PFBNOW ADVENTURES!

  Everyone Is Capable of Mathematical Thinking—Yes, Even You Mathematician David Bessis claims that mathematical thinking isn’t what you think it is, and that everyone can benefit from doing more of it. Photograph: Laurence Geai for Quanta Magazine The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine . David Bessis was drawn to mathematics for the same reason that many people are driven away: He didn’t understand how it worked. Unlike other creative processes, like making music, which can be heard, or painting pictures, which can be seen, math is for the most part an internal process, hidden from view. “It sounded a bit magical. I was intrigued,” he said. His curiosity eventually led him to pursue a doctoral degree in math at Paris Diderot University in the late 1990s. He spent the next decade studying geometric group theory before leaving research mathematics and founding a machine learning startup in 2010. Through it all, he never stopped questioning wha...

  Musk's record $56bn pay deal rejected for second time. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk's record-breaking $56bn (£47bn) pay award will not be reinstated, a judge has ruled. The decision in the Delaware court comes after months of legal wrangling and despite it being approved by shareholders and directors in the summer. Judge Kathaleen McCormick upheld her previous decision from January, in which she argued that board members were too heavily influenced by Mr Musk. Reacting to the ruling, Mr Musk wrote on X: "[S]hareholders should control company votes, not judges."  

  Lauren Collins traces France’s current political mess back to its orgins—the moment when the situation “tipped from uncertain yet orderly into surrealistic and totally unpredictable.”

 

 

  Javier Milei’s constituents, like Donald Trump’s, believe that public institutions have ceased to represent them. In Argentina, a political strategist said, Milei represents “a repudiation of the political class—populist vengeance.” newyorker.com Javier Milei Wages War on Argentina’s Government The President, a libertarian economist given to outrageous provocations, wants to remake the nation. Can it survive his shock-therapy approach?

 

  Open headphones give listeners a new alternative. newyorker.com Popping the Bubble of Noise-Cancelling Headphones A new Japanese-designed device promises to “unmute the world,” as if it were no longer possible to do so simply by uncovering your ears.

  From 2011: Mindy Kaling enumerates the types of women we often find in romantic comedies, but that don’t exist in real life—the Klutz, the Ethereal Weirdo, the Sassy Best Friend, and more.

  League of Legends trading card game will bring teamfights to the real world. The director of the newly announced Project K explains how Riot is bringing trading cards to Runeterra.

  The case for lying to kids about Santa – from a philosopher.   Then I realised: there isn’t actually any evidence God exists. I only think God exists, because this is something people have told me. 

  Exotic New Superconductors Delight and Confound. Three new species of superconductivity were spotted this year, illustrating the myriad ways electrons can join together to form a frictionless quantum soup.

  'Her fans are making pilgrimages': How Taylor Swift's Eras Tour became a near-religious experience.

  The Secret to the Rise of Dinosaurs Could Be Hidden in an Unlikely Place.

  The 80-minute suite “All Life Long” is slow, hushed, and gnawingly beautiful, but it does not supply conventional musical comforts. newyorker.com The Meditative Organ Soundscapes of Kali Malone The eighty-minute suite “All Life Long” is slow, hushed, and gnawingly beautiful, but it does not supply conventional musical comforts.