When the Wright brothers invented the airplane, it fundamentally altered how we experience traveling.
It wasn’t just about speed. Yes, it was great getting from Chicago to Miami in less time. But flight also gave us thrill of defying gravity and soaring to new heights.
Flight became a new “user experience” for every traveler: the space-age feel of the airport; the visceral rumble in the chest as the turbine engines fire up; the press of G-force as the plane accelerates down the runway; the flutter in the stomach as the plane leaves the ground; the exhilaration of bursting through the clouds cruising at 30,000 feet.
Remember when you were a kid and you used to say, “Mom, I’m booored,” and she’d tell you to go entertain yourself? Maybe you don’t. Maybe you weren’t as whiny as me. Or maybe you were born sometime in the last two decades(ish), and had a childhood that perpetually involved a screen. But there was a time before the iPhone (and after the Industrial Revolution, which, really, gave birth to leisure time) when we humans desperately tried to avoid the dark embrace of boredom. Having nothing to do meant spending time alone with your own thoughts. Which: Ew.
Then? Phones got smart, and so did we, with easy access to more information and entertainment than we’d ever had before. Now, every moment you spend being bored—while riding an elevator, or waiting at the doctor’s office, or biding time until your date returns from the restroom—is a moment you don’t spend reading a book, skimming the news, or catching up on social media. Basically, being bored in 2018 is a slap in the face of technology. Never again will we have nothing to do. This is a good thing… right?
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Believe it or not, sometimes not doing anything at all is the most productive thing you can do.
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With the too-frequently conflicting pressures of career and home eating up most hours of the day for working parents, having a job while raising a family can feel like a long, lonely endeavor carried out at a continuously frantic pace—especially in the United States, which consistently ranks lowest among OECD countries in terms of work-life balance for families. The stress can be isolating, whether you’re doing it all on your own or are part of a two-career household.
But parents doing the daily juggling act are hardly alone. In 2017, 33.6 million US families included children under age 18, and in 90.2% of these households, at least one parent was employed. That’s more than 30 million families with kids with at least one working parent. And in nearly half (46%) of US households, both parents work full-time.
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Natasha Dzhola for Quartz
It all hangs in the balance.
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Ko Kutis a district (amphoe) of Trat Province, eastern Thailand, consisting of a group of islands.With a population of about 2,000 it is the district with the smallest population of all Thailand.
“Roma,” the moving drama from director Alfonso Cuarón that is based on his childhood in 1970s Mexico City, and “The Favourite,” a dark comedy about women vying for power in Queen Anne’s court in the 18th century, dominated the 91st Academy Awards nominations on Tuesday morning with 10 each, including best picture.
Close behind was “A Star Is Born,” Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut starring himself and pop superstar Lady Gaga, with eight nominations. The film, the third remake of the 1937 classic about the pitfalls of fame, landed nods for actor (Cooper), actress (Gaga), and original song, for the hit “Shallow,” though Cooper was snubbed in the director’s race.
“Vice,” the Dick Cheney biopic starring an unrecognizable Christian Bale as George W. Bush’s vice president, also received eight nominations. Bale looks to continue his award season sweep with a nod for best actor; Amy Adams, who plays his wife, Lynne Cheney, was nominated for best actress.
The 2019 Oscars might still be down a host, but at least now they have some nominees.
Netflix’s “Roma,” from writer and director Alfonso Cuarón, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ dark period comedy “The Favourite” led with 10 nominations each for the 91st Academy Awards, announced Tuesday. “Roma” became a game-changer for the streaming service as its first Best Picture nominee.
The nominations were announced by Kumail Nanjiani and Tracee Ellis Ross in Los Angeles at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
On October 19, 2017, astronomers at the University of Hawaii spotted a strange object travelling through our solar system, which they later described as “a red and extremely elongated asteroid.” It was the first interstellar object to be detected within our solar system; the scientists named it ‘Oumuamua, the Hawaiian word for a scout or messenger. The following October, Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department, co-wrote a paper (with a Harvard postdoctoral fellow, Shmuel Bialy) that examined ‘Oumuamua’s “peculiar acceleration” and suggested that the object “may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth’s vicinity by an alien civilization.” Loeb has long been interested in the search for extraterrestrial life, and he recently made further headlines by suggesting that we might communicate with the civilization that sent the probe. “If these beings are peaceful, we could learn a lot from them,” he told Der Spiegel.
I recently spoke by phone with Loeb, who was frustrated that scientists saw ‘Oumuamua too late in its journey to photograph the object. “My motivation for writing the paper is to alert the community to pay a lot more attention to the next visitor,” he told me. During our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed why Loeb thinks we need to consider the possibility that ‘Oumuamua was sent by aliens, the dangers of unscientific speculation, and what belief in an advanced extraterrestrial civilization has in common with faith in God.
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Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department, believes that the peculiar nature of the interstellar object called ‘Oumuamua raises questions about its possible origins.
Courtesy ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESO, M. Kornmesser
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Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Road traffic china
Believe it or not, sometimes not doing anything at all is the most productive thing you can do.
An image from Ko Kut Thailand
Fascism
“Black Panther”
2019
