The brewer, the yeast, and the boundaries of human agency | Psyche Ideas

S61

The brewer, the yeast, and the boundaries of human agency | Psyche Ideas is professor of philosophy and co-director of the cognitive science programme at Marist College in New York. He is the co-editor of the collections Causing Human Actions: New Perspectives on the Causal Theory of Action (2010) and Alternative Concepts of God: Essays on the Metaphysics of the Divine (2016). ‘Brewers make wort. Yeast makes beer.’ This is an adage among those who brew beer, including both amateur homebrewers (such as the present author) and professional brewers. I am uncertain as to its source. It is probably of relatively recent origin, historically, since prior to the 19th century there was little understanding of the role of yeast in fermentation. It is most likely a platitude. But it is a platitude that presupposes that what we do is limited to what we do with our bodies. Our intentional agency, on this view, does not extend into the world outside of our bodies. This is a very restrictive theory of agency. It fails to take into account how our agency is both structured by our environment and also extends into the world outside our bodies in various ways. Continued here

�

�

�

S1

The Power of Defining the Problem Well-defined problems lead to breakthrough solutions. When developing new products, processes, or even businesses, most companies aren’t sufficiently rigorous in defining the problems they’re attempting to solve and articulating why those issues are important. Without that rigor, organizations miss opportunities, waste resources, and end up pursuing innovation initiatives that aren’t aligned with their strategies. How many times have you seen a project go down one path only to realize in hindsight that it should have gone down another? How many times have you seen an innovation program deliver a seemingly breakthrough result only to find that it can’t be implemented or it addresses the wrong problem? Many organizations need to become better at asking the right questions so that they tackle the right problems. Continued here

You Might Like

�

�

�

S2

How Frank Gehry Delivers On Time and On Budget When the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, opened, in 1997, critics hailed Frank Gehry’s masterpiece as one of the architectural wonders of the past century. The provincial government’s ambitious projections had called for 500,000 people a year to make the trek to Bilbao to visit the museum; in the first three years alone, 4 million came. The term “Bilbao effect” was coined in urban planning and economic development to describe architecture so spectacular it could transform neighborhoods, cities, and regions. Continued here

S3

How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You Our fear of other people’s opinions, or FOPO, has become an irrational and unproductive obsession in the modern world, and its negative effects reach far beyond performance. If you start paying less and less attention to what makes you you—your talents, beliefs, and values—and start conforming to what others may or may not think, you’ll harm your potential. Continued here

You Might Like

�

�

�

S4

How to Manage a Panic Attack at Work My parents were two of the millions who had it bad during the second wave of coronavirus in August 2020. Isolated in our home, hundreds of miles away from them, I was going through an emotional crisis. I couldn’t get to them, I couldn’t be with them, and there was only so much I could do virtually. In trying to understand my feelings and cope, I wrote about how it’s okay to not be okay. Continued here

�

S5

How Much of Your "Authentic Self" Should You Really Bring to Work? You’ve probably heard this advice before: Bring your “authentic” self to work. It makes sense. Being yourself is the best way to form meaningful relationships, which are integral to career success and growth, no matter what field you work in. Research shows that people with a robust social network have better job performance, feel more fulfilled, and even live longer. Continued here

�

S6

Do You Feel Guilty All the Time? We’re sorry we wasted your time with that last sentence. We know you’re a busy person that has little interest in self-pity. But we must admit, now that we have apologized, we also feel a little bit guilty about saying sorry. All the research says that good leaders, for example, should be strong, brave, and confident in their choices — not self-critical and apologetic. Continued here

�

S7

Your Screen Froze Again -- In the Middle of an Important Meeting On the day of the event, I stood in front of my computer with the confidence of someone who has prepared. I dragged my mouse over the “live” button, clicked, and made it through a whole 20 minutes before my screen went entirely black. The audience could see me clearly, but I could no longer see them. Continued here

�

S8

5 Tips to Help You Get Hired Right Now Mark fell into a common job-hunting trap — he applied to a job listing online and jumped to the conclusion that he was a perfect candidate for what seemed like his dream job. He fell in love with the idea of the job without ever being interviewed and getting a chance to learn more about it. Continued here

S9

4 Noticeable Habits You'll Find In Exceptionally Happy People Happy people are known for making some simple and wise choices in life. Continued here

S10

Neuroscience Says the 2-Minute Rule Will Help You Start Every Day Feeling More Energetic, Focused, and Mentally Sharp Coffee optional. Continued here

S11

Follow James Cameron's Storytelling Process to Build an Engaging PowerPoint Presentation Storytelling requires research, structure, and sketching. Continued here

S12

After a Season-Ending Loss, This NFL Quarterback Taught an Amazing Lesson in Leadership. It Only Took Him 60 Seconds Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence showed a real-life example of how good leaders respond to loss--with emotional intelligence. Continued here

S13

KISS Co-Founder Paul Stanley on Finding Your Passion and Turning an Emotional Outlet Into a Multi-Million Dollar Business I spoke with the Kiss co-founder about his remarkable second career as a critically acclaimed artist whose works have sold for tens of millions of dollars. Continued here

S14

Jacinda Ardern's Resignation Is a Master Class in Leading (and Quitting). All CEOs Should Listen Up When resignation is a sign of strength. Continued here

S15

Supply Chain Disruptions Are Likely to Continue in 2023. Here's How to Manage While some severe pressures from the pandemic are starting to ease, there are still many global supply chain obstacles business owners should keep their eyes on. Continued here

S16

Want to Speed Up Your Path to Success? Use This 4-Step Framework for Goal Setting More efficient career navigation means a shorter path to your destination. Continued here

S17

How to Buy Back Your Time My new book teaches leaders how to conserve their most valuable resource. Continued here

S18

How Women on Boards Navigate the "Warmth-Competence" Line Gender parity on boards is showing signs of improvement. But having a seat at the table is just the first step; exerting influence around high-stakes decisions is vital, too. To better understand how women board members do this, researchers interviewed 43 women directors at U.S. companies. They found that these women had to navigate a fine line of appearing both warm and competent to get their opinions across, and did so using six key tactics: asking, connecting, asserting, qualifying, waiting, and checking. The researchers also note that it should not simply be up to women directors to navigate bias against them, and suggest four strategies for companies looking to improve gender parity on their boards — not only in number, but in influence. Continued here

S19

How a CEO Can Create Psychological Safety in the Room As the CEO, your mere presence in a room dictates the power dynamic. The paradox of being a CEO is that your job is to encourage useful ideas, and yet your very presence can work against that objective. So can your desire to indulge in the dark side of charisma to seek admiration. Ironically, you must overcome the interpersonal liability of your role in order to perform it. How, then, can you create high levels of psychological safety to promote the unencumbered exchange of ideas and unedited circulation of feedback? The author, who has worked with hundreds of CEOs over the past 25 years, offers 10 practical ways to make that happen. Continued here

S20

Don't Let an Indifferent Boss Hold You Back Don’t let an indifferent manager derail your ambition, career values, or goals. Your career is the most valuable — and the most personal — investment you’ll ever make. It’s essential that you reinvest in your potential during tough times by being proactive. Embrace a positive mindset and keep reviewing your career commitments every quarter to track your goals, accomplishments, and insights. Continue to network and broaden your view. Be intentional about engaging with others and kickstarting career-focused conversations. If you can become your own best advocate, soon you’ll look back on this moment and realize it was a catalyst that helped propel you forward. Continued here

S21

The Essentials: Getting the Feedback You Need What do you do when no one will give you actionable and useful feedback? That’s the situation our guest, an aerospace engineer, has been in for years. And while she’s managed to move up within her company, she feels like she’s missing out on information that would clarify her standing there and secure her future success. Continued here

S22

How gut bacteria are controlling your brain Your gut is a bustling and thriving alien colony. They number in their trillions and include thousands of different species. Many of these microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea and eukarya, were here long before humans, have evolved alongside us and now outnumber our own cells many times over. Indeed, as John Cryan, a professor of anatomy and neuroscience at University College Cork, rather strikingly put it in a TEDx talk: "When you go to the bathroom and shed some of these microbes, just think: you are becoming more human." Collectively, these microbial legions are known as the "microbiota" – and they play a well-established role in maintaining our physical health, from digestion and metabolism to immunity. They also produce vital compounds the human body is incapable of manufacturing on its own. Continued here

S23

How to Use Neuroscience to Build Team Chemistry In this Nano Tool for Leaders, Wharton's Michael Platt shares seven science-based ideas to help you create a high-performing team. Nano Tools for Leaders® — a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management — are fast, effective tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly impact your success. Continued here

S24

How Sunk Costs Affect Firms’ Investment Decisions Research by Wharton’s Marius Guenzel provides evidence that companies systematically fail to ignore “sunk costs” in losing ventures and that this leads to significant investment distortions. All too often, firms continue to invest in losing ventures in the misplaced hope that they will somehow turn around to profit after the initial investment. Those are “sunk costs” and are unrecoverable, but the firms are so strongly committed to them that they don’t want to let go of the assets in divestitures. In a recent research paper titled “In Too Deep: The Effect of Sunk Costs on Corporate Investment,” Wharton finance professor Marius Guenzel presented evidence that firms “systematically fail to ignore sunk costs and that this leads to significant distortions in investment decisions.” Continued here

S25

Why Older Americans Regret Not Saving Early and Enough Financial literacy and greater longevity awareness will help fix retirement planning gaps, according to a study that delved into multiple dimensions of undersaving. Wharton’s Olivia S. Mitchell talks with Wharton Business Daily on SiriusXM about how Americans can better plan for retirement. Continued here

S26

The one question every aspiring leader needs to ask What does inclusive leadership look like? Artist and TED Fellow Constance Hockaday shares how the captain of a trans-Atlantic community raft taught her how to voice her hopes and desires, inspiring a vision of possibility for the future. Hockaday calls for mentors everywhere to step up and invites aspiring leaders to answer one crucial question in order to unlock their agency and power. Continued here

S27

A Major App Flaw Exposed the Data of Millions of Indian Students A security lapse in an app operated by India’s Education Ministry exposed the personally identifying information of millions of students and teachers for over a year.  The data was stored by the Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing app, or Diksha, a public education app launched in 2017. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the government was forced to shutter schools across the country, Diksha became a primary tool for allowing students to access materials and coursework from home.  Continued here

S28

How to Use Stage Manager With Your iPad and Mac Multitasking on an iPad isn't the most intuitive experience. Even with features like Split View and Slide Over, where you can work with multiple apps simultaneously, it's not immediately clear how to trigger these tools, let alone how to maximize their capabilities. It's partially why Apple introduced Stage Manager last year in iPadOS 16—a new multitasking feature that mimics the experience of a desktop operating system.  Stage Manager organizes your open apps on the left side of the screen, where you can see them at a glance. You can also group apps together and even resize and overlap windows. It makes a lot of sense for the iPad, but it's also available on MacBooks running MacOS Ventura—handy if you often have a ton of apps open and need some organizational help. While it's easy to use once you get the hang of it, there's a learning curve. To help, here we break down how to use Stage Manager on your iPad and Mac. Continued here

S29

The World's Farms Are Hooked on Phosphorus. It's a Problem Disrupting Earth's chemical cycles brings trouble. But planet-warming carbon dioxide isn't the only element whose cycle we've turned wonky—we've got a phosphorus problem too. And it's a big one, because we depend on this element to grow the world's crops. "I don't know if it would be possible to have a full world without any mineral phosphorus fertilizer," says Joséphine Demay, a PhD student at INRAE, France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. Since the 1800s, agriculturalists have known that elemental phosphorus is a crucial fertilizer. Nations quickly began mining caches of "phosphate rock," minerals rich in the element. By the middle of the 20th century, companies had industrialized chemical processes to turn it into a form suitable for supercharging crops, hardening them against disease and making them able to support more people and livestock. That approach worked remarkably well: The post-World War II "Green Revolution" fed countless people thanks to fertilizers and pesticides. But sometimes there's too much of a good thing. Continued here

S30

The Best Kids' Headphones for Sensitive Little Ears If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED As writers and testers in WIRED's Gadget Lab, we spend all day immersed in personal technology of all kinds. It's probably no surprise that if we work on a computer during the day and enjoy gaming in our downtime, our kids do, too. I (Adrienne) have a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old that attended school remotely and play video games; my colleague Simon Hill has a 9- and a 12-year-old. Between us, we—er, well, our kids—have tested many of the kid headphones on the market.  Continued here

S31

The 'Enshittification' of TikTok Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them. Continued here

S32

Meta Eyes Another Moderator With 'Traumatizing' Work Conditions Meta has cut ties with a subcontractor that provided moderators for its African markets, just weeks before the tech giant is due to appear in a Kenyan court to face allegations of human trafficking and union busting. The company has ended a contract with outsourcing company Sama, which former employee Daniel Motaung accused last year of imposing "unreasonable working conditions," including irregular pay, inadequate mental health support, and violations of workers' privacy.  Continued here

S33

JWST is better than anyone expected — here's why The telescope is kept sufficiently cold; thermal emission and instrument noise are negligible. Additionally, the optics are so good that stray light — normally problematic — is negligible. Continued here

S34

Can't move on? Here’s what the Buddhist idea of anattā teaches about letting go Since you woke up this morning, you’ll have changed. Physically, billions of cells will have been replaced in a Sisyphean cycle of death and rebirth. Mentally, you’ll have more memories, more experiences, and more knowledge about the world (however narrow or insignificant it might seem). Time is measured by change — it’s the transfer of energy into different forms. When we talk about time, we’re really just documenting the ways in which the world has changed. Daoists like to compare life to that of a river flowing: We are moving ever on, eddying and weaving our way to whatever estuary we end up at. And like a river, we cannot stop a human life to judge it in its entirety. You cannot pause existence to say, “Right, this is what this person is and this is how we must value them.” Like some sentient Heisenberg principle, we can never measure a life, because it’s always in motion. Continued here

S35

Stress can build up inside us over time. Here's what happens when it goes unrelieved. From HOW TO CALM YOUR MIND: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times by Chris Bailey, published by Penguin Life, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2022 by Chris Bailey. The science behind stress suggests something curious: stress is something that can build up inside of us over time. When we don’t relieve the pressure that this stress creates and relieve it frequently, it only builds further.  Continued here

S36

Most of the seafloor is a thick graveyard of ooze We often picture the bottom of the sea as a graveyard for ships. They lie in rest on a bed of rocks and sand, where angelfish nibble at shiny doubloons and sharks nibble at greedy divers. More common on the ocean floor, however, is a graveyard of another sort: The bodies of an unfathomable number of microscopic creatures form an ooze, hundreds of feet deep. Oozes are a type of marine sediment, differentiated from clay or mud by being made 30% or more from shells, skeletons, and pieces of the dead. There are two main sorts of ooze, each with different embodiments. Combined, they cover the majority of Earth’s seafloor. Continued here

S37

Colorado is not a rectangle — it has 697 sides This article was first published on Big Think in October 2018. It was updated in January 2023. America loves its straight-line borders. The only U.S. state without one is Hawaii — for obvious reasons. Continued here

S38

Gamma-ray burst challenges theories about how gold, uranium, and other metals are made A bright flash of gamma rays from the constellation Boötes that lasted nearly one minute came from a kilonova, as we described in a new paper. This finding challenges what astronomers know about some of the most powerful events in the universe. The unusual cosmic explosion was detected by the Neil Gehrels Swift observatory on Dec. 11, 2021, as the satellite orbited Earth. When astronomers pointed other telescopes at the part of the sky where this large blast of gamma rays – named GRB211211A – came from, they saw a glow of visible and infrared light known as a kilonova. The particular wavelengths of light coming from this explosion allowed our team to identify the source of the unusual gamma-ray burst as two neutron stars colliding and merging together. Continued here

S39

Microsoft will stop selling Windows 10 on January 31, but workarounds remain Microsoft will stop selling downloadable licenses for Windows 10 on its website on January 31, according to a message on the product pages for Windows 10 Home and Pro. Although Windows 10 will continue to be supported with new security updates until at least October 2025, Microsoft is pushing anyone buying or building a new PC to use the newer Windows 11 instead. Continued here

S40

For Facebook addicts, clicking is more important than facts or ideology It's fair to say that, once the pandemic started, sharing misinformation on social media took on an added, potentially fatal edge. Inaccurate information about the risks posed by the virus, the efficacy of masks, and the safety of vaccines put people at risk of preventable death. Yet despite the dangers of misinformation, it continues to run rampant on many social media sites, with moderation and policy often struggling to keep up. Continued here

S41

Scientists identify rare lead compounds in Rembrandt's The Night Watch One of the most famous paintings from the Dutch Golden Age is Rembrandt van Rijn's 1642 masterpiece The Night Watch. An interdisciplinary team of researchers has conducted a fresh, in-depth analysis and found rare traces of a compound called lead formate in the painting, according to a recent paper published in the journal Angewandte Chemie. The work was part of the Rijksmuseum's Operation Night Watch, the largest multidisciplinary research and conservation project yet undertaken for Rembrandt's famous painting, devoted to its long-term preservation. Continued here

S42

iOS 16.3 and macOS Ventura 13.2 add hardware security key support Apple released iOS and iPadOS 16.3, macOS Ventura 13.2, and watchOS 9.3 today. The updates focus primarily on bug fixes and under-the-hood improvements, but there is one notable addition: Apple ID got support for hardware security keys. Continued here

S43

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf loses another veteran BioWare producer BioWare's Mac Walters used a LinkedIn post this weekend to announce the end of a 19-year career at the company. The move is yet another in a long line of shakeups for the leadership team behind the sprawling, long-anticipated Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, on which he served as production director. Continued here

S44

iPadOS 15 drops support for newer iPads in 15.7.3 security update If you use an iPad that can run iPadOS 16 and you've been sticking with iPadOS 15 for one reason or another, you should get ready to upgrade soon. The iPadOS 15.7.3 update, which provides security-only fixes to the older OS, is only compatible with iPads that can't run iPadOS 16, namely 2014's iPad Air 2 and 2015's 4th-generation iPad mini. Continued here

S45

Google's Fuchsia OS was one of the hardest hit by last week's layoffs Google is still reeling from the biggest layoff in company history last Friday. Earlier cost cuts over the past six months have resulted in several projects being shut down or deprioritized at Google, and it's hard to fire 12,000 people without some additional projects taking a hit. The New York Times has a report about which divisions are being hit the hardest, and a big one is Google's future OS development group, Fuchsia. Continued here

S46

Musk testifies, claims tweet that judge ruled false was "absolutely truthful" Elon Musk spent a full day on the witness stand today to discuss the infamous "funding secured" tweets in which he claimed to have financial backing for a deal to take Tesla private. Continued here

S47

Tainted formula: DOJ opens criminal probe on Abbott after infant deaths The Department of Justice's consumer-protection branch has opened a criminal investigation into the conduct of Abbott Laboratories, one of the country's largest formula makers, at the center of a contamination scandal and ongoing nationwide shortage. Continued here

S48

Fearing ChatGPT, Google enlists founders Brin and Page in AI fight ChatGPT has Google spooked. On Friday, The New York Times reported that Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin held several emergency meetings with company executives about OpenAI's new chatbot, which Google feels could threaten its $149 billion search business. Continued here

S49

The Brutal Reality of Life in America’s Most Notorious Jail I’ve been locked up in maximum-security prisons for two decades. My time on Rikers Island was worse. This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.       Continued here

S50

What Really Took America to War in Iraq At the Pentagon on the afternoon of 9/11, as the fires still burned and ambulances blared, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld returned from the smoke-filled courtyard to his office. His closest aide, Undersecretary Stephen Cambone, cryptically recorded the secretary’s thinking about Saddam Hussein and Osama (or Usama) bin Laden: “Hit S. H. @same time; Not only UBL; near term target needs—go massive—sweep it all up—need to do so to hit anything useful.” The president did not agree. That night, when George W. Bush returned to Washington, his main concern was reassuring the nation, relieving its suffering, and inspiring hope. Informed that al-Qaeda was most likely responsible for the attack, he did not focus on Iraq. The next day, at meetings of the National Security Council, Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz advocated action against Saddam Hussein. With no good targets in Afghanistan and no war plans to dislodge the Taliban, Defense officials thought Iraq might offer the best opportunity to demonstrate American resolve and resilience. Their arguments did not resonate with anyone present. Continued here

S51

A Guide to the Possible Forthcoming Indictments of Donald Trump Despite all of the uncertainty, the information already available makes it possible to know what to watch for. At some point this year, perhaps as soon as this month, the former president of the United States may be charged with a serious crime. After a years-long elaborate dance with the law in which he usually stayed just one step ahead, Donald Trump now faces at least three serious investigations that could produce criminal charges. He denies wrongdoing in all cases, but many legal experts think that prosecutors have grounds to charge him and will. Others believe that Trump shouldn’t be charged, or that prosecutors might choose not to charge him even if they can. Continued here

S52

Biden Brings in a Consultant Jeff Zients will make for a very different—and less familiar—chief of staff than his predecessor. For Joe Biden, an Irish American politician who grew up in the age of the Kennedys, family is the atomic unit of politics. Throughout his career, he has always leaned on his clan. His mother hosted coffee hours where she extolled her son during his first campaign. His sister, Valerie, has helped edit big speeches. The inner circle of advisers around Biden has been with him so long that its denizens have come to resemble family. His outgoing chief of staff, Ron Klain, first worked for Biden at the age of 28. Continued here

S53

A National Sales Tax Is a Terrible Idea A handful of House Republicans want to force a vote on it. That’s just a free gift to Democrats. A small minority of House Republicans may force a vote on the creation of a national sales tax. This will needlessly give Democrats a political cudgel in exchange for a flawed bill with no hope of passing. Continued here

S54

2023 Lunar New Year Celebrations Yesterday was the first day of the Lunar New Year 2023, the Year of the Rabbit. People around the world ushered in the new year with displays of fireworks, family get-togethers, temple visits, and street festivals. Collected below are images from several countries where revelers welcomed the Year of the Rabbit. People march through a street during celebrations on the first day of the Lunar New Year in London, England, on January 22, 2023. # Continued here

S55

A Courtroom Drama With an Indecipherable Culprit Laurence Coly, the Senegalese immigrant at the center of the French courtroom drama Saint Omer, is dressed to be unnoticed. For the first two days of her trial, at which she stands accused of murdering her 15-month-old daughter, she wears a brown knit blouse; on a later day, she wears a brown collared shirt. She doesn’t wear jewelry or any other adornments, and so, in scenes where she testifies, her attire and the matching wooden walls of the courtroom can seem to bleed into one another. Yet despite her muted appearance, Laurence (played by Guslagie Malanda) is forcefully captivating—much like the film itself, which collected top prizes at the Venice Film Festival and is shortlisted for an Oscar in the international-feature category. Saint Omer tells a true-crime story in an unusually quiet way, relying on long, slow camera shots and heavy pauses to deliver its emotional punches. In this narrative-fiction debut, the director Alice Diop understands that a restrained image can be more haunting than a graphic one. Continued here

S56

The Atlantic Announces Hiring of Evan McMurry as Senior Editor Overseeing Audience Evan McMurry is joining the staff of The Atlantic later this month, where he will be a senior editor leading audience strategy and overseeing the magazine’s audience team. He comes to The Atlantic from ABC News, where he ran social strategy across the network’s accounts, and has previously worked as a political blogger and an editor. McMurry will guide The Atlantic’s audience and social strategy under the leadership of managing editor Bhumika Tharoor, working to bring The Atlantic’s journalism to the largest possible audience across all existing and future platforms. McMurry will coordinate closely with Dan Fallon, the director of insights, and Shan Wang, the director of programming, on the indispensable work of leading daily audience coverage; understanding and deepening The Atlantic’s relationships with its tens of millions of readers and listeners; and expanding social presence to continually grow audiences and subscribers to The Atlantic. In a note to staff, Tharoor wrote that “together, Evan, Dan, and Shan bring a deep understanding of The Atlantic’s mission and purpose, creative and incisive editorial judgment, and keen data insights.” During McMurry’s time at ABC News, he oversaw social strategy for accounts with more than 50 million combined followers, and led the social coverage for exclusive interviews and historic events, ranging from the war in Ukraine to the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. He also managed rollouts for major Hulu releases and oversaw social distribution of ABC News Live, maximizing exposure and placement for the livestreaming channel.The Atlantic recently announced both Xochitl Gonzalez and Yair Rosenberg as staff writers, and Eleanor Barkhorn as a senior editor on the politics, global, and ideas team. Rosenberg continues to write the Deep Shtetl newsletter, in addition to covering the intersection of politics, culture, and religion, while Gonzalez’s coverage and Brooklyn, Everywhere newsletter reflect on the many meanings of gentrification and what we stand to lose in our relentless pursuit of the American dream. Continued here

S57

How to Make Diversity Trainings Better This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here. Last week I asked, “What do you think of the diversity-training and DEI industries?” Dozens of readers shared their personal experiences, good and bad––so many, in fact, that I’m going to run some additional responses on Wednesday (if you haven’t yet signed up for the newsletter, do so here). Continued here

S58

The Fight Over California’s Ancient Water On an early-December morning in California’s Mojave Desert, the Geoscience Support Services geohydrologist Logan Wicks squats in the sand and fiddles with a broken white pipe. Here on a sandy road off Route 66, past miles of scrubby creosote and spiny mesquite, Wicks monitors the pumps and pipes of a promising desert extraction project. But he’s not looking for oil or gas. Crouching under the shade of a 10-foot lemon tree, at the edge of a citrus orchard that spans hundreds of acres, Wicks is here for water. Continued here

S59

To Defend Civilization, Defeat Russia Ukraine needs any weapon its troops can learn to use, including tanks, to hold the line on the international order and the world’s safety. This is an edition of  The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Continued here

S60

Are Standardized Tests Racist, or Are They Anti-racist? They’re making their lists, checking them twice, trying to decide who’s in and who’s not. Once again, it’s admissions season, and tensions are running high as university leaders wrestle with challenging decisions that will affect the future of their schools. Chief among those tensions, in the past few years, has been the question of whether standardized tests should be central to the process. In 2021, the University of California system ditched the use of all standardized testing for undergraduate admissions. California State University followed suit last spring, and in November, the American Bar Association voted to abandon the LSAT requirement for admission to any of the nation’s law schools beginning in 2025. Many other schools have lately reached the same conclusion. Science magazine reports that among a sample of 50 U.S. universities, only 3 percent of Ph.D. science programs currently require applicants to submit GRE scores, compared with 84 percent four years ago. And colleges that dropped their testing requirements or made them optional in response to the pandemic are now feeling torn about whether to bring that testing back. Continued here

S62

Archaeologists in Egypt Unearth 2,500-Year-Old Mummified Crocodiles When archaeologists excavating an undisturbed tomb at Qubbat al-Hawā, a necropolis on the western bank of the Nile River, discovered a cache of mummified crocodiles in 2019, they weren’t entirely surprised. After all, such finds are common in Egypt, where ancient humans preserved dead animals as sacred offerings, food for the afterlife or incarnations of specific deities. Crocodiles, for instance, were associated with Sobek, creator of the Nile and a powerful fertility god. Upon closer examination, the team realized that the reptiles were preserved in a different manner than most mummified crocodiles. As the authors write in the journal PLOS One, the ten crocodiles were mummified without resin or evisceration of the remains—two typical components of the process. Comprising five heads and five “more or less complete bodies,” according to the study, the animals exhibited varying levels of preservation. Continued here

S63

Watch Rare Drone Video of a Moose Shedding Its Antlers If a moose sheds its antlers in a forest and no one is around to hear it, do they make a sound? While that may be up for debate, a wildlife enthusiast in eastern Canada was around to capture a drone video of the moment a bull moose shed its antlers, providing a rare glimpse into the common winter event. Earlier this month, Derek Burgoyne was surveying a patch of hardwood trees while working his job as a woods operations supervisor, reports CBC News. As he maneuvered a drone through the forest in New Brunswick, Canada, he stumbled upon three moose in the snowy terrain. Continued here

S64

This 13-Foot-Long Munch Painting Was Hidden From the Nazis in a Norwegian Forest After weathering World War II in a barn tucked away in a Norwegian forest, a monumental Edvard Munch painting is heading to the auction block. The 13-foot-long piece, Dance on the Beach (1906), hasn’t been up for sale in 89 years. The painting once belonged to Curt Glaser, a Jewish art critic, collector and historian based in Berlin. By the 1930s, Glaser and his wife, Elsa, had amassed an extensive private collection of art, which included pieces by Munch—who was a personal friend of the couple—as well as Henri Matisse, Max Beckmann and others.  Continued here

S65

At Almost Six Pounds, ‘Toadzilla’ May Be the Largest Toad Ever Found Captured in a national park in Australia, the cane toad was later euthanized due to the invasive animal's threat to the environment Park rangers in Conway National Park in Queensland, Australia, stumbled upon a massive cane toad that clocked in at nearly six pounds—and it may be the heaviest toad ever discovered. Continued here

S66

Three Grizzly Bears Tested Positive for Avian Flu in Montana The current outbreak has led to the deaths of more than 52 million birds in the United States Amid an avian flu outbreak that’s decimating wild and domestic bird populations, scientists have documented the first cases in wild grizzly bears. The three bears, which were euthanized last fall in Montana, later tested positive for the virus, the state’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks department announced in a statement last week. Continued here

S67

Gloria Estefan Will Be the First Hispanic Woman in the Songwriters Hall of Fame The Cuban-American artist will be inducted alongside Sade, Snoop Dogg, Jeff Lynne and others Gloria Estefan, the Cuban-American singer-songwriter behind danceable hits like “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and “Let’s Get Loud,” will make history as the first Hispanic woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Continued here

S68

The Basic Algebra Behind Secret Codes and Space Communication | Quanta Magazine Space exploration requires tremendous precision. When you're landing a rover on Mars 70 million miles away from the nearest service station, you need to maximize efficiency and prepare for the unexpected. This applies to everything from spacecraft design to data transmission: Those messages returning to Earth as a steady stream of 0s and 1s are bound to contain some errors, so you need to be able to identify and correct them without wasting precious time and energy. That's where math comes in. Mathematicians have invented ingenious ways to transmit and store information. One surprisingly effective method uses Reed-Solomon codes, which are built on the same basic algebra that students learn in school. Let's drop in on a math class to see how Reed-Solomon codes help transmit and secure information while correcting any costly errors that pop up. Continued here

S69

How to Deal With ‘Inflation Creep’ Over the past year, I’ve noticed that I can barely cover my bills every month. At first, I chalked it up to the rush of post-COVID activities (I went to Italy last summer like everyone else), but now I’ve realized it’s probably inflation. Either way, it’s getting worse and worse, and it seems like my money just disappears every month even though I’m not doing anything wild. I cook most meals at home and pay about the same amount in rent (it went up $150 a month this past September, to $2,300 a month, which is still a good deal for my neighborhood and I love my apartment).  I got a $5,000 raise at work right before the holidays, which should help — my salary is now $78,000 total. I recognize that this may sound like a lot, but in New York it goes pretty fast. I recently had $42 in my checking account after I paid all my bills, which was scary. I still have an emergency cushion of about $5,000 in a savings account, but I’m not growing that at all and I probably should (in fact, I recently dipped into it to buy a flight home for Christmas).  Continued here

S70

How the Mahindra Group Embraces Change A conversation with Anand Mahindra, non-executive chairman of the Mumbai-based conglomerate. Continued here