What's on Your Mind?

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece The Great Gatsby conjures up images of gilded Art Deco opulence: cloche hats and shimmering flapper dresses; a freeflow of French 75s and festivities. And that’s thanks, in part, to kaleidoscopic films like Baz Lurhmann’s 2013 adaptation of the novel. But when you read Gatsby, you discover a less glamorous narrative that has perhaps been overshadowed by contemporary Jazz Age visual clichés—one that is essentially a dark portrait of its times with a bit of rot at its core, thanks to the titular swindling bootlegger Jay Gatsby. And that’s what luxe publisher The Folio Society sought to reflect in its brilliant limited-edition illustrat…

The commercial starts with an actor sitting in front of a TV, remote in hand. Suddenly the world around her changes, and she changes, too, as makeup artists transform her from a couch potato to a Victorian-era lady to a skeleton buried in dirt. The time-lapse filming looks like AI, but it’s exactly the opposite. In fact, the 90-second commercial—shot for BritBox’s first ever brand campaign—is the product of a single, continuous shot that took 14 hours, 45 minutes, and 31 seconds, and was filmed with 11 different sets, at one frame per second using a precision motion control unit. The British streaming service is aiming to woo potential subscribers with its attention to de…

Camb.ai is on a mission to disrupt the dominance of English in global media. Founded in 2022, the AI-powered platform specializes in real-time translation that retains a speaker’s emotional resonance—processing content up to 20 times faster than traditional dubbing services. Major League Soccer now uses Camb.ai’s technology for live broadcasts. But the company has also found unexpected demand in markets like video advertising and the localization of interactive smart toys. To power its growth, Camb.ai has raised $15.5 million to date. The platform now supports translations in more than 150 languages—including Maleku, spoken by just 500 people. CEO Avneesh Prak…

When Anirudh Rao was 4 years old and living in Nashville, his friend’s house was destroyed by a tornado. A year later—yes, as a kindergartner—Rao started sketching a potential solution for better tornado warnings. Now 12 years old and living in Colorado, Rao is pursuing a more advanced version of his concept: a network of drones that could theoretically sense infrasound, a wave phenomenon emitted before and during tornadoes with frequencies below the threshold of human hearing. “On the outskirts of the city, there’ll be a base station and a network of autonomous drones that fly in all directions,” says Rao. He envisions sensors detecting infrasound along with temp…

Le Creuset turned 100, and to celebrate, it released a new cookware collection in a hue inspired by its original color, Flame. Named Flamme Dorée, French for “golden flame,” the set includes round and oval dutch ovens, a braiser, and a saucepan in a rich orange gradient with a shimmering gold finish. Prices for the Flamme Dorée pieces range from $310 to $860, which is more expensive than its standard lines—especially premium prices for what the company is positioning as a special occasion product. The French cookware brand was first known for its orange enameled cast iron cocottes, and it now sells products in a range of more than 200 colors. Last year it par…

The Minecraft movie is crass, dumb, and barely coherent. It also just made almost $163 million at the domestic box office over its opening weekend. Video game adaptations have been on a hot streak in recent years. In 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie crossed the billion-dollar mark, nearly unseating Barbie as the year’s top-grossing film. Amazon’s Fallout shattered records with 2.5 billion viewing minutes in its debut week. And now, A Minecraft Movie stands as the highest-grossing film since Deadpool & Wolverine. Hollywood’s obsession with intellectual property—from comic book heroes to kids’ toys—is nothing new. But for decades, video games were the outliers…

Is doomscrolling on your phone unhealthy for your brain? Oxford University Press’s word of the year, “brain rot,” seems to suggest so. It defines the condition as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.” The key word, though, is “supposed,” as there is there is no such thing as mindless scrolling, says Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, the author of The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience and a Harvard physician who specializes in stress. “’Brain rot’ is not a word or phras…

The Mojave Micro Mill just broke ground in the Mojave Desert about 85 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It’ll be the first steel mill to open in California in more than half a century when it begins production in two years. More notable, it’ll do so using local sun and wind power, making it the first self-powered, net-zero steel mill in the country. Mojave Micro will make rebar—the thin rods of steel used to reinforce concrete walls and floors—out of recycled scrap steel using a net-zero manufacturing process. Eric Benson, CEO of Pacific Steel Group, which will operate the plant, said the company had started to strategize about a new facility a few years ago. Sinc…

The Great Gatsby, Maintaining relevance after 100 years in the public consciousness is no small feat, but that’s exactly what the American novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has managed to do. First published by Charles Scribner’s Sons on April 10, 1925, it initially received mixed reviews and was a commercial failure. As this now-beloved novel celebrates its centennial, how did it finally find an audience and what are its most-enduring themes? Also, here’s to maybe catch a bit of the bash. From failure to required reading Fitzgerald died in 1940 from a heart attack thinking he had failed as a writer. What he didn’t know was that Gatsby had been chose…

Basketball great LeBron James has become the first professional male athlete to have his likeness depicted in a Ken doll. Mattel Inc. unveiled the LeBron Ken doll on Wednesday to kick off the toy manufacturer’s “Kenbassador” series. Last year, nine female athlete Barbies, including tennis star Venus Williams, were introduced. “As a young kid, I was fortunate to have role models who not only inspired me but also showed me what’s possible through hard work and dedication,” James said. “Now, as an adult, I understand how vital it is for young people to have positive figures to look up to. That’s why partnering with Barbie to release the LeBron James Kenbassadors doll…

U.S. pediatricians and infectious disease experts say the fight against rising measles cases nationwide is being hampered by a lack of forceful advocacy for vaccination from government health officials and statements on unproven treatments that are confusing parents. Since January, 505 people have been infected in Texas and more than 90 total in neighboring New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas. Two children have died in Texas, including an 8-year-old girl last week, and an adult death in New Mexico is under investigation. The United States has more than 600 known cases and outbreaks in six states, according to HHS. Dr. Sue Kressly, president of the American Academy of …

The Netherlands expanded a government-run initiative on Monday allowing legal cannabis sales. While growing cannabis is still illegal, cannabis shops—known as coffeeshops—in 10 municipalities will be allowed to sell marijuana from 10 licensed producers. “Weed was sold here legally for 50 years, but the production was never legal. So it’s finally time to end that crazy, unexplainable situation and make it a legal professional sector,” Rick Bakker, commercial director at Hollandse Hoogtes, one of the regulated producers, told the Associated Press. Some 80 coffeeshops are taking part in the experiment which advocates hope this will ultimately end a long-standing …