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We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. QLED TVs are a step above budget LEDs and a step below premium OLEDs. One example is the 65-inch QLED Samsung TV Q60CB, which sits at a surprising price of $492.68 (originally $947.99) after a nearly 50% discount. This is the lowest price this TV has been since its release according to price tracking tools.ok! SAMSUNG 65" Class Q60CB QLED 4K Smart TV Screen size: 65 in, Platform: Tizen Resolution: 4K, Display: QLED, Refresh rate: 60 Hz, Aspect: 16:9 $492.68 at Walmart $947.99 Save $455.31 Get Deal Get Deal $492.68 at Walmart $947.99 Save $455.31 For those who are willing to pay a bit more than a budget LED but don't want to spend a ton, the 65-inch Q60CB is a perfect middle ground. Like all QLED TVs, you'll notice a difference in colors compared to budget TVs, with deeper blacks and a wider range of colors. However, this TV won't have local dimming technology you'll find in Hisense U7N or the TCL QM7, but that's why you're saving money. Some other things this TV will lack compared to newer or higher end QLEDs are HDMI 2.1 bandwidth (if you're not a gamer this won't make a difference) and variable refresh rate (VRR) support—again, mainly for gamers but also for streaming content with inconsistent frame rates. Gamers will be happy to know that this TV has a low input lag of 9 ms. Because this is a smart TV, you'll have the Tizen smart platform to download apps. If you're going to watch SDR content, the peak brightness on the Q60CB will be strong, making it able to handle viewing in bright rooms, plus the screen has good reflection handling. HDR content won't look as bright because of the lack of local dimming, but in dark rooms you'll still be able to enjoy the QLED picture quality. View the full article

California leads the nation with over 1.5 million at-risk properties, but many threatened homes sit east including $68 billion worth of Florida real estate. View the full article

Nexpoint Real Estate Opportunities has now made its own bid for the REIT, just days prior to a special meeting to vote on the merger with Ready Capital. View the full article

Dek: The health supplement company counts investors like Lewis Hamilton and Alex Honnold. Kat Cole is no stranger to a career pivot. At Hooters, she went from waitress to vice president as she worked her way up the restaurant chain’s corporate ladder. Then, over the course of more than 10 years at Cinnabon parent Focus Brands, she built a career selling sweet treats to consumers. In 2024, Cole made the leap from selling fast food to health supplements by becoming CEO of AG1 (formerly known as Athletic Greens), which sells a green multivitamin and nutrient powder. Valued at $1.2 billion in 2022, AG1 has been endorsed by athletes like Olympic runner Allyson Felix and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, as well as an endless roster of wellness and fitness influencers. (Some doctors have questioned the need for supplements like multivitamins altogether). Cole spoke to Most Innovative Companies host Yasmin Gagne about growing AG1’s business, the brand’s Ozempic opportunity, and whether she thinks it will ever end up in the grocery aisles. Listen to our conversation with Cole and a segment with Ankler Awards Editor and Prestige Junkie host Katey Rich, who explains how studios have conducted their Oscar campaigns this year. https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-studios-navigate-the-oscars-race/id1576874503?i=1000694523411 How does a former fast food executive come to run a health company? There’s a few ways to look at this. One is just the journey that I’ve gone on as a woman, as a mom, and over time how nutrition and health has become more important to me personally. We’re also so much more informed now. Even people who are in their thirties are thinking of healthspan and nutrition. There are things, like my mom getting breast cancer when my kids were very small and she was starting her business, or when I had my kids at 39 and 41 after a few miscarriages in between, that put nutrition and health more squarely in my focus as an individual. Health also became a bigger part of one where I believe consumers were going and therefore what the market opportunity and business would be. I am also a leader experienced running companies at scale, and 10 years ago there weren’t a lot of scaled healthful nutrition companies that made sense for someone like me to manage. Now AG1 is big enough for me to come in and lead this chapter. Do you have any guilty pleasures? I used to say everything in moderation. Now I think that phrase, in some cases, has been used to the extreme where in aggregate, a few things in moderation are no longer moderation. I think very seriously about what my kids see me eat and how we make decisions when I treat myself. But I am a human, not a robot. I treat myself once in a while with an ice cream or a cookie—I have a 5 and a 7-year-old During COVID, sales of multivitamins and supplements in general increased by 50% between 2018 and 2022. AG1 is 15 years old—how do you compete with the explosion of newer brands in the sector? In any market, the presence of growth and competition is an indicator of consumer demand. So as it relates to health and wellness, if there are more consumers demanding more options, then that means those consumers are going on a health awareness journey. As a businessperson, that means I’m in the right space. That said, consumers have more options. It can get tougher to appreciate the distinction between those options. So when I think about the things that are required to stand out today that may not have been on customer’s minds as much 10 years ago. That’s things like human clinical trials and research for supplements that is not required of the industry, but is what we have invested in for years. I think about third-party certifications—we’ve been NSF[-certified] for sport for eight or nine years, which is a third-party certification that not only verifies that what’s on the label is in the product, it also ensures there are no contaminants or doping agents. We pay a third party to keep our product all the way through the supply chain in check. Those are things we’ve always done, but years ago we actually didn’t brag about it. We didn’t market it because there was so much demand. Now we are showing proof of the third party studies we do. It’s a different approach to education information and go to market. I was surprised to find out there’s an even gender split among AG1 customers. I was surprised because I assumed that most would be men into biohacking. I assumed that as well when I was an early customer. I thought I was this outlier lady. Once I got into the business and saw the demographic split, I wanted to accelerate that shift to a more female customer base. When I joined, it was like 40% or trending that way, and now it’s 50-50. One reason [for your misconception] might be that some of our more popular creator partners thought leaders, academics, people with big podcasts, or platforms were male. The reality is women—and this has been accelerated by COVID—want to live long and strong. It’s not about being frail or delicate, it’s about fuel, it’s about strength, it’s about power and nutrition. What I see in our customers is the fastest growing customer group by age is 45-plus. As we get older, we age into new reasons to need to supplement and want to supplement an already healthy lifestyle, and there are new ways to afford a premium product. Our younger consumers tend to be athletes and fitness enthusiasts who really value their nutrition and take it more seriously. That has evolved over time. Then I started interviewing our customers, our female customers in particular, in the early years when I joined. What I found is they had heard about it from a partner, a trainer, a physician. Their recommender tended to be male in those earlier years. But then they didn’t have as many options being marketed to them as we have now. Now we’re in an interesting space where our split is 50-50 both for existing customers and new ones joining us, but women in particular are so marketed to in this space. It’s confusing. It’s difficult to know what to trust, and we have so many distinct life stages, from pre and postnatal, perimenopausal, menopausal, postmenopausal. There’s a lot of support that can come from nutraceuticals or nutrients to help with those life stages. So now the job we need to do for our female customers is being really clear where we fit into their stack and explain why they should trust AG1 in the confusing landscape of supplements. At Focus Brands, you brought brands like Cinnabon to different sections of the grocery aisle, with products stocked in the snacks section, and the frozen food section, for instance. Are you going to bring the same playbook to AG1? The core AG1 is this daily health drink in a powder form that people mix on their own in water or put in their smoothies. Retailers love this idea. It’s a very straightforward supply chain. It’s shelf-stable in its packaging, and there is built-in demand that is not necessarily being fully realized by the e-commerce platform. So retailers love the idea of a brand people know but haven’t yet tried. There’s brand awareness, product fit, and the format makes sense. You can imagine some retailers that have a heavy inclination toward sampling and education and letting people try and learn about a product before they buy. That’s the opposite of our current model. If you hear about it and you go online, the best value is to subscribe. So you’re actually subscribing before you try retail. Some of the retailers can help us reach a customer that we haven’t been able to reach. AG1’s valuation—$1.2 billion—is a huge number for a CPG company. And I think we’ve seen a lot of CPG companies struggle to live up to that kind of valuation. You have investors, including Lewis Hamilton and Alex Honnold, who are probably curious when they’re going to see a return. Is the company ever going public? I won’t speak to what the particular outcome is. That valuation was on $160 million in revenue we did that year. January 2022 was peak market fervor, there was a lot of froth. However larger marquee investors who came to the table are supersmart. They saw the fundamentals of the business. We were $160 million in revenue that year, growing at hundreds of percent with an incredible body of opportunity in front of the business. So if you look at what’s happened since then, we were at $160 million at the end of 2021, we’re projecting $600 million in revenue now. We’ve well over 3X the business. So even if valuations have come down to earth a bit, the business has grown unbelievably. And so our investors are very happy. Do you plan on launching more AG1 products? Our customers have asked us to launch so many things, but if we did it, it would create confusion. AG1 is foundational nutrition. It’s this idea that first and foremost, the best driver of health from a nutrition perspective is whole foods. Then this idea of something called a foundational nutrition layer, which essentially is nutrients and gut health support. Foundational nutrition is an idea that there is such a thing as a group of supplements that help most people cover many [health] gaps. It’s like the future of what the multivitamin was supposed to be, except no one takes a multivitamin and says, “my digestion’s better.” No one takes a multivitamin and says, “I feel more energy.” But they do with AG1 because it’s more comprehensive. This idea of having a foundational routine is the base of the business. As we innovate products, the question is: what do our customers need from us? And I’ll just give you a few examples. Might they be at different life stages? You can imagine what some of those might be that emulate some of the journey multivitamins. View the full article

An unsubstantiated online theory has recently taken hold, claiming that family vloggers are fleeing Los Angeles to escape newly introduced California laws designed to protect children featured in online content. In recent years, several states have introduced new legislation aimed at protecting child influencers from exploitation. In September 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom, with support from former child star Demi Lovato, signed two key bills designed to “ensure children and teenagers who perform in online content are protected from financial abuse.” One of the most important bits of the new legislation “establishes financial and legal protections for minors featured in monetized online content (i.e. child vloggers) by mandating that their parent or guardian set aside a percentage of their earnings in trust accounts.” With the passing of the law, California became the third state in the country to legislate protections for influencer kids, joining Illinois and Minnesota. Attention has now shifted to influencers whose children feature heavily in their content, some of whom have made seemingly abrupt moves across the country. Videos speculating about the real reasons for these relocations have gone viral, racking up millions of views. But the influencers themselves insist the moves have nothing to do with California’s new laws. Over the past year, several high-profile family influencers have either relocated from California to Tennessee or announced plans to do so. This includes the LaBrant family, who have 12.8 million YouTube subscribers; TikToker Cecily Bauchmann, who has 2.2 million followers; and Brittany Xavier, who has 5.1 million followers on TikTok. “I feel like that’s a little suspicious,” one TikTok creator posted. “I wonder how many of those are a direct correlation to the fact that now they have to pay their children.” All of the families have publicly denied the new California law influenced their move. Fast Company has reached out to the LaBrants, Bauchmann, and Xavier for comment but has not heard back as of publication. After users began flooding Xavier’s social media posts with comments regarding this theory, the influencer took to TikTok to shut down the rumors. “It has been a wild week on TikTok,” she says into the camera as she does her makeup. She goes on to cite a mold issue in their rental home as the reason for their hasty relocation. “The assumption that we moved to avoid paying our children is so laughable,” she says. “My income doesn’t depend on if my kids are in my videos or not. But we’ve always made sure to set them up financially regardless.” However, many in the comments remain unconvinced. “‘Found mold’ = laws changed,” one person wrote. Another added: “Brittany the likes and replies aren’t helping the cause.” Another theory is that influencers are leaving California due to its political leanings. Xavier herself hinted at political motivations when responding to a comment suggesting she “wanted a red state”: “CA leadership is a mess at the moment, they need help. Hoping here has competent leadership, we shall see.” View the full article

Microsoft Edge continues to position itself as the sensible, performance-centric alternative to Chrome, free of the bloat that Google's continual feature creep can sometimes result in. Now, it seems, the company is also coming after other browsers like Opera GX, as it's just copied one of that browser's most useful features. As reported by Windows Latest, Edge has recently added a new Resource Controls feature, which lets you severely limit how much RAM the browser can use. This can be useful while gaming (or performing other demanding tasks), and you can even set it to only limit RAM while you're in-game. You can give the browser access to as little as 1 GB of memory, too, so you can get especially stingy here, but note that doing so will limit you to about five active tabs while browsing modern websites. Pages might also take longer to load, especially if they have elements like video on them. Still, that might be worth it if you're really starved for RAM while running Edge in the background. Let's say you have 16GB of RAM and you're in the middle of a game. You could then limit Edge to about 4GB of max RAM usage, which should be enough to allow you to quickly check emails or a walkthrough without hurting your gaming performance. While Resource Controls has been in beta before, Microsoft is seemingly now rolling it out to the stable build of Edge for Windows, so everyone should have access to it now (or soon). To find it, first first update your browser to the latest version (under Settings > About Microsoft Edge), then click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and navigate to System and Performance using the sidebar that pops up. Here, scroll down to Manage Your Performance and toggle on Resource Controls. Credit: Khamosh Pathak You'll see a RAM slider that ranges from 1GB to however much memory your PC has installed. Choose the amount you want— Edge will warn you if your choice will slow down your browser, but it won't stop you. Finally, choose if you want to limit RAM only when you're PC gaming, or always. For convenience, I prefer the former—I don't really need it limited when I'm outside of a game. View the full article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's decision to drop its enforcement action against the credit reporting bureau marks the eighth lawsuit dropped by the agency in recent days. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Running is hard. Sticking to a training plan is hard. But knowing that you have a race coming up is a great motivator to get you out on the road when you’d rather be watching TV. If you’ve never run a race before, putting one on your calendar might seem scary: Will I feel out of place? What should I wear? How long is a 5K anyway? (It’s 3.1 miles.) I remember being nervous for my own first 5K. Actually, I considered signing up for probably half a dozen before I worked up the nerve to actually do it. I actually signed up for a 10K first, which was probably just a way to put it off even further; I survived the 10K, just barely, and was still nervous for my 5K a few months later. But in the years after that, I came to love the 5K. It's a race you can do on a Saturday morning and still have the rest of the day ahead of you. Most of them only cost about 25 bucks to enter, and they run the gamut from low-key small races to big ones with practically a whole festival occurring at the start line. Let’s warm up those cold feet and demystify what will actually happen at your first race, and what you can do to prepare. How do I know when I’m ready to sign up for a 5K race? There’s a real simple answer for this. If you’re starting to wonder whether you’re ready to take on a race, you already are. So go ahead and sign up, already. (I’ll wait.) A 5K, or five-kilometer, race is the perfect distance for beginners. It’s about three miles, which means the average person could walk that distance in about an hour. Most 5K races encourage walkers as well as runners to join, so you don’t have to worry about standing out for being “slow.” You could literally walk the whole thing and blend right in. Races are more fun and more welcoming than newbies often realize. Even if you aren’t normally the competitive type, the energy and atmosphere of race day can make for a great experience. A race is a great test of your physical and mental strength. Any old training run can be a good one or a bad one, but your first race day will be one to remember, no matter what happens. You’ll have a little extra motivation to push the pace, and you may be pleasantly surprised at what you can do. What’s a good 5K time to aim for?Since this is your first race, your goal should be just to have a good time. Finish the race, take note of your time, and use that as a baseline to improve on next time. There is no such thing as a “bad” time for your first 5K. But if you’d like to have a personal time goal, look back at your training runs. Have any of them been 3.1 miles or longer? If so, use your pace from those runs to calculate the 3.1 mile equivalent. (For example, if you ran 3 miles in 32 minutes, that works out to a 10:40 pace, which is 33:08 for a 5K.) You can do that math with a pace calculator like this one. Aim to beat your best training time on race day. That said, you’ll want to check whether your race’s course is similar to the terrain you’ve been training on. If you’ve been running on mostly flat roads, and the race website promises a “fast and flat” course, great. But if the race course is described as “challenging,” or if it’s on trails, you can expect some hills that will slow you down. Adjust your expectations accordingly. Can I walk during a 5K race? Absolutely! Not only are some people walking the whole thing, the point of a race is just to cover the distance as fast as you can. The faster runners will run the whole time, but plenty of middle-of-the-pack folks will mix in some walking. My first 5K, I couldn’t keep up a steady pace and ended up walking a lot more than I wanted. I still finished, though, and although I don’t recall my time I remember being pleasantly surprised by it. Definitely do not think of walking as shameful. We all do what we need to do to cover the distance. Think of walking as a tool that can reduce fatigue while still moving you closer to the finish line. Use it as much as you need. Will I get a medal?This depends on the race. Usually, at small races like a local 5K, medals are only for the top finishers—so, no, most 5K runners will not get a medal. If you're hoping to get a medal just for finishing the race—called a finishers' medal—those are usually reserved for longer races like marathons and half-marathons, where finishing is considered to be an accomplishment in itself. That said, there are 5K races that promise all participants a cool medal, so keep an eye out for those if that’s your kind of thing. In most 5K races, awards are given to the overall winners and the age group winners. Decisions about awarding medals are up to the race organizers, but a typical selection goes like this: Overall winners are usually the first three men and first three women to cross the finish line (there may be a cash or other prize in addition to a medal), and then age group medals are given to the top three men and women in each age group. The age groups will vary: Some races will have 30 to 39 as a single age group, while others will break it into 30 to 34 and 35 to 39. Check out the previous year’s results to see how competitive your age group tends to be. Who knows: If you’re a fast beginner, you might medal at your first race! How do I train for a 5K? For your first 5K, any amount of running you do will get you ready. If you’re looking for a general guideline, here’s a basic structure that will work (it’s pretty much the same as what I recommend for beginning runners regardless of goals): Three runs per week 20 to 30 minutes per run (can be a mix of running and walking) …for about two months before the race Here’s an example of a training plan along those lines, meant for absolute beginners. Couch-to-5K is another beginner program, which starts with a mix of running and walking and gradually phases out the walking. If you’re more experienced, you may like this intermediate 5K program, which includes five days of running per week. The runs are still fairly short, but they include some speedwork (fast intervals) and a weekend long run that ranges from five to seven miles. What happens on race day? First, you’ll want to sign up for the race ahead of time. At some local races, you may be able to walk up to a table on race morning and hand over cash for your entry fee. I prefer to sign up online to make sure I’ll have my spot. (If they offer a free t-shirt, they may not guarantee shirts to late entries.) The day before the race, there may be an option for “packet pickup.” It’s called a packet because you’re often given an envelope or swag bag that includes coupons, flyers about other races, and maybe some free samples of products or other items. But the most important part of the packet is your race bib, which is a piece of tear-proof paper with a number on it. There is usually a timing chip glued to the back. Make sure you have this pinned to your shirt when you’re running the race. On race morning, aim to get to the start line at least half an hour before the race; earlier is better. A typical race morning routine goes like this: Wake up, have coffee and/or whatever breakfast you can stomach. Maybe bring a snack for the road. Drive/travel to the race start (aim to arrive 30 to 60 minutes before the official start time). Pick up your bib if you haven’t already. Pin it to your shirt. Put any other items from the packet in your car or use the bag drop service if they offer one. Warm up. Take a walk or go for an easy, short jog. Stretch if you normally stretch before runs. Listen carefully for an announcement that you should start lining up for the start. Run the race! After you finish, rest as needed, grab a snack (snacks are almost always provided), and retrieve your bag if you left it at the bag drop. Stick around for the award ceremony, if desired. Go home and have a nice meal. And maybe a nap. What should I eat before a 5K? First, remember the number one rule: nothing new on race day. This is not the time for a new pre-workout, or for drinking coffee if you normally don’t, or for trying the breakfast your friend swears by. Eat whatever you can stomach. Good options will be mainly carbs, and the closer you are to the race start time, the smaller the meal should be. Classic runners’ breakfasts include: Toast or a bagel, maybe with a thin smear of peanut butter A banana A Clif bar or other energy bar that is mostly carbs (not a low-carb protein bar) A muffin, croissant, or cookie Yogurt, with or without fruit What should I wear to a 5K race? Your regular running clothes will be fine, but there are a few extra considerations. First, where will you put your bib? You're usually asked to pin the bib with your race numbers to the front of your shirt. If you'll be layering up, decide which layer gets the bib. You can also pin your bib to your pants or shorts, as long as the race rules allow. If you want to be fancy, you can buy a race belt that holds your bib on without safety pins. Second, about those layers. If it's a chilly day, you may be waiting around a bit before the start, and then you'll warm up when you're running. So you may want to have a long-sleeved layer that you can hand to a friend (if you have a friend staying behind as a spectator) or that you can tie around your waist as needed. Whatever you do, make sure your bib is visible. How do I calm pre-race jitters? If you’re nervous, just remind yourself that it’s normal to be nervous. Nervous and excited are two sides of the same coin. Think of those jitters as your body amping itself up to be able to give the race everything you’ve got. That warmup walk or jog will help you to feel more comfortable. Once the race has started, you’ll feel a lot more comfortable, mentally (even if you’re more uncomfortable, physically). The best way to deal with pre-race nerves is to plan ahead: Know where you’ll go and what you’ll do. Practice your pre-race breakfast and warmup on a training day. And just remember why you’re there. Your real goal is to have fun, to learn what it’s like to run a race, and to find out what kind of 5K time your body is capable of on this particular day. There’s no way to really fail at this. Keep a positive attitude, and if you decide you like racing but you weren’t happy with your time, you can always run another race later. How fast should I run my 5K? You may be tempted to run as fast as you can from the start, but take it easy. You don't want to go out too fast and then tire yourself out. Start at a slightly slower pace than you think you should. After the first mile, you can speed up if you're still feeling good. I like to think of the first half of the race as a chance to conserve energy that I can spend in the second half. The closer you get to the finish line, the more you can speed up. What’s a good heart rate for race day? This one is for the folks who train by heart rate. You probably have some numbers that you’re used to seeing on your training runs. The most important thing to know here is that your heart rate doesn’t matter on race day. And it probably won’t match the numbers you’re used to seeing. First, your heart rate increases when you’re nervous. The start-line adrenaline will likely have you in zone 3 or 4 when you’re running zone 2 pace. Do not waste time trying to get your heart rate down into a normal zone. Second, a race is supposed to be hard! You’re going to be running faster, for longer, than you ever were in your training. Your heart rate may shoot sky-high. It would not be unusual to see your heart rate in zone 4 for the first two miles and zone 5 in the third. That’s OK! You can do this! If your legs are still moving, you’re doing okay. Try to feel for a “redline” where if you went any faster, you wouldn’t be able to sustain it, but at the current level you feel like you can at least finish this mile, or this half-mile, or this minute. Just keep doing one more, and soon you’ll be finishing with a smile on your face. Or a grimace, but it will turn into a smile once the accomplishment sinks in. I promise. View the full article

Ayrshire resort owned by US president dropped from rota for Britain’s premier tournament after January 6 attack on CapitolView the full article

Authors in two separate Urban Institute papers warn how headcount reductions at the entities could negatively impact borrowers, taxpayers and the housing market. View the full article

The 2025 slate of Oscar nominees recognizes many writers, directors and actors whose scripts and performances don’t necessarily reflect their own cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley, both white, co-wrote “Sing Sing,” a story about rehabilitation through art in a maximum security prison where the characters are almost entirely people of color. Meg LeFauve has now earned her second nomination for penning a script that gives voice the gamut of emotions surging through a young girl in “Inside Out 2.” She’s in her 50s. The director of “Conclave,” Edward Berger, its writer, Peter Straughan, and its lead actor, Ralph Fiennes, are all self-proclaimed lapsed Catholics. Yet they brought to life a political thriller set in the Vatican. “The Brutalist” was written entirely in English, but much of the film’s dialogue is in Hungarian, with two leads who are not native Hungarian speakers. Most screenwriters endeavor to craft characters outside their own backgrounds and experiences. But concerns about authentic language representation and cultural accuracy persist, and accusations of cultural appropriation and lazy research are commonplace. “Emilia Pérez,” for example, has been heavily criticized not only for unrealistic portrayals of gender transition but also for inauthentic depictions of Mexican culture and accents. The film’s director, Jacques Audiard, has even claimed his lack of knowledge of Spanish has been an artistic benefit. He says it gives him “a quality of detachment” to emphasize “emotion” rather than “focus too strongly on the accent, the punctuation.” His lack of interest in precise depictions of language and culture contrasts sharply with our recent research, which shows ample interest from practicing screenwriters in accurately representing dialects and accents in scripts. Wanting to get it right We surveyed over 50 current members of the Writers Guild of America, and they broadly told us that sensitivity to linguistic representation has increased since the 2010s. Several commented that there’s been more commitment to hiring writers who represent the characters’ voices and backgrounds. There’s also more “freedom to include diverse characters and worlds… but a commensurate emphasis on authenticity and a higher bar for what that means,” as one writer explained. “Authenticity” was consistently cited in our survey as a principal consideration when writing dialogue. Other concerns included scripts’ intelligibility, historical accuracy and believability. In most cases, screenwriters aspire to write dialogue that sounds authentic. But it’s not easy – and often requires collaboration to get it right. Writers noted how they’ll adjust their dialogue based on production needs, such as budgetary concerns, input from actors and directors, and feedback from dialect coaches and historical consultants. For example, spec scripts – or noncommissioned film scripts – are written before any casting or production decisions are made. The dialogue in these scripts will likely change once actors and other creatives are attached to the project. Recipes for capturing linguistic nuance In our study, we also reviewed screenwriting manuals published as far back as 1946. Manuals didn’t begin to raise explicit ethical concerns, such as the use of inaccurate linguistic stereotypes in dialogue, until the 1980s. For example, many older films, such as “Gone with the Wind,” often used phonetic spelling in their scripts, with features such as g-dropping – “quittin’” for “quitting” – to mark only the speech of lower-class or racially marginalized characters, despite the fact that all people, regardless of background, have accents. Writing in heavy phonetics is generally discouraged in modern screenwriting. There are practical reasons for this. Scripts are read before they’re seen and therefore must first appeal to the not so general audience of executives who buy them. As one writer explained, “My script is targeted towards them.” Take “Trainspotting.” Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel about a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh was written with heavy phonetics to capture the characters’ Scottish dialect: “ah wouldnae git tae watch it.” But the screenplay uses lines without phonetics, such as, “I wouldn’t have bothered.” In this respect, there’s a notable difference in novels and their respective adaptations. One surveyed writer avoids dialectal markers and will “default to standard American English unless there is a reason not to.” That doesn’t mean the actors in “Trainspotting” should speak in an American English accent. Instead, screenwriters might simply indicate the use of language and dialect when describing the scene in a script or, as one surveyed screenwriter explained, “make a note in the parenthetical that ‘Brynn speaks with a heavy West Virginia accent’” to flag the work that “the actor, dialogue coach, and writer will need to do together.” This method is employed in “The Brutalist.” The film is partly in Hungarian, but writer and director Brady Corbet and his Norwegian co-writer, Mona Fastvold, wrote the Hungarian dialogue in standard English. They then used parentheticals to indicate any non-English delivery of dialogue. The film’s stars, Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, worked with a dialect coach to hone their accents. “Anora,” which tells the story of an exotic dancer in a whirlwind romance, features characters who speak Russian, Armenian and English with varying degrees of fluency. Even though the characters frequently switch between these languages, the entire script is in unbroken English. Code-switching is simply marked with “Russian,” “Armenian” or “English” in the script before a piece of dialogue. But limiting oneself to standard U.S. English restricts diversity in the written dialogue itself. Some writers may want to use dialect or language to convey character authenticity on the page. Our survey respondents described this as “flavor” – the strategic use of dialectal words or phrases to create distinct voices, with limited phonetics. Jesse Eisenberg, in his Oscar-nominated script “A Real Pain,” lightly blends American English with occasional Yiddish words to great effect: “… landed in Galveston for some fakakta reason,” or “crazy” reason. AI chimes in Attempts at authenticity can become muddied when AI gets involved. When making “The Brutalist,” Corbet controversially used AI technology to refine the movie’s Hungarian dialogue. Some questioned the film’s authenticity due to the use of AI, arguing that nothing can be authentic if it’s achieved artificially. But the film’s creators, including editor and native Hungarian speaker Dávid Jancsó, defended this choice. They argued the technology actually enhanced the language’s authenticity, particularly since Hungarian’s system of vowels and consonants is especially hard for nonnative speakers to capture accurately. Whether writers use phonetics or standard language, and whether producers use AI or dialect coaches, questions of ethics and linguistic authenticity will remain. It’s important to research language choices and dialogue, and to consult the diverse speakers portrayed in scripts. These are among the many essential checks and balances that are becoming bigger parts of the filmmaking process. Chris C. Palmer is a professor of English at Kennesaw State University. Mitchell Olson is an associate professor of screen and TV writing at Kennesaw State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

Prime Video has new installments of two familiar series coming in March. First up is season three of The Wheel of Time (March 13), an adaptation of Robert Jordan's fantasy books of the same name. Rosamund Pike stars as sorceress Moiraine Damodred, a member of the powerful Aes Sedai. The season opens with a magical battle between members of the order—viewers will get a three-episode premiere with five weekly episodes to follow. Also in its third season is Bosch: Legacy (March 27)—also an adaptation, this time of Michael Connolly's crime novels. A sequel to Prime Video hit Bosch, the series was originally canceled after its second season but was revived for a third and final installment. Titus Welliver reprises his role as former LAPD detective Harry Bosch working to solve his final case. Prime Video is also releasing Holland (March 27), a mystery thriller starring Nicole Kidman as a teacher and homemaker in an idyllic Michigan town, where mysteries and secrets begin to unravel her life. The film also stars Matthew Macfadyen (of Succession) as Kidman's husband and Gael García Bernal as her close friend. Here are all the originals coming to Prime Video in March. What’s coming to Prime Video in March 2025Available March 6For the Win: NWSL Picture This Available March 13The Wheel of Time S3 Available March 20Tyler Perry's Duplicity Available March 27Bosch: Legacy S3 Holland View the full article

We love our social media, and more frighteningly, we love getting medical information from social media. Almost 20% of Americans say they trust TikTok as much as doctors, even though 45% of the medical information on TikTok is false or misleading. Now, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open, the problem goes deeper: Social media might be promoting the overuse of medical tests such as MRIs. In some circles, such tests have even become a luxury status symbol. What the new study found Researchers analyzed a cross-section of 982 posts from account holders with more than 194 million combined followers on Instagram and TikTok. They selected posts referring to five different tests, which have evidence of being overused and failing to improve health outcomes when used for people who don’t need them. The tests included: full-body MRIs early-cancer detection egg reserve tests (which get used as a proxy for fertility) gut microbiome tests low-testosterone blood tests The researchers found that 87% of the posts mentioned the benefits of the tests, 84% had a promotional tone, and 51% encouraged the audience to go get tested. Only 15% mentioned the harms of using the tests, while about 5% minimized the harms involved. A mere 6% of the posts cited evidence, while 34% cited personal anecdotes. Overall, 68% of posters had a financial interest in the test they were promoting. “[Most] posts were promotional, were from account holders with some form of financial interest in promoting the test, and mentioned test benefits. . . . These posts have the potential to mislead the public to getting tested despite the lack of evidence to support these tests and the potential for harms related to overdiagnosis or overuse,” the researchers wrote. View the full article

Appointment is latest shake-up at Swiss wealth manager hit by exposure to Rene Benko’s Signa property empireView the full article

Ukraine’s president finds himself squeezed between two big powersView the full article

Time is ticking to file your taxes before April 15, 2025. If you've already do so, congrats! Now you can kick back and await that refund, right? Sure—but your relief will be short-lived. Once tax season rolls around next year, you'll again find yourself frantically searching for receipts, statements, and other documentation needed to file an accurate return. Instead of accepting the annual scramble, you can get ahead of the game by using a spreadsheet to track all your tax-related information throughout the year. And there's no better time to start than right now—when your tax knowledge is fresh as can be—to make your spreadsheet and start logging things away for next April. Make your own spreadsheet—or download this template I've created a basic template to get you started here. And I mean basic—this is for people who essentially just want to convert their Form 1040s into a spreadsheet, so all your yearly info is one accessible, editable location. I've included different tabs depending on what you want to track and just how thoroughly you want to track it. For instance, the first tab is a simple table that turns different lines on your Form 1040 into rows of data—making the information easily accessible from year to year. Another tab allows you to clearly list out your income and deductions throughout the year. I've even included a tab dedicated to home office expenses, if that applies to you. There might be some redundancies or glaring omissions based on your personal situation, so I urge you to take what I've given you and run wild with it. It's different strokes for different folks, and different spreadsheets for different...freaks. (It's a slant rhyme.) Basics to include on your tax spreadsheetYou can expand on the template above, or start from scratch—whatever allows you to get the most out this system. Give it a clear name like "2025 Tax Records" so you can easily reference it later. Remember, the goal is to have a single file where you can input and update information and keep everything centralized. To get started with a barebones tax tracking spreadsheet, create separate sections or tabs for different categories of tax information. At minimum, you'll want sections for: Income. This will track income from jobs, self-employment, investments, retirement distributions, etc. Deductions. List out anything you plan to itemize or claim as a deduction, such as mortgage interest, charitable giving, medical expenses, etc. Tax credits. Track estimated expenses that may qualify for a tax credit, like education costs, childcare, etc. Prior year tax documents. Keep a record of last year's tax return details and any carryover items. How to use your tax spreadsheetWithin each section, create rows and columns to track the details you need for tax time. For example, under Income you may want columns for: Date earned Income source/employer Amount earned Tax withholdings For deductions, you may have columns like: Date paid Expense category (medical, mortgage interest, charity, etc.) Amount Make updating your information a habitAs you earn income throughout the year, be diligent about entering the details into your income section right away, while it's all still fresh. Do the same with potential deductions as you incur those expenses. You can update your spreadsheet weekly, monthly, or whenever is convenient, as long as you stick to a routine. Keep digital copies of all your documentsAny time you receive tax documentation—like W2s, 1099s, donation receipts or mortgage interest statements— save digital copies and attach or link them within your spreadsheet file. This creates a handy archive of all your tax records in one spot. Using a spreadsheet to meticulously track your tax information throughout the year will save you the inevitable time and stress of having to reconstruct it all at the last minute. While staying organized requires diligence, that small effort goes a long way when tax season arrives. Your future self will appreciate having these detailed records ready to go. From the most thorough travel plans, to excruciatingly detailed journals, to elaborate to-do lists: If you have a goal, that goal needs a spreadsheet. View the full article

It is not hard to imagine that the US president and his deputy were spoiling for a fight with the Ukrainian leaderView the full article

US president says Ukrainian leader is ‘gambling with world war three’View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Sonos brand is well known in the smart speaker and surround sound space. And very much like Apple, people will pay a premium price for their minimalistic, premium quality, and discounts are often hard to come by. But today, the Sonos Arc, which was Sono's flagship soundbar prior to the launch of the Sonos Arc Ultra, is $649, $250 off its usual $899 price. It's also a new low price for this model, according to price-tracking tools. Maximum Output Power: 110 Watts, Connectivity Technology: Wi-Fi, Audio Output Mode: Surround Mount. Sonos Arc Soundbar $649.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $899.00 Save $250.00 Get Deal Get Deal $649.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $899.00 Save $250.00 Maximum Output Power: 110 Watts, Connectivity Technology: Wi-Fi, Audio Output Mode: Surround Mount. Sonos Arc Soundbar $649.00 at Best Buy $899.00 Save $250.00 Get Deal Get Deal $649.00 at Best Buy $899.00 Save $250.00 SEE -1 MORE Sonos speakers are not for everyone, if only because you'll have to justify paying around two grand for a complete surround sound system when you can get a setup like the Samsung Q990C for about half the price. But audiophiles swear they can hear the difference, so the cost might be worth it to you. If you pick up this soundbar, you'll want to consider the Sonos 300 rear speakers and the Gen 4 subwoofer to go with it—they're the latest Sonos has to offer, though you can choose Eras 100 or an older or smaller subwoofer to lower the price tag. As for the Arc, it offers Dolby Atmos, providing immersive three-dimensional sound with height channels that simulate audio coming from above you (you can read the details in PCMag's "excellent" review). It offers enough of a low-end kick that you don't really need a subwoofer if you have a small space. If you already own other Sonos speakers, you can seamlessly connect them through the Sonos app to create a surround sound setup or a multi-room system. View the full article

The Globeville, Elyria-Swansea and Commerce City communities in metro Denver are choked by air pollution from nearby highways, an oil refinery and a Superfund site. While these neighborhoods have long suffered from air pollution, they’re not the only ones in Colorado. Now, Colorado is taking a major step to protect people from air pollutants that cause cancer or other major health problems, called “air toxics.” For the first time, the state is developing its own state-level air toxic health standards. In January 2025 as “priority” chemicals: benzene, ethylene oxide, formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium compounds and hydrogen sulfide. The state is in the process of setting health-based standards that will limit the amount of each chemical allowed in the air. Importantly, the standards will be designed to protect people exposed to the chemicals long term, such as those living near emission sources. Exposure to even low amounts of some chemicals, such as benzene, may lead to cancer. As a researcher studying chemical exposure and health, I measure and evaluate the impact of air pollution on people’s well-being. Colorado’s new regulations will draw on expert knowledge and community input to protect people’s health. Communities know what needs regulation In your own community, is there a highway that runs near your house or a factory with a bad odor? Maybe a gas station right around the corner? You likely already know many of the places that release air pollution near you. When state or local regulators work with community members to find out what air pollution sources communities are worried about, the partnership can lead to a system that better serves the public and reduces injustice. For example, partnerships between community advocates, scientists and regulators in heavily polluted and marginalized neighborhoods in New York and Boston have had big benefits. These partnerships resulted in both better scientific knowledge about how air pollution is connected to asthma and the placement of air monitors in neighborhoods impacted the most. In Colorado, the process to choose the five priority air toxics included consulting with multiple stakeholders. A technical working group provided input on which five chemicals should be prioritized from the larger list of 477 toxic air contaminants. The working group includes academics, members of nongovernmental organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund – local government and regulated industries, such as the American Petroleum Institute. There were also opportunities for community participation during public meetings. At public hearings, community groups like GreenLatinos argued that air toxics because it can cause cancer. Additionally, formaldehyde is emitted in some Colorado communities that are predominantly people of color, according to advocates for those communities. These communities are already disproportionately impacted by high rates of respiratory disease and cancer. Other members of the community also weighed in. “One of my patients is a 16-year-old boy who tried to get a summer job working outside, but had to quit because air pollution made his asthma so bad that he could barely breathe,” wrote Logan Harper, a Denver-area family physician and advocate for Healthy Air and Water Colorado. How is air quality protected? At the national level, the Clean Air Act requires that six common air pollutants, such as ozone and carbon monoxide, are kept below specific levels. The act also regulates 188 hazardous air pollutants. Individual states are free to develop their own regulations, and several, including California and Minnesota, already have. States can set standards that are more health-protective than those in place nationally. Four of the five chemicals prioritized by Colorado are regulated federally. The fifth chemical, hydrogen sulfide, is not included on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s hazardous air pollutant list, but Colorado has decided to regulate it as an air toxic. State-level regulation is important because states can focus on air toxics specific to their state to make sure that the communities most exposed to air pollution are protected. One way to do this is to place air pollution monitors in the communities experiencing the worst air pollution. For example, Colorado is placing six new air quality monitors in locations around the state to measure concentrations of the five priority air toxics. It will also use an existing monitor in Grand Junction to measure air toxics. Two of the new monitors, located in Commerce City and La Salle, began operating in January 2024. The remainder will start monitoring the air by July 2025. When Colorado chose the sites, it prioritized communities that are overly impacted by social and environmental hazards. To do this, officials used indexes like the Colorado EnviroScreen, which combines information about pollution, health and economic factors to identify communities that are overly burdened by hazards. The Commerce City monitor is located in Adams City, a neighborhood that has some of the worst pollution in the state. The site has air toxics emissions that are worse than 95% of communities in Colorado. Air toxics and health The five air toxics that Colorado selected all have negative impacts on health. Four are known to cause cancer. Benzene, perhaps the most well known because of its ability to cause blood cancer, is one. But it also has a number of other health impacts, including dampening the ability of the immune system and impacting the reproductive system by decreasing sperm count. Benzene is in combustion-powered vehicle exhaust and is emitted during oil and gas production and refinement. Ethylene oxide can cause cancer and irritates the nervous and respiratory systems. Symptoms of long-term exposure can include headaches, sore throat, shortness of breath and others. Ethylene oxide is used to sterilize medical equipment, and as of 2024, it was used by four facilities in Colorado. Formaldehyde is also a cancer-causing agent, and exposure is associated with asthma in children. This air toxic is used in the manufacture of a number of products like household cleaners and building materials. It is also emitted by oil and gas sources, including during fracking. Hexavalent chromium compounds can cause several types of cancer, as well as skin and lung diseases such as asthma and rhinitis. A major source of hexavalent chromium is coal-fired power plants, of which Colorado currently has six in operation, though these plants are scheduled to close in the next five years. Other sources of hexavalent chromium include chemical and other manufacturing. Finally, long-term exposure to hydrogen sulfide can cause low blood pressure, headaches and a range of other symptoms, and has been associated with neurological impacts such as psychological disorders. Some sources of hydrogen sulfide include oil refineries and wastewater treatment plants. Jenni Shearston is an assistant professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

Tariff and layoff worries are leading some to reconsider pending deals, but a surplus of existing homes now has other buyers backing out as well, Redfin said. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. A lot of folks want to upgrade their homes with a remodel, renovation, or smaller project. But cost is always a factor (and a barrier)—the average renovation cost for a house is over $50,000. Those costs drive a lot of folks to watch way too many home improvement shows and attempt do-it-yourself transformations, but those kinds of DIY projects require money, too—not to mention some basic skills and at least a few tools. If you’re not someone who’s comfortable swinging a hammer or plugging in a power drill—or someone who doesn’t even own a hammer or a power drill—the idea of upgrading your house might seem impossible unless you’ve got that spare 50 grand. But there are numerous ways you can upgrade your house without the need for any tools whatsoever. Towel racksIf your bathroom or kitchen needs a place to hang towels and you don’t trust yourself to drill holes, hammer in screw anchors, and drive some screws home, you don’t have to: You can pick up some Command towel racks for both hand towels and bath towels. As you can see in this video, they pop on your walls using the same Command strips you find for hooks and other products (these are water-resistant for obvious reasons). While using a level might make this installation a little easier, you can actually download a bubble level app for your phone that will work in a pinch, or just eyeball it—the good news is that your towel rack will be relatively easy to remove and reset if you mess it up. LightingThere are a lot of options for upgrading the lighting situation in your house that don’t require any wiring, cutting, or wall opening. Lights like these rechargeable LED lights have magnets built in so you can slap them onto metal surfaces for instant, no-tool installation, as well as an adhesive backing so you can attach them under wood cabinets or onto walls. They’re motion-activated, so they can act as nightlights, closet lights, or kitchen work lights. And these stick-on lights are programmable and come with a remote control to make your kitchen feel truly futuristic. You can also find ceiling lights like this one that adhere to the ceiling without any tools, giving you the ability to add an overhead light to any room without hiring an electrician or drilling into your ceiling. Floating shelvesNeed some shelving for light storage? The High & Mighty shelf requires no tools and can hold up to 20 pounds of stuff (there’s also a 25-pound version). It even supplies its own level as part of the installation packaging, so all you have to do is stick the guide to the wall, push the brackets in using just your muscles, and hang the shelf. It’s a super easy way to add some attractive storage to your walls without drilling 1,000 holes. Grout pensIs the grout in your shower or kitchen backsplash looking a little dirty? You don’t need a grout saw, float, or even a stiff brush to clean it up or replace it. If the grout’s still in good physical shape, you can brighten it up in no time with a grout pen like this. You can find grout markers in a variety of colors, so you can clean up or transform just about any grout line in your house sans tools. Check the directions before you buy, though—some grout markers only work on unsealed grout, so if your grout has been sealed they may not work properly. Peel-and-stick everythingPeel-and-stick stuff has come a long way, and are a powerful way to reinvent any space without the need for tools or extensive renovations. Technically they’re not entirely tool-free, as you will probably need a pair of scissors to size these materials to your space, but since most people possess and know how to use a pair of scissors, I'm allowing it. Wallpaper is the easiest way to cover up an unattractive wall or just change the look and feel of it. Products like this one are also easily removed, so they’re ideal for rentals or for folks who change their minds a lot—and they can be applied and smoothed using just your hands. Floor stickers and tiles can upgrade your floors pretty easily. They can be installed on top of just about any flooring (including existing tile), so you don’t need to do any demolition—just cut as needed, peel, and stick. And these tiles come in a wide variety of styles, from faux wood to porcelain to natural stone. Another option to consider is tile stickers/decals, which are designed to be pasted on top of existing tile to give it a fresh new look. They can be cut to size, and then simply paste over your existing floor or backsplash (you can see it done here). Window treatmentsIf you want to add some window treatments without drilling and screwing, it’s pretty easy with shades that use a tension system—you simply insert the rod inside the window opening and let the pressure hold it in place. You can add roller shades, Roman shades, and even heavy curtains to your windows in a snap without any tools required. Faux headboardIf you feel like your bedroom could use a little upgraded classiness, you might think that adding a headboard must require some woodworking and wall attachment—but it doesn’t have to. You can create an illusory headboard on the wall behind your bed by sticking stuff to it. If you have spare wood paneling lying around, grab some Command strips and hang them on the wall. You can also use vinyl peel-and-stick tiles, or literally anything that can be arranged artfully on the wall to create the outline of a headboard without getting any drywall dust on your bed. View the full article

Eighty-four Indonesians freed from scam centers in Myanmar were set to return home Friday as the repatriation of thousands of such workers after a crackdown strains regional resources. The Indonesians were among more than 7,000 people being held in the Myanmar border town Myawaddy following a crackdown on the scam centers by Thailand, Myanmar and China. Two buses carrying the Indonesians arrived Thursday in the Thai border city of Mae Sot, where the passengers had health checks and their identities were verified. Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been lured to work in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos to commit global scams through false romances, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes. Many of the workers were recruited under false pretenses, only to find themselves trapped in virtual slavery. The Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said the 84 Indonesians, which included 69 men and 15 women, were healthy and will fly to Jakarta on three commercial flights Friday. The ministry had said last week as many as 270 Indonesians were stranded in Myanmar after leaving the scam centers, but it was not clear why only 84 were being repatriated. Judha Nugraha, director of Indonesian citizen protection at the ministry, has said that approximately 6,800 Indonesians have fallen victim to illegal job scams, ending up in online gambling operations or bogus investment schemes in Myanmar and several other countries over the past few years. The crackdown on the scam centers in Myanmar followed a meeting in Beijing in early February between Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Chinese leader Xi Jinping where she said Thailand would crack down on the scam networks. Thailand has cut off electricity, internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar hosting scam centers along the border. More than 600 Chinese nationals were repatriated last week. Earlier, some 260 people from 20 countries, including Ethiopia, Brazil and the Philippines, crossed from Myanmar into Thai custody. Many have returned home but more than 100 remain in Thailand awaiting repatriation, Thai officials said. The size and scale of the repatriation effort is straining Thai government resources and leading to delays for those waiting to go home. Officials from Thailand, Myanmar and China were expected to meet Friday to address the logistics of the crackdown as concerns grow about a possible humanitarian crisis along the border. Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report. —Jintamas Saksornchai, Associated Press View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Oura, the smart ring, is finally taking menstrual cycle data into account when assigning readiness scores—a feature whose absence has baffled users for years. The ring’s app was notorious for assigning lower-than-expected scores during the luteal phase of users’ cycles, but that is changing thanks to an update to the Readiness score algorithm that Oura announced this week. If you don’t have a menstrual cycle, or if you have one but don’t track it, you probably won’t notice anything different about your Readiness scores. But this update is a big deal for anyone who uses Cycle Insights, the feature of the Oura app that uses temperature data to keep track of ovulation, menstruation, fertile window, and follicular and luteal phases. Why many users had incorrect readiness scoresTo explain why this was an issue, I’m going to zoom out and give a quick biology lesson. The monthly cycle that’s sometimes called a menstrual cycle isn’t just about menstruation, i.e., the bleeding that lasts a week or less. Instead, the cycle is a phenomenon that lasts all month, with distinct phases in the first and second halves of the month. To be clear, this cycle doesn’t happen in everyone. It’s specifically a phenomenon that occurs in people who have a regular period and are not taking hormonal birth control. If you fall into this category, you can use the Cycle Insights feature of the Oura app to track when you are in the first half of your cycle (the follicular phase) versus the second half (the luteal phase). (An important aside: Every time I write about menstruation or hormonal cycles, I get someone writing in to tell me that “women” and “people who menstruate” are synonyms. Let’s just take a minute to discuss the fact that they are not. Not only can we acknowledge the existence of trans folks, non-binary people, and a strange species of human known as “girls,” it’s worth remembering that a significant percentage of women do not have a cycle! This includes women who are past menopause, and women who use hormonal birth control.) When your cycle starts on day one of your period, you’re in what’s called the follicular phase, as an ovarian follicle (which will produce an egg cell) develops over the course of about two weeks. Midway through the month—day 14 in a textbook cycle—that follicle releases the egg, ending the follicular phase. The releasing of the egg is called ovulation. At this point, the body’s temperature ticks up by about half a degree. It will stay at this slightly elevated temperature for the rest of the cycle, and the Oura ring can detect the change in temperature. The empty follicle stays behind in the ovary, secreting hormones, and becomes the corpus luteum, Latin for “yellow thing.” (Scientists are so creative.) In its honor, the second half of the cycle is called the luteal phase. Temperature isn’t the only difference between the follicular and luteal phases; all kinds of hormonal and biological phenomena are happening throughout the month, some of which have catchy names like “period flu,” but that’s a discussion for another time. What’s changing in the Oura algorithmAs Oura points out in their announcement about the change, the luteal phase tends to have a few detectable differences from the follicular phase (from the ring’s point of view): Skin temperature increases Respiratory rate increases Resting heart rate increases Heart rate variability (HRV) decreases All of these are things that, if they weren’t associated with the menstrual cycle, would indicate that a person is under stress or maybe getting sick. And so the algorithm (at least sometimes) processes this data as dings to your Readiness. Forums that discuss the Oura ring are full of threads with titles like “PSA to Oura: luteal phase is not a sickness” and “Anyone else get terrible readiness during luteal phase?” (according to the comments: yes). With that in mind, Oura is finally taking your cycle phase into account when calculating Readiness scores. They predict that 35% of users who track a menstrual cycle will no longer get “disproportionately negative” readiness scores in the luteal phase. They expect that scores will be four to five points higher for those people, and that there will be 81% fewer days with too-low scores. How to get the updated readiness scoresTo benefit from the new algorithm, you’ll need to be using the Cycle Insights feature. This requires you to input the dates that your periods start, and it detects temperature changes to determine when you are in the luteal phase. To turn on Cycle Insights, tap the menu icon in the app, then Settings, and then Women’s Health. There is a switch to turn on Cycle Insights, and below that you can enter some background information: whether you use hormonal contraception, how long your typical cycle lasts. So, yes, this means that the app will need to keep track of when you have your period and when you’re ovulating. If that makes you uncomfortable in the current political climate, I don’t blame you—but you’ll have to decide whether it’s worth it to get that slightly more accurate data. Oura has a blog post on their approach to reproductive data privacy, noting that they are subject to GDPR regulations (since they are based in Finland) and that they plan to fight any requests for data from legal authorities. The support page for Cycle Insights includes instructions for deleting your cycle data from the app, which you can do at any time. View the full article

Liberal nationalists must respond with imagination to US policies rather than gripe at being cut out of Ukraine talksView the full article