Author: Michelle Korhonen
Sean Crimmins, a senior in engineering at the University of Nebraska, loads the robotic arm into its case on Aug. 11 before a shake test. Craig Chandler/University of Nebraska Office of University Communication and Marketing hide caption toggle caption Craig Chandler/University of Nebraska Office of University Communication and Marketing Sean Crimmins, a senior in engineering at the University of Nebraska, loads the robotic arm into its case on Aug. 11 before a shake test. Craig Chandler/University of Nebraska Office of University Communication and Marketing The robot is small in size but its aspirations are out of this world — literally.…
February 10, 2024, 12:09 PM ETEditor’s Note: Washington Week with The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings or watch full episodes here.The Supreme Court is set to play a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential election, as it weighs former President Donald Trump’s appeal to appear on Colorado’s Republican presidential-primary ballot. Trump is also expected to ask the Supreme Court as early as next week to overturn a federal appeals court’s rejection of his immunity claims.Meanwhile, Trump’s influence on the Republican Party was on…
Scott Simon gets fitted for his first pair of hearing aids. Caroline Simon hide caption toggle caption Caroline Simon Scott Simon gets fitted for his first pair of hearing aids. Caroline Simon Valentine’s Day is next Wednesday, and I’m getting my wife and daughters the gift of hearing aids — for me. Our family is tired of asking, “Please pass the broccoli,” only for me chime back, “Sure, we can play Monopoly!” I’m told it’s been like living with a defective smart speaker. Our daughters ask, “Can we stop at Trader Joe’s?” and I say, “Why do you want lederhosen?”…
The early 2000s were an excellent time for romance. J. Lo married Marc Anthony. Vanessa Carlton vowed to walk a thousand miles for love. Ryan Gosling kissed Rachel McAdams in the pouring rain. And in Front Royal, Virginia, Chris Crowe flapped his arms to woo Walnut, a five-foot-tall white-naped crane.Walnut was a graceful, strong-willed bird, if a tad antisocial. That year, she’d spurned the affections of the males of her species, and instead bonded with Crowe, her keeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. Walnut’s love for Crowe lasted 20 years, until she died last month, at…
Kush, a synthetic cannabinoid, is spreading quickly for the promise of a stress-relieving high. But what’s the impact on users — and Sierra Leonean society? And how are the authorities responding?(Image credit: Tommy Trenchard for NPR)
This article was originally published by Knowable Magazine.The stories have become horribly familiar: houses so overrun by bedbugs that the bloodsucking insects pile an inch deep on the floor. An airport shutting down gates for deep cleaning after the parasites were spotted. Fear and loathing during Fashion Week 2023 in Paris, with bedbug-detection dogs working overtime when the insects turned up in movie theaters and trains.For reasons that almost certainly have to do with global travel and poor pest management, bedbugs have resurfaced with a vengeance in 50 countries since the late 1990s. But recently, the resurgence has brought an…
Our writers’ most helpful insights on getting things done without stressing about them too much.Francois Lenoir / ReutersFebruary 10, 2024, 8 AM ETThis is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.“Productivity is a sore subject for a lot of people,” my colleague Amanda Mull wrote last fall—and I’ll admit that just reading that line makes me feel a little stressed. Perhaps it’s because, as Amanda puts it, “Americans invest personal productivity with…
Peathegee Inc/Getty Images/Tetra images RF Peathegee Inc/Getty Images/Tetra images RF In the 1960s and ’70s, The 2,000 Year-Old Man, was popular a comedy routine performed by Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. Brooks played a 2,000 year-old man – apparently in terrific health – and Reiner, a modern man, would ask him questions, including if he’d share the secrets to his longevity. “The major thing is that I never ever touch fried food,” was Brooks’ response in one early recording. Also, “Never run for a bus; there will always be another,” and eat lots of nectarines. Not bad! Whether you’re 2,000…
Sign up for The Decision, a newsletter featuring our 2024 election coverage.Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, officially endorsed Donald Trump’s campaign for reelection two Saturdays ago. The news landed as an afterthought, which is probably how she intended it. “Today at the @WVGOP Winter Meeting Lunch, I announced my support for President Donald Trump,” Capito wrote on X, as if she were making a dutiful entry in a diary.Republicans have reached the point in their primary season, even earlier than expected, when the party’s putative leaders line up to reaffirm their allegiance to Trump. Several of Capito’s…
Hong Kong is about to enact another security law on top of the draconian one Beijing imposed following prodemocracy protests in 2020. Known as Article 23, the new law includes a vague definition of state secrets, just like that under mainland Chinese law; the power to hold suspects without charges; and punishments for people who publish “false or misleading statements.”The city’s mini constitution, which came into effect with its handover to China in 1997, actually requires the passage of Article 23. But no previous Hong Kong leader has been willing to take it on for fear of a ferocious backlash.…