Innehållsförteckning för October 14, 2022 från The Week Magazine

Vladimir Putin has a recurring nightmare. The treacherous West undermines his grip on Russia, ambitious rivals stage a coup, and the rabble drag him from the Kremlin and beat him to death in the same humiliating way Libyans disposed of dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011. In his book All the Kremlin’s Men, Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar reported that Putin was “apoplectic” when his fellow strongman was killed; William Burns, the director of the CIA, writes in his book The Back Channel that Putin was obsessed with the gruesome video of Qaddafi’s killing. Russia’s czar thought he could insulate himself from that fate only through ruthless aggression and the promotion of a rabid, quasi-religious Russian nationalism. But his overreaction to his deepest fears has managed to create the conditions for them…

The football team of River Valley High in Yuba City, Calif., has forfeited its season after white players held a “slave auction” in the locker room. A video of the event shows about a dozen players yelling dollar amounts at three Black players. Superintendent Doreen Osumi said the players might think their stunt “was a joke,” but that it was both “harmful” and “disgraceful.” Scandal rocked the world of competitive bass fishing when weights were found inside the “winning” fish at a tournament in Ohio. An angry crowd confronted Jake Runyan and Chase Cominsky after their prize-winning five walleye bass were cut open, revealing 7.58 pounds of weights. Police escorted the two men away, “just trying to keep them safe,” said the tournament director. In other news House vote averts…

Elizabeth Banks has spent years trying to get Hollywood to take her seriously, said David Marchese in The New York Times Magazine. The actress and director says that for women, being belittled comes with the job. “I got into an industry that values only my youth and my beauty,” says Banks, 48. “I’ve watched a big-time actress go up to a big-time director and say, ‘Listen, I’m wondering in this scene, what is our relationship?’ And this man said to this woman, ‘Baby, don’t worry about it. It’s all about your hair and your sunglasses.’” As Banks turned from acting to directing, she felt she was getting passed over for jobs because she was too “uppity” or simply because she is a woman. “I was told by a producer…

Kim Kardashian agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle allegations that she promoted a crypto token on Instagram without disclosing that she’d been paid for doing so, the Securities and Exchange Commission said this week. Kardashian, whose 300 million–plus followers make her one of Instagram’s most popular users, last year posted, “Are you guys into crypto???? This is not financial advice but my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max token!” The SEC said Kardashian’s inclusion of the hashtag “#AD” at the bottom of her post did not fulfill requirements that she disclose being paid $250,000 to tout the cryptocurrency. In addition to paying the fine, Kardashian, 41, agreed to not promote any digital assets for three years. Her attorney said the reality TV star settled the case…

Charlie Sykes The Bulwark “Another petty, vindictive, vulgar, racist tirade from Mar-a-Lago,” and once again, Republican cowards won’t utter a peep of protest, said Charlie Sykes. Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform last week to attack Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for agreeing to a deal to avoid a partial government shutdown. The former president wrote that McConnell “has a DEATH WISH” and referred to his wife, Taiwan-born Elaine Chao, who served as Trump’s transportation secretary, as “his China loving wife, Coco Chow.” Even for Trump, this vile tirade was beyond the pale. His “death wish” attack on McConnell may be taken as an invitation by his more-unhinged followers, who have a demonstrated penchant for political violence. The “crude racist nickname” for Chao taps into our country’s long…

RUSSIA Andrey Pertsev Meduza As if he didn’t have enough on his mind, Vladimir Putin has suddenly become anxious about Russians’ excessive alcohol intake, said Andrey Pertsev. The president, who is famously abstemious, has recently raised the issue with regional governors. “I urge you to devote some attention to this,” he told one, ordering him to focus on “healthy lifestyle propaganda.” Russians are among the world’s heaviest drinkers: The average Russian over age 15 drinks the equivalent of almost 3 gallons of pure ethanol every year, compared with just 2.3 gallons for the average American adult. During his tenure, Putin has tended to ignore this, claiming falsely that his countrymen drink no more than northern Europeans. Why is he obsessed with it now? Moscow insiders think it’s because many in…

“The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.”Judge Learned Hand, quoted in The Washington Post “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly.”Marcus Aurelius, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”Stephen King, quoted on The Browser “History never looks like history when you’re living through it.”John Gardner, quoted in Money Marketing “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.”St. Teresa of Ávila, quoted in Forbes “Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.”Samuel Butler, quoted in TheMarginalian.org “They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”Edgar…

Meanwhile, there’s Amazon’s robot… Amazon is updating the software and recasting the mission of its home robot, Astro, said Tanya Basu in MIT Technology Review. Amazon introduced its $1,450, R2-D2–like robot-on-wheels last year to tepid reviews, with most people finding that “Astro was incapable of doing much more than delivering small objects between rooms.” But the company just presented Astro with a new set of responsibilities: “to provide another set of eyes on our pets, our homes, and our livelihoods.” Astro can now “watch pets and send a video feed of their activities to users.” And through a new partnership with Ring called Virtual Security Guard, Astro will also “wander around the house to keep an eye on rooms and entry points.” California limits abortion warrants A new law…

Feeling unhappy or lonely could speed up the aging process more than smoking or even some diseases, a new study suggests. Everyone has a “biological age” that is a measure of wear and tear on the body, and it can differ from actual age. Using data collected from nearly 5,000 Chinese adults, scientists built a so-called aging clock. This analyzed 16 biomarkers, along with things like blood pressure, body mass index, and lung function, to provide a biological age. When the researchers used this model to assess an additional group of Chinese adults, those who smoked had a biological age 1.25 years higher than a healthy control group, and those with a history of stroke, liver disease, or lung conditions had a biological age about 1.5 years higher. But…

Gabriel Byrne, the celebrated Irish-born screen and stage actor, will be appearing on Broadway this month in Walking With Ghosts, an acclaimed one-man show based on his recent memoir of the same name. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908). A classic that depicts an ordered universe—despite the threat of the weasels in the Wild Wood. Love, home, and community are what matter most, and Mr. Toad, one of the book’s numerous nonhuman characters, learns that the pursuit of material things is a hollow ambition. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1883). A young man begins a life of adventure in the world of adults on the sea, and is befriended by one of the most charismatic characters in all literature, the pirate Long John Silver—a villain…

3 Beth Orton’s “deeply personal” new album “sounds unlike anything she’s created before,” said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. The stylistically restless British singer-songwriter known for mixing folk and electronica isn’t a household name in the U.S., but she’s built a “quietly powerful” catalog, and her eighth full-length “brings to mind the late ’70s work of Joni Mitchell.” Self-producing for the first time, Orton enlisted prominent London jazz musicians to set the mood of these “impressionistic” songs. They move like storm fronts, “with their own pockets of pressure and occasionally a crack in the clouds.” Orton’s lyrics “dig deeply into her own memories,” said Neil McCormick in The Telegraph (U.K.). Orton, 51, has long battled chronic illness, and her bittersweet reminiscences collide with the melancholy weight of the…

Don’t let anyone tell you Scotch should only be sipped neat, said Tyler Zielinski in Punch. “Scotch is made for drinking how you like it,” which is why we polled top bartenders to assemble a list of the Scotches they favor for use in a cocktail or highball. Monkey Shoulder ($40). The Scotch bartenders cited most often is a blend of malt whiskies from Glenfiddich and two other distilleries from Scotland’s Speyside region. Great with citrus or ginger, it delivers “nuanced creaminess” and notes of vanilla and dried apricot. Glenfiddich 12 Year Old ($33). Few single-malt whiskies are better for mixing than Glenfiddich’s entry-level offering. Expect notes of pear, caramel apple, and citrus, and a “subtly oily mouthfeel.” Naked Malt Blended Malt Scotch ($25). Matured in sherry casks, this…

Maintain a safe distance. A generator can help get you through a power outage, but it’s dangerous to run one in a garage or “anywhere near the house.” Because the deadly carbon monoxide it produces can readily find its way into your home, you should set it 25 feet away, on dry, level ground. A generator cover is recommended. Use the right cord. Extension cords running to the house should be at least 14 gauge, rated for outdoor use, and have GFCI functionality. Never attempt ‘backfeeding.’ Connecting a generator directly to an electrical panel can cause an electrical fire and can be hazardous even to neighbors and utility workers. To power the panel, have an electrician install a transfer switch. Refuel wisely. Refueling a hot generator can cause an explosion.…

Bill Plante was known as a shouter. CBS News’ senior White House correspondent under Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, he often grew exasperated with presidents and their press secretaries who deflected questions. He believed shouting was a critical part of the job of a White House correspondent—even if it made him appear rude. But it got the job done: Over his 52-year career, he won multiple Emmy Awards, anchored the CBS Sunday Night News, and covered the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and 13 presidential elections. Without yelling, he said, journalists would “be walking away from our First Amendment role—and then we really would be the shills we’re so often accused of being.” Plante was born in Chicago to a mother who…

Stephen Curry isn’t always an altar boy, said Matt Sullivan in Rolling Stone. Arguably the greatest shooter in NBA history, Curry has a baby face and a 6-foot body that doesn’t intimidate anyone—but his competitive edge is sharp. In June, after hoisting his fourth championship trophy with the Golden State Warriors, Curry, 34, shouted, “What are they gonna say now? What are they gonna say now?!” The son of NBA player Dell Curry, Stephen grew up in a mansion outside Charlotte, N.C. But despite his affluent, faith-focused upbringing, Curry learned to tap into rage when slighted, like when he scored 38 points in college after an announcer mispronounced his name as “Steev-en.” When he felt betrayed in 2020 by a business partner, Curry says, he kicked a basketball through…

Nicholas Goldberg Los Angeles Times It’s “shocking, frankly,” how little Americans care about climate change, said Nicholas Goldberg. A recent poll found that the issue ranks near the bottom of concerns voters claim will influence their decisions in the midterm elections. “Only 30 percent of voters say they are ‘very worried’ about it.” How can people remain so “blithely unconcerned” when we are already seeing proof that a warming climate brings more chronic drought, oppressive heat waves, destructive flooding, and severe storms? Climate scientists and activists are putting too much faith in scientific studies and “the steady accretion of irrefutable facts” to change minds. Instead, as public relations veteran David Fenton argues in The Activist’s Media Handbook, they should adopt the tactics of marketers: “Simple messages” that are repeated over…

ITALY Editorial Corriere della Sera Abortion may be legal in Italy, said Corriere della Sera, but “it is not always easy” to get one—and it could get even harder under incoming far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. A 1978 law made termination legal up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy, a limit extended in cases of fetal abnormality or if the mother’s life or health is at risk. But it also allows doctors who don’t want to perform abortions to register as “conscientious objectors.” In our heavily Catholic country, about 65 percent of Italian gynecologists—including upward of 80 percent in some southern regions—have registered as objectors, so women must often travel across the country to get an abortion. In practice, this sometimes delays or denies them access. Meloni, who will probably…

Make way for Tesla’s robots, said Kirsten Korosec in TechCrunch. At the electric-car maker’s second annual AI Day last week, a semi-functional “humanoid” walked on stage alongside CEO Elon Musk, “albeit with exposed cables and a bit wobbly.” A second robot, which couldn’t walk but featured more humanlike hands to pick up boxes and water plants, was lugged on stage by staff. The demo was aimed to show the headway made on Musk’s visionary “Tesla Bot,” which was introduced conceptually last year—and memorably represented by an actor in a bodysuit. “We’ve come a long way,” Musk said. The big question is whether all of the company’s efficiencies—such as using the same supercomputer in its vehicles as in the bot—“will result in a scalable robot that works.” Musk, of course,…

Most spiders do not prey on ants, which are often venomous and have sharp mandibles. But Euryopis umbilicata is a notable exception, reports The New York Times. New research shows that the Australian species uses an extraordinary acrobatic technique to catch its six-legged rivals. When encountering an ant, the spider flips its entire body over the insect and attaches a thread of silk to it—all in a matter of milliseconds. “It’s almost like an action movie stuntman,” says co-author Marie Herberstein of Macquarie University in Sydney. “Or like Spider-Man, pulling out the piece of silk and sticking it in the right spot.” Once the ant has been snared with the silk line, the spider entangles it further and then carries it off to be devoured. Of 60 spider attacks…

(Random House, $28) “I didn’t just love Lucy by the Sea; I needed it,” said Priscilla Gilman in The Boston Globe. “No novelist working today has Elizabeth Strout’s extraordinary capacity for seeing the essence of people,” and with her fourth novel featuring Lucy Barton, the author of Olive Kitteridge has applied those empathetic powers to the pandemic’s trying first year. When Covid hits, Lucy’s first husband, William, sweeps her away from Manhattan, and the unlikely pair, now in their 60s, wind up passing the lockdown months in a rental house on Maine’s coast. “Unflinching” in chronicling the pandemic’s effects, it is arguably the best Lucy Barton book yet. “The evolving dynamic between Lucy and William is wonderfully wrought,” said Heller McAlpin in NPR.org. Lucy, mourning the death of her…

Dinners With Ruth by Nina Totenberg (Simon & Schuster, $28) It’s “clear on every page” of this best-selling memoir that Nina Totenberg loved her friend Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said Michael Schaffer in Politico. The two connected in the 1970s and were regular dinner companions until the justice’s death in 2020. But a question haunts the NPR reporter’s story: “What if she’d been a more single-minded journalist and a lousier friend?” The court’s makeup may have been different today if the public had known Ginsberg was dying as soon as Totenberg did. One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank (Avid Reader, $28) “Never underestimate the power of friendship at any stage in life,” said Heller McAlpin in The Wall Street Journal. In this “sobering yet heartening” book, author Michael Frank assembles…

3 Björk’s first album in five years “doesn’t aim to be a crowd-pleaser,” said Jon Pareles in The New York Times. The Icelandic singer-songwriter is at her most avant-garde here, hewing “closer to contemporary chamber music than to pop, rock, or dance music.” The often challenging record is “well worth an effort,” though, because “Björk’s interior worlds are vast.” Surrounding her voice with “a tangle of instrumental polyphony,” the 56-year-old mourns the 2018 death of her mother, contemplates her roles as a child and a mother, and ultimately finds hope in human interconnectedness. Don’t be deterred by “Atopos,” the clanging lead track, said Sam Rosenberg in Consequence. Beyond that opener, “Fossora is filled with Björk’s reliably lush instrumentation and poetic lyricism.” Her use of fungal imagery evokes cycles of death…

The best of 2022’s music documentaries (so far)… Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song “Hallelujah” has become Leonard Cohen’s best-known song, but its path wasn’t easy. This brilliant documentary revisits the labor poured into it, its rejection by Cohen’s record label, and its rebirth as an often-covered masterwork. $3 on demand This Much I Know to Be True Singer-songwriter Nick Cave emerges from the pandemic with a hallelujah of his own: a dazzlingly filmed collection of recent songs celebrating collaboration as well as the truth that life is always lived a hair’s breadth away from calamity. Mubi Nothing Compares Sinead O’Connor fell from stardom overnight in 1992, when she tore up a photo of the pope on Saturday Night Live. This portrait of the young artist is a…

Health, an app that’s preloaded on every iPhone, can provide customized medication reminders and keep a log of medications taken. Visual aids, such as colors and shapes, can be added. Other iOS apps that can do the job are the Reminders app and Siri, which can provide simple reminders if you say something to the effect of “Hey, Siri, remind me to take my pill every day at 9 a.m.” Google Assistant can provide a similar service, prompted by a command that begins with, “Hey, Google.” Another option for Android phone users is Google Calendar, where recurring reminders can be scheduled by tapping on a day, then tapping the Plus icon. Medisafe Medication Management, also known as Medisafe Pill & Med Reminder, is the best third-party medication tracker. The cross-platform…

The group of major oil producers known as OPEC+ said this week it will slash oil production by 2 million barrels a day, said Hanna Ziady in CNN.com. “Hoping to preempt a drop in demand” due to a global recession, the group (which includes Russia) announced its biggest cut since the start of the pandemic. Oil prices have fallen sharply in recent months, but the move “threatens to push gasoline prices” back up; Biden officials in internal talking points characterized an OPEC decision to cut production as a “disaster.” The move, and Russia’s involvement, could complicate Western efforts to set a cap on the price of Russian oil. Juul: Troubled vape company considers bankruptcy The vaping company Juul has begun talks for financing through a potential bankruptcy, said Jennifer…

Showing slackers the door “Quiet quitting” is leading to “quiet firing,” said Callum Borchers in The Wall Street Journal. According to Gallup, “half the U.S. workforce is allegedly quiet quitting—that is, doing only what’s in their job descriptions and no more.” Bosses have put up with this because “in a tight labor market, a warm body is better than nobody.” But with more businesses expecting a recession, managers are tightening up their expectations of productivity. Human-resources specialists say “quiet firing” is on the rise, referring to actions that minimize employees’ significance to nudge them out the door. “Tactics include sidelining them by cutting responsibilities or denying promotions and raises.” If you notice your boss doing this to you, “your days might be numbered.” CFOs privately doubt ESG push Many…

Cade Metz The New York Times Riding in a driverless car reminded me of being a passenger when my teenage daughter was learning to drive, said Cade Metz. Except my daughter could at least respond to me. My experience in a self-driving Chevy Bolt was “by turns spooky, impressive, perplexing, and a little stressful.” Cruise, a division of General Motors, recently started providing passenger service on certain San Francisco streets during certain late-night hours, and let’s just say “the technology remains a work in progress.” For passengers, this requires patience. I hailed a car for a 3-mile round trip that the app said would take 21 minutes, way longer than an Uber with a human driver; “life is slower when you can’t go over 30 miles per hour.” The…

The Academy Awards were not known for political grandstanding when Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage in 1973. Marlon Brando had asked the actress, model, and Native American activist to represent him should he win an Oscar for The Godfather. Littlefeather greeted the presenters but declined Brando’s trophy, explaining he was refusing the award to protest Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans and express solidarity with the American Indian occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D. Boos, and then applause, erupted. Littlefeather said John Wayne had to be restrained from pulling her off the stage, though historians have disputed her account. “I told people about oppression,” Littlefeather said in a 1990 interview. “They said, ‘You’re ruining our evening.’” Littlefeather was born Marie Cruz, the daughter of an Apache-Yaqui father and a white mother,…

Good week for: Bargains, after Will Sideri of Maine, paid $75 at an estate sale for a page of sheet music that has now been verified to date from the 13th century. The find could be worth $10,000. Humility, after actor Tom Hanks said in an interview that of the 94 films he’s made, “four of them are pretty good.” Hanks, 66, who has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won two, didn’t specify which four “pretty good” films he meant. Incels, with the launch by Trump supporters of The Right Stuff, an “invite-only” dating app for right-of-center singles. The Right Stuff encourages users to open up by completing the sentence, “January 6th was…” or by sharing their “Favorite liberal lie.” Bad week for: Visitors, after a resident of…

Havana Simmering tension erupted into protests in several Cuban cities last week, four days after Hurricane Ian crashed over the country’s western tip and knocked out power to the entire island of 11 million people. “This has been terrible. No light, no food, we lost everything in our freezer,” Maria Carla Catala, 25, told Reuters. The demonstration recalled the historic protests put down by Cuba last year, which also began with anger over power shortages. Internet service blinked off during two days of demonstrations, and some Cubans suspected authorities were trying to thwart protests. Before Ian, Cuba already faced one of its worst economic crises since revolutionary leader Fidel Castro’s forces entered Havana in 1959. Prisoner swap Caracas Venezuela freed seven imprisoned Americans last week after President Biden agreed…

Lena Dunham has had her fill of being hated, said Eva Wiseman in The Guardian (U.K.). Five years ago, the star and creator of HBO’s Girls was a feminist pioneer and cultural lightning rod, drawing intense criticism for frequently displaying her chubby body nude on the show, and for her provocative comments, like saying she wished she’d had an abortion. “To keep producing work that is compelling to you and honest, you do have to have a certain kind of blindness,” says Durham, 36. But the anger she stirred eventually got to her. “I stopped being a person that I liked.” After Girls ended, Dunham dropped out of the public eye. She went to rehab for an addiction to the benzodiazepines she used to cope with her anxiety, and…

David French The Dispatch The culture wars are entering a disturbing new phase, as states seek “to disrupt the bond between parents and children,” said David French. California and Texas have each decided that in the divisive issue of puberty blockers and other gender-reassignment treatment, the government can overrule parents’ wishes for their child’s care. California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed a bill that authorizes minors to travel to the state to obtain “life-altering medical interventions without their parents’ knowledge or consent.” This means one parent in a divorced couple, family members, or other adults could enroll kids “in a treatment program that parents object to.” On the other side of the divide, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott now insists the state has the right to block all gender-reassignment procedures…

“American leaders and pundits have been trying to call an end to the pandemic since its beginning, only to be faced with new surges or variants. This mindset not only compromises the nation’s ability to manage Covid but also leaves it vulnerable to other outbreaks. Future pandemics aren’t hypothetical; they’re inevitable and imminent. Climate change is quickening the pace of such events. As rising temperatures force animals to relocate, species that have never coexisted will meet, allowing the viruses within them to find new hosts—humans included. Dealing with all of this again is a matter of when, not if.” Ed Yong in The Atlantic…

FRANCE Ronan Planchon Le Figaro “Real heroes don’t wear capes,” said Ronan Planchon. This winter, they’ll be wearing sweaters and jackets. That’s the message France’s leaders are heavy-handedly sending as the country prepares to cut its total energy usage by 10 percent in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s threats to cut off Russian natural-gas supplies to Europe. French citizens are being advised to keep their homes heated no higher than 66 degrees, and politicians have been busy modeling some sartorial ways to cope. “You will no longer see me with a tie,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced in an interview last week, “but with a turtleneck.” Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has been attending meetings in a puffer jacket. Other government officials have boasted that they’ll no longer be using…

HAITI Emmanuel Saintus Haïti Progrès Haiti has become “hell on earth,” said Emmanuel Saintus. President and Prime Minister Ariel Henry recently removed fuel subsidies, doubling the price of gas and kerosene overnight and sparking protests that have mushroomed into a “general uprising.” Criminal gangs—some with connections to the business and political elite—are waging bloody territorial battles and ransacking stores. Looters have made off with more than $6 million in humanitarian aid from the World Food Program. Henry, “a poor corrupt creature” installed by the West as a caretaker president after the assassination of Jovenel Moïse last year, “prefers to close his eyes.” He tut-tuts the violence but does nothing to earn our respect, not even fulfilling last year’s promise to organize Haiti’s first national elections in six years. The U.N.…

“Boys and men are struggling”—in the classroom, in the workplace, and in their emotional lives, said David Brooks in The New York Times. In a world where many jobs no longer require physical strength and the word “toxic” often precedes “masculinity,” women are doing better than men in nearly every aspect of life. The gap starts early: At age 5, girls are 14 percentage points more likely to be “school ready” than boys, and women make up nearly 60 percent of students on college campuses. One-third of the 10 million men with only a high school diploma are out of the workforce because globalization and automation have eliminated manufacturing jobs. Women’s earnings account for nearly all of the income gains of middle-class families in the past 50 years. Demoralized,…

As the midterms loom, a nagging question is taking center stage, said Steven Shepard in Politico: Can the polls be trusted? Recent polls in key races have shown Democrats “running stronger than once expected,” boosting their hopes of holding the Senate and possibly even the House in a year when historical trends and President Biden’s mediocre approval ratings suggested major GOP gains. But since Donald Trump stunned the political establishment with an upset win in 2016, polls have “consistently understated support for Republican candidates.” It happened again in 2020, when both national and state polls overestimated Democratic results by 4 to 5 points. Embarrassed pollsters have been “tweaking their methods” to try to sample more working-class, Republican voters. But “an easy fix has proven elusive,” leaving many wondering whether…

For the first time, researchers successfully launched a data-gathering drone directly into a hurricane, said Loukia Papadopoulos in Interesting Engineering. With Hurricane Ian barreling into the Gulf Coast of Florida last week, a “hurricane-hunter aircraft” from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) flew straight into the eye and dropped an ALTIUS-600 drone. The drone “continued to fly for two hours after being launched,” sending crucial data from the storm’s most violent “boundary” layer, a few hundred feet from the ground. NOAA maintained communications from a safe distance. But just getting the drone into position within the storm was no easy feat. NOAA said the aircraft that launched the drone and received the data “was rocked by turbulence so extreme that many aboard endured severe airsickness.”…

Using frozen embryos for in vitro fertilization may increase the mother’s risk of high blood pressure by as much as 74 percent. Researchers examined data on 4.5 million pregnancies in Scandinavia, including 18,000 from IVF with frozen embryos and 78,000 from fresh embryos. They found that 7.4 percent of mothers in the former group suffered from hypertension, compared with only 5.9 percent of those in the latter and 4.3 percent among women who conceived naturally. A separate analysis on women who had children both naturally and via IVF found that using a frozen embryo was linked to a doubling in risk of high blood pressure. Hypertension is dangerous in pregnancy because it can lead to preeclampsia, which can cause complications for both mother and child. The researchers aren’t sure…

(Seal, $30) “That we suffer from a shortage of women’s histories is not new information,” said Glynnis MacNicol in The New York Times. Still, the contemporary obscurity of Elsie Robinson—a newspaper columnist who from about 1924 to 1956 was the most widely read woman in America—“feels particularly surprising when you consider her popularity and the dramatic life behind her hard-won sagacity.” This new biography aims to restore Robinson to due prominence, and “the result is an engaging tale that doesn’t gloss over the extreme adversity and restrictions Robinson faced as a woman of much ambition and few means.” Robinson’s path to fame wasn’t easy, said Rachel Zarrow in the San Francisco Chronicle. Born in California in 1883, she moved to the East Coast at 19 to marry an older…

“In writing as in life, Namwali Serpell crosses boundaries,” said Renée Shea in Poets & Writers. A novelist, critic, Harvard professor, and native of Zambia who’s spent most of her adult life in the coastal U.S., she’s as much at ease writing on Cardi B as on Immanuel Kant. Her new novel, The Furrows, springs from her experience with the porousness of the wall separating life from death. Like the novel’s narrator, Serpell lost a sibling unexpectedly and struggled with that reality. Instead, she was regularly visited in her dreams by her sister, who had died at 22 of a drug overdose. “She would try to convince me that she hadn’t in fact died,” says Serpell. “She would try to convince me that she had just gone away on…

3 Swaggering country rock suits Nikki Lane, said Hal Horowitz in American Songwriter. The Americana singer-songwriter from Greenville, S.C., has had a rock edge since her “twangy” 2011 debut album, and her latest evolution in that direction “shows Lane at her best.” Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme produced, and against his band’s muddy riff-driven roots rock, Lane’s “dusky” voice and brash confidence “feel earthy and organic.” Just listen to the way she saunters through the title track, or the single “Black Widow.” For all its “gristle and grit,” Denim & Diamonds has tender moments, too, said Carena Liptak in Holler. The 10-track album “bounces seamlessly between the lows and highs of life,” sometimes within a single song. On “Good Enough,” Lane sings about how relentless touring left…

Ashland Black Feather Wreath “Avant-garde, creepy, and beautiful all at once,” this feather wreath from Michaels, the craft retail chain, sets the right tone before guests even ring your doorbell. $18, michaels.com Source: CNN.com Fashionwu 3D Bat Stickers These durable bat stickers have become a staple of Instagram-worthy Halloween displays. There are 80 bats in a pack, and they can be pulled out of storage again next year because the adhesive is reusable. $6, amazon.com Source: USA Today Honysky Candelabra Pulling together a spooky table setting is easy when you start with a tall, black candelabra. This metal centerpiece requires assembly but is suitable for events year-round. $26, amazon.com Source: Elle Décor Medoore Decorative Crows “Add that Edgar Allan Poe feel to any Halloween party” by arranging these crows…

Suicide is an underreported epidemic ravaging America; in 2020, it was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10-14 and 25-34, according to the CDC. To connect surviving families, foster research, and advocate for policies in mental health, a group of individuals created in 1987 what would become the largest private funder of suicide prevention investigation: the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (afsp​.org) Last year, the nonprofit invested more than $6 million in grants, including for research to enhance suicide risk assessment in teens through telehealth sessions and wearable tech. Additionally, AFSP runs Healing Conversations, which offers personal support for relatives of someone who died by suicide, and supports hundreds of events during the International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day, Nov. 19. Each charity we feature has…

Jeb Hensarling The Wall Street Journal Why does the GOP insist on supporting onerous and counterproductive tariffs? asked Jeb Hensarling. Republicans were the party of free trade for almost four decades. But thanks to former President Donald Trump, they have abandoned free trade “in favor of industrial policy, corporate welfare, and protectionism.” Today, the concern of most blue-collar workers isn’t jobs lost to foreign competition. It’s a shrinking paycheck and the rising cost of items at stores such as Walmart. The big-box retailer remains “the nation’s largest importer,” and tariffs have made those products more expensive. And Walmart’s hardly alone. Trump’s tariffs on China failed, and “numerous studies have shown that almost all the costs of tariffs initiated under the Trump administration were paid by American consumers and businesses.”…

While most slaves escaping the Southern states went north, said Richard Grant in Smithsonian Magazine, thousands traveled over the Rio Grande to seek refuge in Mexico. Before the Civil War, numerous enslaved people made the treacherous journey to Mexico in a bold quest for freedom that historians are now unearthing. Until recently, the southbound Underground Railroad, as some scholars call it, has been largely overlooked, mainly because it left so few traces in surviving records. No one who escaped slavery by going to Mexico wrote a firsthand account of the experience, as Frederick Douglass and others did about escaping north. And though the journeys of enslaved people to Mexico are of the utmost importance, the scale of the southern migration was more modest, numbering between 3,000 and 10,000 people, compared with an estimated…

This week’s question: A Welsh woman who was jilted by her boyfriend of four years on her wedding day cheered herself up by going through the whole ceremony and reception without him. Please come up with a name for an unexpected wedding for one. Last week’s contest: King Charles III reportedly will seek a “slimmed-down” British monarchy, with fewer royals and less emphasis on pomp, pageantry, and displays of inherited wealth. If he were to apply this principle to remodeling Buckingham Palace, what should he rename a more modest royal residence? THE WINNER: “Downsized Abbey” Michael Finkelstein, Tucson SECOND PLACE: “Windsor Hostel” Jess Urriola, Morris Plains, N.J. THIRD PLACE: “10 Downing Street’s Guest House” Craig G. Nelson, Pitman, N.J. For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest.…