealed a laptop that could do the same. We’ve yet to see glasses-free 3D take off when it comes to tablets but this could be the start.
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S34Will There Be a 'Dune 3'? It's Not Official, But Denis Villeneuve Has a Promising Update  Dune: Part Two isn’t even out yet, but there’s already major anticipation for a follow-up. Director Denis Villeneuve has teased his plan for a trilogy, but he’s been coy about when (or even if) he’ll have the desire to adapt Frank Herbert’s second novel, Dune Messiah, when the dust finally settles. It’s not entirely up to him, as producers at Warner Bros. and Legendary still have to give a third film the green light, but with so much buzz and acclaim surrounding Part Two, it seems less a matter of if than when.Villeneuve is currently splitting his time between three unfinished scripts. In a conversation with The Playlist, he revealed the first completed will be the next film on his to-do list. That bodes well for the yet-untitled Dune 3, which Villeneuve is likely working on with past collaborators Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts. The director recently told The Hollywood Reporter that the script for the film is “nearly done,” and just needs a little work before it’s ready to go.
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S36Your Dog Might Be Carrying Antibiotic Resistant Strains of E. Coli, New Study Suggests  When the world’s first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered in 1928 and years later used to treat bacterial infections, it changed the course of modern medicine. Fast forward to now and the fiendish microbes these drugs were designed to cull are pushing back, evolving mechanisms to sidestep even our most potent antibiotics. New research suggests a contributor to this rising antibiotic resistance may stem from our beloved furry friends.In a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, researchers in China examined bacterial strains of Escherichia coli collected from dog poop of animals with diarrhea. They found out of 135 strains isolated, over 87 percent were resistant to at least one commonly used antimicrobial agent, the highest resistance directed against ampicillin, a penicillin-type antibiotic. The study also found some multi-drug resistant E. coli harbor antibiotic resistance and virulence (or disease-causing) genes that are super common among tough, pathogenic bacteria.
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S23The mystique of France's 442-year-old 'Ratatouille restaurant'  The mythology around one of Paris's most famous restaurants, La Tour d'Argent, is legendary and far-reaching. The restaurant in the 5th arrondissement overlooks the Seine River and the Notre Dame Cathedral, and is often described as "the oldest restaurant in Paris" with a history that dates to 1582. It is famous for its signature duck dish, which is prepared theatrically in the dining room, and its 300,000-bottle wine cellar.If the restaurant's claims are to be believed, it's here that King Henry III picked up a fork for the first time and popularised its use in France.
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S30Honda's New Hydrogen SUV Is a Big Bet on the Future of EVs  Honda may be falling behind other legacy automakers with battery-powered EVs, but it’s instead hoping to gain some early ground with hydrogen fuel cell-powered alternatives. To achieve that, Honda will introduce a 2025 model of the CR-V e:FCEV to the U.S.The name may seem like alphabet soup but it does explain exactly what the upcoming CR-V model is and when spelled out, it’s clear that it’s an all-electric fuel-cell-powered EV.
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S32The Best Noir Thriller of 2024 Needs to Double Down on Its Most Controversial Element  The new season of the HBO crime anthology series needs to remember Night Country’s biggest strength.It's been a whirlwind few months for True Detective fans. In January, the beloved HBO crime anthology series returned with its fourth season, True Detective: Night Country, which came from writer-director Issa López. The season was the show's first to be made without the involvement of True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, who decided to let his unhappiness with Night Country be repeatedly known on social media both during and after its six-episode run. At the same time, while Night Country has been met mostly with praise from critics, it's proven to be strongly divisive among longtime True Detective fans.
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S33Xbox Game Pass Just Added the Most Gorgeous Anime-Inspired Action RPG in Years  My first impression of Indivisible was, “I want to watch this series.” In the tradition of RPGs like the Tales series, Indivisible starts with a two-minute anime opening that’s pure bliss. Created by Studio Trigger (Netflix’s Delicious in Dungeon, Promare, and so much more), the short clip introduces Indivisible’s heroine Ajna and her companions with ridiculous amounts of style. In most games, this would just be a nice diversion, but Invisible manages the difficult task of living up to its over-the-top anime intro through exciting and beautiful gameplay as it slides its way this month to Xbox Game Pass.Once Indivisible hands over the controls, the feeling that you’re watching an anime may still linger. Ajna is the daughter of a legendary warrior who’s forced into action when her village is destroyed. Discovering that she has the strange power to absorb other people into her mind and later manifest them at will, she sets off to get revenge and eventually save the world.
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S3Why chocolate is becoming much more expensive - The Economist (No paywall)  IF YOU’RE A chocoholic you may have noticed that your habit has lately become dearer. The price of cocoa began creeping up in the second half of 2022. Since then it has doubled, reaching an all-time high in January 2024 (see chart 1). That steep rise spells trouble for the chocolate business and sweet-toothed consumers alike. Hershey and Mondelez International, the owner of Cadbury, passed on these costs to shoppers last year. Hershey’s year-on-year profits fell by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. The company recently announced that it would cut 5% of its workforce. Barry Callebaut, the world’s biggest chocolate-maker, said that it would lay off 2,500 people, 19% of its workforce.
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S35Tiny Galaxies Made the Universe Visible  Dwarf galaxies packed a surprisingly energetic punch in the early universe — and gave us all a helluva view.A few hundred million years after the Big Bang, a thick fog of hydrogen gas shrouded the newborn universe in darkness. Stars had begun to form in the densest clumps, but the surrounding gas muffled their light. According to a new study, the radiation that eventually cleared that dense fog – and made space see-through – came from lots of tiny, unassuming dwarf galaxies. Sorbonne University astrophysicist Hakim Atek and his colleagues published their work in the journal Nature.
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S20Incorporating generative AI into your company's technology strategy | MIT Sloan - MIT Sloan (No paywall)  “Digital technology, AI, and generative AI are not just pervasive in our business, they are really driving our transformation,” Peck said. “Upwards of 80% of orders are now customer-placed, and data from AI is driving those upsell, cross-sell shopping experiences as opposed to more transactional reorders.”Sales and support: Sysco maintains nearly 2 million SKUs, about 200,000 of which are in high demand among customers. The firm has been leveraging traditional AI and analytics to make product recommendations, but generative AI can incorporate unstructured data, such as images or social media data, to capture additional signals. “This will help us be even more creative feeding the shopping cart for our customers,” Peck said. “We are starting to see bigger shopping carts and higher margins by turning traditional AI into more generative AI.”
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S37Apple's Electric Car Was Doomed From the Start  The report was heard all across the world on Tuesday: Apple’s not-so-secretive “Project Titan” electric car has been canceled after a decade of starts and stops — not to mention thousands of employees recruited and several major project leadership changes throughout the years — that endlessly delayed the ambitious research and development efforts.Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman had the scoop, reporting that Apple is “winding down” the electric car project and shifting many of the almost 2,000 employees who worked on it under the “Special Projects Group” to focus on generative AI developments.
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S45Amazon Prime Just Quietly Added the Grossest Sci-Fi Thriller of the '80s  Awash in bisexual lighting, Dr. Edward Pretorius stalks his prey. The brilliant scientist has fused with something otherworldly, an eldritch being from another dimension, transforming him into a horrific monster almost impossible to comprehend.Welcome to the world of From Beyond, the second film (and second H.P. Lovecraft adaptation) from schlock horror maestro Stuart Gordon and his merry band of conspirators. Following the release of the cult classic Re-Animator, Gordon assembled the same team both behind and in front of the camera to create this 1986 sci-fi thriller.
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S5S10S39I Want To Use This AI Gadget To Smell Cloud Strife's Spiky Head  GameScent — for better or worse — is a real device designed to let you smell your favorite games.Me neither! But this is 2024 and AI is here to make the unimaginable into the impractical. So, in service of that mission, we now have GameScent: an AI device with the sole goal of helping you smell things inside video games and weirdly push the boundaries of video games’ olfactory immersion.
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S47Amazon's Latest Controversy Could Change Movies Forever -- For the Worst  The 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike was a vital exercise in solidarity, with actors from the A-list to the unknown refusing to work until a fair deal for all was achieved. It was an inconvenience to the studios, but that was the point. However, a new lawsuit claims that Amazon MGM Studios turned to drastic measures to circumvent the strike, which could have massive implications for how movies are made from now on. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Road House’s original 1989 screenwriter R. Lance Hill is suing Amazon and MGM Studios for releasing the upcoming remake after an agreement that would revert the rights back to him.
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S4Is Google's Gemini chatbot woke by accident, or by design? - The Economist (No paywall)  IT ALL STARTED with black Vikings and Asian Nazis. Users of Google Gemini, the tech giant’s artificial-intelligence model, recently noticed that asking it to create images of Vikings, German soldiers from 1943 or America’s Founding Fathers produced surprising results: hardly any of the people depicted were white. Gemini had been programmed to show a range of ethnicities. Other image-generation tools have been criticised because they tend to show white men when asked for images of entrepreneurs or doctors. Google wanted Gemini to avoid this trap; instead, it fell into another one, depicting George Washington as black and the pope as an Asian woman.
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S40The Best Folio Abilities For Each Party Member in 'Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth'  Just after the opening chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, you’ll unlock Folios, a FFX Sphere Grid-esque system that lets you unlock stats boosts, synergy abilities, and more for each character. At an initial glance, it’ll seem like an overwhelming system filled with loads of different options, but once you get the change of things it’s one of the most effective ways of strengthening your party. The catch is that you won’t have enough SP for every skill until you do literally everything in Rebirth, so you’ll need to pick and choose. We’ve compiled a list of the best Folio skills for every character, so you can get a leg-up while you endeavor to unlock the rest. Folio Skills are unlocked using SP (Skills Points) which is earned a few different ways. Each time a character levels up they earn 5 SP. You can also earn 10 SP by obtaining manuscripts for each character, earned as rewards for story segments, side quests, rewards for minigames, and by exchanging Moogle Medals at the Moogle Emporium.
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S16Is the human brain really the most complex object in the universe? - New Scientist (No paywall)  BACK in 2012, neuroscientist Christof Koch wrote in his book Consciousness: Confessions of a romantic reductionist that the human brain is “the most complex object in the known universe”. Given that there are about 86 billion neurons in a brain, connected up in ways that we are only beginning to unravel, this seems intuitive. But when I put it to David Wolpert at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico – created in the 1980s as a hub for the budding field of complexity science – he doesn’t see it that way. “It’s almost farcical to entertain that we are the most complex system in the universe,” he says. “The question is actually wrongheaded.”Despite this, I persevere. Surely, there is some common measure of complexity that can be applied to all kinds of intricate systems? After all, if you squint, clusters of galaxies and the filaments that connect them look like tangled circuits of neurons. There are even roughly the same number of neurons in the human brain as there are galaxies in the observable universe. This similarity in form may have something to do with general laws through which complexity emerges, says Ricard Solé at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. Or it may not. “Coincidentally, that might appear in both systems, but that doesn’t mean anything,” he says.
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S18Saving for retirement in your 50s can be 'really stress-inducing,' expert says. These tips can help  A so-called financial vortex â where competing life goals get in the way of financial priorities â is to blame, according to the research. For example, Gen Xers may be balancing care for aging relatives and children that forces them to put their own financial progress on the back burner.Ted Jenkin, a certified financial planner and the CEO and founder of oXYGen Financial, a financial advisory and wealth management firm based in Atlanta, said he typically helps clients come up with a "work optional" plan to leave their long-term corporate jobs for work they find more fulfilling.
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S19How to Be Creative on Demand - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)  Creativity feels like an inexplicable miracle when it arrives. We may never be able to isolate all the variables that generate it. But there are ways to reliably create the conditions to make creativity a more predictable occurrence. The first thing you should do is think about the problem you’re trying to solve — let it marinade — and then walk away from it. This first round of effort is less about solving the problem than about priming the pump. It is after this step that the unconscious work begins — the work that draws from a fuller complement of mental resources, experiences, and creative connections. While that problem sits in the back of your mind, follow your curiosity. The key is to pay the price to create a rich experience with these sometimes pointless amusements. It’s often tempting to ignore these whimsical thoughts, but you do so at your creative peril. Begin collecting and organizing the experiences and information you’re taking in. Try to do something that doesn’t interest you daily — you never know what will turn out to be useful, including engaging in uncomfortable conversations. Finally, when the creativity hits, stop what you’re doing and work. Honor these moments by writing; don’t ignore these impulses.
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S28Star Wars Will Finally Reveal More About its Most Mysterious Jedi  When The Mandalorian Season 3 hit Disney+, one of the show’s biggest mysteries was finally solved. We knew that Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, was raised in the Jedi Temple but somehow survived the murderous Order 66 genocide. What we didn’t know was how he escaped and who rescued him, as he was even more of a helpless baby back then.In Episode 4, we learned it was Kelleran Beq who ushered Grogu from the Temple to safety on Naboo. Beq is played by Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best, and he’s also the in-character host of the Star Wars Kids competition series, Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge. Now, Best will reappear in a new Star Wars project that could give us more information about this crucial but mysterious Jedi.
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S17Bring Human Values to AI - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)  When it launched GPT-4, in March 2023, OpenAI touted its superiority to its already impressive predecessor, saying the new version was better in terms of accuracy, reasoning ability, and test scores—all of which are AI-performance metrics that have been used for some time. However, most striking was OpenAI’s characterization of GPT-4 as “more aligned”—perhaps the first time that an AI product or service has been marketed in terms of its alignment with human values.When it launched GPT-4, in March 2023, OpenAI touted its superiority to its already impressive predecessor, saying the new version was better in terms of accuracy, reasoning ability, and test scores—all of which are AI-performance metrics that have been used for some time. However, most striking was OpenAI’s characterization of GPT-4 as “more aligned”—perhaps the first time that an AI product or service has been marketed in terms of its alignment with human values.
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S44How 'Dune 1's Most Confusing Scene Explains the End of 'Dune 2'  Denis Villeneuve's Dune is a stunning exercise in big-screen sci-fi storytelling. It's muscular, rigorous, and unbendingly cerebral, but also surreal, lyrical, and impressively introspective. The level of clear intention visible in every frame is amazing to behold. Its images are, as many have previously noted, awe-inspiring and deeply considered, and the order of them even moreso.Nowhere is that more obvious than in the film's handling of Paul Atreides' (Timothée Chalamet) visions of the future. The film begins with images of war and violence — of the Fremen of Arrakis fighting to unseat their House Harkonnen oppressors. These images transform into Paul's visions of Arrakis and of his future Fremen paramour, Chani (Zendaya). Viewers later learn that Paul is part of a years-spanning Bene Gesserit plan to create a mind that can bridge space and time. His visions establish and prove that he can do just that.
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S6S8S7The unexpected ways your skin impacts your health and longevity - New Scientist (No paywall)  Growing evidence suggests that damage to the skin can have knock-on effects for the rest of the body, driving inflammation, muscle and bone loss, and possibly even cognitive decline. The more your skin deteriorates, the more the rest of you ages prematurely. In this emerging view, your skin doesn’t just reflect signs of ageing – it’s a contributing factor. There is even tentative evidence that taking better care of our skin could slow the harmful effects of ageing and improve our overall health.Our skin is one of the first parts of the body to show signs of ageing. It becomes wrinkly, especially in active places like the corners of our eyes, and age spots can appear. Such changes may seem – quite literally – skin-deep, but we shouldn’t underestimate the skin’s importance to the rest of the body. “The skin is the largest organ in the body,” says Wendy Bollag at Augusta University in Georgia, US.
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S9Life's Work: An Interview with Jerry Rice - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)  Rice first played organized football as a high school sophomore. By senior year he was an all-state receiver recruited by several colleges. He opted for a pass-reliant program where he could showcase his strengths and performed so well that the San Francisco 49ers made him a first-round pick in the 1985 NFL draft. He went on to win three Super Bowls with the team, play in 13 Pro Bowls, and set dozens of league records. Since retiring, he has worked in media, supported charitable work, and launched a natural-energy-drink company.
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S48S24The jubilant revival of the British Sunday roast  It was Sunday in London and I was sitting in the skylit atrium of the NoMad Restaurant in Covent Garden. A plate of rosy beef slices was placed before me. The meat reclined alongside a puffy, golden Yorkshire pudding (also known as a "Yorkie"), which happened to be stuffed with watercress and horseradish-tinged short rib. Trimmings followed: a cast iron pan containing charred carrots, turnips and brussels sprouts; a bowl of crispy, fat-roasted potatoes; and a small jug filled with thick brown gravy. With one bite of the tender meat, I felt a sense of jubliation set in. The Cure's In Between Days was on the sound system and I was reminded of 1986, when I first fell in love with London as a student abroad.Since then, "hopping across the pond" has become a biennial event for me. And nothing says "welcome back" more than the British tradition of a Sunday roast.
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S318 Vital Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Side Quests You Need to Do  Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a massive sequel with an expansive open world ripe for exploration. In addition to dozens of world activities, 66 different side quests are spread across the game’s various regions. That sheer size could potentially feel overwhelming, especially with all the little side quest icons popping up suddenly across the map. There’s so much to do, so much to see, and yet there’s so little time. To that end, we’ve compiled a list of eight side quests you need to complete at a bare minimum, for both story reasons and rewards. Even if you’re just playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for its story, these side quests feel essential and will make your experience that much more worthwhile.
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S46'Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth' Pirate King's Treasure Guide: How to Build Corsair's Compass  Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s open world is packed with hidden treasures, and one particularly useful piece of pirate’s booty becomes available late in the game. After getting control of the Tiny Bronco’s aquatic form and docking at Costa del Sol, players can find an odd-looking treasure chest on the dock, which begins the Pirate King’s Treasure quest.As part of the quest, you’ll get a map marking four pieces of treasure called pirate’s relics. At each location, called a Pirate King’s Grotto, the party has to dispatch a tough monster before grabbing the treasure. The reward for doing all that is the Corsair’s Compass — a piece of equipment that points toward even more treasure on the high seas — so it’s worth the time to knock this quest out as quickly as possible.
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S49Seven years later, what can we make of our first confirmed interstellar visitor? | Aeon Videos  In 2017, astronomers identified the first known interstellar object to have entered our solar system, now commonly known as ʻOumuamua. A relatively small body, estimated to be roughly the size of a skyscraper, ʻOumuamua transfixed scientists with its peculiar properties and inspired endless ‘it must be aliens’ takes from a fascinated public – and at least one Harvard astrophysicist. In this entertaining lecture from January 2024, Chris Lintott, professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford and professor of astronomy at Gresham College in London, makes the case that, while this object’s fleeting presence in our solar system wasn’t coordinated by extraterrestrial life, it still has much to teach us about the nature of the Universe.
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