Irish writer Paul Lynch’s dystopian novel ‘Prophet Song’ wins 2023 Booker Prize
Irish writer Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize on Sunday for his novel “Prophet Song,” the story of a family and a country on the brink of catastrophe as an imaginary Irish government veers towards tyranny.
The novel, Lynch’s fifth, seeks to show the unrest in Western democracies and their indifference towards disasters such as the implosion of Syria.
“From that first knock at the door, ‘Prophet Song’ forces us out of our complacency as we follow the terrifying plight of a woman seeking to protect her family in an Ireland descending into totalitarianism,” Esi Edugyan, chair of the Booker’s 2023 judges, said.
“This is a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave.” READ MORE FROM CNN
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Hands: What We Do with Them - and Why
Human history, modern life and our psychology - all told through the story of how we use our hands.
Throughout history, civilisations have been defined by the work of human hands- inventing tools, writing records, operating machinery, typing, texting, swiping. But beneath this known history is another, secret story- our hands are not the obedient servants that they seem to be. Through conscious and unconscious gesture, they reveal our deepest psychology, our weaknesses and obsessions, our personal history and our social conditioning.
The key to understanding everything around you - and everything within you - is staring you in the face. Using fascinating anecdotes and brilliant psychoanalytic research, from da Vinci to Dickens to Die Hard, Darian Leader reveals that there's much more to your hands than meets the eye. CHECK FROM AMAZON
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Barbie, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon: The 20 best films of 2023
BBC Culture film critics Nicholas Barber and Caryn James pick their highlights of the year, including Barbie, Oppenheimer, Maestro and Killers of the Flower Moon.
The numbers in this list do not represent ranking, but are intended to make the separate entries as clear as possible. CHECK THE LIST FROM BBC
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The best films of 2023, as chosen by The Economist
A man is found dead in the snow outside his Alpine chalet. Did he jump from the attic window, or was he pushed by his wife? The winner of the Palme d’Or, the top prize at Cannes Film Festival, Justine Triet’s courtroom drama is both a gripping whodunnit and an unsparing examination of the sexual and professional rivalries within a marriage.
Hayao Miyazaki, a co-founder of Studio Ghibli, has said that this will be his final film—and what a swansong it is. A cryptic, cosmic fairy tale about letting go of the past, “The Boy and the Heron” is comparable to several of Mr Miyazaki’s previous visionary masterpieces. READ MORE FROM THE ECONOMIST
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These books are being used to train AI. No one told the authors
Almost 200,000 books are being used to train artificial intelligence systems by some of the biggest companies in technology. The problem? No one told the authors.
The system is called Books3, and according to an investigation by The Atlantic, the data set is based on a collection of pirated e-books spanning all genres, from erotic fiction to prose poetry. Books help generative AI systems with learning how to communicate information.
Some AI training text can be pulled from articles that are posted on the internet, but high-quality AI requires high-quality text to absorb language from, according to the Atlantic, which is where books come in. Books3 is already the subject of multiple lawsuits against Meta and other companies using the system to train AI.
Now, thanks to a database published by The Atlantic last week pulling from Books3, authors can see whether their books specifically are being used to train these AI systems. And many are not happy.
“I’m completely gutted and whipsawed. I am outraged and at the same time feel utterly helpless,” wrote Mary H. K. Choi on social media, upon discovering her work was being used. “I’m furious and want to fight but I’m also so tired.” READ MORE FROM CNN
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Ben Gravy told us what it was like to surf seven seas in seven days
Ben Gravy has made a career traveling around the world and surfing novelty waves. The vlogger has surfed calving glaciers in the arctic, mega tankers in South Carolina, and a DIY wave machine in the swamps of Pennsylvania. On the way, he’s even managed to catch a ride in all 50 states. However, all that has been merely a prelude to his latest and greatest feat, in which Gravy set out to surf all seven seas in seven days. READ MORE FROM THE INERTIA
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Billy Kemper spoke about surfboard bag restrictions and Hawaiian Airlines listened
For the traveling surfer, carting around a coffin full of surfboards is often the worst part of the journey. Exorbitant fees and illogical weight restrictions are common, and navigating which airline is best is a daunting task. But every now and then, a corporation listens when a consumer complains. If that consumer has enough reach, that is. And Billy Kemper has reach. In early November, the big wave legend took to social media to call out Hawaiian Airlines for its board bag policies, and lo and behold, his complaint has brought about change. READ MORE FROM THE INERTIA
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Goodbye statins? New single-treatment gene editing therapy slashes high cholesterol
This is a small clinical trial but the promising new therapy could provide relief for millions.
But that fate, and our limited means to treat FH, might be a thing of the past. According to findings revealed Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Philadelphia, a novel gene editing therapy lowered “bad” cholesterol levels in individuals with FH by targeting an enzyme called PCSK9. Participants who received the highest dose of the new therapy saw their LDL levels drop by as much as 55 percent.
“Instead of daily pills or intermittent injections over decades to lower bad cholesterol, this study reveals the potential for a new treatment option — a single-course therapy that may lead to deep [LDL] lowering for decades,” Andrew Bellinger, the study’s senior author, and chief scientific officer at Verve Therapeutics, who sponsored the clinical trial, said in a press release. READ MORE FROM INVERSE
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Webb Telescope just uncovered two of the universe's oldest-known galaxies
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Chicken soup's healing powers have little to do with its ingredients
The dish as a therapy can be traced back to ancient civilizations.
Preparing a bowl of chicken soup for a loved one when they’re sick has been a common practice worldwide for centuries. Today, generations from virtually every culture swear to the benefits of chicken soup. In the U.S., the dish is typically made with noodles, but different cultures prepare the soothing remedy their own way.
Chicken soup as a therapy can be traced back to 60 A.D. and Pedanius Dioscorides, an army surgeon who served under the Roman emperor Nero and whose five-volume medical encyclopedia was consulted by early healers for more than a millennium. But the origins of chicken soup go back thousands of years earlier, to ancient China.
So, with cold and flu season in full swing, it’s worth asking: Is there any science to back the belief that it helps? Or does chicken soup serve as just a comforting placebo, that is, providing psychological benefit while we’re sick, without an actual therapeutic benefit? READ MORE FROM INVERSE
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This radical discovery about the human psyche could fundamentally change psychology
What another person sees or believes appears to affect what participants report they can see, believe, or remember about a situation.
If you’ve read much about psychology or evolution, it’s easy to get the idea that humans are hardwired to act as if the world revolves around themselves.
But my team’s new study joins a growing body of research showing that humans are highly attuned to other people and what they think. Indeed, our findings suggest people are sometimes so sensitive to the beliefs of others that it can challenge their own beliefs about events they have witnessed.
A common claim in psychology is that humans are egocentric creatures, fundamentally biased towards our own beliefs. Indeed, one explanation of why children until around the age of four don’t readily understand that other people can have different beliefs from them is that ignoring their own beliefs is just too difficult for pre-schoolers.
Of course, adults understand that others can have different beliefs to our own. Yet we sometimes make mistakes in straightforward social situations, appearing to wrongly assume that others share the same beliefs as we do, even when it is clear they do not.
Many psychologists interpret these mistakes as evidence that humans of all ages are “egocentrically biased” because we have a default assumption that others share the same beliefs as us. My team’s latest research, however, tells a different story. READ MORE FROM INVERSE
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Quotable quote
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, A Few Figs from Thistles
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Bertrand Russell on the secret of happiness
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The best children's books aren't written for children
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