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 S34S274 Steps to Set Your Company Up for Long-Term Success   Economists have forecasted the potential of a long, deep, and far-reaching global Great Depression starting in 2030. Meanwhile, the baby boomer generation hit peak 65 in 2024, resulting in an influx of key leadership retirements. With this possibility looming on the horizon, it's no surprise that 23 percent of CEOs are planning to exit their business, according to Q3 2023 Vistage CEO Confidence Index. Of those, more than half plan to do so within the next five years.Whether you're planning your exit or sale, or simply forecasting the next five years of business, organizations should always have a succession plan ready. This is a broad, comprehensive strategy focused on ensuring continuous operations and strategic leadership development. It requires a variety of facets and considerations, including an exit plan--which is a strategy created to facilitate the transition between the current and incoming CEO. An exit plan becomes particularly critical when an exit is imminent, but it's always relevant.
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S12Iran's unprecedented attack on Israel was a strategic miscalculation. Can all-out war now be averted?  Close to midnight on April 13, hundreds of military drones were launched from both Iran and Iraq toward Israel. Subsequently, several waves of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and rockets followed, originating from Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon – all directed at Israel.This unprecedented multi-front attack on Israel constitutes a de facto declaration of war and marks the first direct assault against Israel from Iranian soil. However, despite the scale of the operation, it appears to be a tactical failure.
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S49Britain Is Leaving the U.S. Gender-Medicine Debate Behind  In a world without partisan politics, the Cass report on youth gender medicine would prompt serious reflection from American trans-rights activists, their supporters in the media, and the doctors and institutions offering hormonal and surgical treatments to minors. At the request of the English National Health Service, the senior pediatrician Hilary Cass has completed the most thorough consideration yet of this field, and her report calmly and carefully demolishes many common activist tropes. Puberty blockers do have side effects, Cass found. The evidence base for widely used treatments is "shaky." Their safety and effectiveness are not settled science.The report drew on extensive interviews with doctors, parents, and young people, as well as on a series of new, systematic literature reviews. Its publication marks a decisive turn away from the affirmative model of treatment, in line with similar moves in other European countries. What Cass's final document finds, largely, is an absence. "The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress," Cass writes. We also don't have strong evidence that social transitioning, such as changing names or pronouns, affects adolescents' mental-health outcomes (either positively or negatively). We don't have strong evidence that puberty blockers are merely a pause button, or that their benefits outweigh their downsides, or that they are lifesaving care in the sense that they prevent suicides. We don't know why the number of children turning up at gender clinics rose so dramatically during the 2010s, or why the demographics of those children changed from a majority of biological males to a majority of biological females. Neither "born that way" nor "it's all social contagion" captures the complexity of the picture, Cass writes.
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S9A Scientist Found Something Truly Bizarre Inside A Fossilized Dinosaur Eggshell  As a scientist, lab work can sometimes get monotonous. But in 2017, while a Ph.D. student of paleobiology at the University of Bristol in the U.K., I heard a gleeful exclamation from across the room. Kirsty Penkman, head of the North East Amino Acid Racemization lab at the University of York, had just read the data printed off the chromatograms and was practically jumping up and down.The instrument had detected telltale signatures of ancient amino acids in eggshells. Amino acids are the building blocks that make up protein sequences in living organisms. But this wasn’t just any eggshell; it was a fossil from a titanosaur, a giant herbivorous dinosaur that lived about 70 million years ago.
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S20Can we stop AI hallucinations? And do we even want to?  As AI continues to advance, one major problem has emerged: “hallucinations.” These are outputs generated by the AI that have no basis in reality. Hallucinations can be anything from small mistakes to downright bizarre and made-up information. The issue makes many people wonder whether they can trust AI systems. If an AI can generate inaccurate or even totally fabricated claims, and make it sound just as plausible as accurate information, how can we rely on it for critical tasks?Researchers are exploring various approaches to tackle the challenge of hallucinations, including using large datasets of verified information to train AI systems to distinguish between fact and fiction. But some experts argue that eliminating the chance of hallucinations entirely would also require stifling the creativity that makes AI so valuable.
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S46Welcome to the Golden Age of User Hostility  What happens when a smart TV becomes too smart for its own good? The answer, it seems, is more intrusive advertisements.Last week, Janko Roettgers, a technology and entertainment reporter, uncovered a dystopian patent filed last August by Roku, the television- and streaming-device manufacturer whose platform is used by tens of millions of people worldwide. The filing details plans for an "HDMI customized ad insertion," which would allow TVs made by Roku to monitor video signals through the HDMI portâwhere users might connect a game console, a Blu-ray player, a cable box, or even another streaming deviceâand then inject targeted advertisements when content is paused. This would be a drastic extension of Roku's surveillance potential: The company currently has no ability to see what users might be doing when they switch away from its proprietary streaming platform. This is apparently a problem, in that Roku is missing monetization opportunities!
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S15Burundi-Rwanda rivalry: RED-Tabara rebel attacks add to regional tensions  The RED-Tabara armed group, based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has renewed attacks in Burundi since late 2023. The group – which is an abbreviation of the French Résistance pour un État de Droit au Burundi (Resistance for Rule of Law in Burundi) – is one of a handful of rebel groups seeking to unseat the Burundi government.RED-Tabara attacks, however, are targeting civilians rather than government installations, military bases or strategic infrastructure. This has thrown the group’s motivations into question.
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S3'Final Fantasy 17' Needs to Buck the Series' Biggest Trend  Between Final Fantasy XVI, Rebirth, and a wealth of spinoffs, it feels like we’re entering a new golden era for the storied franchise. Massive games and epic stories have pushed the series forward in experimental new ways, but it’s also made me realize something: Final Fantasy’s comedic strength has been underutilized for years. Hopefully, the eventual Final Fantasy 17 veers off in a wildly different direction, with a back-to-basics approach that fully embraces the light-hearted strengths of the series. Final Fantasy games have always been built on characters, but more often than not those characters are involved in tragic events or sweeping, sociopolitical epics. If you look at the last decade of the franchise, it’s been dominated by those kinds of stories.
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S47Maine Is a Warning for America's PFAS Future  New federal rules require public systems to measure and mitigate certain harmful man-made chemicals. Maine is already learning how hard that can be.Cordelia Saunders remembers 2021, the year she and her husband, Nathan, found out that they'd likely been drinking tainted water for more than 30 years. A neighbor's 20 peach trees had finally matured that summer, and perfect-looking peaches hung from their branches. Cordelia watched the fruit drop to the ground and rot: Her neighbor didn't dare eat it.
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S550 Genius Ways To Make Your Backyard So Much Better for Under $30 On Amazon  You don’t need to drop big bucks to get more enjoyment out of your backyard. There are countless ways under-$30 ways to boost usability and aesthetics, including fun decor, innovative gardening tools, clever lighting, and useful gear for enjoying a meal, drink, or snack. Regardless of what your space is currently like, the genius tricks below will make your space an oasis.Although the stems of this pair of solar garden lights will sway in the breeze, the posts will remain sturdy and in place in any part of your garden. Choose between several designs in the listing, including bee- and dragonfly-shaped options. They’ll remain lit throughout the entire night to bring your backyard to life.
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S14Tutu Puoane: the South African singer on creating her new album out of Lebo Mashile's poetry  From her base in Belgium, proudly South African singer, artist and actor Tutu Puoane has carved an international career predicated on consistency and mastery. Her new album, Wrapped in Rhythm Vol 1, features the writing of South African poet and cultural activist Lebo Mashile.Born Nonthuthuzelo Puoane in May 1979, she was raised in the Pretoria township of Mamelodi. Townships are urban black areas created under the apartheid policies of South Africa’s former government.
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S21S6Without a Doubt, the 65 Weirdest & Most Genius Things Under $30 on Amazon  Ready for a journey into the quirky and genius side of Amazon? This retail giant has just about everything available to purchase, and some of that stuff is pretty weird. But weird stuff can be pretty awesome too — like all the items on this list, for example. From multipurpose gadgets to pet care hacks, read on for a wild ride through affordable finds that'll have you saying, "Wait, that exists?" Enjoy using pens without the commitment with these retractable, erasable gel pens. They use a nontoxic thermo-sensitive ink that can be removed with the attached eraser. With 10 vibrant colors included in each pack, these pens are great for everything from scheduling to Sudoku puzzles.
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S7Star Trek Is Ending Another Show -- But Just Renewed Its Biggest Hit  2024 will see the series finales of not one, but two different distinct Star Trek series. In addition to the swan song of Discovery, it's now been revealed that Lower Decks will have its final season this year, too. At the same time, the most popular Star Trek series since The Next Generation — Strange New Worlds — will continue for at least two more seasons. If you're a casual fan, this announcement will likely be a shoulder shrug. If you’re a diehard Trekkie, you’re probably devastated.As revealed on the official Star Trek website, the animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks will air its fifth season later in 2024, which, will become its finale. Simultaneously, the hit series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — which is currently filming its third season — has been renewed for a fourth season. So, is Lower Decks really done? How long will Strange New Worlds last? And is the Star Trek TV renaissance over? Here’s what this (probably) means for the future of the Final Frontier.
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S84 Years Later, Alex Garland's Most Underrated Sci-Fi Thriller Deserves Another Shot  There aren't many filmmakers who have produced as many memorable genre works over the past 30 years as Alex Garland. From 28 Days Later and Sunshine to Ex Machina and Annihilation, Garland has written and directed many of the most acclaimed sci-fi and horror movies in recent memory. His newest film, Civil War, hits theaters this week, and it already seems primed to be his most hotly debated project yet. (That’s saying a lot considering his last release was a horror movie called Men.) Set in a near-future America torn apart by military conflict, Civil War is as terrifying as it is thrilling. It’s also not the only haunting story set in a near-future America that Garland has made this decade. Just four years ago, the filmmaker wrote and directed Devs, an FX and Hulu miniseries about a Silicon Valley-based tech company willing to go to disturbing lengths to perfect its latest invention. The show premiered in March 2020, but the conversation surrounding it at the time was quickly overwhelmed by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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S18S35Range Rover Evoque Plug-In Hybrid P300e Review: Price, Specs, Availability If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDThe Range Rover Evoque changed Land Rover forever. Before its launch in 2012, the 4x4 maker's SUVs were attractive, but in a functional, boxy sort of way. After it, the British brand was as much about the latest trends and fashion as off-roading and country estates.
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S43What the Perma-bears Get Wrong About the Stock Market  A sustained rally has led to fears of a tech bubble, but the doom-mongers are ignoring the economy's strong fundamentals.War in the Middle East. War in Ukraine. Rising oil prices. Inflation still hovering above 3 percent, and mortgage rates above 6 percent. The possible reelection of Donald Trump, with the prospect of a trade war with China to follow. Investors in the stock market seemingly have plenty to worry about. But so far this year, they have shrugged off anxiety: The S&P 500 index had its best first-quarter performance since 2019, up more than 10 percent. And that's on the heels of a strong 2023, when the S&P rose 24 percent.
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S11Jim Chalmers seeks to allay fears industry policy will be financial 'free-for-all'  Treasurer Jim Chalmers has flagged substantial public investment, likely tax breaks and other incentives in next month’s budget to encourage industry, while stressing there won’t be a “free-for-all” of public funds. “We’re talking about incentivising private investment rather than replacing it,” he said, as debate rages about Anthony Albanese’s announcement last week of his new interventionist policy.
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S26S28International Hires Could Help Your Business Grow  The need to optimize resources and diversify talent pools has never been more pressing. As companies contend with market downturns, employee disengagement, and talent shortages, hiring across borders remains a viable way to expand into new markets and drive dynamic growth. There's a reason recent data shows that 75 percent of SMBs will increase their international headcounts, with 54 percent planning to do so in the next one to three years. Global employment enables companies to overcome geographic constraints, tap into diverse skill and talent pools, and forge resilient teams capable of driving sustained growth. Thinking beyond borders is not only a lever that fuels innovation and diversity of experience, but it's also part of an efficient growth strategy that can help organizations reach their business goals even in challenging economic environments.
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S29Effective Leaders Avoid This Bad Habit  The problem is that a lot of owners have a habit of blaming their employees. They say, "My employees aren't any good. I need to do it myself." They refuse to accept that they aren't the best leaders they can be; they aren't giving their employees the support they need to win. Coaching is easier than you think. First, set up a one-on-one meeting with your employee. Then, ask these questions from one of my favorite books, The Coaching Effect (Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2019):
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S30How to Build a Strong Personal Brand  "I post content every day and have garnered over 1.6 million impressions within 90 days," says Nicole Smartt Serres, founder of Smartt Enterprises, a Sonoma County-based organization that helps executives establish personal brands. "By sharing my knowledge, insights, and perspectives regularly, I have been able to capture the attention of a vast audience."Â According to Zain Jaffer, a former tech founder turned venture capitalist at Zain Ventures in Santa Clara, you can establish a personal connection with people around the world by writing expert opinion pieces that showcase your brilliance.Â
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S31S32S37Toronto Wants to Manage Storms and Floods--With a Rain Tax This story originally appeared on CanadaâÂÂs National Observer and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.A plan to charge Toronto homeowners and businesses for paved surfaces on their properties is creating a public backlash, a deluge of negative international media attention, and even derisive comments from Donald Trump Jr.
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S38Space Force Is Planning a Military Exercise in Orbit The US Space Force announced Thursday it is partnering with two companies, Rocket Lab and True Anomaly, for a first-of-its-kind mission to demonstrate how the military might counter "on-orbit aggression."On this mission, a spacecraft built and launched by Rocket Lab will chase down another satellite made by True Anomaly, a Colorado-based startup. "The vendors will exercise a realistic threat response scenario in an on-orbit space domain awareness demonstration called Victus Haze," the Space Force's Space Systems Command said in a statement.
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S3924 Mother's Day Gifts We've Tried and Love (2023) If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDSPEAKING AS A mom myself, I know that the best gift you can give your mother is you. Whether you plug in your hybrid or hop on a cheap electric bike, you should see her if you can (we get it if you think air travel is scary, though). If you think you'd like to bring her a gift, now is the time to start thinking about it, because Mother's Day is approaching on May 12. Scrambling for ideas? We've got a bunch of gift recommendations below.
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S40How Israel Is Defending Against Iran's Drone Attack On Saturday, Iran launched more than 200 drones and cruise missiles at Israel, a response to an strike earlier this month against Iran's embassy in Syria. As the drones made their way across the Middle East en route to their target, Israel has invoked a number of defense systems to impede their progress. None will be more important than the Iron Dome.The Iron Dome, operational for well over a decade, comprises at least 10 missile-defense batteries strategically distributed around the country. When radar detects incoming objects, it sends that information back to a command-and-control center, which will track the threat to assess whether it's a false alarm, and where it might hit if it's not. The system then fires interceptor missiles at the incoming rockets that seem most likely to hit an inhabited area.
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S41S42S44The Golden Age of Dating Doesn't Exist  This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic's archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here."I wish I knew some young men!" the writer Eliza Orne White declared in The Atlantic's July 1888 issue. "I am fully aware how heterodox this sentiment is considered, but I repeat it boldly, and even underline itâI should like to know some interesting men!"
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S45Six Cult Classics You Have to Read  As word of mouth about a book spreads, it begins to spark with a special kind of electricity.A book that earns the title of "cult classic" is one that combines two seemingly contradictory qualities: It has a passionate following of people who swear it's the best thing they've ever read, but also, outside this intense fan base, it's largely unknown. As word of mouth about such a book spreads, and the title's partisans become evangelists, it begins to spark with a distinct kind of electricity. Even if the book never goes mainstream, its reputation can be buoyed for years or decades by devotees.
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S50The Homepage of the Black Internet  A few years ago, Stephanie Williams and her husband fielded a question from their son: How had they met?To the 5-year-old, the answer seemed fantastical. "He clearly didn't hear 'website,'â" Williams, a writer and comic creator, told me. "He was like, 'Wait, you all met on Black Planet? Like, there's a planet that's full of Black people? Why did you leave?!'â"
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S18Toronto Wants to Manage Storms and Floods--With a Rain Tax This story originally appeared on CanadaâÂÂs National Observer and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.A plan to charge Toronto homeowners and businesses for paved surfaces on their properties is creating a public backlash, a deluge of negative international media attention, and even derisive comments from Donald Trump Jr.
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S1The Best Sasquatch Movie Ever Wouldn't Have Happened Without Jesse Eisenberg  The brother directors behind Sasquatch Sunset reveal how their bizarre indie hit came to be.
One night, in the early 1980s, Nathan and David Zellner turned on an episode of In Search of… and discovered a new obsession. Leonard Nimoy’s supernatural-themed TV show had dedicated 22 minutes to Bigfoot, and the brothers couldn’t get enough. The pair grew up in Colorado loving the outdoors, taking family camping trips, and making movies in the woods. The idea of a local ape-like legend roaming the Pacific Northwest fascinated them.
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S2Are Hypoallergenic Pets A Scam? Here's the Truth From A Veterinarian  It’s unfair that some humans are allergic to humankind’s best friend. An adorable dog or cat ought to bring joy to those around it, not miserable sniffling and sneezing. But between 10 and 20 percent of the world population is allergic to cats and dogs, marking a significant portion of people who are sensitive to two of the world’s most popular household pets.Hypoallergenic cats and dogs are a purported solution. But what does it mean to be hypoallergenic — and does such a trait really exist?
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S4The 10 Best Revenge Movies, Ranked  Filmmakers love little more than a revenge story. Whether it be classics like 1974's Death Wish or more contemporary blockbusters like Dev Patel's new directorial debut, Monkey Man, the ancient and deeply human desire for revenge has been at the center of countless movies over the past 100 years. That doesn't mean some films haven't treaded that particular thematic and narrative terrain better than others, though.On the contrary, as the revenge thriller genre has grown in popularity throughout the years, a number of fan-favorite and iconic movies have earned different places for themselves in cinema history. With all that in mind, and in honor of Monkey Man's recent release, here are Inverse's picks for the 10 best revenge films of all time.
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S16South Africa's Constitutional Court at 30: a solid foundation but cracks are showing  South Africa’s Constitutional Court stands out as one of the few government institutions that have protected and advanced the constitutional vision of a participatory democracy and social justice. Many other government institutions which ought to have allied themselves with the court have been weakened or have failed to deliver.The court has consistently championed one of the fundamental values to be found in section 1 of the constitution, 1996. This requires that the exercise of public power be accountable, responsive and open. Despite this, but also because of it, the court faces challenges from outside and from within.
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S19NYT Connections: Tips to improve your game through the science of semantic memory  Puzzle fans are hooked on Connections, the latest word game from the New York Times that launched in June 2023, following the success of Wordle. The premise of the Connections game is deceivingly simple: from a grid of 16 words, find four groups of four that each have something in common. So why does this game spark so much delight and frustration among players? To solve Connections puzzles, players need to draw on different aspects of word knowledge like a word’s meaning, grammar (e.g. a noun or verb), and how the word is spelled or pronounced. This information is stored in what cognitive scientists refer to as our semantic memory. Our word knowledge is structured through associations that reflect different types of information and are formed through experience.
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S22How Tech Startups Can Crack the Code of Cloud Infrastructure Costs  With the explosion in Fintech, AI, IoT, and other technologically driven solutions, the number of tech startups is expected to grow significantly in the next few years. The tech startup world is notoriously rocky terrain, with a 50 percent failure rate, one of the highest among startup sectors. The cost of running a tech startup is extremely high, from software development to staffing, but one of the most unexpectedly demanding costs that tech startups have to grapple with is the cost of cloud computing, which is rising steadily every year. According to Gartner, annual cloud spending has surged to an astounding $600 billion, emerging as the most rapidly expanding expense category for tech companies. Effectively managing these costs demands considerable time and effort from DevOps teams, with up to half of companies admitting they have not fully optimized their cloud expenditures.Â
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S23I Quit My High Paying Consulting Job 5 Years Ago Today. Since Then, These 5 Things Have Become Perfectly Clear  Five years ago, on this day, I stepped away from what many would call a dream opportunity. After a decade immersed in academia, accumulating degree after degree, culminating in a PhD, I ventured into the corporate world, landing a great position at a top strategy consulting firm. I was ready. Ready for a change of scenery. Ready to tackle any challenge. Yet, the reality of the corporate grind soon set in, transforming my initial optimism into cynicism, culminating in a surprisingly brief tenure of three months.
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S24Tiger Woods Just Set His Most Impressive Record Yet. His 6-Word Response Is a Stroke of Genius  Tiger Woods made the cut on Friday at The Masters for the 24th consecutive time. To put that in perspective, he has played in The Masters 26 times, and made the cut every single time, except for once in 1996, just before he turned pro. He's also now done it more than anyone else, setting what might be his most impressive record yet. His even-par round was good enough to keep playing this weekend, breaking a tie for the record he held with Fred Couples and Gary Player.To be fair, Woods is seven shots back of the leader, Bryson DeChambeau, who--it's worth mentioning--was three years old when Woods won his first Masters by 12 shots in 1997. A lot can happen over the next 36 holes, but Woods has a lot of work to do if he's going to have a chance to win his sixth Masters and 16th overall major championship. On the other hand, I don't think anyone sleeps on a seven-shot lead when Tiger Woods is in the field.
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S253 Words You Should Never Use That May Turn People Off  Have you ever been in a conversation with a colleague when they suddenly seem to lose interest in what you're saying? It can be frustrating and confusing. Sometimes, if you're self-aware, you notice subtle changes in their body language that indicate a shift in their attention. But what caused this shift?Something you said may have triggered it. We often use certain words in our conversations that we don't even realize can harm our listeners. By paying closer attention to our language, we can become better communicators and avoid misunderstandings.
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S33S36Roku Breach Hits 567,000 Users After months of delays, the US House of Representatives voted on Friday to extend a controversial warrantless wiretap program for two years. Known as Section 702, the program authorizes the US government to collect the communications of foreigners overseas. But this collection also includes reams of communications from US citizens, which are stored for years and can later be warrantlessly accessed by the FBI, which has heavily abused the program. An amendment that would require investigators to obtain such a warrant failed to pass.A group of US lawmakers on Sunday unveiled a proposal that they hope will become the country's first nationwide privacy law. The American Privacy Rights Act would limit the data that companies can collect and give US residents greater control over the personal information that is collected about them. Passage of such legislation remains far off, however: Congress has attempted to pass a national privacy law for years and has thus far failed to do so.
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S48Where the Future of Abortion Access Lies  Donald Trump recently tried to push responsibility onto the states, whose approaches continue to vary widely.This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
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