Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a new framework for thinking through your ethical dilemmas and philosophical questions. To submit a question, email Sigal at sigal.samuel@vox.com or fill out this anonymous form. Either way, if we choose your question, itll be anonymized. Heres this weeks question, condensed and edited for clarity: Im convinced that the fight against authoritarianism is the most important issue of our time. My family immigrated to America from an authoritarian country, and some of my relatives and I are astonished and horrified that the same thing is befalling the US. Theres more that I could be doing to participate in the pro-democracy resistance. Im in a public-facing (not government) job where I could shape my work in a way that draws more attention to Trumps corruption and war on the American people. But I feel both like my work wouldnt make much of a difference, and like I will be targeted and punished by the Trump administration for it, so what is the point? With the path were on now, more and more Americans are going to be persecuted for doing things the administration doesnt like, and Im terrified of the potential consequences for myself and my colleagues. Its a collective action problem, because no one persons actions alone are going to stop Trump and Musk, yet if we all tell ourselves that the risk isnt worth the gain to democracy, no one will do anything. How can I navigate this dilemma ethically, rationally, and without ruining my life?Dear Rational Resistance,Growing up in the Jewish community, my childhood was full of stories about the Holocaust. I heard horrifying stories, obviously, but also stories about inspiring people who resisted the Nazis like the Righteous Gentiles who hid Jews in their homes at great personal risk. My child-mind obsessed over the question: If I were in their place, would I have had the same courage they did? Would I hide someone in my attic? Ive been thinking about this question a lot since January 20. Not because I think todays America is equal to Nazi Germany, but simply because a lot of us are wondering how far to stick our necks out right now. How do we navigate the tension between personal safety and moral responsibility? Is there something about living in extraordinary times that demands more from us, morally speaking, than we would normally risk?I dont think that the moral demandingness of the universe suddenly changes in times like these. Instead, I think times like these open our eyes to the reality that was there all along: We are not just atomized individuals, as Western modernity conditions us to think. We are interdependent. Our fates are connected to the fates of other people, so to truly look out for ourselves and our own family, we have to look out for the broader collective, too. While a special minority of people are always tuned into this Buddhist monks, say, or extreme do-gooders most of us only see reality this way when tragedy strikes. As author Larissa MacFarquhar wrote in her book Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help:In wartime or in a crisis so devastating that it resembles war, such as an earthquake or a hurricane duty expands far beyond its peacetime boundaries. In wartime, its thought dutiful rather than unnatural to leave your family for the sake of a cause. In wartime, the line between family and strangers grows faint, as the duty to ones own enlarges to encompass all the people who are on the same side This is the difference between do-gooders and ordinary people: for do-gooders, it is always wartime. They always feel themselves responsible for strangers they always feel that strangers, like compatriots in war, are their own people. Whether its a war or an earthquake or an attack on democracy, dramatic events can cause a vertiginous shift in perspective, from me-myopia to a more telescopic vision. We see ourselves as part of the bigger story of humanity, which transcends not only national borders, but generations. Have a question you want me to answer in the next Your Mileage May Vary column?Feel free to email me at sigal.samuel@vox.com or fill out this anonymous form! Newsletter subscribers will get my column before anyone else does and their questions will be prioritized for future editions. Sign up here!I suspect thats why we all admire the Righteous Gentiles even though by taking in Jews, they were sometimes putting their own kids at risk, something we normally consider morally dodgy (in fact, its so counter to a parents wiring that I wouldnt blame parents who couldnt bring themselves to do it). They were looking beyond their children to the world they would inherit. What good is it to bring your kid up into a world thats morally bankrupt? And what would you be modeling for them if you did? Seeing that bigger story can motivate us to take action against authoritarianism, even when its risky. Yes, it may feel scary to stick our necks out now as you said, Im terrified of the potential consequences for myself and my colleagues but remember that authoritarians want you to feel too terrified to resist. Thats how they cultivate anticipatory obedience and how they gain power over time. Right now, for most of us, the risk is actually relatively minimal. Act now and you might lose your job, or maybe even get your organization defunded, resulting in more lost jobs. Thats not nothing. But unless you are an undocumented immigrant or otherwise especially vulnerable under Trump administration policies, you are, right now, not likely to be deported, imprisoned, or physically harmed the way resisters have been in more authoritarian states. And if you dont act now, America could well become a more authoritarian state. If that happens, people in the future really might not be able to resist without facing extreme consequences. Thats an argument for resisting now, while you can do it at relatively low risk. It is not, however, an argument for acting nobly but recklessly. Its an argument for acting strategically. Consider the story of Queen Esther from the Hebrew Bible. When she learns of a plot to destroy her people, the Jews, she faces a terrifying choice: She can go to her husband, the king of Persia, to plead for their protection which would mean risking her own life, since the king would kill anyone who approached him without being summoned or she can stay silent to protect herself. At first, she tells her cousin Mordecai that she cant just march over the king and speak her mind; thats not how being queen works. But he responds with a powerful rejoinder: Who knows if its for a time like this that you were made queen to begin with? What hes doing there is triggering the vertiginous shift in perspective getting her to stop seeing herself as an individual and start seeing herself as someone who was always meant to look out for the collective.You can be strategic, too. Rather than acting impulsively and alone, you can build a network of support by reaching out to colleagues both inside and outside your organization.And that who knows? also acts as a challenge. In situations of moral crisis, people often feel, as you wrote, that my work wouldnt make much of a difference so why bother? To which Mordecai says: Who knows! Its possible that your work wont make a difference but you dont know that, so youve got to try something. It works: Esther acts. But notice how she acts. She doesnt just rush immediately to the king and tell him to save the Jews. First, she builds a network of support and develops a multi-part strategy. She dresses up to the nines, making herself attractive to the king so he might want to keep her around. She invites the king and his vizier to a party, where she wines and dines them. The next day she invites them to another party. Gradually, through carefully orchestrated moments of influence, she reveals the truth and makes her ask.Esther is what the Dutch historian Rutger Bregman might call a Noble Winner. In Moral Ambition, Bregman urges readers to be more ambitious about the good they can do for the world. As he points to historical examples of people who stood up for whats right, he notes that some are Noble Losers they take a personal stand, but nothing much comes of it. Think of that famous photo showing a crowd of Germans all saluting Hitler, and the single man who refused to salute. He was on the right side of history, but he didnt make history, Bregman writes. If you really want to change things, then someone like Rosa Parks is a better role model.Parks was a Noble Winner. She didnt just decide one day, in a rash moment of fury, to refuse to give up her seat on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead, she spent years quietly getting involved with the civil rights movement and studying protest tactics. Her refusal to surrender her seat was planned. An action group called the Womens Political Council strategically portrayed her as a kindly seamstress and demure heroine someone milquetoast enough for white Americans to get behind and launched the call to boycott the bus system the instant she was arrested. The careful planning and collaboration paid off: They achieved not just fame, but concrete wins. You can be strategic, too. Rather than acting impulsively and alone, you can build a network of support by reaching out to colleagues both inside and outside your organization. If youre a nonprofit employee, you can organize within your union and push them to take a particular stance. If youre an educator, you can coordinate action with other schools. If youre a journalist, you can reach out to other journalists to forge consensus around covering news events in a certain way for example, calling a purge a purge. The point is to reach out to others and build power together. And one more word about those Righteous Gentiles. After the Holocaust, psychologists began to study them to figure out what made them courageously agree to hide Jews while the majority went along with tyranny. Maybe they were friends with Jews before the war? Maybe they had spare rooms or extra savings tucked away? Maybe some people just come wired with an altruistic personality?Nope. The psychologists found that none of these factors made the difference. Instead, as Bregman recounts in his book:Turns out there was one circumstance that determined almost everything. A new analysis of data showed that when this condition was met, nearly everyone took action 96 percent to be precise. And what was that condition? Simple: you had to be asked. Those who were asked to help someone in danger almost always said yes. Asking things of each other and acting together is how we move unjust systems. So go ahead. Reach out to someone. Ask. Bonus: What Im readingIn the New Yorker, Kyle Chayka writes about Elon Musks AI-fueled war on human agency. He notes that a government run by people is cautious and slow by design; a machine-automated version will be fast and ruthless, reducing the need for either human labor or human decision-making.Are major trends in philosophy today the consequence of the fact that most great Western thinkers were bachelors? The philosopher Mary Midgley thought so. Having no experience of living with women and children, she argued, led these unmarried men to generate philosophy that is overly abstract and removed from life, as this Aeon essay explains.In a previous installment of this advice column, I challenged the idea that having a child always fundamentally transforms someones personality. So when I saw Olga Khazans new article on the topic, with the subtitle I knew that becoming a parent would change me but I had no idea how it was an instant click for me. The always-hilarious Olga does not disappoint. This story was originally published in The Highlight, Voxs member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

Pokemon TCG Pocket is getting another update, this time introducing shiny Pokemon and Ranked battles here's all we know about Shining Revelry, including when you can play itTech09:14, 27 Mar 2025A new booster is here, and this one is shinyIf you've been feeling a little down in the dumps with the Pokemon TCG Pocket after the Destined Rivals ordeal from this week, fear not.While we've got our handy guide to the expansion, there's a new free update to Pokemon TCG Pocket (one of our favourite games of 2024) to keep you ticking over.Article continues belowJust a month or so after Triumphant Light, the game is back with another themed booster pack, and it'll introduce a whole host of new critters. Shiny Pokemon are the headline addition, but there are also new offerings from the Paldea region, and the debut of ranked matches for multiplayer battlers.Here's everything new, and when you can play it.The update is already out, so go open your packs!Great news, the update is actually already out.That's because it arrived at the following times, and we lucky UK Pokemon collectors get to open packs nice and early on the commute.10 PM PST (on March 26)6 AM GMT1 AM EST7 AM CET3 PM JSTIf you can't see it yet, be sure to update the app in the App Store on iOS, or the Play Store on Android.As for what's new, there's plenty to enjoy. There are over 110 cards in the set, including the shiny new Charizard ex, Red supporter card, as well as new full-art versions of Giratina ex and more.The folks at Pokebeach have put together a full list with all the card art, so you can start planning your decks already.Charizard ex will surely be popularRanked Matches are also here, with the option to challenge players of a similar skill level and earn fresh emblems as you work through your opponents to "be the very best like no one ever was".Article continues belowI'll be looking to get that new Charizard ex for sure, as well as the Lucario ex that's been added, too.For more on the Pokemon TCG, be sure to check out our interview with Peter Murphy, Senior Director of Marketing at The Pokemon Company International who explains the game has never been more popular in the UK.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.

Is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Deluxe happening? (Nintendo)Fan expectations are through the roof for todays Nintendo Direct, with theories including a Smash Bros. rerelease and a Halo port.Despite the big Nintendo Switch 2 showcase happening next week, Nintendo still wants to give the original Switch some love, with a shorter but no less intriguing showcase scheduled for later today.Officially, theres no clue at all as to what the Direct will talk about other than therell be no new Switch 2 news but one obvious guess is Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, with other rumours including a Kirby: Planet Robobot remaster and a new entry in a niche beloved franchise.Nothing concrete has leaked ahead of time (yet), but fans do have some theories, especially after Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai retweeted Nintendos announcement.Sakurais comment seems to have been lost in translation since, according to Xs auto translate feature, all he wrote was the word method. However, those that can speak Japanese suggest its actually the equivalent of HmmmThats not much to go on, but Sakurai must know that even just mentioning the Nintendo Direct is going to send fans into a frenzy, especially since hes already confirmed to be working on a new game.However, youd think his next project would be saved for the Switch 2. So, if Sakurai is meant to be hinting at something, perhaps its a remaster or re-release of one of his older games.Many are, naturally, suspecting/wishing for something related to Super Smash Bros., be it a new game or more DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.Professional Smash player Juan Manuel DeBiedma, better known as Hungrybox, claims it will be a deluxe edition of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, sharing a post he made in 2023 claiming an Ultimate Deluxe would launch in 2025 and include 10 new characters.Although he says he wont say more in case Nintendo ninjas me, its unclear if this is based on insider knowledge or just his assumptions.Another fan theory is that well see a remaster of 3DS game Kid Icarus: Uprising, which Sakurai directed.Given the originals reliance on stylus controls, we suspect such a remaster would be a better fit for Switch 2, since it will feature mouse controls that are perfectly suited for Uprisings gameplay.Elsewhere, Giant Bombs Jeff Grubb has claimed, in a recent YouTube video, that hes heard theres gonna be a game that will cause a lot of conversation and its not necessarily a Nintendo one.More TrendingIt being a third party game doesnt narrow it down that much but it has emboldened the theories that Hollow Knight sequel Silksong could finally make a reappearance.Some fans also think it could be Halo. It has previously been claimed that Microsoft will bring Halo: The Master Chief Collection to Switch 2, but theres also been chatter of a remaster or remake of the first Halo being in the works for Xbox and PlayStation 5.That would likely also come to Switch 2 and if thats the case it would make more sense to release the existing remasters on Switch 1 first.As a reminder, todays Nintendo Direct will air at 2pm GMT and run for approximately 30 minutes. Halo on Switch would definitely get people talking (Microsoft)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

MVRDV Unveils Its Strategic Plan for the Roosendaal Densification Masterplan in the NetherlandsSave this picture!The Mosaic . Image Courtesy of MVRDVIn 2021, the Municipality of Roosendaal began collaborating with MVRDV as an urban development consultant. The firm's partner, Winy Maas, was subsequently appointed as urban advisor, conforming a team that included MVRDV, Rebel Group, Transitiefocus, and other experts. Their task was to consolidate existing projects and initiatives into a unified strategic vision, seeking a mix of bottom-up and top-down planning approaches. The vision, also called "The Mosaic", was developed through a participatory process involving residents. It provides insight at multiple scales, from land-use adjustments across the municipality to over 40 potential projects aimed at harnessing the potential of specific locations. Published as a series of seven interconnected documents, the vision aims to provide Roosendaal with strategies to accommodate growth.Save this picture!Located in the southwest of The Netherlands, Roosendaal sits between the Randstad, Flanders, the major cities of Noord-Brabant, and Zeeland. The municipality comprises the city itself along with surrounding villages and landscapes. Currently a low-density area, it has set an unofficial goal of increasing its population to around 100,000, a growth that city officials believe would enhance cultural, recreational, and investment opportunities. The population has remained stagnant at approximately 77,000 for the past decade, with the out-migration of young people being one ot he main demographic concerns. "The Mosaic" masterplan was designed as part of a broader strategy to counter this trend by introducing new attractions and social equipment. The RSD40 initiative, detailed in the seven documents compiled by MVRDV's team, has been approved by the Municipality of Roosendaal.Save this picture!Save this picture!The plan begins with a redefinition of Roosendaal's land-use patterns, visually represented as a "barcode" with shifting percentages. It reallocates space to housing, culture, nature, water, and renewable energy production by layering functions and utilizing unbuilt areas within the city. This urban intensification is paired with a commitment to maintaining a fixed infrastructure footprint; any new infrastructure must be offset by a reduction elsewhere. Intending to promote a more walkable and bike-friendly future, the plan integrates a network of existing roadways, footpaths, and dikes. In response to population growth and the goal of attracting younger residents, the vision proposes a more diverse housing stock, moving beyond the dominance of single-family homes. This expansion in housing is designed to be complemented by increased investment in leisure, culture, and education, seeking to make the city appealing to people at all stages of life. Related Article From Helsinkis Landmark Bridge to Londons Urban Regeneration: Recent Updates from Knight Architects, Foster + Partners, and More The vision considers Roosendaal's character to be defined by multiple neighborhoods with individual identities rather than a dominant historic core. In the master plan, each neighborhood plays a specific role within the broader vision, outlining the transformations it will undergo. The plan includes 40 strategic projects aimed at enhancing both the city's appeal and functionality. Proposed initiatives include transforming the station area into a dynamic mixed-use district featuring a vocational school, covering a section of the A58 motorway to create a linear park with housing and sports facilities, densifying the Nieuwe Markt area with high-rise buildings that highlight the square, renovating the Mariadal monastery garden by integrating housing within the monastery walls while opening the garden to the public, widening streams to create recreational spaces, and repurposing vacant churches into homes, community centers, workshops, or cultural venues.Save this picture!Save this picture!Densification is a topic widely discussed in the planning strategies for diverse cities around the world. Whether as part of a less expansive city model or for the rehabilitation of strategically located land, it is one of the factors guiding urban design and real estate investment in cities such as Constanta, Romania, with a plan by Foster + Partners, or Salalah, Oman, with a plan designed by Sasaki aimed at enhancing its tourism appeal. Other large-scale projects led by architecture firms around the world include Zaha Hadid Architects Napoli Porta Est masterplan, the transformation of Tirana, the Albanian capital city, and THE LINE, a 170-kilometer-long linear city, part of the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia.Image gallerySee allShow lessAbout this authorCite: Antonia Pieiro. "MVRDV Unveils Its Strategic Plan for the Roosendaal Densification Masterplan in the Netherlands" 27 Mar 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028454/mvrdv-unveils-its-strategic-plan-for-the-roosendaal-densification-masterplan-in-the-netherlands&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

t.house / ogawaa design studioSave this picture!Architects: ogawaa design studio LLCAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:25 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2023 PhotographsPhotographs:Akira Ito Lead Architects: Taishi Ogawa, Mariko Sakurama More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture! Akira ItoText description provided by the architects. In Osaka, there are usually cluttered and comfortable towns. Many of the residents who were born and raised there are attached to their own town. To be precise, they do not love the town very much, but may just be accustomed to the normal life there that has been repeated over the years. The daily scenes of these towns have no academic value and contain many illegal elements, but the strength of the residents who move things forward with a kind of selfish self-responsibility creates an extraordinary combination of ordinariness or a sense of security surrounded by noise, giving the city a strange sense of solidarity.Save this picture!We designed the home of a person who had lived in such a town for many years to be renovated into a house with a store. We renovated everything about the nearly 50-year-old building except for the foundation, steel frame, and the east and west exterior walls, which are semi-integrated with the houses on both sides.Although the site is in a highly convenient location, it is only a little less than 30 square meters in area. It was originally a five-story building, but in order to eliminate the cramped space and reduce the burden associated with legal regulations, the second and third floors were made into two-story atriums, making it a three-story building. However, we created a terrace between the floors that can be used for maintenance, making it look like a five-story building.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Considering the stairs necessary for vertical movement to be part of the living space, we planned to place them in the middle of the residential floor. The entire building is loosely connected through stairs and atriums, but privacy gradually increases from the base to the upper floors, and it connects with the town again at the rooftop. The second floor can be rented out if the residents have a relationship they can trust. The blurring of spatial boundaries and the integrated facade design create a unique relationship between residents, stores, and the town.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!We created a luxurious sense of openness and a direct relationship with the town while bringing the chaotic atmosphere of this town, with its mixture of old and new, into the house. This made the house feel special to the residents like a secret base, even though passers-by were passing in the immediate vicinity.Save this picture!We combined materials that give a sense of aging and new materials to create an unexpected sequence around the stairs and a space that requires ingenuity in how to use it. This allows for real attachment and nostalgia to develop over time. We believe that as the residents continue to enjoy collecting the items and the experiences they will have, this house will be filled with a variety of noises and will become more familiar with the town.Save this picture!Even if it is just the house that looks like junk to others, there is a space that is irreplaceable to the user. We aimed to realize an architecture that presents publicness, fostering an ordinary but rich townscape through private spaces that are loosely connected with the town with trust and attachment to it.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officePublished on March 27, 2025Cite: "t.house / ogawaa design studio" 27 Mar 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028384/thouse-junk-like-house-ogawaa-design-studio-llc&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00900-yVaccines containing peptides called antigens are bad at stimulating key immune cells called killer T cells. A molecule now enables antigens to encounter these T cells.

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08787-5EGF-induced recruitment of UPF1 adjacent to HNRNPC induces splicing surveillance of cell proliferation mRNAs.

We have smaller faces than Neanderthals and even chimps. A new study may explain how this came to be.

Blizzard Co-Founder Mike Morhaime's New Studio Dreamhaven Reveals A Few New TitlesMike Morhaime, co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, has joined a special showcase hosted by Geoff Keighley and revealed new titles from the company @Dreamhaven that he co-founded, including a unique first-person space shooter called Wildgate.Morhaime co-founded Blizzard and worked there for three decades before he departed. Hefounded Dreamhaven in 2020 with many other Blizzard veterans, with the goal of "reimagining the studio model" and a vision of "taking the chances that most big publishers won't." The company has two development studios, Moonshot Games and Secret Door.Wildgate is a game created by Moonshot Games. It is a PVP multiplayer shooter set in a distant region of space, where players, known as Prospectors, team up in small crews, choose from a variety of characters, each with their exclusive tools and abilities, to engage in tactical ship-to-ship combats to claim the ultimate prize called the Artifact.Recently, an offline play event was held in Hangzhou, China, with Mike Morhaime joining an interview to talk about Wildgate's development, including the inspiration behind it and the advantages and highlights it has.Speaking of the inspiration and how the genre and core gameplay were decided, Mike said (via Chinese gaming outlet ) that over 50 ideas were generated from the initial brainstorming, which shrank to 30 after evaluations. Five made it to make demos. In the end, Wildgate's demo survived and was selected to be developed into a full game that players will be able to enjoy after five years of work.Wildgate has some advantages and highlights compared with games of the same genre. "I think the biggest advantage of the game is that it has a variety of rich gameplay elements such as procedurally generated random maps and three-dimensional spaceship combat, and they all occupy the same important position in the game." So besides the FPS gameplay, the game also "meets the different gameplay experience needs of other player groups."Wildgate is scheduled to launch later in 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. A playtest is scheduled for April 10 to 14 so fans can have a taste of it.Dreamhaven's upcoming games also include their debut title Sunderfolk, a turn-based co-op RPG developed by Secret Door and coming on April 23, and Lynked: Banner of the Spark, an action RPG that was created by FuzzyBot with Dreamhaven working as a publisher. It was released in Early Access last October and scheduled for a full release in May.With all these exciting new games from the developer, you can follow them on social media to stay updated.

Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games shuts down its Los Angeles office, which focused on marketing, finance, legal, and HR.Meanwhile, the studio has raised a jaw-dropping $795 million: https://80.lv/articles/star-citizen-developer-cloud-imperium-games-closes-its-los-angeles-office/