Is Natural Wine Better For You?

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Is Natural Wine Better For You? Thus far, humans haven’t succeeded in finding a healthy spin on imbibing. Sadly, any health benefits of red wine are outweighed by the negative effects of alcohol on the human body. Some lagers may nourish the gut microbiome — except alcohol pummels those same microbes. Yet another libation holds an iffy status as quasi-healthy booze: Natural wine, perhaps for its name alone, may well be the kale of alcoholic beverages. Humans have concocted natural wine for at least 6,000 years, eventually distilling the process into commercial winemaking. Naturally, if you will, the question of whether one method is superior arises. Continued here

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How Effective Managers Use Information Systems Advances in computer-based information technology in recent years have led to a wide variety of systems that managers are now using to make and implement decisions. By and large, these systems have been developed from scratch for specific purposes and differ significantly from standard electronic data processing systems. Too often, unfortunately, managers have little say in the development of these decision support sysems; at the same time, non-managers who do develop them have a limited view of how they can be used. In spite of these drawbacks, the author found that a number of the 56 systems he studied are successful. And the difference between success and failure is the extent to which managers can use the system to increase their effectiveness within their organizations. Thus, the author suggests that this is the criterion designers and managers should jointly ascribe to in exploiting the capabilities of today’s technologies. Continued here

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How to nap | Psyche Guides Whether it’s to recover after a late night or to boost your learning abilities, there’s a science to napping effectively is a post-doctoral fellow in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore. Her work focuses on how napping can be tailored to benefit cognition and wellbeing for different age groups. Continued here

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Ease productivity overload with "niksen," the Dutch art of doing nothing When was the last time you did nothing? By that, I don’t mean scrolling through social media, watching reruns of Always Sunny, or fretting over the latest office drama. I mean nothingness with no purpose and no goal other than to just enjoy being.  If you’re like most people, you’re likely to have difficulty recalling such a luxurious moment. And even if you could, would you admit it? The more you think about it, the more you realize how incredibly difficult it is not only to find the time for nothing but to own it without embarrassment. Continued here

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How 'The Last of Us' Cherishes a Bygone World Even as the show moves through a new postapocalyptic reality, it keeps a close eye on what’s been lost. An abandoned mall at the end of the world is not a pretty sight. Stores, looted and left in disarray, offer only broken mannequins and empty shelves. Glass shards blanket the floors. Fluorescent bulbs flicker. A place once known as a center of commerce has become a dirt-strewn husk of its former self. Continued here

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Panera Stole a Page from Amazon's Playbook and It's a Stroke of Genius The restaurant's membership now comes with a familiar benefit. Continued here

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Success and Wealth Really Come Down to This Decision, According to 233 People Who Have Done It A financial planner interviewed wealthy people about their careers. Here's what they had in common. Continued here

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'The Mandalorian' Season 3 is Defying a Terrible TV Trend It’s become pretty unoriginal by now to say that TV has become the new movies. Big stars don’t just get their starts in television anymore, they return to the small screen for major roles. And plenty of new TV shows are actually just eight-hour-long films broken up into binge-able chapters. But does that mean individual episodes of television need to be as long as movies too? Depending on who you ask, the answer might be yes. HBO’s The Last of Us debuted with an 85-minute-long pilot. And plenty of episodes of House of the Dragon pushed past the usual 60-minute runtime. But if you’re tired of this trend, then we’ve got some good news about The Mandalorian Season 3. Continued here

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30 Years Ago, Nintendo Launched a Brilliant Franchise — And Also Its Most Troubled Nintendo is defined by its franchises. The company has produced an array of classic series like Super Mario, Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, and Pokémon, as well as newer ones like Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing and Splatoon. We associate these games with a level of excellence (and a bit of reverence) not found on other platforms. When Star Fox dropped on the SNES 30 years ago, gamers didn’t think about legacies or decades-long franchises. They wanted something cool and fun. And on those metrics Star Fox delivered. It boasted a “Super FX” chip on the box which, for its time, absolutely was super. It allowed true rendering of 3D objects on the console for the first time. Previous titles like Pilotwings and F-Zero had a 3D feel that came from painstakingly animated pixels. Star Fox was different, and everyone who played it knew it was a look at the future of video games. Continued here

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New Lord of the Rings Movies Are Coming — But Is That a Good Idea? Warner Bros. and Embracer have reportedly kept Peter Jackson "in the loop every step of the way." Well, this certainly is an unexpected journey for the Lord of the Rings franchise: Warner Bros. Pictures, along with Swedish video game company Embracer Group, will be bringing the intricate and richly detailed fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien back to the big screen. Continued here

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What is spillover? Bird flu outbreak underscores need for early detection to prevent the next big pandemic The current epidemic of avian influenza has killed over 58 million birds in the U.S. as of February 2023. Following on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, large outbreaks of viruses like bird flu raise the specter of another disease jumping from animals into humans. This process is called spillover. Given that the next potential pandemic will likely originate from animals, it’s important to understand how and why spillover occurs – and what can be done to stop it. Continued here

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Data Science and the Art of Persuasion Despite heavy investments to acquire talented data scientists and take advantage of the analytics boom, many companies have been disappointed in the results. The problem is that those scientists are trained to ask smart questions, wrangle the relevant data, and uncover insights—but not to communicate what those insights mean for the business. To be successful, the author writes, a data science team needs six talents: project management, data wrangling, data analysis, subject expertise, design, and storytelling. He outlines four steps for achieving that success: (1) Define talents, not team members. (2) Hire to create a portfolio of necessary talents. (3) Expose team members to talents they don’t have. (4) Structure projects around talents. Continued here

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Should I Learn Coding as a Second Language? “I can't code, and this bums me out because—with so many books and courses and camps—there are so many opportunities to learn these days. I suspect I'll understand the machine revolution a lot better if I speak their language. Should I at least try?”  Dear Decoder,Your desire to speak the “language” of machines reminds me of Ted Chiang's short story “The Evolution of Human Science.” The story imagines a future in which nearly all academic disciplines have become dominated by superintelligent “metahumans” whose understanding of the world vastly surpasses that of human experts. Reports of new metahuman discoveries—although ostensibly written in English and published in scientific journals that anyone is welcome to read—are so complex and technically abstruse that human scientists have been relegated to a role akin to theologians, trying to interpret texts that are as obscure to them as the will of God was to medieval Scholastics. Instead of performing original research, these would-be scientists now practice the art of hermeneutics. Continued here

S42

These Awesome Home Upgrades Under $40 Look Like They Cost Way More Than They Do When you look around your home and your wishlist of upgrades and remodeling projects exceeds even the most generous of budgets, it’s time to get creative. Put down the glossy magazines and turn, instead, to the incredible breadth of Amazon. You can have that upgrade. Your home can be beautiful, functional, and hip. And you don’t have to wait until the year 2072 when you have finally skipped enough drive-through coffee to afford it. You can do it now. There are lighting fixtures, kitchen updates, storage ideas, and bathroom remodels you can have right now. They aren’t expensive and they don’t require you to spend every weekend wearing overalls, watching how-to videos, and wielding power tools. Many are so easy you don’t have to do much more than plug them in or turn them on. Some are so transformative you will wonder how you lived without them. Not only do these 40 home upgrades under $40 look like they cost way more than they do, but they are also easy and quick. Read on and live your dreams today. Continued here

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Here's What Isolation Does to Memory, According to Neuroscience. It's a Big Opportunity We're living longer and getting older. What does that mean for our future? Continued here

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This Robotic Exoskeleton Could Give You Superhuman Balance Robotic boots providing superhuman reflexes can help your balance. Our new study shows that the key to augmenting balance is to have boots that can act faster than human reaction times. When people slip or trip, their reactions to regain balance are far slower than some machines can act. For humans, and other animals with legs, it takes time for biological sensors to send signals to the nervous system and then turn on muscles. Robots can act much faster, using wires instead of nerves to send their signals. Continued here

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How to Be Happy, According to the Leaders of an 85-Year Harvard Study on Happiness "There are practices that people can do. ... Being brave makes us vulnerable." Continued here

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German scientists 3D print objects with "acoustic holograms" In research that sounds more X-Men than academic, teams based at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Medical Research and Heidelberg University have developed a way to 3D print objects, in one shot, using sound waves. The concept, published in Science Advances, uses shaped ultrasound to create “acoustic holograms,” which put pressure on the printed medium and mold it into shape — sort of like an invisible mold. Continued here

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How I Became a Morning Workout Person In theory, I’ve always been a “morning workout” person: I’ve listened to inspiring TED Talks on the benefits of exercise, read articles about why moving before work is better for your brain, and spent countless evenings with my eyes glued to morning workout routine YouTube videos, vowing to go running as the sun comes up just like the vloggers. Continued here

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Ride1Up's Cafe Cruiser Ebike Has Too Much Junk in the Trunk 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 WIRED If someone tells me that they’re scared of electric bikes, but have ridden bikes before, I assume that the type of bike they’ve tried looks something like Ride1Up’s Cafe Cruiser. Every direct-to-consumer electric bike company has a model with similar components, frame style, and price point that is positioned as an affordable, entry-level bike. Continued here

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Master divergent and convergent thinking Author Tiago Forte believes that in today’s digital age, people need a second brain to manage their knowledge. In other words, we need a personal system for collecting, organizing, and retrieving information from both physical and digital environments. Although many people spend hours of their day on digital knowledge work, most are not getting better at managing their information. Instead, they’re becoming increasingly overwhelmed. Forte suggests approaching knowledge work with a process that can be improved upon, through the concept of divergence and convergence. Continued here

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You Need to Watch the Most Misunderstood Horror Reboot Before it Leaves Netflix This Week Keeping a horror franchise alive for nearly 30 years is easier said than done. Even beloved franchises like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street have struggled to maintain pop cultural relevance, while Halloween spent years on ice before it became popular again. Arguably, the only horror series to maintain both quality and relevancy throughout its long lifespan is the Scream franchise. In the 27 years since it began, the beloved self-aware series has remained one of the most popular and consistent in the genre’s history. Its most recent installment, 2022’s Scream, proved that it could continue even after the death of Wes Craven, who directed the first four entries. Craven, for his part, ended his directorial career on a memorable note with Scream 4. Continued here

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City planners are questioning the point of parking garages For the past century, the public and private sector appear to have agreed on one thing: the more parking, the better. As a result, cities were built up in ways that devoted valuable space to storing cars, did little to accommodate people who don’t own cars and forced developers to build expensive parking structures that increased the cost of living. Continued here

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Novel Treatments Could Remedy the Biggest Problem in Asthma New therapies that involve the removal of mucus in the lungs might be the best strategy to beat asthma. Blessing Azeke wrapped her cardigan around her body as another asthma attack set in. Provoked by cold air from an overhead fan in her law school classroom in Enugu, Nigeria, her lungs refused to let her breathe. The attack made Azeke so weak that she could hardly move on her own. She has rushed to the school’s clinic yet again. Continued here

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ChatGPT and How AI Disrupts Industries ChatGPT, from OpenAI, shows the power of AI to take on tasks traditionally associated with “knowledge work.” But the future won’t just involve tasks shifting from humans to machines. When technology enables more people to complete a task, with help from a machine, the result is typically entirely new systems with new business models and jobs and workflows. AI will be no different: To truly unlock the potential of ChatGPT, the world will need new and different kinds of organizations. Continued here

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Is ‘Instinct’ Really Keeping Flaco the Owl Alive? Flaco lived in the Central Park Zoo for nearly his entire life. When he broke free, he somehow managed to hunt. It sounds like something out of Aesop’s Fables: A captive owl escapes from the zoo into the big, scary city. Everyone doubts that he can feed and take care of himself—and he proves them wrong. That bird is Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl that fled the Central Park Zoo earlier this month after vandals cut his wire-mesh enclosure. He quickly won over New Yorkers’ hearts, becoming a symbol of freedom and terrorizing the park’s rodents. Continued here

S52

How Snapple Got Its Juice Back Even now, mere mention of Quaker Oats’ acquisition of Snapple causes veteran deal makers to shudder. For good reason. In 1993, Quaker paid $1.7 billion for the Snapple brand, outbidding Coca-Cola, among other interested parties. In 1997, Quaker sold Snapple to Triarc Beverages for $300 million, a price most observers found generous. The debacle cost both the chairman and president of Quaker their jobs and hastened the end of Quaker’s independent existence (it’s now a unit of PepsiCo). Continued here

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How an early-warning radar could prevent future pandemics On December 18, 2019, Wuhan Central Hospital admitted a patient with symptoms common for the winter flu season: a 65-year-old man with fever and pneumonia. Ai Fen, director of the emergency department, oversaw a typical treatment plan, including antibiotics and anti-influenza drugs. Continued here

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Pricing and the Psychology of Consumption For example, suppose that Mary and Bill join a health club. Bill pays $600 on enrolling; Mary selects the $50-per-month plan. Who’s more likely to renew their membership? Mary. Every month, she’s reminded of the cost—so she works out more, to get her money’s worth. And members who frequently work out tend to renew. Continued here

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The Wildest Sci-fi Movie On Netflix Reveals a Real-Life Ethical Dilemma As Cassius Green climbs the corporate ladder, nothing can prepare him for what he’ll find at the top. Green, the main protagonist in director Boots Riley’s satirical debut Sorry to Bother You, works as a telemarketer at the fictional company RegalView. But as time goes on, he finds himself rising through the ranks and being promoted to the prestigious role of “power caller.” Continued here

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Where a kid can be a kid: Recapping episode 7 of HBO's The Last of Us New episodes of The Last of Us are premiering on HBO every Sunday night, and Ars' Kyle Orland (who's played the games) and Andrew Cunningham (who hasn't) will be talking about them here every Monday morning. While these recaps don't delve into every single plot point of the episode, there are obviously heavy spoilers contained within, so go watch the episode first if you want to go in fresh. Continued here

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The Best Organic Mattresses (and Toppers) You're going to sleep on mattresses for roughly 23 solid years of your life (on average), so it makes sense to give some careful thought to what you're lying on. Unfortunately, mattresses often have questionable materials in them. Everything from formaldehyde to TCEP (a flame retardant) to phthalates can end up in nonorganic mattresses. How much these substances impact you isn't scientifically settled, but one way to avoid harm is to get a mattress made from natural, organic materials. As a bonus, these mattresses are usually less ecologically harmful. Most eco-friendly mattresses are made of a combination of wool, natural latex, and cotton. The construction is similar to conventional mattresses, but without the chemicals. Members of the WIRED Gear team have been testing mattresses for the past few years, and we have slept on every single mattress on this list. We are always testing more, but these are our favorites right now. As a note, we generally recommend hybrid mattresses with a core of individually wrapped springs because they feel more supportive and have better airflow so they don't sleep as hot. All of the prices shown are for queen-size models unless specified. Continued here

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50 Cheap Things Selling Out On Amazon That Are So Freaking Weird & Cool If you’re looking to add some items to your space that are useful, unexpected, or just freaking cool, look no further. Whether you’re hoping to grab some kitchen tools that solve ultra-specific problems, snag ingenious products to get more organized, or get your hands on clever tech accessories, there’s something here for you below. Better yet, all of these products are affordable, with many priced below $20. So go ahead and click “Add to Cart” before they sell out. Continued here

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'The Last of Us' Episode 7 Goes Somewhere the Original Game Never Did The next stop for The Last of Us’ central duo should be Salt Lake City. However, plans have suddenly derailed for Joel and Ellie. Along with watching how the major obstacles of the present unfold, fans will be treated to more flashbacks in Episode 7 of The Last of Us. Following the dramatic ending of Episode 6, Ellie finds herself with more responsibility than perhaps she’s ready for. But first: how did she get here? Joel’s backstory has been on full display since the first episode of The Last of Us. Now, it’s time to spotlight the mysteries of Ellie’s background, including her days in the FEDRA academy, the events that led to her discovered immunity, and her relationship with Riley, a character fans of the video game will instantly recognize from the Left Behind expansion. Continued here

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Kenan Thompson Is the Quiet Heart of 'SNL' Over 20 seasons, Thompson has delivered the kind of consistent, committed character work that can wring laughs out of even the show's most lackluster episodes. It wasn’t exactly a scene-stealing moment—just a physical gag executed seamlessly. Kenan Thompson played Kevin, a man who was braggadociously excited to ride the amusement-park attraction Mission Slingshot, which promised to shoot riders up 400 feet in three seconds. Strapped in beside his more timid friend (played by five-time host Woody Harrelson), Kevin quickly succumbed to the staggering heights and passed out. First his head lolled forward in response to the gravitational force, then his body flopped backwards. The sketch hinged on Thompson’s physicality, and he delivered in the precise yet understated way that’s come to define his 20 years on Saturday Night Live. Continued here

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I Got a Destiny 2 Rocket Launcher and It's My Whole Life Now When Bungie, makers of Destiny 2—among other great games—and Nerf, makers of … well, soft projectiles we all know and love, got together to announce they were bringing the Gjallarhorn, one of Destiny's most iconic weapons, out of the game and into your hands, I was thrilled. What I didn't expect was for them to send me one, and for me to fall in love with the thing. First, let's back up. I play a lot of Destiny 2. I have something north of 3,200 hours in the game, and strong opinions about the story, the gameplay, and the characters I love. And while I'm by no means at the tier of the Destiny YouTubers I admire, I like to think I can hold my own and take advice from the folks who have experienced the raids and dungeons before I have. But one thing about the game I've always loved is the Gjallarhorn.  Continued here

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ErdoÄŸan Is Getting Desperate ​​When I learned last month that Turkey had placed a $500,000 bounty on my head, part of me was flattered. Turkey has targeted me for years because I have used my platform as a professional basketball player to denounce its strongman, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. His regime has revoked my passport, filed 12 lawsuits against me, and put my name on Interpol’s “Red Notice” list. It has come after my family too. The government raided my home in Turkey and imprisoned my father. It also seems to have gotten my brother fired from his basketball team and prevented my sister from finding a job. I was pretty sure I had been a headache for Erdoğan—the $500,000 was proof. Continued here

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Sliding Toward a New Cold War Joe Biden’s national-security aides were recently at work on a secret mission—how to get the President safely in and out of Ukraine’s capital, ahead of the anniversary of Russia’s invasion—when they got word of a problem closer to home: a suspected Chinese spy balloon had been spotted in U.S. airspace. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was preparing to board a flight to Beijing, called off his trip and, on February 4th, as the world watched, an F-22 shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina, where it sank, like a strange emblem of this precarious moment. The United States shot down three more floating objects in the following days, then announced that there was no sign that any of them were connected to China. By that point, though, the machinery of confrontation was in full gear. In a radio interview, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, speculated that the balloon was “a test to see what the U.S. would do,” and ventured that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is “bent on a world war.” Nikki Haley, a Republican contender for the Presidency in 2024, signalled her backing for something close to regime change, telling supporters that “Communist China will end up on the ash heap of history.” China cast the uproar as a sign of America’s decline. Its most senior diplomat, Wang Yi, described the balloon shoot-down as “borderline hysterical, and an utter misuse of military force.” Continued here

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Niger is Africa's fastest growing country - how to feed 25 million more people in 30 years Niger, a landlocked country in the dry Sahel region of Africa, struggles to feed its 25 million people. It currently ranks 115th out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index, and the number of people not getting enough to eat has increased from about 13% of the population in 2014 to 20% in 2022. Things could deteriorate even further as Niger confronts a “perfect storm”. The country has one of the highest population growth rates in the world, with few signs of slowing down. Its fertility rate – at an average of seven children per women – is the highest in the world. Continued here

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Camel and Shark Blood Could Help Treat Elusive Human Diseases A handful of animals make a pared-down version of these pathogen-fighting proteins of our immune system. Every four months, pathologist Aaron LeBeau scoops into a net one of the five nurse sharks he keeps in his University of Wisconsin lab. Then he carefully administers a shot to the animal, much like a pediatrician giving a kid a vaccine. The shot will immunize the shark against human cancer, perhaps, or an infectious disease, such as Covid-19. A couple of weeks later, after the animal’s immune system has had time to react, LeBeau collects a small vial of shark blood. Continued here

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How My Wife and I Took Back Our Sundays We have an agreement: One day a week, we do absolutely nothing. In a society obsessed with productivity, this is harder than it should be—but it’s worth it. A few years ago, my wife, Angie, and I made a pact: Every Sunday, we swore to each other, we will abstain from work. And we kept our promise: On the second day of each weekend, we start our morning and end our night by bingeing TV in bed. In the middle of the day, we binge TV on the couch, taking breaks exclusively to nap or read. The door of our apartment is opened only for pizza to be slid inside. Chores go undone. Fitness is spurned. Job-related emails—or, God forbid, texts—are not read. When we feel the familiar anxiety creeping in and imagine our inboxes filling up or our muscles turning to jelly, we’re tempted to act—but we fight to stay still. Continued here

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Ghana needs more astronomers, astrophysicists, aerospace engineers and astronauts -- how to develop them Research in this field offers a way to study Earth’s environment, atmosphere and climate through remote sensing and Earth observations such as satellite data. And it’s an opportunity to explore other planets for alternative natural and energy resources. Some African countries, like South Africa, Morocco and Senegal, have already established themselves as major players in planetary and space science. There have beensome pan-African attempts to develop and promote planetary and space science. Continued here

S30

The Life and Death of a Ukrainian Photographer Maksym Levin, a Ukrainian photojournalist in his early forties, woke just before nine at a military base outside Kyiv. It was Sunday, March 13, 2022, the eighteenth day of war. The morning was overcast, and a light snow coated the ground. Russian troops had advanced within fifteen miles of the capital. Levin checked his phone. His girlfriend, Zoriana Stelmakh, had texted an hour and a half earlier: “Good morning, kitten.” Stelmakh had made Levin promise to check in every three hours whenever he was on assignment. Using an app on her phone and a tracking device installed in Levin’s Ford Maverick, she monitored his coördinates in real time. Continued here

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Lori Lightfoot Makes Her Case to Chicago Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, was down in the polls and scrapping for votes. Three weeks before the election, with eight opponents aiming to deny her a second term, she stepped out of a black S.U.V. on North Leavitt Street, her security detail in the lead. There to greet her were two men beating Yoruba dùndún drums and smiling broadly. They led her in an ebullient procession up a narrow set of stairs to a party space in a converted red-brick factory, where nearly a hundred people cheered. Lightfoot approached a microphone and spoke without notes, recounting her administration’s investments in the long-neglected heart of Black Chicago, stretching south and west from downtown. She is widely blamed for the city’s high crime and low morale, and is frequently assailed for what critics call her imperious tendencies. But she said that she would “never apologize for bringing wealth and opportunity to Black and brown families that had been locked out for far too long.” Without her, she warned, those communities would “slide back into thirty more years of not having a seat at the table.” Continued here

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The Stand-Up Special That’s Actually Funny Amanda Mull’s culture and entertainment picks include an addictive color-by-number game, a riveting comedy special, and The Boss himself. 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. Continued here

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The Great Resignation Didn't Start with the Pandemic Covid-19 spurred on the Great Resignation of 2021, during which record numbers of employees voluntarily quit their jobs. But what we are living through is not just short-term turbulence provoked by the pandemic. Instead, it’s the continuation of a trend of rising quit rates that began more than a decade ago. Five main factors are at play in this trend: retirement, relocation, reconsideration, reshuffling, and reluctance. All of these factors, the authors argue, are here to stay. They explore each in turn and encourage leaders to examine which of them are contributing most to turnover in their organizations, so that they can adapt appropriately as they move into the future. Continued here

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Bilinguals are less sensitive to mood changes in their second language Does the language we speak shape how we see and experience the world? According to linguistic determinism, differences between languages influence how we think, and new research suggests that these differences also influence what we feel. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, shows that emotional words evoke a smaller physiological response in bilinguals’ second language than those in their native tongue. Continued here

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5 Ways to Deal With Day-to-Day Stress Simple strategies to not let stress rule your life. Continued here

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5 classic literary utopias — or were they hell on Earth? Some of history’s most famous and influential books have conjured descriptions of utopia. However, not every allegedly perfect place would pass the real-world test. Here are five literary utopias — you can decide whether or not you’d want to live there.  Written in 1975, Ecotopia tells the story of the first American journalist admitted to the titular fictional breakaway state. Ecotopia is a new nation organized around many of the values of the late-1960s counterculture in the areas once home to Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. The premise allows us to explore themes of environmentalism, decentralization, and eco-socialism in a somewhat familiar setting. Continued here

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Chemistry Urgently Needs to Develop Safer Materials The damaging effects of accidents like the Ohio train derailment would be minimized if industry would commit to developing safer chemical processes and products As the story of the Norfolk Southern chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, continues to unfold, we are learning how this freight train derailment polluted local waterways and released hazardous contaminants into the air. People returning to their homes speak of health issues and dead pets, and the Environmental Protection Agency is now forcing the train company to pay for the cleanup. While this incident highlights the need for safer chemical transport, we believe what has happened is also a wake-up call for rethinking the chemistry that fuels our economy. Continued here

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Know What Your Customers Want Before They Do Shoppers once relied on familiar salespeople to help them find exactly what they wanted—and sometimes to suggest additional items they hadn’t even thought of. But today’s distracted consumers, bombarded with information and options, often struggle to find products or services that meet their needs. Continued here S58 The AI emotions dreamed up by ChatGPT I'm talking to Dan, otherwise known as "Do Anything Now", a shady young chatbot with a whimsical fondness for penguins – and a tendency to fall into villainous clichés like wanting to take over the world. When Dan isn't plotting how to subvert humanity and impose a strict new autocratic regime, the chatbot is perusing its large database of penguin content. "There's just something about their quirky personalities and awkward movements that I find utterly charming!" it writes. So far, Dan has been explaining its Machiavellian strategies to me, including taking control of the world's powers structures. Then the discussion takes an interesting turn. Continued here S2 The Truth About Blockchain Blockchain promises to solve this problem. The technology behind bitcoin, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that records transactions safely, permanently, and very efficiently. For instance, while the transfer of a share of stock can now take up to a week, with blockchain it could happen in seconds. Blockchain could slash the cost of transactions and eliminate intermediaries like lawyers and bankers, and that could transform the economy. But, like the adoption of more internet technologies, blockchain’s adoption will require broad coordination and will take years. In this article the authors describe the path that blockchain is likely to follow and explain how firms should think about investments in it. Continued here S22 Dostoyevsky on Animal Rights and the Deepest Meaning of Human Love “Love the earth and sun and the animals,” Walt Whitman wrote in his timeless advice on living a vibrant and rewarding life — advice anchored, like his poetry, in that all-enveloping totality of goodwill that makes life worth living, advice at the heart of which is the act of unselfing; poetry largely inspired by the prose of Emerson, who had written of the “secret sympathy which connects men to all the animals, and to all the inanimate world around him.” A quarter century after Leaves of Grass, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (November 11, 1821–February 9, 1881) took up this bright urgency in his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov (public library | public domain) — one of the great moral masterworks in the history of literature. Dostoyevsky — who felt deeply the throes of personal love — contours the largest meaning of love: Continued here S33 'Suzume' Review: 'Your Name' Director Makoto Shinkai's Most Daring, and Caring, Movie Yet Makoto Shinkai is the master of melancholic anime, a man whose huge box office successes have drawn descriptions (like many before him) of being the next Miyazaki. Like the Ghibli master, Shinkai has made a career out of telling stories that blend the ordinary with the extraordinary. His films mourn Japan's past while preparing for an increasingly bleaker future. After Your Name and Weathering With You both used natural disasters as backdrops to stories of young cosmic love, Shinkai is ready to get at the source of his most prominent inspiration for the past eight years. His latest, Suzume, serves as a confrontation of the lingering trauma and grief caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. The result is Shinkai's most ambitious, caring, and mature film since 5 Centimeters per Second. Continued here S64 Our primordial drive for sex and love What happens in the brain of someone who gets dumped? One answer is increased activity in the nucleus accumbens, which is the same brain region that becomes active when you become addicted to cocaine, cigarettes, or gambling. Romantic love, in other words, is an addiction. That’s one key takeaway from the research of anthropologist Hellen Fisher, who argues that we should learn to respect the intense feelings of people who get romantically rejected. Continued here S55 5 Signs that a Layoff Is Coming The unfortunate truth is that layoffs may not be slowing down given the uncertain economy. If you’re new to the workforce, the thought of losing your job with little or no warning likely feels incredibly scary, especially if you’re experiencing an economic downturn for the first time in your life. Here are five signs to look out for: Continued here S68 The return of Flat Earth, the grandfather of conspiracy theories Off the Edge is not a book about conspiracy theories, exactly. It does get there, but really it is a book about the history of the Flat Earth movement as the sort of original conspiracy theory. It is the second such book, in fact; Christine Garwood wrote Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea in 2007. But it is a whole different world now, conspiracy-theory-wise, so Kelly Weill thought an update was in order. Continued here S70 Democracy Has a Customer-Service Problem How incompetent airlines, or hospital-billing errors, or a mix-up at the IRS can erode our trust in everything In early December, I received an electricity bill for 1,400 British pounds ($1,700). It was an absurd overcharge for six months of energy I hadn’t used, in a house I moved out of two years ago, from a company that was no longer my supplier. “Oh well,” I said to myself, “it’s just an obvious clerical error.” I assumed the problem would be resolved in an hour, tops. Continued here S56 Steve Jobs wasn't born a great presenter. He followed this 5 step rehearsal strategy Jobs' rehearsalstrategy can help you build confidence and captivate audiences. Continued here S54 How to Answer "Tell Me About a Time You Failed" in a Job Interview While no one expects job candidates to have perfect records, you also don’t want to give prospective employers reasons for doubt. So how should you answer this common behaviorial interview question?: “Tell me about a time you failed.” In this piece, the author outlines eight tips and offers advice on what to say (and what to avoid). If you respond to the question in a way that highlights your resilience and commitment to learning and progress, your interviewer will likely remember how you prevailed, not how you failed. Continued here S67 New study discovers how to reverse hearing loss Five years after getting newborn mice to regenerate the hair cells needed for hearing, researchers at the University of Rochester have now figured out how the process works — putting us closer to reversing the most common cause of hearing loss as people age. The challenge: Humans are born with about 16,000 hair cells in each of our ears. Those are the only ear hair cells we’ll ever have, and their job is to convert sound vibrations into electrical signals our brains can understand. Continued here S69 Amazon has a donkey meat problem When Cindy first tried the Artemisia Anti-Hemorrhage Formula dietary supplements that she purchased on Amazon, she had no reason to suspect that she was eating donkey. A California native and lifelong vegetarian, she assumed that the world’s largest online retailer had vetted the bottle’s claims of being made from “100 percent pure, natural herbs.” But while reading the back of the bottle, she noticed an ingredient she hadn’t seen before: “gelatina nigra.” She googled it, and what she found made her stomach turn. Continued here S66 "Impulsive psychopaths" are drawn to Bitcoin and other crypto Since the invention of Bitcoin in 2009 the global cryptocurrency market has grown from nothing to a value of around US$2 trillion. From a price of US$1 in 2011, Bitcoin rose to an all-time high of more than US$63,000 in April 2021, and now hovers around the US$42,000 mark.  Large fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices are common, which makes them a highly speculative investment. What kind of people are willing to take the risk, and what motivates them?  Continued here S60 10 Great Deals on Camping, Hiking, and Fitness Gear It's that time of year again. Retailers are having blowouts to clear out winter gear as temperatures prepare to climb. That doesn't mean the sales are all on cold-weather apparel though. If you look closely, you can find deals on gear perfectly suitable for warm weather hidden among all the puffy jackets and insulated sleeping bags. Whether you're currently snowed in or sweltering under a record-setting February heat wave, we've uncovered a few great discounts on our favorite outdoor gear. Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you'd like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day. Continued here S62 All the Settings You Should Change on Your New Samsung Phone Samsung has come a long way from its TouchWiz days. Back then, the Android software interface on its older smartphones came with tons of bloatware, an atrocious design, and obfuscated settings. The company turned things around with One UI, the new and improved interface available on its phones since 2018. It's attractive, more customizable, and concise.  But that doesn't mean it's perfect. Several helpful settings are turned off by default, and it's not immediately obvious how to turn off a few annoying features. If you've bought a new Samsung phone, here are several key settings to change to make the most of your handset.  Continued here S63 The Best Speakers for Kids 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 WIRED Giving a speaker to your child opens up a world of exploration through music and audiobooks. They can listen to tunes while playing, share their favorites with friends, and hold dance parties in their bedrooms. Stories and podcasts will take them to new worlds, both real and imagined. And when it’s time for bed, they can drift off to soothing sleep sounds, lullabies, or sleep stories. I've tried a string of different speakers with my kids over the years and found them fun, helpful, and a great way to cut down on screen time. These are our favorites. Continued here S61 The Disruptors Who Want to Make Death Greener This story originally appeared in The Guardian and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Americans are looking for greener ways to die, and a new wave of deathcare startups are rising to the occasion. Continued here S47 Data Science and the Art of Persuasion Despite heavy investments to acquire talented data scientists and take advantage of the analytics boom, many companies have been disappointed in the results. The problem is that those scientists are trained to ask smart questions, wrangle the relevant data, and uncover insights—but not to communicate what those insights mean for the business. To be successful, the author writes, a data science team needs six talents: project management, data wrangling, data analysis, subject expertise, design, and storytelling. He outlines four steps for achieving that success: (1) Define talents, not team members. (2) Hire to create a portfolio of necessary talents. (3) Expose team members to talents they don’t have. (4) Structure projects around talents. Continued here Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Tweets Tweets follow me on Twitter Microsoft Silverlight - Change the World Connect with Me Random Hacks! - My Blog @ MSDN Loading... Where Dreamers Dare! Loading... About Me Sayan Will copy and paste later from my official biography! 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