James' World 2

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Mark didn’t mean to cut the guy off. The man in the pickup truck honked repeatedly. Mark nodded at him: Sorry. But a few minutes later Mark accidentally cut the guy off again. And that’s when things went sideways…

The man raced his truck forward and blocked Mark’s car. With both vehicles now stopped, the guy got out. All six-foot-five and three hundred pounds of him. (If I was Mark I would have considered calling ahead to reserve one of the nicer rooms in the ICU.)

The guy started banging his fist on Mark’s door. Bellowing at him with rage. Inexplicably, Mark rolled down his window:

“Have you ever had such an awful day that you’re just hoping to meet someone who will pull out a gun, shoot you, and put you out of your misery? Are you that someone?”

The man’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“Yeah, I really mean it. I don’t usually cut people off, and I never cut someone off twice. I’m just having a day where no matter what I do or who I meet—including you!—I seem to mess everything up. Are you the person who is going to mercifully put an end to it?”

The man’s demeanor changed instantly. He became calm. Reassuring.

“Hey. C’mon, man. It’ll be okay. Really! Just relax, it’ll be okay. Everyone has days like this.”

They talked for a while. Nicely. The guy got back into his truck. He waved to Mark in the rearview mirror. And drove off.

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True

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Whether it’s Megan and Thomas Markle or Britney and her teen sons, celebrity family feuds are having a moment. Nevertheless, with roughly 10 percent of Americans estranged from a parent or child, you very likely know someone in your own life with parental problems.

Therapists and researchers believe that rifts in families are becoming more common, particularly with adult children stopping contact with one or both parents. A study in 1997 explored family relationships in later life and found that 7 percent of adult children had cut ties with their mother and 27 percent from their father. In 2020, research by sociologist Karl Pillemar showed that 1 in 4 Americans are estranged from their families—roughly 67 million people.

Simone Bose is a relationship therapist based in London. She deals with family issues every day in her practice, including estrangement, with her clients coming from a range of backgrounds and circumstances.

“It’s never an easy decision,” she told Newsweek. “It’s the hardest thing in the world to separate yourself from your parents.

“They were your everything as a child, and no matter what age they are your parents can be huge in your life.

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A stock photo of an adult daughter giving her mother the silent treatment, while her mother places her hand on her shoulder. Toxic and narcissistic behaviors are just one reason why adult children are distancing themselves from their parents. JackF/iStock/Getty Images Plus

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Since the first James Webb Space Telescope images were released in July, our feeds have been flooded with mind-bogglingly gorgeous photos of space – from insanely detailed images of Jupiter to the most distant known star.

Now, Webb has done it again, this time capturing an almost perfect Einstein ring whose light has traveled roughly 12 billion light-years to reach us. And we can’t stop staring.

You can see the colorized image, which was shared by astronomy grad student Spaceguy44 on Reddit, below.

As Spaceguy44 explains on Reddit, an Einstein ring occurs when a distant galaxy has been magnified and wrapped into an almost-perfect ring by a massive galaxy in front of it.

The galaxy in question is called SPT-S J041839-4751.8.

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Colorized image of a distant Einstein ring. (JWST/MAST; Spaceguy44/Reddit)

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Learning new things is a huge part of life — we should always be striving to grow and learn a new skill. Whether you’re learning Spanish or want to do math fast, it takes time to learn each lesson, and time is precious. So how can you make the most of your time by speeding up the learning process? Thanks to neuroscience, we now have a better understanding of how we learn and the most effective ways our brains process and hold on to information.

If you want to get a jump start on expanding your knowledge, here are 10 proven ways you can start being a quick learner. (see article)

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An asteroid from space slammed into the Earth’s surface 66 million years ago, leaving a massive crater underneath the sea and wreaking havoc with the planet.

No, it’s not that asteroid, the one that doomed the dinosaurs to extinction, but a previously unknown crater 248 miles off the coast of West Africa that was created right around the same time. Further study of the Nadir crater, as it’s called, could shake up what we know about that cataclysmic moment in natural history.

Uisdean Nicholson, an assistant professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, happened on the crater by accident – he was reviewing seismic survey data for another project on the tectonic split between South America and Africa and found evidence of the crater beneath 400 meters of seabed sediment.

“While interpreting the data, I (came) across this very unusual crater-like feature, unlike anything I had ever seen before,” he said.

“It had all the characteristics of an impact crater.”

To be absolutely certain the crater was caused by an asteroid strike, he said that it would be necessary to drill into the the crater and test minerals from the crater floor. But it has all the hallmarks scientists would expect: the right ratio of crater width to depth, the height of the rims, and the height of the central uplift – a mound in the center created by rock and sediment forced up by the shock pressure.

“The discovery of a terrestrial impact crater is always significant because they are very rare in the geologic record. There are fewer than 200 confirmed impact structures on Earth and quite a few likely candidates that haven’t yet been unequivocally confirmed,” said Mark Boslough, a research professor in Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico. He was not involved in this research but agreed that it was probably caused by an asteroid.

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A diagram, incorporating seismic observations and computer simulations, of how the Nadir Crater formed.  Courtesy Republic of Guinea, TGS and Western Geco

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Dear Prudence,

My long-term boyfriend has developed a habit that’s driving me nuts. Whenever he gets tired of his beard, he shaves it into a retro, ridiculous mustache or sideburns. The first few times he did it, I thought it was funny—until I realized I would be living with “the Tom Selleck” or “the Elvis” for more than a few hours. Now I just cringe every time he picks up his razor. He works in a creative field where he can get away with it (and I don’t), so maybe that’s part of it, but in my opinion, your mid-30s is too old for ironic facial hair, especially at formal events like weddings. He knows I hate it but continues to do it regularly. Does he need to grow up, or do I need to let it go? I don’t care if he has a beard, a mustache, or goes clean-shaven. I just don’t want to sit across from Gen. Burnside at dinner!

There’s always a balance to be struck between making a reasonable request (like “Please don’t wear a handlebar mustache to Florin’s wedding”) and acknowledging your boyfriend’s right to style his facial hair as he likes it. You say he knows you hate it, but I’m not sure you two have sat down for a conscientious discussion, or if you just said, “Oh God, not the Yosemite Sam” when he last pulled out his clippers. If you haven’t yet done the former, tell him you recognize that it’s his choice and that he may get something out of that look beyond just ironic pleasure at an old-timey set of mutton chops. You might ask him to share what exactly he likes about that look, so you have a better sense of where he’s coming from. But if it’s something he only does out of boredom and whimsy, and he’s not especially attached to the looks, tell him that you vastly prefer him either bearded or clean-shaven. Once you’ve said your piece, it’s time to let it go. After that, there’s not much more you can do to make your case about his face. —Danny M. Lavery

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Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Getty Images Plus.

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