Table of ContentsTable of ContentsHow to play StrandsHint for todays Strands puzzleTodays Strand answersStrands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, youll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.Like Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, Strands can be a bit difficult to solve some days. Theres no shame in needing a little help from time to time. If youre stuck and need to know the answers to todays Strands puzzle, check out the solved puzzle below.Recommended VideosHow to play StrandsYou start every Strands puzzle with the goal of finding the theme words hidden in the grid of letters. Manipulate letters by dragging or tapping to craft words; double-tap the final letter to confirm. If you find the correct word, the letters will be highlighted blue and will no longer be selectable.RelatedIf you find a word that isnt a theme word, it still helps! For every three non-theme words you find that are at least four letters long, youll get a hint the letters of one of the theme words will be revealed and youll just have to unscramble it.Every single letter on the grid is used to spell out the theme words and there is no overlap. Every letter will be used once, and only once.Each puzzle contains one spangram, a special theme word (or words) that describe the puzzles theme and touches two opposite sides of the board. When you find the spangram, it will be highlighted yellow.The goal should be to complete the puzzle quickly without using too many hints.Todays theme is Wetland patrol.Heres a hint that might help you: long-legged birds.Todays Strand answersNYTTodays spanagramWell start by giving you the spangram, which might help you figure out the theme and solve the rest of the puzzle on your own:WADINGBIRDTodays Strands answersBITTERNSPOONBILLSTORKEGRETFLAMINGOIBISEditors Recommendations

The Trump Administration is making big changes faster than any other modern president. The movement of many kinds of levers -- tariffs, buyout packages, government layoffs, and more are disrupting the status quo, and the effects will affect tech companies and enterprise chief information officers.Like the pandemic, the extreme and rapid changes require extreme organizational agility, Monte Carlo simulations, an open mind, and a CIO unafraid to lead. As with all major changes, organizations need to have a strong vision and the ability to execute it within the context of changing circumstances.Organizations Will Depend More on MSPsJonathan Lerner, president and CEO at MSP InterVision Systems, believes deregulation will create a lot of confusion.Its about your customers, the people you work with every day, who are going to have a lot of questions right now, says Lerner. Small business owners, CIOs and people just trying to keep their systems running smoothly will be asking their MSPs, How does this affect my data, network security, and software updates? How will I continue to innovate and better serve in a period of uncertainty? In this business, our job is to simply provide stable, reliable business solutions, and these kinds of rapid changes make that harder.Related:InterVision Systems will focus on strengthening its security and compliance expertise to stay a step ahead. Lerner says his company will be spending a lot of time helping its customers understand the new rules and how to adapt to them.Jonathan Lerner, InterVision SystemsJonathan Lerner, InterVision SystemsWere going to have to be flexible, focusing on sustaining strong relationships, listening to our customers and providing clear, practical advice focused on outcomes to drive their strategy, says Lerner. I hope this leads to less red tape so that businesses can thrive. But, in the meantime, my advice to anyone in our field, especially MSPs, is to be prepared to become a guide.Businesses Will Also Turn to ConsultantsJenny Rae Le Roux, CEO at consulting industry news publisher and business skills training company Management Consulted, says while there are always economic winners and losers, the consulting industry is the canary in the coal mine for who is who.Outsized demand for services from one sector [or] function usually indicates robust growth or big challenges in the broader economy, says Le Roux. The sectors that will grow in 2025 [are] supply chain, healthcare, and cloud services. The losers [will be] businesses that focus on DEI, ESG, and federal government consulting work.Related:There is also a strategic shift occurring among clients that is driving demand for more consulting assistance.Jenny Rae Le Roux, Management ConsultedJenny Rae Le Roux, Management Consulted2025 is bringing with it a reordering of traditional business cycles. Typically, firms think about macro business cycles in eight-year increments. The first four years are focused on growth, and the second four years are focused on cost optimization, says Le Roux. As AI and trade policy transform the way the world does business, clients are now asking firms to help them deliver on a dual mandate: Drive growth and optimization simultaneously. This is a meaningful driver of increased demand for consulting services.Data Security Will Remain a PriorityArnaud Treps, CISO at Salesforce data security platform Odaseva, expects that some companies will find themselves unprepared for policy changes and will be forced to scramble to catch up.Organizations that arent proactive or are incapable of rapidly pivoting in the face of shifting regulatory environments will suffer, says Treps. Regardless of changes in regulations, policy, or administrations, underlying security challenges remain. Even if there are fewer regulatory requirements, security threats dont just disappear if the regulations do. As a result, data security investments will be driven more by business needs rather than investing in security just because regulations require companies to do so.Related:Odaseva is encouraging its customers to implement the strongest security and management capabilities, so that regulatory or policy changes don't require exponential or rapid scaling up of data security and management approaches.We will carefully monitor policy changes and identify trends, while continuing to offer products and services to our customers that allow them to independently secure their data at the highest level and achieve agility so they can pivot as necessary based on policy and/or geopolitical changes, says Treps.Of course, its unclear where regulations, policy, and geopolitics are headed in the short term and long term.Arnaud Treps, OdasevaArnaud Treps, OdasevaSecuring and managing SaaS data is the most important thing you can do in the face of regulatory uncertainty, says Treps. Understanding your data model and how employees, third parties, fourth parties, and customers all interact with it puts you in the best possible position to navigate regulatory changes as they emerge.Accessibility Will SufferJosh Miller, co-CEO at media accessibility company 3Play Media, the leader in media accessibility says with the Trump administrations focus on abolishing DEI and a suit filed by 17 states against Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, there is obvious risk to the accessibility space.As a vendor that provides accessibility services, we are close to the impact on people with disabilities, vendors that provide accessibility services [and] businesses that have prioritized accessibility and are now questioning whether they still should or need to, says Miller. Ultimately, it would be naive to think that the current political climate wont have a negative impact on accessibility. Some businesses will deprioritize making their websites, products and spaces accessible.Federal enforcement of accessibility law may wane, but individual or independent litigation and state enforcement will persist. People with disabilities will continue to fight for their right to access, and many organizations will continue to support them.Miller says 3Play Media began pushing into the video localization space to expand itsfootprint beyond accessibility. In the accessibility space, the company plans to support Canadian and upcoming EU accessibility regulations under the European Accessibility Act (EAA), where enforcement is still a priority. It will also continue to support the many U.S. customers that prioritize compliance with accessibility laws, making sure their services are accessible to the millions of U.S. with disabilities.Energy Companies Will Have Uneven ImpactsChris Black, CEO at GridX says most of what happens in the electric and gas utility space is decided state by state. It's both a blessing and a curse when selling to utilities companies because they answer to different state regulators with different objectives. This means his company is more subject to state-level decisions than national ones.Companies like GridX that work in the back-of-house operations of utilities are treated more like infrastructure investments than anything else. Utilities make decisions on 20-year cycles, not four-year political terms, says Black. When utilities invest in grid infrastructure, they're planning for decades, which gives us some insulation from the political winds of the moment.However, not everyone in the utility tech space is so fortunate. Certain areas, such as residential energy-efficiency credits and offshore wind players, should have a plan B in place because they rely on federal support and are frequently tied to green messaging that may be less favored in the current climate.For companies traditionally emphasizing environmental benefits, you can still achieve the same positive impacts while shifting your communications to highlight cost savings and reliability,says Black. Getting people to shift their energy usage away from peak times aligns with clean energy and renewables goals, even if you're not leading with an environmentalmessage.The biggest challenge will be prioritization. For example,a utility may have requests for $30 billion in infrastructure projects but can only fund $8 billion of it.Those tough choices will become even more critical, and companies that can demonstrate immediate economic value will be at an advantage. For those in areas that feel more vulnerable to administrative changes, now's the time to focus on complementary offerings or pivot to aspects of your business that are less dependent on federal priorities, says Black. The fundamentals haven't changed: Utilities must deliver reliable service and modernize aging infrastructure. Companies that help them do this more efficiently will continue to find opportunities, regardless of who's in Washington. Just be prepared to frame your value in terms that resonate with the moment while staying true to your core mission.Bottom LineSome CIOs will be harder hit than others by the changes the current administration is making. This has been true of any administration. However, the speed of change this time around is unprecedented, so organizations need to focus on, organizational agility partnering with consultants and vendors that can help them weather the shifts while meeting the demands of customers.

Andy Lunsford, Matt HartleyMarch 20, 20254 Min Readsyahrir maulana via Alamy StockThe reality of the current cyber environment is harsh, and no matter how well-funded or how skilled a security team may be, theres a good chance theyre not quite as prepared as they think.Verizons most recent Cost of a Data Breach Report found that more than 10,000 breaches were reported last year, exposing over 8.2 billion records.With an average cost nearly $5 million, you can imagine the toll of mega-breaches that are making global headlines. The true financial and reputational toll of a breach is incalculable.While its tempting to think that experience and planning can shield an organization from an attack, the simple fact is that incidents happen. No matter an organization's size, malicious actors target networks for financial gain or strategic advantage. Cybercriminals and nation states are relentless, skilled and constantly evolving. For most companies, its not a matter of if they will face a breach but when. Despite best intentions, no company is prepared for the moment that when turns to now.There are several misconceptions fueling an inflated sense of security. Only by acknowledging these limitations can organizations begin to effectively address the challenges when its their turn under the gun.Our Plan Will Guide Us Safely Through a CrisisRelated:Incident response (IR) plans have been an essential component of most companies cybersecurity strategy for a long time. But when an attack takes place and the rubber meets the road, many IR plans tend to be overly strategic and somewhat theoretical, lacking real value for security teams on the ground who are trying to mitigate the impact. In practice, they often fall short because the plan does not include the detailed information necessary to address the chaotic, real-world nature of a cyberattack and the high-stress decision-making that takes place when an attack occurs.When talking with firms specializing in cybersecurity, we hear the same thing almost without exception: Weve never once used a companys IR plan as part of our process. These plans often are too high-level, updated once a year at best, and predominantly focus on broad, strategic directives. When an attack occurs, the immediate need is for clear, actionable steps that reflect the dynamic, evolving nature of the breach, not just an outline of who should be informed and when.We Nailed Our Tabletop Exercise, So Were ReadyWhile tabletop exercises are valuable tools for familiarizing teams (and especially leadership) with incident scenarios, they fall short when it comes to executing in the face of the complexities of a real-world attack.Related:Its hard enough to gather multiple departments -- legal, compliance, IT, public relations and senior leadership, to name a few -- with their own priorities and spread out across multiple locations and time zones during times of real crisis. Now, imagine trying to get a half-day block into calendars for what many of the employees who are needed for the tabletop to be effective -- are likely to write off as an inconsequential training exercise. To maximize participation and secure critical buy-in from across departments, organizations should consider hybrid or staggered exercises that mimic the complexity of live incidents.When the time comes, most internal teams -- no matter how recently theyve had their last training -- will default to what they know. In times of crisis, people will inevitably drop everything and start executing. That often means they do it without planning or following existing procedures, if those even exist. Worst Case: We Break Glass and Experts Come to RescueMany organizations fall prey to the heroic expertise fallacy. Thats the belief that if something catastrophic happens, expert third parties who are external incident response teams, lawyers, and consultants will swoop in and save the day. While third-party experts are certainly skilled at what they do, it takes costly time to develop the understanding that will allow them to be effective.Related:Additionally, during large-scale cyber incidents, your company is not the only one calling for help. If multiple organizations are affected, external IR teams and law firms may be overwhelmed, with larger companies -- often with bigger budgets -- taking precedence. Its a harsh reality: Expert help is often in high demand, and when everyone faces the same crisis, response times can be slower than anticipated, even if youre paying through the nose for it.Building Cyber Resilience in an Unpredictable LandscapeNo organization is truly prepared for a cyber incident. Attacks are unpredictable, messy, and fast-moving, and no amount of planning can fully eliminate the risks. That said, proactive planning is critical in reducing potential incident impacts. Successful organizations recognize the inherent uncertainties and complexities of a breach, even a small one, and take steps to prepare much more thoroughly.The goal isnt to achieve perfect preparation. Thats impossible. Rather, its to build resilience, flexibility, and the organizational muscle memory to respond effectively when the inevitable occurs.About the AuthorsAndy LunsfordChief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, BreachRxAndy Lunsford is CEO and co-founder of BreachRx, provider of the first intelligent incident response platform designed for the entire enterprise. Prior to founding BreachRx, Andy spent 15 years in privacy law and large-scale commercial litigation. Andy co-founded BreachRx to transform incident response and reporting into a routine operational business process while shielding C-level executives from personal liability. Andy has a BA from Washington and Lee University, a JD from the University of Arkansas, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.See more from Andy LunsfordMatt HartleyChief Product Officer and Co-Founder, BreachRxMatt Hartley is co-founder and chief product officer of BreachRx. He is a 20+ year innovator in cyber security, threat intelligence, cyber warfare, and information operations. Prior to BreachRx, he was a Senior Vice President of Engineering at FireEye and Vice President of Product at iSIGHT Partners, where he held a variety of other leadership roles. Matt previously served in the US Air Force in the Air Intelligence Agency and Air Force Information Warfare Center. After leaving the military, he led research and development teams creating disruptive and next generation cyber and information security, cyber warfare, and information operations technologies at Sytex Inc. and Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Labs. Matt holds a CISSP and a Bachelors and Masters in Computer & Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.See more from Matt HartleyWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

East Asian countries longtime mask-wearing has value as evidence of their effectivenessMLADEN ANTONOV/AFP via Getty ImagesProofAdam Kucharski (Profile Books (UK) Basic Books (US, 6 May))I have something of a reputation as a party-pooper in the New Scientist office. At our weekly meeting to discuss the latest and greatest ideas in science, colleagues will eagerly describe some incredible new theory or spectacular find, then sit back to field questions. I can already hear the groans before I open my mouth to say: Yes, but what is the actual evidence?I dont do this because I enjoy shooting down ideas (OK, maybe I do

At a conference dedicated to energy technology that I attended this week, I noticed an outward attitude of optimism and excitement. But its hard to miss the current of uncertainty just underneath. The ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, held this year just outside Washington, DC, gathers some of the most cutting-edge innovators working on everything from next-generation batteries to plants that can mine for metals. Researchers whose projects have received funding from ARPA-Epart of the US Department of Energy that gives money to high-risk research in energygather to show their results and mingle with each other, investors, and nosy journalists like yours truly. (For more on a few of the coolest things I saw, check out this story.) This year, though, there was an elephant in the room, and its the current state of the US federal government. Or maybe its climate change? In any case, the vibes were weird. The last time I was at this conference, two years ago, climate change was a constant refrain on stage and in conversations. The central question was undoubtedly: How do we decarbonize, generate energy, and run our lives without relying on polluting fossil fuels? This time around, I didnt hear the phrase climate change once during the opening session, including in speeches from US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and acting ARPA-E Director Daniel Cunningham. The focus was on American energy dominance, on how we can get our hands on more, more, more energy to meet growing demand. Last week, Wright spoke at an energy conference in Houston and had a lot to say about climate, calling climate change a side effect of building the modern world and climate policies irrational and quasi-religious, and he said that when it came to climate action, the cure had become worse than the disease. I was anticipating similar talking points at the summit, but this week, climate change hardly got a mention. What I noticed in Wrights speech and in the choice of programming throughout the conference is that some technologies appear to be among the favored, and others are decidedly less prominent. Nuclear power and fusion were definitely on the in list. There was a nuclear panel in the opening session, and in his remarks Wright called out companies like Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Zap Energy. He also praised small modular reactors. Renewables, including wind and solar, were mentioned only in the context of their inconsistencyWright dwelled on that, rather than on other facts Id argue are just as important, like that they are among the cheapest methods of generating electricity today. In any case, Wright seemed appropriately hyped about energy, given his role in the administration. Call me biased, but I think theres no more impactful place to work in than energy, Wright said during his opening remarks on the first morning of the summit. He sang the praises of energy innovation, calling it a tool to drive progress, and outlined his long career in the field. This all comes after a chaotic couple of months for the federal government that are undoubtedly affecting the industry. Mass layoffs have hit federal agencies, including the Department of Energy. President Donald Trump very quickly tried to freeze spending from the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes tax credits and other support for EVs and power plants. As I walked around the showcase and chatted with experts over coffee, I heard a range of reactions to the opening session and feelings about this moment for the energy sector. People working in industries the Trump administration seems to favor, like nuclear energy, tended to be more positive. Some in academia who rely on federal grants to fund their work were particularly nervous about what comes next. One researcher refused to talk to me when I said I was a journalist. In response to my questions about why they werent able to discuss the technology on display at their booth, another member on the same project said only that its a wild time. Making progress on energy technology doesnt require that we all agree on exactly why were doing it. But in a moment when we need all the low-carbon technologies we can get to address climate changea problem scientists overwhelmingly agree is a threat to our planetI find it frustrating that politics can create such a chilling effect in some sectors. At the conference, I listened to smart researchers talk about their work. I saw fascinating products and demonstrations, and Im still optimistic about where energy can go. But I also worry that uncertainty about the future of research and government support for emerging technologies will leave some valuable innovations in the dust. This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Reviews weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

2025-03-20T12:53:58Z Read in app Sam Altman said the "tactical" move for students is to master using AI tools. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Sam Altman says students should focus on getting "really good at using AI tools."AI is already automating over 50% of coding at some companies, Altman told Stratechery's Ben Thompson.The OpenAI CEO said students should prioritize the "meta ability to learn" over learning specific things.Sam Altman is ramping up his advice for students preparing to enter a workforce that's increasingly automating coding: master AI tools."The obvious tactical thing is just get really good at using AI tools," Altman said in a Thursday interview with Stratechery's Ben Thompson. "Like when I was graduating as a senior from high school, the obvious tactical thing was get really good at coding. And this is the new version of that." Using AI to write code has become a major topic among tech executives.Dario Amodei, the CEO ofAnthropic,predicted last week that AI wouldwrite 90% of codewithin six months and "essentially all of the code" in a year. Kevin Weil, OpenAI's chief product officer, predicted this week that AI will become better than humans at coding by the end of the year. With the conversation about AI replacing human software engineers ramping up especially as more people embrace vibe coding Altman has doubled down on advice he gave in a September interview that mastering AI tools is a way to future-proof your career."I think in many companies, it's probably past 50% now," Altman said in the Stratechery interview, referring to the amount of coding that's done by AI. "But the big thing I think will come with agentic coding, which no one's doing for real yet." When asked what was holding it back, Altman said: "Oh, we just need a little longer," adding that it was a model problem, not a product issue.For students preparing for careers, Altman advised cultivating "resilience and adaptability" and the "meta ability to learn" over learning specific things."Whatever specific thing you're going to learn, like learn these general skills that seem like they're going to be important as the world goes through this transition," he said.While software engineers are still in demand, Altman predicted that won't always be the case."My basic assumption is that each software engineer will just do much, much more for a while. And then at some point, yeah, maybe we do need less software engineers," he said, referring to OpenAI's hiring strategy.He also predicted that AI-driven job displacement won't happen all at once but will accelerate over time."It kind of just seeps through the economy and mostly kind of like eats things little by little and then faster and faster," Altman said.

2025-03-20T12:39:50Z Read in app The US ranked 24th in the World Happiness Report. Gary Yeowell/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? The US ranked 24th in the 2025 World Happiness Report, its lowest place since the list began.The report said its decline is due to factors like eating alone and rising 'deaths of despair.'Finland topped the list for the 8th year running, with a strong showing for other European nations.The US fell to its lowest ranking in the 13-year history of the World Happiness Report this week.Released Thursday to coincide with the International Day of Happiness, The World Happiness Report 2025 placed the US 24th among countries one spot down from last year and significantly lower than its 15th place finish in 2023.The US sat just below the UK, and above the likes of Belize, Poland, and Taiwan.The majority of the top 10 were European countries, with Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, and Luxembourg claiming seven of the spots. Finland took the top spot for the eighth year running, while Afghanistan remained the least happy country in the world.Since the report's inception in 2012, the US has never broken into the top 10, with its highest ranking 11th taking place in that first year.The ranking is based on the Cantril Ladder, a life evaluation metric used in the Gallup World Poll, which surveys more than 100,000 people in 140 countries and territories.Participants are asked to rate their lives on a scale of zero to 10, with zero representing the worst possible life imaginable and 10 the best.Finland scored an average of 7.7, the US 6.7, and Afghanistan 1.4.The only non-European countries in the top 10 were Israel, Costa Rica, and Mexico.The 2025 World Happiness Report focused on the impact of caring and sharing on people's overall happiness. It said one reason for declining well-being in the US is a rising number of people eating alone.Citing data from the American Time Use Survey, it found that in 2023, about a quarter of Americans ate all their meals alone the day before.Another issue raised in the report is the US's increasing rate of "deaths of despair" preventable deaths from suicide, alcohol abuse, and drug overdose.Last year, the World Happiness Report examined happiness across different age groups. Lithuania was ranked the happiest country for people under 30, but also had one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

Last summer, I quit Spotify, and wrote about it with the rather unsubtle headline Why I quit Spotify. My reasons remain sound: The software had become clunky, the ads relentless, and the Sabrina Carpenter songs too inescapable. I wanted to find a better music streaming service. It gives me no pleasure to report that a few weeks ago, I rejoined.The algorithm got me. I dont just mean that it got me, the way the TikTok algorithm glues you to the screen. Spotifys algorithm got me the way an old friend gets me and my weird affection for yacht rock or ongoing obsession with French touch music from the mid-Aughts. It took a few months of digging through the proverbial crates of Apple Music for me to realize that Spotify has something other streaming services could never get: 15 years of my music listening habits and artificially intelligent software to reinforce those habits.This is why algorithms tend to be viewed as villains these days. Theyre the technology behind TikToks For You page, which keeps feeding you weird videos you cant stop watching, and Amazon recommendations that appear to know what prescription youre taking. Facebooks algorithms, meanwhile, have been radicalizing Americans for at least a decade, and Instagrams algorithmic feed is wrecking the mental health of an entire generation. The implications of Spotifys algorithms, you could argue, are quaint by comparison.Spotifys algorithm got me the way an old friend gets me and my weird affection for yacht rock.Quitting and unquitting Spotify made me realize something, though. As central as algorithmic feeds are to how you consume information, you have more control over how those algorithms shape your tastes and behavior than you might think. If an algorithm works for you as Spotifys does for me dont feel bad about submitting to its effortless and convenient offerings.Lean-forward listeningMusic has always been important to me, and over the years, it started to feel like I had to gamify Spotify to find songs that I truly loved. When Spotify launched in 2011, it was basically a massive library of all the music, but over the years, it introduced more and more algorithmic recommendations and playlists that promised to match my taste. It still took work to find the good stuff.This work is what has now made Spotifys algorithms irreplaceable to me. It has a decade-and-a-half of my listening history, and over the years, Ive learned its quirks and tinkered with it to meet my needs. I spent months trying to replicate this experience on Apple Music, but its algorithms struggled to surprise me. RelatedWhy I quit SpotifyAll music streaming algorithms operate on two basic principles: content-based filtering and collaborative filtering. The content-based filtering tries to identify specific aspects of a song itself, including the artist, genre, mood, and so forth, to queue up the next song. Collaborative filtering refers to recommendations made based on other people who listen to a certain song and what else they listen to. If two people listen to the same five songs, theres a good chance theyll both like this sixth song. Its all math, and sometimes there are anomalies that will delight you.Some of the serendipity that you get is sort of error turned into virtue, Glenn McDonald, a former data alchemist at Spotify and creator of Every Noise at Once, told me. So youre surprised, and sometimes those surprises are pleasant.Its not just that Spotifys recommendations tend to be pleasant because it has a lot of data about me. Its that Spotify has the listening history of 675 million people, whose interests may overlap with mine in countless different ways. Over the years, Ive developed a set of habits that help me hone those recommendations things like making playlists, rejecting recommendations I dont like, exploring artists catalogs, and maybe most importantly, digging through other peoples playlists. This is what I call lean-forward listening. While its easy enough to click on Discover Weekly every Monday, lean back and listen to the whole thing like a radio show, and then move on to the next playlist, the more effort you put into curating your experience, the better the algorithms will work next time. At the very least, youll find your way onto a playlist that algorithms didnt create.How to resist algorithmic ruleLike them or not, algorithmic recommendations arent going anywhere. Companies like Spotify like them because when they work algorithms keep people hooked on their products. Companies like Amazon like them because algorithmic recommendations enable them to steer peoples behavior. The right product recommendation could lead someone to buy something they didnt otherwise plan on buying. (Weve all done it.)This status quo seems dystopian in a lot of ways. Algorithmic recommendations were all the rage a couple of decades ago, when personalization felt convenient rather than creepy. Netflix deserves a lot of credit for this, since it pioneered the concept of giving you customized movie recommendations in the late 1990s. But by the early 2010s, it was getting hard to tell the difference between personalized recommendations and targeted ads. Now, practically everything you see online is personalized to a degree, from the front page of the New York Times to the list of restaurants in your favorite food delivery app. You can probably learn to live with it when youre talking about music on Spotify or burrito restaurants on DoorDash. The stakes are a little bit higher when it comes to recommending things like products on Amazon, and even higher when it comes to recommending things like content on Facebook, said Meredith Broussard, a data journalism professor at New York University. Because, as we all know, disinformation and misinformation are very, very popular, but not good.The role algorithms, which are designed to boost engagement, play in spreading misinformation is a book-length topic. For now, Ill just reiterate that you dont have to lean back and let Facebook, Google, or X flood you with algorithmically generated information. You can learn more about how these platforms use algorithms and steer them to your advantage. If youre sick of the algorithm on X feeding you right-wing propaganda, try Bluesky, which lets you pick different algorithms for your feed. And if Netflix or any other streaming service has gotten stale, try nuking your view history and starting over. Spotify offers a list of details about how it recommends content and how you can make tweaks. And Amazon has a tool thats designed to improve your recommendations. (I have tried all of these things, including the Amazon tool, which is very tedious but still possibly helpful.)Things get a little tougher on big platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, whose algorithms tend toward the black box end of the spectrum. Still, knowing how algorithms work and playing an active role in making them work better for you can improve your experience on almost any platform. Algorithms are only in charge if you let them be.In some cases, you might like it when the algorithms in charge. This is how I generally feel on Spotify, although Im constantly correcting it and guiding it. This is also how I generally feel on Amazon, where I try to buy only the basics. I quit Instagram a while ago when I decided the algorithm was in charge a little too much. If I get bored one day, I might try it again.A version of this story was also published in the User Friendly newsletter. Sign up here so you dont miss the next one!See More:

Amid the countrys reckoning with loneliness and isolation has come a startling truth: Americans are spending far more time alone and, according to a new finding from the 2025 World Happiness Report, were also dining alone, too. The finding, released this week, relies on data from the American Time Use Survey and shows that in 2023 about one in four Americans ate all of their meals alone the previous day, an increase of 53 percent since 2003. The analysis also found that eating meals solo, including at home or out at a restaurant, has become more common in all age groups, but most pronounced among those under 35. The extent to which one shares meals, says Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, a professor of economics and behavioral science at the University of Oxford and co-editor of the World Happiness Report, is an extraordinary proxy for measuring peoples social connections and their social capital. It underpins peoples social support. It drives prosocial behaviors, and all of that, in turn, leads it to be a very strong indicator predictor for peoples life satisfaction.Economic factors, like high income and employment status, are often used as indicators of happiness. But researchers found the ritual of sharing meals to be an even more effective indicator of general well-being than job status and salary. That surprised us as a research team, De Neve says.The most obvious driver of solo dining is the rise of solo living. The share of single-person households in the US has steadily increased since the 1940s, when just under 8 percent of homes were occupied by one individual. By 2020, that number had grown to 27 percent. But even those who cohabitate choose to eat their meals alone. In 2023, about 18 percent of Americans who lived with others ate all of their meals alone the day prior, the report found, compared to 12 percent in 2003 a 50 percent increase.Because more young people under 35 are dining alone a 180 percent increase over the last two decades De Neve suspects the trend is reflective of changing norms: College students choosing to scroll social media on their phones while in the dining hall or young adults opting out of lunch with their colleagues. As social media and smartphones became more entrenched in the 2010s, the less often people shared meals with others. (De Neve has no explanation for the spike in solo dining in 2011.)Research shows that those who eat with others are happier, more satisfied with life, more trusting, have more friends, and are more engaged in their communities.The finding also points to increasingly individualistic habits. Solitary pursuits branded as self-care may have led to increased isolation. The top reason cited by those who considered eating alone in restaurants in 2024 was to get more me time, according to consumer research polling from OpenTable and Kayak. The rise of solo dining has implications beyond the table. Research shows that those who eat with others are happier, more satisfied with life, more trusting, have more friends, and are more engaged in their communities. Increased social isolation meanwhile can lead to feelings of loneliness, which, in turn, can lead to cardiovascular health risks and increased feelings of depression, risk, and anxiety.On a broader scale, loneliness and solitary tendencies breed distrust, which has profound consequences for the state of civil society. The simple act of sharing a meal with a colleague or friend can help bridge divides and increase well-being.Its something very basic, but it underpins so much, De Neve says. You learn about others. You learn about their politics. You get more sense for how other people think. It reduces that political polarization a bit.See More:

Czechia tourist board plans real-life Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 tourMichael BeckwithPublished March 20, 2025 11:24amUpdated March 20, 2025 11:24am Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is quite the bucolic dream (Deep Silver)According to the local tourist board, theres been a recent increase in people wanting to visit the Czech Republic and its all thanks to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.Whenever a real-world location is used as a setting in a video game, its not uncommon for players to be compelled to visit that location in person, especially if the game makes it look as attractive as possible.Were sure games like Persona 5 and the Yakuza series have inspired trips to Japan. In fact, Ghost Of Tsushima is credited for raising worldwide awareness of the island of Tsushima and even led to a tourism campaign themed around the game.And now the country of Czechia, aka the Czech Republic, is expecting a similar boon thanks to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which launched this past February and has been hugely successful selling more than five times more than the original already.Created by Czechian developer Warhorse Studios, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is set during the early 15th century, when the country was known as the Kingdom of Bohemia.Given the games popularity Czechian tour operators have told TheGamer that theyre preparing for its player base to start flocking to Czechia later this year, especially since the country saw an uptick in tourism when the first Kingdom Come: Deliverance launched.Its too soon to tell how dramatic a boon Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will bring, but theres apparently already increased interest in locations featured in the game such as the town of Kutn Hora (known as Kuttenberg in the game) and the Trosky Castle ruins. This is Trosky Castle in real life (Czexperience) And this is Trosky Castle in one of the games cut scenes (Deep Silver)As such, there are efforts to more intrinsically tie these locations to their game counterparts, with tourist board websites like Premiant City Tour and Real Prague Tours now explicitly mentioning Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.More TrendingCzexperience is going so far as to run an all-day tour inspired by the game. Designed for adventurers at heart, this exclusive journey will transport you to some of the most iconic medieval sites that evoke the spirit of the game, reads its website.Its a smart move and, depending on how fruitful this strategy turns out, could do well for Warhorse Studios reputation in its home country.Although it can be pretty uncompromising in its portrayal of medieval life the landscapes of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 are certainly very beautiful and this could end up being the video game equivalent of The Lord of the Rings, which led to New Zealand become a hot new tourist destination.Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is currently available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and is slated to receive DLC expansions throughout the rest of 2025. This probably has a Starbucks by now (Warhorse Studios)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy