'From Magic Mushrooms to Big Pharma' - a college course explores nature's medicine cabinet and different ways of healing

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'From Magic Mushrooms to Big Pharma' - a college course explores nature's medicine cabinet and different ways of healing     Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. The course looks at how different peoples and cultures use nature-based medicines to heal themselves. First we establish that there are many ways of knowing the world around us, just as there are many ways to heal ourselves. Some of us rely on Western medicine, others pray, yet others turn to Indigenous or traditional ways of healing that are rooted in nature. Continued here

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Drawing, making music and writing poetry can support healing and bring more humanity to health care in US hospitals     The COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on the deep need that people feel for human touch and connection in hospital settings. Having relatives peering through windows at their loved ones or unable to enter hospitals altogether exacerbated the lack of human intimacy that is all too common in health care settings. Opportunities for creative expression through arts in medicine programs are increasing in U.S. hospitals, and it may be because art-making offers something that medicine can’t. Evidence shows that taking part in art programs has many therapeutic benefits, such as reducing anxiety and stress, supporting mental health and well-being and connecting people to one another. Continued here

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Never mind Cleopatra - what about the forgotten queens of ancient Nubia?     Jada Pinkett Smith’s new Netflix documentary series on Cleopatra aims to spotlight powerful African queens. “We don’t often get to see or hear stories about Black queens, and that was really important for me, as well as for my daughter, and just for my community to be able to know those stories because there are tons of them,” the Hollywood star and producer told a Netflix interviewer.The show casts a biracial Black British actress as the famed queen, whose race has stirred debate for decades. Cleopatra descended from an ancient Greek-Macedonian ruling dynasty known as the Ptolemies, but some speculate that her mother may have been an Indigenous Egyptian. In the trailer, Black classics scholar Shelley Haley recalls her grandmother telling her, “I don’t care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was Black.” Continued here

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What We Look for When We Are Looking: John Steinbeck on Wonder and the Relational Nature of the Universe     Each month, I spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars keeping The Marginalian going. For seventeen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor has made your own life more livable in the past year (or the past decade), please consider aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. Your support makes all the difference.“Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will,” Baudelaire wrote — something Newton embodied in looking back on his life of revolutionary discoveries, only to see himself appearing “like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” What we are really recovering from childhood in those moments of discovery and exaltation is a way of looking at the world — looking for a glimpse of some small truth that illuminates the interconnectedness of all things, looking and being wonder-smitten by what we see.That is what John Steinbeck (February 27, 1902–December 20, 1968) explores in some lovely passages from The Log from the Sea of Cortez (public library) — his forgotten masterpiece that turns the record of an ordinary marine biology expedition in the Gulf of California into an extraordinary lens on how to think. Continued here

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UK ivory trade ban extended to five more species - here's why we think it will be ineffective     The loss of nature is one of the many environmental crises facing our planet. And a key challenge in addressing this is halting the poaching and trafficking of wildlife, which is often driven by demand for ivory.In a bid to protect animals from poaching, the UK government has strengthened legal protections for five more species. Trading in ivory from hippos, walruses, narwhals, killer whales and sperm whales is set to be prohibited under the extended provisions of the Ivory Act 2018. Since coming into force last year, this act has gained recognition as “one of the toughest bans of its kind in the world”. Continued here

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The US has a child labor problem - recalling an embarrassing past that Americans may think they've left behind     Curator and Head of Special Collections and Gallery, University of Maryland, Baltimore County At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Special Collections, where I am head curator, we’ve recently completed a major digitization and rehousing project of our collection of over 5,400 photographs made by Lewis Wickes Hine in the early 20th century. Continued here

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Are You Failing to Prepare the Next Generation of C-Suite Leaders? - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM DAGGERWING     For many people leaders, that’s been the mantra for the past three years. “Let’s just get through this moment in time, focus on the short-term solutions for our immediate needs, and when things go back to normal, we’ll deal with all the issues we’ve been putting on the backburner.” Continued here

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How the Windrush generation changed stories of Britain forever - ten recommended reads     The 800 West Indians who walked down the gangway at Tilbury to make new lives in England in June 1948 had been encouraged to think of the country as their motherland. The literary contribution of the Windrush generation is just one example of how Caribbean-British people enriched the nation, but it offers an important opportunity to witness the transformative moment when empire came home, changing stories of Britain forever.With their colonial education, these British subjects were already familiar with Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, and could likely have recited poems by Wordsworth, Shelley or Keats. Many were returning servicemen whose valiant contribution to the war effort had given them a strong affiliation with Britain as a land of freedom fighters. They were keen to contribute to the progressive reconstruction of their post-war homeland. Continued here

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Millions of women are working during menopause, but US law isn't clear on employees' rights or employers' obligations     While she was interviewing Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in March 2023, Drew Barrymore suddenly exclaimed: “I’m so hot … I think I’m having my first hot flash!”While most hot flashes aren’t televised, the entertainer’s experience was far from unique. Barrymore, age 48, is one of approximately 15 million U.S. women from 45 to 60 who work full time and may experience menopausal symptoms. Continued here

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El Ni     El Niño is officially here, and while it’s still weak right now, federal forecasters expect this global disrupter of worldwide weather patterns to gradually strengthen. That may sound ominous, but El Niño – Spanish for “the little boy” – is not malevolent, or even automatically bad. Continued here

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South Africa's drinking water quality has dropped because of defective infrastructure and neglect - new report     A report released by the South African government paints a grim picture of the country’s water resources and water infrastructure as well as the overall quality of its drinking water.The Blue Drop Watch Report – an interim report because it only assessed a sample of the facilities across the country – focused on the condition of the drinking water infrastructure and treatment processes from a technical standpoint. It also reported on water quality. Continued here

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Kenya's new spy chief will lead the national intelligence service - what the job is all about     Kenya’s President William Ruto recently nominated a new national intelligence chief. Breaking with tradition, the president picked a career intelligence officer, Noordin Haji. But what is national intelligence and what work does it do, particularly in Kenya? Since 1999, the country’s spy chiefs have been picked from the military. Haji was previously the director of public prosecutions. Continued here

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Manestra: a hearty bean-based soup     Renowned for its premium truffles, olive oil and wine, Istria – the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, located in north-west Croatia – has a strong Italian influence and is known for its gastronomy.Croatian cuisine varies greatly by region, but every part of Croatia has a dish served "na žlicu" – meaning "on the spoon". In Istria, it's maneštra, a thick and hearty bean-based soup that uses seasonal ingredients to make a healthy, uncomplicated lunch. Continued here

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How the Barbour became the ultimate British symbol     It would be hard to imagine a more quintessentially British garment than the venerable Barbour jacket – the famed olive-green, wax coated, all-weather wardrobe staple beloved by the Royal Family. So it makes perfect sense that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak offered a personalised version of the iconic jacket to President Biden when the two met yesterday. As an offering it's a symbol of Britishness, and the pair's bromance – the jacket is customised, with the moniker "Mr President" embroidered on the front.It's a personal gift, and also a symbolic one. The high-end, family-owned Barbour brand is based near the PM's constituency in the Northeast of England and is a British institution. Mr Sunak himself is a fan and has been seen frequently sporting the brand. It was the late Queen and US movie icon and motorcycle enthusiast Steve McQueen who were at one point the two most iconic Barbour wearers. Continued here

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Supreme Court rules in favor of Black voters in Alabama and protects landmark Voting Rights Act     In a surprising ruling on June 8, 2023, the conservative leaning U.S. Supreme Court threw out Republican-drawn congressional districts in Alabama that a lower court had ruled discriminated against Black voters and violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At issue in the case that was before the court, Allen v. Milligan, was whether the power of Black voters in Alabama was diluted by dividing them into districts where white voters dominate. After the 2020 census, the Republican-controlled Alabama legislature redrew the state’s congressional districts to include only one out of seven in which Black voters would likely be able to elect a candidate of their choosing. Continued here

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45 Years Ago, Disney Made Its Weirdest Sci-Fi Movie -- And Perfected a Classic Formula     One of the easiest ways to make a movie is to pick a random animal and combine that with an unlikely hobby. There are dogs that play basketball, rapping kangaroos, secret agent gerbils, pigs that moonlight as sheepdogs, and spiders that spell words with their webs. It’s a sub-genre spawned from old fables and fairy tales, and turned into the most profitable of family movies — but no one makes ‘em better than Disney.Disney’s early success came from turning old fables into animated movies, with talking animals becoming a staple of their greatest animated hits. But by the 1950s, Disney decided to dabble in the live-action realm — and it brought its talking animals with it. Sometimes that consisted of animated talking animals interacting with live-action humans, like in Bedknobs and Broomsticks or Mary Poppins. But most entertaining were the ones where a barely-trained dog or cat is “voiced” by an off-camera actor and becomes the star of a movie featuring human actors who are only slightly miffed that they’re being upstaged by their furry co-star. 1978’s The Cat From Outer Space is the strangest, and most gloriously idiotic, version of the latter. Continued here

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Why we're 'interviewing' captive birds to find the best to release into the wild     Not all animals are the same. Even within a species, some are bolder and better at solving problems than others. We have found this to be true in the case of the critically endangered Bali myna, a rare bird found only on the island of Bali in Indonesia.Fewer than 50 adult Bali mynas remain in their native dry forest and savanna on the island. Conservationists are trying, with mixed results, to reintroduce more birds to boost the wild population. Continued here

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Retiree Uncovers Wooden Artifact 2,000 Years Older Than Stonehenge     Precious little is known about the Neolithic era in Britain—a problem most prominently exemplified by Stonehenge. Theories abound as to the origins of the 5,000-year-old structure, ranging from religious rituals to alien communication. The Neolithic people of Britain left behind no written records for archaeologists to pore over for clues.But sometimes clues can come from unexpected places, as retired surgeon Derek Fawcett discovered four years ago. While digging a foundation for a workshop on his property in West Berkshire, 50 miles west of London, he uncovered a wood fragment, about three feet long, preserved in peat since Neolithic times. Continued here

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6 books that explain the history and meaning of Juneteenth     After decades of being celebrated at mostly the local level, Juneteenth – the long-standing holiday that commemorates the arrival of news of emancipation and freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 – became a federal holiday in 2021. In honor of this year’s Juneteenth, The Conversation reached out to Wake Forest University humanities professor Corey D. B. Walker for a list of readings that can help people better understand the history and meaning of the observance. Below, Walker recommends six books.Combining history and memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s “On Juneteenth” offers a moving history of African American life and culture through the prism of Juneteenth. The award-winning Harvard historian presents an intimate portrait of the experiences of her family and her memories of life as an African American girl growing up in segregated Texas. The essays in her book invite readers to enter a world shaped by the forces of freedom and slavery. Continued here

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Pyramid schemes are on the rise - but do those who join up deserve prosecution or compensation?     Let’s say we invite you to invest £1,000 in our new and brilliant business. We promise you an impressive return on your money, and all we ask is that you persuade a few of your friends to invest the same amount. They in turn will need to find some more investors. But remember, we’re all in this together, and everyone will end up richer.Sound too good to be true? That’s because it is. Such an offer would be an example of a pyramid scheme, which is illegal in most countries. But such schemes, often promoted on social media with promises of cash and luxurious lifestyles, are rising at an alarming rate – 59% annually – in the UK. Continued here

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A "Jellyfish" Galaxy Survives Turbulent Cosmic Seas in New Hubble Image     When the Hubble Space Telescope peered into constellation Aquarius, it glimpsed at a "jellyfish" galaxy. Humans have been filling the night sky with animals for millennia, from the bear in Ursa Major, to the swan in Cygnus. But modern astronomers do it too. Take the case of jellyfish galaxy, JO206. Continued here

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US gun crime: why tourists are being warned to avoid and beware     The year 2023 is on track to be the worst in recent history for mass shootings in the US, according to the Gun Violence Archive database. Some commentators are questioning whether security fears surrounding gun violence and mass shootings could keep international fans away from the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Los Angeles. No other developed nation has mass shootings at the same scale or frequency as the US. Estimates suggest that Americans own 393 million of the 857 million civilian guns available, around 46% of the world’s civilian gun ownership. Continued here

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Trump's Latest Indictment Is Also About the Future of the Country     On Friday, federal prosecutors unsealed the indictment against Donald Trump, revealing their case that the former President mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House. The indictment is Trump's second in recent months, after the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, charged him with thirty-four felony counts in relation to hush-money payments to the adult-film star Stormy Daniels. Trump said that he has been summoned to the Miami federal courthouse on Tuesday, just as the Republican primary race heats up. Three new contenders threw their hats into the ring this week: the former Vice-President Mike Pence, the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. How will Trump's legal woes affect the race for the nomination? The New Yorker staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos spoke Friday morning, before the release of the indictment.© 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices Continued here

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The microchip industry would implode if China invaded Taiwan, and it would affect everyone     A conflict between the US and China over computer chips – or semiconductors – has been escalating in recent months. In particular, the US has taken steps to limit China’s access to advanced chip technology amid heightened international competition in the area.The US recently tightened export controls to undercut China’s access to high-end chip manufacturing equipment and has banned top talent from working for Chinese semiconductor firms. Beijing retaliated by banning US chip maker Micron from operating in China. Continued here

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Everything You Need To Know About 'Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth'     The ongoing remake series of Square Enix’s seminal 1997 classic, Final Fantasy VII, still has a lot more ground to cover. The first entry, Final Fantasy VII Remake, set in the smoggy metropolis of Midgar, expands the first several hours of the original game into an epic 40-hour adventure. In other words, there’s plenty more story to tell. A stunning new trailer from Summer Game Fest 2023 gave fans a new look at Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s rendition of the next chapter in this epic retelling. Here’s everything we know about the second entry. Continued here

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Gwen John: often dismissed as a timid recluse, this unique and uncompromising artist painted relentlessly on her own terms     The quiet Welsh painter Gwen John was not like any other artist, male or female – she was genuinely unique. She was neither an heiress, like most unmarried modernist women, nor a conventional academic artist, like most women who had to make a living with their art.She did not paint loud, macho work that took up a whole wall, nor sexy, objectified nudes, nor abstract forms, like many male modernists. She was fiercely herself, making small, intimate, idiosyncratic paintings that share a definite style and palette over the course of her career. Continued here

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Jurassic Park yn 30 a'r chwyldro effeithiau arbennig ddigwyddodd yn sgil y ffilm     Mae’r mis hwn yn nodi 30 mlynedd ers ffilm a newidiodd y sinema am byth. Defnyddiodd Jurassic Park 1993 ddelweddau a gynhyrchwyd gan gyfrifiadur (CGI) arloesol i ddod â deinosoriaid yn fyw yn addasiad Steven Spielberg o'r nofel o'r un enw.Daeth y ffilm yn ddigwyddiad yr oedd yn rhaid ei weld yn gyflym iawn a chafodd cynulleidfaoedd eu syfrdanu gan yr olygfa o weld deinosoriaid credadwy yn ymlwyybro ar draws y sgrin fawr am y tro cyntaf. Nid yn unig y gwnaeth Jurassic Park gamau enfawr mewn gwneud ffilmiau effeithiau arbennig, ond fe wnaeth hefyd baratoi'r ffordd ar gyfer myrdd o gynyrchiadau dilynol a oedd yn cynnwys bwystfilod o bob lliw a llun. Continued here

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The View from Inside Beatlemania     On November 4, 1963, the Beatles played at the Prince of Wales Theatre, in London, exuberant, exhausted, and defiant. “For our last number, I’d like to ask your help,” John Lennon cried out to the crowd. “Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewelry.” Two weeks later, the band made their first appearance on American television, on NBC’s “Huntley-Brinkley Report.” “The hottest musical group in Great Britain today is the Beatles,” the reporter Edwin Newman said. “That’s not a collection of insects but a quartet of young men with pudding-bowl haircuts.” And, four days after that, “CBS Morning News with Mike Wallace” broadcast a four-minute report from “Beatleland,” by the London correspondent Alexander Kendrick. “The Beatles are said by sociologists to have a deeper meaning,” Kendrick reported. “Some say they are the authentic voice of the proletariat.” Everyone searched for that deeper meaning. The Beatles found it hard to take the search seriously.“What has occurred to you as to why you’ve succeeded?” Kendrick asked Paul McCartney. Continued here

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The Trump Indictment Speaks for Itself     The indictment of Donald J. Trump, in the first-ever federal criminal case against a former President, which was released on Friday afternoon by the Justice Department, is a holy-shit document. That might not be the proper legal term for it. But, in a world inured to the shocks and outrages generated by Trump, it’s worth pausing to acknowledge the jaw-dropping nature of the charges against him. Revelations start at the top of the forty-four-page filing and keep coming: The former President of the United States retained nuclear secrets and classified war plans for how to respond to a foreign attack. He kept top-secret information about the military capabilities of other countries. He stashed this information in his bathroom. In his bedroom. And even in a Mar-a-Lago ballroom. (There are pictures!) He misled his own lawyer in order to cover up his possession of these documents. He suggested that documents be hidden or destroyed, and blithely lied about their existence when challenged.Trump is reported to have improperly taken “hundreds” of classified documents. Of the thirty-one documents that Trump is specifically charged with illegally possessing, thirty are described as involving military or intelligence secrets, while the one outlier, a document from October 21, 2018, is related to “communications with a leader of a foreign country.” (The famous Kim Jong Un “love” letters, perhaps?) According to the indictment, this information was so carelessly handled that, one day, Trump’s body man, Walt Nauta, found secrets spilling out onto the floor of a storage room and snapped a photo of the scene. (Nauta has also been indicted in the case, on charges of making false and misleading statements and participating in a conspiracy with Trump to obstruct the investigation.) Continued here

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The Supreme Court's Surprise Defense of the Voting Rights Act     A constant question with this Supreme Court is what constraints, if any, the six Justices in the conservative supermajority see in their drive to upend constitutional law. On Thursday morning, Chief Justice John Roberts seems to have spotted his limit. In 2013, Roberts wrote the majority opinion in Shelby County v. Holder, which threw out Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. Now, joined by the Court's three liberals and—more tentatively and incompletely—by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, he has written the majority opinion in Allen v. Milligan, which narrowly preserved Section 2 (§2 in SCOTUS shorthand) of the Voting Rights Act. What's more, Roberts did so in terms that suggested impatience with the maximalist demands that partisans on the right are placing on a Court they seem to feel they own. Allen v. Milligan arose from three challenges (eventually consolidated) to Alabama's congressional-district map, which a lower court found was impermissibly racially gerrymandered. "The heart of these cases is not about the law as it exists," Roberts wrote. "It is about Alabama's attempt to remake our §2 jurisprudence anew."Alabama is not alone in attempting to remake the Court's jurisprudence, and the Voting Rights Act is not the only target. Partisan litigants hit their mark last term in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, and in Bruen v. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, which threw out or called into question gun-safety laws around the country. This year's big decisions are expected to come in a steady volley over the next few weeks. Roberts's vote in this case doesn't necessarily mean that he will hesitate for a minute in finding that race-based affirmative action in higher education is unconstitutional, which is the issue in the tandem cases of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and S.F.F.A. v. University of North Carolina. And it might not say much about his vote in certain other major outstanding cases, involving such matters as the adoption of Native American children, wedding-site designers who refuse same-sex couples as clients, and the Biden Administration's student-loan forgiveness and border policies. However, it offers a slim, cautious hope that Roberts, and perhaps Kavanaugh, will not go to extremes in Moore v. Harper, a case involving North Carolina's voting districts and what is known as the independent-state-legislature theory, which has the potential to destabilize the electoral system. (I wrote about Moore v. Harper in December, when the Court heard oral arguments, and my colleague Andrew Marantz has a piece on the case this week.) Continued here