A new prescription
AIs will make health care safer and better, reports Natasha Loder. It may even get cheaper too
Technology Quarterly: ‘Health And AI’ (April 2024)
News: Venezuela Election Candidates, New Minority Government In Portugal
The Globalist (April 2, 2024): Join Monocle’s Emma Nelson as she goes through the current affairs stories of the day, including Portugal’s new prime minister being sworn in and a review of the front pages with analyst Charles Hecker.
Plus: aviation news with FlightGlobal’s Greg Waldron in Singapore.
The New York Times — Tuesday, April 2, 2024
3 Top Iranian Commanders Are Reported Killed in Israeli Strike in Syria
The airstrike on an Iranian Embassy building was one of the biggest attacks yet in a shadow war that has increasingly been moving into the open.
Johnson Outlines Plan for Ukraine Aid; House Could Act Within Weeks
The G.O.P. speaker’s proposed conditions for sending a fresh infusion of military assistance to Kyiv are the strongest sign to date that he plans to defy critics in his own party and push through the aid package.
Florida Court Allows 6-Week Abortion Ban, but Voters Will Get to Weigh In
The Florida Supreme Court found that the State Constitution’s privacy protections do not extend to abortion. But it also allowed a ballot question on whether to expand abortion access.
The Church of Trump: How He’s Infusing Christianity Into His Movement
Ending many of his rallies with a churchlike ritual and casting his prosecutions as persecution, the former president is demanding — and receiving — new levels of devotion from Republicans.
Preview: Philosophy Now Magazine April/May 2024
How to Have a Good Life
Meena Danishmal asks if Seneca’s account of the good life is really practical.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the adjective ‘stoical’ means “resembling a Stoic in austerity, indifference, fortitude, repression of feeling and the like”. This gives us some idea of what it is like to be a Stoic. Indeed, the key teaching, arguably the fundamental point, of Stoicism, is that we should focus on controlling the things that are under our control, such as our thoughts, emotions, and actions, whilst accepting those things we cannot control, such as most things that are happening in the world. How did they get there?
To consider this question let’s look at the ideas of the Roman philosopher and statesman Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (4 BCE-65 CE). As a top advisor to the paranoid and murderous Emperor Nero, he probably found Stoicism a particularly practical guide to life.
As a Stoic, Seneca believed the soul (Latin: anima or animus) to be a finer form of matter than the body; but matter it is. It was also described as a spark of the fire which had consumed the original matter. With such an understanding of the soul, where does the soul reside within the body? Stoics provided a rather simple answer: everywhere. The soul was considered to be a vital force that animates the whole body. The soul was also the source of reason, virtue, and moral character, which is what Stoic philosophy is built upon, as the rational soul guides individuals towards living in accordance with nature.
For us to understand this concept further, it’s vital to grasp the Stoic conception of reality. Stoics see the universe as interconnected and interwoven, and this unified cosmos as governed by rational principles. Within this holistic perspective, the soul is seen as part of the divine rational order of the universe. This understanding forms the basis of Stoic ethics, which emphasises the importance of cultivating reason and virtue in all aspects of life. This encouragement to align thoughts, actions, and desires with principles of reason, is a way for the soul to flourish.
Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – April 8, 2024
So You Think You’ve Been Gaslit
What happens when a niche clinical concept becomes a ubiquitous cultural diagnosis.
When Leah started dating her first serious boyfriend, as a nineteen-year-old sophomore at Ohio State, she had very little sense that sex was supposed to feel good. (Leah is not her real name.) In the small town in central Ohio where she grew up, sex ed was basically like the version she remembered from the movie “Mean Girls”: “Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant and die.”
Black Holes Are Even Weirder Than You Imagined
It’s now thought that they could illuminate fundamental questions in physics, settle questions about Einstein’s theories, and even help explain the universe.
Black holes are, of course, awesome. But, for scientists, they are more awesome. If a rainbow is marvellous, then understanding how all the colors of the rainbow are present, unified, in ordinary white light—that’s more marvellous. (Though, famously, in his poem “Lamia,” John Keats disagreed, blaming “cold philosophy” for unweaving the rainbow.) In recent years, the amount of data that scientists have discovered about black holes has grown exponentially. In January, astronomers announced that the James Webb Space Telescope had observed the oldest black hole yet—one present when the universe was a mere four hundred million years old. (It’s estimated that it’s now 13.8 billion years old.) Recently, two supermassive black holes, with a combined mass of twenty-eight billion suns, were measured and shown to have been rotating tightly around each other, but not colliding, for the past three billion years. And those are just the examples that are easiest for the public to make some sense of. To me, a supermassive black hole sounds sublime; to a scientist, it can also be a test of wild hypotheses. “Astrophysics is an exercise in incredible experiments not runnable on Earth,” Avery Broderick, a theoretical physicist at the University of Waterloo and at the Perimeter Institute, told me. “And black holes are an ideal laboratory.”
News: Elections In Turkey, Diplomacy In Australia, Vacancy Taxes In Austria
The Globalist (April 1, 2024): Voters head to the polls in Turkey to vote in local and mayoral elections in what’s being seen as a test for President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan.
Plus: the return of Isis, Australia’s diplomatic deficit and Austria’s vacancy tax.
The New York Times — Monday, April 1, 2024
Some Potential Trump Witnesses Get Carrots. Michael Cohen Got the Stick.
Former President Donald J. Trump has taken different approaches to those who may testify at his trials. Some, he attacks publicly. Others he rewards for loyalty.
Protests Against Netanyahu Intensify as Cease-Fire Talks Resume
Thousands have taken to the streets of Israel to demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be replaced.
‘A Chance to Live’: How 2 Families Faced a Catastrophic Birth Defect
Cases of trisomy 18 may rise as many states restrict abortion. But some women choose to have the babies, love them tenderly and care for them devotedly.
The New York Times Magazine – March 31, 2024
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (March 30, 2024):
The Race to Reinvent CPR
A new, high-tech approach called ECPR can restart more hearts and save more lives. Why aren’t more hospitals embracing it?
By Helen Ouyang
Greg Hayes, an emergency first responder in Chanhassen, Minn., was picking up takeout sushi when a 911 call came in: A 61-year-old had stopped breathing at home. Hayes and his team jumped in their ambulance and were soon pulling up in front of a suburban two-story house, where paramedics and other first responders were also arriving. All of them grabbed their equipment and raced through the open garage to find a man, gray and still, on the living-room floor with his wife and stepdaughter nearby.
How Has Retirement Changed Your Relationship?
We want to hear from you for a New York Times Magazine feature about how this transition can affect marriages and long-term relationships.
When people think about stages of life that can strain relationships, they often reflect on the first sleepless years of child rearing or the phase of parenting that involves rebellious teens. Retirement, typically anticipated as a time of relaxation, might not come to mind, but this transition away from work can also be stressful, coinciding with reinventions and re-evaluations that can cause couples to suddenly experience new tensions. It can also be a time of renewed connection and relationship growth. Often, it’s both at once.
Sunday Morning: Stories And News Analysis From London, Zürich & Istanbul
Monocle on Sunday, March 31, 2024: Emma Nelson, Charles Hecker and Yossi Mekelberg on the weekend’s biggest talking points.
We also speak to Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, in Zürich and get the latest on Turkey’s local elections with Monocle’s Istanbul correspondent, Hannah Lucinda Smith.
The New York Times — Sunday, March 31, 2024
‘Shortcuts Everywhere’: How Boeing Favored Speed Over Quality
Problems have plagued the manufacturer even after two fatal crashes, and many current and former employees blame its focus on making planes more quickly.
A Russian Defector’s Killing Raises Specter of Hit Squads
The death in Spain of Maksim Kuzminov, a pilot who delivered a helicopter and secret documents to Ukraine, has raised fears that the Kremlin is again targeting its enemies.
A Stork, a Fisherman and Their Unlikely Bond Enchant Turkey
Thirteen years ago, a stork landed on a fisherman’s boat looking for food. He has come back every year since, drawing national attention.
A Loyal Israel Ally, Germany Shifts Tone as the Toll in Gaza Mounts
Supporting Israel is seen as a historic duty in Germany, but the worsening crisis has pushed German officials to ask whether that backing has gone too far.
Boomers Daily 