The terrible, claustrophobic airplane seat redesign that could soon be how we fly. There’s no way around it, the headlines are disturbing. And they come, not from tabloids or click-bait blogs, but from papers published in scientific journals. They describe fish and birds responding with altered behavior and reproductive systems to antidepressants, diabetes medication, and other psychoactive or hormonally active drugs at concentrations found in the environment. They report on opioids, amphetamines, and other pharmaceuticals found in treated drinking water; antibiotics in groundwater capable of altering naturally occurring bacterial communities; and over-the-counter and prescription drugs found in water leaching from municipal landfills.
And these are just some of many recent studies examining the countless pharmaceuticals that are now being found just about everywhere scientists have looked for them in the environment. Exactly how many drugs are in use and how many may be detectable in the environment is difficult to pinpoint. Where are these compounds coming from? Secrets of the Tax-Prep Business. Photographs by Joshua Lutz UPDATE (April 2012): Since this story first appeared, the refund anticipation loan business has taken additional hits. According to the New York Times, only one major tax preparer is offering them this year. After cutting a deal with the FDIC, Republic Bank & Trust, which underwrites RALs peddled by the Jackson Hewitt chain, is getting out of the business. But the preparers, as Gary Rivlin explains below, have a range of tricks in store to reel in new customers. JOHN HEWITT WASN'T seeking to turn the working poor into cash cows when his father and some friends helped him buy a six-store tax-service chain in Virginia Beach back in 1982.
Over the years, entrepreneurs and corporate executives have devised any number of clever ways for getting rich off the working poor, but you'd have to look long and hard to find one more diabolically inventive than the RAL. Hewitt didn't invent the refund anticipation loan. Quora. One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway. The following is from Asne Seierstad’s One of Us; which explores how Anders Breivik, a gifted child from Oslo, detonated a bomb outside government buildings in central Oslo before killing sixty-nine people on July 22, 2011. Seierstad is an award-winning Norwegian journalist and writer known for her work as a war correspondent. Anders Breivik became a member of the right wing populist Progress Party when he was still in high school.
Having been abandoned by his father, and by his former gang of graffiti artists, he was now striving for success. He wanted to get rich, he wanted to be admired, he wanted someone to believe in him. He saw the political party as a step on the ladder, and was seen as an ambitious young man, who took an active part in the political debate and party organization. He’s walking with the West End at his back, towards Youngstorget Square. Right after New Year he had received the invitation to the inaugural meeting. His nose was new. He was the type who took notes. Thousands Of Young Women In U.S. Forced Into Marriage : Goats and Soda. A year ago, Lina says her parents took her to Yemen because her grandmother was gravely ill.
But when the family arrived, Lina's father announced that she would be getting married to a local man. Renee Deschamps/Getty Images/Vetta hide caption itoggle caption Renee Deschamps/Getty Images/Vetta A year ago, Lina says her parents took her to Yemen because her grandmother was gravely ill. Renee Deschamps/Getty Images/Vetta Lina describes herself as strong and independent. "I was raised very, very Americanized. When people hear her story, she says they tell her, "I never thought that this would ever happen to you. " A year ago, Lina says her parents took her to Yemen, claiming her grandmother was gravely ill. While in Yemen, "I wasn't allowed out of the house longer than 10 minutes, and somebody always had their eye on me," Lina says. She did have her phone and emailed the U.S. So Lina went ahead with the wedding. Itoggle caption Michael J. Michael J. Reiss says her community was insular. How to Recover From an Unproductive Day Like It Never Happened.
How to Discover Your "Authentic" Self and Live the Life You Really Want. Top websites secretly track your device fingerprint. Device fingerprinting, also known as browser fingerprinting, is the practice of collecting properties of PCs, smartphones and tablets to identify and track users. These properties include the screen size, the versions of installed software and plugins, and the list of installed fonts. A 2010 study by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) showed that, for the vast majority of browsers, the combination of these properties is unique, and thus functions as a ‘fingerprint’ that can be used to track users without relying on cookies.
Device fingerprinting targets either Flash, the ubiquitous browser plugin for playing animations, videos and sound files, or JavaScript, a common programming language for web applications. This is the first comprehensive effort to measure the prevalence of device fingerprinting on the Internet. The team of KU Leuven-iMinds researchers analysed the Internet’s top 10,000 websites and discovered that 145 of them (almost 1.5%) use Flash-based fingerprinting. For U.S. Universities, the Rich Get Richer Faster. Japan’s Creative, Ephemeral Homes. The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. A New ‘Wrinkle in Time’ Why You Need Boredom, Distraction, and Procrastination in Your Life. The Cult of Work You Never Meant to Join — Nomad List — Stories. Are our most valuable qualities being exploited at work? How our strengths get twisted into forming bad habits that — if we don’t change fast — just might kill us. You didn’t mean to end up here. You didn’t even see it coming. It all started with a chance to earn a living doing something you loved.
Your dream job. Creating things instead of rotting in a cubicle. You weren’t just going to make a living — you were going to leave your mark on the world. At first, you loved the work; it was challenging and fast-paced. You brainstormed in your off time. You put in way more than 40 hours a week, but who was counting? But weeks passed into months and somehow you ended up here: Working 60 hours a week minimum, usually more. The work is still fun, but you don’t feel the same passion anymore. Your goals outside of work are on hold. “Later,” you promise yourself, “I’ll get around to it soon.” You’re not exactly unhappy, but something’s off. You’ve Been Absorbed For me, it started with my health. The Benefit of Good Financial Habits Learned Early. Putin says ready to work with United States: TV. Pilot who landed gyrocopter on Capitol lawn is unlicensed, prosecutors say.
The Florida mail carrier accused of landing a gyrocopter outside the U.S. Capitol was charged in federal court Thursday and has been barred from returning to the District of Columbia or flying any aircraft, officials said. Douglas Hughes, 61, was charged with violating aircraft registration requirements, a felony, and violating national defense airspace, a misdemeanor. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to three years in prison for the felony and one year in prison for the airspace violation. He was released on his own recognizance Thursday and will be placed on home detention in Florida, prosecutors said. U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson also barred Hughes from the District of Columbia, except for court appearances, and said he must stay away from the Capitol, White House and nearby areas while he is there.
Hughes, a rural letter carrier from Ruskin, Fla., was arrested Wednesday after he landed the craft on the West Lawn of the Capitol about 1:30 p.m., U.S. Yes, You Can Help The World And Make Money At The Same Time : Goats and Soda. A woman cultivates seaweed off the coast of Madagascar to counter overfishing. She's working with Blue Ventures, a business that supports its conservation projects by giving ecotours.
Courtesy of Skoll Foundation hide caption itoggle caption Courtesy of Skoll Foundation A woman cultivates seaweed off the coast of Madagascar to counter overfishing. She's working with Blue Ventures, a business that supports its conservation projects by giving ecotours. Courtesy of Skoll Foundation What do you call someone who runs a successful business that aims to make the world a better place? At the Skoll World Forum this week in Oxford, England, the preferred term is social entrepreneur. Young entrepreneurs are invited to join veterans for workshops, talks and confabs.
Everybody at the conference knows what the phrase social entrepreneur means. An Indian woman in the village of Rajasthan holds up a photo of what the hillside behind her once looked like. So Harris prefers the term "change sustainers. " Dad security. Ukraine: Inside the Deadlock by Tim Judah. Last September, a few weeks before Ukraine’s general election, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, then as now prime minister, issued a pamphlet listing his aims. One was stark: “To get through the winter.” Given that rebel soldiers in the eastern part of the country paint “To Kiev!”
On their tanks, that Ukraine relies on Russia for much of its energy, and that its economy is in dire straits, it is nonetheless safe to say that he has succeeded. The rebels, despite inflicting two major recent defeats on the government forces, have not advanced significantly. Winter power cuts in regions unaffected by the war were short and survivable. As winter turns to spring, soldiers on both sides of the front line are anything but tired of the war.
In the latter case, the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics together will become a giant version of all the other post-Soviet frozen conflicts, such as Transnistria in Moldova or Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia. So the rebels have stalled. 5 film techniques J.J. Abrams will use to showcase his Star Wars universe. One of the great pleasures of the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer is seeing a new director inject his own flourishes into an already visually distinctive series. The Star Wars visual catalog has a few staples that have stayed consistent throughout the series: think transitional wipes and pilot POV shots. Unfortunately, the prequels saw George Lucas expand the toolset with a lot of uninspired tricks: slow zooms on wide shots, Barbara Walters glow, and a stubborn use of a locked-down camera. From the looks of the new Star Wars trailer, J.J. Abrams and his cinematographer, Dave Mindel, seem to be trading out the bad visual trademarks and replacing them with some of their own.
The Dolly Shot It’s a pretty basic camera move. So in this shot, you have the camera moving toward R2-D2 and embers flying from left to right. Lens Flares Wait, what? It’s been exhaustively noted that J.J. Shaky Cam Aerial Battles Canted Angles Snap Zoom. This guy knows what's up. The surprising downsides of being clever. If ignorance is bliss, does a high IQ equal misery? Popular opinion would have it so. We tend to think of geniuses as being plagued by existential angst, frustration, and loneliness.
Think of Virginia Woolf, Alan Turing, or Lisa Simpson – lone stars, isolated even as they burn their brightest. As Ernest Hemingway wrote: “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” Best of 2015 Our top stories The question may seem like a trivial matter concerning a select few – but the insights it offers could have ramifications for many. The first steps to answering these questions were taken almost a century ago, at the height of the American Jazz Age. The Termites’ average salary was twice that of the average white-collar job As you might expect, many of the Termites did achieve wealth and fame – most notably Jess Oppenheimer, the writer of the classic 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy.
A weighty burden One possibility is that knowledge of your talents becomes something of a ball and chain. The Messy Business Of Reinventing Happiness. Bob Iger wanted approval. It was February 2011, and the Walt Disney Co. CEO gathered his board of directors inside an intimate theater at the company’s Team Disney headquarters in Burbank, California. There, just the night before, Iger held an early screening for the board of Captain America: The First Avenger months prior to its release. The soon-to-be blockbuster served as another sign that Iger’s bet on reinvigorating Disney’s movie business through his acquisitions of Marvel and Pixar was paying off big. Now, with his directors reassembled and sitting in the first few rows of the theater, Iger set his sights on his next gamble, his boldest yet: to reinvent the brand’s most beloved asset, Disney’s iconic parks.
Iger planned to pump nearly $1 billion into this venture, called MyMagic+, a sweeping plan to overhaul the digital infrastructure of Disney’s theme parks, which would upend how they operated and connected with consumers. The theater was quiet, the elation gone. Discovery Island. My father, RD Laing: 'he solved other people's problems - but not his own' Before speaking, Adrian Laing takes a small, precise sip of his cappuccino and carefully wipes away the specks of froth from his top lip. 'When people ask me what it was like to be RD Laing's son,' he says, 'I tell them it was a crock of shit.' He laughs, shaking his head. The question of what it was like to be the child of one of the 20th century's most influential psychotherapists has been playing on Adrian's mind of late. 'It was ironic that my father became well-known as a family psychiatrist,' he says, 'when, in the meantime, he had nothing to do with his own family.' As Adrian speaks in a modest north London cafe near his Highgate home, the same paradox is being pondered by a handful of mourners gathering a thousand miles south on the Balearic island of Formentera.
It was here, on this windswept rocky outcrop, that the decomposed body of Adrian's half-brother, Adam, was found by police 12 days ago. 'I think he was depressed before he died,' says shipwright Jorge Agusti. Theories. If you’re not saying “I love you” after six months, move on. - Album on Imgur. Use the Paper Clip Strategy to Build Good Habits. How to Control Your Temper Before You Lose It. The big risk of letting employees know where they rank versus their peers. There’s no way around it, the headlines are disturbing. And they come, not from tabloids or click-bait blogs, but from papers published in scientific journals. They describe fish and birds responding with altered behavior and reproductive systems to antidepressants, diabetes medication, and other psychoactive or hormonally active drugs at concentrations found in the environment.
They report on opioids, amphetamines, and other pharmaceuticals found in treated drinking water; antibiotics in groundwater capable of altering naturally occurring bacterial communities; and over-the-counter and prescription drugs found in water leaching from municipal landfills. And these are just some of many recent studies examining the countless pharmaceuticals that are now being found just about everywhere scientists have looked for them in the environment. Exactly how many drugs are in use and how many may be detectable in the environment is difficult to pinpoint.
Where are these compounds coming from? Why Passive Income Is Worth More than Active Income. Five Simple Steps to Protect Corporate Data. Slack_and_the_office_chat_several_people_are_typing_who_s_working.single. Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Jeanette Dietl/Shutterstock. Last year blogger Beejoli Shah started to notice a curious new artifact populating her social media feeds: screenshots of office chats, mostly taking place in an upstart workplace communication tool called Slack.
At first Shah failed to see the appeal of sharing a few lines of water cooler conversation among co-workers that, more times than not, appeared basically unintelligible to outsiders. But soon she found herself mesmerized by the look and feel of Slack. As the Slackbrags mounted, Shah, an associate editor at the Frisky, campaigned for her co-workers to get on Slack “solely out of jealousy,” Shah says. “There was a definite sense of missing out not being on Slack.
Amanda Hess is a Slate staff writer. Now, the Frisky is officially a Slack office—just like HBO, eBay, Mint, Venmo, Sony, Nordstroms, Crossfit, Dell, the New York Times, GoDaddy, PayPal, Blue Bottle Coffee, Urban Outfitters, BuzzFeed, Gawker, and Slate. Judge throws out evidence gathered by agents posing as Caesars Palace Internet repairmen. How Washington Derailed Amtrak. Merck’s Keytruda Shows Improved Survival Odds in Melanoma. Prosecutors drop robbery case to preserve stingray secrecy in St. Louis. Mellow Pastimes Can Be Good For Your Health, Too. New evidence that dark matter could be self-interacting. See the World's Second Most Spoken Languages with This Interactive Map. The War Nerd: The Art of Turf War. How successful people work less—and get more done. Forests of the Routeburn Track. What Makes Sleep Paralysis Scary | Sleep Disorders. Science by robot: Outfitting the world’s “smartest” lake. Brainstorming Does Not Work — Galleys.
History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places. Solar power will soon be as cheap as coal. Republican hopefuls target middle-class insecurity as economy improves. How The World Bank Broke Its Promise to Protect the Poor. People who skim online articles are just as cultured as book snobs. JenniCam: Jennifer Ringley’s webcam years well and truly over. How the North Vietnamese Remember the Vietnam War, 40 Years After the Fall of Saigon. Quora. The British royal baby will have a lower hospital bill than an uninsured American baby. Aaron Hernandez: Patriots Tight End Violent Evolution. 4IpSpzx. 'Mad Men' Recap, Season Seven, Episode Nine: "New Business" Find out why the Hulk is smashing Iron Man in the newest Avengers: Age of Ultron clip | The Verge.
Quora. I'm a water economist. AMA on water shortages in California or water-related problems anywhere in the world! : IAmA. Britain’s criminally stupid attitudes to race and immigration are beyond parody | Frankie Boyle. Putin’s Action Hero: How Steven Seagal Became the Kremlin’s Unlikeliest Envoy. The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 70% of Rich Families Lose Their Wealth by the Second Generation. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and Gay Marriage. The Ultimate Guide to Learning Anything Faster — The Growth List. Truly confident people do these twelve things differently.
Your salary shouldn’t be your only source of income. 404 Not Found. Opt out of global data surveillance programs like PRISM, XKeyscore, and Tempora - PRISM Break - PRISM Break. Quora. Love at First Sight Is Real, If You Believe. Strange beam of light formed from a lightning strike. A Diet Might Cut the Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s. By 2100, Earth Will Have an Entirely Different Ocean. Quora. NSA Spying Relies on AT&T’s ‘Extreme Willingness to Help’ 0fR0RmH.jpg (JPEG Image, 4512 × 3012 pixels) - Scaled (22%) About-Face on Preventing Peanut Allergies. Quora. The state of storytelling in the internet age. Quora. Sold a phone to a guy in California, figured he would also need this.
Quora. Ten vital tips to looking smarter in meetings. Matthew Crawford: 'distraction is a kind of obesity of the mind' | Media. Exiled Russian lawmaker explains why Putin isn't afraid of Obama. The Great Millennial Car Comeback. Most Americans don't think government transparency matters a damn. 9QxDPEJ.jpg (JPEG Image, 2376 × 1782 pixels) - Scaled (43%) Isabel Diagnoses Your Health Symptoms, Based on Tools Used by Doctors. A World Where Nothing Gets Lost. Amazon is about to reveal one of its biggest secrets—the size of its cloud business. J.J. Abrams, 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' and the Power of Nostalgia. This Chart Shows How Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO Affect Your Photos.
Answer to Why doesn't Germany produce airplanes? - Quora. Quora. Quora. How Modern Life Depletes Our Gut Microbes : Goats and Soda.