Radical Compassion and the Seeds of Change: The Dalai Lama's Illustrated Ecological Philosophy for the Next Generation

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Radical Compassion and the Seeds of Change: The Dalai Lama's Illustrated Ecological Philosophy for the Next Generation “Yours is a grave and sobering responsibility, but it is also a shining opportunity,” Rachel Carson told a class of young people in what became her bittersweet farewell to life, after catalyzing the modern environmental movement. She told them: “You go out into a world where mankind is challenged, as it has never been challenged before, to prove its maturity and its mastery — not of nature, but of itself.” More than half a century later, another visionary of uncommon tenderness for the living world addresses another generation of young people with a kindred message of actionable reverence for the ecosystem of interdependence we call life. In Heart to Heart: A Conversation on Love and Hope for Our Precious Planet (public library), the fourteenth Dalai Lama and artist Patrick McDonnell — who illustrated Jane Goodall’s inspiring life-story — invite an ethical approach to climate change, calling on young people to face a world of wildfires and deforestation with passionate compassion for other living beings, and to act along the vector of that compassion with the Dalai Lama’s fundamental philosophy: Continued here

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Polaroids of the everyday and portraits of the rich and famous: you should know the compulsive photography of Andy Warhol Andy Warhol is well known for his slick pop art imagery which fetches staggering amounts at auction. His Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold in 2022 for US$195 million. But there is a little-explored side to Warhol-the-photographer, whom curator Julie Robinson explores in a brilliant new exhibition. Continued here

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A new UN report offers businesses a template for achieving true sustainability Not a day goes by without hearing about the fragility of our natural ecosystems and the repercussions that extractive economic activity are having on them. This state of affairs is not recent — it has been ongoing at the very least since the Club of Rome non-profit warned us back in 1972 that infinite economic growth and rapid demographic development are incompatible with life on Earth. Continued here

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How can you test if gold is pure? Some methods are more destructive than others As recent revelations about the Perth Mint have shown, gold buyers and sellers take purity very seriously. Questions have been raised over impurities found in some A$9 billion worth of gold sold to the Shanghai Gold Exchange. While the gold reportedly met the industry standard for 99.99% (or “4N”) purity, it failed to meet extra agreed specifications for the level of silver. Continued here

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Inclusion means everyone: 5 disability attitude shifts to end violence, abuse and neglect The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability is moving into its final phase and will report its findings in September. For the last four years the commission and the media has reported a disturbing stream of violence and harm in the community and disability services. Less media attention has been paid to the commission’s work to find solutions. Continued here

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The red and yellow sticker dilemma - how do we balance safety with the desire to return home after a disaster? Just over a month after the Auckland flood, and three weeks on from Cyclone Gabrielle hitting the North Island, the scale of the disasters and the rebuild is clear – as is a sense of being in limbo for those worst affected. At Muriwai on Auckland’s west coast, locals were reportedly left frustrated by a lack of information after a community meeting called by Auckland Council last week. So far, 113 homes have been “red-stickered” in the small settlement, with another 75 along Domain Crescent yet to be assessed due to the street’s ongoing instability. Continued here

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From Squid Game and Physical: 100 to K-pop and BTS, translation is central to tectonic shifts in global cultural consumption The Korean reality survival show Physical: 100 has become a global hit, topping Netflix’s non-English lineup in just a week following its premier on January 24 2023. The name of the show says it all: 100 contestants with superb physiques participate in a variety of challenges to win 300 million Korean won, equivalent to A$335,000. Continued here

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We now have a treaty governing the high seas. Can it protect the Wild West of the oceans? Delegates gave a jubilant cheer at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Saturday night, as nations reached an agreement on ways to protect marine life in the high seas and the international seabed area. It has been a long time coming, debated for almost two decades. It took nine years of discussions by an Informal Working Group, four sessions of a Preparatory Committee, five meetings of an Intergovernmental Conference and a 36-hour marathon final push to reach agreement. Continued here

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Countries are relying on forests and soil to absorb their remaining carbon - it's a risky way to reach net zero Countries are betting on forests and soils to mop up their remaining “difficult-to-decarbonise” emissions to achieve their climate targets. More forests and better soils are good for nature and for adapting to climate change, but this strategy may prove a risk to the global goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Substantial emission cuts across the global economy are required to stay on course with global temperature targets. Reaching net zero, however, will also involve removing CO₂ from the atmosphere and storing it, a process known as carbon removal. Continued here

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Why Tennessee's law limiting drag performances likely violates the First Amendment On March 2, 2023, Tennessee became the first state to enact a law restricting drag performances. This law is part of a larger push by Republican lawmakers in numerous states to restrict or eliminate events like drag shows and drag story hours. Continued here

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Underlying Australia's inflation problem is a historic shift of income from workers to corporate profits The three years since the onset of the pandemic have witnessed a dramatic redistribution of national income, away from labour compensation and towards business profits. No one should be surprised. Supply-chain disruptions, pent-up consumer demand and inflation have provided businesses with a golden opportunity to increase their margins. Many have taken it. Continued here

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What is a pogrom? Israeli mob attack has put a century-old word in the spotlight Following the murder of two Israeli brothers in the West Bank on Feb. 26, 2023, a mob of around 400 Israelis attacked the Palestinian town of Huwara. They torched dozens of homes and cars, leaving one dead and hundreds wounded before being stopped by Israeli security forces. Though some government leaders – including the head of the parliament’s National Security Committee – praised the mob or called for the state itself to erase the town’s existence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned them for “taking the law into their own hands.” Others – including the top Israeli general in the West Bank – used even stronger language, calling the attack a “pogrom,” as did a statement against the attack by the Israeli Historical Society, signed by some of Israel’s most renowned historians. Continued here

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The Russian Activist Maria Pevchikh on the Fate of Alexey Navalny Well before launching the horrifying campaign against Ukraine a year ago, Vladimir Putin had been undermining Russia: normalizing corruption on a grand scale, and suppressing dissent and democracy. One of the darkest moments on that trajectory was the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexey Navalny with the nerve agent Novichok. Navalny and a team of investigators had illustrated the corruption of Putin and his circle in startling detail, and Navalny began travelling the country to launch a bid for the Presidency. “Every time when I heard Navalny giving an interview, I don’t think there was one interview where he wasn’t asked, ‘How come you’re still alive? How come they still haven’t killed you?’ ” the Russian activist Maria Pevchikh, the head of investigations and media for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, recalls. “And Navalny is rolling his eyes saying, ‘I don’t know. I’m tired of this question. Stop asking. I don’t know why I’m still alive and why they haven’t tried to assassinate me.’ ” Pevchikh was travelling with Navalny when he was poisoned, and helped uncover the involvement of the F.S.B. security services. After surviving the assassination and recuperating abroad, Navalny returned to Russia only to be arrested and then detained in a penal colony. “I think Putin wants him to suffer a lot and then die in prison,” Pevchikh tells David Remnick. Still, she maintains hope. “The situation is so chaotic, specifically because of the war,” she says. “Is the likelihood of Navalny being released when the war ends high? I think it is almost certain.” Pevchikh also served as an executive producer of the documentary “Navalny,” which is nominated for an Academy Award. In the weeks before John Wayne Gacy’s scheduled execution, he was far from reconciled to his fate. Continued here

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Strange Bacteria Colonies in Chile Show How Life on Mars May Be Scattered in Pockets Boosting our odds of finding traces of life depends on looking in the right tiny patch of sediment, according to a new study. If there’s life — or evidence of past life — on Mars, it’s terrifyingly likely that we might accidentally miss finding it, maybe by just a few centimeters. Continued here

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Florida Takes Aim at the First Amendment This past Monday, Florida’s Republican state senator Jason Brodeur filed a piece of legislation called “An act relating to defamation and related actions.” This filing followed the introduction two weeks ago, in the state’s House of Representatives, of legislation similarly called “An act relating to defamation, false light, and unauthorized publication of name or likenesses.” Despite the demure titles, both bills, in fact, propose radical alterations to Florida’s libel law, which would make it significantly more difficult for journalists to report on government procedures—including public litigation and government hearings—and also make it more difficult to defend against litigation brought by public figures. The bills were preceded by a somewhat bizarre live-streamed talk-show-style discussion that the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, had in early February with several people who have been involved, either as plaintiffs or as their lawyers, in bringing suits against “mainstream” media companies. The panelists and DeSantis decried the unfairness of the “actual malice” standard, as articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1964 case New York Times Company v. Sullivan, and the media’s use of anonymous sources. The media, they claimed, were hiding behind these protections to intentionally destroy and smear people’s reputations. Continued here

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Reporting Ukraine 90 years ago: the Welsh journalist who uncovered Stalin's genocide Ninety years ago, a young Welsh investigative journalist uncovered the Soviet Union’s genocide in Ukraine, Stalin’s attempt to stamp down on rising nationalism. The Holomodor, as it became known, was responsible for the deaths of some 4 million Ukrainians through deliberate starvation. Gareth Jones’ eyewitness reports, gathered at significant risk, were initially disbelieved and dismissed at a time when many in the west were supportive of Stalin as a potential ally against the growing Nazi threat in the early 1930s. It was only later, after the journalist was murdered in murky circumstances, that the full scale of what had taken place was recognised. Continued here

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The long-awaited AUKUS submarine announcement is imminent. What should we expect? Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to visit Washington in the next two weeks to announce the long-awaited roadmap for the AUKUS submarine agreement alongside UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. Can Albanese balance the imperatives of the alliance, technological requirements, and regional concerns? And can the plan be implemented in a timely manner? Continued here

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Springing forward into daylight saving time is a step back for health - a neurologist explains the medical evidence, and why this shift is worse than the fall time change As people in the U.S. prepare to set their clocks ahead one hour on Sunday, March 12, 2023, I find myself bracing for the annual ritual of media stories about the disruptions to daily routines caused by switching from standard time to daylight saving time. About one-third of Americans say they don’t look forward to these twice-yearly time changes. And nearly two-thirds would like to eliminate them completely, compared to 21% who aren’t sure and 16% who would like to keep moving their clocks back and forth. Continued here

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The real Johannesburg: 6 powerful photos from a gritty new book on the city University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA. Wake Up, This is Joburg is a collaboration between photographer Mark Lewis and urban planner and writer Tanya Zack. Striking images and beautiful texts follow 10 stories the team discovered in urban Johannesburg, South Africa. Each chapter captures many overlapping stories that come together around a character, a place or an activity. The book is an ethnographic portrait of one of Africa’s most vibrant and intriguing cities. We asked for the stories behind six of its images. Continued here

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Oscars 2023: Banshees and the Irish films breaking records Asked at the London Critics' Circle Awards on what had made Irish film so successful this year, The Banshees of Inisherin director Martin McDonagh quipped, "I honestly don't know. Brexit? Something in the water? Something." More like this: - Will this WW1 film win best picture? - Is the romcom truly back? - The greatest monster movie ever made Continued here

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A Community of Desires In the early nineteen-nineties, I found myself shopping in a superstore in Košice, Slovakia. It had just opened, the first to appear in the city since the fall of the Communist regime. I don’t know if that is how it got its name—Prior. At the entrance, a store employee authoritatively placed a basket in the hands of the—bewildered—customers. From a platform, at least four metres high, in the middle of the store, a woman supervised the movements of the people wandering from one aisle to another. Everything about their behavior signalled a lack of familiarity with self-service. They stood in front of items for a long time without touching them, or wavered, cautious, retraced their steps, irresolute, with the almost imperceptible faltering of bodies that have ventured into unknown territory. This was their first experience of the superstore and its rules—the mandatory baskets, the warden on her elevated perch—displayed without subtlety by the management of Prior. I was troubled by this spectacle of a collective entry into consumerism, captured in real time. We choose our objects and our places of memory, or, rather, the spirit of the times decides what is worth remembering. Writers, artists, filmmakers play a role in the elaboration of this memory. Superstores, which the majority of people in France have visited roughly fifty times a year in the past forty years, are just beginning to be considered places worthy of representation. Yet I realize, looking back in time, that from every period of my life I have retained images of big-box superstores, with scenes, meetings, and people. Continued here

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Why are we so scared of clowns? Here's what we've discovered While numerous possible explanations of the phobia had been put forward in academic literature, no studies had specifically investigated its origins. So we set out to discover the reasons people are frightened by clowns, and to understand the psychology behind this. We also wanted to explore how common the fear of clowns is in adults and to look at the severity of the fear in those who reported it. To do this, we devised a psychometric questionnaire to assess the prevalence and severity of coulrophobia. The Fear of Clowns Questionnaire was completed by an international sample of 987 people aged between 18 and 77. Continued here

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Teachers change lives -- but what makes a great teacher? I have had the privilege of being taught by a few brilliant teachers in my life, and I have also observed teaching excellence at the numerous schools I have visited over the years as an education academic. Those who stand out are devoted, imaginative, motivated and motivating, and eager to overcome challenging conditions to make a positive difference in the lives of young people. Teachers are expected to teach, but great teachers also have a wealth of knowledge and experience and are eager to learn from their learners. They bring their cultural capital – what they have learned and experienced – to engagements with learners, colleagues and the community. In turn, they are altered by their connections with others and can positively affect those with whom they engage. Continued here

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Meditation in Sunlight: May Sarton's Stunning Poem About the Relationship Between Presence, Solitude, and Love May Sarton (May 3, 1912–July 16, 1995) was thirty-three when she left Cambridge for Santa Fe. She had just lived through a World War and a long period of personal turmoil that had syphoned her creative vitality — a kind of deadening she had not experienced before. Under the immense blue skies that had so enchanted the young Georgia O’Keeffe a generation earlier, she started coming back to life. Her white-washed room at the boarding house had mountain views, a rush of sunlight, and a police dog and “a very nice English teacher” for neighbors. As the sun rose over the mountains, she woke up each morning “simply on fire” with poetry — new poems she read to the English teacher, not yet knowing she was falling in love with her. Judy would become her great love, then her lifelong friend and the closest she ever had to family. Among the constellation of Santa Fe poems composed during this creative renaissance is an especially beguiling reflection on the relationship between presence, solitude, and love, soon published in Sarton’s 1948 poetry collection The Lion and the Rose (public library) — her first in a decade — and read here for us by my longtime poetry co-invocator Amanda Palmer in her lovely oceanic voice: Near all is brown and poorHouses are made of earthSun opens every doorThe city is a hearth Continued here

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Lie detection tests have worked the same way for 3,000 years - and they're still hopelessly inaccurate Popular culture is fascinated with the ability to detect liars. Lie detector tests are a staple of police dramas, and TV shows such as Poker Face feature “human polygraphs” who detect deception by picking up tell-tale signs in people’s behaviour. Records of attempts to detect lies, whether by technical means or by skilled observers, go back at least 3,000 years. Forensic science lie detection techniques have become increasingly popular since the invention of the polygraph early in the 20th century, with the latest methods involving advanced brain imaging. Continued here

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What are these 'cancer vaccines' I'm hearing about? And what similarities do they share with COVID vaccines? Barely a month goes by without headlines announcing yet another advancement in cancer vaccines. Just last month, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted breakthrough therapy designation to Moderna and Merck’s skin cancer vaccine. This allows expedited development and review of drugs intended to treat serious conditions. Continued here

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Strategizing Across Organizations Businesses, nonprofits, policy makers, and others frequently find it helpful to come together in networks of organizations to tackle large-scale challenges, such as COVID-19, extreme weather events, humanitarian disasters, or supply chain disruptions. But devising strategy in such meta-organizations is far different from strategizing within a single organization — and much more difficult. A new approach to collaborative strategy can help leaders in individual organizations work with others to achieve both shared and individual strategic priorities. Meta-organizations (a term coined by Göran Ahrne and Nils Brunsson) can range from tightly organized and well-established trade groups like the International Air Transport Association to loosely structured, short-lived groups like the U.K.’s Brexit Business Taskforce. One example of a meta-organization is the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), which comprises more than 250 partner organizations. It works to ensure that resources rapidly reach those who request support during international public health crises. GOARN’s operations are based at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, where it is governed by a 21-member steering committee. In late 2021, the committee was facing uncertainty about the outcome of the pandemic and the future that GOARN would face. GOARN’s partners — which include United Nations bodies, international humanitarian organizations, government public health agencies, and technical networks — were calling for it to expand its mission. These diverse organizations have expertise in logistics, emergency medical care, incident response training, operational research, epidemiological investigation, and other domains, which they bring to bear on many different public-health emergencies every year. GOARN’s leadership realized that the network needed to evolve, which would require the development of a new long-term strategy that would meet the needs of both the collective as a whole and each partner. Continued here

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How does RNA know where to go in the city of the cell? Using cellular ZIP codes and postal carrier routes Before 2020, when my friends and acquaintances asked me what I study as a molecular biologist, their eyes would inevitably glaze over as soon as I said “RNA.” Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the power and promise of this molecule to the world at large, their eyes widen. Despite growing recognition of the importance of RNA, how these molecules get to where they need to be within cells remains largely a mystery. Continued here

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Boris Johnson no longer has the political capital to get away with giving his dad a knighthood As an academic specialising in part in why political corruption happens, the tenure of Boris Johnson (and its aftermath) has provided me with much to consider. Indeed, over the past 18 months, it has felt like I’m getting asked the same question over and over again. After the Owen Paterson affair: is this corruption? After the cash for curtains episode: is this corruption? Partygate: is this corruption? We’ve had a pretty workable and simple definition of what corruption is for about 30 years. It is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Continued here

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M2 Mac Mini Review: Unbeatable Value for Content Creators If you're still in denial about how transformative Apple silicon has been for Macs, look no further than the Mac mini. The compact desktop computer went from being a terrible value with horrible Intel CPU and GPU performance — basically the worst Mac in Apple's lineup — to the M2 Mac mini, which is easily the best value Mac that Apple sells thanks to a $100 price drop and incredible CPU and GPU power. Continued here

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What parents and educators need to know about teens' pornography and sexting experiences at school Three out of four teenagers have seen online pornography – often before they even became a teenager. That’s according to a new report from Common Sense Media that examines the role pornography plays in the lives of today’s youth. Some teens do more than just watch pornography. By way of “sexting,” teenagers are also creating and sending their own images and videos of themselves in the nude. Continued here

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Americans remain hopeful about democracy despite fears of its demise - and are acting on that hope President Joe Biden will convene world leaders beginning on March 29, 2023, to discuss the state of democracies around the world. The Summit for Democracy, a virtual event being co-hosted by the White House, is being touted as an opportunity to “reflect, listen and learn” with the aim of encouraging “democratic renewal.” Continued here

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Curious Kids: who was the first celebrity? To answer this question, we first need to think about what the people we think of as celebrities have in common. If we break down the formula for fame, we find three significant things: product, audience and industry. All celebrities produce something. This could be a film, a television show, music or social media content. This product is then consumed and enjoyed by an audience. Often, this audience is called a fandom. Continued here

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Nothing Confirms Ear 2 ANC Wireless Earbuds Are Coming on March 22 Before the Phone 2 — with a Snapdragon 8 series chip — comes out later this year, Nothing is launching second-generation active noise-cancellation wireless earbuds, unsurprisingly called Ear 2, on March 22. Nothing’s Twitter account has been teasing a new product using a beetle (a ladybug, a praying mantis, and a parrot were used in past imagery to tease new products, too), telling people “something mighty is on the horizon,” and on Monday we learned that thing is the Ear 2. Continued here

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The Creative Accident: Visionary Ceramicist Edith Heath on Serendipity, the Antidote to Obsolescence, and the Five Pillars of Timelessness “No one is fated or doomed to love anyone,” the philosopher-poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “the accidents happen.” What is true of interpersonal love is also true of our labors of love — creative accidents are a mighty instrument of art, often steering entire trajectories of expression and endeavor in directions we could not have willed. That is what the visionary ceramicist Edith Heath (May 24, 1911–December 27, 2005) explores in a previously unpublished lecture titled “The Creative Accident.” Continued here S33 Our study found new teachers perform just as well in the classroom as their more experienced colleagues The past four decades have seen an endless stream of reviews into teacher education. Australia has clocked up more than 100 since 1979. This comes amid constant concerns teachers are not adequately prepared for the classroom. We analysed data from two major studies over the past decade and found it did not matter if teachers had less than one year of teaching experience or had spent 25 years in the classroom – they delivered the same quality of teaching. Continued here S21 Israelis protest Netanyahu government's brutality and plans to undermine rule of law It’s a week since hundreds of Israeli settlers descended on the Palestinian village of Hawara to terrorise civilians and burn cars and buildings. The killing of two young settlers sparked the violence that led Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli finance minister, and now also head of civilian affairs in the occupied territories, to call for the village to be “wiped out”. While he wants the state of Israel to conduct the destruction, settlers have responded by calling for another attack. Continued here S35 Prostate cancer test: is it time to ditch the digital rectal examination? The finger-up-the-bottom examination for prostate cancer has been drawn into question. An international panel of experts recently suggested that so-called digital rectal examination for “active surveillance” should be replaced by MRI scans. This news may be celebrated as the overcoming of an intrusive medical examination by the forward march of technology, but what exactly is a digital rectal examination (DRE) and what are the implications of replacing it? Continued here S15 Will we eventually have to send our trash into space if we run out of room on Earth? Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Will we eventually have to send our trash into space if we run out of room on Earth? Aiden, age 13, Maryland Heights, Mo. Continued here S8 Ukraine's new wartime unity lays the groundwork for eventual rebuilding, without the complex and stubborn divisions of the past Once divided, Ukrainians are thinking about how to rebuild their nation and are prioritizing national interests over regional ones. It’s undeniable that Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine has wrought devastating death and destruction on the Ukrainian people and their country. Millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes, with many of them seeking refuge abroad. Continued here S11 Why Meta's embrace of a 'flat' management structure may not lead to the innovation and efficiency Mark Zuckerberg seeks Big Tech, under pressure from dwindling profits and falling stock prices, is seeking some of that old startup magic. Meta, the parent of Facebook, recently became the latest of the industry’s dominant players to lay off thousands of employees, particularly middle managers, in an effort to return to a flatter, more nimble organization – a structure more typical when a company is very young or very small. Continued here S58 The Serious Takeaway from CPAC: Trump and Trumpism Are Still a Threat During the 2016 Presidential race, one of the wiser things said about Donald Trump—by Salena Zito, in The Atlantic—was that he should be taken seriously, not literally. However fantastical, odious, and self-centered Trump’s campaign appeared to many members of the media, it struck some deep, dark nerves running through American society. But now, six and a half years later, after all that has happened, including disappointing election results for Trump and the Republican Party in 2020 and 2022, how seriously should we take him and his supporters? Judging by press coverage of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, where Trump delivered the closing address on Saturday evening, the answer is not very seriously. Perhaps taking their cue from what used to be called “the Republican establishment,” key members of which boycotted this year’s CPAC, many media organizations adopted a dismissive tone, which was well captured by a headline at Politico: “CPAC’s road to irrelevance.” Continued here S56 Luiz Schwarcz Writes About Depression But Refuses to Interpret It As a boy in São Paulo, the writer and publisher Luiz Schwarcz was too shy to play soccer or stickball with the kids in his neighborhood. Instead, he would swipe candies from his parents’ stash and toss them into the games from his balcony, then “hide behind the curtain and watch as the children turned toward the heavens, trying to understand how it was that chocolates were falling miraculously from the sky.” His brief autobiography “The Absent Moon: A Memoir of a Short Childhood and a Long Depression,” translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker, is suffused by the same muted yearning that drove its author to drop candy from his balcony decades ago. It is restrained and full of explicit omissions, and yet it offers astounding emotional clarity. Schwarcz evidently sees his project—or his responsibility—as a double one: to share but not interpret the profound suffering he’s faced in his lifetime with depression and bipolar disorder; and to tell, again without interpretation, what he can of the family story that underlies both his struggles with mental illness and his instinct, or compulsion, toward silence. Schwarcz is the son of a Holocaust survivor. His father, André (or, in his Hungarian youth, András), grew up in Budapest, the only son of a religious family. In the turbulent months preceding the Nazi occupation of Hungary, André and his father, Lajos, attempted to banish a group of Fascist militiamen from the area around their home, which Lajos had clandestinely turned into a “makeshift synagogue.” When the Nazis took power, father and son were immediately deported. Lajos was imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen and died shortly after the Allies liberated the camp. André escaped to join Hungary’s partisan resistance after Lajos shoved him from the train taking them to the camp, ordering, “Run, son, run.” Continued here S57 Cosmetic Procedures Trending in 2023 “Buccal fat is a type of fat found in the midsection of the face that can, in some people, make a face appear more rounded. . . . ‘I’m doing three times as many buccal fat reductions this year than I was five years ago,’ Dr. Jacono, who charges $40,000 for the procedure, said.” —The Times Butt-Chin Elbow Graft: You know when you lie upside down and put glasses on your chin, and it looks like a little person? Basically, that for your elbows—but it requires a seven-hour operation. Continued here S45 Cool it: Australia's biggest cold trucking firm has collapsed, but reports of a supermarket supply disaster are overheated If there’s any lesson from the past three years of supermarket shortages, it’s that it pays to stock up on a few favourite items at all times (if you’ve got room in your pantry or freezer) and to be flexible in your choices of products and brands. I’ve made these points before – from the demand-driven stockpiling of toilet paper and pasta during COVID lockdowns, to the supply-driven shortages of meat, lettuce, eggs and potato chips since. Continued here S28 As Western Sydney residents grapple with climate change, they want political action Western Sydney is being developed rapidly, increasing its already high vulnerability to climate change. One day in January 2020, Penrith was the hottest place on Earth. Residents who have endured searing heat, bushfires, heavy rain, floods and huge damage bills in recent years are now a political force. In addition to being overwhelmed by such events, residents sometimes feel they are not heard. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, essential workers in Western Sydney felt alienated and over-policed, and demanded their predicaments be taken into account. In the recent federal election, local candidates gained traction due to their trusted presence in the community. Continued here S61 “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” Reviewed: An Arachnid Groomer and His Abstract Prey The power and the burden of personal experience inform and energize Jamie Dack's first feature, "Palm Trees and Power Lines." (Dack offers an account of this personal inspiration in my colleague Dana Goodyear's Talk of the Town piece, in the current issue of The New Yorker.) Though a unified drama that maintains a consistent tone from start to finish, "Palm Trees and Power Lines" (currently in theatres and also streaming) is a widely varying film, and both Dack's finest directorial inspirations and some unfortunate directorial shortcuts appear equally bound to the movie's personal side, in ways that demonstrate the challenges that filmmakers face when they dramatize parts of their own lives. "Palm Trees and Power Lines" is set in the summertime in a suburb in Southern California, where a seventeen-year-old high-school student named Lea (Lily McInerny) has little to do between school years. Lea lives with her mother, Sandra (Gretchen Mol), a real-estate agent with a succession of boyfriends whom she entertains at night in the house, to Lea's dismay. Lea feels neglected and even unwanted; she has little if any contact with her father, who lives in another state. She does little but sunbathe and hang out with friends, at a mall or a doughnut shop or someone's house. Her boredom is apparent, as is her sense of restless detachment from her friends, whom she finds goofy—especially the male ones, whose goofiness is the spark of the story. She's out one night with three of them, plus a female friend, at a diner; the guys have the bright idea to run out without paying the check, and Lea and the other girl, bewildered at being stuck there, also bolt. A male employee catches Lea in the parking lot and slaps her; a man intervenes, forcing the aggressor away. Lea walks home, and the man, Tom (played by Jonathan Tucker), follows her, ostensibly to be sure she's safe, then offers her a ride, which she accepts. Continued here S19 Bipolar disorder is poorly understood in Ghana: knowing the facts can help prevent suffering Attitudes to mental health conditions are often influenced by matters of awareness and belief systems. Bipolar disorder is one of the conditions that’s frequently misunderstood and stigmatised. This is the case in Ghana, where bipolar is generally referred to as atenkabrane nsesae yaree – a condition characterised by extreme changes in mood. A recent study estimated that less than 1% of respondents in the Volta Region of Ghana for example knew the signs and symptoms of bipolar. Some people believe it “runs in the family” or that it is contagious. Continued here S64 You Need to Watch the Most Intense Korean Casino Thriller on Hulu ASAP If you know anything about South Korean media, it’s that the majority of the region’s most popular projects typically fall into two distinct camps: the brutal, bloody action thrillers, or the chaste, slice-of-life dramedies. Oldboy is one of the defining entries of the former, and one of the strongest explorations of corruption and violence in the criminal underworld. It also signaled international success for its star, Choi Min-sik, who’s been a constant in conspiracy thrillers and gangster dramas ever since. His eclectic choice of roles, however, still manage to subvert expectations at every turn, and his latest — as Cha Moo-sik in Disney+/Hulu series Big Bet — feels like a direct reflection of that. Continued here S26 Can a machine be racist? Artificial Intelligence has shown troubling signs of bias, but there are reasons for optimism One day in mid-2013, four people, including two police officers and a social worker, arrived unannounced at the home of Chicago resident Robert McDaniel. McDaniel had only ever had minor run-ins with the law – street gambling, marijuana possession, nothing even remotely violent. But his visitors informed him that a computer program had determined that the person living at his address was unusually likely to be involved in a future shooting. Continued here S63 HBO’s 'The Last of Us' Still Hasn’t Fixed Its Original Video Game's Biggest Flaw HBO’s The Last of Us isn’t just the best video game adaptation that’s ever been made, it’s also by far the most faithful. While it has made its fair share of changes along the way, the live-action post-apocalyptic series has stuck impressively close to the events and story of the original 2013 video game that inspired it. As a result, The Last of Us has managed to build the same dramatic power and emotional resonance as its source material. Unfortunately, the HBO series’ reverence for its source material has also resulted in it making the same critical mistake as both of Naughty Dog’s original Last of Us games. The problem, like so many things in The Last of Us, goes back to the Fireflies. Continued here S22 After 70 years, Stalin's shadow still looms over Russia and Ukraine - but Putin is a tyrant in his own right Joseph Stalin took his last breath 70 years ago. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage on March 5 1953, aged 74, at his dacha – or country house – west of the Kremlin in a leafy pocket of Moscow’s urban sprawl. Now, more than 30 years after the end of the cold war Stalin played such a large part in starting, Moscow is back in the grip of an authoritarian leader in the form of Vladimir Putin. The Russian president may head a “democratic government” in name but, in reality, it is much closer to a dictatorship. Continued here S52 A new invasive mosquito has been found in Kenya - what this means for malaria control Medical Entomologist at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Nairobi This mosquito, Anopheles stephensi, is native to South Asia and the Middle East. It transmits the two malaria parasites that pose the greatest risk of severe illness and death: Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. Continued here S66 25 Years Ago, A Forgotten PS1 Gem Invented the Stealth Action Genre For something that’s supposed to be unseen, stealth is everywhere in gaming these days. There’s nary an action/adventure title that doesn’t include some sort of sneaky crouch setting designed to let you get the drop on hapless guards. So when something becomes ubiquitous it can be hard to appreciate that it has roots. Stealth action started somewhere. In fact, the 3D stealth action we buy by the millions started 25 years ago this week when a brand new development studio launched their first-ever title for scrappy upstart Sony’s PlayStation. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins launched February 26, 1998 in Japan (August 31 in the U.S.) and transported players to the 16th-century when warring samurai factions fought for control of the proud island nation. It’s a period marked by violent uprisings and civil war, but Tenchu wasn’t another hack-and-slash bloodbath. Instead, developer Acquire Corp. took a radically different approach (and a few innovative shortcuts) that transformed gaming and created a unique new genre: stealth action. Continued here S37 The West's iconic forests are increasingly struggling to recover from wildfires - altering how fires burn could turn that around In a new study, we teamed up with over 50 other fire ecologists to examine how forests have recovered – or haven’t – in over 10,000 locations after 334 wildfires. Together, these sites offer an unprecedented look at how forests respond to wildfires and global warming. Continued here S69 Bing Has to Un-Google the Way We Search or Die Trying The word “Google” has been in the Oxford English Dictionary dictionary for almost 20 years. Feel old yet? I sure do. But no matter how old I feel, it doesn’t stop things — even things as ingrained as internet search — from changing. Arguably the biggest shift in search right now is coming at the hands of Microsoft and its next-gen Bing. With the help of OpenAI’s new chatbot, ChatGPT, Bing is making a case as the Next Big Thing in how we interface with our ballooning vortex of online information. Continued here S48 Black Inc. has stumbled with its anthology of neurodivergent writing. The term is not a diagnosis - it is part of a political movement I am blind and autistic. Like many people who grew up experiencing the world differently to mainstream Australians, I was thrilled last Thursday to read Black Inc.’s announcement of a new anthology, to be edited by Osher Gunsberg: “Growing up Neurodivergent in Australia: Call for submissions.” Finally, I thought, after 25 years of the neurodiversity movement, founded by Australian sociologist Judy Singer, its birth country would have an anthology representing the range of our experiences. Continued here S65 'The Last of Us' Episode 8 Introduces the Most Terrifying Villain Yet There’s always a tendency in post-apocalyptic media — especially zombie apocalypse media — to show that the true villains aren’t the undead monsters coming to eat your brains. Rather, it’s the humans trying to get ahead and survive no matter the cost, even if other lives are at stake. But even in a crowded genre, The Last of Us reaches a new level of this “people are the real villains” trope, from the soldier who shoots Sarah to the raider who stabs Joel. The Last of Us Episode 8 does something no other episode has been brave enough to do so far — show a villain who isn’t just fueled by revenge or survival, but also moral superiority. Continued here S27 More than just risk: LGBTQIA+ young people use social media to sustain and make sense of family relationships This article is based on a paper titled ‘‘I wouldn't want my family to cop anything’: Examining the family of origin and its place in LGBTQIA+ young people’s social media practices’ (2022) published in the Journal of Youth Studies by Shiva Chandra and Benjamin Hanckel: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676261.2022.2156781 Much of World Pride has been about the visibility of LGBTQIA+ people. This is important to affirming who we are, our place in the world, and celebrating ourselves as LGBTQIA+ individuals. Social media offers new opportunities to be visible, and many people have shared their celebrations of Pride during this time. However, not everyone. Continued here S50 Builders are making thumping profits by over-charging for new homes - new findings Welcome to the UK, where affordable housing can often feel like an oxymoron. The average national house price is £294,000, but someone earning the average annual salary of £33,000 can expect to borrow no more than £140,000, leaving a considerable shortfall. The typical first-time buyer is aged 32 and pays a £54,000 deposit for a £264,000 house, which is clearly out of reach for many people. New builds make up about a fifth of the market. They are a particular issue for affordability, since they command a premium of about 10% over an existing home for the convenience of being new. But is this justified? Continued here S51 Word from The Hill: Another rate rise; support for super tax hike; PM's India trip; Rugg V Ryan As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation’s politics team. In this podcast Michelle and politics + society editor Amanda Dunn discuss the tenth interest rate rise and Jim Chalmers’ response, the polling reaction to the superannuation tax hike, Anthony Albanese’s visit to India (where cricket is on the program), and the latest development in the extraordinary fight between teal independent Monique Ryan and her now former staffer Sally Rugg. Continued here S34 King Charles's coronation: Should Canada become a republic? On May 6, 2023, Charles III will officially be crowned King of the United Kingdom in a coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey. As King, Charles is also the head of state of 14 other Commonwealth countries, including Canada. The coronation raises an important question for Canada and the other countries: should we retain a British monarch as our official head of state? Continued here S55 Chris Rock’s Live Experiment in Saving Face That cadence. That cadence. You know what I mean, but it's not sufficiently replicable in writing—and that is rather the point. Delivery is important in any form of storytelling, and in observational comedy cadence is the especial engine of wit. Chris Rockian prosody features heavy-footed consonance—a spittle-ful "P" in "poor" or "F" in "fucking"—and unusual syllabic emphases. Such rhythms imprint in memory his most famous lines: "I ain't scared of Al Qaeda, I'm scared of Al Crack-a." Sound bites from that old material were piped over footage of Rock as he took to the stage Saturday night for "Selective Outrage," a comedy special that aired on Netflix as the platform's first experiment in live broadcasting. During the special, Rock's signature delivery became a lifeline, elevating the only mildly amusing, and sustaining the breath in even the drabbest material. None of the jokes will rise to the level of iconic, or even memorable, I'm afraid. Yet Rock reminds us of his icon status simply by opening his mouth. His delivery works when nothing else does—and, in "Selective Outrage," little did. Continued here S24 Managing people for the first time: expert tips on how to succeed Getting a promotion that involves managing people for the first time is a milestone in anyone’s career. It is a sign that your employer values your performance and skills and trusts you to lead projects and colleagues. This transition can also be a challenging and stressful experience – you may need to relearn what it means to do a “good” job. It is somewhat paradoxical that employees generally get promoted into managerial roles based on strong performance in non-managerial tasks. While you may have succeeded so far on your expertise and technical abilities, managerial roles call for a different set of skills. You will have to learn to prioritise and allocate work to make sure projects are completed on time, monitor your team’s performance, motivate the people you supervise and manage conflict. Continued here S54 Militant Islamist violence in Africa surges - deaths up nearly 50%, events up 22% in a year Militant Islamist violence in Africa set new records for violent events and fatalities this past year. This continues a relentless decade-long upward trend. To give a sense of the accelerating pace of this threat, both violent events and fatalities have almost doubled since 2019. In a recent Africa Center for Strategic Studies analysis, we found that there were 6,859 episodes of violence involving militant Islamist groups in Africa in 2022. This is a 22% increase from 2021. Fatalities linked to these events shot up 48% to 19,109 deaths. This reflects a sharp rise in deaths per event. Continued here S53 Is the poisoning of schoolgirls in Iran a new front in the war against girls' education? Recent media attention has drawn global focus on an escalating number of Iranian schoolgirls falling ill over the past few months because of suspected chemical attacks. Accounts differ, but many reports cite more than 1,000 cases of poisoning at schools across Iran. At least 58 schools in ten provinces across the country have been affected. The first known cases were reported in the city of Qom in November. There has been an escalation of reported cases, with 26 schools affected in a wave of attacks last week. The students have reported respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness and fatigue, with several girls hospitalised. Parents have been keeping their daughters home from school to protect them from these attacks. Continued here S25 Addressing campus sexual violence: New risk assessment tool can help administrators make difficult decisions How do universities and colleges build safer campuses, and better respond to incidents of sexual and gender-based violence? There isn’t a simple answer to this question. Whatever the response, any solution involves making difficult decisions based on valid tools. Continued here S23 Pikachu to depart: a brief history of the world's favourite Pok In the run-up to Pokémon Day – an anniversary created to celebrate the first Pokémon video game, released on February 27 1996 – a small but significant piece of news was announced. The pokémon has been a global marketing tool for Nintendo products for over 25 years. Fans are used to seeing Pikachu dressed in all manner of outfits, including 2019’s Detective Pikachu. Continued here S47 Why RBA interest rate hikes could end by September - but brace for at least one more Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Tuesday’s tenth successive Reserve Bank interest rate hike is the culmination of a process that has added $1,080 to the monthly cost of payments on a $600,000 variable mortgage. Continued here S49 Blue ticks: what evolutionary theory tells us about the turmoil around social media verification “Integrity,” “Professionalism”, “Creativity” — three of many words I used to see around one of the offices I worked in in New York. Like other aspects of corporate culture, these annoyed me. It’s easy to write words in big font on the glass doors of meeting rooms. But it’s something else to embody the qualities they suggest. 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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