Happy birthday to a living legend Our top 10 Jackie Chan movies Chan's distinctive style combines slapstick, acrobatics, martial arts, and astonishing stunts he performs himself. Jennifer Ouellette Apr 7, 2025 9:17 am | 29 Credit: YouTube/MIramax Credit: YouTube/MIramax Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThere is no action star quite like Jackie Chan, who made his name in the Hong Kong movie industry starting in the late 1970s and developed his own signature style: combining slapstick physical comedy with acrobatics and martial arts, and designing astonishing stuntsall of which he performed himself along with his own handpicked stunt team. His stunt sequences and fight choreography have influenced everything from The Matrix and Kill Bill to the John Wick franchise and Kung Fu Panda (in which he voiced Master Monkey).Born on April 7, 1954, Chan studied acrobatics, martial arts, and acting as a child at the Peking Opera School's China Drama Academy and became one of the Seven Little Fortunes. Those skills served him well in his early days as a Hong Kong stuntman, which eventually landed him a gig as an extra and stunt double on Bruce Lee's 1972 film, Fist of Fury. He also appeared in a minor role in Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973).Initially, Hong Kong producers, impressed by Chan's skills, wanted to mold him into the next Bruce Lee, but that just wasn't Chan's style. Chan found his milieu when director Yuen Woo-ping cast him in 1978's kung fu comedy Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and gave Chan creative freedom over the stunt work. It was Drunken Master, released that same year, that established Chan as a rising talent, and he went on to appear in more than 150 movies, becoming one of Hong Kong's biggest stars.Chan struggled initially to break into Hollywood, racking up commercial misses with 1980's The Big Brawl and 1985's The Protector. He had a minor role in 1981's hit comedy, The Cannonball Run, and while it didn't do much to raise his US profile, he did adopt that film's clever inclusion of bloopers and outtakes during closing credits. It's now one of the trademark features of Jackie Chan films, beloved by fans.By the mid 1990s, Chan had amassed a substantial cult following in the US, thanks to the growing availability of his earlier films in the home video market, and finally achieved mainstream Hollywood success with Rumble in the Bronx (1995) and Rush Hour (1998). In his later years, Chan has moved away from kung fu comedies toward more dramatic roles, including the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid.Look, nobody watches classic Jackie Chan movies for the plot, complex characterizations, or the dubbing (which is often hilariously bad). We're here to gasp in admiration at the spectacular fight choreography and jaw-dropping stunts, peppered with a generous helping of slapstick humor. His gift for turning ordinary objects into makeshift weapons is part of his unique style, which I like to call Found Object Foo. Who could forget the hilarious chopsticks duel and "emotional kung-fu" (eg, fighting while crying or laughing to unmask an opponent's weaknesses) in 1979's The Fearless Hyena? Chan even inspired the entire parkour movement.Chan has broken multiple fingers, toes, and ribs over the course of his long career, not to mention both cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck, and ankle. He has a permanent hole in his skull from one near-fatal injury. And he did it all for our entertainment. The least we can do is honor him on his 71st birthday. You'll find our top 10 Jackie Chan films listed below in chronological order, spanning 30 years.Drunken Master (1978) Jackie Chan as Wong Fei-hung in Drunken Master. Credit: Seasonal Film Corp In Drunken Master, Chan portrays a fictional version of legendary Chinese martial artist/folk hero Wong Fei-Hung, who undergoes strict, punishing training under the tutelage of another legend, Beggar So (Yuen Liu-Tin), aka the Drunken Master because he practices a martial art called "Drunken Boxing." Fei-Hung chafes at the training initially, but after a humiliating defeat in a fight against the villain, Yim Tit-sam (Hwang Jang-lee, a specialist in Taekwondo), he devotes himself to learning the martial art.Naturally we're going to get a final showdown between Fei-Hung and his nemesis, Tit-Sam, aka "Thunderfoot" or "Thunderleg," because of his devastating "Devil's Kick." Fei-Hung is able to match his rival's kicks, but falters again when he comes up against Tit-Sam's infamous "Devil's Shadowless Hand." That's because Fei-Hung refused to learn a crucial element of the Hung Ga fighting system because he thought it was too "girly." He ends up inventing his unique version of the technique ("Drunken Miss Ho") to win the day. These are all fictitious moves that are nonetheless enormously fun to watcheven though Chan nearly lost an eye after taking a blow to the brow ridge in one scene.Project A (1983) The famous clock tower stunt. Credit: Golden Harvest This film marks the official debut of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and co-stars Chan's longtime martial arts buddies, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, both major stars in their own right. They were known as the "Three Dragons" in the 1980s. Chan plays Sergeant Dragon Ma, a police officer battling both pirates and gangsters in Hong Kong, and corruption within his own law enforcement ranks. Hung plays a street informant named Fei (or Fats), who tips off Dragon to an illegal gun deal, while Biao plays an inspector and the nephew of the police captain, Hong Tin-Tsu. The three team up to take down the pirates and gangsters and restore integrity to the force.There's a lot of delightful slapstick stunt work in Project A, reminiscent of the work of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, but apparently Chan never saw either man's films before developing his signature style. (In 1987's Project A Part 2, Chan does pay direct homage to Keaton's most famous stunt from Steamboat Bill, Jr.) The highlight is Chan hanging off a clock tower (a la Lloyd) 60 feet above the ground and falling backward through a canopy. Ever the perfectionist, Chan insisted on an additional two takes of the dangerous stunt until he was satisfied he'd gotten it exactly right.Wheels on Meals(1984) Chan vs Benny "The Jet" Urquidez: one of the best martial arts fight scenes of all time. Hung and Biao joined Chan again for 1984's Wheels on Meals, with Chan and Biao playing Chinese cousins running a food truck in Barcelona. They get snared into helping their private investigator friend Moby (Hung) track down kidnappers intent on capturing a young woman named Sylvia (Lola Forner), who turns out to be the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish count.There's an exciting raid of the villains' castle that involves scaling the castle walls, but the undisputed highlight of the film is the showdown between Chan and professional kickboxing champion Benny "the Jet" Urquidez, widely regarded as one of the best martial arts fight sequences on film. Both Chan and Urquidez exchange kicks and blows with dazzling speed. At one point, Urquidez lets loose a kick so fast that the resulting wake blows out a row of candles. (You can see it in the clip above; it's not a trick.) And throughout, one gets Chan's trademark physical comedy, even taking a moment to rest on a chair to catch his breath before the next round of blows.Police Story (1985) Chan hung off a moving bus using the crook in an umbrella handle. Credit: Golden Harvest Police Story introduced Chan as Hong Kong Police detective Ka-Kui "Kevin" Chan and launched one of the actor's most popular trilogies. Kevin joins an undercover mission to arrest a well-known crime lord and through a complicated series of events, ends up being framed for murdering a fellow police officer. Now a fugitive, he must track down and capture the crime lord to clear his namedefeating a horde of evil henchmen and saving his girlfriend, May (Maggie Cheung), in the process.The film is noteworthy for its many elaborately orchestrated stunt scenes. For instance, during a car chase, Chan finds himself hanging off a double-decker bus with nothing but the hooked end of a metal umbrella. (An earlier wooden umbrella prop kept slipping off the bus.) The climactic battle takes place in a shopping mall, and the stunt team broke so many glass panels that the film was dubbed "Glass Story" by the crew. The finale features Chan sliding down a pole covered in strings of electric lights that exploded as he descended. Chan suffered second-degree burns on his hands as well as a dislocated pelvis and back injury when he landed.Armour of God (1986) Chan nearly died doing a stunt for Armour of God. Credit: Golden Harvest Of all the death-defying stunts Chan performed over hundreds of films, the one that came the closest to killing himwhile shooting Armour of Godwas relatively mundane. Chan was simply jumping off a ledge onto a tree, but the branch broke, and he crashed to the ground, hitting his head on a rock. His skull was cracked, with a bit of bone penetrating part of his brain, an injury that took eight hours of surgery to repair, followed by a long recovery that delayed production of the film. Chan has a permanent hole in his skull and suffered partial hearing loss in his right ear.Chan stuck with tradition and showed the footage of the accident in the ending credits of this Indiana-Jones style adventure film. His daring base jump off a cliffafter setting off a series of explosives in a cave to take out a monastic cultonto the top of a hot air balloon that closes the film was done in two stages. Since Chan had no BASE jumping experience, he jumped onto the balloon by skydiving off a plane. The crew rigged him up with a wire to get a shot of him "jumping" off the cliff.Police Story 3: Supercop (1992) Chan and Michelle Yeoh take out the bad guys atop a moving train. If the second installment of this trilogy was largely dismissed as mediocre "filler" in Chan's expansive oeuvre, the third film, Supercop, ranks as one of his best. Kevin Chan returns for another undercover assignment to take down a drug cartel led by kingpin Khun Chaibat (Kenneth Tsang), and finds himself paired with Chinese Interpol officer Jessica Yang, played by a young Michelle Yeoh (credited as Michelle Kwan). This does not please Kevin's longtime girlfriend, May (Maggie Cheung), who ends up blowing his cover and getting taken hostage by Chaibat and his wife (Josephine Koo) because of her jealousy.May might be a bit irritating, but Yeoh's Yang is pure dynamite, matching Chan's prowess in a series of fight scenes and gamely performing her own stuntsincluding riding a motorbike onto a moving train (see clip above), where she and Chan battle the bad guys while dodging helicopter blades. (Yeoh had a narrow escape of her own during an earlier stunt when she fell into oncoming traffic, suffering only minor injuries.) Special shoutout to Bill Tung, reprising his role as Kevin's superintendent, "Uncle" Bill Wong, who at one point appears in drag as Kevin's aging grandmother in a remote village to keep Kevin's cover story secure.Drunken Master II (1994) Chan fights fire with fire in Drunken Master II. Released in the US as The Legend of Drunken Master, this one will always top my list as Jackie Chan's best film, against some very stiff competition. It works on every level. This is technically not a sequel to the 1978 film, but it does feature Chan playing the same character, Wong Fei-hung. The film opens with Fei-hung getting into a fight all across (and under) a train with a military officer who has mistaken Fei-hung's box of ginseng for his own box containing the Imperial Seal. The British consul wants to smuggle the seal out of China, with the help of a group of local thugs. Fei-hung finds himself embroiled in efforts to retrieve the seal and keep it in China where it belongs.Fei-hung is a fan of Drunken Boxing, and his father disapproves of this and other screwups, kicking his son out of the house. We are treated to an amusing scene in which an intoxicated Fei-hung drowns his sorrows and sings an improvised song, "I Hate Daddy"right before being attacked by the thugs and soundly defeated, since he's too tipsy even for Drunken Boxing. (The trick is to be just inebriated enough.)But Fei-hung gets his revenge and saves the day in a literal fiery showdown against the consul's chief enforcer, John (taekwondo master Ken Lo). This is Chan's physical comedy at its best: Drunken Boxing requires one to execute precise martial arts moves while remaining loose and being slightly off-balance. The stunts are equally impressive. At one point in the finale, Chan falls backward into a bed of hot coals (see clip above), scrambling to safety, before chugging industrial alcohol and blowing flames at his attackers wielding red-hot pokers.Rush Hour (1998) Chris Tucker co-starred with Chan in Rush Hour. Credit: New Line Cinema Chan finally made his big North American mainstream breakthrough with 1995's Rumble in the Bronx, which grossed $76 million worldwide, but if we're choosing among the actor's US films, I'd pick 1998's Rush Hour over Rumble for inclusion on this list. Hong Kong Detective Lee (Chan) comes to Los Angeles to help negotiate the return of a Chinese consul's kidnapped daughter, Soo-Yung (Julia Hsu), to whom he once taught martial arts. He's paired with LAPD Det. James Carter (Chris Tucker), who is supposed to keep Lee occupied and out of the way while the "real" cops handle the investigation. Wacky hijinks ensue as the two gradually learn to work together and ultimately save the day.Sure, the decades of injury and advancing age by this point have clearly taken their toll; Chan moves more slowly and performs fewer stunts, but his fighting skills remain world-class. While Rush Hour grossed an impressive $244 million worldwide and spawned two (subpar) sequels, it was not a critical favorite; nor was it among Chan's favorites, who criticized the dearth of action and his English, admitting he often had no idea what Tucker was saying. The two nonetheless have good onscreen chemistry, with a solid supporting cast, and it all adds up to an entertaining film.Shanghai Noon (2000) Chan teamed up with Owen Wilson for Shanghai Noon. Credit: Buena Vista Pictures Chan found an even better match when he co-starred with Owen Wilson in Shanghai Noon, best described as a "buddy Western" action/adventure. Chan plays Chon Wang (as in John Wayne), a Chinese Imperial guard who comes to the American West to rescue the kidnapped Chinese princess Pei-Pei (Lucy Liu). He ends up bonding with a bumbling, rakishly charming outlaw named Roy O'Bannon (Wilson), who agrees to help find the princess with the ulterior motive of stealing some of the gold being offered as ransom. Since they are also accidental fugitives, they must elude a posse led by the sadistic Marshall Nathan Van Cleef (Xander Berkeley).Both Chan and Wilson's comedic talents are on brilliant display here, with plenty of creative fight choreography and set stunt pieces to keep hardcore fans happy. The script is clever, the supporting cast is excellent, and the pacing never lags. If you're keen to make it a double feature, the 2003 sequel, Shanghai Knights, brings Chon Wang and Roy to jolly old England to recover a stolen Imperial Seal and foil a plot against the British throne. Granted, it's not as good as its predecessor, but the Chan/Wilson chemistry still makes it work.The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) Chan and Jet Li found it easy to work together in The Forbidden Kingdom. Credit: Lionsgate The Forbidden Kingdom is a fantasy film in the wuxia genre that features not just Chan, but his fellow martial arts film legend, Jet Li, for their first on-screen pairing. A young man in Boston, Jason (Michael Angarano), who loves wuxia movies, finds a mysterious golden staff in a local Chinatown pawn shop that transports him to a village in ancient China. He is attacked by soldiers keen to get the staff but is saved by an inebriated traveling scholar named Lu Yan (Chan), a reference to one of the Eight Immortals mentioned in the Drunken Master films.The magical staff turns out to be the key to releasing the mythical Monkey King, imprisoned by his rival the Jade Warlord. Jason's presence could fulfill an ancient prophecy of a Seeker who will use the staff to free the Monkey King. Li plays the Silent Monk, who teams up with Jason, Lu Yan, and a young woman known as the Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei) to fulfill the prophecy. The Forbidden Kingdom is a visual feast, featuring stunning fight choreography and production design in the wuxia tradition, as well as an impressive, highly stylized fight scene between Li (tai chi) and Chan (Drunken Boxing).Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 29 Comments

Jay Litkey, Governing Board Member, FinOps Foundation and SVP of Cloud & FinOps, FlexeraApril 7, 20254 Min ReadArtemisDiana via Alamy StockOver the last few years, FinOps has become synonymous with cloud financial management, helping organizations optimize cloud spending and usage. As cloud adoption stabilized, the operational framework and cultural practice of FinOps matured.Teams -- representing collaborative efforts between business, finance, engineering, and other groups -- established robust practices, creating a healthy and maturing market.That era established a strong foundation in optimizing the costs associated with public cloud computing. Today, the scope of FinOps has expanded in important ways, going beyond cloud to deliver comprehensive insights into IT spending across SaaS and data centers. Three main trends will continue to move FinOps forward in 2025.FinOps Expands: SaaS and Data CentersBy applying FinOps principles to areas of IT spending in addition to cloud computing, the practice of FinOps is growing. These principles include collaboration; a focus on the business value of technology investments and considering a unit economics perspective; accountability for the costs associated with tech usage; prioritizing centralized initiatives; making FinOps data available in a timely manner; and understanding how variable costs can help deliver value.Related:The operational framework of FinOps now includes two new scopes, to which FinOps practitioners apply FinOps practices. As established by the FinOps Foundation, the new scopes apply specifically to SaaS and data centers.This expansion provides valuable guardrails to keep spending in-check in important ways.SaaS integration: The rise of software-as-a-service (SaaS) brought new challenges, notably subscription sprawl and underutilized licenses. Similar to the challenges of cloud spend, SaaS spend is often exacerbated by decentralized IT purchasing. Companies are applying FinOps principles to manage SaaS spending and optimize its value, extending beyond cloud platforms. This approach can help manage the complexities of varied pricing and licensing approaches.Data center inclusion: As organizations transition to hybrid environments, the need for comprehensive financial management across all domains increases. License portability, bring your own license (BYOL) policies, and the need to manage entitlements across cloud and on-premises systems have become critical. FinOps principles, capabilities and best practices now serve as the data backbone for managing costs and usage across these domains, offering a comprehensive evaluation, rather than letting these areas remain siloed, as has often been the case. By applying the framework of FinOps to include data centers, organizations can move beyond a focus on hardware to a more comprehensive approach suited to the role of data centers as part of hybrid environments.Related:FinOps Meets Innovation: Artificial IntelligenceSpending on artificial intelligence, including generative AI, is the new cloud challenge: opaque, sprawling, and often unmanaged. Fortunately, FinOps provides an effective approach for managing AI-specific resources, such as SaaS-based AI tools (including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot), private large language models (LLMs), and on-premises resources, such as graphics processing units (GPUs). With ChatGPT, gaining market share and moving into the ranks of a top software vendor based on spend, the urgency to gain insight and control of AI is growing rapidly.Whether it's for skunkworks projects or mainstream enterprise initiatives, FinOps programs now include AI as a core use case, helping address the question of who is responsible for managing AI spend. FinOps practitioners can forecast and estimate the expenses related to AI implementations and workloads across an organization. This can help illustrate the full picture of how AI and GenAI are being used enterprise wide. Its also an important step for minimizing the risks associated with shadow AI, when staff install and use AI products, without informing the wider business.Related:Market Validation: Collaboration Across ITAM, SaaS, and CloudThe market is making it clear: multiple domains require effective collaboration in order to optimize IT environments. FinOps has become that go-to framework for solving the problems that span cloud, SaaS, and on-premises environments.The Flexera 2024 State of ITAM Report, drawing on a survey of more than 500 technical professionals, showed that collaboration between FinOps and IT asset management (ITAM) teams is growing, with 32% of ITAM teams engaging with FinOps in 2024, up from 25% in 2023. As collaboration matures between FinOps and ITAM teams, efficiencies will grow, illustrating (and shoring up) the significant visibility gaps into sprawling IT.This plays an important role for SaaS, including for SaaS-based AI. Cloud optimization maturity is also on the rise, with heavy optimization for SaaS services increasing to 11%, while basic optimization holds at 43%.Collaboration across all of these teams is essential for ensuring that your business is getting value from its technology investments, while actively managing the associated expenses. Evaluating your organizational approach is crucial. Disparate approaches are no longer the answer.Todays business leaders need comprehensive insights into spending, driving an operational imperative for clarity across all IT spending categories. The expanded scope of FinOps reflects the realities of hybrid IT, making FinOps a central player in the financial and operational governance of modern technology ecosystems.About the AuthorJay LitkeyGoverning Board Member, FinOps Foundation and SVP of Cloud & FinOps, FlexeraJay Litkey is a governing board member of the FinOps Foundation and serves as SVP of Cloud & FinOps at Flexera. He joined Flexera through the acquisition of Snow Software, where he played a pivotal role following Snows acquisition of Embotics, a company he founded. He has over 25 years of executive leadership experience (CEO, president, EVP) in enterprise software, SaaS, FinOps, and Internet companies.See more from Jay LitkeyWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

TikTok; Getty Images; BI 2025-04-07T14:22:42Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? A string of US executives has left TikTok in the past year.The departures are creating a management vacuum that Chinese leaders are filling, insiders told BI.TikTok is under political pressure to separate its US business from its China-based owner ByteDance.The Trump administration is racing to curb TikTok's ties to China. But inside the company, a string of recent US executive departures and team restructurings has given Chinese leaders a greater grip on its American business, company insiders told Business Insider.This month, US-based sales and marketing exec Blake Chandlee, who served as the face of TikTok at key industry events like Cannes and Advertising Week, stepped down. Will Liu, known as Liu Xiaobing in China, is taking over management of his global business solutions team. Liu, a Singapore-based staffer who reports to ByteDance China chairman Zhang Lidong, works on monetization products for the company's Chinese apps and TikTok.The sales team shakeup is one example of a broader shift in power across several company departments.TikTok made a big push to hire top talent in the US as it looked to launch new businesses like e-commerce in the country. But over the past year, at least seven key US-based executives, including Chandlee, have left their roles across various business lines. Some have been replaced by Chinese leaders. There's a sense among some of TikTok's roughly 7,000 US staffers that ByteDance executives who are either based in China or have come to the US from China are tightening control. Business Insider spoke to nine current and seven former staffers who have worked at the company in the past year."They have been consolidating under Chinese leadership," a TikTok employee who works on its e-commerce business told BI. "Before we had a senior manager in the US, and now the person is outside the US."TikTok and ByteDance did not respond to requests for comment from BI.The leadership balance may change again if TikTok finds a new owner outside ByteDance, as required by a divestment law. The Trump administration is working on a potential deal, and the president wrote on Friday that he was giving the company another 75 days to find a solution. Some employees are eager for a switch that would put new US executives in charge."I really hope this happens," a staffer who works in operations said of a prospective sale. "I hope it can be new leadership if they can really get bought by Oracle or someone else."A slow drip of exitsWhile staff at TikTok's parent company ByteDance have had the final say over its product for years, and US leaders like North America global business solutions head Khartoon Weiss remain, the 16 insiders felt that the recent departures of other top US managers expanded control of Chinese leaders.TikTok's e-commerce team, which runs its Shop product under the leadership of China-based ByteDance executive Bob Kang, has lost several US leaders over the last year and a half, according to nine of the insiders.Since late 2023, US executives that have exited include Sandie Hawkins, TikTok's former GM of US e-commerce; Marni Levine, one of Hawkins' two replacements, who oversaw TikTok Shop's US operations; and Mary Hubbard, the company's former head of governance and experience in the Americas for Shop.Executives with experience working on TikTok's Chinese sister app are filling the void, including Mu Qing, a former Douyin e-commerce VP; Sheng Zhou, the company's SVP of global e-commerce; and product VP Xu Luran.TikTok recruited heavily from Amazon and other big e-commerce players when it began testing Shop in the US a couple of years ago, bringing local knowledge into the business, insiders said. But in the past year, as US executives have left, leadership has shifted from building a localized shopping product to instead trying to imitate Douyin, a staffer who works on TikTok Shop told BI.Chinese leadership is also cracking down on its US team this year after they felt the country underperformed in 2024, as BI previously reported. Former TikTok executives like Sandie Hawkins, Blake Chandlee, and Kate Jhaveri spoke at the company's Cannes Lions event in 2023. Olivier Anrigo/Getty Images for TikTok Other US teams within TikTok have similarly seen American leaders swapped out for ByteDance staffers from China.There have been examples of these power shifts as early as 2022. Vanessa Campos, a former TikTok recruiter focused on early career hires who left the company this year, wrote in an April blog post that her US manager was replaced by a global leader from China in late 2022 who began "tightening their grip on hiring priorities." Chinese leadership led the early careers team from that point forward, Campos told BI.Rebecca Sawyer, TikTok's US advertising lead for small and midsize businesses, was replaced by ByteDance executive Qing Lan in late 2023. Qing previously worked on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin.The e-commerce staffer said Chinese leadership's control of the business "hyper-accelerated" in the second half of 2024.Globally, at least eight executives have left TikTok in 2025, The Information earlier reported, citing departures like the music exec Ole Obermann and North America ads leader Sameer Singh.As more Chinese managers take charge, US staffers feel left out of the loopByteDance is still very much a Chinese tech company at its core. Decisions about its global products are often made in China, where it has offices in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou. US TikTok employees previously told BI that they refer to its Beijing office as "HQ."As it's expanded into other parts of the world, ByteDance has brought hundreds of employees over from China into its new offices via H-1B or L-1 visas, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services records and another company employee with knowledge of its visa strategy.About 670 of the roughly 1,100 approved US H-1B visa hires for TikTok and ByteDance workers were from China during fiscal year 2023, the most recent period BI was able to obtain data via a Freedom of Information Act request. In fiscal year 2022, the company received 445 H-1B approvals for Chinese nationals, per USCIS data shared with US Sen. Tom Cotton."A lot of leaders are Chinese nationals from mainland China," the employee with knowledge of its visa strategy said.But the company also grew TikTok globally by leaning into the expertise of local hires. Business lines like recruiting, the creator outreach team, and its sales staff that interface with US marketers have generally operated with less oversight from China, four of the current and former staffers said. Staff members in some of those divisions have not had to take late calls with Chinese colleagues to accommodate time zone differences, for example. That independence from China has drifted away in the past year, the insiders told BI.In 2024, TikTok's US creator team was asked to align its goals with a product team mostly based in China, a former staffer who worked on the creator team told BI."While we weren't actually reporting into them, it was almost like a dotted line," the ex-employee said. "If they said jump, the creator team had to jump." TikTok's office in Culver City, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images US employees reporting to managers based in China told BI they sometimes feel excluded from the team, either because they don't speak or read Mandarin Chinese or because they work in a different time zone and are unable to join certain calls.A trust and safety team member who does not speak Mandarin said it was challenging to try to work with Chinese colleagues who, they felt, often made little effort to accommodate their US teammates.The staffer said they'd been provided with some internal documents translated from Mandarin that have been hard to follow."I'm always two days behind," they said.Another staffer on the engineering team estimated their China-based manager had directly spoken to them for less than 30 minutes over the last six months.The employee said it was challenging to work with translated documents and group chats in the company's internal messaging platform Lark that were originally written in Mandarin."The meetings conducted are in Chinese as well, so a lot of my American colleagues can't understand the context," this person said.A former product staffer said they felt like it was harder to get their ideas heard after switching from a US-based manager to one based in China."I felt like they didn't really listen to the US opinion," the former employee said of their new manager. "They would say things like 'Just follow what the Chinese product manager said.'"A TikTok sale in the US could shake up the company if it actually shifts who is in chargeThe power structure for TikTok's US business may shift in the coming weeks if new owners take over operations.The company could reach a deal to sell TikTok's US assets in order to comply with the law requiring ByteDance to divest from its US app. Trump said TikTok negotiations are now wound up in a broader US-China trade fight over tariffs.ByteDance said it's talking to the US government about a potential solution, but key matters need to be resolved, and an agreement would be subject to approval under Chinese law.As staffers await a political resolution, morale at the company is low among some who are experiencing burnout and dealing with the aftermath of a recent review cycle that led to performance-improvement plans and staff exits, company insiders previously told BI."We essentially haven't had a voice for a very long time," the second e-commerce worker said. "They say they want you to be candid and clear, but really they want you to fall in line and follow the Chinese and rebuild Douyin."Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at dwhateley@businessinsider.com or Signal at @danwhateley.94. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.Ashley Rodriguez and Shubhangi Goel contributed reporting.April 7, 2025 This story was updated with new details on a potential deal involving TikTok's US assets.Recommended video

What if something terrible happened to you, and you werent able to remember it? Thats one of the questions at the center of Amy Griffins memoir, The Tell, which is quickly becoming one of the years most talked-about books.Griffins buzzy bestseller doesnt offer easy answers or tidy conclusions about its dark subject matter its authors sexual assault by a trusted teacher as a preteen which only seems to make her story about recovering harrowing memories of the abuse after trying psychedelic therapy all the more powerful for readers.Griffins status as a high-powered investor and Silicon Valley girlboss working with companies like Goop and Bumble gave her attention in high places. She has the support of book club titans like Oprah Winfrey, Jenna Bush Hager, and Reese Witherspoon. Elle praised the memoir as a new kind of story about abuse. According to Elle, it isnt a book about trauma, its an investigation of what happened to Griffin and of the ways that the pressure to achieve perfection damages girls and women. Kirkus Reviews summarized the book as an important, wholly believable account of how long-buried but profoundly formative experiences finally emerge. Yet at the books center is a particularly thorny issue: that of repressed memories, which are considered an impossibility by most research psychologists and neuroscientists but touted by many therapists who work directly with patients. A repressed memory is one in which, allegedly, a memory that previously didnt exist of a previously unknown experience suddenly appears. Such memories are routinely depicted as real throughout pop culture, and while The Tell confronts the possibility that they may be false, Griffin herself quickly loses all doubt. Add in the potentially dicey treatment that Griffin underwent: psychedelic MDMA therapy. Despite reportedly helping patients with trauma and PTSD, it has yet to win federal approval in the US. Technically, its illegal. As The Tell continues to dominate the New York Times bestseller list, how should we think about the less-than-legal therapy that inspired it and the splashy, concerning revelations that came next?The complicated therapy at The Tells core A lifelong runner, Griffin uses her hobby as a metaphor for the pressure she places on herself, not only to succeed but to avoid confronting her own trauma. This is how she pushes through her overachieving childhood; through a horrifying date rape in college; through a busy life juggling work, home, and family. But all this running isnt just toward the next achievement its away from something deeper she just cant name. At one point, her then 10-year-old daughter tells Griffin that she and her sister dont feel connected to her. We dont feel like we know who you are, Griffin recounts her saying. Youre nice, but youre not real. This rejection inspires her to look deeper within, and her husband John introduces her to the therapist whose MDMA sessions hes benefited from. Over the last decade, alternative drug therapies like MDMA, ayahuasca, and a litany of other psychedelics have exploded in popularity, though as yet none are FDA-approved. Despite ethical concerns (as well as cult comparisons), the psychedelic movement continues to grow, mainly among privileged, often white people with access to the black market and money to afford therapy sessions that can run into the thousands of dollars. For most people, if theyve even heard of psychedelic therapy, its still a mysterious and exclusive club to which The Tell offers a rare amount of access.Rebecca Lemov, a historian of behavioral science and author of the new book The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion, points out that theres a clear appeal to psychedelic therapy: Im sure the drugs make it more fun, Lemov said, and especially if youre experiencing PTSD, you probably are thinking, the least I can have to deal with this is a little bit of ecstasy.MDMA therapy proponents proclaim that the drug promotes empathy and well-being, which has benefits for PTSD treatment. Though the treatment came remarkably close to FDA approval, the fact it was being considered was a step forward that underscores its growing popularity. Research indicates that it can induce vivid memories and can help patients revisit their traumatic experiences without any accompanying fear or anxiety. Generally speaking, though, MDMA therapy is thought to help patients process difficult memories, not recover them.Typically, prior to the actual therapy session, patients will have a few preparation meetings where their therapist sets their expectations about the drug. Griffin tells the therapist shes talking around something, saying, I dont know what it is. Its like I cant remember. Or maybe I dont want to remember. In her own telling, its not clear whether she actually even needed the drugs to recall the memory or whether, as her longtime friend Gwyneth Paltrow recently suggested to her, things in her life had just aligned at the right time.Before the drugs have even kicked in, were told, Griffins mind supplies her with a visceral flashback of being sexually assaulted by a trusted middle school teacher. Although Griffin is initially horrified and confused, she returns for further sessions, uncovering more memories of what she claims was a prolonged period of abuse that lasted through part of middle school and then recurred once more during her teen years. While the flashbacks themselves are harrowing, she describes her encounters with them as deeply cathartic, writing, I did nothing wrong. I exhaled, accepting it. This all happened.The science and messy reality of repressed memoriesIts clear from The Tell that Griffins revelations are a relief to her, and her self-conception as a survivor is firm. But the science on recovering events from the past is less certain. We owe the concept of repressed memories to who else? Sigmund Freud. In the late 1890s, Freud developed a theory that children could recall forgotten traumatic memories with therapeutic coaxing. However, he soon abandoned that theory, later writing that while the children he studied were remembering a variety of lurid scenes, I was at last obliged to recognize that these scenes of seduction had never taken place, and that they were only phantasies which my patients had made up or which I myself had perhaps forced on them. Fast-forward to the late 1970s and 80s, when psychotherapists returned to Freuds abandoned theories. As psychologist Richard Beck details in his book We Believe the Children: A Moral Panic in the 1980s, they were looking to explain what they claimed were thousands of Satanic ritual abuse and extreme domestic abuse cases being recalled by their patients. Today, its well-known that memory can be extremely malleable, and we now know these particular claims to have been entirely manufactured as part of a widespread cultural hysteria. Yet many of the therapists who perpetrated the Satanic Panic continue to have influence. Some, like the controversial therapist group International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, still fixate on likely fictional causes of trauma in children such as mind control and organized ritual abuse. And many of the pseudoscience-based therapy techniques of the 80s, such as hypnosis, are still with us today. The Tell which arrives with an avalanche of stories mainstreaming the idea of repressed memories appears at a moment when pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and debunked medical techniques are all making an aggressive resurgence.The focus on trauma as the pivotal underlying cause has continued to dominate the publics understanding of memory loss. And that makes sense after all, amnesia and other kinds of memory blackouts are real; why wouldnt repressed memories, sometimes called dissociative amnesia, function in a similar way?Because memories arent made that way, explains Lawrence Patihis, a scientist specializing in memory reliability. Scientific research has shown that people who experience traumatic events are more likely to remember them with full accuracy, not less. While many therapists roughly half of licensed psychologists in one study believe in the possibility of recovered memories, the scientific evidence for it just isnt there. Reliable science on memory, Patihis emphasizes, comes from cognitive psychology and extensive, well-defined quantitative data using random subjects in large-scale experiments, rather than individual case studies. The good science is slow, he said. Its careful. Its also consistent with research on other areas of memory.The research shows what is likely to happen when a person experiences trauma, Patihis said: It tells us, first of all, it will be well remembered. Second of all, PTSD symptoms will be highest immediately after the trauma and fade over time. It is not the case that PTSD will suddenly occur in 2020 when somebody starts going to therapy. That is a bad sign. Thats not how real trauma works. Patients with PTSD can lose track of their traumatic memories over time and then remember them but, Patihis emphasizes, thats not a repressed memory, its a forgotten one. Recent research has found that memories are inscribed as neural patterns that can be overwritten. Traumatic memories are typically quicker to form neural patterns than other memories and theyre harder, not easier, to overwrite. Whats likely happening instead is that a combination of factors, probably different for every individual, are leading the patient to believe theyve had a memory when they havent, or believe a memory is newly revealed when its not. In the case of drug-assisted therapy, they could easily mistake a hallucination for a memory. And its also always possible that they could simply not be telling the truth, either about the memory or the idea that they had not previously recalled it.Why we cant totally ignore repressed memory claimsSimply dismissing all instances of repressed memories, however, gets complicated. For one thing, repressed and recovered memories can frequently play a role in peoples experience of dissociative identity disorder, which, while not well understood, reportedly impacts millions of people. For another, despite the research of scientists like Patihis that casts doubt on memory repression, the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5, includes dissociative amnesia as a reason why trauma survivors may forget key aspects of their trauma. Its inclusion is a sign of its increasing acceptance among practicing clinicians. Another ongoing concern is simply the power and importance of a narrative like Griffins. If we adhere to science that undermines survivors experience of their abuse, who is that science really serving especially given that survivors are frequently disbelieved to begin with? What if the abuse is real, even if the specific memory isnt? And if we truly want to believe abuse survivors, how do we reconcile a claim like that of Griffins with the refuting science? Patihis acknowledges those are difficult questions but for him, at least, the science is clear that trauma and memory repression arent inherently linked. I think theres a correct answer scientifically to whats going on with memory, he said, and the idea of repressed memories being reliable when they come back is not correct. Patihis stresses that the idea of having and then overcoming a repressed memory through therapy is popular because theres a promise of cure. Theres hope, and its popular because a lot of people come to believe it. Thats not easy to discount, and Lemov, the historian and author, isnt sure we should. The author of The Tell reports profound healing from this experience, she said. I would want to [ask], Can I open up a space for not knowing? Affirmation is one of the keys to successful therapy, after all, and its significant that therapists, who have more direct contact with patients than researchers, are more likely to embrace their clients realities. While Patihis holds that the best therapeutic results belong to patients who abandon their belief in repressed memory, the therapeutic process is what matters.I think clinicians have a responsibility to inform clients that memory distortions are possible in therapy, and then just let the client come to their own conclusion, he said. And also, if they dont come to that conclusion on their own that is, that repressed memories are not a real phenomenon you have to continue to do good therapy.And that, he added, is so difficult. The conversation poses new questions for him as a researcher: If I were a clinician and somebody brings to me memories that could be false, do I work with them through those memories as if they were real trauma? Oh my gosh. That this core uncertainty lingers despite the knowledge that repressed memories have little scientific backing illustrates the complicated nature of therapy in an age where we know both more and less than ever.See More:

Nintendo's announcement of more expensive games could give Rockstar the opportunity to ramp up the price of GTA 6 something that's been rumoured multiple times beforeTech13:01, 07 Apr 2025Updated 13:01, 07 Apr 2025GTA 6 will be the biggest game of the year, unless it slips to 2026(Image: Rockstar Games)Aside from Grand Theft Auto 6, the other biggest gaming release of 2025 will likely be the new Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo pulled back the curtain on the console last week, confirming it'll launch on June 5 (although US preorders are delayed).While Rockstar's ambitious open-world epic is likely to be too big for Switch 2 to handle, one Nintendo announcement may have given Rockstar Games and its publisher Take-Two food for thought.Article continues belowNintendo will charge $80 or 75 for Mario Kart World (unless you buy it in a bundle with the system at a discount), which is a notable increase on the 60 UK gamers are paying at present. Given we've heard GTA 6 could end up costing even more, has Nintendo set a precedent for Take-Two to follow?GTA 6 may be the most anticipated game of all timeBack in January, one industry analyst suggested GTA 6 being priced higher than other titles could help the games industry.The 219-page report "State of Video Gaming in 2025" from investment analyst and researcher Matthew Ball of Epyllion has suggested Rockstar pricing its long-awaited title higher than the industry norm could help the entire industry recover from a post-pandemic lull.In the report, Ball suggests Rockstar being the first developer to charge upwards of $80 (or even $100) could nudge others to do the same. Take-Two raised prices in 2020 from $60 to $70, so it's not outside the realms of possibility.Not long after, however, another industry analyst dubbed the notion as "ridiculous".We're heading back to Vice City(Image: Rockstar Games/AFP via Getty Ima)Longtime industry analyst Mat Piscatella from Circana (formerly NPD) said "This is getting so much run but it's ridiculous.""There's no need to make the base price of any game $100. Special editions, collector's editions, gold/silver editions, etc etc do the same thing, and a high % of day 1 buyers jump on those at their elevated price points.""There's just no need," he added, before following up to say "You want to make the funnel as wide as possible, while also optimizing launch $.""You don't do this be [sic] making the base price of a game so high that the funnel narrows."Article continues belowSo, will Nintendo embolden Rockstar? Time will tell, but if it does, expect other publishers to follow suit in the coming months.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.

PS5 prices could go up as US tariffs tank Sony and Nintendo stockAdam StarkeyPublished April 7, 2025 3:09pmUpdated April 7, 2025 3:09pm The PS5 Pro might be a saving grace (Sony)US President Donald Trumps trade tariffs have had a significant impact on Japanese game companies, with Nintendo, Sony, and Sega all seeing sizeable drops in stock. The impact of President Donald Trumps tariffs against US imports has been a concern ever since he took office in January, but were now starting to see its effects in real time.Trumps initial tariffs were primarily focused against China, but as announced last week, he also introduced a baseline 10% tariff on all imports to the US, while countries like China, Japan, and Vietnam which he calls the worst offenders in charging taxes on US goods will be given additional custom tariff rates.The 24% tariff on Japan has sparked a widespread drop in share price across the countrys video game companies, including the likes of Nintendo and Sony.As noted by analyst Dr Serkan Toto on X, Nintendos shares dropped by 7.35%. This comes after the company delayed Switch 2 pre-orders in the US due to the newly announced tariff rates, as it looks to assess the potential impact and evolving market conditions.Other companies affected include Sony (-10.16%), Bandai Namco (-7.03%), Konami (-3.93%), Sega (-6.57%), Koei Tecmo (-5.83%), Capcom (-7.13%), and Square Enix (-5.23%).The mobile game companies do even worse, Toto added.As reported by Bloomberg, Japans Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said his government is preparing for negotiations with the US, to potentially reduce the impact of the tariffs, but warned it may take some time.When we negotiate with the US we want to present a package, Ishiba said. That will take some time, but we will make it a success.According to The Financial Times last month, Nintendo already shifted production away from China, in anticipation of Trumps proposed tariffs, with the majority of Nintendos hardware imports into the US now coming from Vietnam and Cambodia.However, Vietnam and Cambodia, were hit with 46% and 49% tariffs, respectively, in Trumps latest round of import taxes, which are set to go into effect on April 9.These were announced on the same day as the Switch 2 Direct on April 2, which caused Nintendo to immediately delay US pre-orders (no, we dont know why they didnt just wait a day to find out first).Following the Direct, Nintendo announced the Switch 2 will cost 395.99 in the UK and $449.99 in the US. A bundle version with Mario Kart World costs 429.99 and $499.99. Its widely expected that price will now have to be increased. Mario Kart World leads the Switch 2 launch line-up (Nintendo)Could Trumps tariffs impact the PS5 price?These tariffs could also affect the price of the PlayStation 5, but Sony has taken several preventative measures to counter any sudden tariff hikes by the US government.As noted in Sonys financial report from February, the company duplicated supply chains and began stockpiling a certain level of strategic inventory in the US to counter any proposed tariffs.According to reports, Nintendo has also done this with the Switch 2, with hundreds of thousands of devices sent from Vietnam to the US since the start of 2025.This means the price of PlayStation 5 consoles in the US likely wont be impacted in the short term, due to the stockpile, but once that runs out, its possible Sony will have to announce a price rise.The majority of PlayStation 5 consoles are manufactured in China (which is subject to 54% tariffs), along with Japan (24% tariff).By the same logic, Nintendo may stick with the originally announced Switch 2 price in the US and then change it later, but whether they do that probably depends on whether they think stock will last until the all-important Christmas gift-buying season.More TrendingAs outlined by Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, Sony might consider various options if these tariffs persist, including shifting the production of US units to Japan to avoid the higher tariff in China, or raising the prices of accessories and games to make up for the cost.The firm would need to evaluate how these tariffs impact current profit margins and how much they would need to increase hardware prices for the consumer, Ahmad wrote on X. There could also be a potential impact on accessories and game pricing depending on how Sony wants to pass on costs.The good news is that the initial stockpiling + Japan manufacturing + PlayStation 5 being mid to late gen at this point (profitable on per unit basis) + PS5 Pro likely priced at $700 in anticipation of some potential tariff impact, means that even with a price increase, the increase may not be as significant as it would be for new tech products.Clearly the Switch 2 is a new tech product though, which means Nintendo is likely to be in considerably more trouble, if the tariffs remain. The PS5 might be impacted down the line (Sony)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

Kayte Spector-Bagdady, The Conversation Published April 7, 2025 | Comments (0) | 23andme declared bankruptcy in late March, sparking concerns about data security for its users. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) As soon as the genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy on March 23, 2025, concerns about what would happen to the personal information contained in its massive genetic and health information database were swift and widespread. A few days after, a U.S. judge ruled that the company could sell its consumer data as part of the bankruptcy. The attorneys general of several states warned their citizens to delete their genetic data. California urged its citizens to request that 23andMe delete their data and destroy their spit samples. Michigans attorney general released a statement warning that 23andMe collects and stores some of the most sensitive personal information, our genetic code. When customers originally signed up for 23andMe, they agreed to terms and conditions and a privacy notice that allows the company to use their information for research and development as well as share their data, in aggregate, with third parties. If consumers consented to additional research, which the vast majority did, the company can additionally share their individual information with third parties. 23andMe has also been clear that if it is involved in a bankruptcy or sale of assets, consumer information might be sold or transferred. While 23andMe has warned customers all along about everything that is currently happening, many are still surprised and concerned. Im a lawyer and bioethicist who has been studying direct-to-consumer genetic testing for almost a decade. Understanding what information 23andMe has been collecting, and how it might be used if sold or shared, can help clarify concerns for consumers. What is 23andMe? In 2007, 23andMe, named after the 23 pairs of chromosomes found in a human cell, was one of the first direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies to open in the United States. It was backed by a large investment by Google, which quickly attracted the interest of other investors, allowing 23andMe to thrive when many other direct-to-consumer genetic companies went quickly out of business.The direct-to-consumer business model is fairly straightforward: A consumer orders a genetic test kit online, spits into a tube that comes in the mail, returns it to the company and accesses their results in an online portal. Over 15 million consumers bought 23andMe, and the vast majority consented to its research. At its peak, the company was valued at US$6 billion. The fate of the trove of personal information 23andMe has gathered over the years has wide-ranging implications for consumers. While the market initially believed in the value of 23andMes business model, its stock has been in decline for years, and the company owes hundreds of millions of dollars to creditors.Reasons for this rapid decline include a decrease in the sale of test kits after a 2023 hack of almost 7 million peoples data, as well as a failure to profit enough from providing data access to other private sector companies. Lack of private interest in 23andMe data may be related to the fact that much of the information the company collects is self-reported, which is often considered less reliable than information written down by a doctor in a medical record. What kind of data does 23andMe collect? While the saying goes If youre not paying, youre the product, 23andMe managed to convince its consumers to both pay for AND be the product. It did this by selling genetic testing kits to consumers as well as collecting a massive amount of their valuable data. And 23andMe collected more than just genetic data generated from consumers spit. Eighty-five percent of customers consented to 23andMe research, allowing their individual-level data to be used for studies. The company then collected information from survey questions about their personal health and beyond, such as drinking habits and risk tolerance.This means that not only does 23andMe possess the genetic data of 15 million people, but it also possesses almost a billion additional data points associated with this genetic information. This makes the 23andMe dataset potentially very private and very valuable. At first, drug companies seemed to agree. For example, in 2018, 23andMe granted pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline an exclusive license to use consented customer data to develop new drugs. GlaxoSmithKline also made a $300 million equity investment in 23andMe. When 23andMe went public in 2021, its $6 billion valuation reflected the promise of this business model.But for over a decade, scholars, including me, have been warning that allowing 23andMe to collect and use personal data was not one that customers fully understood, or were actually comfortable with. What should 23andMe customers worry about? In response to current public concern about data privacy, 23andMe has stated that there will be no changes to how it stores and protects data during its bankruptcy proceedings. But once that stage is through, what exactly should customers worry about? First, law enforcement could use genetic information in civil or criminal cases. This happened in 2018, when police used the genetic testing company GEDmatch to help identify the Golden State Killer. Police pretended they were customers looking for genealogy data and sent in an old crime scene blood spot. This allowed them to connect to known suspects with blood relatives who had given their genetic information to the company as consumers. While this was in violation of GEDmatchs own policies, the evidence was successfully used in court.Second, genetic information could be used to discriminate against customers if it shows that they have or are at high risk of developing a genetic disease or disorder. The federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits health insurers and employers from asking about genetic information or using it to discriminate in work or health insurance decisions. It does not, however, protect against discrimination in long-term care or life insurance. Many of the warnings from the media and attorneys general are focused on genetic information because it is unique to only one person. But direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies also retain a massive amount of personal information from the surveys consumers are asked to complete. Much of this information could be embarrassing if it were inadvertently or intentionally revealed, such as a persons intelligence. In the 2025 book Careless People, former Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams reported that Facebook would use indications of self-consciousness about personal appearance, such as deleting a selfie, to promote beauty products. If companies know such intimate details about a person, they could not only be used to sell products, but also potentially manipulate them over social media or the internet in ways they do not even realize. It could be used for targeted advertising or to build algorithms that exploit a persons vulnerabilities. I believe consumers are right to be worried about how their genetic data could be misused. But the survey data containing all sorts of other personal information are at least as much, if not more, of a privacy problem. This is particularly concerning if the data is pooled together with other information available on the internet, like a dating profile, to create a more detailed and personal picture of an individual.I am deleting my own 23andMe data. In the future, I would also warn consumers against freely gifting the private sector with information about their fears, hopes, limitations and successes. That information is valuable to more people than just you. Kayte Spector-Bagdady, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Ed Cara Published March 31, 2025 By Ed Cara Published March 25, 2025 By Matthew Gault Published March 24, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published March 4, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published December 21, 2024 By Margherita Bassi Published December 19, 2024

Chiostro Illuminato Installation / STUDIO TEPHRASave this picture! Mathieu NouhenArchitects: STUDIO TEPHRAAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:36 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Mathieu NouhenMore SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. In the dance of wind and light, the Chiostro Illuminato weaves a new connection between earth and spirituality. This modest microarchitecture, nestled near the Convent of Mount Illuminato, embodies the Franciscan principles of simplicity and mindful connection to nature. Drawing inspiration from Saint Francis's miracle of restoring sight to a blind girl, it creates a transformative experience through minimal intervention.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The installation honors Franciscan frugality through its essential elements: a humble wooden colonnade and simple jute walls that ripple with the surrounding fields. This deliberate restraint in materials speaks to Saint Francis's teachings on living in harmony with creation. The visitor's experience unfolds in three stages: first, an entrance that gently transforms visual perception through the humble fabric filters; then a contemplative journey around the central patio, where wind animates the space; finally, a revealing exit toward the Lunano landscape, reflecting both the historical miracle and the Franciscan appreciation for natural beauty.Save this picture!The project metamorphoses at twilight, when Italian light tints the walls orange, forming a refuge where light, freshness, and nature intertwine. This sensitive reinterpretation of the traditional cloister creates a new reading of religious heritage, where spirituality and sensoriality merge in a poetic dialogue with the environment. Like the Franciscan tradition itself, the design finds richness in simplicity and divine presence in the natural world.Save this picture!Save this picture!Poetry shines through every modest detail: wind sculpting the canvases, light transforming throughout the day, the permanent dialogue with the surrounding wheat fields. Architecture thus becomes a bridge between past and present, between sacred and nature, all while honoring the Franciscan ethos of finding profound meaning in the most elemental aspects of creation.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officeSTUDIO TEPHRAOfficeMaterialsWoodFabricMaterials and TagsPublished on April 07, 2025Cite: "Chiostro Illuminato Installation / STUDIO TEPHRA" 07 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028439/chiostro-illuminato-installation-studio-tephra&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

Its no secret that women and men experience pain differently, and there are a variety of reasons to cause this variance in pain perception. Hormones are known to influence pain sensitivity, body structure affects the density of pain receptors, and psychological and social factors play a role in how pain is perceived and expressed.With all these factors in mind, its surprising to learn that most pain research has historically ignored sex differences. As a result, many studies missed the opportunity to analyze or report these differences. The impact of this gender bias in pain research is clear: Women often struggle more than men to be taken seriously and treated appropriately, according to the International Association for the Study of Pain.Fortunately, research is improving. Today, studies are asking more questions and including female participants in both preclinical and clinical research. A recent study from University of California San Francisco, published in Science, reveals how the predominantly female hormones estrogen and progesterone help suppress pain by stimulating the production of opioids within the body.The Immune System's Role in PainUnderstanding pain requires acknowledging the significant role the immune system plays in it. T cells, which are a type of white blood cell, are known to influence pain amplification, although the exact mechanisms are still not fully understood.The new study focused on a recently discovered type of T cell called T regulatory cells (T-regs). These cells were found to reduce inflammation and are abundant in the protective layers of the spinal cord, known as the meninges. The research revealed that T-regs use the meninges to communicate with neurons near the skin. To better understand how T-regs function, the researchers used a proven method: they eliminated the cells using a toxin.Read More: Chronic Pain Makes You Think DifferentlyFemale Hormones Trigger Painkiller ProductionDisabling the T-regs showed an immediate effect: compared to their male counterparts, female mice became significantly more sensitive to pain, highlighting the importance of these immune cells in managing pain in females.Further investigation revealed that estrogen and progesterone, the primary female sex hormones, caused T-regs to produce the bodys natural painkiller: enkephalin, an opioid-like substance.The fact that theres a sex-dependent influence on these cells driven by estrogen and progesterone and that its not related at all to any immune function is very unusual, said lead author Elora Midavaine, a postdoctoral fellow in a press release.The Future of Pain ManagementThis discovery leaves the research team excited about the future of pain treatment. They hope to continue exploring the exact mechanisms behind this new pathway, which could lead to more effective pain treatments and raise awareness on the importance of studying the underlying mechanisms of pain management in women.One potential approach is targeting T-regs directly to increase the production of the painkiller enkephalin, which ultimately would benefit both women and men. If that approach is successful, it could really change the lives of the nearly 20% of Americans who experience chronic pain that is not adequately treated, said co-author Allan Basbaum in the news release.Understanding the role of sex hormones in pain regulation could also help doctors better support women, especially those going through menopause, who often report struggling with chronic pain. This knowledge could lead to more personalized pain treatments in the future.This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:National Library of Medicine. Sex differences in pain: a brief review of clinical and experimental findingsInternational Association for the Study of Pain. Sex/Gender Biases in Pain Research and Clinical PracticeHaving worked as a biomedical research assistant in labs across three countries, Jenny excels at translating complex scientific concepts ranging from medical breakthroughs and pharmacological discoveries to the latest in nutrition into engaging, accessible content. Her interests extend to topics such as human evolution, psychology, and quirky animal stories. When shes not immersed in a popular science book, youll find her catching waves or cruising around Vancouver Island on her longboard.