A Refresher on Regression Analysis

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A Refresher on Regression Analysis     You probably know by now that whenever possible you should be making data-driven decisions at work. But do you know how to parse through all the data available to you? The good news is that you probably don’t need to do the number crunching yourself (hallelujah!) but you do need to correctly understand and interpret the analysis created by your colleagues. One of the most important types of data analysis is called regression analysis. Continued here

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A Senate inquiry is calling for a new 'behaviour curriculum' to try and tackle classroom disruptions     The inquiry, which has been looking at “increasing disruption in Australian school classrooms,” said education authorities should introduce a “behaviour curriculum”. The inquiry is being conducted by a Senate education committee, chaired by Liberal senator Matt O'Sullivan. It was set up in November 2022, following concerns about the levels of disruptive behaviour in Australian school classrooms. This has included evidence about both primary and secondary schools and government and non-government schools. Continued here

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A First Amendment battle looms in Georgia, where the state is framing opposition to a police training complex as a criminal conspiracy     When does lawful protest become criminal activity? That question is at issue in Atlanta, where 57 people have been indicted and arraigned on racketeering charges for actions related to their protest against a planned police and firefighter training center that critics call “Cop City.” Racketeering charges typically are reserved for people accused of conspiring toward a criminal goal, such as members of organized crime networks or financiers engaged in insider trading. Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr is attempting to build an argument that seeking to stop construction of the police training facility – through actions that include organizing protests, occupying the construction site and vandalizing police cars and construction equipment – constitutes a “corrupt agreement” or shared criminal goal. Continued here

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What the Act of Crying Can Offer     “I think about tears as a doorway: an invitation to be fully human and to connect with others.”This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. Continued here

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The 4 Types of Innovation and the Problems They Solve     Innovation is, at its core, about solving problems — and there are as many ways to innovate as there are different types of problems to solve. Just like we wouldn’t rely on a single marketing tactic for the life of an organization, or a single source of financing, we need to build up a portfolio of innovation strategies designed for specific tasks. Leaders identify the right type of strategy to solve the right type of problem, just by asking two questions: How well we can define the problem and how well we can define the skill domain(s) needed to solve it. Well-defined problems that benefit from well-defined skills fall into the category of “sustaining innovation.” Most innovation happens here, because most of the time we’re trying to get better at something we’re already doing. “Breakthrough innovation” is needed when we run into a well-defined problem that’s just devilishly hard to solve. In cases like these, we need to explore unconventional skill domains. When the reverse is true — skills are well-defined, but the problem is not — we can tap into “disruptive innovation” strategies. And when nothing is well-defined, well, then we’re in the exploratory, pioneering realm of basic research. There are always new problems to solve; learn to apply the solution that best fits your current problem. Continued here

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Exhibition explores how the Victorians are being reimagined in contemporary art     As you enter Reimag(in)ing the Victorians, a quote from Oscar Wilde faces you from across the room: “The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.” Wilde’s statement draws the attention of visitors to two things. First, the fact that history is an ever-changing form of representation. And second, that it is form of representation produced by us.One of the most significant – and perhaps unexpected – impacts of the Black Lives Matter movement has been an increased public understanding of history as a subjective representation of the past. The “contested history” debates that have raged over the past few years are evidence of this. And the vicious antagonism that they have provoked gives credence to the work of late 20th century writers like Keith Jenkins, who argues that there is no such thing as an entirely “objective” version of the past. Continued here

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Native American mothers whose children have been separated from them experience a raw and ongoing grief that has no end     Native American mothers whose children were separated from them – either through child removal for assimilation into residential boarding schools or through coerced adoption – experience the kind of grief no parent should ever feel. Yet theirs is a loss that is ongoing, with no sense of meaning or closure. While some families have eventually been reunited, far too many languish in the child welfare system, where Native American children are overrepresented as a result of discrimination and racial bias, structural racism and increased exposure to poverty. Continued here

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'Wonka' movie holds remnants of novel's racist past     Several years ago, I made a visit to a local book sale and came across a rare 1964 edition of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Popular in its own right, the novel has also served as the inspiration for a number of movies, including “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory” – the classic 1971 movie starring the late Gene Wilder – a 2005 reboot starring Johnny Depp, and “Wonka”, the 2023 version.As a child of the 1980s, I had voraciously consumed Dahl’s novels, so I knew the book well. But the illustrations in this particular edition looked unfamiliar. Continued here

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Turmoil at OpenAI shows we must address whether AI developers can regulate themselves     In the background, there have been reports of vigorous debates within OpenAI regarding AI safety. This not only highlights the complexities of managing a cutting-edge tech company, but also serves as a microcosm for broader debates surrounding the regulation and safe development of AI technologies.Large language models (LLMs) are at the heart of these discussions. LLMs, the technology behind AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, are exposed to vast sets of data that help them improve what they do – a process called training. However, the double-edged nature of this training process raises critical questions about fairness, privacy, and the potential misuse of AI. Continued here

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Electric arc furnaces: the technology poised to make British steelmaking more sustainable     Materials Scientist and SUSTAIN Impact & Engagement Manager, Swansea University In a move to embrace sustainable steelmaking, British Steel has unveiled a £1.25 billion plan to replace two blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant with electric arc furnaces. This follows the UK government’s commitment in September to invest up to £500 million towards an electric arc furnace at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant in south Wales. Continued here

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Fairytale of New York: Shane MacGowan, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl's rousing and controversial Christmas classic     When the death of Shane MacGowan was announced on Thursday, fans everywhere discussed which of his songs were their favourites. As the lead singer of Anglo-Irish band The Pogues, and then as a solo artist, MacGowan was renowned as one of pop's most distinctive writers, and as someone who brought rambunctious, punky new life to Irish folk music. But one song of his will be remembered above all others. Fairytale of New York is a bona fide Christmas classic that is currently being played in a bar, shop or home near you – although some people would prefer if it were never played again.More like this:-       The most violent band in the world-       Why Sinead O'Connor refused to be silenced-       The number one song that promoted safe sex Continued here

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TLC's 1995 hit Waterfalls: The number one song that promoted safe sex     In the mid-1990s, one of the world's brightest bands was boldly changing the conversation around safe sex, HIV and Aids. Award-winning Atlanta-based trio TLC (comprising Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas) released their signature track in 1995: Waterfalls, taken from their second album, CrazySexyCool.More like this: - The real meaning of Swift's song Slut - Should we bring singers back from the dead? - The extraordinary influence of Madonna Continued here

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Shane MacGowan Leaves the Astral Plane     The Irish singer and songwriter Shane MacGowan, a founding member of the punk-rock band the Pogues, died on Thursday, of pneumonia, at age sixty-five. It might sound as though he went young—and, by ordinary rubrics, he did—but MacGowan was a famously voracious consumer of drugs and prone to physical trauma. For decades, he flung himself around as though he were made of rubber. (“He was repeatedly injured in falls and struck by moving vehicles,” is how the Times put it in his obituary this week.) By all accounts, MacGowan was a man of irrepressible appetites, hungry and ungovernable. He was beloved for his songwriting (Dylan, Springsteen, and Bono were ardent fans), and also for his rotten teeth (when he finally had them fixed, in 2015, his dental surgeon described the experience as “the Everest of dentistry”). That he made it this far feels like a miracle, both for him and for us. Because if MacGowan was seemingly unconcerned with the preservation of his corporeal self, he was positively obsessed with elevating the soul.MacGowan was born on Christmas Day in Pembury, a village in Kent, in southeast England. His parents were Irish immigrants, and he was brought up in Tunbridge Wells, a middle-class suburb of London, often returning to Tipperary, his mother’s home town in Ireland, in the summers. As legend goes, by age five, MacGowan was already downing two bottles of Guinness a night, and was given his first taste of whiskey not long after. Those early experiences proved crucial: intoxication, impropriety, diaspora, Ireland, exile, and displacement all became core themes in MacGowan’s songwriting. He formed the Pogues in 1982. The band—which then included Spider Stacy on tin whistle, Jem Finer on banjo, and James Fearnley on accordion—was originally called Pogue Mahone, after the Irish Gaelic phrase póg mo thóin, which means, of course, “kiss my ass.” MacGowan was already somewhat infamous within the U.K. punk scene for appearing in a photo, published in the New Musical Express, in 1976, with blood dripping from his ear and down his neck. The headline read: “CANNIBALISM AT CLASH GIG.” (“Me and this girl were having a bit of a laugh which involved biting each other’s arms till they were completely covered in blood and then smashing up a couple of bottles and cutting each other up a bit,” MacGowan told the British rock magazine ZigZag; incidentally, the girl in question was “Mad” Jane Crockford, of the excellent London punk band the Mo-Dettes.) Continued here

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Destruction of Ukrainian heritage: why losing historical icons can leave a long shadow     Destruction of Ukrainian heritage is happening on a scale not seen there since World War II, a report published by the journal, Antiquity, has claimed. The report lists damage to a number of historic sites, including the Unesco-listed Vasyl Tarnovsky Museum of Ukrainian Antiquities and the burial mound at Boldyni Hory – one of the largest eleventh-century Ukrainian necropolises. Since the war began, Unesco has verified damage to 329 sites, including to the historic centre of Chernihiv. Continued here

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PFAS forever chemicals found in English drinking water - why are they everywhere and what are the risks?     PFAS chemicals (per-and poly fluoroalkyl substances), also known as forever chemicals, are rarely out of the news at the moment. The latest concern about this chemical group is their presence in drinking water in England. The Royal Society of Chemistry found that the UK’s drinking water standard is not stringent enough to protect us against the dangerous health effects of PFAS. The health risks include links to cancer and fertility problems. Continued here

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How Henry Kissinger Conquered Washington     Henry Kissinger, who died this week, at the age of a hundred, served in the Nixon and Ford Administrations as national-security adviser and Secretary of State; for a period, he was both at the same time. Kissinger fled Nazi Germany as a teen-ager, and went on to advise a dozen U.S. Presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Joe Biden. He opened up relations between the U.S. and China with Richard Nixon, pursued détente with the Soviet Union, and made decisions that led to death and destruction across Southeast Asia and beyond. Earlier this year, he travelled to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping in an attempt to massage U.S.-China relations. “There are not that many hundred-year-olds who insist upon their own relevance and actually are relevant,” the New Yorker staff writer Susan B. Glasser says. Glasser calls Kissinger “the paradigmatic Washington figure,” and says that despite Kissinger’s history of destructive foreign-policy decisions, the American national-security establishment had a “collective addiction” to his thinking. How did Kissinger shape U.S. foreign policy, and what enabled him to remain a central political player in Washington long after he left office? The New Yorker staff writers Jane Mayer and Evan Osnos join Glasser to weigh in.By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Continued here

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Giving Birth in Gaza     Every morning since October 7, Nour Shath has woken up, scanned her body, and felt relief that her twin babies were still inside her. Each additional day, her doctor has told her, makes their birth less likely to require an obstetric or neonatal intervention that might not be available in Gaza.But even after those morning checks reassure her that she’s one day closer to a normal, safe delivery, Shath told me, she feels a deep, wrenching fear—one she worries she’ll transmit to her babies: “Are they feeling scared inside me?” she asks herself. She wonders whether they can sense when she cries, and whether the stress will induce premature labor. Continued here

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Who Gets to Play in Women's Leagues?     Boulder, Colorado, where I was born and raised, is sometimes called the fittest city in America. Septuagenarians go skiing before work, high-school delinquents hang out at the climbing gym, and people do not so much hike as trail run. Every year, the town hosts the BOLDERBoulder, one of the largest road races in the country and a sort of festival day in honor of the local god of exercise. I first ran the ten-kilometre course when I was six, not an unusual age of initiation for locals, and discovered that I was a bizarrely good runner. Three years in a row, I finished first out of some four hundred girls my age, and fifth or sixth out of a similar number of boys. At twelve, the last year I raced, I ran what was then the sixth-fastest time ever recorded by a twelve-year-old girl in the race's three decades of results. My parents were baffled. This was no gene of theirs, surely, but it also didn't seem to be hard work. I didn't care about running, and I never trained.What I did work at, harder than I have worked at anything since, was soccer. Colorado's Front Range produces many excellent soccer players—all of the United States' goals in last summer's Women's World Cup were scored by players who grew up within an hour's drive of Boulder—and the great disappointment of my cushy childhood was realizing that I was not to be one of them. I failed, year after year, to make the local club's first team. I made my high school's varsity team as a sophomore but didn't start a game until I was a senior. If you had asked me at fifteen if I would rather be a little better at soccer or one day find true love, I wouldn't have paused to think. I didn't dream at night of love but of wide green spaces, well-timed tackles, and chipped shots. Continued here

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No further investments in Virgin Galactic, says Richard Branson     Philip Georgiadis and Peggy Hollinger, Financial Times - Dec 2, 2023 6:58 pm UTC Continued here

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Argentina's Brexit: why new president Milei is threatening to pull out of South America's common market     Javier Milei, who was elected as Argentina’s new president on November 19, has promised to withdraw from the South American “common market”, Mercosur.This decision could have significant economic and social repercussions for Argentina, potentially similar to when the UK pulled out of the EU. Mercosur has some similarities to the EU . For instance, nationals of nine South American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay) enjoy the right to enter, reside and work in all of the above countries. Continued here

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Ancient black hole challenges our understanding of the early Universe     At the center of nearly every galaxy in the cosmos sits a monster: a black hole with a mass millions or even billions of times heavier than our Sun. When and how these enormous objects formed is an open question in the astrophysics community.Recently, in a paper published in Nature Astronomy, scientists reported the discovery of an ancient supermassive black hole, one that existed very early in life of the Universe. While some enthusiasts have claimed that the observation of these gigantic black holes has disproved the theory of the Big Bang, this is a hasty conclusion. However, it is certainly true that the existence of very early supermassive black holes will require astronomers to rethink some things. Continued here

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These programs make college possible for students with developmental disabilities     For students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, opportunities to attend college may appear few and far between. But this is changing, thanks to inclusive postsecondary education – known as IPSE – programs at colleges across the United States. Here are some important things to know about these programs.Inclusive postsecondary education refers to programs at colleges and technical schools that provide career and transitional training to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Transitional training helps these individuals move into adulthood, teaching them skills like how to set up a bank account, do laundry or cook for themselves. Continued here

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Why some people from the north of England end up leaving everything to King Charles when they die     What connects an ex-miner and lifelong republican, who once manned the protest lines at Orgreave, with King Charles III? The surprising answer, as the Guardian reported, is that the ex-miner’s estate now forms part of a fund which generates private income for the monarch. The reason is the legal principle of bona vacantia. This is loosely translated as “ownerless goods” and refers to a process through which the estates of people who die without heirs in England and Wales are claimed by the crown. Continued here

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Keys to Growing Your Small Business Leveraging Educational Content     From attracting new users to building trust and loyalty, this is the power of content. Continued here

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The GOP's Internal Dysfunction     On Wednesday, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger passed away at the age of 100. As the country remembers the former statesman’s complicated legacy, his fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill are working to overcome their internal dysfunction: In the House, Republican Representative George Santos of New York was expelled from Congress in a rare bipartisan vote for ethics violations. And in the Senate, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama attempted to reassure colleagues that his monthslong blockade of Pentagon nominations will end soon.All of this comes as former President Donald Trump continues to lead in polls of Republican and evangelical voters six weeks before the Iowa caucuses. Continued here

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A Leader's Framework for Decision Making     Simple contexts are characterized by stability and cause-and-effect relationships that are clear to everyone. Often, the right answer is self-evident. In this realm of “known knowns,” leaders must first assess the facts of a situation—that is, “sense” it—then categorize and respond to it. Continued here

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Why Washington Couldn't Quit Kissinger     Henry Kissinger, the former national-security adviser and Secretary of State who served in the Nixon and Ford Administrations and became the most famous American diplomat of the twentieth century, died this week, at the age of a hundred. Kissinger's legacy remains one of the most debated and contentious artifacts of the Cold War era. Although he has been excoriated, and sometimes called a war criminal, by writers such as Seymour Hersh and Christopher Hitchens, he remained in the good graces of Administrations of both parties well after his time in government, was a frequent presence on the party and social circuit in New York and Washington, D.C., consulted with a wide range of governments and appeared on corporate boards, and published best-selling books. All the while, his critics accused him of a catastrophic record in countries from Vietnam to Chile to Argentina.To talk about this divide, and Kissinger's legacy, I spoke by phone with Richard Haass, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served as the head of that organization for two decades, until earlier this year. A former diplomat who worked on peace in Northern Ireland and served in Colin Powell's State Department during the George W. Bush Administration, Haass is one of the most recognizable figures in the foreign-policy establishment, and he knew Kissinger well and interviewed him at length. During our conversation, the transcript for which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed how Kissinger should be remembered, his role in extending the Vietnam War, and whether Washington élites were too forgiving of Kissinger's mistakes. Continued here

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Why are people still flying to climate conferences by private jet?     Rishi Sunak, David Cameron and King Charles are just three of the more than 70,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries at the latest UN climate summit in Dubai, COP28. But they are among hundreds who will have travelled there by private jet. In fact, the UK prime minister, foreign secretary and king even travelled in three separate planes. At COP27 in Egypt last year, around 315 private jet journeys took place. This is an extraordinary statistic, especially as fewer world leaders attended that COP, as many were busy at a G20 summit in Bali. Continued here

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How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage     The information revolution is sweeping through our economy. No company can escape its effects. Dramatic reductions in the cost of obtaining, processing, and transmitting information are changing the way we do business. Most general managers know that the revolution is under way, and few dispute its importance. As more and more of their time and […] Continued here

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New algorithm finds lots of gene-editing enzymes in environmental DNA     CRISPR—Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats—is the microbial world’s answer to adaptive immunity. Bacteria don’t generate antibodies when they are invaded by a pathogen and then hold those antibodies in abeyance in case they encounter that same pathogen again, the way we do. Instead, they incorporate some of the pathogen’s DNA into their own genome and link it to an enzyme that can use it to recognize that pathogenic DNA sequence and cut it to pieces if the pathogen ever turns up again. Continued here

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Colonized countries rarely ask for redress over past wrongs - the reasons can be complex     The king of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, apologized in July 2023 for his ancestors’ role in the colonial slave trade. He is not alone in expressing remorse for past wrongs. In 2021, France returned 26 works of art seized by French colonial soldiers in Africa – the largest restitution France has ever made to a former colony. In the same year, Germany officially apologized for its 1904-08 genocide of the Herero and Nama people of Namibia and paid reparations. Continued here

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Who is still getting HIV in America? Medication is only half the fight -     As the globe marks another World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, it’s crucial to both acknowledge the significant strides made in the global battle against HIV and recognize the persistent challenges that remain. While the United States had seen a slow decline in the overall number of new HIV infections from 2017 to 2021, a closer look at the data reveals persistent disparities largely borne by LGBTQ people and communities of color.As a social epidemiologist who proudly identifies as a gay Latino, I have a vested interest both personally and professionally in understanding and addressing the HIV disparities my communities face. It’s disheartening to realize that, despite available medical advances that can end the AIDS epidemic, these resources aren’t reaching those who need them the most. Continued here

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How the keffiyeh - a practical garment used for protection against the desert sun - became a symbol of Palestinian identity     After Israel declared war on Hamas following the militant group’s surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and hostilities resumed in the region, some Palestinians have been urging non-Palestinians to wear the keffiyeh, a distinctive checkered scarf, during protests. Indeed, several Palestinian diaspora communities and their allies across the globe have taken to wearing the keffiyeh as a mark of solidarity. Last week, three Palestinian students who were shot in Vermont were wearing black-and-white keffiyeh scarves. Continued here

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ChatGPT Spit Out Sensitive Data When Told to Repeat 'Poem' Forever     Brinkmanship escalated in the US Congress this week over strategies to reauthorize the government surveillance powers known as "Section 702," as civil rights groups sounded the alarm about the consequences of the program and its potential renewal. A WIRED investigation of more than 100 restricted Telegram channels indicated that the communication app's bans on extremist discourse aren't effective or adequate bans. And the identity management platform Okta admitted this week that a security breach previously thought to impact 1 percent of its customers actually affected 100 percent.Analysis indicates that OpenAI's custom chatbots, known as GPTs, can be manipulated to leak their training data and other private information. Funding for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gun violence research is at risk as Republicans quietly work to strip support. Palmer Luckey's autonomous drone company Anduril is exploring innovations in jet power and artificial intelligence to enhance these combat-shifting devices—for better or worse. And the Indian government's longtime control of radio news is giving Prime Minister Narendra Modi a critical advantage with elections looming in the country. Continued here

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Frederick Wiseman in Paradise     In “Menu-Plaisirs—Les Troisgros,” Frederick Wiseman’s four-hour documentary about a great French restaurant, playing at Film Forum, there is a kitchen like none that I’ve ever seen: a large rectangular room with windows facing the woods; rows of stainless-steel countertops, with burners embedded in the flat surfaces; clear open air above the cooking spaces—a startling absence of ladles, pots, pans, mitts, and hoods (the high ceiling works as a hood). One further absence, and a very welcome one, too: a sweat-stained studly cook, hair enshrined in a bandanna, bullying everyone in the room.In this airy space, everyone can see everyone else, and the young boss of the kitchen, César Troisgros, a slight, concentrated man with wire-frame glasses, controls the room with a look here and there, a quiet command, and occasionally a quick rush from one counter to another. We are about forty-five miles northwest of Lyon, in rural Ouches, where the Troisgros family runs an extraordinary restaurant called Le Bois sans Feuilles (The Woods Without Leaves). The price of the set meal, for lunch or for dinner, is three hundred and forty euros, hors boisson. (Call it five hundred euros per person with a good bottle of local wine.) Ouches! Yes, but, having seen the movie, I’m quite sure that no one is being cheated. Continued here

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Denmark: The major pork producer trying to wean itself off eating meat     Trine Krebs adores vegetables. "When I get a plant in my hands that I can feel is healthy, I can smell it, feel it, almost taste it in my mouth," the 47-year-old, cardigan-clad farmer enthuses over Zoom. Described affectionately by some as "Miss Dry-Legume of Denmark", Krebs has won awards for her advocacy of plant-rich – or "plant-rig" in Danish – diets. To this end she has run food festivals, trained cooks and invented songs. She even appeared on a Danish dating show, Farmer Looking for Love, and taught her prospective romantic interests to cook legumes: the first refused, the second was luke-warm, but the third was totally won over. "He thought it tasted amazing and wanted me to teach all his friends." Continued here

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Santos, now booted from the House, got elected as a master of duplicity -- here's how it worked     U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, was expelled on Dec. 1, 2023 from Congress for doing what most people think all politicians do all the time: lying.Santos lied about his religion, marital status, business background, grandparents, college, high school, sports-playing, income and campaign donation expenditures. Continued here

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What VUCA Really Means for You     It’s become a trendy managerial acronym: VUCA, short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and a catchall for “Hey, it’s crazy out there!” It’s also misleading: VUCA conflates four distinct types of challenges that demand four distinct types of responses. That makes it difficult to know how to approach a challenging situation and easy to use VUCA as a crutch, a way to throw off the hard work of strategy and planning—after all, you can’t prepare for a VUCA world, right? Continued here

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Let's Never Do This to Edith Wharton Again     The writer’s deeply emotional architecture is made dully explicit in a new adaptation of The Buccaneers.Edith Wharton’s unfinished 1938 novel, The Buccaneers, occupies much of its second half with the unhappy marriage of Annabel, an innocent American aesthete, and the Duke of Tintagel, a small, easily slighted man whose life’s passion is repairing clocks. As analogies, they read to me as pure Charles and Diana—the too-young woman who finds herself, on her wedding day, suddenly encased in a world with unknowable rules, and the man who chooses a wife based on the extent to which he thinks he can control her. Continued here

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Emissions inequality is getting worse - here's how to end the reign of the ultra-polluters     Climate change is overwhelmingly a problem of wealthy people. The wealthiest 1% of humanity produce over 1,000 times the emissions of the poorest 1%. In fact, these 77 million people are responsible for more climate-changing emissions than the poorest 66% (5 billion people) of humanity. Since 1990, the personal emissions of the world’s wealthiest have exploded. They are now 77 times larger than the level that would be compatible with a 1.5°C warming limit – a threshold beyond which whole island nations will possibly disappear. Continued here