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 S22Trump's post-conviction windfall shows democracy is increasingly a pay-to-play game  In the hours immediately following Donald Trump’s recent hush-money conviction in a Manhattan courtroom, his presidential campaign raked in US$53 million from small donors. Why are regular people without deep pockets throwing so much money at a convicted felon? In the United States today, as in many other countries with a populism problem, money is both the cause and consequence of broken political systems.
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S1HBO Just Quietly Released the Most Surreal Dystopian Sci-Fi Show of the Year Have you ever wondered why there isn’t a clear crayon? Or what Timothée Chalamet would look like if he were a beautiful pearl? Those are the questions pondered by Julio Torres, the comedian behind Saturday Night Live classics like “Wells for Boys” and “Papyrus.” After leaving the show, he created some indescribable works for HBO, like his comedy special My Favorite Shapes and the canceled-too-soon Los Espookys, while making his mark on the movie landscape with his indie darling Problemista. But Torres’ latest work is far more abstract than anything he’s done before, and the result is a meandering, often otherworldly, look at day-to-day life that’s far more daring than even the most lofty sci-fi shows.
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S2These 5 Sleep Science Breakthroughs Might Help You Get Better Rest Twenty-six years. That is roughly how much of our lives are spent asleep. Scientists have been trying to explain why we spend so much time sleeping since at least the ancient Greeks, but pinning down the exact functions of sleep has proven to be difficult.During the past decade, there has been a surge of interest from researchers in the nature and function of sleep. New experimental models coupled with advances in technology and analytical techniques are giving us a deeper look inside the sleeping brain. Here are some of the biggest recent breakthroughs in the science of sleep.
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S325 Years Later, One 'Acolyte' Scene Fixes The Laziest Part of Star Wars Canon The Trade Federation has never been the most interesting or explicable part of the larger Star Wars canon. In The Phantom Menace, they mostly just exist to get tricked into sparking a galactic conflict, and by Revenge of the Sith this group of corrupt space capitalists is easily overshadowed by their fellow Separatists from the Techno Union, at least when it comes to silly Star Wars character design. For 25 years, the Trade Federation has been a strange and slightly embarrassing part of the Republic era of that faraway galaxy.But in The Acolyte —the latest Star Wars show on Disney+ and one set a hundred years before the events of the prequels — we finally learn something interesting about the Neimoidian aliens who make up the Trade Federation. And this revelation helps justify their entire existence.
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S4'Dune: Awakening' Wildly Changes Everything We Know About Dune In all versions of Dune, there are many possible futures that protagonist Paul Atreides can see with relative clarity. But once he locks himself into a certain path, he can see “a narrow way through” that brings victory to his family and the Fremen on the planet Arrakis. Paul’s decisions come with a great cost, of course, because once he ascends to the throne, the fate of the universe is nearly set in stone.It’s widely known that Paul is the most important character in the first two Dune novels, and thus, the central figure of the major movie adaptations to date. But what the new MMO game Dune: Awakening asks is...what if he wasn’t? A new cinematic has been dropped by developer Funcom, which outlines a massive canonical shift for the big Dune game. And it literally changes everything we know about Dune, by setting the game in an alternate timeline.
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S5Should You Feed Your Dog A Raw Meat Diet? Veterinarians Explain the Forgotten Risks We know that dogs love to sneak a piece of meat from our plates. But a corner of TikTok has taken this gesture one step further: Dog parents on the app are broadcasting themselves filling puzzle bowls with raw animal protein and organ meat for their pups to eat.They choose this diet for the purported health benefits that supposedly come from uncooked animal products over commercially available kibble and wet food. One video even claims that a raw meat diet improves digestion, strengthens the immune system, increases energy levels, and makes aesthetic changes like better-smelling breath and a shinier coat.
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S6You Can Already Play This Nintendo Switch Frog Pet Sim And More Wholesome Direct Highlights Wholesome Direct is a showcase specializing in cozy games, including slow-paced life sims, heartfelt stories, and pretty much anything full of cute animals. And when you think of cuddly animals you’d like to play a game about, one probably comes to mind first — frogs! No? Fair enough, but this year’s show (which aired on YouTube and Twitch) features a cozy, frog-filled farming sim that may change your mind, as well as a few other highlights to keep your eye on.One of this year’s most adorable Wholesome Direct-featured games is Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge. In Kamaeru, you play as Cleo, a woman who heads to her more rural childhood home to recover from burnout from her corporate job and falls into the much more soothing world of frog-raising as a result. If only we could all be so lucky.
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S755 Cool Things for Your Backyard That Seem Expensive but Are Cheap AF on Amazon As the days grow longer and the weather warms, there's no better time to upgrade your outdoor living space. Whether you're cultivating a lush garden or revamping your patio, the right products can transform any backyard into a personal oasis. From ingenious gardening tools to cozy deck enhancements, I've curated a list of top-rated products from Amazon that promise to elevate your exterior without hurting your wallet. Elevate your grill game with the ultimate grill grate cleaner, a must-have for every BBQ enthusiast. Designed to effortlessly scrape both round and V-shaped grates, this tool is suitable for any grill, smoker, or oven. With its sturdy metal construction and a long leather handle, it ensures your hands stay cool and safe from the heat. With a built-in bottle opener and a bonus recipe book, your post-BBQ cleanup just got a whole lot more rewarding.
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S860 New Things Trending on Amazon That Are So Damn Genius As a shopping writer, whenever I see a product gaining popularity, it grabs my attention. My favorite part is sharing what I’ve found with others, especially when I come across genius products that are trending because they make life easier in one way or another. And so I’ve gathered some of the best new products that are trending on Amazon because they’re clever and worth every penny. On this list, you’ll find a bunch of new, genius life upgrades that shoppers on Amazon are loving — and you will, too.Tired of cords falling behind furniture? These magnetic cord organizers will prevent that from happening. They’re designed to hold your chargers and cables in place with a magnetic closure. Plus, they can stick to walls, furniture, and more with adhesive pads so your electronics will stay put and organized. Don’t worry; the adhesives won’t leave behind residue if you need to remove them.
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S9Why Phone Cameras Are the Hidden Secret to Taking Amazing Photos of the Northern Lights Smartphone cameras have significantly improved in recent years. Computational photography and AI allow these devices to capture stunning images that can surpass what we see with the naked eye. Photos of the northern lights, or aurora borealis, provide one particularly striking example.If you saw the northern lights during the geomagnetic storms in May 2024, you might have noticed that your smartphone made the photos look even more vivid than reality.
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S1019 Years Later, The Oldest Sci-Fi Show's Weirdest Easter Egg Brings Back an Old Trick Doctor Who Season 1 has explored the past, the present, and the far-off future, and so far basically every episode has stood alone. You can watch episodes like “Dot and Bubble” or “73 Yards” like they are separate entries in an anthology that only share a couple of characters. However, there’s much more to this season than just a collection of one-off adventures. There’s a massive Easter Egg hiding right in plain sight, and soon we’ll get to learn exactly what’s going on — almost two decades after the show attempted it the first time.Doctor Who is the perfect example of a “semi-episodic” series. While most of the episodes are episodic and stand-alone, there are some common throughlines that keep coming up over and over again. Who exactly is Ruby Sunday? Why does it keep snowing when she’s around? Who left her on Ruby Road all those years ago? But one of the biggest questions has been hiding right in plain sight: who is the mysterious woman who keeps appearing in these adventures over and over, all the way back to “Wild Blue Yonder”?
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S11The First Few Weeks of Exercise Are Often Excruciatingly Painful -- The challenge behind the first three weeks comes down to your body learning that it needs to be up for the task.A cruel trick of exercise is that in order for it to make us feel good, we have to feel bad first. For all the endorphins and endocannabinoids that get released when we break a sweat, it feels like we must break our spirit to reap those rewards. The good and bad news is that getting started is the hardest part.
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S1235 Years Ago, The Worst Star Trek Movie Could Have Been a Great TV Episode Captain Kirk does not want his pain taken away. If there’s one central message of 1989’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, it’s the idea that human beings should be allowed to be messy, flawed, and a little sad, and anyone who offers you a way to cleanse your soul and be free of pain is likely a lunatic cult leader. This kind of iconoclastic humanism is so ingrained in the original 1960s Star Trek series that a huge number of episodes are preoccupied with Kirk unmasking false prophets in the form of oppressive automated computers, all-powerful aliens, and other Starfleet captains who decide to implement authoritarianism on a backwater planet.On June 12, 1989, 20 years after The Original Series was canceled, William Shatner’s directorial debut doubled down on the classic theme of Kirk versus a Space Fraudster. In The Final Frontier, Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise go up against not only Spock’s off-his-rocker brother Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) but also a malicious false God. Thirty-five years after the movie’s release, this supposedly horrible Star Trek movie actually holds up pretty well, if you view it as an extended episode of the original show.
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S1360 Bougie Things With Over 4.5 Stars on Amazon That Are Actually Cheap as Hell Have you ever visited someone’s home and marveled at the elegance and understated charm? You probably also assumed that they shopped at expensive boutiques and spent more money than you are willing to part with to achieve that look. But that’s not necessarily true. Many smart shoppers find beautiful items on Amazon that would have cost a fortune elsewhere. It’s all about knowing what to look for. You don’t have to though. Because we found 60 bougie things with over 4.5 stars on Amazon that are actually cheap as hell.Enjoy your pasta meal in a bowl designed for the purpose. These large pasta bowls enhance spaghetti night by keeping sauce and pasta contained and looking beautiful. The soft, matte finish and organic shape make for a beautiful table, too. Choose from five colors.
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S14When To Quit Therapy, According To A Clinical Psychologist Therapy is great. It gives you the space, time, and resources to handle the most difficult challenges of life. Therapy can be especially helpful in the often-confusing life period of your 20s and 30s when so much is changing and many of your peers have wildly different lifestyles.The aim is to help you discover the thoughts, emotions, and behavior that are negatively affecting you, determine where these come from, and develop strategies to change them. But then, how do you know when it is the right time to quit therapy?
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S1520 Years Later, Nintendo's Least Popular Zelda Game Is Still the Most Ambitious If you’ve played one Legend of Zelda game, you know the premise for almost all of them. Ganondorf — or occasionally a substitute villain — is threatening the kingdom of Hyrule, and only the lone swordsman Link can stop him. Well, except for that one time when it took four Links to stop him. Nintendo has experimented a lot with The Legend of Zelda over the years, but it’s rarely made something as risky as Four Swords Adventures, a one to four-player GameCube adventure that celebrates its North American launch anniversary this week.In 2002, A Link to the Past for the Game Boy Advance included the multiplayer mode Four Swords, which let two to four players make their way through dungeons together while racing to collect more rupees than their pals. Two years later, that idea would be expanded into a full game with Four Swords Adventures, which launched on March 18 in Japan before coming to North America on June 7.
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S1610 Years Later, The Newest Star Wars Show Has Restarted an Annoying Old Debate Lucasfilm’s latest series is the franchise’s most promising yet, but fans are too blinded by their hate to see it.No one hates Star Wars more than those who claim to be Star Wars fans. Sure, the past few years have given the fandom plenty to critique. The sequels splintered the fanbase beyond recognition, and Lucasfilm’s efforts to expand the galaxy on the small screen have been mixed, at best. And in some cases, criticism is inevitable: not everyone will find something to like in the franchise’s recent output. At a certain point, though, the discourse reaches a fever pitch, and even Lucasfilm’s most promising projects get swept up in the drama.
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S17In France and Germany, politics - not nationality - dictate energy preferences Professeure associée et coordinatrice de la chaire « Energy for Society », Grenoble École de Management (GEM) Not since 2000 under Jacques Chirac had a French president held a state visit in Germany. It was, therefore, with some anticipation that Chancellor Olaf Scholz greeted his counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, from 26 until 28 May in Berlin, Dresden and Münster, days away from the European elections and in a year marked by many Second World World commemorations. Speaking at a press conference at the end of the stay, Macron said both governments had agreed to reinforce their partnership across a number of strategic areas, including decarbonisation and the climate transition.
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S18Does magic really exist? The Conversation's Curious Kids podcast Seven-year-old Julia in London thinks that rainbows and the Northern Lights are magical. But if a scientist tells her how they work, will she still believe they are? Join us to find out on The Conversation’s Curious Kids podcast!This is the last episode in the first season of The Conversation’s Curious Kids podcast, published in partnership with FunKids, the UK’s children’s radio station. It’s hosted and produced by Eloise. The executive producer is Gemma Ware.
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S19Hunter-gatherer diets weren't always heavy on meat: Morocco study reveals a plant-based diet About 11,000 years ago, humans made a major shift from hunting and gathering to farming. This change, known as the Neolithic Revolution, dramatically altered our diets. For decades, scientists have thought that pre-agricultural human groups ate a lot of animal protein. But analysis has always been hampered by a scarcity of well-preserved human remains from Pleistocene sites. So, in fact, little is known about the dietary practices of that time.
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S20Cholera can kill you within hours if left untreated: how to recognise the symptoms and protect yourself Cholera is a deadly disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, associated with poor sanitation and limited access to clean water. But it has also been found in seemingly clean places, including affluent neighbourhoods, hotels and restaurants with poor hygiene practices such as handling food with dirty hands and using contaminated water to wash utensils and prepare food.Cholera outbreaks in Africa have affected 18 countries over the last two years. In southern and eastern Africa, more than 6,000 people have died and nearly 350,000 cases have been reported since a series of outbreaks began in late 2021.
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S21S23Think tech killed penmanship? Messy handwriting was a problem centuries before smartphones Handwriting is dead. At least that’s what a New York Times article announced in 2023 in its postmortem investigation “What Killed Penmanship?” But there was no doubt about the culprit: technology. You’ve probably heard something like this before: the more time we spend using our phone screens and keyboards to type out everything from emails and texts to grocery lists to wedding speeches, the less we put pen to paper and the worse our handwriting gets.
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S24Economic development in sub-Saharan Africa is linked to increasing obesity rates in women Obesity and excess weight gain, traditionally perceived as health issues predominantly affecting high-income countries, are now increasingly prevalent in low and middle-income regions. Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, is no longer a continent just grappling with hunger and starvation — it is now also dealing with citizens who are obese and overweight. This primarily due to the proliferation of unhealthy diets and lifestyles.
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