Author: KnowledgeHippo
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…
Compared to the C$496 billion the federal government spent last year, the amounts are small. But this week’s revelations of millions of dollars in potentially fraudulent billing from subcontractors, along with the ongoing ArriveCAN app scandal, show just how much of a mess software development can be for the government.Even after an extensive investigation, Karen Hogan, the auditor general, said she could not determine exactly what it cost to create ArriveCAN, which was hastily launched in 2020 to collect contact and health information from international travelers during the Covid-19 pandemic and coordination of quarantine measures. Ms. Hogan’s best guess is…
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…
I had just unbuckled my seat belt and was already wondering if I had driven six hours to Texas for nothing. A once-in-a-lifetime river adventure had seemingly evaporated with some disappointing news.It was the promise of a four-day, 33-mile canoe trip through Big Bend National Park, through awe-inspiring canyons on a mighty river, that had swept me across the state. My partner’s brother, Michael Stangl, a casual guide with Hidden Dagger Adventures, had offered to take me up the Rio Grande, one of the country’s largest rivers, which stretches from central Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. I had only…
As emergency services combed the scene of the Moscow concert hall attack, details of some of the victims began to emerge from officials and local media.Most of those spotted so far appeared to be in their 40s, and many had traveled from other parts of the country to attend the concert where Piknik, a Russian rock band formed in the late 1970s, was due to perform on Friday the evening.Alexander Baklemyshev, 51, had long dreamed of seeing the band, his son told local media, and had traveled alone from his hometown of Satka, about 1,000 miles east of Moscow, for…