I Will Survive
Good.
Teens Want Parents to Track Their Phones and Monitor Their Every Move
An upbringing filled with anxiety has Gen Z sharing their location via apps
Teenagers have long balked at telling parents where they are. Now, they’re asking their parents to track them.
Every generation experiences its set of traumas, but social media and real-time news—with vivid images about the pandemic, war and other disasters—have heightened these anxieties among young people. And lots of them are closer to their parents than previous generations have been.
Members of Gen Z, ages 11 to 26, say they use family location-sharing apps to bolster a sense of security. Downloads of Life360 doubled in the U.S. since 2021. The app now has more than 33 million monthly active users in the U.S. and another 20 million internationally. Even more teens share their location using Apple’s Find My, Google’s Family Link,
Snapchat’s Snap Map and GPS-equipped smartwatches.
Gen Z respondents to a recent survey from Life360 said they share their location when they drive, when they go on dates and when they attend concerts and other large gatherings. Many keep location sharing on at all times.
Chief Broom and Flower Moon
The Long, Strange, Beautiful Road to ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
My father-in-law and my late husband, both accomplished actors, wished for a time when Hollywood would make movies about real Native Americans. Now my daughter is living it.
It’s 1985, and I am 24—a few years removed from smoking cigarettes in front of the Baskin-Robbins in Brooklyn Heights.
I’m in Georgetown, South Carolina, and I jump off the back of the production van and directly into the path of two men wearing Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots. I recognize the older one, his silver hair braided with red ribbon, as the actor Will Sampson, who played Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He is with his son Tim, with whom I will fall in love.
We are filming a PBS miniseries, Roanoak, and Will again plays the role of chief. At six feet, seven inches, he is a commanding presence.
Before becoming an actor, Will, a full-blood Muscogee, or Creek, had been a rodeo rider, a lineman, and an artist. The Cuckoo’s Nest producers had heard about a “big Indian” and tracked him down. After a few days on set of hurry-up-and-wait, Will had gotten back in his pickup and driven away—fuck this noise. But he’d been cajoled back and made history. (The movie remains one of only three to have won the Big Five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay.)
Death Valley Alive
from The Los Angeles Times via MSN
‘I’ve never seen anything like this’: Death Valley gleams with water, wildflowers and color
Story by Christopher Reynolds
Death Valley is still wet. And only a fortunate few seem to be getting the best of it.
Two months after a storm that dropped a year’s rainfall in a single day, flooding roads, destroying trails and closing down the park, the national park’s Oct. 15 reopening revealed a strange place made stranger.
The famously flat and dry Badwater Basin now is home to a sprawling but temporary lake, visible from water’s edge and 5,575 feet above at Dante’s View.
Between sand dunes at Mesquite Flat, you might stumble on a puddle or a pond. In Mosaic and Golden canyons, where floodwaters surged in August, scattered boulders and silt have reshaped the narrow passages, hinting at violence just concluded. Across the plains and slopes, you see more green than usual and sometimes yellow and orange wildflowers, apparently blooming out of seasonal confusion.
The Art Thief
Inside the Hunt for the World’s Most Prolific Art Thief
Stephane Breitwieser is believed to have stolen hundreds of artifacts, worth a total of $2 billion
BY RALPH JONES
Get lost in the suspense of “The Art Thief.”
From the moment he read about him, Michael Finkel knew he wanted to tell Stephane Breitwieser’s story. He remembers looking at newspapers and small websites, wishing to learn French at the time, discovering the Frenchman’s story and becoming hooked. Breitwieser, currently serving a seven-year prison sentence, is the most prolific art thief in the history of the world.
Three things about Breitwieser intrigued Finkel: the insane quantity of his conquests, the fact that the thief never hurt anyone during his crimes and that he professed to steal art not for money but for love. “Whose heart doesn’t melt a little bit right there?” Finkel says over Zoom.
It’s impossible, a French journalist friend warned him. Breitwieser doesn’t talk to the press. This simply solidified Finkel’s resolve. “Game on,” he said to himself. Breitwieser became the author’s inspiration to learn French as quickly as possible. He wrote letters to the thief, beginning in 2012, and moved to France. It was years before Breitwieser returned Finkel’s letters, but when he did, the pair spoke at such length that Finkel was able to write a book about the man. Breitwieser’s story is so extraordinary that, Finkel tells me, he has sold the movie rights and is fantasizing about Timothee Chalamet playing the lead.
The Roast Is Done
The age of the comedy roast is over
Satirical annihilation has become a sanitised ritual
The spotlight beams down on the stage, illuminating the faces of the evening’s celebrities, who are seated in a semicircle like ancient oracles of comedy. At the centre of it all is the roastee — the guest of honour — who will soon be subjected to a brutal barrage of jokes. “James Franco…” started Natasha Leggero’s demolition job 10 years ago. “Acting, teaching, directing, writing, producing, photography, soundtracks, editing — is there anything you can do?” Then there was Gilbert Gottfried’s audacious pivot at the Hugh Hefner Roast, held just two weeks after 9/11, which descended into the “filthiest joke ever told”.
But as much as these moments underscore the art form’s past audacity, they also highlight the pallor that has settled over it. Once a platform for such biting wits as Don Rickles and Joan Rivers, the comedy roast has become a sanitised ritual, a showcase of quips that hardly go beyond the skin. Perhaps the last time we heard a roast joke that truly shocked was in 2019, when Blake Griffin took the mic to thank Caitlyn Jenner “on behalf of black men everywhere” for giving her daughters “daddy issues”. Since then, roasts have transitioned into an assembly line of safe, formulaic jokes that don’t even scratch the surface.
Yet looking at the roast’s decline, perhaps it’s understandable that nowhere in the entertainment world is the existential crisis over the rise of AI more palpable than in comedy. After all, there is no field of creative endeavour that’s become more dependent on cliches, groupthink and repetition. But while the malaise is widespread, the roast, in particular, looks set to be an early casualty.
Vesuvius Scroll Decoded
A 21-Year-Old Just Solved a 2000-Year-Old Mystery In ‘World-Historical’ Breakthrough
21-year-old Luke Farritor became the first person in millennia to read the text on an ancient scroll using machine learning.
A 21-year-old computer scientist named Luke Farritor just became the first person in nearly 2,000 years to read words from a papyrus scroll that was buried under more than 60 feet of volcanic ash after the disastrous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.
Farritor used a machine learning program to pinpoint the Greek word for “purple” in one of the hundreds of carbonized scrolls that were unearthed in Herculaneum, a town that was obliterated by the eruption along with its more famous neighbor, Pompeii.
The scrolls were found in 1752 during excavations of an ancient villa in Herculaneum that may have belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. Excavators at that time quickly realized that the singed and fragile works disintegrated when they were unrolled, and so left most of them bound in their original form.
Rube Goldberg Wild
Suzanne Somers Gone
Suzanne Somers, Three’s Company and Step by Step Actress, Dead at 76
The actress passed away “peacefully at home” surrounded by loved ones, PEOPLE confirms
By Bailey Richards and Andrea Mandell
Suzanne Somers, best known for her roles on Three’s Company and Step by Step, has died.
Somers died on Sunday morning, PEOPLE confirms. She would have been 77 on Monday.
“Suzanne Somers passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of October 15th. She survived an aggressive form of breast cancer for over 23 years,” Somers’ longtime publicist R. Couri Hay wrote in a statement shared on behalf of the actress’ family.
“Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family,” the statement continued. “Her family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday on October 16th. Instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly.”
Annular Fire
A rare ‘ring of fire’ eclipse is coming. Here’s how to see it.
This celestial phenomenon won’t occur in the continental U.S. again until 2039. Here’s what it is and where you can experience it for yourself.
BY ALLIE YANG
PHOTOGRAPH BY HAMAD I MOHAMMED, REUTERS/REDUX
On October 14, a “ring of fire” solar eclipse will appear across a swath of the western United States, as well as in parts of Central and South America. The sun will be blocked by the moon, which will appear slightly smaller, producing the glowing ring in the sky. This phenomenon, known as an annular solar eclipse, was last seen in the U.S. in 2012 and won’t be visible again in the continental U.S. until 2039.
If you are in the path of the eclipse, with the right eye protection, you’ll be able to safely see this rare celestial display—and you might hear and feel the eclipse, too.
All lower 48 U.S. states will get a partial eclipse, but only certain areas in Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas will get the full “ring of fire” effect. This phase of the eclipse begins at 9:16 a.m. Pacific time in Oregon and sweeps across the country, passing over San Antonio, Texas, at 11:52 a.m. Central time.
Parts of some Central and South American countries, including Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil, will also see the annular eclipse. Maps created by NASA show the path where the ring of fire will be visible and the times for best viewing.
Ms. Pelé
Banksy?
New ‘Banksy’ appears in the middle of London – but fans are baffled over its meaning
Ellie Henman | Morgan Johnson
A NEW suspected Banksy has appeared in the middle of London – but fans are baffled over its meaning.
The artwork, which is believed to be the latest hit by world-famous Banksy, popped up overnight in Edgware Road, near to Paddington Train Station.
The graffiti-style piece says “Another world is possible”.
The writing appears to be spray-painted by a factory machine which is being ripped away by three people – all of whom look to be different ages.
While many are speculating that it is Banksy, it has not been confirmed.
Banksy normally uploads pictures of his latest work – wherever that may be – to his Instagram account claiming it.
But he hasn’t done that with this piece.
AI Tackling Alzheimer’s
Is the Eye the Window to Alzheimer’s?
New AI tools could diagnose the disease with visual scans
By Vipal Monga
Getting tested for Alzheimer’s disease could one day be as easy as checking your eyesight.
RetiSpec has developed an artificial-intelligence algorithm that it says can analyze results from an eye scanner and detect signs of Alzheimer’s 20 years before symptoms develop. The tool is part of broader work by startups and researchers to harness AI to unlock the mysteries of a disease that afflicts more than seven million Americans.
For years, people have studied individual hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, including brain inflammation and neurodegeneration, but the exact causes of the disease remain elusive. AI, researchers say, could open a new era in the diagnosis of a neurological disease that remains difficult to identify, let alone treat.
The Age of Madonna
The Meaning of Madonna
For forty years, her quest for freedom through reinvention has resembled our own.
t was a more physical world, though we thought it quite advanced. There seemed nothing “terrestrial” about twisting a radio knob to some eccentric decimal point, dialling static into song. In the summer of 1985, we all knew someone, usually an older sibling, who owned a portable, cassette-playing stereo. The rest of us remained stuck catching Top Forty countdowns on AM radio, or playing, on our parents’ imperial turntables, the one or two LPs in our possession. Increasingly, we listened to music by watching it on TV, our dance parties often overseen by a strutting, tattered sprite who wore bangles like opera gloves and held the camera’s gaze with her entire being, as though locked in a dare she was not going to lose.
I liked her best in motion: the jut of her chin as she spun to a stop, the drag of her foot through a grapevine step. Something important seemed bound up in this vision, beaconlike but elusive, forever disappearing around a corner up ahead. I prized the “Like a Virgin” LP I received for my birthday, the adults involved having apparently thought little of giving the record to a Catholic girl who was, if anything, overfamiliar with talk of virgins and of being like at least one of them. In regular living-room sessions, I twirled and stretched before the hi-fi altar, arching toward God knew what, flashing on how doing my best Madonna might resemble discovering a radical style of my own, the curious fission of moving in time.
Spooky Tree
14,300-Year-Old Tree Reveals Apocalyptic Warning for Today’s Humans
BY JESS THOMSON
Evidence of the most powerful solar storm in history has been uncovered in an unlikely place: within the rings of a tree.
This immensely powerful solar storm is thought to have been at least 10 times as powerful as the Carrington Event of 1859, which caused chaos in the rudimentary telegraph system of the time.
New research has now found that a radiocarbon spike found within ancient tree rings in the French Alps reveals the full extent of the sun’s power and the potential danger it poses to us if a storm of this scale occurs today, according to a study published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences.
Howloween In New Canaan
‘Howloween’ Dog Parade To Take Place In New Canaan
The inaugural “Howloween Dog Parade” is set to take place during New Canaan’s Halloween Block Party in October.
by RJ Scofield
NEW CANAAN, CT — The inaugural “Howloween Dog Parade” is set to take place during New Canaan’s Halloween Block Party next month.
New for 2023, the dog parade offers an opportunity for residents’ furry friends to get involved. Set to take place between 1:30 p.m. and 1:50 p.m., pet pantry prizes will be offered for costumed dogs.
Guest judges include Kristen Schilo, the “Dog Whisperer” from New Canaan Dogs, Michael Konstantaras, owner of Bark Busters and renowned author James Frey. “Spooktators” are also highly encouraged.
FRIGHT KREWE and Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo & Goosebumps Were Major Influences For Eli Roth’s New Horror Show: “There Was Nothing Scary For Our Kids”
As he expands his horror work to more family-friendly territory with Fright Krewe, Eli Roth explains how Scooby-Doo and Goosebumps inspired the show. Co-created by the genre vet and I Am Number Four author James Frey, the animated show centers on a group of New Orleans teens who inadvertently awaken an ancient demon and must use the special abilities granted to them by the mystical Loa to stop him. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, Fright Krewe marks a rare dual release across Hulu and Peacock in time for the Halloween season.
In anticipation of the show’s premiere, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with Roth to discuss Fright Krewe. When asked about the initial concept for the show, the co-creator explained how he and Frey looked back on their love of watching Scooby-Doo as kids and felt there was “nothing scary for our kids” currently on the air, thus wanting to create a gateway into the genre for older viewers and their kids.
Habibi Funk
How Arab Funk Is Going Global
BY ARMANI SYED
In London’s Jazz Cafe, the sound of Egyptian legend Umm Kulthum’s song Alf Leila Wleila is reverberating around an atmosphere of anticipation. Fragments of light are reflecting off the Camden venue’s rotating disco ball—lighting up the faces of an intimate crowd who are waiting, drinks in hand, for Berlin record label Habibi Funk’s first live music show to start.
It’s late August and this diverse group of music lovers doesn’t seem entirely sure what they’re in for. But when Lebanese musician Charif Megarbane and his band takes the stage, the crowd loosens up. Tall and floppy-haired, Megarbane delights audience members with multi-instrumental songs from his new album Marzipan, which was released in July by Habibi Funk. “Hopefully you appreciate it all and thank you again for coming,” Megarbane says, to cheers, as he warms up the crowd.
In recent years, global interest in Arabic music has surged. TikTok and Instagram have helped a new wave of Arab talent such as Saint Levant, Issam Alnajjar, and Wegz reach tens of millions of people. Parties such as Beirut Groove Collective, Laylit, and DJ Nooriyah’s Middle of Nowhere frequently sell out in London, New York, and other Western metropolises. All of this has even prompted the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the global body for recorded music, to launch in November the first ever regional MENA music chart.
Owning Amboy
‘Lovely chaos’: What it’s like to accidentally own a California ghost town
The deserted town of Amboy looks like a Harley Davidson fever dream drenched in neon.
Just along Route 66 in the Mojave Desert, it appears like a mirage, or a gritty 1950s Western on acid. But amid the barren nothingness, just past the mysteriously placed Buddha statue and volcanic crater, you’ll also see the abandoned town’s most prominent landmark glowing in the distance: Roy’s Motel and Cafe, a remote gas station that has become an enduring, if surreal, symbol of Americana.
Though it started out as a small mining camp, postcards suggest that Amboy once had 13 businesses, including cafes and motor courts, as well as a church and a school that catered to the town’s 200 residents. For a fleeting period after the war, business at the roadside diner boomed, bringing workers and travelers from all across the United States.
Built To Last
How are ancient Roman and Mayan buildings still standing? Scientists are unlocking their secrets
NEW YORK (AP) — In the quest to build better for the future, some are looking for answers in the long-ago past.
Ancient builders across the world created structures that are still standing today, thousands of years later — from Roman engineers who poured thick concrete sea barriers, to Maya masons who crafted plaster sculptures to their gods, to Chinese builders who raised walls against invaders.
Yet scores of more recent structures are already staring down their expiration dates: The concrete that makes up much of our modern world has a lifespan of around 50 to 100 years.
Gixxer Insane Mode
Ed Fancher Gone
Remembering Ed Fancher, a Village Voice Founder
He kept the paper alive through the early, lean years.
by R.C. BAKER
The front page of the January 4, 1956, issue of the Village Voice looked much like the others that had run since a trio of World War II vets founded the paper, three months earlier: the elegant Voice logo, designed by the painter Nell Blaine; a headline about Off-Broadway theater; a picture of the artist Marcel Duchamp, who had recently become an American citizen; and a headshot of the novelist Norman Mailer. What wasn’t typical was one of the bylines: “Edwin Fancher, Publisher of The Village Voice.”
Fancher had mostly handled the business end of things: advertising, circulation, and distribution. But in this eleventh issue of the paper, he announced, “Leading Novelist to Write a Column for ‘The Voice,’” followed by:
Beginning with our next issue The Village Voice will have a weekly column contributed to our pages by Norman Mailer. Mr. Mailer needs no introduction to most of our readers. At the age of 32 he has already had a most controversial career, and each of his three novels has received almost a total spectrum of praise and abuse. For your curiosity we quote these samples, inspired by The Naked and the Dead:
“The greatest writer to come out of his generation” — Sinclair Lewis.
“Insidious slime” — Life magazine.
Fancher went on to enumerate more of Mailer’s contrasting reviews, noting that the famous writer had to go through six publishers before one would agree to print a “debatable passage” of six lines contained in his third novel, The Deer Park, which, Fancher noted, “received without question the most contradictory and confusing reviews of any novel in years.”
New FRIGHT KREWE Clip
Fright Krewe Exclusive Clip Presents the Gateway Horrors of Growing Pains
Eli Roth’s latest horror project is an animated Peacock and Hulu series for kids arriving October 2.
A group of kids join forces to uncover the lore of New Orleans through spooky supernatural adventures in Eli Roth’s Fright Crewe.
Each generation has a team of young heroes rise up to take on the threat of evil in its many forms: the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine meddling kids, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer gang (also called the Scoobies), and now the Fright Crewe. Coming October 2 on Peacock and Hulu, Roth’s latest horror series follows a group of youths in haunted New Orleans who uncover an ancient prophecy and are tasked by a voodoo queen to save their city from the biggest demonic threat it’s faced in almost two centuries.
The show, created by Roth and James Frey, has Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous’ Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco as showrunners; it will run for 10 episodes of monster fun exploring the mythology and lore of New Orleans. The cast of kids includes Sydney Mikayla as Soleil, Tim Johnson Jr. as Maybe, Grace Lu as Missy, Chester Rushing as Stanley, Terrence Little Gardenhigh as Pat, and Jacques Colimon as Belial.
Fright Krewe Fun
Eli Roth Finds the Fun Side of Horror in DreamWorks’ Fright Krewe
Created and Executive-Produced by Eli Roth and James Frey, Fright Krewe is DreamWorks’ latest animated series. Focusing on an unlikely group of teenagers with mystical powers and a duty to stop an ancient evil from ripping apart New Orleans, Fright Krewe takes the classic adventure animation dynamics and infuses them with some of the frights and tension that Roth is most famous for. There are plenty of monsters and horrific images, but Roth maintains a consistently appealing edge to the central characters and their stories.
The result is a fun show that serves as a gateway for younger audiences to the horror genre. During an interview with CBR, Eli Roth discussed how Fright Krewe draws from Voodoo mythology and figures, the importance of authenticity, taking inspiration from previous animated projects, and crafting a series that older horror fans can share with their children.
Surgeons At Risk
US surgeons are killing themselves at an alarming rate. One decided to speak out
The grueling profession has long kept silent about mental distress. After losing a friend and quietly grappling with illness, Carrie Cunningham found a new way to save lives
Carrie Cunningham puffed out her cheeks and exhaled. She looked out at the audience filled with 2,000 of her peers, surgeons who were attending the annual meeting of the Association of Academic Surgery, a prestigious gathering of specialists from universities across the United States and Canada.
Cunningham, president of the organization, knew what she was about to reveal could cost her promotions, patients and professional standing. She took a deep breath.
“I was the top junior tennis player in the United States,” she began. “I am an associate professor of surgery at Harvard.
“But I am also human. I am a person with lifelong depression, anxiety, and now a substance use disorder.”
The room fell silent.
Cunningham knew others in the room were struggling, too. Doctors are dying by suicide at higher rates than the general population. Somewhere between 300 to 400 physicians a year in the US take their own lives, the equivalent of one medical school graduating class annually.
Surgeons have some of the highest known rates of suicide among physicians. Of 697 physician suicides reported to the CDC’s national violent death reporting system between 2003 and 2017, 71 were surgeons. Many more go unreported.
Strike Over!
Screenwriters Reached a Deal to End the Strike. Here’s What Happens Next
Union leadership representing screenwriters in the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has declared an end to a monthslong strike after voting to lift it on Tuesday evening. The decision went into effect just after midnight on Wednesday, meaning TV and movie writers can return to work. In the meantime, between Oct. 2 and Oct. 9, union members can vote to ratify the new language in the 94-page contract. (If they vote against it, which seems unlikely, the negotiation process would start over.)
The end to the strike follows a tentative agreement made Sunday night between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to lift a work stoppage that began in early May.
“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional—with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the WGA wrote in an email to its members on Sunday evening. “What we have won in this contract—most particularly, everything we have gained since May 2nd—is due to the willingness of this membership to exercise its power, to demonstrate its solidarity, to walk side-by-side, to endure the pain and uncertainty of the past 146 days.”
Snootyshack
The stuffiest country club stories we’ve ever heard
Golf has made progress in loosening up, but at some clubs old habits persist.
By Sam Weinman
One story that best encapsulates country club point-missing has circulated for years. The setting is an old, eastern golf club, with one of the best courses in the state. The club is notorious for its men-only policy. Forget about women joining as members or playing the golf course. Only a few days a year are they even allowed on the property.
One day a member having lunch at the club abruptly falls ill at the table. He grabs his chest, falls to his knees. A concerned scrum gathers around his table. Word reaches his wife, who arrives at the club gates within minutes.
“He is inside,” she is told as she tries to pass through. “Unfortunately,” the attendant continues, “no women are allowed on property. Please wait here.”
No way this is true.
“I’m afraid it is true,” one longtime member of the club says. “I’ve heard it, too,” a frequent guest of the club confirmed.
Martin Grubinger – Inferno
James Frey/Eli Roth FRIGHT KREWE Trailer
Free Rhinos!
Now Available: 2,000 Rhinos, Free to Good Homes With Plenty of Space
By Rachel Nuwer
A herd of 2,000 rhinoceroses urgently in need of a new owner has finally found one: The rhinos and the farm where they live in South Africa have been purchased by a conservation group that plans to release the animals into the wild over the next decade.
The southern white rhinos, thought to be the largest single population of their kind, were put up for auction in April with a starting price of $10 million. No bidders came forward. At that point, the future of the animals appeared precarious. But the conservation group African Parks announced this month that it had reached a deal to take over the herd.