Apple is battling to keep the iPhone relevant in China.New figures show foreign smartphone shipments to China almost halved in November.Apple's struggles come in the face of stiff competition from local smartphone makers like Huawei.Apple's battle to keep the iPhone popular in China appears to be getting tougher as foreign smartphone sales in the country dipped by almost half in just one month, according to new data.Signs of fresh struggles for Apple came on Friday as new figures from the government-backed China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed foreign smartphone shipments dropped 47.4% year-on-year in November.The drop to 3.04 million non-Chinese smartphone shipments, which include iPhones, marks a consecutive decline following the 44.3% drop in foreign smartphone shipments in October.The figures, first reported by Reuters, highlight Apple's continuing challenges in its most important international market. Apple's annual net sales have declined for two consecutive years in the Greater China region, where the company has also built a vast supply chain empire.Among the biggest threats to Apple's iPhone sales in the country which fell almost 8% to $66.9 billion in its last fiscal year has been the rise of new powerful smartphones from domestic competitors.Chinese tech giant Huawei has provided Apple with one of its biggest recent challenges in the form of its Mate 60 series of smartphones, first introduced in 2023, and the Mate 70 series released in November of 2024 as a successor.The Mate 60 series stunned the smartphone industry upon its release thanks to its inclusion of advanced chips made in China.US export controls aimed to curtail Chinese access to advanced chips, but Huawei's inclusion of domestic-made chips with similar capabilities to US technology has highlighted how quickly local companies in China are working to innovate past the constraints facing them.Apple has been pushed to respond to the rising competition in China by introducing discounts at strategic moments to entice consumers. The company is introducing discounts worth around $70 on its iPhone 16 Pro models, for instance, ahead of the Lunar New Year.It also faces pressure to accelerate the rollout of its new suite of generative AI features to iPhones in China, with Apple Intelligence not yet available in the country.Apple did not immediately reply to a Business Insider request for comment.

Fisherman found a Chinese spy drone near the Philippines, officials said.The drone is yellow, torpedo-shaped, and labeled HY-119.China is clashing with the Philippines as it seeks to expand its influence in the South China Sea.Fishermen found a Chinese underwater spy drone off the coast of the Philippines, police said.The drone was discovered Thursday around six miles off the coast of a small island in the Masbate province, per a news release from the Philippines National Police.Officers published photos of a yellow, torpedo-shaped device with fins.The machine, they said, was marked "HY-119." They said they used that label to establish it was used for communication and navigation.The site of the pickup was in the internal waters of the Philippines, relatively far from the open sea. A map showing the rough location where the Philippines said a Chinese underwater drone was found. Maps The device was handed over to the Philippines Navy for inspection, the news release said.Philippine Navy sources told local media that the device appears to be a device for transmitting, recording, and monitoring data. Philippines police said the Chinese drone was apparently used for surveillance. PNP "The recovery of the HY-119 system has significant implications, as it provides insights into advanced underwater technology and naval capabilities," the police said in the statement.Regional police director Andre Dizon told the AFP news agency that the drone has an "antenna and an eye that can be used for viewing.""Based on our research, this can be used for monitoring and reconnaissance."China has developed a sophisticated underwater drone program, which it uses to map underseas territory, and which can be used to surveil vessels and potentially attack them, according to an article by Lt. General P.C. Katoch, a former Indian naval officer, in 2021.The discovery comes as China seeks to expand its influence in the South China Sea, to the west of the Philippines.It has clashed with other countries near the sea, including the Philippines, over Beijing's disputed claims that it has the sole right to thousands of square miles of the sea.China's intensified its naval presence in the region, and its vessels have been accused of harassing Philippines vessels. A recent clash, on December 4, saw a China Coast Guard vessel fired a water cannon at and "sideswipe" a Philippines government boat, reports said.The South China Sea is the site of important shipping routes, and is believed to contain reserves of natural gas and oil as well as minerals.In response, the US and its regional allies have increased their patrols in the South China Sea and warned China against escalating its aggression, saying it would help defend the Philippines if it were attacked.

Business Insider asked experts what red flags to look out for when hiring a personal trainer.A good trainer shouldn't force you to push through pain or attempt to diagnose it.Avoid choosing a professional that lacks empathy or has an ego-driven approach to training.Hiring a personal trainer can be a transformative step toward achieving your fitness goals, but it's crucial to choose the right professional for your needs.Although many trainers are dedicated and knowledgeable, some may not be the best fit or, even worse, hinder your progress. Recognizing red flags early in the hiring process can save you time, money, and frustration.That's why Business Insider asked Dr. Susie Spirlock, a doctor of physical therapy and strength-training coach at Move Your Bones, and Ashley Hiben, a certified personal trainer at Future, what red flags to look for when hiring a personal trainer.Here's what they said.A trainer should have practical experience in the field Some skills can only be learned from experience training others. Rowan Jordan/Getty Images Practical experience provides personal trainers with invaluable opportunities to build relationships, hone communication skills, and translate technical expertise into accessible guidance, Hiben told BI."Time in the field sharpens a trainer's ability to read body language, adapt communication styles, and generate energy and engagement in various environments," she said. "Trainers who gain hands-on experience, whether at a small personal-training gym or in larger groups, learn critical skills beyond the textbook."Hiben added that some of these skills include reading body language, identifying proper alignment in individual movement patterns, and responding in real time to verbal and non-verbal feedback."A robust field experience cultivates the balance between technical knowledge and the ability to connect effectively with clients," she said."No pain, no gain" isn't a mantra any trainer should haveIt's best to avoid working with someone who encourages you to push through pain while exercising, Spirlock advised."Pain is essentially a smoke alarm in your body being set off because there is something going on that may not be right," she told BI.Although pain doesn't automatically mean there's damage occurring, it does mean that the trainer may need to reassess the exercises and make them more comfortable for you."If trainers continually ignore these signals or tell clients to push through them, they may contribute to a longer-lasting issue over time," Spirlock added.Beware of instructors who lack communication and relationship-building skills The best instructors have adaptable communication styles to connect with their clients. The Good Brigade/Getty Images "In the fitness industry, trainers must excel at reading clients' needs, offering constructive feedback, and even giving a dose of tough love when needed," Hiben said. "It's not enough to deliver knowledge alone."Hiben told BI that the most successful trainers are adaptable communicators capable of engaging each client based on their unique personality, fitness level, and goals.Before committing to a trainer, she recommended first requesting a consultation or assessment."This session allows you to gauge whether the trainer's communication style aligns with your needs and whether they will push you in a way that feels supportive rather than confusing or intimidating," Hiben said.Trainers shouldn't try to diagnose or treat painSpirlock told BI that diagnosing and treating pain doesn't fall under a personal trainer's scope of practice."This should be left to the rehab professionals like physical therapists, chiropractors, and athletic trainers," she told BI.If you have pain that's not improving after a few sessions with modifications, Spirlock said it's the trainer's responsibility to refer you to the appropriate provider.She told BI that a highly qualified personal trainer will already have rehab professionals within their network, so they can work together to help you alleviate pain and meet your fitness goals.Make sure your instructor can explain why they chose a certain exercise There should be a purpose behind every movement. LightField Studios/Shutterstock The point of hiring a personal trainer is to get customized workouts that fit your long-term health goals. Therefore, every movement should have a purpose behind it."In the world of fitness, there should always be a reason as to why we choose exercises for a client," Spirlock said.If a trainer can't explain to you the intent of an exercise, then they may not be considering your goals or have enough experience with designing personalized workouts.A lack of empathy or an ego-driven approach are immediate red flags Your instructor should be experienced, open to feedback, and empathetic. TORWAISTUDIO/Shutterstock "Empathy is non-negotiable," Hiben said. "Trainers who can't sense when to support a client during tough times risk losing the trust that underpins successful coaching."Stress, for example, impacts the body's ability to function optimally. When trainers recognize signs of stress, they should adjust their workout plans accordingly and offer encouragement instead of push clients beyond their current capacity. Similarly, a rigid, ego-driven approach can stifle both individual and team growth."Trainers with an inflated sense of expertise are often resistant to feedback, limiting their own development and potentially disrupting team dynamics," Hiben said. "Given that exercise science evolves, humility and openness are invaluable traits in a trainer."Instead, Hiben said to look for trainers who are experienced, open to feedback, and empathetic.

The question has been hurtling through think pieces, op-eds, and ominous headlines over the past few years: Have American men stopped reading? Specifically, have they stopped reading fiction? And is that why the world is so bad now?The most recent entry in this genre came in December, when David J. Morris, an assistant professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, theorized in a New York Times op-ed that the disappearance of literary men is a contributing factor to Donald Trumps dominant performance with the manosphere. The conversation is so persistent that writer Jason Diamond declared in GQ back in August, with some resignation, Were Doing Men Dont Read Books Discourse Again.Reading fiction has assumed the same role as therapy in public discourse: something good for ones mental and emotional health that we should all do in order to be better citizens, and something that men particularly straight men are simply choosing not to do, to the detriment of society. Essayists and critics have been hitting this note for several years, but it has acquired a new darkness since the 2024 election, when men seemed to break decisively for Trump. If men had been willing to read novels, the idea is, perhaps Kamala Harris would be preparing her inaugural address right now.These observers are pointing at something real. Men did appear to favor Trump by a significant margin in November, although were still waiting on data more concrete than exit polls to tell us how far that trend really goes. Many men do seem to have found themselves isolated in a media silo full of toxic visions of masculinity, one that probably helped radicalize them toward Trump and his acolytes this past election season. They also seem to read fewer books in general than women do, and they probably read less fiction than women as well.Yet the idea of men who need new stories but refuse to read them is also exaggerated and hyperbolic. It has become its own kind of story. Its a legend, one thats been repeated for years, haunted by zombie statistics and dubious facts. Its continued flourishing says a lot about what our culture worries about and all the things we hope will heal us.The untraceable zombie stat heard around the internet The truth is that most American adults, regardless of their gender, simply do not read very many books at all.According to studies by the Pew Research Center spanning 2011 to 2021, Americans read an average of 14 books per year likely pulled up by the number of rare super-readers taking down dozens of books but a median of just five books per year. Generally speaking, college graduates are more likely to be book readers than people without college degrees. Adults between the ages of 18 to 29 are more likely to read books than adults over the age of 65. And women read slightly more than men do.A difference of 10 percentage points and six minutes, respectively, are probably not enough to power a series of think pieces about how mens refusal to read is a national crisis.Pews 2021 study says 73 percent of men say theyve read a book in the past year, compared to 78 percent of women. Those numbers are up a tad from 2016, when 68 percent of men said theyd read a book compared to 77 percent of women. Overall, were looking at pretty consistent stats over the course of the last decade: Roughly 70-ish percent of men read at least one book a year, and roughly 80-ish percent of women do. Meanwhile, according to the Department of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey of 2023, women spend on average 0.32 hours on leisure reading per day (about 19 minutes), while mens daily reading time averages out to about 0.2 hours (12 minutes). These disparities are all meaningful and measurable, but a difference of 10 percentage points and six minutes, respectively, is probably not enough to power a series of think pieces about how mens refusal to read is a national crisis. To get to the numbers that drive the discourse, we have to turn our attention specifically to fiction, the central concern of a number of these articles.The vast majority of these pieces contain a version of the following sentence: Men account for only 20 percent of the fiction market, according to surveys conducted in the US, Canada, and Britain. Sometimes it gets inverted: Women account for about 80 percent of the fiction market, according to multiple surveys conducted in the US, Canada, and Britain. I found variations of the sentence going back as far as this NPR story from 2007. As early as 1997, the New York Times was speculating that women might buy 80 percent of fiction without actually citing a survey. The statistic appears in Morriss New York Times article from December, and in the 2020 book Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of Our Lives by University of Exeter professor Helen Taylor.An 80 percent to 20 percent gender split is the kind of eye-popping statistic you can absolutely build a discourse around. Yet do any of these sources ever cite any of these alleged multiple surveys? They do not. And here is where I, your humble guide, find myself trapped in a labyrinth of old data as I attempt to hunt down a zombie statistic.In the US, the best source for publishing sales data is the industry tracker Circana BookScan. I wrote to them and asked for their thoughts on the 80 percent number. They said they didnt break out their data by gender and could not help me, but that 80 percent seems quite high. They added that under previous ownership, BookScan was affiliated with a service called Books & Consumers that did track the genders of book buyers on a regular basis, So it is possible that stat came from there. They add that statistics from before 2020 should be used with extreme caution because the market has shifted considerably during and after.I then wrote to Morris and Taylor and asked if they would mind sharing their citations with me. Taylor said she read the 80 percent number in several places and thought she had received confirmation from Nielsen BookData, the UK counterpart to the USs Circana BookScan. She added that learning that BookScan doesnt break out their data by gender was a big surprise. I reached out to Nielsen BookData to learn their thoughts. They replied back that they didnt track book sales in the US and Canada. As for the 20% stat, Im not sure where it came from but it has never been the case, at least for the UK, they added.BookData did confirm the rest of Taylors statistics, showing that in 2017, UK women bought 63 percent of fiction, while men bought 37 percent. The numbers dont quite match the 80/20 split Taylor cites earlier, but the distinction is certainly suggestive, at least for buying patterns in the UK. Meanwhile, Morris very kindly sent me a link to a blog entry on the Authors Guild website which repeats the 80 percent claim, sourcing the data to a now-deleted blog entry apparently by a motivational speaker. He also sent me an economic study provided to him by a New York Times fact-checker that analyzes how a flood of women authors changed the literary marketplace but contains no information about the gender of book buyers. Neither of these links led me to a study showing that 80 percent of fiction book buyers are women.It doesnt look like anyone has actually fact-checked this question in quite a while.There is some evidence that in the US, men read less fiction than women do, or at least that they did before the massive changes of the pandemic but those numbers are a lot closer to the modest 10 percentage point difference we saw looking at reading habits in general. A 2017 survey by the National Endowment for the Arts found that while 42 percent of US adults had read a novel or short story in the past year, the numbers broke down to 50 percent of women and 33 percent of men.So, do American men read less fiction than women do? Probably. Do they read so little fiction that women buy 80 percent of all the units in the marketplace? Maybe. It doesnt look like anyone has actually fact-checked this question in quite a while.Are there still male literary role models?Readership numbers arent the only concern of essays about men and reading. One of their recurring assertions is that men need to be able to think of fiction as something masculine if theyre going to engage with it and that the role models who used to fulfill that need are less ascendant now than they were in the days when the Jonathans of Brooklyn were the most prominent voices in American letters.In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the literary man, or lit bro, used to be a recognizable Type of Guy, enough of an archetype that he was easy to parody. He was at the core of Keith Gessens novel All the Sad Young Literary Men in 2008 and Dana Schwartzs viral hit Twitter account Guy in Your MFA. Ironic misandrist blogs of that era used to complain that lit bros didnt read enough books by women. The lit bro seems to be much less in evidence in the Type of Guys online these days. He may have been superseded by the extremely online guy, or maybe the podcast bro. Yet if hes less of a recurring character in online discourse than he used to be, Im not sure its because there are no more high-profile literary men to whom aspiring young lit bros can look up.Men won the National Book Award for fiction in four of the last five years: Percival Everett in 2024, Justin Torres in 2023, Jason Mott in 2021, and Charles Yu in 2020. They have won eight of the past 11 Pulitzers for fiction. Meanwhile, novelists like Alexander Chee, Garth Greenwell, and Brandon Taylor have become perennials on critical best-of lists. When it comes to prestige, the literary man appears to be thriving hes just, crucially, less likely to also be straight and white than he used to be. Even with the ascendancy of a genre like romantasy written largely by and for women male authors are still heavy hitters in sales, too. In the New York Times bestseller list for combined print and ebook fiction for the week of December 22, for instance, seven of 15 titles were written by men, with appearances from perennial over-performers like James Patterson and Nicholas Sparks, who are well-matched with romantasy heavyweights like Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros.Meanwhile, publishing itself is overwhelmingly staffed by women, with a 2023 survey by Lee & Low finding that 71 percent of publishings workforce are cisgender women and 21 percent are cisgender men. The numbers get knottier, however, further up the ladder. Women compose 63 percent of the executive and board-level staff, meaning that the question of who is gatekeeping publishing is not exactly cut-and-dried. So why are we convinced men have stopped reading?Heres where weve ended up: Men are slightly less likely to read than women are, and theyre probably also slightly less likely to read fiction, although the margin is not the yawning gap its usually presented as. Male authors continue to sell well and win awards. And while its true that women make up the vast majority of publishing staff, men are overrepresented at the executive level. At the same time, the problem of men who no longer read is presented as one that is urgent for the culture to address. So how did we get here? We dont know for sure. But I have a few theories.The Zynternet bro is the most visible male archetype of the year, the first to present itself to our collective cultural imagination when we think man. And no, he does not read. 2024 was in many ways the year of what writer Max Read calls the Zynternet, as in dudes who chew a lot of Zyn nicotine pouches: a broad community of fratty, horndog, boorishly provocative 20- and sometimes (embarrassingly) 30-somethings mostly but by no means entirely male. Its arguably the community that most of the why did men pick Trump postmortems are talking about, and what Morris is referring to when he laments that too many young men are turning to figures like Joe Rogan and Andrew Tate for intellectual stimulation. The Zynternet bro is the most visible male archetype of the year, the first to present itself to our collective cultural imagination when we think man. And no, he does not read. Thats not necessarily a new phenomenon. Novels have been considered feminine frivolities since the Victorian era, when women first emerged as a major book-buying market in Europe. Novels, which were about fantasies that had never occurred and frequently dealt with love and marriage, were thought to be most proper for women, whose sphere was the home. Men, who would have to take on the strictures of the outside world, were thought to be better suited for journalism and nonfiction, which would prepare them to take action. RelatedIs the Gen Z bro media diet to blame?Some of those beliefs are, at the very least, still subliminal in Western culture. Tate was echoing a version of them when he declared, Reading books is for losers who are afraid to learn from life. So they try and learn from the life OTHERS have lived. But you never REALLY learn unless you lived it. You must feel it to believe it. Books are a total waste of time. Education for cowards. Tate and Trump are avatars of the worst possibilities of the Zynternet, the worst version of what its vision of masculinity might look like: prizing instinct over education and action over research. It makes sense that those on the left, searching for a way to save young boys and men from the influence of the manosphere, would land on reading fiction as a solution. Certainly its not an option that the proudly anti-intellectual Tate would ever offer his followers. (Jordan Peterson would, though, which is perhaps a sign that we shouldnt get too starry-eyed about the curative power of the written word for men looking for direction.)Were living in a moment in which a lot of people on the left are afraid for the souls of men. Theyre searching for spiritual solutions, and in a post-secular world, books are one of the few objects left that can summon a virtuous aura of salvation. We dont necessarily need evidence to believe that they can work miracles. 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:

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. Haga clic aqu para leer esta historia en espaol.VALLE DEL CAUCA, Colombia From the side of an old highway that cuts through the Andean foothills, Dora Alicia Londoos home looks unremarkable. Located in a rural area about two hours from Cali, the largest city in southern Colombia, its a simple, two-story concrete building with a sheet metal roof. A few potted plants hang from the rafters. The main attraction is in her backyard. There, you will find birds. So many birds. And these are not just your common backyard varieties, like robins and bluejays, but rare forest species that birdwatchers around the world yearn to see.Londoo, 63, has turned her home into a birdwatching lodge, a paradise. There are five guest rooms and a cafe with a view into her backyard, a dense tropical forest. There, she has a homemade bird feeder: wooden shelves holding pieces of fruit. Upstairs, on the roof, she had additional feeders for hummingbirds.When I visited on a warm morning in October, it felt like stepping into a nature documentary. The backyard was teeming with birds, none of which Id seen before: glistening green mountain tanagers, toucan barbets, lemon-browed flycatchers, velvet-purple coronets. These birds were so colorful they almost looked unreal, painting the yard with streaks of yellows, reds, blues, and purples. And then there was the noise a clamor of cheeps, trills, and squawks. A velvet-purple coronet, a species of hummingbird, rests on a branch at Doa Doras birdwatching lodge.The toucan barbet is one of the rarest birds in the world and it just eats bananas right here, said Natalia Ocampo-Peuela, a Colombian-born conservation ecologist and bird expert at the University of California Santa Cruz, who was at Londoos with me that morning. In an hour or so, I saw about 45 different species, Ocampo-Peuela estimates, while leisurely sipping coffee and eating empanadas. If this is birdwatching, Im in.If youre into birds, Colombia is the place to be. It has more avian species than any other country on Earth, with close to 2,000 distinct and often very beautiful varieties, nearly 20 percent of the worlds birds. That diversity is rooted in geography. Colombia is a mosaic of different habitats, from tropical rainforest to snow-capped mountains, and different birds have adapted to each of them. And as I experienced that morning, birding here can be incredibly easy. You dont even need hiking shoes.This isnt much of a secret. In the last decade, the activity of birdwatching has exploded in Colombia, said Ocampo-Peuela, who also studies ecotourism. Activity on eBird, a platform where birders can record their observations, increased more than 27-fold in Colombia since 2010, according to unpublished research by Ocampo-Peuela and other authors thats currently under review. While the bulk of these birders are foreigners from places like the US and Canada, more and more Colombians are picking up the hobby, too, she said. A blue-winged mountain tanager picks at a piece of papaya in Doa Doras backyard.Tropical fruits are like magnets for a variety of species like this chestnut-headed oropendola.This burgeoning industry is, as many experts argue, a rare force of good. Its funneling money into rural communities and creating material value for healthy forests something the environmental movement has, for decades, struggled to do. Indeed, at a time when tropical forests and grasslands are besieged by farming, mining, and other threats, birdwatching tourism offers a real incentive to keep ecosystems intact. Without forests, there are no birds, no birders, and no birding tourism. There are, no doubt, concerns about sustainability as this young industry matures and more foreign tourists descend on Colombia. But for now, local communities are at the helm of this industry, which is good for people, good for the local economy, and good for wildlife. They intend to keep it that way.Londoo, who goes by Doa Dora, didnt dream of running a birdwatching lodge and welcoming tourists into her backyard. In the 1990s, she moved here, to the outskirts of Cali, to escape violence near her home in the tropical grasslands, known as Los Llanos. This story is not uncommon. A decades-long conflict between armed groups and the government has displaced more than 5 million people across the country. Dora Alicia Londoo, known as Doa Dora, poses for a photo at her home.Doa Dora arrived with nothing, she told me that morning, as we watched hummingbirds flutter around a pair of freshly filled feeders like a collection of airborne jewels. She cleaned homes and sold empanadas on the side of the road. Her husband picked up odd jobs.Then one day she went to the dentist, and her life changed. Her dentist, a man named Gilberto Collazos Bolaos, was a bird fanatic, and he knew the forest around her home was full of avian life. So he gave her a suggestion: Put some fruit on a table outside, and wait. The fruit will draw in birds, she remembers him saying, the birds will attract tourists, and the tourists will bring in money.She took his advice. And birds came. First there were bluebirds, golden tanagers, and colorful finches called euphonias. Then rarer species like rufous-throated tanagers and toucan barbets arrived. Toucan barbets are the unequivocal stars of the show. Found only in the mountain forests of western Colombia and Ecuador, they have a brilliant plumage a collection of light gray, red, yellow, and black and a song that sounds a bit like a frog.As the dentist predicted, birders eventually arrived, too, largely finding her home by word of mouth. And in 2015, Colombia hosted its first annual BirdFair, a major birding festival, and one of the events official field trips was a visit to Doa Doras home. That put her on the map, she told me. A toucan barbet, one of the worlds rarest avian species, often hangs out in Doa Doras backyard. Juanita Escobar for VoxDoa Dora poses next to a mural painted by her son Elber Sanchez Londoo. Juanita Escobar for VoxWe always loved nature and trees, said Doa Dora, who, when I visited, was wearing a head covering and what looked like a white lab coat. But we didnt have a vision for what we have right now, of birdwatching.Today, her home is considered one of the countrys top birdwatching destinations, and some visitors have dubbed it the best backyard birding spot in the world. Its this birding business that now supports her family. Foreign tourists pay about $9 to view birds on her property ($13 if they have a camera). A room for two people is around $50 per night, which doesnt include her coffee or her homemade empanadas. In the busy season, from September to March, the lodge will get more than 100 tourists a month, according to her son Elber Sanchez Londoo, who helps run the business.A golden-naped tanager visits the feeder at Doa Doras for a bite of banana.In her backyard that morning, I watched birds. But I also watched birdwatchers watch birds. I honestly found this activity just as thrilling. Natalia Ocampo-Peuela and Jos Luna Solarte, a local birdwatching guide, look for birds in a forest about two hours north of Cali.What is it that makes some people so obsessed with birds? One explanation is that you can find them pretty much everywhere. That makes birdwatching easy to start and practice, no matter where you live. Birding can also connect you to a community. It tends to bring like-minded people together, both in person and through platforms like eBird and iNaturalist, where they can share their observations. Plus, its free and done outdoors, which is one reason why birding became so popular during the Covid-19 pandemic when people were avoiding crowded, indoor spaces.Its like an addiction, Ocampo-Peuela, a self-identified birder, told me. You see these birds, and their beauty, and it just fills you with happy hormones. Then you want to do it more.That morning, I met several tourists at Doa Doras lodge. Most of them toted cameras with long lenses. This is unbelievable, said Santiago Ferro, a visitor from Toronto, who grew up in Bogot. I asked him how this spot compares to birding in North America. He just laughed.Birders are drawn to Colombia for its sheer number of avian species, many of which are found nowhere else. But the ongoing surge in birding tourism has far more to do with safety.Until recently, a conflict between the government and a number of armed groups spread violence across Colombia. At the center of the conflict which began in the mid-20th century was the distribution of wealth. The largest such group, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), fought against the government and right-wing paramilitary groups to bring more wealth to poor rural parts of Colombia. Violence tied to the conflict killed more than 200,000 people, and most of them were civilians.Several hummingbird feeders hang from the rafters of a restaurant northwest of Cali. Here, a young purple-throated woodstar goes in for a sip of sugar water.In 2016, after years of tense negotiations, the government and FARC signed a peace agreement. Put simply, the agreement required that FARC give up their weapons, stop fighting, and exit the drug trade, which was helping fund the conflict. In return they were offered political power and a promise to invest heavily in rural areas. Violence still persists in some regions, especially near the borders, and the US State Department advises people to reconsider traveling to Colombia. Yet a tenuous truce holds. The peace agreement has made the country much safer, for locals and foreigners alike, than it has been for decades and that, in turn, has opened the door to more birdwatching tourism. In 2017, Ocampo-Peuela published a study showing that birdwatching, as measured by activity on eBird, was already expanding in areas that were once considered dangerous, including Putumayo, a department in southern Colombia. Ocampo-Peuelas more recent research, which is not yet published, finds that birdwatching activity skyrocketed in Colombia after 2016, though it dipped during the pandemic. (A large portion of eBird users are from the US, so data from the platform over-represents American birding trends.)The government doesnt track birdwatching activity, though it says tourism overall is climbing. Last year, a record 6.1 million foreigners visited Colombia, up 30 percent from 2022, and the majority of them are looking for nature experiences, according to Procolombia, a government agency that markets the country. Tourism is already up this year compared to 2023, Procolombia told Vox. And since 2021, the number of nature lodges, including birding lodges, has nearly tripled, the agency said. In global hot spots of biodiversity like Colombia, economic growth often comes at the expense of ecosystems. A growing cattle-ranching industry destroys rainforests. A mining boom leaches toxins into streams and soil. Comparatively, Colombias ballooning birdwatching industry seems like something to celebrate. Jhonathan Estiven Bedoya Betancourth, one of the birdwatching guides, or interpreters, at Laguna de Sonso.Tourism is not only funding birdwatching destinations like Doa Doras but building demand for local birdwatching guides. Thats created jobs for Colombians with deep ties to their surrounding ecosystems, whether or not they have a formal education. Generational knowledge of local birds and where to find them referred to in some academic circles as traditional ecological knowledge is increasingly valuable here, even in a straight economic sense. Birdwatching tourism gives it value.The following morning, I traveled to a place called Laguna de Sonso, a wetland just north of Cali. Its a blip of natural habitat in a sea of sugarcane plantations, a widespread crop in Valle del Cauca. When I arrived, a cocoi heron, a large gray and white bird with a long, sharp beak, was wading in the water, sending ripples out across a lake.The wetland is a birders dream. More than 300 avian species live in or pass through Laguna de Sonso, including giants like the osprey and weirdos like the common potoo, a bird with an unsettlingly wide mouth.Its also where youth from the surrounding communities learn to become birdwatching guides, or interpreters, as they call themselves. We call ourselves interpreters because we are a community that has had empirical training, said local guide Jhonathan Estiven Bedoya Betancourth, meaning theyve learned through observation and experience. We do not have, lets say, the training of a professional tourist guide. (A pair of community organizations at Laguna de Sonso do offer workshops and mentorship for bird guiding.)Bedoya Betancourth, 24, says hes been guiding birdwatching tours since he was 14. We interpret everything that this beautiful territory has, said Bedoya Betancourth, who wore a pair of binoculars around his neck. Daniela Gmez, another birdwatching guide, sits by a small lake at Laguna de Sonso.A cocoi heron stands on a log poking out of the water at Laguna de Sonso.Bedoya Betancourth started guiding because he loves birds, and hes good at it. He can imitate the calls of around 30 species, he said. (I obviously asked him to demonstrate, and he impressively whistled the repetitive up-and-down call of a marsh bird called the gray-cowled wood-rail.) But it was also a way to earn money for his family, he said. He makes about $35 for each guiding trip, not including tip, and hell lead several trips a month. He supplements his income by making wood carvings to sell to tourists and locals. Birdwatching for me and for the group of interpreters is one of the economic activities that has been able to keep the community afloat, said Maria Omaira Rendon Rayo, a community leader at Laguna de Sonso. The birding economy gives people a reason to stay in the community, she said, and offers an alternative to careers that might attract violence, such as cultivating and selling drugs. By training kids, the laguna and its community organizations are also helping build a conservation ethic that will last for decades.Maria Omaira Rendon Rayo, a leader in the community around Laguna de Sonso, says birdwatching tourism has helped conserve the wetland and support families in the region.If you are receiving economic income from an activity such as conservation, then you want to conserve more, said Rendon Rayo, who works with a local organization called Asociacin de Productores Agropecuarios del Porvenir, which helps restore forests by planting trees and trains birding guides in Laguna de Sonso. You want to help plant more trees. You want to help keep the laguna clean.Nature tourism is not an unequivocal force of good. It actually often harms the environment, as researchers like Ralf Buckley have documented. Tourists have inadvertently introduced invasive species to places like the Galapagos Islands, snorkelers and divers have damaged coral, including in the Great Barrier Reef, and hotels are commonly built atop natural habitat. Theres also an exploitation issue: In many cases tourism companies are owned by foreigners, limiting the benefits that flow to local communities, on which they often depend. Plus, as a place swells with wealthy tourists, the cost of necessities like housing and food can rise, making it unlivable for locals. A flame-rumped tanager rests on a branch at La Florida, a birdwatching site near Cali.Much of rural Colombia is blanketed in farmland.Birdwatching tourism in Colombia has so far managed to avoid many of these pitfalls. It has some guardrails built in, Ocampo-Peuela said. For one, birding doesnt work well in large groups they scare away birds and make it hard to spot something fluttering far away and smaller groups have a lighter environmental impact. One of the lodges I visited capped the number of tourists to 10. Another said there are days when they will turn visitors away.Whats more is that finding rare and endemic species, which birders are most drawn to, typically requires local expertise. That helps keep money within local communities. Then theres the most important guardrail: Birdwatching tourism doesnt work if its not sustainable. Even if you put out fruit, the birds wont come if they have no habitat no forest, no wetland. Birding is not like going to the zoo, where you can always expect to see animals. Its in the economic interest of the birdwatching industry to make sure ecosystems remain healthy. You cant do this business without conserving, Javier Rubio, who runs another birdwatching destination, called La Florida, at his property northwest of Cali. If you dont conserve, you put your future as a business at risk. If you start cutting down trees and damaging the forest, [the birds] will be left without food, which is the reason why they are here.Doa Dora says one of her goals is to earn enough money so that her son can buy forested land around their home. He wants to conserve it, she told me. Thats the idea for the future, Elber, her son, told me, to make sure that the birds continue to live in a healthy ecosystem.Michael Medina, a young birdwatching guide at Laguna de Sonsa, says he can make close to $70 in a good day from guiding birdwatching trips.An acorn-woodpecker seen at La Florida.The industry is still young, so the full extent of its environmental impact has yet to be seen. People involved in growing birdwatching tourism say its critical that Colombians, and especially people in rural, bird-filled regions, determine what the industry ultimately looks like. Its necessary that we Colombians define what kind of birdwatching tourism we want, said Carlos Mario Wagner, the founder and director of Colombia BirdFair and one of the countrys most well-known birders. Birding tourism shouldnt just cater to foreigners, he said, but also to locals. Something that makes me very happy is that Colombians are increasingly hiring guides, Wagner told me. Birding has given Colombians an opportunity to reconnect with their homeland following the peace agreement, he said. It instills in them a sense of pride for a version of Colombia thats known for nature, not violence.The birding industry will ultimately never be huge, Ocampo-Peuela says. While its growing globally faster than other forms of ecotourism, shes found it will likely remain niche, limited by the small number of people who want to travel to rural places to look at birds, often very early in the morning. You have to have the right personality, she told me. So its not like birdwatching alone will fix Colombias problems and raise the rural class out of poverty. Yet what it offers is incredibly special. Not just money for local communities, alternative career paths, and real incentives to save forests, but also something thats harder to quantify.Javier Rubio, a former criminal lawyer, turned his property near Cali, known as La Florida, into a birdwatching destination.A view of La Florida.On a rainy afternoon in October, I visited Rubio at La Florida. Like Doa Dora, Rubio has a homemade bird feeder in his yard constructed with branches and pieces of fruit. It attracted a different cast of avian visitors. Here, the star was the multicolored tanager, a colorful species found only in the mountain forests of Colombia. My favorite, however, was the crimson-rumped toucanet, which is essentially a mini toucan. Theyre bright green with rust-colored beaks that seem far too big for their bodies. Over my fourth cup of black coffee, Rubio told me he was a criminal lawyer for nearly three decades before getting into the birdwatching business. A few years ago, he invited friends to his home to go birding. They saw the multicolored tanager and told him that his property which abuts a tropical forest has enormous potential to become a birdwatching destination. Eager to live a more relaxing life, Rubio, 56, quit his job as a lawyer and started building a tourism business. I feel extremely good doing this, Rubio told me. I often feel like Im giving happiness to people. Almost unanimously the people who come say, This is a paradise. When you start birdwatching, you start to feel attracted not only to birds but to the peaceful environment of nature.A multicolored tanager visits La Florida to snack on some fruit.This is a point that nearly every birder I spoke to made: Caring about birds is a gateway to caring about nature, of seeing its true worth. It is a gradual process, Rubio told me, as we sat on a covered deck as it rained, watching a multicolored tanager bounce around in the branches a few feet away. You first contemplate them, then you begin to understand them, and then you begin to preserve them. That is the path taken by the one who takes up this habit of birdwatching.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:

Sometime last spring, I decided to glow up. This is an extremely embarrassing thing to admit, or at least it should be. But this is America. If youre not glowing up, which is to say, committing all of your time and money to the endless quest of self-improvement, youre letting yourself go. And in America, theres nothing more pitiable than settling for what you already have. Plus, everyone else was doing it. Every day on my TikTok feed, women were telling me about their various glow-up journeys their skin care journeys and hair growth journeys and gut health journeys and protein journeys and personal style journeys and mindfulness journeys. They were doing intensive challenges that promised to transform ones mind, body, and spirit in segments of two weeks or one month or a year. They were taping their mouth shut and strapping their chins in hammocks while they slept to achieve maximum face snatch. Everyones journey, no matter what part of themselves was being perfected, seemed to end in the same place: with a video about how to replicate the results. Everyones journey, no matter what part of themselves was being perfected, seemed to end in the same place: with a video about how to replicate the results. So I listened. The reasons for this are boring: a wedding on the horizon, a delusional desire to fit into my pre-Covid wardrobe, and one instance in April where I came home after a long day of social events and was so disturbed at how my foundation had coalesced into weird splotches that I abandoned everything I knew about makeup application. I started seeing a nutritionist who told me I was eating too much cheese (I was). I updated my skin care routine to include all the products recommended to me by TikToks favorite dermatologists, people like Dr. Shereene Idriss, who cleverly begins many of her videos with the fact that shes 40 years old despite having the skin of a recent college graduate. I became obsessed with the content of a certified trichologist with the longest, shiniest hair Ive ever seen who explained the science of hair care in ways I didnt understand but that convinced me to buy everything she used. I consumed endless videos about how to determine my Kibbe body type (true romantic), color season (light summer), and facial contrast level (low).It was only the beginning of my own journey, which would lead me down ever more dire algorithmic straits and a forest of complicated feelings about ones purpose as a woman at this precise moment. The demands, it seems, are increasingly untethered from reality: The after of a 2020s glow-up requires you to have skin that appears to be made of wet glass, while any makeup on top of it should be barely noticeable because that is the look of tasteful rich women. Your body should be so small it looks starving, but also strong and capable and healed from whatever traumas lie in your past.Whether from your hypermoisturized face or the waxy sheen of cosmetic fillers or the knifelike sharpness of your protruding clavicle, you should, in other words, be glowing. And who among us doesnt want to shine?Day 1In October, I began the 75 Hotter TikTok challenge, which promised a 360-degree glow-up in 75 days. It borrows the gimmick from an earlier viral challenge called 75 Hard: A Tactical Guide to Winning the War With Yourself, which demands you work out twice a day, stick to a diet of your choice, and give up alcohol for 75 days straight; if you miss a day, you have to start over. Available free online, its described as a transformative mental toughness program and Ironman for your brain. You can imagine that this kind of marketing works on a very specific type of person, and that person was not me. But 75 Hotter was a little more forgiving. It encourages getting 10,000 steps per day, having a workout plan, and prioritizing protein and greens at every meal; it also includes rules like talk to yourself the way youd speak to a friend and, in dating scenarios, cutting out toxic people.75 Hotter is the brainchild of Jade Brandt, a 36-year-old content creator in Austin who tried 75 Hard and found its strictness unsustainable. 75 Hotter, then, would be 75 Hard but for the girls. Every year during the fall, I go pedal to the metal, I indulge so much that when the holidays roll around I feel so gross and big and I just dont like the way I look, she said in her 2023 video launching the program with a handy infographic, which gained nearly 6 million views. The virality of 75 Hotter and programs like it prove that the season for glow-ups is no longer limited to the two weeks in January when people discuss their New Years resolutions: Glowing up is now a full-time endeavor. (Brandt, for instance, re-released it for the summer months and coined the term Hottober for autumnal glow-ups). People care about their health more now, and they want to get ahead of it and not wait until January 1, she tells me. Despite the ever-proliferating number of regimens being marketed and products to buy, she views the current state of glow-up culture on social media as a less toxic version of what millennials were raised with. Its different from when I was a teenager we were so hyperfocused on how skinny, how blonde, and how tan we could be. It was not, like, empowering, she explains. But now its more attainable. Were in this wellness culture where we just want the best for our bodies.Day 3I soon realized, however, that wanting the best for my body meant being consumed by anxiety about the most inconsequential problems imaginable: I worried that I wouldnt make 10,000 steps; I worried about the fact that the Just Salad Crispy Chicken Poblano bowl has nearly 700 calories and that, at a friends birthday party, I ate a couple bites of nachos in a way that was not very prioritizing protein and greens at every meal of me. The next day at the Charli xcx show in upstate New York, I made a new friend who told me that her mental breakdown this summer also led to achieving the perfect body. The only real way to glow up is to have a low-key toxic relationship with food, she said after wed consumed several Brat-green cocktails. She is, unfortunately, right. Though I managed to make it to my 30s without ever being diagnosed with an eating disorder, I found myself spending what I would consider a problematic amount of time thinking about calories and macronutrients and whether I can trust the reflection in the mirror when I look so different in that one cursed photo (there is always a cursed photo). Then I thought about how, if there was to be a term for this, every woman in the world would probably get diagnosed with it and therefore no one would consider it a problem.RelatedTikTok made me buy itThis, I discovered, was not unique. Asher Seruya, a psychotherapist and writer, says theyve seen their clients struggle with a shift many of us seem to be feeling right now, a shift toward a more punishing set of beauty standards. Skinny is once again a desire people feel comfortable admitting in public, whether for their health or otherwise, in part because now its a desire that can be reliably achieved via prescription. My clients are certainly feeling it. There are people in their lives who previously they might have thought were allies in body positivity or fat acceptance, and now theyre on a GLP-1 trying to lose weight, says Seruya. Its not fun out there.It has been demoralizing to witness the return of 1990s and 2000s thinness and fat-shaming discourse, not because it actually went away because of course it never really did but because this time we dont have Hollywood and the tabloid machine to blame. Millennial women often commiserate about the diet culture of our formative years, a time when a 130-pound Bridget Jones fretted over being fat and Titanic-era Kate Winslet was dubbed Kate Weighs-a-lot. Then I thought about how, if there was to be a term for this, every woman in the world would probably get diagnosed with it and therefore no one would consider it a problem.By the late 2000s, as social media gave voice and therefore power to regular women who pushed back against these standards, the fashion and entertainment industries reacted by embracing, at least in theory, an ethos of body positivity that permeated culture throughout the 2010s. Diet culture was replaced by an obsession with wellness, which of course functioned basically the same way, except now you were supposed to meditate and wear athleisure to show off precisely how well you were.The pendulum has now swung back the other way. Blame Covid, blame the vibe shift, blame Ozempic, but these sentiments are no longer coming from cultural gatekeepers. Theyre coming from run-of-the-mill influencers, leveraging the algorithmic power of social platforms to spew regressive advice that grabs attention and lures us in by purporting to tell us something the mainstream media wont. Creators like 22-year-old Liv Schmidt have built followings by telling millions of people exactly how to eat (spoiler: dangerously little), and, in the case of Schmidt, simultaneously shaming viewers who question her methods with emojis of pigs, cows, and whales.At the same time that were being inundated with photos of drastically shrinking famous people, were also told its never, under any circumstances, okay to talk about someone elses body. To act as if this has zero impact on the way we feel about our own bodies, though, is to lie to ourselves and each other. That leaves many people in a state of feeling its taboo to love yourself the way you are, and equally taboo to talk about what all of us can clearly see with our own eyes.Day 19Less than three weeks in, I found myself consumed by another fallacy entrenched within the glow-up economy: that middle-class people can simply Amazon their way to gorgeousness. I had become a monster with a shopping addiction; every time Id feel inclined to purchase something, Id just do it: a cool-toned highlighter (since Im a summer!), brown mascara (because its more flattering on my low-contrast features!), and an under-eye cream due to the fact that over the past few days Id decided the puffiness under my eyes was a very serious issue, something Id never even considered before. I obsessed over finding celebrities who shared my features and coloring, since Id been told by several personal style influencers that this is the key to achieving your ideal aesthetic. I landed on a cross between Shiv from Succession and Stassi from Vanderpump Rules, which tells me my ideal aesthetic is bitch. I sent a selfie and 50 euros to a woman on TikTok who gave me a Photoshop makeover that complemented my cool color palette and aligned with my oval face shape. The Art In BeingAnother look, minus the bangs. The Art In BeingThe writer Jessica DeFino has extensively covered the fallacies of the makeup and skin care industries in her Substack, The Review of Beauty. She argues that the shift in the 2010s toward body positivity transferred rigid beauty standards above the neck; thus the interest in anti-aging products, injectibles, and face lifts skyrocketed. As soon as the standard for how a body could exist in space relaxed, you couldnt allow your body to exist in time anymore, she says. Skin care culture, she purports, is just dewy diet culture: There is no ideological difference between obsessively counting calories and obsessively applying active ingredients, or between devising a diet to eliminate fat and devising a skin care routine to eliminate dead skin cells and oil and pimples and wrinkles, all of which are basic human features.I landed on a cross between Shiv from Succession and Stassi from Vanderpump Rules, which tells me my ideal aesthetic is bitch. She guesses that our cultural obsession with glowing-up and watching other people do so too is a reflection of the American dream. No matter where we start from, its part of our national spirit to believe, however foolishly, that its always within our capacity to improve. Its the new Heros Journey. You have a starting place and an ending place, and the ending place is visually clearly better, and it signifies so much, she says. It feels like part of a greater trend toward infantilization. Its concerning in terms of our critical thinking, our literacy, our political awareness. Beauty is being swept up into this larger political trend of wanting easy answers instead of thinking a little bit more critically about it.Day 31My new narcissism was thrown into perspective when Americans woke up to a new president-elect. I recalled dimly how 2017 saw the birth of the skin care boom in the US; many women at the time saw their face as a site of control when everything felt chaotic. Theres just a lot of fear right now, and when we feel fear, humans naturally want to try to control something, Seruya explains. This time, they expect that our bodies, in addition to our faces, will be feeling the effects, given the last few years of thinness discourse. There is no ideological difference between obsessively counting calories and obsessively applying active ingredients.I asked DeFino what she thought would be 2025s version of the skin care boom. I think theres going to be a stronger focus on femininity and gender, she says. Anything thats reinforcing the [idea that] women are expected to be as beautiful as possible as part of their own morality and duty to society is pretty dangerous in combination with some of the other things that were seeing right now. Those other things shes referring to are the terrifying and deadly rollbacks in womens reproductive rights and trans peoples access to gender-affirming care. The idea that women should look like women has implications far beyond the aesthetic; it reinforces the idea that we should be fearful of trans and nonbinary people and that attacks against them are justified.The pushback against body positivity and wokeness writ large is built largely upon a wave of anti-feminism and anti-trans scapegoating. Its no surprise that, post-election, people are reevaluating their relationship to recent fashion and lifestyle trends they saw on TikTok like cottagecore, clean girls, coquette, and tradwives, wondering if they were bellwethers for a rightward swing that nobody noticed until it was too late. Day 50By the time December rolled around, I found myself thinking a lot about how the best possible outcome for right-wing grifters is a popular understanding of beauty and health that runs on crowdsourcing, where the loudest voice in the room is the only one worth listening to. If an army of influencer-entrepreneurs and multi-level marketing bosses many of the same people who will soon ascend to the highest levels of influence in the government can shape our understanding of what we should put on or in our bodies, the institutions that regulate these industries are much more easily subverted. Theres more money to be extracted in the shifting of the winds. On Day 50, my algorithm served me a video of a girl claiming that candida overgrowth is whats causing your fatigue and bloat and that it could be cured by the supplement linked in her TikTok Shop. My feed, by that point, had been flooded by these sorts of junk science videos Id since learned to tune out, videos of people claiming that the reason you were bloated was because of stress or cortisol or your high-Fodmap diet and that the cure was available to purchase via affiliate link. It was always referred to as bloat or inflammation rather than fat because if you admit that its just fat, its harder to sell products to get rid of it. Through my steadily more depressing TikTok algorithm, I learned that the worst thing you can do in life is let yourself get fat, and the second worst thing you can do is not spend every second of your day and every dollar of your money trying not to be fat. I learned that if you lose even a small amount of weight you will be consumed by a desire to shop for new clothes so powerful you forget everything you told yourself about trying to be better about not buying fast fashion. I learned that if you pay a random lady on TikTok 50 Euro to give you a virtual makeover she will pretty much just Photoshop makeup on your face. I learned that a 1.35-ounce bottle of Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops costs $35 and in less than one month it will be gone and you will have to buy it again. I learned that after you spend $300 on hair care and skin care products, only you will really notice the difference. I learned that even if you are on your journey of becoming the best version of yourself, you will still feel stressed about work and wish you had more money and feel like everyone is mad at you without being able to point to who or why. I learned that no matter how much better you look at the end of your glow-up journey you will never be completely satisfied, that self-improvement only breeds the desire for more of it. All of this learning has led me nowhere good. A culture where our bodies only exist to be optimized is one that is fundamentally antisocial and isolated; it turns us into prodigious consumers and uninteresting human beings. It makes smart people who care about the world a little bit less so. And still, there is something seductive about leaning into it, if only for the duration of the average TikTok glow-up challenge. Perhaps thats because progress only feels like progress when it manifests itself physically, perhaps because its harder to see the ugliness of everything when youre too busy becoming beautiful. Day 64I do not feel particularly hot today, even though by all the measures that matter I am hotter than I was on Day 1. Still I take 10,000 steps, I put on my under-eye cream and brown mascara, I prioritize greens. In 11 days, maybe I will have become the hottest version of myself. The journeys not over yet. Though of course, it never is. 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:

Black Myth: Wukong is pure monkey business (Game Science)The developer behind Black Myth: Wukong has given some clarity around the delayed Xbox version, implying that it might be years away.Black Myth: Wukong was one of the biggest games of 2024, picking up several industry awards and breaking records following its launch on PlayStation 5 and PC.Shortly after the game launched, conflicting reports emerged around the whereabouts of the Xbox Series X/S version, with one insider claiming it had been indefinitely delayed due to technical issues, while others blamed an alleged (and very unlikely) exclusivity deal with Sony.Microsoft said the delay was not due to Xbox platform limitations in a statement afterwards, but now developer Game Science has explicitly said otherwise.In a post on Chinese social network site Weibo following Black Myth: Wukongs success at The Steam Awards, Game Science CEO Feng Ji wrote (via ResetEra): Everyones fighting power is so terrifying but the only thing missing is the Xbox robe it seems a bit wrong (but that 10GB shared memory, without a few years of optimisation experience, it really cant be taken down).The statement appears to reference the 10GB RAM capacity in the Xbox Series S, which is lower than Xbox Series Xs 16GB. According to Microsoft rules, its mandatory for games to have feature parity across both consoles in order for them to be released.In June, Game Science said it was currently optimising the Xbox Series X/S version to meet our quality standards, suggesting it was hitting some technical hurdles. This wouldnt be the first time the Xbox Series S has been blamed for a games delay either, with Baldurs Gate 3 having faced similar issues related to the consoles limitations.Microsoft will never want to admit the Xbox Series S is the route of the problem, but it certainly seems like that is the case here. GameCentral has reached out to Microsoft for further comment.Games skipping Xbox has been a problem over the current console generation, with a recent Microsoft initiative even asking developers why they arent releasing games on the platform, in an attempt to address concerns.While the limitations of the Xbox Series S might be partly to blame, the poor sales of the Xbox Series X/S is perhaps the bigger issue with reports last year suggesting publishers were considering dropping support for Xbox platforms in light of low console sales.More TrendingBased on Feng Jis comments, its unclear if Black Myth: Wukong will ever come to Xbox if it requires years of optimisation experience especially as Microsofts next console might be announced by next year. It might stay a myth on Xbox (Game Science)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.GameCentralExclusive 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

Science & technology | Lift-off at last?Can Jeff Bezos match Elon Musk in space?After 25 years, Blue Origin finally heads to orbit, and hopesto become a contender in the private space racePhotograph: Blue Origin Jan 1st 2025IT HAS BEEN a long time coming. Assuming there are no last-minute delays, then in the next few days Blue Origin, a firm run by Jeff Bezos, Amazons founder, will make the first launch of its New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida. If everything goes smoothly, then almost a quarter of a century after it was founded, Blue Origin will reach orbit for the first timeand the private space industry may have another contender.Explore moreThis article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline Bolt from the blueFrom the January 4th 2025 editionDiscover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the editionReuse this content

Annually, ArchDaily's curatorial team undertakes a rigorous selection process to identify exemplary projects in Latin American residential architecture. The goal is to share these works of architecture with our audience and highlight and promote good practices within contemporary architecture. This meticulous effort focuses on identifying projects that stand out for their design and their positive impact on the environment, innovative use of materials and techniques, and ability to address current needs.

Shunde Yunlu Wetland Museum / Studio Link-ArcSave this picture! Tian FangfangGalleryFo Shan, ChinaArchitects: Studio Link-ArcAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:1800 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The Yunlu Wetland Museum is located in the Yunlu Wetland Park in Shunde, adjacent to an ecological island inhabited by 25,000 egrets. The building combines a bird-watching tower and a wetland museum, aiming to raise visitors' awareness of the ecology of the wetland and provide a unique bird-watching experience.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The project originated from a bamboo forest planted by "Uncle Bird" Xian Quanhui here 26 years ago. With the influx of a large number of egrets, a good intention prompted the Uncle Bird to make this oasis an "egret paradise" in the city through decades of efforts. Now the Shunde government has expanded the protected area of Egret Paradise by 13 times, working with scientistsengineers and designers to restore water systems, update bamboo forests, and reshape this area into Yunlu Wetland Park.Save this picture!Save this picture!The architects chose to hide the building behind a row of existing cedar forests. The shape of the building consists of four vertically stacked concrete tubes, resembling four horizontally rotating "lenses" that capture the activities of egrets. The design aims to minimize the presence of the building and harmoniously coexist with the "indigenous creatures" in this area with a modest attitude. Looking at the museum from Egret Island, the building "disappears" into a lush subtropical forest.Save this picture!Save this picture!Each tube of the museum is rotated to the optimal viewing direction according to the site conditions, forming four staggered "framing frames" in the internal space. The first to fourth floors respectively look towards the tree roots, trunks, crowns, and treetops. People can observe the swaying of tree shadows and the fluttering of birds on Egret Island from different heights inside the building. In this way, the traditional human-oriented architectural perspective is deconstructed into a nature-oriented scattered perspective.Save this picture!The four superimposed tubes of the museum are divided into a vertical triangular atrium by a Boolean difference, which connects the volumes of the four floors together. The atrium is a common "viewpoint" for different perspectives inside the building. Standing here, one can simultaneously look into nature through the tubes in different directions. The viewfinder window at the end of the tube is like several carefully selected landscape paintings hanging in the space.Save this picture!The building adopts a box-type concrete structure system. The side walls, top plate, and bottom plate of each tube work together to provide overall load-bearing support. Sunlight filters through the upper skylights, softened by deep beams, and penetrates into the interior of the building. Being in the building, people can physically perceive the flow of seasons and the change of nature.Save this picture!In order not to damage the wetland environment, after surveying the existing 560 trees, the architect carefully determined the location of the building, reduced its footprint, and then rotated the volume of each floor. We ensure that buildings can capture good bird watching views, while reducing the logging of native trees. The exterior facade of the building is made of cast-in-place pine molded concrete. The fine grain of the pine wood gives the facade a natural texture that echoes the surrounding dense forest. The roof of the building is covered by lotus ponds, and the ecological water features weaken the presence of the building on the fifth elevation.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Fo Shan, ChinaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeStudio Link-ArcOfficeMaterialsMaterials and TagsPublished on January 03, 2025Cite: "Shunde Yunlu Wetland Museum / Studio Link-Arc" 03 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025216/shunde-yunlu-wetland-museum-studio-link-arc&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save? / Link-Arc 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