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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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
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