Author: KnowledgeHippo

Most of the band subscribed to a live-quick-die-young lifestyle. But as they partook in the booze and drugs endemic to the 1990s grunge scene after gigs at the Whiskey a Go Go, the Roxy and other West Coast clubs, the band’s guitarist, Valter Longo, an Italian Ph.D. student, battling a lifelong addiction to longevity.Now, decades after Dr. Longo left the grunge-era band DOT for a career in biochemistry, the Italian professor stands in his floppy-rock hair and lab coat at the nexus of Italy’s ideas of nutrition and aging.”For the study of aging, Italy is simply incredible,” said Dr. Longo,…

Yet even after many decades, I could see how Jaime and Tony hesitated between branching passages, retreating into the inner topography of memory before disappearing behind a blind curve. So many of the conversations I caught on tape were merely directive:Vamos pa’llá,””No, mas delande,””And where is Javier?» Cross talk, stifled laughter. Jaime told me that sometimes they came across skeletons of goats that died lost in the maze. We learned to listen to each other’s voices. “Yo la adoraba,” he explained helplessly.At Cueva Caballo, Jaime shouted:Se la robaron, Tony!When we found him, he was kneeling before what looked like an…

As soon as they heard the gunshots Friday night at Krokos City Hall, Efim Fidrya and his wife ran to the basement of the building and hid with three others in a bathroom.They listened as the gunfire began and thousands of people who had come to a sold-out rock concert on the outskirts of Moscow began screaming and trying to leave.Terrified and scared, Mr. Findrya did the only thing he could think of: He held tightly to the bathroom door, which didn’t lock, trying to protect the group in case the assailants came for them.”While we could hear gunshots and…

A new law in Indiana requires professors at public universities to foster a culture of “intellectual diversity” or face disciplinary action, including dismissal even for those with tenure, the latter in a Republican effort to assert more control over what is taught at the classes.The law ties the employment status of faculty members, regardless of whether they are tenured, to whether, in the eyes of a university’s governing board, they promote “free research” and “free expression.” State Sen. Spencer Deery, who sponsored the bill, made it clear in a statement that this would involve including more conservative views on campus.Reaction…

Veteran NBC anchor Chuck Todd publicly attacked his network’s leadership on Sunday, questioning why NBC News hired Ronna McDaniel, the former chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and declaring live on air, “There’s a reason why there are so many reporters at NBC News are uncomfortable with it.”Mr. Todd’s comments on “Meet the Press,” the top political talk show he has hosted for nine years, were an extraordinary escalation of behind-the-scenes tensions simmering within NBC News and its cable cousin MSNBC after the announcement Friday that Ms. McDaniel had been brought in as a political analyst.Some reporters at NBC were…

Listen and Follow “Hard Fork”Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTubeThis week, the US Department of Justice sued Apple, saying the company has a monopoly on the smartphone market. We break down the lawsuit and ask if it will be a major turning point in Apple’s dominance. Then Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, argues that smartphones and social media are the cause of widespread increases in mental health problems among young people. He tells us his four possible solutions to the problem. And finally, Reddit’s market cap hit $9.2 billion when it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange this…

Most people, according to study after study, do not take their prescribed medications. It doesn’t matter what it is – statins, high blood pressure medication, blood sugar lowering medication, asthma medication. Either patients never start taking them, or they stop.It’s a problem doctors call nonadherence—the common human tendency to resist medical treatment—and it leads to countless deaths and billions of dollars in preventable medical costs each year.But that resistance can be overcome by blockbuster obesity drugs Wegovy and Zepbound, which have amazed the world by helping people lose weight and keep it off. Although it is still early days, and…

“They’re movable works of art,” says Budapest-born, London-based decorator Gergei Erdei of his new collection of hand-painted pine folding screens. Part of his Objects of Desires series, the six designs include trompe l’oeil columns, winged mythological figures and interlocking geometric shapes. Erdei found inspiration for his pieces, which exceed seven feet, in a recent retrospective of the works of Italian couturier Elsa Schiaparelli at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and the lacquered screens of Art Deco multimedia artist Jean Dunand. The crumbling frescoes and ancient mosaics of Pompeii informed the soft, ocher tones of the mythological design, which…

Less than a week ago, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia claimed a fifth term with the highest percentage of the vote ever, using an electoral process to show the nation and the world that he was firmly in control.A few days later came a terrible setback: his vaunted security apparatus failed to prevent Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in 20 years.The attack on Friday, which killed at least 133 people at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, was a blow to Mr Putin’s aura as a leader for whom national security is paramount. That’s especially true after two…

From the top of the government, China is heavily pushing a plan to fix the country’s stagnant economy and reverse the damage from a decades-long housing bubble.The program has a new slogan, introduced mainly by Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader, as “new, quality productive forces”.But it has features familiar from China’s economic playbook: The idea is to spur innovation and growth through massive investment in manufacturing, particularly high-tech and clean energy, as well as massive spending on research and development. And there were few specifics on how the government hopes to persuade Chinese households to reverse a prolonged slowdown…