Tick Season

S18

Tick Season     Fresh again from summer and its fields of unrepentant grass, we strip down in the dooryard of my little house, check each other over for ticks. By now we have outlived embarrassment, though of the naked pastimes, this one remains the more intimate: what shapes we make in the flashlight’s chiaroscuro, interrogating every mole, every freckle, before kissing them, an apology to the innocent for such accusations. Not often but sometimes I’ll spot one walking across your wet skin, movement as misquoted shibboleth. I ferry the little liar to the fireplace, careful to burn what might have come between us. Like you, I do not want this but I want this. The betrayal of the struggle to keep still. Continued here

S32

This One Mindset Shift Could Radically Change How We Experience Chronic Pain     People often use the phrase “mind over matter” to describe situations where aches and pains in the body are overridden using the mind. People often use the phrase “mind over matter” to describe situations where aches and pains in the body are overridden using the mind. A gardener comes in from gardening and is surprised to discover a nasty cut on her hand, something she wasn’t aware of while focused on her plants. Or a soldier in Afghanistan is wounded by a bullet but feels little pain until he is safe in the infirmary. If pain was directly and entirely linked to bodily injury, these examples would be impossible. A cut would always lead to mild pain, whereas a gunshot wound would immediately cause severe pain. But this is not always the case. Continued here

�

S48

Godzilla Is Warning Us Again about the Threats to Our Planet     It’s not just nukes: the power at the heart of the Godzilla franchise is our awareness of the global consequences of human follyThe beast is born in fire. Once a prehistoric denizen of the deeps, it comes ashore on a tsunami tide, tall as a thunderhead, shrugging off artillery as it bellows a foghorn scream. It stomps. It breathes atomic fire. And it’s the star of the world’s longest continually running film franchise, the latest of which debuts this December: Godzilla. Continued here

S3

In 1 Sentence, Google CEO Sundar Pichai Just Taught a Masterclass in How to Avoid Regret     It's a sentence every leader should learn. Continued here

�

S30

'Rick and Morty' Is Finally About to Explain the Season 7 Trailer's Weirdest Moment     An oft-forgotten tidbit about Rick Sanchez is that he just might be the best cook in the multiverse, despite the fact we rarely ever see him do much more in the Smith family kitchen than chug booze. He relished in garnishing the canapés he made for the party in Rick and Morty Season 1’s “Ricksy Business,” and the non-toxic version of Rick in Season 3’s “Rest and Ricklaxation” was delighted at the prospect of picking fresh basil in the garden for a “nice scallopini.” Now, in Season 7’s fourth episode, it’s time for… Rick’s Famous Spaghetti!“That’s Amorte” features a previously unknown Smith family tradition of spaghetti Thursdays. But is there a marinara-colored red flag that something strange is going on? Rick and Morty Season 7, Episode 4 is almost here, so here’s everything you need to know from the release date and time to the episode title and other details. Continued here

S4

After 15 Years, Facebook Just Made a Bittersweet Announcement. It's the Start of the End of an Era     Remember when it said, "It's free and always will be?" Continued here

� � �

S38

With Only 11 Words, Tim Cook Just Gave the Most Important Business Advice You'll Hear This Year     Sometimes the single most important thing a leader does is say 'no.' Continued here

S40

The Beatles Just Released 'Now and Then,' Their Very Last Song. It's a Poignant Lesson About Partnership     It could never have happened without AI. Continued here

S46

Zoomable JWST Image Brings Far-Distant Galaxies to Your Fingertips     The James Webb Space Telescope is gazing across the universe to find galaxies close to the “cosmic dawn”—and you can explore them from the palm of your handThat poetic phrase is what astronomers call the time just a few hundred million years after the big bang when the very first stars switched on, flooding the cosmos with light. Continued here

S24

South Africa's wage gap is huge: why companies should report what CEOs and workers earn     Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality and Director: Southern Centre for Inequality Studies., University of the Witwatersrand University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA. Continued here

S12

Fructose may be the ultimate driver of obesity     Numerous hypotheses attempt to explain obesity‘s meteoric rise over the past few decades. There’s the energy balance hypothesis, which states that weight gain is due to consuming more calories than the amount expended. There’s the carbohydrate-insulin hypothesis, which argues that excess consumption of carbohydrates stimulates an insulin response that drives cells to accumulate fat. Then there’s the protein-leverage hypothesis, which suggests that we don’t eat enough protein, driving incessant hunger. Now, researchers have put forth a new hypothesis that places the blame on a sugar ubiquitous in modern food: fructose.Commonly known as “fruit sugar,” fructose is a simple, monosaccharide sugar found in many plants. But the compound that sweetens your watermelon, apples, and oranges can mess with your cells’ energy metabolism, Richard Johnson, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, and his co-authors Laura G. Sánchez-Lozada and Miguel A. Lanaspa explain in a paper published October 17 in the journal Obesity. Continued here

S16

Local Cops Aren't Prepared for This Kind of Bloodshed     Instead of addressing lax gun laws, Americans fixate on what the authorities might have done differently.After the devastating mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, late last month, an all-too-familiar ritual began to play out: The initial horror over the deaths of 18 victims gave way to second-guessing about what more local authorities might have done. Continued here

S35

How to Stop Saying "Um," "Ah," and "You Know"     When you get rattled while speaking — whether you’re nervous, distracted, or at a loss for what comes next — it’s easy to lean on filler words, such as “um,” “ah,” or “you know.” These words can become crutches that diminish our credibility and distract from our message. To eliminate such words from your speech, replace them with pauses. To train yourself to do this, take these three steps. First, identify your crutch words and pair them with an action. Every time you catch yourself saying “like,” for example, tap your leg. Once you’ve become aware of your filler words as they try to escape your lips, begin forcing yourself to be silent. Finally, practice more than you think you should. The optimal ratio of preparation to performance is one hour of practice for every minute of presentation. Continued here

S11

Which GoPro Hero Camera Should You Buy?     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 WIREDIt used to be easy to buy a GoPro. Grab the latest one, and you're good to go. But as GoPro has diversified its lineup, adding features that you may or may not need, depending on what you do with your GoPro, the answer is not so simple anymore. To help you out, we've put together this guide to all the currently available GoPro cameras, as well as a few notes on some of the older models you may see on eBay and other auction sites. Continued here

S37

Research: Consumers Choose Shared Experiences Over Quality Ones     Some consumer experiences are best when they’re solo — but new research shows that people will forgo a high-quality experience in order to share it with a partner or loved one. As a result, they may have a worse time, which can lead to unsatisfied consumers, lower sales, and neglected business opportunities. This article explains why people tend to stick together, even when it isn’t necessarily beneficial, and outlines several ways marketers can encourage people to break apart (even briefly) in order to boost their satisfaction. Continued here

S9

Shopping for Goose Down? Here's What to Know About 'Down Fill Power'     Goose down has never been hotter. This natural insulation material is popping up inside a growing number of jackets and parkas these days, even in pants and bed comforters. It's the material of choice for most high-end sleeping bags. If you've ever shopped for these items, you've likely come across the term “down fill power,” but what does it mean? Don't fret. Here's what you need to know.Be sure to read our other apparel guides, including Best Base Layers, Best Merino Wool Clothes, and Best T-Shirts for Men. Continued here

S17

Plant Seeds Are Stuck     The extinction of animals is a huge problem for plants that rely on them to escape warming habitats.Haldre Rogers’s entry into ecology came via the sort of man-made calamity that scientists euphemistically call an “accidental experiment.” Continued here

S33

Amazon's Selling a Ton of These 50 Weird, Cheap Things That Work So Freaking Well     Sometimes you have to think outside the box to come up with a great solution to all of life’s little problems. And the weird items on this list are gaining new fans daily thanks to their low prices and high level of functionality. From a popular cover that will keep your microwave clean to a bug-shaped flashlight that runs for 22 hours, everything has a genius design that allows it to work effectively.Coming with a retractable brush, a microfiber cloth, and two multifunctional pens, you’ll have everything you need to keep your devices spotless with this laptop cleaner kit. You’ll be able to remove embedded dirt from between keys and leave your screens streak-free. The tools can also be used on your phone, camera, wireless earbuds, and more. Continued here

S41

Keep Forgetting Things? Neuroscience Connects This Simple Habit to 17 Percent Better Memory Outcomes     Forgetting things. It's the worst. Continued here

S21

From Stardust to Sapiens: A Stunning Serenade to Our Cosmic Origins and Our Ongoing Self-Creation     We were never promised any of it — this world of cottonwoods and clouds — when the Big Bang set the possible in motion. And yet here we are, atoms with consciousness, each of us a livin… Continued here

S20

Octavia Butler on Religion and the Spirituality of Symbiosis     “On many levels, we wind up being strengthened by what we join, or what joins us, as well as by what we combat.” Continued here

S8

19 Practical Gift Ideas for Exhausted New Parents     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 WIREDI love babies (especially my babies!), and I love gear, but I don't particularly like Baby Gear (TM). Especially if your friend is a first-time parent, a lot of baby gear is specifically designed to trip the paranoia trigger in their lizard brain. It's cute, and what if your baby really needs it? “Yes, a wipe warmer!” they think, only to find it in their closet years later. Continued here

S58

The Kakhovka Dam disaster revealed an archaeological "goldmine"     One June 29, a local man was walking along the beach on the island of Khortytsia, in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, when he noticed what looked like a log half submerged in water. When he approached, he realized the log was part of a boat, one that was possibly centuries old.The man called wardens at the Khortytsia National Reserve, the large national park on the island. Soon the police arrived to cordon off the area, followed by engineers and archaeologists who started an operation to rescue the precious find. Continued here

S34

Writing a Rejection Letter (with Samples)     I have a friend who appraises antiques — assigning a dollar value to the old Chinese vase your grandmother used for storing pencils, telling you how much those silver knickknacks from Aunt Fern are worth. He says the hardest part of his job, the part he dreads the most, is telling people that their treasure is worthless. Continued here

S2

Use This Approach to Handle Difficult Conversations at Work     Follow this strategy when employees are not meeting their goals. Continued here

S26

George C. Wolfe Would Not Be Dismissed     “If that shit don’t work, I don’t wear it,” the director and writer George C. Wolfe told me when we spoke last month. He was talking about the baggage of childhood and the aftermath of his early life in a small, segregated Southern town, but he might just as easily have been talking about his approach to art. Wolfe, sixty-nine, a titan of the American theatre, writes and directs plays and films with an exuberance that feels like the product of freedom unfettered by obligation. He always seems, by the evidence of his work, to be having fun.In August, at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, I had watched from the audience as Wolfe, wearing a sand-colored suit and sneakers, talked with the MSNBC journalist Jonathan Capehart about his new film, “Rustin,” which takes as its subject the great and somewhat undersung civil-rights leader Bayard Rustin. Onstage, Wolfe sat back easily in his chair as if it were a loveseat in a friend’s living room. All self-acceptance, he smiled through clips from the movie as they played, clearly gratified by the results, and sharpened his answers into quips that he knew would get laughs from Capehart and the crowd. Continued here

S36

To Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking, Stop Thinking About Yourself     Even the most confident speakers find ways to distance themselves from their audience. It’s how our brains are programmed, so how can we overcome it? Human generosity. The key to calming the amygdala and disarming our panic button is to turn the focus away from ourselves — away from whether we will mess up or whether the audience will like us — and toward helping the audience. Showing kindness and generosity to others has been shown to activate the vagus nerve, which has the power to calm the fight-or-flight response. When we are kind to others, we tend to feel calmer and less stressed. The same principle applies in speaking. When we approach speaking with a spirit of generosity, we counteract the sensation of being under attack and we feel less nervous. Continued here

S5

Taupo: The super volcano under New Zealand's largest lake     Located in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, the town of Taupo sits sublimely in the shadow of the snow-capped peaks of Tongariro National Park. Fittingly, this 40,000-person lakeside town has recently become one of New Zealand's most popular tourist destinations, as hikers, trout fishers, water sports enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies have started descending upon it.The namesake of this tidy town is the Singapore-sized lake that kisses its western border. Stretching 623sq km wide and 160m deep with several magma chambers submerged at its base, Lake Taupo isn't only New Zealand's largest lake; it's also an incredibly active geothermal hotspot. Every summer, tourists flock to bathe in its bubbling hot springs and sail through its emerald-green waters. Yet, the lake is the crater of a giant super volcano, and within its depths lies the unsettling history of this picturesque marvel. Continued here

S31

Be Gay and Do Crime in The Best Swashbuckling Video Game of 2023     For years I have wanted to take up fencing. The idea of doing a sport that gives me a reason to own and use a sword has always been the perfect sales pitch for me. Sadly, in my research to take up foil (or saber, or épée — I haven’t decided), I found that fencing is quite an expensive sport to dive into. Thank god there are video games like En Garde! The self-described swashbuckling title is an indie delight on PC that blends humor, style, and satisfying swordplay.Even before getting to the sword fighting, players will take note of the Pixar-esque art style of En Garde! The warm sun-drenched environments decorated with specks of color and vibrant costumes that drip with personality are a feast for the eyes. At the center of all this visual wonder is the game’s protagonist Adalia de Volador. Continued here

S27

15 Years Ago, a Legendary Xbox Exclusive Changed the Shooter Game Genre Forever     Back when Xbox exclusives were typically spelled H-A-L-O, Epic Games came along to give third-person shooters an extra coat of blood-spattered paint. This unique formula arguably peaked in November 2008 with Gears of War 2. To this day, not a single game of its kind has arguably even come close to matching the magic of Horde mode.Gears of War 2 wasn't just a tremendous Gears of War sequel, it was an incredible game, period. 15 years later, it may still be the best of the entire franchise to date. That's not to say its immediate follow-up, Gears of War 3, was all that lacking, but it's fitting to call Gears of War 2 the Empire Strikes Back of that initial trilogy. Continued here

S63

Soda additive linked to thyroid toxicity may finally get banned by FDA     The Food and Drug Administration may finally ban a food additive used in citrusy drinks that the agency determined over 50 years ago could not be considered generally safe. The agency proposed a ban on the additive Thursday. Continued here

S39

29 Years After Moving to the Seattle Area, Jeff Bezos Is Leaving. Here's Why I'm Staying Put     He says he wants to be near his parents and fiance. But there may be another reason he's relocating. Continued here

S47

Precision Cancer Drugs Glitter with Promise - If You Can Get Them     A growing arsenal of genetically tailored oncology treatments have spectacular results, but scope and access remain limitedThe landscape of cancer treatment changed forever in 1998, when U.S. authorities approved the first genetically tailored precision cancer therapy. The drug, Herceptin, zeroes in on the activity of HER2—a gene that can make breast cancers especially aggressive compared with HER2-negative cancers. When the gene is mutated, it overproduces the corresponding human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 protein to trigger unhinged cell division. More traditional treatments attack both cancerous and healthy cells, but Herceptin goes after the root cause of a cancer’s growth by blocking the gene’s misbehaving proteins. Today, thanks to such targeted drugs, people with HER2-positive breast cancers have similar long-term survival odds as those who don’t. Continued here

S23

Growing African vegetables on buildings can save space and feed cities - new study     Living wall systems are vertical growing platforms which usually form part of a building façade. Some are continuous, others modular.Continuous systems are lightweight screens with pockets that can contain wet felted substrate layers, or rock wool, for the plants to grow in, or the plants’ exposed roots are kept wet with nutrient-rich fluids. An example of a continuous system is hydroponics. Continued here

S28

29 Years Later, Star Trek Showrunner Reveals One Hero's Secret Journey     Mike McMahan reveals Mariner's timeline and why 'Lower Decks' became a sequel to 'The Next Generation.'Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation will never watch two episodes of the classic show the same way again. In a way that is both profound and tender, the animated comedy series Lower Decks has insinuated itself into the backstory of two TNG classics, “The First Duty,” and the beloved 1994 episode “Lower Decks,” to which the series owes its name. But, Lower Decks didn’t create this retcon for laughs. Instead, the emotional arc of Lower Decks Season 4 pays off TNG-era Star Trek character drama, several decades in the making. For showrunner and series creator Mike McMahan, this wasn’t an easy decision. Continued here

S57

40% of people willfully choose to be ignorant. Here's why     Do you have an uncle who believes vaccines cause autism but refuses to study the reams of research showing them to be safe? What about a friend who avoids information about factory animal farming so they can eat cheap meat guilt-free? Or how about that CEO who claims their business is ethically minded, yet doesn’t investigate its supply chain for exploitation of the environment or the impoverished?Each is an example of what psychologists call willful ignorance — the intentional act of avoiding information that reveals the negative consequences of one’s actions. Not to judge: We all have a place in our lives where we look the other way and pretend everything is fine. It may be personal, political, or professional in nature, but just below the conscious surface, we know our actions don’t align with our stated values. Continued here

S49

Lost River Landscape Discovered below East Antarctic Ice     A preserved river landscape from the time before Antarctica was icebound persists more than a mile below the East Antarctic Ice SheetAn ancient river system from the era when the bottom of the world was ice-free is buried more than a mile deep below the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Continued here

S65

It's almost showtime for SpaceX's massive Starship rocket     SpaceX announced on Friday that the company is targeting "mid-November" for the second flight test of the Super Heavy rocket and its Starship upper stage. Continued here

S6

Message sticks: Australia's ancient unwritten language     The continent of Australia is home to more than 250 spoken Indigenous languages and 800 dialects. Yet, one of its linguistic cornerstones wasn't spoken, but carved.Known as message sticks, these flat, rounded and oblong pieces of wood were etched with ornate images on both sides that conveyed important messages and held the stories of the continent's Aboriginal people – considered the world's oldest continuous living culture. Message sticks are believed to be thousands of years old and were typically carried by messengers over long distances to reinforce oral histories or deliver news between Aboriginal nations or language groups. Continued here

S10

These Speakers Deliver Clear, Creamy Sound in a Stylish Package     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 WIREDFocal’s Vestia No. 1 ($1,198) are my favorite bookshelf speakers of 2023 so far, serving up sound that’s fabulously detailed yet remarkably smooth. So why am I beginning the Focal Theva review by talking about their pricier siblings? Parody, of course. Continued here