How to Survive Hopelessness

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What does work-life balance mean in a changed work world? Amid the vast uncertainty of the pandemic era, one thing is clear: more than ever – and more than anything – people want a healthy work-life balance. In 2021, data from a survey of more than 9,000 UK workers showed 65% of job seekers prioritized work-life balance over pay and benefits. It’s similar in the US: of 4,000 respondents to the FlexJobs 2022 Career Pulse Survey, 63% said they’d choose work-life balance over better pay. So what, exactly, does this term mean to workers right now? The definition of work-life balance has changed dramatically throughout the past several years, with the demise of strict 9-to-5 hours and increase in remote work.  Continued here

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Soutzoukakia: The Greek meatballs packed with history Soutzoukakia are more than their literal translation: meatballs. They are undeniably rich and comforting, laced with hints of red wine, cumin and garlic and swathed in a hearty tomato sauce. It's a dish packed with flavour as well as history. The origins of soutzoukakia trace back to the Greek population of the early 20th Century Empire. This is a dish that was created by a minority population and survived atrocities, thanks to the hundreds of thousands of survivors who carried the recipe with them from Turkey to Greece. Carolina Doriti, brings its history and recipe together in her new cookbook, Salt of the Earth: Secrets and Stories from a Greek Kitchen (March 2023). Born-and-raised in Athens, Doriti has spent most of her life in the Greek capital. She started cooking at a young age, with food playing an integral part in her life. She began cooking professionally in 2005 and has since worked as a private chef, recipe developer, food journalist and restaurant consultant. She's also the culinary producer of the celebrated Greek American chef, Diane Kochilas' PBS program, My Greek Table. Continued here

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11 of the best TV shows to watch this March 1. The Mandalorian It has been more than two years since the end of season two of this Star Wars spinoff with Pedro Pascal mostly hidden under a helmet as the bounty hunter Din Djarin. Since then we've gotten used to seeing Pascal's face on The Last of Us, but now he is back in the helmet and reunited with his little green sidekick, Grogu, earlier known as The Child or Baby Yoda. Their new adventures have them traveling back to Mandalore so Din can atone for having violated the rules by showing Grogu his face. Giancarlo Esposito returns as the villainous Moff Gideon, along with Carl Weathers and Amy Sedaris. Will we actually see more of Pascal? And, as Slash Film wondered, “How Does Grogu Keep Getting Cuter?” The Mandalorian premieres on 1 March on Disney+ internationally 2. Daisy Jones & the SixMusic, personal crises, showbiz drama and sexual tension are the volatile ingredients in this fictional story of a 1970s rock group fronted by the talented Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) and charismatic Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin), and loosely inspired by Fleetwood Mac. The frame of a contemporary documentary about the band's spectacular success and sudden breakup allows the characters to rehash the past and the series to flash back to the early days, where there is a love triangle and lots of shaggy '70s hair. Based on Taylor Jenkins Reid's bestselling novel, the high-profile series has original music written by Blake Mills, with contributions from Phoebe Bridgers, Marcus Mumford and others, and has spawned a real-life album featuring the cast. Daisy Jones & the Six premieres on 3 March on Prime Video internationally Continued here

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The ultimate paragon of male beauty? He was just a boy, but he came to epitomise male beauty. His fame was such that he was forever known simply as "David". The humble shepherd boy who slayed the Philistines' most formidable warrior, the giant Goliath, and was later crowned king of Israel, has been the subject of some of art history's most iconic works. Italy's finest sculptors − Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and Bernini − all broke the mould with their Davids, while painters such as Guillaume Courtois, Rubens, Reni, and Caravaggio created emotive masterpieces of him in oil. Described in the Bible as having "beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance", his dramatic story and good looks made him the perfect muse. The figure of David first won hearts in Florence in 1408 when Donatello di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, barely more than a boy himself, sculpted in marble a youthful and victorious David with Goliath's severed head at his feet. Continued here

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St David's Day: how the sixth century monk inspired centuries of devoted followers and poets Jonathan Wooding is member of the Diocesan Tourism Working Party of the Diocese of St Davids.He has previously worked in conjuction with St Davids Cathedral and Diocese on historical projects. The man we know as St David, or Dewi Sant in Welsh, lived in the sixth century in the west of the island of Britain. He founded a monastic community on the site of what is now St Davids Cathedral in Pembrokeshire. Continued here

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'Do the little things': why St David's advice is good for your mental health Gwnewch y pethau bychain or “do the little things” is a saying attributed to St David, the patron saint of Wales. But what relevance does the advice of a sixth century monk hold in 2023? In modern times, doing the little things certainly is important when we consider our mental health. It can make a difference in preventing ill health and sustaining a sense of happiness, as well as in treating mental illness. Continued here

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Wolf restoration in Colorado shows how humans are rethinking their relationships with wild animals From sports to pop culture, there are few themes more appealing than a good comeback. They happen in nature, too. Even with the Earth losing species at a historic rate, some animals have defied the trend toward extinction and started refilling their old ecological niches. I’m a philosopher based in Montana and specialize in environmental ethics. For my new book, “Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think About Animals,” I spent three years looking at wildlife comebacks across North America and Europe and considering the lessons they offer. In every case, whether the returnee is a bison, humpback whale, beaver, salmon, sea otter or wolf, the recovery has created an opportunity for humans to profoundly rethink how we live with these animals. Continued here

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Which state you live in matters for how well environmental laws protect your health Your child could go to gym class on Monday morning and play soccer on a field that was sprayed over the weekend with 2,4-D, a toxic weedkiller that has been investigated as possibly causing cancer. Alternatively, the school grounds may have been treated with a lower-toxicity weedkiller. Or maybe the grounds were managed with safe, nontoxic products and techniques. Which of these scenarios applies depends in large part on your state’s laws and regulations today – more so than federal regulations. Continued here

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Why the pronouns used for God matter The Church of England is considering what language and pronouns should be used to refer to God. The church’s General Synod has, however, clarified that it will not abolish or substantially revise any of the currently authorized liturgies. Nonetheless, this news made headlines and brought up questions of how religions refer to God. Is God male? What pronouns should be used to refer to God? Continued here

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30 years later, Waco siege still resonates - especially among anti-government extremists Feb. 28, 2023, marks 30 years since the beginning of the Waco siege, the confrontation at a Texas compound that killed around 80 members of the Branch Davidian religious community and four federal agents. Part of the siege’s legacy in popular culture is tied to sensational coverage that has presented the Branch Davidians as a cult. But the tragedy is also a powerful moment in political extremist groups’ ideologies. As scholars of domestic extremism, we have repeatedly seen how what happened at the Mount Carmel Center has been used by anti-government groups from the 1990s to today. Continued here

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Mocking the police got an Ohio man arrested - and the Supreme Court ignored The Onion's plea to define the limits of parody Can Americans be jailed for making fun of the government? Most would respond with a resounding “No, of course not! The First Amendment protects us from that.” But Anthony Novak learned otherwise in March 2016, after he created and posted a fake version of the Parma, Ohio, Police Department’s Facebook page. Continued here

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One easy way to fight antibiotic resistance? Good hand hygiene The work was supported by grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundations, the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund (the Fund of the Hedda and John Forssman Foundation), the Sten K Johnsson Foundation, the Crafoord Foundation, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (BAA 2017-OADS-01). Can washing your hands help stop the evolution of antibiotic resistance? Mathematically, it’s possible. Continued here

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DALL-E 2 and Midjourney can be a boon for industrial designers Since the introduction of DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT, there has been a fair amount of hand-wringing about AI technology – some of it justified. It’s true that the technology’s future is unclear. There is great debate about the ethics of using existing artwork, images and content to train these AI products, and concern about what industries it will displace or change. And it seems as if an AI arms race between companies like Microsoft and Google is already underway. Continued here

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Germany's new migration policy could take away vital talent from several African countries Germany has announced a project for migrant centres in five African countries which would offer a select category of Africans the possibility of settling on its soil. The Conversation Africa’s Assane Diagne spoke to sociologist Aly Tandian about the significance of this decision. In Germany, the policy of bringing in skilled labour has grown in recent years through a “welcoming culture”. This has greatly facilitated the arrival and, above all, the integration of many migrants. For instance, Germany welcomed nearly one million refugees during the Syrian crisis in 2015. This motivated the award of the Nansen Prize of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to Chancellor Angela Merkel. The suggested centres would ease rules for skilled foreign workers even further. Continued here

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Working women in South Africa proved their resilience during COVID - as a result they've enhanced their well-being One of the outcomes of the COVID pandemic is that people’s working lives have changed. Working at home and hybrid work have become prevalent, after constantly changing government rules and guidelines. Globally, employees report many pandemic-related challenges – loss of employment, lack of career growth, loss of a sense of belonging with colleagues. Continued here

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God and politics in South Africa: the ruling ANC's winning strategy Religion shapes some of the most controversial decisions that governments need to make: access to abortion, same-sex marriage, the death penalty and the legal status of sex work. Indeed, it is likely that most voters across the world consider religion to be essential to their lives. The difficulty of this approach is clear when considering a party like the African National Congress (ANC), which has governed South Africa since 1994. From one angle, it is obviously not a religious party: it remains committed to a secular state and many of its policies (such as those on abortion and civil unions) have been criticised by religious groups. Continued here

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Betty Boothroyd was the first woman speaker - and the first to become a 'cult figure' via televised debates Baroness Betty Boothroyd, who has died at the age of 93, was, in no uncertain terms, a parliamentary giant. With a career in Westminster spanning almost 50 years, she was best known for becoming the first (and so far only) female speaker of the House of Commons – a post she held from 1992 to 2000. It had taken over 700 years to see a woman in the speaker’s chair Boothroyd served as member of parliament for West Bromwich between 1973 and 2000 and, after stepping down as speaker, was elevated to the House of Lords as a crossbench (independent) peer. She remained an active member of the second chamber until very late in her life. Continued here

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Shamima Begum case shows how little power courts have to check government national security decisions The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), a court that specialises in national security cases, has upheld the home secretary’s decision to cancel Shamima Begum’s citizenship. The 23-year-old was deprived of her citizenship in 2019, four years after leaving the UK aged 15 to join Islamic State in Syria. The court found “credible suspicion” that Begum had been trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, as her lawyers had argued. It also found that there were “arguable breaches of duty” by state authorities in having allowed her to make the journey to Syria. Continued here

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Rishi Sunak's Brexit deal: how the Stormont brake could block new EU laws from Northern Ireland After years of tensions and negotiations, the EU and the UK have announced their proposed solution to the problem of trade barriers between Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the EU. The Windsor framework is a political agreement which sets out amendments to the Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol. The protocol, a part of the EU-UK withdrawal agreement, was put in place to avoid border checks on goods traded between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It did this by keeping Northern Ireland subject to EU customs and internal market law on goods. Continued here

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Microsoft signs 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo - here's what that means for players In a recently deleted post, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, tweeted the first details of a ten-year deal with Nintendo. The deal involves plans to bring gaming franchise Call of Duty (COD) and other popular Xbox titles to Nintendo platforms. COD: Modern Warfare 2 was the biggest-selling game of 2022, with the series generating over $30 billion (£25 billion) in the 20 years since its first release. Continued here

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Cocktails, curry and afternoon tea: inside the 1930s London conference that brought Gandhi to Buckingham Palace It was the talk of the town. From afternoon teas at Buckingham Palace to lunches, dinners and drinks provided by London’s political hostesses. Between 1930 and 1932, India’s social and political leaders headed to London to negotiate the constitutional future of India in the British empire. The Round Table Conference is mostly remembered for Gandhi’s unsuccessful participation in the second session – where he failed to reconcile competing Hindu and Muslim demands. But this was only one small part of a conference of over 100 delegates. Continued here

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Joy can help us be better at work - here's how to find it “Choose a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Attributed without much evidence to Confucius, this quote has been featured on email signatures of workaholics for years. This is an article from The Joy Of*, a series to help those of us in our 20s and 30s find moments of happiness in the everyday. When rents are rising, fun with friends is more infrequent and we’re struggling with work-life balance, daily life can seem hard. But joy doesn’t have to be something saved for big occasions, like weddings or birthdays. These articles from Quarter Life are aimed to help you find joy in the smallest things. Continued here

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How to ditch 'fomo' and foster 'jomo' - the joy of missing out Have you ever felt a sense of joy because you knew you were missing out on an invitation to a party, shiny new opportunities or the latest social media posts and influencer trends because you were “unplugged”? If so, then you have probably experienced “jomo” – the joy of missing out. Jomo is a rather unusual form of joy because it involves positive feelings due to the absence of an event or experience rather than the presence of a positive event. But that doesn’t make it any less valuable for supporting wellbeing. Continued here

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How to find joy through play as an adult Becoming an adult often seems to mean leaving play behind. The term “adulting” refers to doing things that are joyless, boring and tiresome - the opposite of play. But we can embrace adulthood while still finding joy through play and being playful. You might not realise it, but when you swing in your chair, slip off in an imaginative daydream, play sport for fun and not just to win, try something new that you are comfortable to fail at, laugh at a joke with a friend, read a book for pleasure or make something that doesn’t need to be judged or perfect, you are playing. Continued here

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When should we worry about bird flu making us sick? When we see human-to-human transmission - Bird flu has been causing growing concern in recent months, with hundreds of millions of birds dying of the virus since October 2021. This is the largest global outbreak. Last week, an 11-year-old child in Cambodia died from bird flu, prompting concern about spillover from wild birds and poultry to humans. But the cases we’ve seen in Cambodia are a different bird flu strain to that causing the massive bird deaths around the world. Continued here

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'Are you asking us to sleep under the Harbour Bridge?': 3 myths about international students and the housing crisis There is a story doing the media rounds that international students – particularly from China – will now “flood” back to Australia. It is claimed this will push up already high rents for scarce housing in our major cities. This story is one of three myths that risk setting up international students as scapegoats for Australia’s ongoing housing crisis. However, immigration data and our monitoring of social media, where international students share their experiences, simply don’t support these narratives. Continued here

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Extinct elephant birds were 3 metres tall and weighed 700kg. Now, DNA from fossil eggshells reveals how they lived Madagascar’s extinct elephant birds – the largest birds ever to have lived – have captured public interest for hundreds of years. Little is known about them due to large gaps in the skeletal fossil record. A new study published today in Nature Communications used ancient molecules extracted from fossil eggshells to reveal surprising new insights into the biology of these flightless giants. How many species were there? Where did they live? What did they eat? Continued here

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The Dark Side of the Moon at 50: how Marx, trauma and compassion all influenced Pink Floyd's masterpiece This Latin phrase – I have spoken and saved my soul – sits at the end of Karl Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme. Written in 1875, this text imagines a communist society that will come about “after the enslaving of the individual to the division of labour, and thereby also the antithesis between mental and physical labour has vanished”. Continued here

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Sanctions rarely work, but are they still the least worst option? How do we encourage states – or more specifically the people who run them – to behave well, or at least not badly? The “we” in this context is the fabled “international community”, which usually amounts to little more than the United States and a few trusty allies. Continued here

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'A stench of tokenism': how environmental reforms ignore First Nations knowledge Lisa McMurray is the Learning and Program Development Manager at the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation. The Albanese government is embarking on a suite of environmental reforms: beefing up Australia’s carbon credit scheme, and establishing a market to fund environmental restoration. These big policy changes may seek to justify colonial practices imposed on First Nations people and their country. Continued here

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Doc Watson at 100: The virtuoso guitarist brought Appalachian music to a worldwide audience and influenced generations of musicians Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson was born on March 3, 1923, in Stony Fork, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but his music is as influential now – more than a decade after his 2012 death – as at any time during his long career. During that time he was arguably America’s most beloved folk musician. Today, Watson is viewed by artists and fans as one of the greatest guitarists of American roots music. Making music came naturally to Watson, who grew up in a large music-loving family. Recordings made in people’s homes by folklorists during the early 1960s documented music gatherings featuring various Watsons alongside neighbors and friends, collectively celebrating their community’s musical culture – a shared repertoire of Appalachian ballads, songs and tunes. Continued here

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ChatGPT killed the student essay? Philosophers call bullshit Since ChatGPT was released, many commentators are sounding the alarm about an artificial intelligence (AI) takeover, suggesting that professors will soon be out of a job, or that the student essay is dead. This is reactionary and misguided. ChatGPT, by its very nature, cannot do the kinds of things we ought to want student essays to do. Continued here

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Growing farmland inequality in the Prairies poses problems for all Canadians Real estate is a hot topic in Canada. Most Canadians are acutely aware of how home prices and rents have skyrocketed in the last 15 years or so. In large cities, investor ownership of condos and houses has attracted the attention of policymakers and the public at large, prompting the federal government to crack down on foreign buyers. While many are familiar with these urban real estate trends, few are aware of the restructuring of farmland ownership occurring in rural areas. Since 2014, we’ve been studying changing land tenure patterns in the Prairies, where 70 per cent of Canada’s agricultural land is situated. Continued here

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Eating disorders are deadly: What are they, who's at risk, and what can be done about it Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder are serious health risks, and can be life-threatening. They are also common, especially among teenage girls. More than 100,000 Canadians over the age of 15 are diagnosed with an eating disorder each year. Onset usually occurs between ages 14 and 19. In fact, eating disorders are the third most common chronic illness among teens. Continued here

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A 'recently discovered' whale feeding strategy has turned up in 2,000-year-old texts about fearsome sea monsters Trap-feeding is one of several whale feeding strategies first recorded in recent decades, including lunge feeding, lobtail feeding and the dramatic bubble-net feeding, when whales create a fence of bubbles to herd krill or fish together. Read more: Humpback whales have been spotted 'bubble-net feeding' for the first time in Australia (and we have it on camera) Continued here

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Move over, honeybees: Aussie native bees steal the show with unique social and foraging behaviours Australian native bees have evolved complex social structures and foraging behaviours that help biologists answer longstanding questions, such as the origins of social behaviour, and the drivers of increased biodiversity. In European honeybees, the queen governs the hive with her sterile female workers. Meanwhile, the males are little more than freeloaders, or hangers-on (sorry boys). Continued here

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A Voice to Parliament will not give 'special treatment' to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Here's why Asmi Wood is a member of the Referendum Engagement Group and the Constitutional Expert Group. We asked our readers what they would like to know about the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament. In the lead-up to the referendum, our expert authors will answer those questions. You can read the other questions and answers here. Continued here

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Despite restrictions elsewhere, NZ still uses a wood preservative linked to arsenic pollution Timber with a green-grey hue – treated with copper chromium arsenic (CCA) – is a common sight in New Zealand. But how many people are aware that it pollutes the environment, is associated with health risks and is a toxic waste complicating the transition to a circular bioeconomy? Other countries, including Australia, the US and the EU, have stopped or restricted the use of CCA, moved to safer alternatives and established viable end-of-life disposal options. Continued here

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Why cough medicines containing pholcodine can be deadly even if you took them months before surgery Cough medicines containing the active ingredient pholcodine are being withdrawn from sale due to safety concerns highlighted for years both in Australia and internationally. Yesterday, Australia’s medicines regulator announced the immediate registration cancellation and recall of dozens of these over-the-counter cough medicines and lozenges. Continued here

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Writing is a 'questionable business', but what to make of John Hughes, one of the most prolific plagiarists in literary history? In June of last year, the Guardian revealed that John Hughes’ Miles Franklin-longlisted novel The Dogs contained material lifted from The Unwomanly Face of War, a book by Nobel Prize-winning Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich. When approached about this, Hughes apologised for the transgression, describing the plagiarism as unintentional. Before long, it was found that The Dogs contained material taken from numerous other texts, including widely read classics The Great Gatsby and All Quiet on the Western Front. Continued here

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Political instability and damage to infrastructure: how climate change could undermine Australia's national security Floods have recently caused massive damage in many parts of the country, while the 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires are still seared in our memories. Climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of such floods and fires, along with droughts, heatwaves and coastal erosion. Continued here

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Migrant children in the UK are going missing from care - here's how to protect them Separated children who arrive alone in the UK are being placed in hotels by the Home Office – and many of them are then going missing. On January 24 2023, the immigration minister announced that 200 unaccompanied children were missing from UK hotels. These children are at significant risk of trafficking and exploitation. To stop this happening, those involved in these children’s care should treat them like the children they are – and listen to what they need to feel safe. Continued here

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ChatGPT: how to prevent it becoming a nightmare for professional writers Nearly half of white-collar professionals have tried using ChatGPT to help with their work, according to a recent survey of more than 10,000 people at blue chips such as Google, JP Morgan and McKinsey. That’s staggering, considering the AI chatbot was only released to the public in November. It’s potentially very exciting for the future of work, but it also brings serious risks. ChatGPT and other imminent rivals are part of a long history of technologies geared to reducing the labour of writing. These range from the printing press to the telegram, the typewriter, word processors and personal computing. Continued here

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Saudi Arabia and sport: a strategic gamble aiming for economic, political and social goals Boxing purists may argue over the sporting value of a fight between a reality TV star and a former YouTube prankster. But the commercial value of the massively hyped event in February 2023 was clear for both the contestants (Tommy Fury and Jake Paul shared a prize purse worth over US$13 million (£10.7 million) and the country which staged it – Saudi Arabia. For while Qatar’s hosting of the Fifa men’s World Cup grabbed the world’s attention in 2022, its larger, noisier neighbour is now muscling in with even bigger sporting plans. Continued here

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How sport became the new religion - a 200-year story of society's 'great conversion' “Jesus Christ was a sportsman.” Or so claimed a preacher at one of the regular sporting services that were held throughout the first half of the 20th century in Protestant churches all over Britain. Invitations were sent out to local organisations, and sportsmen and women would attend these services en masse. Churches would be decorated with club paraphernalia and cups won by local teams. Sporting celebrities – perhaps a Test cricketer or First Division footballer – would read the lessons, and the vicar or priest would preach on the value of sport and the need to play it in the right spirit. Occasionally, the preacher would himself be a sporting star such as Billy Liddell, the legendary Liverpool and Scotland footballer. Continued here

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Inflation still the 'defining challenge' as Australia's economic activity slows John Hawkins previously worked as a macroeconomic analyst and forecaster in the Reserve Bank and the Australian Treasury. Australia has recovered better than most from the COVID pandemic. As measured by gross domestic product (GDP), the economy is now 7% larger than it was before the pandemic. Continued here

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Word from The Hill: Chalmers learns hard lesson in 'rule-in-rule-out' game 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 government’s decision to double the tax on big super account earnings, Jim Chalmers’ blunder when quizzed about taxing family homes, and the announcement of a new cyber-security Coordinator in the wake of the Medibank and Optus hacks. Continued here

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From Chinua Achebe to Toyin Falola - 5 essential books Nigeria's new president should read Not many African political leaders are known to have publicly declared their love of reading. US president Barack Obama popularised the idea of a recommended reading list and he still shares his annual choice. As a communications scholar and a book reviewer, I made a short list of essential reads for Nigeria’s new president. My selection of books is based on what a new president needs to know when he takes the reins of a deeply divided and disillusioned country. Continued here

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Starlink: SpaceX's new internet service could be a gamechanger in Africa It’s hard for many of us to imagine a world without instant, limitless internet access. Some have even argued that it should, alongside access to clean water and electricity, be considered a basic human right. But in fact only 64.4% of the global population as of January 2023 are internet users. Asia and Europe are home to most of the people who are connected. Continued here

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Gleb Pavlovsky obituary: the man who turned Vladimir Putin into Russia's action man Vladimir Putin’s former adviser and spin doctor Gleb Pavlovsky, who has died aged 71, was once described as “Putin’s Karl Rove”. He was the man who got things done in the Kremlin, like Rove did for his political master, George W. Bush. Pavlovsky – a dissident turned apparatchik turned dissident again – was at the heart of Russian political thinking, whether on the inside or the outside, for the best part of five decades. He is credited as one of the key architects of Russia’s post-Soviet political system, which has become known as the “super-presidency” and was instrumental in orchestrating the cult of personality which surrounds the current Russian president. Continued here

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Hulu’s Fascinating and Incomplete “1619 Project” The current row over the place of slavery in American history provokes long-standing anxieties over the nature of the country itself. For a nation that views itself as exceptional in its quest for freedom, justice, and liberty, its origins as a settler-colonial state built on the bodies of enslaved Africans are necessarily fraught. How do we make sense of the American creed of liberty, equality, and justice alongside a reality of enslavement and the legal subjugation of Black people? Answering this question casts doubt on the sagacity and the morality of the Founding Fathers; it also guts the premise of unfettered social mobility, which supposedly underwrote the American dream for the "greatest generation" of the twentieth century. The latest flash point has been in Florida, where, in January, Governor Ron DeSantis rejected a proposed Advanced Placement course on African American studies, sponsored by the College Board. Officials in Florida, who claimed that the proposed A.P. course "lacks educational value," rehearsed similar arguments in 2021, when the state banned the educational use of the 1619 Project. Created by the Times Magazine staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones as an exposition on the meaning of slavery in American life, the project was published in 2019, to mark four hundred years since the first Africans arrived in the colonies that would become the United States. Hannah-Jones's lead essay, "Our democracy's founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true," won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for commentary and, perhaps more than any other element of the project, generated controversy and then denunciation. Hannah-Jones's provocative assertion is that slavery, and the racism that it unleashed to justify the institution, are foundations of American society. She goes on to argue that, to the extent to which the U.S. is a democracy, it is because of the struggles of Black Americans for inclusion into the mainstream of American society, efforts that expanded the rights of other socially marginalized people. Hannah-Jones then pushed her provocation further, arguing that the American Revolution was in part inspired by the desire to preserve slavery. Continued here

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A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder Typhoons. Scurvy. Shipwreck. Mutiny. Cannibalism. A war over the truth and who gets to write history. All of these elements converge in David Grann’s upcoming book, “The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.” It tells the extraordinary saga of the officers and crew of the Wager, a British naval warship that wrecked off the Chilean coast of Patagonia, in 1741. The men, marooned on a desolate island, descended into murderous anarchy. Years later, several survivors made it back to England, where, facing a court-martial and desperate to save their own lives, they gave wildly conflicting versions of what had happened. They each attempted to shade a scandalous truth—to erase history. As did the British Empire. In 2016, Grann, a staff writer at the magazine and the author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Lost City of Z,” stumbled across an eyewitness account of the voyage by John Byron, who had been a sixteen-year-old midshipman on the Wager when the journey began. (Byron was the grandfather of the poet Lord Byron, who drew, in “Don Juan,” on what he referred to as “my grand-dad’s ‘Narrative.’ ”) Grann set out to reconstruct what really took place, and spent more than half a decade combing through the archival debris: the washed-out logbooks, the moldering correspondence, the partly truthful journals, the surviving records from the court-martial. To better understand what the castaways had endured on the island, which is situated in the Gulf of Sorrows—or, as some prefer to call it, the Gulf of Pain—he travelled there in a small, wood-heated boat. Continued here

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When Dan Flavin Saw the Light In 1963, Dan Flavin made his breakthrough work of fluorescent-light art, and for the rest of his life he stuck with what he knew. Can you blame him? After a few years of messing around with various media, he’d found a golden ticket. His fluorescents massaged the mind but never forgot to delight the eyes. In the same breath, they flattered rival ideas of art: candy-colored Pop, terse Minimalism, conceptual abracadabra. Not everyone loved these works—which, when arranged in their stipulated spaces, he called situations—but most of what his detractors said could be answered with a triumphant “That’s the point!” His cunningly modest definitions of success made conspicuous failure almost impossible. That’s no small thing, even if you happen to agree with me that Flavin’s situations are strong evidence that failure in art is underrated. He was born in 1933 in Jamaica, Queens, and studied to become a priest. Altars, crosses, and stained glass seem relevant to a career defined by colorful glowing totems, but Flavin could be coy about the Catholic roots of his work, as he was about most labels—like his close friend Donald Judd, he disliked the term “Minimalism,” though the more he struggled the tighter it seemed to stick. Photographs show a round, sturdy-jawed, tough yet cheerful young man, his eyes smiling even when his mouth isn’t. Faces aren’t manifestos, but there’s a little of Flavin’s appearance in his art: the same intimidating rigor found in other avant-gardists of the era, but with more of a twinkle. When the artist Mel Bochner chose a movie star to play Flavin in a hypothetical “Minimal Art–The Movie,” he went with Jackie Gleason. Continued here

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America!: Logan Roy Cures My Seasonal Depression 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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Rupert Murdoch Calls Telling Truth Under Oath Worst Experience of His Life NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—Rupert Murdoch said that telling the truth under oath while being deposed for a lawsuit against Fox News was “by far the worst experience of my life.” The media mogul disclosed that, when he was asked to raise his right hand and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, “I thought I was going to be sick.” Continued here

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It’s O.K. to Be Confused About This Economy Inflation is falling steadily, or is it? If over-all employment is growing strongly, why are tech giants laying off hundreds of thousands of workers? Is the economy heading for a "soft landing" rather than a "hard landing," or will it be a "no landing" or a "rolling recession"? If the latest economic news has left you unsure about the true state of the economy, you aren't alone. On Monday, the National Association for Business Economics released its latest survey of forty-eight professional forecasters, and the results were all over the place. Though the median prediction showed the inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (the broadest measure of what the economy produces) eking out a modest expansion of 0.3 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2023, the projections ranged from negative 1.3 per cent—a significant slump—to positive 1.9 per cent, which would represent a relatively healthy growth rate. Moreover, that wasn't the only thing that the forecasters disagreed on. Estimates of inflation, labor-market indicators, and interest rates "are all widely diffused, likely reflecting a variety of opinions on the fate of the economy—ranging from recession to soft landing to robust growth," the association's president, Julia Coronado, of MacroPolicy Perspectives, said. Continued here

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A Filmmaker Documents Coming to Terms with Their Mother To make “The Feeling of Being Close to You,” Goh used home videos shot on VHS, and recorded moments from their life in New York in scenes that often mirror the events in the archival film. “I dreamt you wanted to hug me,” the filmmaker Ash Goh Hua murmurs, over a black screen. “O.K.,” their mother replies; her voice, on the other end of a phone call, is distant. “When you hugged me in the dream, I felt like I was suffocating.” “O.K.” Continued here

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'Kang Dynasty' Will Unleash the "Next Generation" of Avengers, Writer Says Before he stepped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jeff Loveness cut his screenwriting teeth on comedies like Miracle Workers and Rick and Morty. But penning the script for Marvel’s latest, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, was no laughing matter. The first of Marvel’s Phase Five slate introduces the verbose multiverse villain, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), who’s primed to be Marvel’s biggest bad guy since Thanos. At first, Loveness thought he had Kang in the bag. Continued here

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'Last of Us' Cinematographer Reveals How They Filmed the Darkest Scene Yet Ksenia Sereda made "Left Behind" equally wondrous and creepy through careful technical work. If you’ve watched the most recent episode of HBO’s The Last of Us, you know that happiness and dread can coexist in the same scene — and sometimes even in the same moment. (And if you haven’t watched the latest episode, stop reading now because there are spoilers ahead.) Continued here

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'Final Fantasy XVI' Preview: A Bold New Direction For the Series I pummelled the towering avian monster with a battery of blows, pulling one of her arms clean off and flinging it aside as I continued my assault. Just as quickly, a new limb sprung forth from the stump. Our furious battle raged on, spraying showers of jewel-hued embers of light. You’d be forgiven for assuming this moment came from the third act of God of War Ragnarok. You’d also be wrong. But Sony’s lauded gods-and-monsters series was a major, if unlikely, influence on one of the most anticipated games of 2023 — Final Fantasy XVI. Continued here

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Razer Edge 5G Review: Just Get a Kishi V2 for Your Phone Razer’s Edge is technically powerful, but the gaming experience is rough enough around the edges that you're better off just buying a controller for your phone. The future of game streaming is uncertain, even with companies like Microsoft and Nvidia throwing their weight behind it. Continued here

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'Dead Space 4' Needs to Redefine the Series Before We Get Another Remake The original Dead Space was already a survival horror standout, but the ambitious remake easily cements its place among the genre’s best. EA Motive brought meaningful changes and gameplay additions that make the experience more vibrant than ever, on top of a gorgeous coat of paint that only heightens the horrific atmosphere. So what’s next for the series? While a new survey from EA asks fans if they’d be down for remakes of Dead Space 2 and 3, it’d be a far better idea to let EA Motive flex its muscles with a brand-new entry. Continued here

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'Mandalorian' Season 3 Features One Very "Special" Episode, Rick Famuyiwa Reveals “There are definitely some things around the corner that I'm very excited about,” the director and executive producer tells Inverse. Pedro Pascal’s bounty-hunter-turned-space-daddy, Din Djarin, isn’t the only one stepping into a leadership role in The Mandalorian Season 3. Behind the scenes, longtime series director Rick Famuyiwa is also stepping into a new position as executive producer, while also directing three of this season’s eight new episodes. Continued here

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Exclusive: Stern's Next Pinball Machine is an Ode to Foo Fighters Pinball is riding a wave of popularity, a phoenix-like resurgence that's seen Stern Pinball, the largest and oldest pinball manufacturer in the world, having to relocate to a bigger HQ to keep up with demand. Stern is well-known for producing a series of music-themed pinball tables over the years, but unless you have a thing for classic rock you might have been left cold by the company's recent efforts honoring Led Zeppelin, Rush, and Iron Maiden. Stern's next table will get a little more modern — relatively, anyway. This time it's Foo Fighters, and not only is it Stern's most modern take on rock and roll yet, it's the first Stern table from designer Jack Danger, aka DeadFlip. Continued here

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'Mandalorian' Season 3 Premiere Guide: How Did Din and Grogu Get Back Together? It’s been over two years since we last saw new adventures in The Mandalorian. For some fans, that may seem like eons. For others, especially those who watched The Book of Boba Fett, it’s been no time at all. But regardless of whether your last reunion with Din Djarin was in 2020 or 2022, there’s a lot to catch up on before The Mandalorian Season 3 premieres. Here’s everything you need to know. Season 2 focused on Moff Gideon’s quest to find Grogu, which was almost successful. But a last-minute appearance by Luke Skywalker saved the day, and put Mando in a tough position. After dedicating his life to protecting Grogu, he has to say goodbye (possibly forever, as Jedi are discouraged from maintaining old personal connections). He does the unthinkable for a member of the Children of the Watch, his so-called zealous cult: he takes off his helmet and says a final farewell before his tiny clanmate is taken off to training by Luke. Continued here

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SpaceX Starlink Launch: New Satellites With Quadruple Capacity Could Boost Internet Speeds Has your sluggish internet ever ejected you from an important Zoom call or stalled Netflix during a critical scene? Elon Musk’s SpaceX wants to help — by launching satellites that can deliver up to 500 Mbps internet speed (the U.S. average is around 119 Mbps, though speeds vary by location). SpaceX aims to create a Starlink “megaconstellation” orbiting Earth with as many as 42,000 satellites in the fleet. Astronomers worry that the heap of satellites could mess with surveys of the night sky and create space traffic accidents. Currently, the company has cast around 4,000 Starlink satellites above Earth, making it the world’s biggest low-Earth orbit constellation. Continued here

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'Happy Death Day 3' Would Have Been an "Epic Apocalyptic" Horror It’s time to blow out the candles on Happy Death Day. Despite what sounds like wild plans for a third movie, fans won’t see Tree survive another birthday. In an interview with TheWrap to promote We Have a Ghost on Netflix, director Christopher Landon revealed his ideas for the now-axed third movie in the series. As Landon described it, the movie — which was titled Happy Death Day to Us — would have been a big-budget apocalypse horror. Continued here

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'Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree' DLC Brings You Back to the Lands Between Action RPG Elden Ring has taken the industry by storm, and now that it’s been out for over a year, it’s time to start looking ahead toward DLC. Elden Ring is a behemoth experience with plenty to do, so it doesn’t necessarily need more content, but that hasn’t stopped speculation and expectations for future expansions. After plenty of leaks and rumors, developer FromSoftware has finally confirmed that some new Elden Ring DLC is, indeed, in development. It’s called Shadow of the Erdtree, and while not much was revealed about the expansion, we’ve rounded up everything we know about the upcoming Elden Ring DLC. At this point, it’s unclear when the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC will launch. With other FromSoftware games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, DLC launched within a year or so, but it seems the studio is taking a bit more time with Elden Ring. Continued here

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Flinging Pee With a Butt Stylus Helps These Bugs Conserve Energy Getting caught in the rain takes on a very different meaning when you’re standing underneath a tree full of sharpshooter insects. If you start to feel liquid dribble on your head or shoulders, it won’t be rainwater, but rather a torrent of pee droplets flung by a horde of bugs. Called “leafhopper rain,” this phenomenon is one of the most obvious displays of the sharpshooter’s novel way to excrete waste. The insects spend their days slurping up xylem sap from plants — which contains 95 percent water — and shooting it out their rear ends in rapid-fire blobs of liquid. Continued here