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The Nicest Breeze — A220 First Class

The Nicest Breeze — A220 First Class

ON JUNE 8, 2022, Breeze Airways officially launched transcontinental service using the Airbus A220-300 from Richmond (RIC), the capital of Virginia, to San Francisco (SFO), a prime tourism destination and home to many technology companies. The airline’s founder and CEO, David Neeleman, was on board the former Bombardier CS300 to mark the occasion, and the flight was mostly full. The airline hoped it would be the first of many such long-distance trips. Breeze has plans for 18 transcontinental routes using the A220 to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Breeze started service in May 2021, primarily in the Eastern and Southeastern United States, flying Embraer E190s and E195s (see Airways, July-August 2021). With the delivery of the A220, the airline can extend its cross-country reach to the West Coast. Breeze…

What Putin Got Right

What Putin Got Right

Russian President Vladimir Putin got many things wrong when he decided to invade Ukraine. He exaggerated his army’s military prowess. He underestimated the power of Ukrainian nationalism and the ability of its outmanned armed forces to defend their home soil. He appears to have misjudged Western unity, the speed with which NATO and others would come to Ukraine’s aid, and the willingness and ability of energy-importing countries to impose sanctions on Russia and wean themselves off its energy exports. He may also have overestimated China’s willingness to back him up. Put all these errors together, and the result is a decision with negative consequences for Russia that will linger long after Putin has left the stage. But if we are honest with ourselves, we should acknowledge that Russia’s president got some…

Water deal

Water deal

Lower Colorado River Basin California, Arizona, and Nevada agreed this week to cut water usage by about 14 percent between now and 2027, avoiding—for now, at least—a potentially devastating depletion of the Colorado River’s giant Lake Mead reservoir. The southwestern states reached the agreement along with Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, which also depend on the river. Federal officials had called on the states to cut water usage by about twice as much, but the situation became less dire after heavy snow blanketed the Rocky Mountains this past winter, leading runoff into the river’s reservoirs to be an estimated 149 percent of the annual average. In recent years, a prolonged drought worsened by climate change reduced the Colorado River’s flow by about 20 percent. Lake Mead is at 30 percent…

THE GREEN BIRD

Luisa was an orphan who made a living by sewing. One night, as she sat strumming her guitar, a green bird fluttered weakly onto her windowsill. The kindhearted young woman fed it bread and water. Then, to her astonishment, it turned into a handsome young man. “Thank you,” he said. “Who are you?” Luisa asked. “I am prince of a kingdom on the plains beyond the mountains. A witch, who wants me to marry her daughter, has put me under a spell until I agree to wed. I can only be a man for one hour each evening. I have searched, but no one can help me. Now I must return.” Then he turned back into a bird and flew away. Luisa decided to try to rescue him. Carrying her guitar, she set out. She…

THE GREEN BIRD
LONELY HARRY BANNED FROM CHARLES’ CORONATION?

LONELY HARRY BANNED FROM CHARLES’ CORONATION?

THE PRINCE IS FEELING TRAPPED AND UNWANTED The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are learning the hard way that even the best-laid plans can come unstuck. The couple, who are widely understood to have plotted their exodus from the royal family in favour of the glittering lights of Hollywood, have suffered “setback after setback” in recent weeks. According to reports, several of their projects are in danger of becoming unstuck, including a multimillion-dollar Netflix docuseries and Harry’s long-awaited memoir. It’s been alleged that Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, are desperate to reshoot their footage and rewrite chapters of his book after the Queen’s death – but Netflix and Penguin Random House are said to be pushing back. “These big companies they’ve teamed up with are sick of waiting and are ready to cash in on…

Bunnies & Books

Naughty tricksters? Morality tutors? Easter candy suppliers? Pick any one or all three. Cute, fuzzy bunnies show up in all sorts of places: fields and meadows, farms, pet stores, taxidermy shops, butcher shops, Easter decorations, commercials, and as pets. These little mammals often provide companionship, food, clothing, and even creative inspiration all around the world. Don’t forget to look for them in the pages of your most treasured books, for they often play special roles in literature. From your earliest days listening to The Runaway Bunny and The Velveteen Rabbit to the coming years when you may choose Watership Down or Stories Rabbits Tell as your reading material, authors’ creative use of personification and anthropomorphism—giving human characteristics to non-human things—enhance these memorable stories. The rabbit’s meaningful role in beloved pieces of literature…

Bunnies & Books
The Many LANGUAGES of Spain

The Many LANGUAGES of Spain

Language, Dialect, or Accent? If you’re from Boston, you might have trouble understanding someone from Alabama, just as someone from Tennessee might not understand what a New Yorker is saying. You’re hearing different accents, or ways of pronouncing words. If you go to London, you’ll find that English people speak another dialect. Besides using accents, dialects often use completely different words to say the same thing (like the word jumper, which means “sweater” in England). Even so, people who speak different dialects can generally understand each other. A language is even more distinct. Languages have their own words and grammatical rules. People who speak different languages usually can’t understand each other at all. People speak different languages within the country of Spain. Although one official language is spoken throughout the country, there are three…

THE WAY OF FLOWERS

THE WAY OF FLOWERS

SAICHO, THE FOUNDER of Tendai Buddhism in Japan, once said, “True riches are not material things but that which shines light into a dark corner.” As I interpret it, lighting up a corner means using one’s own unique talents and passions to brighten a corner of the world. Kukai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, added another layer. He believed that the natural world, the world of trees and flowers, is enlightened. “Sentient beings” include not only human beings, but also plants. These reflections, articulated by two Buddhist contemporaries of the ninth century, laid the foundation for the flower-temple pilgrimages of modern Japan: the practice of journeying to various temple gardens. I’d booked a flower-temple pilgrimage in Kyoto and Nara for April 2020. The pandemic altered my plans, waylaid my dreams. I stayed…

HOW to TALK to a COMPUTER

At the heart of everything a computer does is a simple code that lets computers convert words, numbers, and even pictures into a string of electric pulses. This code is called binary. To see how binary works, imagine a pair of sneaky spies on opposite sides of the city. Each spy has a code book. And each has a flashlight. Spy Bob needs to send a message to spy Alice: “Wednesday.” But how can he do that using just light on and light off? Luckily, each spy also has a special deck of dot cards. Each card has twice as many dots as the one before. Each spy lays out 5 cards: Now, to code the message! Bob looks up the code for the first letter, “W”: 23. He turns cards face up or…

HOW to TALK to a COMPUTER

Hopping Down the Bunny Trail

What do you picture when you think about Easter? Jellybeans, chocolate eggs, spring flowers, and baby chicks? Don’t forget one of Easter’s biggest symbols—the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny is not a Christian religious symbol of Easter, but it has been around for a very long time. The ancient pagan holiday called the festival of Eostre, which is older than Christianity, featured a rabbit as its symbol. Eostre celebrated Ostara, the goddess of fertility and the arrival of spring. According to mythology, Ostara loved children, and she changed her pet bird into a rabbit to entertain them. The rabbit produced colored eggs that the goddess gave to the children. Because rabbits are known for how often they reproduce, they were a natural symbol for a holiday celebrating rebirth and fertility. Many…

Hopping Down the Bunny Trail
LIVING LONGER AND BETTER

LIVING LONGER AND BETTER

HOW FAR CAN SCIENTISTS STRETCH OUR LIFE SPAN? AND HOW FAR SHOULD THEY GO?OUR BIOLOGY, IT SEEMS, CAN BE OPTIMIZED FOR GREATER LONGEVITY. UNIMAGINABLE RICHES AWAIT WHOEVER CRACKS THE CODE. SCIENTISTS ARE GREAT AT MAKING MICE LIVE LONGER. Rapamycin, widely prescribed to prevent organ rejection after a transplant, increases the life expectancy of middle-age mice by as much as 60 percent. Drugs called senolytics help geriatric mice stay sprightly long after their peers have died. The diabetes drugs metformin and acarbose, extreme calorie restriction, and, by one biotech investor’s count, about 90 other interventions keep mice skittering around lab cages well past their usual expiration date. The newest scheme is to hack the aging process itself by reprogramming old cells to a younger state. “If you’re a mouse, you’re a lucky creature because…

Hezbollah’s long war comes out of the shadows

Hezbollah’s long war comes out of the shadows

The groves of southern Lebanon had been quiet for nearly 17 years. But as farmers tended to orange trees and banana crops last Thursday, rocket men lurked among them, readying the biggest barrage fired into Israel since the war of 2006 and taking a startled region to the precipice of another conflict that leaders on both sides of the border fear will be worse than all before them. In Beirut and Tel Aviv, an escalation seemed imminent. But as a troubling afternoon wore on, the apocalyptic showdown between Hezbollah and Israel that had been widely predicted started to fizzle. Rhetoric was of measured responses. Israel was content to blame Palestinian groups and put a distance between them and Hezbollah. War could wait for now. But as two mortal foes continue to stalk…

DHARMA FOR A TRAUMATIZED WORLD

DHARMA FOR A TRAUMATIZED WORLD

THIS IS A TIME of global trauma. Collectively, we’re facing a warming planet, pandemics, racial and social injustice, growing authoritarianism, the horror of war, and global instability unlike anything we’ve seen since the end of the Second World War. In this traumatized world, many people are coming to meditation classes asking, How can I navigate these difficult times? How can spiritual teachings and practices help me find healing, connection, and freedom? We are at a time in history where the illusion of separate self—with its unprocessed fear, aggression, and destructiveness—threatens all life systems on our planet. More than ever, we need practices that can evolve consciousness from “self vs. other” and “us vs. them” to “we” practices that motivate us to act on behalf of our collective well-being. Buddhist teachings point to the…

Horizon

Horizon

1 SONY ALPHA 7R V • £4,000, sony.co.uk It’s time to make two bold and controversial statements. One, the quality of Sony’s recent camera output now places it directly next to Canon and Nikon in pro cameras’ upper tier. Two: the DSLR is dead. Mirrorless sensors open up new possibilities, and manufacturers are only now scratching the surface of what’s possible. Right now, the Alpha 7R V is utterly remarkable for its AI subject detection engine, which utilises deep learning to pull off what Sony calls ‘next-generation autofocus’, able to not only accurately pick out subjects in frame but to analyse their pose to ensure the 7R V never locks onto a foreground finger. Five years down the line? The entire mirrorless market will be brainier than your cat. The Alpha 7R V also…

LIVING TO THE LIMITS

LIVING TO THE LIMITS

Chris Hemsworth plunged into Arctic waters, dangled high above a canyon while climbing a rope, fasted for four days, and prepared for his own eventual death—all in the pursuit of living longer. In Limitless With Chris Hemsworth, a six-part National Geographic documentary streaming on Disney+, the actor doesn’t just rely on a physique honed during a decade of playing Thor in movies. He challenges mind as well as body in a quest to develop habits that might extend life. His, and ours. Experts guide him. Some of their tips sound familiar—eat less, exercise more—but others, not so much: Accept reality. Harness stress. Before this project, Hemsworth had “always trained specifically for a movie,” where the goal might have been “to have abs this summer or whatever. And it was more superficial. I always…

DEAR ALEX

Meet Alex, our new pen pal correspondent. Alex is an eighth grader from Colorado. This month, Alex corresponds with Aubrey, who is also from Colorado. The two talked about rabbits and other pets, sports, and living in a small town. Dear Aubrey, My name is Alex. I’m 13 years old and in the eighth grade. I live in Golden, Colorado. I heard that you have rabbits. I’m so excited to know why you decided to have rabbits as pets. How many do you have? It seems like a lot of work. I haven’t had many pets in my life. When I was younger I had a dog. He was huge, so it was hard for me to take him on walks. He wanted to drag me everywhere. It was nice to cuddle him,…

DEAR ALEX

YES, NEVER, SOMETIMES?

DON’T OPEN THE DOOR Intoxication can cause heedlessness, negligence, and danger. JUSTIN LEE surveys the Buddhist traditions that abstain from all intoxicants. Certain Buddhist traditions, chief amongst them the Theravadin school centered in Southeast Asia, have long held an austere perspective on the use of intoxicants. This view is grounded in a strict interpretation of Buddhism’s fifth precept. The five precepts, which constitute the foundation of Buddhist ethics, form the basic code of conduct observed by practicing Buddhists, both monastics and lay practitioners. The fifth precept is a call to “abstain from intoxicants that induce a state of carelessness,” and breaching this precept is often considered a gateway to violating the other precepts, foremost among them the vows against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and harmful speech. Today, the prevailing view on strict observance of the…

YES, NEVER, SOMETIMES?
To XLR and Beyond

To XLR and Beyond

SYDNEY TO TOKYO? How about New York to Athens? With a breathtaking range of 5,400 miles (8,700km), the new Airbus A321XLR is the amalgamation of the latest innovations in engineering that significantly expand the capabilities of travel. The Airbus A321XLR, which operated its first test flight on June 16, represents a thrilling new chapter for aviation; one that will enable innovators of the industry to consider new routes, updated inflight service options, and even new airline business models. In Hamburg, on the day of that first A321XLR flight, Philippe Mhun, Airbus’s Executive Vice President of Programs and Services, summed up the excitement: “This is a major milestone for the A320 Family and its customers worldwide. The A321XLR will open new routes with unbeatable economics and environmental performance.” As the next generation of the…

COOKED WITH LOVE

MY FAMILY DOESN’T have any heirloom recipes passed down from generation to generation. I did not learn how to cook from my parents; I learned to cook on my own, mostly out of necessity. I was a young teen when my family immigrated to the United States, and my mother worked long hours, leaving my brother and me to fend for ourselves in terms of meal preparation. Even now, when my mother is craving Colombian food, she asks me to cook it for her. I’m the one teaching her how to make the foods of her own childhood, telling her the stories of how I came to know the recipes. When I first started cooking, I relied on my memories of watching others cook, combined with my limited understanding of what…

COOKED WITH LOVE
Water, Water Will Be Mine

Water, Water Will Be Mine

Characters: »Narrator 1 »Narrator 2 »Simba the Lion »Sungura the Rabbit »Tumbili the Monkey »Mamba the Crocodile »Chui the Leopard »Kuro the Waterbuck »Ngiri the Warthog »Chura the Frog »Kaa the Crab NARRATOR 1: Long ago, there was a time of no rain. Rivers, lakes, and mud holes were all dry and the ground was cracked with lines of death. The animals knew they would soon die, so they all came together in peace to talk about maji, water. Simba the Lion asked each animal where the water had gone. MAMBA: There is none to be found. I no longer swim, but crawl on the earth, like Mjusi the Lizard. CHUI: There is none to be found. I no longer drink, but eat dust like Muhanga the Aardvark at the termite hill. KURO: There is none to be found. I no longer stand with…

MOST TRUSTWORTHY COMPANIES IN AMERICA 2023

MOST TRUSTWORTHY COMPANIES IN AMERICA 2023

IN ANY GOOD RELATIONSHIP, THE ONE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT is trust. It’s hard to build, easy to lose and sometimes you think you have more of it than you really do. According to a survey last year by the consulting firm PwC, 87 percent of business executives thought consumers had a high level of trust in their companies. The number of customers who actually said they did was just 30 percent. There was also a gap, though a smaller one, between the 84 percent of executives who thought their employees had a lot of trust in their businesses and the 69 percent of employees who did. Because trust plays a big part in customers’ decisions about what to buy, employees’ decisions about where to work and investors’ decisions about whether to invest,…

Cosmos within

Cosmos within

‘I remember as a little boy,’ Man said, ‘I would sit there and flick through the countless books of botanical drawings that Joseph Banks [and others of that era] did. I just marvelled at the detail of the brush strokes and the colours.’ Years later, working as a photographer in London, Man was taking his lunch break when he happened to glance at the fig he’d just bitten into. ‘This fig was just so beautiful. The moisture and the way that the seeds sat…’ he said. Without taking another bite, he placed it on the studio’s product-shot backdrop and took a picture. ‘It was very clinical, it was on a white background but lit nicely and it was beautiful. From that day, I started photographing all the fruits and vegetables I would…

WELCOME TO Spain

WELCOME TO Spain

Spain often brings to mind images of bullfights, flamenco dancers, guitar music, golden beaches, magical islands set in the dark-blue Mediterranean, and snow-white villages clinging to mountainsides. Spain is all that, and more. Much of Spain’s countryside is covered with low mountains, green in spring, dry and brown the rest of the year. The soil and Mediterranean climate—hot summers and mild winter—are perfect for growing cork trees as well as oranges, grapes, almonds, and olives. Spain’s architecture ranges from simple, whitewashed cottages to magnificent cathedrals, castles, and modern apartment buildings, all very different from the wildly curving lines of architect Antoni Gaudí’s imaginative buildings. Here and there, gracious old monasteries and castles have been converted into picturesque hotels. Covering most of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, the third most mountainous country in Europe, is cut…

Feedback

A sticky fix News headlines tell a gripping, simple tale: “Royal Navy probe after claims £88m Trident submarine nuclear reactor fault was fixed with super glue” (Wales Online). “Furious Navy chiefs order investigation after ‘workers on Trident submarine glued broken bolts in a nuclear reactor chamber’” (Daily Mail). “Engineers Use Superglue To Repair Broken Nuclear Submarine: ‘Disturbing’ And ‘Insulting’” (International Business Times). The Guardian quotes a UK navy source as saying: “It’s a disgrace. You can’t cut corners with nuclear. Standards are standards. Nuclear standards are never compromised.” But of course you can, and they are. The British navy has a history of money-saving innovation. The 2000 Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Royal Navy for ordering its sailors to stop using live cannon shells, and to instead just shout: “Bang!”…

COMMANDER in CHIEF

COMMANDER in CHIEF

In 2019, quarterback Patrick Mahomes of Tyler, Texas, led the Kansas City Chiefs to their first Super Bowl appearance in 50 years. They defeated the San Francisco 49ers, and Mahomes was named Super Bowl MVP, only the second Black quarterback and the youngest ever to take home the honor. A 10-year contract extension with a potential worth of $503 million (the third-largest in sporting history), was his reward. It was money well spent as he took his team to the Super Bowl again the following year, this time against the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When Mahomes emerged from the locker room after a grueling 31-9 loss, he was stunned to find Brady waiting outside the door. “The biggest thing he said was, ‘Stay with the process and be who you…

The Unbroken Code of the Navajo Code Talkers

The Unbroken Code of the Navajo Code Talkers

It’s August 7,1942, in the middle of World War II. A huge battle is unfolding on Guadalcanal Island in the Pacific Ocean. Hidden in the steamy jungle, two Japanese soldiers watch American Marines roll out wire from one battle patrol to the next. The wire will carry telephone signals, allowing different units to talk to each other and to base command. In the distance, gunfire rattles and bombs blast. When the Americans are gone, the Japanese soldiers creep out and clip headphones onto the newly laid line. Both speak English. They hope to eavesdrop on what the Americans are planning. The first Japanese soldier listens. A look of surprise crosses his face. He hears a sing-song “mumbling” and some throaty gurgles and clicks. The second soldier also listens. It’s like nothing…

New border rules prevent a surge—for now

New border rules prevent a surge—for now

What happened The Biden administration said it was “encouraged” this week after new asylum rules instituted after the lifting of Title 42 did not result in an expected surge of migrants at the border. Last week President Biden sent 1,500 troops to the border and warned things would get “chaotic” after the end of the Covid-related public-health order, which for three years allowed border agents to summarily expel migrants. But after more than 10,000 migrants a day sought to cross the border just before Title 42 ended, much stricter asylum rules adopted by the administration under a restored policy called Title 8—including a five-year entry ban on migrants who try to enter illegally—cut the influx by half, with fewer than 5,000 migrant encounters a day. The five-year ban in particular “has…

Red, White, and Blue Zones

WHAT’S THE SECRET to living an extra 10 years? It’s never one thing. Rather, it’s a set of environmental factors that reinforce each other and that keep people reflexively doing the right things and avoiding the wrong things for long enough not to develop chronic diseases. For the past 20 years writing for National Geographic, I’ve identified and studied the world’s longest-lived areas, which I call blue zones. These places—Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Ikaría, Greece; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and the Seventh-day Adventist communities in Loma Linda, California—have the most centenarians and the highest middle-age life expectancy. Why? Residents live purposeful lives in walkable settings that keep people naturally active and socially connected. And they eat a diet that’s largely plant-based whole foods. In 2019, as the COVID pandemic set in, photographer…

EU fines Meta

EU fines Meta

Dublin European regulators this week imposed a record $1.3 billion fine on Meta, Facebook’s parent company, saying it violated European Union privacy laws by transferring users’ data from Europe to the United States, where U.S. intelligence agencies could theoretically access it. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission gave Meta until October to stop sending user data from the European Economic Area—which includes EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway—across the Atlantic. Meta said it would appeal the “flawed, unjustified” decision, saying it set “a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data” internationally. Industry groups are calling for clarity on what data they can and can’t transfer. American tech companies have been clashing for years with regulators in Europe, where online privacy and security protections are much stronger. Racism in soccer Valencia, Spain Spanish fans…

Psychedelic INSIGHT

Psychedelic INSIGHT

You enter a beige brick building like all the others on the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center’s sprawling campus. Here, in an unremarkable maze of offices, something remarkable is happening. When you reach a third-floor office, there are hints of the mystical experience ahead. In the waiting room, you’re greeted by bright paintings, a crystal tabletop with blue and beige swirls, and a foot-tall amethyst gracing the gray filing cabinet. A set of swinging doors adorns the entry to the hallway, painted with the black silhouette of a face, with multicolored dots trailing off from the head like someone’s mind bursting with delight. It’s the official logo of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. Beyond those doors, you find the four psychedelic treatment suites, each with a photo on the door…

The inflation threat

The inflation threat

What happened Worse-than-expected UK inflation data caused ructions in the markets last week, and led to renewed concerns about the pressure on household finances. Although the annual inflation rate in April fell below double digits, it only dropped to 8.7%; the Bank of England had forecast a fall to 8.4%. The inflation rate for food, meanwhile, remained stubbornly high, at 19.1%. Food has now overtaken fuel as the biggest single driver of rising prices. Worse still, core inflation – a measure that strips out volatile food and energy prices – actually rose from 6.2% to 6.8% in April, its highest level in 31 years. The inflation figures spooked the bond markets, pushing the UK’s borrowing costs to their highest level since last year’s “mini-Budget”. In response, banks pushed up mortgage rates. It…

GOP, Biden heading for debt-limit standoff

GOP, Biden heading for debt-limit standoff

What happened The possibility of a catastrophic U.S. debt default loomed larger this week, after House Republicans insisted they would not raise the debt ceiling without major, unspecified spending cuts that President Biden said he would not even discuss. After meeting with congressional Democrats, Biden said he “has no intention of letting the Republicans wreck our economy” with “extreme” plans such as cutting Social Security and Medicare. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called Biden’s refusal to negotiate “irresponsible.” He said a debt-limit increase must include a plan to rein in “irresponsible government spending,” and said the two “should sit down and get this done and stop playing politics.” Biden has agreed to meet with McCarthy, but no date has been set. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell—who helped broker a deal…

In the Beginning

In the Beginning

2003 81,000 USERS Hoffman: The natural thing, when everyone starts doing social products, is they always go to dating. We did that with SocialNet. We focused on, “How do we build a much better dating engine?” And we added the professional networking as an afterthought. Patrick Ferrell, cofounder, SocialNet: Reid and I would sit some nights with our glasses of cabernet, and we would argue about various attributes of social networking until 2 in the morning. Allen Blue, SocialNet director of product design, LinkedIn cofounder: It was a weird time, when [the web] was open to anyone who wanted to participate in it. Everything was based on HTML 1, so you could jump in pretty easily. I'd built websites and things for the Stanford Department of Drama, so when I got a call…

Deadline looms on debt ceiling as positions harden

Deadline looms on debt ceiling as positions harden

What happened President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reported incremental progress in debt-limit talks this week, but remained far from an agreement ahead of a looming June 1 default deadline and the possibility of economic catastrophe. The two sides are “nowhere near a deal,” McCarthy told GOP lawmakers in a closed-door meeting early this week. Spending cuts remain the biggest point of contention. Biden has agreed to cap 2024 spending at 2023 levels, but Republicans demand actual cuts to social safety-net spending and an agreement to set spending caps for the next six years. Biden wants to reduce the deficit by including the defense budget in the freeze, raising taxes on the wealthy, and closing some corporate tax loopholes—measures Republicans adamantly oppose. Republicans have proposed stricter work requirements for recipients…

The Year of the Rabbit

If someone asks you what your astrological sign is, you may say Sagittarius (if you were born in September) or Taurus (if you were born in May), or another one of the 12 familiar signs of the Western zodiac. But if you are Chinese, your answer would be completely different. In Chinese astrology, the 12 zodiac animals are called she¯ngxiào, which means “animal sign.” These animals, in their order of appearance, are the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Each animal sign reoccurs every 12 years. The year you were born matches one of these animals. It might also tell you something about your personality. So, if you were born in 2011, you were born in the Year of the Rabbit. And 2023…

The Year of the Rabbit

Wisterian

IN MY ADULT LIFE, I’ve had just one occasion on which to draw from six years of Spanish language instruction, in late 2015 when my father and I stayed for a week in Murcia. We’d been invited there to teach English by day; by night he’d sleep, and I’d try to sleep, only to wake up at twelve or one with no better plan than to put on my sneakers and roam the city streets. I drifted between cafés in the dark that week, encountering several times the same ghostly bunch of Swedish travelers who lamented to me in perfect English how this was the only place where they felt alive. At one café, news broke of an attack in Paris, and I pulled from the depths what little vocabulary…

Remarkable Rabbits

Remarkable Rabbits

Rabbits are small, fluffy mammals that rate 10/10 on the cuteness scale. Here are some ear-resistible facts about the third most popular pet in the United States (behind cats and dogs, of course!). Warning: Readers sensitive to bad bunny puns should proceed with caution. Description There are many species of rabbits around the world that share many characteristics such as: long ears, powerful hind legs, soft fur, and short, puffy tails. Also, their teeth never stop growing. Rabbits’ chompers grow up to five inches a year, but are gradually worn down as they chew on plants. Size-wise, rabbits vary widely. The smallest is the pygmy rabbit at 7.9 inches long and 0.9 pounds. The Guinness World Record holder for the longest rabbit is Darius, a 4.4-foot continental giant from England who weighed in at…

WITH DUENDE

From Andalusia, the south of Spain, comes a sound known as flamenco. DOONK. A heeled shoe stomps against the floor. Tak-tak-tak. A palmero (pahl-MEH-roh) claps. Tak-a-tak-a-tak. A second palmero claps the counter rhythm. DOONK tak-tak-tak. DOONK tak-a-tak-a-tak. Flamenco music has roots belonging to the various people who have populated Spain—the Gypsy, Indian, Moorish, and Sephardic Jewish peoples. Because of cultural and religious differences, these groups were forced to live as outcasts among other Spaniards during the 15th century. The Gypsies in Granada, for example, lived high in the caves of the Sacromonte—a hilly area somewhat remote from the city center. There, flamenco music flourished. Stroom, strrrroom. The guitar adds to the compás (comb-PAHS)—the beat. “¡Ay!” The singer begins the cante (CAHN-tay)—song—in a voice unlike that of other music. It floats up and down a musical scale, covering…

WITH DUENDE
The SECRET in the STONE

The SECRET in the STONE

In 1798, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte took his armies to Egypt. They marveled at the pyramids and temples, and wondered about the lines of little people, birds, eyes, and fans carved all over them. Was it writing? What did it say? It was like a secret code whose key had long been lost. Until some soldiers demolishing a wall made a remarkable discovery. The Find The hot sun beat down on the backs of the French soldiers as they moved stones from an old fortress wall near Rosetta, Egypt. The wall had been built from rock and broken bits of older buildings. As they worked, one officer noticed a big chunk of black granite with a smooth front. It was covered in tiny writing. The officer pulled out the stone. It was…

AMAZING GRACIE

Heiress to both oil and football dynasties and a beauty pageant winner to boot, Gracie Hunt’s the girl who has it all. So what does she do? She gives it back. And she has even greater aspirations of her own. When she’s not running marathons, Gracie, whose great-grandfather was famed oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, serves as a Special Olympics Ambassador and has served on the board of Special Olympics Texas and presently with Special Olympics Kansas. She also works with New Friends New Life, which provides services and assistance for those victimized by human trafficking. Plus her seat on the board of Echelon, a body of young professionals in service to the Salvation Army, helping to alleviate poverty and hopelessness wherever it’s found. Not to mention, all the other volunteering she does…

AMAZING GRACIE
Gurvir Johal

Gurvir Johal

Gurvir Johal Profile ● Gurvir Johal is a Birming-hambased wedding photographer who specializes in Sikh, Hindu, Muslim and Indian weddings.● In 2018, he was ranked ‘Third-Best Wedding Photographer in the World’ and the number-one wedding photographer in the UK and Europe by the One Eyeland International photography awards.● He is a Double Master photographer of the Las Vegas-based Wedding & Portrait Photography International (WPPI) and a Fellow of the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP).● Gurvir adopts a photojournalistic approach to document wedding stories in an emotive, timeless and creative fashion.● A Nikon #Zcreator and ambassador for GraphiStudio, Light & Motion, and Fundy Designer album software, Gurvir is a headline speaker at The Photography Show. Book tickets at www.photographyshow.com It’s the start of another week at the height of summer, and…

Building a Culture—and a Business

Building a Culture—and a Business

2010 85M USERS Weiner: Like many others, I thought of Linkedln primarily as a Rolodex and networking tool. After the opportunity to become CEO [came up], I started to learn more and was struck by the enormity of the potential of the platform as a means to facilitate the flow of human, intellectual, and working capital. Ryan Roslansky, Linkedln (2009present), chief product officer, CEO: When Jeff joined Linkedln, he called and asked me to join him as his first hire. It took him maybe 10 minutes to explain that if you can digitally map all the professionals in the world, and all the companies and jobs and skills, you can create meaningful economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. Weiner: Shortly after I joined, we implemented a framework called “Vision…

KEEPING SECRETS SECRET

KEEPING SECRETS SECRET

CONFIDENTIAL How do you keep your plans secret if you’re a king or queen and everyone would love to read your mail? Well, first you might try to hide your notes in some clever way. Secret messages have been hidden in hairdos, sewn into clothes, written under paintings, and slid into shoes. The ancient Chinese wrote secrets on pieces of silk, which were then coated with wax and swallowed. (We’ll leave it to you to figure out how those messages were delivered!) But no matter how well hidden a message is, it can still be read if it’s found. What if you need something more secret? Secret Writing We’re talking about codes, of course. A code is a set of rules that hides the true message by substituting letters or mixing up words. That…

midweek meals microwave marvels

£3.96 per serving good to know All recipes were cooked in a 750W microwave. Please refer to manufacturer’s instructions for more guidance on cooking times. £3.24 per serving your shopping list FRUIT, VEG & HERBS small handful of coriander7 garlic cloves15g piece of ginger1 lime½ small onion1 orange2 pak choi small handful of parsley2 red chillies2 shallots2 spring onions1 basil sprig2 sweet potatoes (about 200g each) STORECUPBOARD 300g arborio rice400g can black beans775ml chicken stock½ tsp chilli powder400g can chopped tomatoes2 tsp fish sauce1 tsp ground cumin½ tbsp honey3 tbsp laksa or Thai red curry paste400ml can light coconut milk450ml passata2 nests of vermicelli rice noodles1 tsp smooth peanut butter2 tbsp soy sauce150ml tomato & garlic pasta sauce550ml vegetable stock DAIRY & CHILLED 35g fresh lasagne sheets30g grated mozzarella50g grated parmesan50g ricotta40g salted butter MEAT & FISH 2 cooked chicken breasts150g cooked…

midweek meals microwave marvels
HANGING OUT WITH ARCTIC WOLVES

HANGING OUT WITH ARCTIC WOLVES

Seven arctic wolves slide across a frozen pond beneath the 24-hour sunlight of the summer Canadian Arctic in 2018. Even though my watch says it’s after midnight, the sky won’t start to get dark here for a few more weeks, toward the end of September. The wolves begin to yip and squeal as they chase a chunk of ice about the size of a hockey puck. The wolves are siblings from the same pack. Two more wolves, including one I think is the father, observe from afar. The three largest siblings are about a year old and weigh around 70 pounds. The youngest four were born a couple months ago and aren’t much bigger than a throw pillow. The older wolves are playing rough, bumping the four pups and sending them spinning…

Image review

Hanging by a thread By Ros Osborne Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark ll; Olympus 60mm macro lens Late one afternoon I spotted this spider dangling by a thread in a dark corner of our back garden. It was a little windy at the time so the spider was swinging back and forth on its thread. I was keen to photograph it because I liked the way the back lighting accentuated its colours and highlighted the hairs on its legs. There were some brief periods when the wind died down and the spider was still. It was during that time that I took the opportunity to capture this image. Don’s response Ros Osborne’s spider picture looks like something from a studio set up; the lighting is flawless and apart from that one leg, every detail is in…

Image review
Spain: Soccer Superpower

Spain: Soccer Superpower

Think of sport in Spain and you probably imagine a man with a red flag facing a charging bull. But bullfighting is no longer the most popular sport in Spaniards’ hearts. The (somewhat) new game on the block is soccer. From Minnow to Hero Spain’s love of soccer (called futbol throughout the world) got off, literally, to a rocky start. British mining companies working in the country’s south brought soccer to the region in the 1870s. Over the next half century, regional clubs slowly developed. Only in 1920 did the men’s national team officially come into being. They were off to a running start, winning the Olympic silver medal the same year. Eighty-odd years later, the Spanish soccer national team was just as spirited and aggressive. But players lacked physical strength. They couldn’t tackle…

Melissa Thompson 2023’s most exciting food finds

Melissa Thompson 2023’s most exciting food finds

This year is going to be a bumper one for food. Now more than ever, there’s a hunger for learning about different global cuisines, with the resources to do so hitting the mainstream, and new, exciting prospects in the form of restaurants, chefs, businesses and more. It’s not a moment too soon, and these are some of the people, places and cuisines to watch out for in 2023. 1 THE RESTAURANT Akub Palestine’s culinary landscape is rich and fruitful, but underrepresented on the restaurant scene. Akub opened at the end of 2022, and will fully spread its wings under head chef Fadi Kattan and business partner Rasha Khouri. Akub is a marriage of different influences. Palestinian produce from Fairtrade co-operative Zaytoun is paired with seasonal British ingredients and memories from Fadi’s childhood, especially…

The National Interest: Jonathan Chait

The National Interest: Jonathan Chait

INSIDE: The Swifties take New Jersey / Bones for sale in Bushwick / The solution to Manhattan’s traffic nightmare IN MAY 2017, Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey, crashing through the first of many important democratic norms. While FBI directors technically can be fired, they generally serve ten-year terms for the express purpose of ensuring their political independence and to ward off the inherent danger of an unscrupulous president turning the bureau into a partisan weapon to protect his friends and harass his enemies. There were banner headlines and special reports invoking Nixon’s infamous Saturday Night Massacre. Conservatives uneasily justified the extraordinary maneuver as a necessary onetime response to Comey’s messy involvement in the 2016 election. “Given the recent controversies surrounding the director, I believe a fresh start will serve the…