Lisa Holligan already had two children when she decided to try for another baby. Her first two pregnancies had come easily. But for some unknown reason, the third didnt. Holligan and her husband experienced miscarriage after miscarriage after miscarriage.Like many other people struggling to conceive, Holligan turned to in vitro fertilization, or IVF. The technology allows embryologists to take sperm and eggs and fuse them outside the body, creating embryos that can then be transferred into a persons uterus.The fertility clinic treating Holligan was able to create six embryos using her eggs and her husbands sperm. Genetic tests revealed that only three of these were genetically normal. After the first was transferred, Holligan got pregnant. Then she experienced yet another miscarriage. I felt numb, she recalls. But the second transfer, which took place several months later, stuck. And little Quinn, who turns four in February, was the eventual happy result. She is the light in our lives, says Holligan.Holligan, who lives in the UK, opted to donate her genetically abnormal embryos for scientific research. But she still has one healthy embryo frozen in storage. And she doesnt know what to do with it.Should she and her husband donate it to another family? Destroy it? Its almost four years down the line, and we still havent done anything with [the embryo], she says. The clinic hasnt been helpfulHolligan doesnt remember talking about what to do with leftover embryos at the time, and no one there has been in touch with her for years, she says.Holligans embryo is far from the only one in this peculiar limbo. Millionsor potentially tens of millionsof embryos created through IVF sit frozen in time, stored in cryopreservation tanks around the world. The number is only growing thanks to advances in technology, the rising popularity of IVF, and improvements in its success rates.At a basic level, an embryo is simply a tiny ball of a hundred or so cells. But unlike other types of body tissue, it holds the potential for life. Many argue that this endows embryos with a special moral status, one that requires special protections. The problem is that no one can really agree on what that status is. To some, theyre human cells and nothing else. To others, theyre morally equivalent to children. Many feel they exist somewhere between those two extremes.There are debates, too, over how we should classify embryos in law. Are they property? Do they have a legal status? These questions are important: There have been multiple legal disputes over who gets to use embryos, who is responsible if they are damaged, and who gets the final say over their fate. And the answers will depend not only on scientific factors, but also on ethical, cultural, and religious ones.The options currently available to people with leftover IVF embryos mirror this confusion. As a UK resident, Holligan can choose to discard her embryos, make them available to other prospective parents, or donate them for research. People in the US can also opt for adoption, placing their embryos with families they get to choose. In Germany, people are not typically allowed to freeze embryos at all. And in Italy, embryos that are not used by the intended parents cannot be discarded or donated. They must remain frozen, ostensibly forever.While these embryos persist in suspended animation, patients, clinicians, embryologists, and legislators must grapple with the essential question of what we should do with them. What do these embryos mean to us? Who should be responsible for them?Meanwhile, many of these same people are trying to find ways to bring down the total number of embryos in storage. Maintenance costs are high. Some clinics are running out of space. And with a greater number of embryos in storage, there are more opportunities for human error. They are grappling with how to get a handle on the growing number of embryos stuck in storage with nowhere to go.The embryo boomThere are a few reasons why this has become such a conundrum. And they largely come down to an increasing demand for IVF and improvements in the way it is practiced. Its a problem of our own creation, says Pietro Bortoletto, a reproductive endocrinologist at Boston IVF in Massachusetts. IVF has only become as successful as it is today by generating lots of excess eggs and embryos along the way, he says.To have the best chance of creating healthy embryos that will attach to the uterus and grow in a successful pregnancy, clinics will try to collect multiple eggs. People who undergo IVF will typically take a course of hormone injections to stimulate their ovaries. Instead of releasing a single egg that month, they can expect to produce somewhere between seven and 20 eggs. These eggs can be collected via a needle that passes through the vagina and into the ovaries. The eggs are then taken to a lab, where they are introduced to sperm. Around 70% to 80% of IVF eggs are successfully fertilized to create embryos.The embryos are then grown in the lab. After around five to seven days an embryo reaches a stage of development at which it is called a blastocyst, and it is ready to be transferred to a uterus. Not all IVF embryos reach this stage, howeveronly around 30% to 50% of them make it to day five. This process might leave a person with no viable embryos. It could also result in more than 10, only one of which is typically transferred in each pregnancy attempt. In a typical IVF cycle, one embryo might be transferred to the persons uterus fresh, while any others that were created are frozen and stored.IVF success rates have increased over time, in large part thanks to improvements in this storage technology. A little over a decade ago, embryologists tended to use a slow freeze technique, says Bortoletto, and many embryos didnt survive the process. Embryos are now vitrified instead, using liquid nitrogen to rapidly cool them from room temperature to -196 C in less than two seconds. Vitrification essentially turns all the water in the embryos into a glasslike state, avoiding the formation of damaging ice crystals.Now, clinics increasingly take a freeze all approach, in which they cryopreserve all the viable embryos and dont start transferring them until later. In some cases, this is so that the clinic has a chance to perform genetic tests on the embryo they plan to transfer.An assortment of sperm and embryos, preserved in liquid nitrogen.ALAMYOnce a lab-grown embryo is around seven days old, embryologists can remove a few cells for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), which screens for genetic factors that might make healthy development less likely or predispose any resulting children to genetic diseases. PGT is increasingly popular in the USin 2014, it was used in 13% of IVF cycles, but by 2016, that figure had increased to 27%. Embryos that undergo PGT have to be frozen while the tests are run, which typically takes a week or two, says Bortoletto: You cant continue to grow them until you get those results back.And there doesnt seem to be a limit to how long an embryo can stay in storage. In 2022, a couple in Oregon had twins who developed from embryos that had been frozen for 30 years.Put this all together, and its easy to see how the number of embryos in storage is rocketing. Were making and storing more embryos than ever before. When you combine that with the growing demand for IVF, which is increasing in use by the year, perhaps its not surprising that the number of embryos sitting in storage tanks is estimated to be in the millions.I say estimated, because no one really knows how many there are. In 2003, the results of a survey of fertility clinics in the US suggested that there were around 400,000 in storage. Ten years later, in 2013, another pair of researchers estimated that, in total, around 1.4 million embryos had been cryopreserved in the US. But Alana Cattapan, now a political scientist at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and her colleagues found flaws in the study and wrote in 2015 that the number could be closer to 4 million.That was a decade ago. When I asked embryologists what they thought the number might be in the US today, I got responses between 1 million and 10 million. Bortoletto puts it somewhere around 5 million.Globally, the figure is much higher. There could be tens of millions of embryos, invisible to the naked eye, kept in a form of suspended animation. Some for months, years, or decades. Others indefinitely.Stuck in limboIn theory, people who have embryos left over from IVF have a few options for what to do with them. They could donate the embryos for someone else to use. Often this can be done anonymously (although genetic tests might later reveal the biological parents of any children that result). They could also donate the embryos for research purposes. Or they could choose to discard them. One way to do this is to expose the embryos to air, causing the cells to die.Studies suggest that around 40% of people with cryopreserved embryos struggle to make this decision, and that many put it off for five years or more. For some people, none of the options are appealing.In practice, too, the available options vary greatly depending on where you are. And many of them lead to limbo.Take Spain, for example, which is a European fertility hub, partly because IVF there is a lot cheaper than in other Western European countries, says Giuliana Baccino, managing director of New Life Bank, a storage facility for eggs and sperm in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and vice chair of the European Fertility Society. Operating costs are low, and theres healthy competitionthere are around 330 IVF clinics operating in Spain. (For comparison, there are around 500 IVF clinics in the US, which has a population almost seven times greater.)Baccino, who is based in Madrid, says she often hears of foreign patients in their late 40s who create eight or nine embryos for IVF in Spain but end up using only one or two of them. They go back to their home countries to have their babies, and the embryos stay in Spain, she says. These individuals often dont come back for their remaining embryos, either because they have completed their families or because they age out of IVF eligibility (Spanish clinics tend not to offer the treatment to people over 50).An embryo sample is removed from cryogenic storage.GETTY IMAGESIn 2023, the Spanish Fertility Society estimated that there were 668,082 embryos in storage in Spain, and that around 60,000 of them were in a situation of abandonment. In these cases the clinics might not be able to reach the intended parents, or might not have a clear directive from them, and might not want to destroy any embryos in case the patients ask for them later. But Spanish clinics are wary of discarding embryos even when they have permission to do so, says Baccino. We always try to avoid trouble, she says. And we end up with embryos in this black hole.This happens to embryos in the US, too. Clinics can lose touch with their patients, who may move away or forget about their remaining embryos once they have completed their families. Other people may put off making decisions about those embryos and stop communicating with the clinic. In cases like these, clinics tend to hold onto the embryos, covering the storage fees themselves.Nowadays clinics ask their patients to sign contracts that cover long-term storage of embryosand the conditions of their disposal. But even with those in hand, it can be easier for clinics to leave the embryos in place indefinitely. Clinics are wary of disposing of them without explicit consent, because of potential liability, says Cattapan, who has researched the issue. People put so much time, energy, money into creating these embryos. What if they come back?Bortolettos clinic has been in business for 35 years, and the handful of sites it operates in the US have a total of over 47,000 embryos in storage, he says. Our oldest embryo in storage was frozen in 1989, he adds.Some people may not even know where their embryos are. Sam Everingham, who founded and directs Growing Families, an organization offering advice on surrogacy and cross-border donations, traveled with his partner from their home in Melbourne, Australia, to India to find an egg donor and surrogate back in 2009. It was a Wild West back then, he recalls. Everingham and his partner used donor eggs to create eight embryos with their sperm.Everingham found the experience of trying to bring those embryos to birth traumatic. Baby Zac was stillborn. Baby Ben died at seven weeks. We picked ourselves up and went again, he recalls. Two embryo transfers were successful, and the pair have two daughters today.But the fate of the rest of their embryos is unclear. Indias government decided to ban commercial surrogacy for foreigners in 2015, and Everingham lost track of where they are. He says hes okay with that. As far as hes concerned, those embryos are just cells.He knows not everyone feels the same way. A few days before we spoke, Everingham had hosted a couple for dinner. They had embryos in storage and couldnt agree on what to do with them. The mother wanted them donated to somebody, says Everingham. Her husband was very uncomfortable with the idea. [They have] paid storage fees for 14 years for those embryos because neither can agree on what to do with them, says Everingham. And this is a very typical scenario.Lisa Holligans experience is similar. Holligan thought shed like to donate her last embryo to another personsomeone else who might have been struggling to conceive. But my husband and I had very different views on it, she recalls. He saw the embryo as their child and said he wouldnt feel comfortable with giving it up to another family. I started having these thoughts about a child coming to me when theyre older, saying theyve had a terrible life, and [asking] Why didnt you have me? she says.After all, her daughter Quinn began as an embryo that was in storage for months. She was frozen in time. She could have been frozen for five years like [the leftover] embryo and still be her, she says. I know it sounds a bit strange, but this embryo could be a child in 20 years time. The science is just mind-blowing, and I think I just block it out. Its far too much to think about.No choice at allChoosing the fate of your embryos can be difficult. But some people have no options at all.This is the case in Italy, where the laws surrounding assisted reproductive technology have grown increasingly restrictive. Since 2004, IVF has been accessible only to heterosexual couples who are either married or cohabiting. Surrogacy has also been prohibited in the country for the last 20 years, and in 2024, it was made a universal crime. The move means Italians can be prosecuted for engaging in surrogacy anywhere in the world, a position Italy has also taken on the crimes of genocide and torture, says Sara Dalla Costa, a lawyer specializing in assisted reproduction and an IVF clinic manager at Instituto Bernabeu on the outskirts of Venice.The law surrounding leftover embryos is similarly inflexible. Dalla Costa says there are around 900,000 embryos in storage in Italy, basing the estimate on figures published in 2021 and the number of IVF cycles performed since then. By law, these embryos cannot be discarded. They cannot be donated to other people, and they cannot be used for research.Even when genetic tests show that the embryo has genetic features making it incompatible with life, it must remain in storage, forever, says Dalla Costa.There are a lot of patients that want to destroy embryos, she says. For that, they must transfer their embryos to Spain or other countries where it is allowed.Even people who want to use their embryos may age out of using them. Dalla Costa gives the example of a 48-year-old woman who undergoes IVF and creates five embryos. If the first embryo transfer happens to result in a successful pregnancy, the other four will end up in storage. Once she turns 50, this woman wont be eligible for IVF in Italy. Her remaining embryos become stuck in limbo. They will be stored in our biobanks forever, says Dalla Costa.Dalla Costa says she has a lot of examples of couples who separate after creating embryos together. For many of them, the stored embryos become a psychological burden. With no way of discarding them, these couples are forever connected through their cryopreserved cells. A lot of our patients are stressed for this reason, she says.Earlier this year, one of Dalla Costas clients passed away, leaving behind the embryos shed created with her husband. He asked the clinic to destroy them. In cases like these, Dalla Costa will contact the Italian Ministry of Health. She has never been granted permission to discard an embryo, but she hopes that highlighting cases like these might at least raise awareness about the dilemmas the countrys policies are creating for some people.Snowflakes and embabiesIn Italy, embryos have a legal status. They have protected rights and are viewed almost as children. This sentiment isnt specific to Italy. It is shared by plenty of individuals who have been through IVF. Some people call them embabies or freezer babies, says Cattapan.It is also shared by embryo adoption agencies in the US. Beth Button is executive director of one such program, called Snowflakesa division of Nightlight Christian Adoptions agency, which considers cryopreserved embryos to be children, frozen in time, waiting to be born. Snowflakes matches embryo donors, or placing families, with recipients, termed adopting families. Both parties share their information and essentially get to choose who they donate to or receive from. By the end of 2024, 1,316 babies had been born through the Snowflakes embryo adoption program, says Button.Button thinks that far too many embryos are being created in IVF labs around the US. Around 10 years ago, her agency received a donation from a couple that had around 38 leftover embryos to donate. We really encourage [people with leftover embryos in storage] to make a decision [about their fate], even though its an emotional, difficult decision, she says. Obviously, we just try to keep [that discussion] focused on the child, she says. Is it better for these children to be sitting in a freezer, even though that might be easier for you, or is it better for them to have a chance to be born into a loving family? That kind of pushes them to the point where theyre ready to make that decision.Button and her colleagues feel especially strongly about embryos that have been in storage for a long time. These embryos are usually difficult to place, because they are thought to be of poorer quality, or less likely to successfully thaw and result in a healthy birth. The agency runs a program called Open Hearts specifically to place them, along with others that are harder to match for various reasons. People who accept one but fail to conceive are given a shot with another embryo, free of charge.These nitrogen tanks at New Hope Fertility Center in New York hold tens of thousands of frozen embryos and eggs.GETTY IMAGESWe have seen perfectly healthy children born from very old embryos, [as well as] embryos that were considered such poor quality that doctors didnt even want to transfer them, says Button. Right now, we have a couple who is pregnant with [an embryo] that was frozen for 30 and a half years. If that pregnancy is successful, that will be a record for us, and I think it will be a worldwide record as well.Many embryologists bristle at the idea of calling an embryo a child, though. Embryos are property. They are not unborn children, says Bortoletto. In the best case, embryos create pregnancies around 65% of the time, he says. They are not unborn children, he repeats.Person or property?In 2020, an unauthorized person allegedly entered an IVF clinic in Alabama and pulled frozen embryos from storage, destroying them. Three sets of intended parents filed suit over their wrongful death. A trial court dismissed the claims, but the Alabama Supreme Court disagreed, essentially determining that those embryos were people. The ruling shocked many and was expected to have a chilling effect on IVF in the state, although within a few weeks, the state legislature granted criminal and civil immunity to IVF clinics.But the Alabama decision is the exception. While there are active efforts in some states to endow embryos with the same legal rights as people, a move that could potentially limit access to abortion, most of the [legal] rulings in this area have made it very clear that embryos are not people, says Rich Vaughn, an attorney specializing in fertility law and the founder of the US-based International Fertility Law Group. At the same time, embryos are not just property. Theyre something in between, says Vaughn. Theyre sort of a special type of property.UK law takes a similar approach: The language surrounding embryos and IVF was drafted with the idea that the embryo has some kind of special status, although it was never made entirely clear exactly what that special status is, says James Lawford Davies, a solicitor and partner at LDMH Partners, a law firm based in York, England, that specializes in life sciences. Over the years, the language has been tweaked to encompass embryos that might arise from IVF, cloning, or other means; it is a bit of a fudge, says Lawford Davies. Today, the officialif somewhat circularlegal definition in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act reads: embryo means a live human embryo.And while people who use their eggs or sperm to create embryos might view these embryos as theirs, according to UK law, embryos are more like a stateless bundle of cells, says Lawford Davies. Theyre not quite propertypeople dont own embryos. They just have control over how they are used.Many legal disputes revolve around who has control. This was the experience of Natallie Evans, who created embryos with her then partner Howard Johnston in the UK in 2001. The couple separated in 2002. Johnston wrote to the clinic to ask that their embryos be destroyed. But Evans, who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2001, wanted to use them. She argued that Johnston had already consented to their creation, storage, and use and should not be allowed to change his mind. The case eventually made it to the European Court of Human Rights, and Evans lost. The case set a precedent that consent was key and could be withdrawn at any time.In Italy, on the other hand, withdrawing consent isnt always possible. In 2021, a case like Natallie Evanss unfolded in the Italian courts: A woman who wanted to proceed with implantation after separating from her partner went to court for authorization. She said that it was her last chance to be a mother, says Dalla Costa. The judge ruled in her favor.Dalla Costas clinics in Italy are now changing their policies to align with this decision. Male partners must sign a form acknowledging that they cannot prevent embryos from being used once theyve been created.The US situation is even more complicated, because each state has its own approach to fertility regulation. When I looked through a series of published legal disputes over embryos, I found little consistencysometimes courts ruled to allow a woman to use an embryo without the consent of her former partner, and sometimes they didnt. Some states have comprehensive legislation; some do not, says Vaughn. Some have piecemeal legislation, some have only case law, some have all of the above, some have none of the above.The meaning of an embryoSo how should we define an embryo? Its the million-dollar question, says Heidi Mertes, a bioethicist at Ghent University in Belgium. Some bioethicists and legal scholars, including Vaughn, think wed all stand to benefit from clear legal definitions.Risa Cromer, a cultural anthropologist at Purdue University in Indiana, who has spent years researching the field, is less convinced. Embryos exist in a murky, in-between state, she argues. You can (usually) discard them, or transfer them, but you cant sell them. You can make claims against damages to them, but an embryo is never viewed in the same way as a car, for example. It doesnt fit really neatly into that property category, says Cromer. But, very clearly, it doesnt fit neatly into the personhood category either.And there are benefits to keeping the definition vague, she adds: There is, I think, a human need for there to be a wide range of interpretive space for what IVF embryos are or could be.Thats because we dont have a fixed moral definition of what an embryo is. Embryos hold special value even for people who dont view them as children. They hold potential as human life. They can come to represent a fertility journeyone that might have been expensive, exhausting, and traumatizing. Even for people who feel like theyre just cells, it still cost a lot of time, money, [and effort] to get those [cells], says Cattapan.I think its an illusion that we might all agree on what the moral status of an embryo is, Mertes says.In the meantime, a growing number of embryologists, ethicists, and researchers are working to persuade fertility clinics and their patients not to create or freeze so many embryos in the first place. Early signs arent promising, says Baccino. The patients she has encountered arent particularly receptive to the idea. They think, If I will pay this amount for a cycle, I want to optimize my chances, so in my case, no, she says. She expects the number of embryos in storage to continue to grow.Holligans embryo has been in storage for almost five years. And she still doesnt know what to do with it. She tears up as she talks through her options. Would discarding the embryo feel like a miscarriage? Would it be a sad thing? If she donated the embryo, would she spend the rest of her life wondering what had become of her biological child, and whether it was having a good life? Should she hold on to the embryo for another decade in case her own daughter needs to use it at some point?The question [of what to do with the embryo] does pop into my head, but I quickly try to move past it and just say Oh, thats something Ill deal with at a later time, says Holligan. Im sure [my husband] does the same.The accumulation of frozen embryos is going to continue this way for some time until we come up with something that fully addresses everyones concerns, says Vaughn. But will we ever be able to do that?Im an optimist, so Im gonna say yes, he says with a hopeful smile. But I dont know at the moment.

The A+Awards are back, and with the Final Entry Deadline on January 24th, nows your chance to have your work evaluated by some of the most influential minds shaping the built environment. Our jury, comprised of over 250 experts from architecture, publishing, technology and beyond, reflects the diversity and innovation celebrated by the A+Awards. Each year, were thrilled to welcome new thought leaders whose expertise and vision elevate the conversation around design.To showcase your projects to this exceptional assembly of influential thinkers and doers, submit them for consideration for the prestigious A+Awards:Enter the 13th Annual A+AwardsThis year, were proud to introduce three exceptional jurors who are redefining how architecture and design are communicated to the world. From championing sustainability and equity in architectural storytelling to crafting compelling narratives for design publishing and developing cutting-edge communication strategies for creative industries, these leaders are shaping how the built environment is perceived, understood, and celebrated globally.Learn more about these inspiring champions of architectural media and how their unique perspectives are helping to drive the future of design discourse:Avinash RajagopalEditor in Chief, MetropolisAvinash Rajagopal is the editor-in-chief of Metropolis magazine, a leading publication at the intersection of architecture, design, and sustainability. A dedicated advocate for sustainable design, Rajagopal has spearheaded initiatives that address the climate, health, and equity impacts of the built environment, including the Climate Toolkit for Interior Design and the Interior Design Pledge for Positive Impact.As a historian of contemporary design, he has authored Hacking Design (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum) and contributed to seminal volumes such as Adhocracy, Making Africa, and the forthcoming Atlas of Furniture Design (Vitra Design Museum). A frequent speaker at global industry events, Rajagopal also lectures on design history and writing at esteemed institutions, including the School of Visual Arts, the University of Texas at Austin, and the National Institute of Design in India. Through his work, he challenges designers to rethink their practices in the face of pressing global challenges.Jill CohenEditor in Chief, Luxe Interiors + DesignJill Cohen was named Editor in Chief of Luxe Interiors + Design in 2024. Prior to taking the helm, she had an accomplished career in book publishing. Over the course of her career, Cohen has held numerous positions in the industry, including Founder, President and Publisher of Conde Nast Books; President, Random House Direct Marketing; VP of new business development at QVC and Vice President and Publisher, Time Warner Book Group, Bulfinch Press. In 2006, Cohen founded her agency, Jill Cohen Associates, which has produced hundreds of best-selling architecture and design books. Today, JCA continues as a Sandow Company.Jean Francois GoyetteFounder, Future FutureJean-Francois Goyette, founder and CEO of Future-Future, is a consultant and communications strategist specializing in architecture and design. He has extensive international experience working across various disciplines, including architecture, urban planning, communications, branding, and cultural strategy.He previously held positions as Public Relations Manager at OMA and Communications Director at Bruce Mau Design. At Phaidon, he was editor of the Phaidon Atlas of Architecture Online, the publishers largest editorial endeavor and first-ever digital project. Jean-Francois has also held posts within the digital departments of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Barbican Centre. He is trained as an architect and holds an M.Sc. from The Bartlett, University College London.Architizer's 13th A+Awards features a suite of sustainability-focused categories recognizing designers that are building a greener industry and a better future. Start your entry to receive global recognition for your work!The post A New Lens on Design: 3 Architectural Media Leaders Join the A+Awards Jury appeared first on Journal.

With how packed 2025 is for video games, its easy to forget that Retro Studios Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is launching later this year. Announced in 2017, the first-person title saw development rebooted in January 2019, and gameplay revealed after a long silence in 2024.Pre-orders have been available on Amazon since the initial announcement, but theyre allegedly being cancelled (with GameSpot citing a staff member with a since-cancelled pre-order). Though it reached out to Nintendo for a statement, there have been no updates.While some have attributed this to issues with Amazon, other factors may be at play. Perhaps with the Switchs successor on the horizon, Metroid Prime 4 could be cross-gen, prompting a fresh wave of pre-orders. Maybe the price has increased after all, some initial pre-orders were able to nab it for $48. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.The Nintendo Switchs successor will reportedly be revealed in March, with a release sometime in June. A hardware mock-up by accessory maker Genki made the rounds at CES 2025, which Nintendo clarified is unofficial.

A dispatch from Los AngelesPublished inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter4 min readJust now-- Were back with the Medium NewsletterIssue #244: Louise Bourgeois, imperfect information, and the best outdoor photography gearMy philosophy professor once tried to help me understand Kants theory of the sublime. Its that feeling when youre inside a house during a raging storm, he said, rolling a cigarette. (It was 1992 and students and faculty still bummed smokes off each other.) You get that tingly feeling in your spine because you imagine the danger, but youre ultimately safe because youre inside. He took a drag. If you went outside into the storm, you would just feel fear. The sublime depends on being safe.On Tuesday night in Los Angeles, where I grew up and have lived for the last 21 years after a stint on the east coast, it was supposed to be just a wind storm. With an increased risk of fire, sure, but Angelenos hear that all the time. I left work early so I could climb into bed with the dog and listen to the Santa Anas rage outside. This is always a rush, just like the professor said.Needless to say, this didnt last. I live in Silverlake, and am safe as I write this, even though there are five fires still burning. Friends from out of state ask what happened, but I know as much as they do. I dont leave the house because the air is heavy with ash and Im afraid I wont be able to rescue my dog if my neighborhood goes up in smoke. I too get the news by toggling between screens, and see the same images: smoldering ground, lifeguard towers on fire, abandoned BMWs.What I do know: Somehow, a brushfire started in the Palisades, and unprecedented winds made it impossible to contain. Then there was this puzzle: The city had enough water, but not enough water pressure to move it uphill (with me?) resulting in dry hydrants. The Eaton Canyon fire, which spread to Altadena and beyond, may have been caused by an electrical tower that caught on fire. A few years ago, SoCal Edison, which serves Altadena, had to cough up a big settlement after the Woolsey and Thomas fires and it will be, to put it mildly, annoying if it turns out they didnt learn anything from that.On Tuesday night my friend from Altadena called. I think I should leave, she said, in an eerily calm way. By Wednesday morning her house had burned down. Then another friends house burned down. Then a third. The Reel Inn, where I would get fish and beer after hiking in the Santa Monica mountains, is gone.Now, I feel something I cant describe, and its not the sublime. (Where are those cigarette-rolling philosophy professors when you need them?) Its a mix of horror, fear, empathy, a large amount of gratitude that Im safe and an equal amount of guilt. How are you? a friend texted from New York. I dont know what this feeling is, I wrote back.In between texting friends about all the places that burned down (Pali High is gone, I texted my Hami High friends), I stumbled upon this story by Luthfi Abdillah. He describes his relationship to a cumulonimbus, an SAT word for a menacing looking storm cloud. He (unlike me) succeeds in articulating a feeling that seems to have no name, a feeling in relation to something wild, something uncontrollable, something wondrous, writing the cloud forced me to slow my vehicle, turning my internal monologue into a soundtrack for the journey[a cumulonimbus] like all of natures elements, has its own way of being beautiful.Im not saying these fires are beautiful. They are not. What I grapple with is how thin the line between beauty and destruction seems these days, making it harder to get that familiar rush from the outside world. What are your thoughts?Also worth readingAs someone who struggles with writers block and would sometimes rather do a deep clean of the sink than write, I loved this story from the archives by Emily Sandiford about the artist Louise Bourgeois. Writers can learn a lot from her process (be bold, see the lighter side, respect the process). I especially loved her refusal to limit herself: She never committed to a single movement, and resisted narratives about herself constructed by othersSpeaking of the sublime, these photos of a sailing trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines by Cat at life+wild capture it for me. Orange and soot-colored skies over dark water, double-rainbows and neon pink clouds are a good reminder not only that nature continues to offer up a daily overdose of beauty, but that Medium is also the place to share your visual art, especially photography.Your daily dose of practical wisdomIf you too want to get out and document our wild, wild world (but stay safe please!) Derrick Story has some practical tips on choosing the best outdoor photography gear for bad weather. Two lesser-known brands that are built for the outdoors: Olympus and Pentax. They are tough, and they have great glass.

On This Day in HistoryThis Author, Famous for His Rags-to-Riches Stories, Forever Shaped How We Talk About the American DreamHoratio Algers repetitive stories reached their true popularity and became synonymous with social mobility largely thanks to retellings after the writers death An 1889 photograph of author Horatio Alger (right) Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsThe life story of author Horatio Alger, born on January 13, 1832, spent decades shrouded in misconception. Many of his papers were destroyed, and the first biography of him turned out to be a hoax. But that wouldnt keep his work from becoming ubiquitous in conversations about the American dream.Thanks to later biographers, Algers life story has become clearer. He was the son of a minister in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and his early interest in writing led him to study classics at Harvard University. Later, following in his fathers footsteps, he became a minister. However, after he was accused of sexually abusing boys in his parish, he was forced out of the church. His father convinced church leaders to keep quiet and promised Alger would never work in the clergy again. Alger moved to New York City and began writing prolifically.His breakout novel, Ragged Dick, opens with the titular shoe shiner waking up in a wooden box half full of straw, his bed on the New York City streets. The reader quickly gets to know young Dick, who polishes boots and has his vices but works hard. An illustration from theRagged Dickseries Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsThanks to his determination, Dick impresses several well-to-do city gentlemen who help him along financially. What seals the deal, though, is luck: Dick rescues a child who falls off a boat whose father just so happens to be a successful businessman. He gives Dick a job as a clerk, and Dick drops his nickname, instead going by Richard, leaving his early days fully behind.Many of Algers roughly 100 works featured nearly identical plotlines, following often-alliteratively-named boys (like Paul the Peddler and Nelson the Newsboy) who make their way from poverty to stable careers.Alger started his literary career after the end of the Civil War, when most of the rich came from wealthy households: He was writing in the spirit of his time, which was suffused with a longing for social mobility, writes journalist Alissa Quart in Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream.The authors fare was relatively popular (though not among literary critics) in his time: Upon his death in 1899, obituaries from the Boston Globe and the Harvard Graduates magazine estimated his books had sold up to a million copies.It was after his death that Algers derivative tales truly took off, selling millions of volumes thanks to a reissuing of cheap editions of his books, wrote historians Gary Scharnhorst and Jack Bales in their 1985 biography of the author, The Lost Life of Horatio Alger Jr. As the historians noted, publishers rarely reprinted novels where protagonists end the story only on the bottom rung of the ladder of respectability, and they edited and abridged the text of the novels they did reprint. As a result, Algers moral hero who becomes modestly successful became instead a successful hero who is modestly moral.After the books fell out of print again in the 1920s, they began to be remembered as tales of economic triumph and their protagonists as budding business tycoons. The stories took on a new cast during World War I and the Great Depression. Portraits of American authors, including Alger (top right) Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsAlger was at last transformed into a patriotic defender of the social and political status quo and erstwhile advocate of laissez-faire capitalism, Scharnhorst and Bales wrote.Though his work wasnt necessarily still being read, Algers name became a common reference in newspapers and magazines. It had become shorthand for the simple story of the American self-made man who used his determination to succeed in a land of equal opportunityignoring the older, wealthy men who usually lent a hand to Algers protagonists.In 1947, the Horatio Alger Association was established and began distributing an award named after the author, lauding those with a story of overcoming adversity through unyielding perseverance and basic moral principles. With high-profile recipients including President Ronald Reagan and Oprah Winfrey, the award has helped keep Algers name in the national consciousness.Even more than a century after his death, Algers name continues to crop up in discussions of the American dream and social mobilityregardless of whether his work is accurately portrayed or its ideas thought plausible.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Teresa Nowakowski|| READ MORETeresa Nowakowski is a print and multimedia journalist based in Chicago. They cover history, arts and culture, science, travel, food and other topics.Filed Under: American History, American Writers, Books, Literature, New York City, On This Day in History, Writers

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Square Enix updates harassment policy protecting employeesCustomers that harass the firm's employees and partners could face legal actionImage credit: Square Enix News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Jan. 13, 2025 Square Enix has updated its group customer harassment policy that protects its employees and partners.As detailed on its website, customers who harass Square Enix employees could now face legal action as a result of their actions."There are instances where certain customers take actions directly or through our support centers, or towards our group executives, employees, and partners," the firm said."Should Square Enix determine that an individual has engaged in an action against one of our employees or partners that exceeds socially acceptable behaviour or is harmful, we reserve our right to cease providing support services or to refrain from providing our group's products and services."Square Enix reserves its right to protect its employees and partners and to take legal action or criminal proceedings upon consulting the police and/or lawyers."

Astro Bot, Indiana Jones, and Helldivers 2 lead 2025 DICE Awards nominationsBalatro scoops up five alongside Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2Image credit: Team Asobi/Sony News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Jan. 13, 2025 Astro Bot, Helldivers 2, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle led the nominations for the 28th Annual DICE Awards, with each earning six nods.All three were recognised in the Game of the Year category, alongside Balatro and Black Myth: Wukong.Indie breakout hit Balatro was nominated across five categories, including Mobile Game of the Year.Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 also collected five nominations, with Melina Juergens recognised for her portrayal of Senua.Elsewhere, more indie games were listed for top accolades including Animal Well in four categories, Monument Valley 3 in three, and Mouthwashing for Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game.The 28th Annual DICE Awards takes place alongside the conference on February 13 at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas.Here is the full list of nominees for the 2025 DICE Awards:Game of the YearAstro BotBalatroBlack Myth: WukongHelldivers 2Indiana Jones and the Great CircleOutstanding Achievement in AnimationAstro BotCall of Duty: Black Ops 6Final Fantasy 7 RebirthNevaWarhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2Outstanding Achievement in Art DirectionBlack Myth: WukongIndiana Jones and the Great CircleLego Horizon AdventuresThe Plucky SquireSenua's Saga: Hellblade 2Outstanding Achievement in CharacterWatcher (1000xResist, Nhi Do)Yuffie Kisaragi (Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Suzie Yeung and Yumi Kakazu)Dr. Henry 'Indiana' Jones (Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Troy Baker)Indika (Indika, Isabella Inchbald)Senua (Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Melina Juergens)Outstanding Achievement in Original Music CompositionAstro BotHelldivers 2Monument Valley 3Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2Star Wars OutlawsOutstanding Achievement in Audio DesignFrostpunk 2Helldivers 2Monument Valley 3Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2Still Wakes the DeepOutstanding Achievement in Story1000xResistIndiana Jones and the Great CircleMetaphor: ReFantazioStill Wakes the DeepThank Goodness You're HereOutstanding Technical AchievementAstro BotBatman: Arkham ShadowIndiana Jones and the Great CircleSenua's Saga: Hellblade 2Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2Action Game of the YearBatman: Arkham ShadowBlack Myth: WukongCall of Duty: Black Ops 6Helldivers 2Stellar BladeAdventure Game of the Year1000xResistAnimal WellIndiana Jones and the Great CircleThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of WisdomPrince of Persia: The Lost CrownFamily Game of the YearAstro BotCat Quest 3Little Kitty, Big CityThe Plucky SquireSuper Mario Party JamboreeFighting Game of the YearBlazing StrikeDragon Ball: Sparking ZeroMortal Kombat 1: Khaos ReignsTekken 8UnderdogsRacing Game of the YearF1 24MotoGP 24Night Runners PrologueRole-Playing Game of the YearFinal Fantasy 7 RebirthDragon Age: The VeilguardElden Ring: Shadow of the ErdtreeLike A Dragon: Infinite WealthMetaphor: ReFantazioSports Game of the YearEA Sports College Football 25EA Sports FC 25MLB The Show 24NBA 2K25Strategy/Simulation Game of the YearBalatroCaves of QudFrostpunk 2Tactical Breach WizardsSatisfactoryImmersive Reality Game of the YearAlien: Rogue IncursionBatman: Arkham ShadowEscaping WonderlandSkydance's BehemothUnderdogsMobile Game of the YearBalatroHalls of TormentMonument Valley 3Paper TrailWuthering WavesOnline Game of the YearCall of Duty: Black Ops 6Diablo 4: Vessel of HatredHelldivers 2Marvel RivalsWarhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2Immersive Reality Technical AchievementAlien: Rogue IncursionBatman: Arkham ShadowSkydance's BehemothStarship HomeUnderdogsOutstanding Achievement for an Independent GameAnimal WellBalatroGrunnIndikaMouthwashingOutstanding Achievement in Game DesignAnimal WellAstro BotBalatroHelldivers 2UFO 50Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction1000xResistAnimal WellLorelei and the Laser EyesRivenThank Goodness You're Here

Time zones: GMT (UTC +0), CET (UTC +1), EET (UTC +2), MSK (UTC +3), CEST (UTC +2), BST (UTC +1), JST (UTC +9), CST (UTC +8), WIB (UTC +7), MMT (UTC +6:30), BST (UTC +6), NPT (UTC +5:45), IST (UTC +5:30), UZT (UTC +5), IRDT (UTC +4:30), GST (UTC +4), WAT (UTC +1), SAST (UTC +2), EAT (UTC +3)Please record a short 3-5 minute Loom video introducing yourself, walking through some code youve written recently and explaining why youre a great fit for the role. Dont forget to include the link with your application :-)About usCheckout Page makes it easy for businesses to sell online with our flexible no-code checkout page builder.Were a small, fully remote team of four: two co-founders, an SEO content writer and a customer support person.We value a calm and stress-free work environment, focusing on growing our company and helping our customers succeed.We're profitable and weve recently received funding from the TinySeed accelerator program, allowing us to grow our team.The roleWere looking for an experienced full-stack javascript developer to help us build new features, maintain existing features, fix bugs and scale our tech stack as we grow.As an early team member, you have the chance to shape our codebase, build features from start to finish and work across the entire stack. Youll be our first developer hire and will be working directly with the co-founders.Checkout Page is built on top of Stripe Connect. Youll regularly work with Stripe APIs.Being a payments platform, stability is extremely important to us and to our customers. We do a lot of manual testing, QA and write tests with Jest.Our stack:Frontend: React, TailwindBackend: NodeJS, Koa, MongoDBMarketing site: NextJS, Sanity CMSYour main tasks will include:Build new features from start to finishWork on UI/UX improvementsWrite test code to ensure stabilityFix bugsSince were a small startup, we need someone ready to take full ownership of the role, learn the codebase quickly, and start contributing from day one.RequirementsAt least 3 years of full-stack software development experienceProficient in React, NodeJS and MongoDBAbility to implement features across the stackGood written and spoken English skillsYour own equipment, including:A MacBookA quiet workspaceFast and reliable internet connectionHoursThis is a full-time contract role, 5 days a week.Our team is based in Europe (GMT+0) and South East Asia (GMT+8). You need to have overlap with both, thus we can not hire anyone based in the Americas.Tools youll be usingCursorGithubStripeSentryNotionSlackLoomInterview processSubmit a 3-5 minute Loom video introducing yourself, walking through some code youve written recently and explaining why youre a great fit for the role.Join a 30-minute call with the co-founders.Complete a 3-day paid trial to show your skills in action.If this sounds like a good fit, we'd love to hear from you!

OverviewWe're looking to hire for our Data Acquisition side of our AI team at Speechify. This role is responsible for all aspects of data collection to support our model training operations. We are able to build high-quality datasets at petabyte-scale and low cost through a tight integration of infrastructure, engineering, and research work. We are looking for a skilled Senior Software Engineer to join us.What Youll DoBe scrappy to find new sources of audio data and bring it into our ingestion pipelineOperate and extend the cloud infrastructure for our ingestion pipeline, currently running on GCP and managed with Terraform.Collaborate closely with our Scientists to shift the cost/throughput/quality frontier, delivering richer data at bigger scale and lower cost to power our next-generation models.Collaborate with others on the AI Team and Speechify Leadership to craft the AI Teams dataset roadmap to power Speechifys next-generation consumer and enterprise products.An Ideal Candidate Should HaveBS/MS/PhD in Computer Science or a related field.5+ years of industry experience in software development.Proficiency with bash/Python scripting in Linux environmentsProficiency in Docker and Infrastructure-as-Code concepts and professional experience with at least one major Cloud Provider (we use GCP)Experience with web crawlers, large-scale data processing workflows is a plusAbility to handle multiple tasks and adapt to changing priorities.Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.What we offerA fast-growing environment where you can help shape the company and product.An entrepreneurial-minded team that supports risk, intuition, and hustle.A hands-off management approach so you can focus and do your best work.An opportunity to make a big impact in a transformative industry.Competitive salaries, a friendly and laid-back atmosphere, and a commitment to building a great asynchronous culture.Opportunity to work on a life-changing product that millions of people use.Build products that directly impact and support people with learning differences like dyslexia, ADD, low vision, concussions, autism, and more.Work in one of the fastest-growing sectors of tech, the intersection of artificial intelligence and audio.What We OfferA dynamic environment where your contributions shape the company and its products.A team that values innovation, intuition, and drive.Autonomy, fostering focus and creativity.The opportunity to have a significant impact in a revolutionary industry.Competitive compensation, a welcoming atmosphere, and a commitment to an exceptional asynchronous work culture.The privilege of working on a product that changes lives, particularly for those with learning differences like dyslexia, ADD, and more.An active role at the intersection of artificial intelligence and audio a rapidly evolving tech domain.