Indholdsfortegnelse for November 25, 2022 i The Week Magazine

In Greek tragedy, heroes meet their downfall when they succumb to hubris—an arrogant belief in their own infallibility. Jealous gods respond with a punishing lesson in humility. Much has changed over 2,500 years, but not human nature. Today, the world stage is filled with mighty tech titans and autocrats who are in the process of being humbled for the moral edification of we mortals. Behold the edgelord Elon Musk, who bought Twitter on impulse for $44 billion: In a few short weeks, he has managed to frighten away advertisers, gut the staff, and inspire hoaxers to mock him on his own site. As he tumbles, Icarus-like, from the sky, Elon can wave to Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old founder of cryptocurrency firm FTX, whose blockchain-enabled Ponzi scheme collapsed into a black…

The George Washington University student newspaper has apologized for allowing a campus political debate to include a question about transgender athletes in women’s sports. Jarrod Wardwell, The Hatchet’s editor-in-chief, said the question itself was “harmful,” and the “fact that trans women are women” is “not up for debate.” Five Oregon sheriffs say they won’t enforce the state’s new ban on high-capacity gun magazines. Voters passed a referendum last week that limits magazines to 10 rounds, but the sheriffs of five rural counties vow to ignore it. “I don’t believe that I am superseding state law by not enforcing it,” said Malheur County Sheriff Brian Wolfe, adding that sheriffs always have “to pick and choose what laws they are going to be able to enforce.” In other news Trump wanted IRS…

Sylvester Stallone isn’t going gently into that good night, said James Hibberd in The Hollywood Reporter. At 76, he’s just one of a handful of actors to star in box office hits across six decades, yet after 50 films, he’s still restless and continues to act and to write. “I feel very immature,” he says. “I’ve always been averse to the quote ‘Age gracefully.’ How do you age gracefully? There’s nothing graceful about it.” He feels his age as a result of two dozen operations covering his back, neck, shoulders, knees, ankles, and fist. “But after I warm up, I feel really good,” Stallone says. “I don’t run out of gas.” When he looks back over his career, he’s proud of his Rocky and Rambo films but admits he’s…

Dave Chappelle began the host’s monologue on Saturday Night Live last week by denouncing anti-Semitism, but then added sarcastically, “And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time.” The comic invoked several Jewish stereotypes in both criticizing and defending Kanye “Ye” West and NBA star Kyrie Irving, who both recently made anti-Semitic comments. “I’ve been to Hollywood. It’s a lot of Jews,” Chappelle said. He joked about Ye breaking “the show-business rules” by saying Jews control Hollywood and the media. “You know, the rules of perception,” Chappelle explained. “If they’re Black, then it’s a gang. If they’re Italian, it’s a mob. If they’re Jewish, it’s a coincidence and you should never speak about it.” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said it was “disturbing” to see Chappelle and Saturday…

Audrey Fahlberg The Dispatch Rank-and-file Democrats keep donating millions to charismatic candidates Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke, said Audrey Fahlberg, but these progressive darlings keep losing elections. Abrams raked in $85 million in contributions for her Georgia gubernatorial race but was beaten by 7 percentage points by Gov. Brian Kemp in a purple state—far worse than she did four years ago. O’Rourke, who keeps losing elections, also got a huge fundraising haul but was blown out by Gov. Greg Abbott by 11 points. So “why have Democrats continued to prop up dead-end candidates like them?” Blame the party’s “small donor” fundraising culture. Democrats rely on online gimmicks “like fundraising thermometers and countdown clocks” that target Republicans whom progressives hate. These tactics generate a lot of $10 and $20 contributions, but…

AUSTRALIA Chris Zappone The Age Russian cyberattacks against the West have surged since Vladimir Putin began his war on Ukraine, said Chris Zappone. The hack last week of Australian health insurer Medibank is a case in point: Investigators have concluded that the Russian criminal gang REvil was behind the ransomware attack that compromised the private data of some 10 million Australians. REvil has hit Western companies before, notably the food giant JBS last year. Back then, Russia arrested a few members of the group, a sign it was taking cybercrime seriously. Since the Ukraine invasion, however, Putin has “ended any efforts to restrain the gangs operating from Russia’s jurisdiction” and is using cyberattacks to further Kremlin ends. Russian hackers raked in some $400 million last year; this year, experts believe…

Global fossil fuel emissions are expected to reach a record high this year. The world’s nations are on track to emit roughly 36.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide, slightly more than the previous record set in 2019, which came before the pandemic prompted a temporary drop in energy use.The New York Times Since 9/11, four times as many U.S. servicemembers have died by suicide as have died in combat. More than 30,000 veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war on terrorism have taken their own lives.Axios More than 155 million Americans—nearly half the nation’s population—now live in states where adult marijuana use has been legalized. After Maryland and Missouri passed referendums last week, 21 states now allow legal weed, 10 years after the first referendums were passed, in Washington and…

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”Soren Kierkegaard, quoted in Substack “Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us.”P. J. O’Rourke, quoted in The Boston Globe “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”Milton Friedman, quoted in BizNews “It’s not harmless to be pleasing and self-effacing; it costs too much to bury yourself so that other people will approve of you.”Geena Davis, quoted in Shondaland.com “I now see how much more powerful stamina can be than talent; or to say it another way, how powerless talent is, on its own, without stamina.”Poet Carl Phillips, quoted in The Sewanee Review “History is literally present in all that we do. It is…

Ransomware gets less lucrative Security analysts believe there have been fewer ransomware attacks this year because more companies have resisted paying the hackers, said Hannah Murphy in the Financial Times. After an explosion of ransomware attacks, in which a hacker seizes and holds a victim’s computer system hostage for a ransom, in 2020 and 2021, there’s been “a 23 percent drop in the number of ransomware attempts” this year. When cases have emerged, only 46 percent of victims have paid the attackers. In 2019, “85 percent of ransomware cases handled by cybersecurity group Coveware ended in a payment.” The U.S. government has argued against paying ransomware hackers, saying it emboldens them. Additionally, only 4 percent of the organizations that paid a ransom in 2021 were able to retrieve all…

Ravers say that thumping bass notes are the key to getting people on the dance floor, and a new study suggests they’re right. Researchers at McMaster University in Canada arranged an electronic music gig by the Canadian duo Orphx and asked attendees to wear motion capture headbands. The researchers then used special speakers to introduce very low frequency sound (VLF)—far too low to be detected by the ear—at intervals throughout the performance. They found that the concertgoers moved an average of 12 percent more when the VLF speakers were turned on: either dancing more vigorously or with more exaggerated movements. Follow-up experiments proved that the dancers couldn’t discern a difference between music with and without VLF. “This is real world—real electronic music dance concert—validation that the bass really does…

Sarah Thankam Mathews’ debut novel, All This Could Be Different, is the coming-of-age story of a young woman from India who after finishing college moves to Milwaukee just as the Great Recession hits. It is a National Book Award finalist. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (1993). This was the book I read at nights while I wrote a huge chunk of All This Could Be Different. The Shipping News took me to the harsh chill of Newfoundland, and the hunger for a new life, and I gladly went. It is moving, muscular, fiercely idiosyncratic, and scream-out-loud funny. Incredible literature, and everyone should read it. Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (2008). Masterly—perhaps one of the greatest New York City novels. Come for the cricket. Stay for the towers falling, for…

  2 Don’t look to Bruce Springsteen’s new covers album expecting “tortured, joyful, sweaty soul,” said A.D. Amorosi in Variety. Though the 73-year-old rocker’s voice is in fine form as he tackles more than a dozen favorite R&B songs, he and producer Ron Aniello too often “get bogged down in an overly rich arrangement of strings and horns.” Instead of delivering the fire of Springsteen when his early 1970s bar band often amped up classic soul, the record winds up feeling “coolly reserved and occasionally dispassionate.” At least the 15 song selections “demonstrate deep knowledge and good taste,” said Stephen Thomas Erlewine in AllMusic. Springsteen, to his credit, also “knows how to croon without getting saccharine.” But he and Aniello didn’t bother to reinterpret songs you may remember as lesser…

Every male celebrity seems to have his own whiskey these days, said Jessica Sulima in Thrillist. Onetime soccer god David Beckham endorses a pale Scotch that comes in a blue bottle better suited for cologne. And it burns going down. These alternatives actually impress. Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey ($35). This accessible blend, from a brand founded by mixed martial arts champ Conor McGregor, offers notes of vanilla, honey, and toasted wood. Wild Turkey Longbranch Bourbon ($46). Matthew McConaughey backs this eight-year bourbon refined with mesquite charcoal. With its cinnamon scent and strong finish, it’s great either neat or in a citrusy cocktail. Heaven’s Door Straight Bourbon Whiskey ($50). Bob Dylan’s pleasing Tennessee bourbon “boasts notes of baked bread and buttered popcorn, followed by pumpernickel and light maple.”…

Lower the thermostat. The Department of Energy claims that turning down your thermostat 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours each night can reduce heating costs by up to 10 percent. Installing a smart thermostat, which automatically lowers the setting when a home is empty, can save another 8 percent annually. Mind the windows. About 30 percent of a home’s heat energy is lost through windows. Once you’ve sealed gaps, it’s best to cover them at night with shades or curtains but open them to let in the warmth of the sun by day. Cellular shades are particularly effective insulators that reduce heat loss through windows by 40 percent. Stop heating unused rooms. Close off rooms that sit empty and can accommodate lower temperatures. Running a single space heater during…

Jennifer Rubin The Washington Post Last week’s promising inflation numbers made the stock market go wild, said Jennifer Rubin. That may be premature—but some optimism is warranted. If prices keep moderating without a dramatic escalation in job losses, that will represent the economic “soft landing” that seemed inconceivable a few weeks ago. Investors who assume the Federal Reserve is about to pause its interest rate increases are misguided. Fed chair Jerome Powell said “we have a ways to go,” earlier this month, and there is no reason to doubt him. But the United States is still “in an enviable position.” It remains the “most attractive venue to spend your money, the country most likely to come out of the post-pandemic turbulence in the best condition.” Lowering trade barriers and reforming…

This week’s question: Fans of embattled tech billionaire Elon Musk have created a 30-foot aluminum statue of him as a human-goat hybrid riding a rocket. Come up with a name for this work that acknowledges the Tesla and Twitter CEO’s current troubles. Last week’s contest: After a year of posting TikToks in which he pretended to be dead, a Kentucky restaurant manager was recently hired to play a corpse on CSI: Vegas. What should he title a motivational memoir about achieving his morbid dream? THE WINNER: “How to Be Some Body” Jesse Rifkin, Arlington, Va. SECOND PLACE: “Working Stiff” Matthew Lane, Emporia, Kan. THIRD PLACE: “Waiting to Inhale” Tim Mistele, Coral Gables, Fla. For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest. How to enter: Submissions should be…

Marie Kondo might be synonymous with tidying up, said Julia Llewellyn Smith in the Daily Mail (U.K.)., but even the queen of maintaining an organized home is only human. As Kondo, 38, juggles a business empire and children ages 7, 6, and 1, she admits she and her husband no longer have a perfectly pristine home. “When it was just the two of us, my house was pretty close to that ideal,” she says. “My own home really isn’t completely tidy. I guess I could get to that point if I did a proper blitz for an hour or two.” Her family recently moved back to Tokyo, where she grew up, after six years in Los Angeles. Standing 4-foot-7, Kondo popularized asking whether every item in your home “sparks…

Amanda Marcotte Salon After voters rejected MAGA extremism in the midterms, said Amanda Marcotte, you’d think House Republicans would reconsider their goal to impeach President Biden. But the small margin Republicans will have in the House “dramatically weakens” them and gives the MAGA/far-right faction—including people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—enormous leverage to make demands of likely House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in return for votes. “We’ve seen this script play out before,” in 1998, when the House impeached President Bill Clinton. House Speaker Newt Gingrich knew trying to oust a president from office over an affair was politically risky, but the party’s right wing demanded it—and the resulting voter backlash wound up costing Republicans many House seats and Gingrich his career in Congress. Today, MAGA Republicans see a Biden impeachment “as…

NETHERLANDS Luuk Miedema Trouw Prime Minister Mark Rutte wants to atone for Dutch involvement in the colonial-era slave trade, said Luuk Miedema. Spurred by an advisory panel’s recommendation, he plans to offer an official apology and fund a new museum to promote awareness of past Dutch crimes. Surely it’s overdue to acknowledge that the Netherlands traded some half a million human beings and ran brutal colonies in Suriname and Curaçao. But “before we apologize for the behavior of our distant ancestors,” shouldn’t we make sure “that we are not involved in slavery right now”? I’m not just talking about some 5,000 people here, mostly foreigners, who are enslaved in sex work, farming, and domestic labor. We Dutch also effectively outsource slave labor, because we rely on the cheap phones and…

The antiviral pill Paxlovid is known to cut rates of hospitalization and death, and now it also appears to reduce the risk of long Covid when taken early. A new study, by the Department of Veterans Affairs, examined the records of more than 56,000 veterans diagnosed with Covid-19 this year who had at least one risk factor for severe disease, such as being a smoker or diabetic or over age 60. Those who had been treated with Paxlovid within five days of infection had a 26 percent lower risk of developing several long Covid conditions, including heart disease, blood disorders, fatigue, muscle pain, and shortness of breath. Three months after their diagnosis, the Paxlovid patients had 2.3 fewer cases of long Covid symptoms per 100 people. The findings bolster…

(Graywolf, $16) Percival Everett’s latest “zany masterpiece” has many of the trappings of a James Bond novel, said Jennifer Wilson in The Atlantic. Except we are in the camp of the would-be supervillain: a young Black billionaire who claims to be pursuing racial revenge on a grand scale. To that end, he has hired our narrator, a Black math professor who is the world’s leading expert in the study of zero, or nothing. The plot’s mastermind, however, turns out to be “just another über-rich jerk playing out his boyhood fantasies,” a villain who scrambles notions of identity because he presents himself as a race hero. As Everett’s Bond spoof unfolds, “there are gorgeous robots, a devastating space laser, a pool of man-eating sharks under the dining room, and lots…

The Ruin of All Witches by Malcolm Gaskill (Knopf, $30) Don’t mistake The Ruin of All Witches for a fairy tale, said Caroline Fraser in The New York Times. Malcolm Gaskill’s “deliciously suspenseful” book recounts a true story about a Springfield, Mass., couple arrested in 1651 and tried on suspicion of witchcraft. Gaskill’s meticulous recounting of the incidents that led to the arrests, including a cow’s milk spoiling, the death of an infant, and a neighbor’s nightmare, makes for a tale that’s “never less than riveting.” Madly, Deeply by Alan Rickman (Holt, $32) In a book like this recent best-seller, “what we want is gossip,” said Dominic Green in The Wall Street Journal. “Tragically,” the British actor Alan Rickman, who died in 2016, was too dedicated to surface congeniality…

4 Barbara Streisand, at 20, was “something close to perfection,” said Wesley Morris in The New York Times. In November 1962, she had already been a must-see attraction at a small Greenwich Village nightclub for two years when her label recorded her in that setting, and to finally hear what rapt audiences heard then is “mind-blowing.” Tape hiss that had spoiled and shelved the recordings has been erased, and what’s left is an incandescent rising star backed by a crack four-man band. Her “pillow-soft” singing was “pow-right-in-the-kisser, too,” and her masterful phrasing “could turn a song into a literary event.” She transforms “Cry Me a River” into a torch song and then “burns the house down.” Even 60 years ago, most of these 24 show tunes and ballads were considered…

On race in America… Descendant One of the best documentaries of the year, Descendant revisits the story of the last known ship to carry African slaves to the U.S. The 2019 discovery of the wreck of the Clotilda inspires filmmaker Margaret Brown to mount a deeper investigation into the Alabama settlement founded by those captives and their descendants’ ongoing exploitation by the family responsible for the Clotilda’s illegal journey. Netflix Aftershock Black women in the U.S. are far more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. Through the stories of two victims, this jarring documentary exposes the depth of this hidden epidemic. Hulu Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America Attorney Jeffery Robinson packs a college semester’s worth of knowledge about racism in America into…

Mastodon has welcomed 500,000 new users since Elon Musk took over Twitter. Compared with the apps below, it offers “the most Twitter-like experience.” The nonprofit social network is smaller than Twitter and “much more bespoke.” It may provide the “Twitter-but-in-its-early-days” experience you seek. Reddit brings like-minded people together. Its interface doesn’t resemble Twitter’s, but Reddit does provide places to discuss breaking news, popular culture, and other subjects of interest. Various communities, known as subreddits, “cover just about every topic imaginable.” For example, r/beekeeping is home to more than 125,000 bee enthusiasts. CounterSocial “looks quite a lot like Twitter” and offers similar features. But this social network doesn’t tolerate trolls, bots, fake news, or even advertising. It’s funded by optional $5-a-month subscriptions that grant access to a virtual reality space, among…

Amazon announced plans to cut 10,000 corporate jobs, said Matt Day in Bloomberg, after predicting “that the holiday sales period would be the slowest in its history.” The layoffs will “likely target its devices group, responsible for the Echo speakers and Alexa digital assistant”; that unit has been losing $5 billion a year. Amazon’s shares have fallen almost 50 percent this year, bringing the company’s market valuation to about $879 billion last week from a peak of $1.8 trillion in July 2021. It’s the “first public company to lose a trillion dollars in market value.” Semiconductors: Berkshire bets on microchips Berkshire Hathaway revealed a $4.1 billion stake in a Taiwanese chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., this week, said Akane Otani in The Wall Street Journal, representing Warren Buffett’s latest…

Dividend aristocrats are back Dividend-paying stocks are a surprise winner amid this market turbulence, said Hannah Zhang in Institutional Investor. “For the year through the end of October, the Morningstar Dividend Yield Focus Index returned nearly 2 percent,” compared with a decline of 19.2 percent for the broad market. Conventional wisdom holds that dividend stocks struggle in a rising-rate environment, which makes newly issued bonds more attractive. Higher rates also “make it harder for companies to pay back debt, let alone sustain healthy dividend payouts.” But neither argument has held up this year. Why? One theory is that investors have flocked to “defensive stocks”—large and well-established companies that pay healthy dividends as tech stocks fall. Wall Street’s worst deal “If you believe you lost lots of money because your…

Good week for: Lessons learned, after Ivanka Trump declined to attend her father’s presidential campaign announcement and told him she’s done with politics. “This time around,” said Ivanka, “I am choosing to prioritize my young children.” Commitment, after actor Rainn Wilson announced that he is changing his name to “Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson” to highlight the dangers of climate change. “This is not a joke,” said Wilson, 56. “I’m as serious as the melting Arctic.” Having company, as the human population passed 8 billion, just 12 years after it passed 7 billion. The United Nations projects it will take until 2037 to reach 9 billion. Bad week for: KFC, which invited customers in Germany to commemorate the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 night of anti-Jewish attacks, by choosing…

London The worst-ever outbreak of bird flu in the U.K. is threatening British holiday tables. Some 40 percent of British free-range turkeys have either died of the H5N1 virus or been culled, and bird flu season isn’t over yet. “This strain is particularly virulent around turkeys, ducks, and geese rather than chickens,” Richard Griffiths, head of the British Poultry Council, told the Financial Times. “It’s striking the Christmas birds, and it is growing exponentially.” The British government last week ordered that all farmed poultry and pet birds must be kept indoors for the next three weeks to stem the spread of the virus. Even the ravens at the Tower of London are being kept in cages. Preventable attack Brussels A Belgian police officer was stabbed to death last week…

Selena Gomez has spent the past decade battling the terrifying effects of bipolar disorder, said Alex Morris in Rolling Stone. The singer and actress says things “started to get really dark” in her early 20s, as she swung between manic highs and paralyzing lows. Sometimes she couldn’t sleep for days, or she’d feel a powerful urge to buy everyone she knew a car. Then mania would give way to crippling depression. “Sometimes it was weeks I’d be in bed, to where even walking downstairs would get me out of breath,” says Gomez, 30. She spent years fighting suicidal thoughts. In 2018, she started hearing voices and had a psychotic break. She spent several months at a treatment facility consumed by paranoia, thinking everyone was out to get her, before…

Editorial The Washington Post Though it “makes sense to stay vigilant,” the worst fears about a fall Covid wave so far haven’t materialized, said The Washington Post. The long-dominant BA.5 Omicron subvariant has recently been supplanted by a mix of “several worrisome new variants,” such as BQ.1.1 and its offshoots, which now make up about 44 percent of new infections. Despite concerns that these variants would evade prior immunity, hospitalizations and deaths have remained stable, even in New York, the state with the highest current level of BQ.1.1 infections. The pandemic might be reaching a stage where infections still spread, but people are protected by a growing wall of immunity. It’s also possible the virus is evolving to be more infectious but less lethal than the Delta and first Omicron…

“If you were looking for a three-sentence summary of American politics in recent years, I think you could do worse than this: The parties are so different that even seismic events don’t change many Americans’ minds. The parties are so closely matched that even minuscule shifts in the electoral winds can blow the country onto a wildly different course. And even in a time of profound economic dislocation, American politics has become less about which party is good for your wallet and more about whether the cultural changes of the past 50 years delight or dismay you.” Ezra Klein in The New York Times…

UNITED KINGDOM Charles Clover The Guardian It’s not just gas, said Charles Clover. The supply of another British necessity has been slashed because of Russia’s war in Ukraine: our favorite dish, fish ’n’ chips—specifically its principal ingredient, cod. No longer able to rely on the fillets they once got from Russia, our fish-’n’-chips shops are demanding that ever more cod be extracted from our own waters. But that’s a terrible idea. Cod stocks are already at their lowest levels on record, because both the U.K. and the EU coastal states are guilty of setting quotas way above what scientists advise. One of the advantages of Brexit was supposed to be a newfound freedom for Britain to finally end that practice. Indeed, the post-Brexit Fisheries Act was passed specifically to create…

SOUTH KOREA Kim Byung-yeon JoonAng Daily North Korea is trying to flaunt its nukes to cover up dictator Kim Jong Un’s failures, said Kim Byung-yeon. The rogue state recently fired at least 30 nuclear-capable missiles in a flamboyant display meant to convince that the world that it must be treated “as a nuclear weapons state.” Its aim is to make South Korea and the U.S. give up attempts to push for denuclearization outright and instead settle for a bargain, a nuclear arms reduction deal in return for removal of crippling sanctions. Don’t be fooled. In reality, Kim’s military displays come from a place of weakness. North Korea’s economy is tiny, far less than 1 percent of South Korea’s, and it has been steadily contracting ever since international sanctions were imposed…

“What the hell happened?” asked Michael Grunwald in The Atlantic. “How did a purple state suddenly become South Alabama?” In last week’s midterms, Florida turned from a swing state to a bright red MAGA stronghold. For the first time, the state’s registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats, 36 percent to 35 percent. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election by 19 points. He even won in the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County, where he’d lost by 21 points in 2018. Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio beat his Democratic challenger by 16 points. Republican efforts to gerrymander districts, limit mail-in ballots and drop boxes, and roll back felon voting rights skewed the playing field in their favor—as did the ineptitude of a withered state Democratic organization. But “the magnitude of the Democrats’ wipeout”…

“The stakes could not have been higher,” said Charlotte Alter in Time. In last week’s midterms, a host of Republican candidates who trumpeted Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen were seeking offices that would have put them in a position to oversee elections—and “sow chaos”—in swing states in 2024. But nearly all of them lost. Losers included Mark Finchem, a candidate for Arizona secretary of state who marched at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and said it was “fantasy” that Biden had won Arizona in 2020. In Nevada, MAGA conspiracy theorist Jim Marchant, who claimed state election winners were chosen by a “deep-state cabal,” lost his secretary of state race to Democrat Cisco Aguilar. All told, according to the nonpartisan group States United Action, “94…

Amazon’s new warehouse robot can identify and retrieve millions of different objects, said Annie Palmer in CNBC.com. The e-commerce giant has long used automation alongside human employees in its fulfilment centers mainly “to pick up boxes, which are generally uniform in their shape but might vary in size.” But a video of Amazon’s latest robotic arm, called Sparrow, shows it picking up individual items, such as “a board game, a bottle of vitamins, and a set of sheets, and deftly placing them in crates.” The robot uses AI and computer vision to “identify about 65 percent of Amazon’s product inventory.” The expanded capability “raises questions about whether human jobs will be replaced” at Amazon, which has faced unionization drives at several of its warehouses.…

(Harper, $35) Quentin Tarantino’s first book of film criticism “seems designed to arouse fruitful arguments,” said Richard Brody in The New Yorker. A survey of 1970s cinema that also doubles as garrulous memoir, Cinema Speculation begins with a foundational memory for its author: catching a 1972 Jim Brown action movie in a Black neighborhood at the age of 9. Already the future director was a buff, having tagged along with his mother and her friends to take in many seminal films that most kids had no chance of seeing. Here, he’s circling back to that era with a focus on the action films and horror films that captivated him, and he brings “absorbing acuity” to describing the big and small decisions that produced what viewers saw on screen. The…

Gabrielle Blair knew that the title of her new book would raise eyebrows, said Sarah McCammon in NPR.org. But Ejaculate Responsibly is not just an instant paperback best-seller. The book and its title are also bids at unsticking a fraught national debate. “I’m trying to shift the conversation about abortion away from controlling women’s bodies, and instead focus on the fact that men are not held accountable for causing unwanted pregnancies,” she says. Blair, a popular mommy blogger and a pro-choice Mormon with six children, argues that every unwanted pregnancy is caused by a man’s irresponsible ejaculation. She first made her case in a 2018 Twitter thread that went viral. Pro-lifers, she says, have responded as positively as fellow pro-choicers. “What are they going to argue against?” she asks.…

  3 “Rauw Alejandro is ready to take his music career to infinity and beyond,” said Lucas Villa in Spin. A year after releasing a sophomore album that garnered eight Latin Grammy nominations, the 29-year-old singer-songwriter is back with an LP that toys with a space-travel theme while “pushing reggaeton into the future.” Saturno’s most exciting moments come “completely out of left field,” such as “De Carolina,” an ode to Alejandro’s Puerto Rican hometown in which he adds an electronic touch to classic perreo beats and produces a “back-to-the-future banger.” But he plays with retro electronica, new wave, and funk sonics throughout, and “sounds like he’s having a blast doing it.” If there’s one subpar aspect of this album, it’s the lyrics, said Julyssa Lopez in Rolling Stone. Alejandro “has…

This pumpkin pie puts a couple of twists on tradition, said Paige Grandjean in Food & Wine. Instead of the chocolate base that defines a black-bottom pie, it starts with a nutty layer of black sesame paste. Mascarpone adds richness to the pumpkin custard, which is cooked on the stove instead of in the oven. Use the crust of your choice. 1 cup canned pumpkin • 2 large egg yolks • 1 large egg • 1 tsp vanilla extract • ¾ cup granulated sugar • ¼ cup cornstarch • 1½ tsp ground cinnamon • ¼ tsp ground nutmeg • 1 cup whole milk • 1 (8-oz) container mascarpone • 1½ tbsp jarred black sesame paste • 1 (9-inch) prepared piecrust • 2 tbsp mixed black and white sesame seeds…

Ikea Ypperlig Floor Lamp This slim and sleek Ikea lamp “pairs well with any decor style” and “will provide light without stealing the show.” Designed by the Danish firm Hay, it features a swiveling head with a dimmable LED. $70, ikea.com Source: NYMag.com Yarra Decor Bedside Lamp This “super functional” lamp gets glowing reviews on Amazon. With its wooden base and linen shade, it’s minimalist but “earthy” and turns on and off with a touch. It also has a dimmer function and two USB ports. $30, amazon.com Source: Architectural Digest Glocusent LED Neck Light This wearable light doesn’t get in the way of page turning the way a clip-on booklight would. You have to adjust the gooseneck arms anytime you change position, but it’s “great for reading” as well…

San Francisco Owen Kennerly designed this 2015 condo building, near the Mission and Castro districts and a block from the Valencia Corridor. This top-floor three-bedroom unit features a walnut-clad entry with hidden built-in study, an open chef’s kitchen, and a two-story vaulted great room with designer lighting, oversize windows, and glass doors to a landscaped private deck with outdoor shower. Amenities include garage space and storage. $2,695,000. Jonathan Deason, Vanguard Properties/Luxury Portfolio International, (415) 412-7659 Calistoga The 22-acre property anchored by this five-bedroom home lies in the Mayacamas Mountains between Napa and Sonoma. The 2020 Signum-designed modular house has an aluminum and charred-cedar exterior and an open interior featuring a sunken living room with a wall of glass doors with mountain and valley views. The landscaped grounds include a…

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said this week he plans to give away the bulk of his $124 billion fortune during his lifetime, following in the footsteps of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. He has pledged $10 billion toward the creation of the Bezos Earth Fund and gave $100 million to singer Dolly Parton for her long-standing philanthropic projects. The Washington Post Disney’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, took in $180 million at the North American box office, the biggest November domestic debut ever. North American theaters had brought in just $729 million in September and October, the worst box office performance for that period since 1997, excluding 2020. Axios The global food import bill is set to climb to a record $1.94 trillion in 2022, surpassing last year’s all-time high by…

Climate change has accelerated the rate of species extinction, and birds are among the hardest hit. More than 300 avian species are projected to lose over 50 percent of their current range by 2080. The National Audubon Society (audubon.org), a pioneering conservation organization founded in 1905, works to ensure a thriving present and future for our birds and their natural habitats. Through almost 500 local chapters and 41 nature centers around the country, Audubon has helped drive the recovery of imperiled animals like the California condor and the brown pelican, and the restoration of ecosystems like Florida’s Everglades or the Long Island Sound. Additionally, the nonprofit has developed a Migratory Bird Initiative to preserve 458 species of North American migratory birds. Each charity we feature has earned a four-star…

Editorial The Economist Cheap debt can hide a lot of misdeeds, said The Economist. Or as the short-seller Carson Block has put it, “there is an inverse relationship between interest rates and dishonesty.” Every period of easy money has been followed by the discovery of extensive misdealings. The 2007–09 financial crisis exposed fraud and negligence in mortgage lending. The dot-com bust revealed book-cooking at Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossing. Now we are seeing the aftermath of the latest boom. Venture capital poured into untested enterprises “with no real business.” These are now unwinding. There’s electric-truck maker Nikola, whose founder, Trevor Milton, was convicted last month of defrauding investors. This past week, it was FTX, the crypto exchange, that collapsed. “By the cold light of recession, similar such examples will come…

Gallagher obliterated more than 15,000 watermelons during his 30 years in standup. The beret-wearing, mustachioed comedian played more than 100 shows a year, and every one closed with him smashing a melon with a sledgehammer. The fans in the front seats, the area known as Death Row, knew that Gallagher’s Sledge-O-Matic would splatter them—many showed up with raincoats and umbrellas. But that was just the finale to a madcap, prop-centered act that earned him a dozen specials on Showtime. He said he always aimed to provide an absurdist escape from the stresses of daily life. “If you make fun of it, the people laugh,” he said in 1984. “They release the tension and are somehow healed—a bit.” Born Leo Gallagher Jr. in North Carolina, the future comedian was nicknamed…

Jane Gross wanted to cover sports like any other reporter. Knowing that pro athletes are most candid when giving interviews at their lockers right after games, she feared she’d miss quotes if she waited in the hallways outside the changing rooms with the other female journalists. After another woman sportswriter, Robin Herman, broke the hockey locker room barrier in 1975, Gross grew even more eager, and the following month New York Knicks coach Red Holzman agreed to let her into the team’s locker room after a game at Madison Square Garden. Gross, who was writing for Newsday at the time, said she was “scared stiff” at first. But “you really can’t get the flavor of the players,” she said, “without seeing the camaraderie they share.” Gross was born in…