When critical thinking isn't enough: to beat information overload, we need to learn 'critical ignoring'

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When critical thinking isn't enough: to beat information overload, we need to learn 'critical ignoring' Director, Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development A boundless wealth of high-quality information is available at our fingertips right next to a ceaseless torrent of low-quality, distracting, false and manipulative information. Continued here

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Layoffs Via Email: The Best Way to Say Goodbye? Google, Twitter, and other tech companies chose to terminate via email. I hate it. Maybe I'm wrong. Continued here

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Can't Decide What to Do? Research Reveals Using 1 Word--Instead of Another--Will Help You Develop Better Ideas, Solutions, and Problem-Solving Skills When faced with a dilemma--or simply wanting to make a change--research shows "What should I do?" is a terrible thing to ask. Continued here

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3 E-commerce Trends to Grow Your Business in 2023 To remain competitive in the online retail space, put customers on a pedestal. Continued here

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ChatGPT Comes With a Surprising Benefit That No One Is Talking About-But Everyone Benefits From Anyone who uses Google will rejoice. Continued here

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Google's CEO Answered Criticism Over Layoffs at a Heated All-Company Meeting. This 1 Word Stood Out There's no good way to lay off 12,000 people. Continued here

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Working Long Hours Doesn't Harm Your Kids But This Surprisingly Small Behavior Does, According to Wharton Research A new study should reassure parents who work long hours (and worry those who are distracted at home). Continued here

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Wish You Had Greater Self-Discipline? Adopt This Emotionally Intelligent Approach to Your Goals--and Life--and You Won't Need Willpower The key is to make your emotions work for you, not against you. Continued here

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Your Staff Is Watching. Here's Something You Should Pay Attention To This behavior will have a big impact not only on your team, but on your clients and customers as well. Continued here

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Tom Brady's Retirement Video Was a Masterclass in How to Leave People Wanting More "You only get one super-emotional retirement essay, and I used mine up last year ..." Continued here

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Commodities Markets Are Broken. Responsible Supply Chains Can Fix Them. The headwaters of global supply chains are opaque and turbulent. Because of the way raw materials such as iron ore, aluminum, and lithium are produced, bought, and sold, most consumer-facing manufacturers lack the faintest idea about the provenance of their inputs. But now, for the first time in history, it is possible to see how this could change. Some companies have already demonstrated that real-time, complete visibility into the origins of their materials is achievable. On this foundation, a market-based system that rewards better sourcing choices can fix a paradigm that has been broken for centuries. Whether it be the exorbitant carbon footprint of the less efficient aluminum smelters, or child labor in cobalt mining, many of the world’s most reprehensible industrial practices take place in dark corners of the global economy. These mineral supply chains are long and poorly integrated; as a result, they effectively launder away negative externalities. Out of sight and out of mind, they attract a sliver of the attention given to more visible issues. (Consider, for instance, the hullabaloo over plastic straws in recent years.) Continued here

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Are we done with the CV gap taboo? One of the major shake-ups in the changed world of work has been huge swathes of the workforce leaving their posts, voluntarily or not. Furloughs and layoffs through spring 2020 left many employees out of full-time jobs, while The Great Resignation saw 47.8 million US workers quit their jobs in 2021 alone – many of them without other positions explicitly lined up. In the UK, by June 2022, there were 1.7 million economically inactive people looking for work.  Although voluntary resignation rates have cooled relative to their high point, plenty of workers are still leaving their positions. In addition, the economic slowdown and worries about a future recession have caused businesses to announce waves of job cuts into the new year, particularly in tech. As a result of this disruption, CVs are starting to look different – notably, they’re beginning to feature more gaps in employment. Continued here

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The chefs reviving the Arctic's forgotten food It is appropriate that I am on a boat in South Greenland when I try my first mouthful of fermented seal blubber, a buttery slice tasting not unpleasantly of the sea with a lingering note of fish oil, followed by a jaw-bustingly lengthy chew of the country's famous delicacy mattak, a square of scored whale skin, cartilage and fat. That's because here in the Arctic, there is only a short distance between tundra and table, or as it is today, the sea and the serving dish: only a window separates me from the clear water, studded with icebergs, where the food was caught. Inunnguaq Hegelund, the award-winning indigenous Greenlandic chef introducing me to these dishes, is known in Greenland for his outstanding work with traditional meats, including polar bear, who are roaming on the rocky shoreline some hundred metres away. Continued here

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History's most incredible drag queens and kings From RuPaul's Drag Race to live cabaret and theatre shows, drag has never been more popular. In case you've been hiding under a wig block for the last 10 years, drag is the art of gendered impersonation, with performers exaggerating and heightening aspects of femininity or masculinity for the sake of entertainment. As it takes the world by storm, drag is changing our language, our ideas about gender, and even the way we see ourselves. Continued here

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Knock at the Cabin review: 'Passably tense' M Night Shyamalan's latest high-concept chiller, Knock at the Cabin, gives the "home invasion" film a fiendish twist. Its heroes are Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Eric (Jonathan Groff), a happily married couple on holiday with their adopted seven-year-old daughter (Kristen Cui). They've chosen to stay in a remote cabin, deep in a Pennsylvanian forest (actually, the "cabin" is bigger than most people's houses, but that's beside the point), even though staying in a remote cabin is always a bad idea in scary movies. More like this: -       Avatar 2 is 'a damp squib' -       The 20 best films of 2022 -       The dark backdrop to a festive classic Continued here

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Seti: alien hunters get a boost as AI helps identify promising signals from space Sir Bernard Lovell chair of Astrophysics and Director of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester Michael Garrett is on the advisory board of the Breakthrough Listen initiative and the Seti Institute. Continued here

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South Africa and Russia: President Cyril Ramaphosa's foreign policy explained Jo-Ansie van Wyk has taught at the Diplomatic Academy of the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation. January was a busy diplomatic month for South Africa. The country hosted Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US treasury secretary Janet Yellen. Josep Borrell, vice-president of the European Commission, was also in town. Continued here

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City planners are questioning the point of parking garages John Hersey is affiliated with the Parking Reform Network and the City/County of Denver's Sustainable Transportation Committee. For the past century, the public and private sector appear to have agreed on one thing: the more parking, the better. Continued here

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Lung cancer rates have decreased for the Marlboro Man, but have risen steeply for nonsmokers and young women - Associate Director of Community Outreach in Thoracic Oncology, University of Miami When many people think of an average lung cancer patient, they often imagine an older man smoking. But the face of lung cancer has changed. Over the past 15 years, more women, never smokers and younger people are being diagnosed with lung cancer. Continued here

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As charges loom over Trump, prosecutors come under fire - a criminal justice expert explains what's at stake Former President Donald Trump held his first presidential campaign events on Jan. 28, 2023, against the heavy backdrop of four major criminal investigations into his behavior while in and out of office. In the lead-up to his campaign launch, Trump personally attacked prosecutors and the investigations they are leading as politically biased and a “hoax.” Continued here

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A Black history primer on African Americans' fight for equality - 5 essential reads As the father of Black history, Carter G. Woodson had a simple goal – to legitimize the study of African American history and culture. To that end, in 1912, shortly after becoming the second African American after W.E.B. Du Bois to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard, Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915. Continued here

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The EV transition isn't just about cars - the broader goal should be access to clean mobility for everyone The race to decarbonize passenger cars and light-duty trucks in the U.S. is accelerating. Battery electric vehicles accounted for almost 6% of all new vehicle sales in 2022, up from close to 3% in 2021, and demand is outstripping supply, even as manufacturers roll out new models and designs. The Biden administration is spending billions of dollars to build out EV charging networks and providing incentives for purchasing new and used EVs. This shift offers big economic and environmental benefits, but they’re not spread equitably. People who bear the most burdens in our current transportation systems often receive the fewest benefits, and are least able to change their situations. Continued here

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I helped balance the federal budget in the 1990s - here's just how hard it will be for the GOP to achieve that same rare feat Kevin McCarthy reportedly promised many things to Republican hardliners en route to clinching his job as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. One of them was a “balanced budget” in 10 years. As part of that plan, Republicans are demanding substantial spending cuts and budget reforms in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling this year – putting the U.S. at risk of default. Continued here

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The ocean twilight zone could store vast amounts of carbon captured from the atmosphere - but first we need to build a 4D system to track what's going on down there Deep below the ocean surface, the light fades into a twilight zone where whales and fish migrate and dead algae and zooplankton rain down from above. This is the heart of the ocean’s carbon pump, part of the natural ocean processes that capture about a third of all human-produced carbon dioxide and sink it into the deep sea, where it remains for hundreds of years. There may be ways to enhance these processes so the ocean pulls more carbon out of the atmosphere to help slow climate change. Yet little is known about the consequences. Continued here

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Planting more trees could reduce premature deaths in European cities by a third - new research Urban development leads to fewer shaded areas and more heat-absorbing paved surfaces. Cities tend to be warmer than their rural surroundings as a result, a phenomenon known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect. During the summer daytime, cities can be up to 12℃ hotter than rural areas. But the pace of global warming is accelerating and 2–3 billion people are expected to live in cities by 2050. The health impacts of UHIs will likely worsen in the coming years. Continued here

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Nigerian elections: 5 major challenges facing the country's next president Al Chukwuma Okoli is a Reader in Political Science at Federal University of Lafia, Nigeria. He has consulted for UN-Women, African Union and Centre for Democracy and Development (Nigeria). He is a member of CORN- West Africa. Nigerians will soon determine who their next president will be in a general election. Polling is due at the end of February and inauguration is scheduled for 29 May 2023. Continued here

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Justin Bieber sells his back catalogue - an expert explains why artists give up rights to their music Justin Bieber is the latest artist in a growing list of musicians who have sold the rights to their music. This move is typically made by more seasoned artists such as Bruce Springsteen, who reportedly received US$500m (£406m) for the sale of his life’s work in 2021, or Stevie Nicks who sold a share of her publishing for US$100m in 2020. Continued here

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Western wildfires destroyed 246% more homes and buildings over the past decade - fire scientists explain what's changing It can be tempting to think that the recent wildfire disasters in communities across the West were unlucky, one-off events, but evidence is accumulating that points to a trend. In a new study, we found a 246% increase in the number of homes and structures destroyed by wildfires in the contiguous Western U.S. between the past two decades, 1999-2009 and 2010-2020. Continued here

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Why I believe the truth to be like an onion Since the dawn of philosophical knowledge, the existence of truth has been debated. We all talk about the truth. We all ask for the truth. We demand it, even if we sometimes deny its existence. This article will attempt to give another view of what, for now, I believe to be the truth. In journalism, truth is often equated with the facts: “There was an accident on such-and-such a corner, on such-and-such a day at such-and-such an hour and so many people were injured.” This is a purely informative conception of truth, based on the rule of “the 5 ‘W’s”, which frame the story: “Who, what, when, where, why.” Continued here

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The true relationship between screens, books and nearsightedness Profesora titular de la Facultad de Biología, investigadora de patologías visuales, Universidad de Salamanca At one time or another we have surely heard or read that the excessive use of screens is causing an increase in cases of nearsightedness. Moreover, it is said that this relationship is direct, meaning that screens are responsible for the fact that more and more people around the world are nearsighted. Not surprisingly, there are also studies that conclude that children who spend more time in front of books or screens develop more nearsightedness than those who do not. Continued here

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We curated a podcast playlist for you: Revisit these conversations for Black History Month The podcast episodes on this playlist showcase some of our favourites from The Conversation Canada’s audio content related to Black history, from our flagship podcast, Don’t Call Me Resilient. These conversations with scholars and activists are as urgent and important now as they were when we first recorded them. The episodes on this playlist span the start of the pandemic with its worldwide demonstrations against anti-Black racism, to the most recent violence this winter. Continued here

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Arfid: genetics a major factor in this little-known eating disorder - new research An estimated 1-5% of the world’s population suffer from an eating disorder that few people are even aware exists. Known as avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, or Arfid for short, the condition is an extreme form of restrictive eating – which, if left unchecked, can have a severe impact on a person’s life and health. Despite how serious Arfid is, we still know very little about what causes it – making it difficult to develop effective treatments. But in the first twin study ever conducted of Arfid, our team has now revealed that genetic factors play a major role in its development. Continued here

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Ukraine war: casualty counts from either side can be potent weapons and shouldn't always be believed The war in Ukraine is shaping up to be one of the bloodiest of the 21st century, with both sides reported to be losing hundreds of soldiers each day as the conflict moves towards its first anniversary. But quite how many people are dying in this bitter struggle depends on who is doing the reporting. Norway’s defence chief, General Eirik Kristoffersen, claimed recently that Russia has suffered 180,000 casualties to Ukraine’s 100,000, not counting 30,000 Ukrainian civilian casualties. The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, claimed that Russian casualties are “significantly well over 100,000 now”. US intelligence has reportedly suggested this figure is around 188,000. Continued here

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The Met police force is too big to govern - here's how it should be broken up In the two weeks since an officer in London’s Metropolitan Police admitted to being a serial rapist, politicians and commentators have called for the Met to undergo “root-and-branch” reform. Beyond the abhorrent case of the now-former police constable David Carrick, Met commissioner Mark Rowley has revealed that London currently has a damaged and ineffective police service. Rowley said that every week for the foreseeable future, many of his officers would be appearing in court in trials involving “violence against women and girls” – as defendants, not case officers. Continued here

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Kath O'Connor was writing a novel about her grandmother's ovarian cancer when she was diagnosed, too. She died before it was published The concept of death has preoccupied people for probably as long as people have existed. Nonetheless, we are are practised at avoiding, forgetting or suppressing the inevitability of our own death. We write about death in philosophy and medicine and sociology, and in fiction too. But typically, these writings locate death “out there”, as an event or a case. It is rarer for literature to focus on a person who is confronting their own death. George Eliot’s Middlemarch provides one famous example of this approach. Casaubon, on receiving his hopeless prognosis, becomes aware of the heartwrenching difference between “we must all die”, and “I must die – and soon”. Continued here

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The world's oldest fossils or oily gunk? New research suggests these 3.5 billion-year-old rocks don't contain signs of life The Pilbara region of Western Australia is home to one of the most ancient surviving pieces of Earth’s crust, which has been geologically unchanged since its creation some 3.5 billion years ago. Some of the oldest signs of life have been found here, in the North Pole area west of the town of Marble Bar, in black rocks composed of fine-grained quartz called chert. Continued here

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The pleasure and pain of cinephilia: what happened when I watched Groundhog Day every day for a year “What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” So asks time-stranded weatherman Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, as he begins to come to grips with his predicament in the 1993 comedy classic Groundhog Day. Continued here

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8 everyday foods you might not realise are ultra processed - and how to spot them For years, the term “junk food” has been used to refer to foods considered bad for you, and not very nutritious. But junk can mean different things to different people. Official dietary guidelines have used more palatable terms such as “discretionary foods”, “sometimes foods” and “foods high in sugar, salt and fat”. But these labels haven’t always made the task of identifying nutritious foods much easier. After all, many fresh fruits are high in sugar and some salad vegetables are low in nutrients – but that doesn’t make them unhealthy. And food products such as soft drinks with “no added sugar” and muesli bars fortified with nutrient additives aren’t necessarily healthy. Continued here

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Tyre Nichols' death underscores the troubled history of specialized police units The officers charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols were not your everyday uniformed patrol officers. Rather, they were part of an elite squad: Memphis Police Department’s SCORPION team. A rather tortured acronym for “Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods,” SCORPION is a crime suppression unit – that is, officers detailed specifically to prevent, detect and interrupt violent crime by proactively using stops, frisks, searches and arrests. Such specialized units are common in forces across the U.S. and tend to rely on aggressive policing tactics. Continued here

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What international law says about Israel's planned destruction of Palestinian assailants' homes After a deadly attack that killed seven people outside an East Jerusalem synagogue, the Israeli government responded by sealing off the home of the Palestinian suspect in preparation for its destruction. The family home of a 13-year-old accused in a separate East Jerusalem shooting has likewise been earmarked for destruction. This is not unusual. Israel has demolished the homes of thousands of Palestinians in recent years. Bulldozing properties of those deemed responsible for violent acts against Israeli citizens or to deter such acts has long been government policy. Continued here

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New regulations on migrant farm workers should tackle employer/employee power imbalances The government of Canada recently amended the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations to include new employer obligations. These amendments are intended to enhance protections for migrant workers and ensure the integrity of the government’s temporary foreign worker program. While a step in the right direction, the changes side-step the root issues that make temporary foreign workers vulnerable to abuse in the first place. Continued here

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5 expert tips to protect yourself from online misinformation The spread of misinformation is a major problem impacting many areas of society from public health, to science and even democracy itself. But online misinformation is a problem that is very difficult to address. Policing social media is like playing an infinite game of whack-a-mole. Even if we could address one type of misinformation, others quickly spring up in its place. Furthermore, there are valid concerns about how governments and corporations might address this problem and the dangers of censorship. Continued here

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Why the Fed raised interest rates by the smallest amount since it began its epic inflation fight The Federal Reserve’s policy-setting committee lifted interest rates on Feb. 1, 2023, by a quarter of a percentage point to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%. The increase, the smallest since the Fed began an aggressive campaign of rate hikes in March 2022, came amid signs the fastest pace of inflation in decades is cooling. But the Fed also indicated more rate hikes are coming. So why is the Fed slowing the size of rate increases now, and what does it mean for consumers? We asked finance scholar William Chittenden from Texas State University to explain what’s going on and what comes next. Continued here

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Business owners see cutting carbon emissions as 'the right thing to do', despite the challenges of making change Pii-Tuulia Nikula is co-founder and a board member of Climate Action Network for International Educators (CANIE). An increasing number of businesses in Aotearoa New Zealand are changing how they operate to reduce their overall climate impact. These measures, which include reducing carbon emissions, are largely voluntary outside of specific sectors, such as the fuel, energy and waste industries. Continued here

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Dying to be seen: Why women's risk for heart disease and stroke is still higher than men's in Canada Heart disease affects 2.6 million Canadians, and is the second-leading cause of death in Canada. Women continue to be at higher risk than men. Heart and Stroke Canada has released a new report for Heart Health Month in February. It highlights several disparities women continue to experience in the prevention and treatment of heart attack and stroke, in comparison to other Canadians. According to this report, women are generally unaware of their individual risk and risk factors, and are often under-diagnosed and under-treated. Continued here

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Slippery slopes: why the Auckland storm caused so many landslides - and what can be done about it The January 27 storm that hit Auckland broke all previous rainfall records and has caused widespread damage, mostly from flooding and landslides. But while climate change helps explain the intensity of the rainfall, the way land has been used and built on in the city is a major factor in what happened. Such rainfall events generate significant landslides, probably in the thousands. What geologists refer to as “multiple-occurrence regional landslide events” (MORLEs) are sometimes also triggered by earthquakes (such as happened in Kaikoura in 2016). Continued here

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COVID remains a global emergency, the World Health Organization says, but we're at a transition point. What does this mean? As we enter the fourth year of living with COVID, we are all asking the predictable question: when will the pandemic be over? To answer this question, it’s worth reminding ourselves that a pandemic involves the worldwide spread of a disease that requires an emergency response at a global level. Continued here

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Crumb bachelors and millennial HENRYs enliven Ronnie Scott's zeitgeisty new novel Ronnie Scott is an RMIT academic and co-founder of the literary journal The Lifted Brow. His debut novel, The Adversary (2020), set mainly in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, was a wry exploration of the nuances of house sharing and online dating. His second novel, Shirley, is also set in Melbourne’s inner-northern suburbs. Unlike the house in Abbotsford that gives the novel its title, the female narrator is nameless. As a child, she was abandoned by her food-celebrity mother after a controversial incident, left in the eponymous family house in the care of a series of business managers named “Gerald”. She has grown into a lonely adult, who still yearns to be seen by her mother. Continued here

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We're missing opportunities to identify domestic violence perpetrators. This is what needs to change Identifying perpetrators of domestic and family violence is critical to ending violence against women. Practitioners across different sectors, including mental health, alcohol and drug services, have a vital opportunity to “screen” clients to identify if they’ve experienced or perpetrated domestic violence. Continued here

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This strange donkey orchid uses UV light to trick bees into thinking it has food Endeavor Fellowship Program grant ID 5117_2016 (Daniela Scaccabarozzi)Templeton World Charity Foundation grant TWCF0541 (Monica Gagliano) If you’ve ever compared a frozen pizza to the photo on the box, you know the feeling of being duped by appetising looks. Continued here

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Major palm oil companies broke their promise on No Deforestation - recovery is needed Ibnu Budiman was a former sustainability specialist at Earthqualizer Foundation. He helped to disseminate the Earthqualizer's report to palm oil companies and wider public. Earthqualizer has partnerships with some palm oil traders and buyers' companies. Despite a 2013 pledge by major palm oil firms to maintain environmentally friendly operations, a recent report by environmental group Earthqualizer revealed that more than 440,000 hectares of forest and peat land (roughly three times the size of London) have been cleared for oil plantation in Indonesia between 2016 and 2021; and 210,000 hectares in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. Continued here

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Win-win: how solar farms can double as havens for our wildlife Australia’s renewable energy transition has prompted the construction of dozens of large-scale solar farms. The boom helps reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels, but requires large areas of land to be converted to host solar infrastructure. Solar farms are mostly built in rural areas. This has raised concerns about a potential decline in both agricultural production – as arable land is used for solar energy production – and wildlife habitat. Continued here

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Is terrorism returning to Pakistan? Earlier this week, a suicide blast ruptured the relative calm that had returned to Pakistan in recent years. The attack at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed more than 100 people and stunned many Pakistanis who thought the days of such horrific suicide bombings were long behind them. While Monday’s attack was among the worst in the country in a decade, the blast doesn’t necessarily signal a return of terrorism so much as an escalation of a problem that never really went away. Continued here

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Scammed: why the rich, famous and experts get duped more often than you think The typical reaction to learning about how people have lost money to a con artist is “how could anyone be so gullible?” But it’s the wrong question. Fraudsters fool even the most clever and admired experts by playing on their psychological vulnerabilities. News of multi-million and even multi-billion dollar deceptions keep rolling in. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX (a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange), attracted an A-list of investors and celebrities. Among his investors were some of the most respected names in finance. The list of celebrities who endorsed him — Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Naomi Osaka, Larry David, Kevin O’Leary — was just as impressive. Continued here

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Women are more likely to identify as bisexual - can research into sexual arousal tell us why? In 2020, approximately 3.2% of the population in the UK over the age of 16 identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual. But when it came to bisexuality, there was a stark difference between men and women: women were much more likely to identify as bisexual compared to men (1.6% of women compared to 0.9% of men). The evidence overwhelmingly shows that women are far more likely to identify as bisexual than men. But it’s hard to say why this might be. Could it be that women are more innately bisexual? Or could it be the fact that it’s more culturally accepted for women to be sexually fluid, or to identify as a lesbian or bisexual than it is for men to identify as something other than straight. Continued here

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Curious Kids: are some languages more difficult than others? Some languages seem harder than others. Does that mean that the brains of people who speak those languages are more stimulated? – Maria Júlia, aged 14, São Lourenço, Brazil Are some languages harder than others? For example, is Japanese more difficult than English? Continued here

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China is extending its dealings with the Taliban as it increases its superpower status Senior Economist, IMD World Competitiveness Center, International Institute for Management Development (IMD) China is one of the few countries that is committed to expanding its dealings with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, where it hopes to expand its use of the vast natural resources while also improving its own geopolitical security. Continued here

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Plan will put everyone in England within 15 minutes of green space - but what matters is justice not distance Julian Dobson and colleagues were funded by the National Trust and National Lottery Heritage Fund to evaluate the Future Parks Accelerator programme. The views expressed here are the author's own. How long does it take you to walk to your nearest park, woodland, lake or river? If it takes more than 15 minutes, according to the UK government’s new environmental improvement plan for England, something needs to be done about it. It says 38% people in England don’t have a green or blue space within a 15-minute walk of their home. Continued here

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The body choosing Kenya's election commission is being overhauled - how this could strengthen democracy President William Ruto has signed into law the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (Amendment) Bill. It changes the composition of the panel that selects people to serve on the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. The commission is a state institution that has the task of enhancing and supporting constitutional democracy in Kenya. It conducts elections, registers citizens as voters and maintains the voters’ roll. It also fixes the boundaries of electoral constituencies and wards. It settles electoral disputes, registers candidates for election and conducts voter education. Continued here

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Strikes over the past 50 years have barely made a dent in the French economy Professeur des Universités en sciences de gestion, IAE Nancy School of Management In France, more than 1.2 million people (2.8 million, according to trade unions) took to the streets against proposed pension reform on Tuesday, exceeding crowds galvanised by the first national day of strike on 19 January. Continued here

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Grattan on Friday: Chalmers attracts some flak for blue sky ideas but the government has bigger problems Jim Chalmers likes to say we need national “conversations” about the economic issues facing the country. Now, just as the new parliamentary year is set to begin on Monday, Chalmers has bought himself a doozy of a conversation, with his essay advocating we embrace “values-based capitalism”. Values-based capitalism might sound more like a topic for a university economics seminar than something to grab the attention of Ms and Mr Suburbia, as they worry about what the Reserve Bank will do to their mortgages on Tuesday. Continued here

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Water ATMs were introduced in Ghana - and are changing the way people can access this vital resource Universal, safe and reliable water access is a pressing need in the global south. One-quarter of the world’s population don’t currently have access to clean drinking water. In Ghana, about 5 million people out of a total population of about 31 million lack access to clean, safe water. One person in ten has to spend more than 30 minutes to get drinking water. Problems are particularly acute in off-grid communities. These are the low-income, rural and peri-urban locations that aren’t connected to municipal or main centralised water supply. Continued here

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Clare Sestanovich Reads Alice Munro Clare Sestanovich joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Moons of Jupiter,” by Alice Munro, which was published in The New Yorker in 1978. Sestanovich’s story collection, “Objects of Desire,” was published in 2021. © 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices Continued here

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The Memphis Police Are Not Bystanders to the Death of Tyre Nichols The lead-up to the release of the police footage of Tyre Nichols’s fatal beating constituted an event in and of itself. There was, on the part of the Memphis Police Department, an effort to foreshadow and to editorialize, to give the image of five officers beating a twenty-nine-year-old man—a beating that would kill him, three days later—a definitive meaning before it was seen. Speaking with Don Lemon on CNN, in the hours before the Memphis P.D. released the footage, Cerelyn Davis, the police chief, told the public, “You’re going to see acts that defy humanity. You’re going to see a disregard for life.” An exhortation from Davis: “Individuals watching will feel what the family felt. And if you don’t, then you’re not a human being. And we all are human beings.” The chief fixed her empathy appeal to the extraordinary pain of Nichols’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, who had been unable to finish watching the footage when the police presented it to her earlier in the week. The creation of this atmosphere, one of anticipatory dread, speaks to the years that have passed since the uprisings following George Floyd’s murder. Before the footage was released, schoolchildren in Memphis were sent home early. Officers in the city and in other metropolitan areas around the country prepared for protests. Nichols’s family gave interviews encouraging a peaceful and polite response from the public. The five officers who killed Nichols, all of whom are young Black men, were fired and indicted on charges including second-degree murder and aggravated assault, before the video’s release—an attempt to invest the document with the energy of justice. Continued here

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Billionaires: They’re Just Like Us! Follow @newyorkercartoons on Instagram and sign up for the Daily Humor newsletter for more funny stuff. © 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices Continued here

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How the Memphis Police Controlled the Narrative of Tyre Nichols’s Killing Last Thursday, the Memphis Police Department announced that it was firing five police officers who beat a man named Tyre Nichols to death during a traffic stop. Shortly afterward, all five officers were jailed and charged with murder. Then the police department released body-camera and surveillance-camera footage of the incident. In the days that followed, the footage, and the question of whether or not to watch it, became the object of public preoccupation, superseding the violence it captured. Doreen St. Félix is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss police-brutality videos as cultural objects—and the police as a storytelling apparatus. © 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices Continued here

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Is Donald Trump Losing His Mojo? This week brought news that Donald Trump is facing yet another criminal investigation—into his 2016 hush-money payoff to the adult-film star Stormy Daniels—and that former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who served in his Administration, is set to announce her 2024 candidacy in a couple of weeks. These developments came days after Trump set out on the campaign trail again for the first time, making appearances in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Taking place in two small venues—a high-school auditorium and the second-floor lobby of a state house—these events were very different from Trump’s trademark stadium rallies. Establishment Republicans derided Trump’s début. “He’s turning into Mott the Hoople and doing the state-fair tour,” the G.O.P. strategist Mike Murphy, who advised Jeb Bush during the 2016 primaries, told me. “It’s like a half-life. He’s shrinking.” Murphy wasn’t just referring to the small crowds that attended Trump’s events but also to polls indicating that many Republican voters don’t want the former President to be the G.O.P. candidate in 2024. With his legal troubles mounting and more Republican challengers on the horizon, Trump needs to rekindle some of the excitement among G.O.P. primary voters that he did in 2016. But does he have anything new to offer? Continued here

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We Finally Know Where 'Westworld' Will be Available to Stream The Warner Bros. Discovery merger has been a rocky road, and there’s still a long way to go. We’ve lost an almost-finished Batgirl movie, had countless series canceled, and then projects started vanishing from HBO Max altogether. But all is not lost. Much like Sonic the Hedgehog, WBD has decided it’s gotta go FAST. In December, Variety reported that some of its series would find a home on Free, Ad-Based Television (FAST) streamers. But which ones? Now we know. Continued here

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Look! Five New Snake Species Discovered in a Habitat Devastated by Mining Earth is home to stunning biodiversity, and despite how frequently new animals are being discovered, it’s still estimated that only around 20 percent of species have been formally described. Researchers estimate that as many as 38 percent of newly discovered animals will likely come from tropical rainforests in the Americas. Continued here

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You Need to Watch Steven Spielberg's Best Crime Caper on HBO Max ASAP Few directors are misunderstood like Steven Spielberg. With his semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans now up for piles of Oscars, including Best Picture, the director’s body of work has come under renewed scrutiny. And everyone seems to get the guy wrong. Criticisms that Spielberg is “too sentimental” or “feel good” betray a cynical, bleak heart that underpins his oeuvre. Everyone remembers the majestic dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, but everyone forgets the capitalist greed that ends with dead bodies on the island. There’s even a word that whitewashes his sensibilities: “Amblin-esque,” denoting movies with youthful and nostalgic whimsy, named after Spielberg’s Amblin label that made its bones with generation-defining releases like E.T., The Goonies, and Back to the Future. Continued here