The First and Second amendments are the rock stars of the Bill of Rights. Everybody knows about them, even if theyre not always big fans, and they frequently pop up in national discourse. The Third Amendment, on the other hand, is more like the Yngwie Malmsteen of the Bill of Rights. Much like that Swedish neoclassical metal guitarist, relatively few people know about the Third Amendment, but those who do tend to be effusive about it.
Now, though, thanks to President Trumps deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to quell protests against a recent immigration crackdown in the downtown area, the esoteric cult of Third-heads is celebrating on social media this week. Their enthusiasmand the memes fueled by itare lending this obscure amendment some rock star swagger.
For the uninitiated, the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. In other words, it protects citizens from ever having to prepare blow-up mattresses and fresh towels for heavily armed houseguests at the behest of the federal government.
X and Bluesky users started invoking the Third Amendment as National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles, uninvited by California Governor Gavin Newsom. (It was the first time in 60 years that a president deployed troops in the U.S. without a request from a states governor.) Once news spread that troops had entered the cityat a taxpayer cost of $134 millionwith only minimal preparation and supplies, forcing them to sleep on floors, social media went berserk.
You sent your troops here without fuel, food, water or a place to sleep.Here they are being forced to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another. If anyone is treating our troops disrespectfully, it is you @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/4i8VIiYZLr pic.twitter.com/sUYD2KHu6O— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 9, 2025
One strain of posting focuses on the deep-cut nature of this amendment and the rarity of its usage. Some social media users are noting the foresight of the founding fathers, and resurfacing an old John Mulaney bit that succinctly summarizes the Third Amendment as The army cant stay at ya house.
Others are noting the celestial-event-like power of the amendments fresh relevance, and how it has transformed those rare Third Amendment scholars into in-demand experts at the moment. (Clear your schedule, professor Leonard Niehoff!) Not only will that expertise shed light on how the amendment applied in the past, it could also come in handy during any potential SCOTUS cases about how the amendment should be used in the futurea prospect some observers seem perhaps a little too giddy about.
Me to the 3rd Amendment:— probablyRob (@probably-rob.bsky.social) 2025-06-09T19:55:07.019Z
The vast majority of this wave of Third-posting comes from users on Bluesky and X who find it hysterical both that soldiers would even want to stay at their apartment, and that there is a law expressly prohibiting it. Theyre celebrating the Third Amendments newfound relevance by either imagining politely declining a soldiers request to commandeer their bedroom, or by offering a tongue-in-cheek plea for proud patriots to bring in a stray soldier today.
A lot of these posts tend to rely on classic macro formats, like the Undertaker standing behind AJ Styles, with the amendment itself embodying some aspect of the meme.
pic.twitter.com/69DuAMAbpv— Jim Amendments III (@jimamendments) June 10, 2025
— Luke Knox (@lukeknox.me) 2025-06-09T19:34:22.819Z
Coincidentally, an unrelated Third Amendment meme about not letting ones military boyfriend stay overnight had been circulating on TikTok since last fall, when the initial video scored 9 million views. There is an earlier and more relevant precedent to the current crop of memes, though. Back in 2020, governors across America requested troops to help contain the protests around George Floyds murder at the hands of police. Users of X, then called Twitter, quickly started cracking jokes about the long-awaited utility of the Third Amendment finally coming into play. The Onions Twitter account even took the occasion as a chance to revive a headline originally shared in 2007: Third Amendment Rights Group Celebrates Another Successful Year.
Considering that Trump has promised to use very heavy force against protesters during the upcoming military parade on June 14 to celebrate his birthday, these memes will likely continue having a place to stay on social media in the near future.
The look of the NBA Finals basketball court is being reconsidered, and we could have the fans to thank.
At Game 2 last Friday, the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder played on the Thunder’s home court. The Thunder Blue court shows the team logo at half court and also features logos for Paycom Center, the arena. What it didn’t have was any indication this was a championship game. No NBA Finals logo, no Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Unlike the in-season NBA Cup, which got 30 all-new, fully painted courts designed by artist Victor Solomon last fall, the Pacers and Thunder are playing the NBA Finals on their regular courts. It’s a matter of logistics and the quick turnaround of the games, but fans say it robs the games of a special design detail.
Friday’s game was broadcast with virtual Finals logos shown on the court for fans watching at home, but viewers complained about technical glitches and compared the look of the virtual trophy decal to an emoji. One social media user likened the busy floor design packed with virtual decals for corporate sponsorships to a NASCAR hood. Mid-game, the broadcast swapped out the emoji-like virtual trophy logo for a script “Finals” logo. The poorly received court had fans wishing for an elevated design for the Finals.
Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers attempts a shot against Luguentz Dort of the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second quarter in Game One of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center on June 05, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. [Photo: Kyle Terada/Getty Images]
One reason the NBA Finals doesn’t have any physical on-court branding for the series is because the NBA doesn’t use decals on its courts to maintain the integrity of the playing surface. That’s not just in the Finals, but all season long, and it’s been that way since 2014. Instead, team logos and other elements like sponsor logos are painted on, or virtual logos can be added.
One of the reasons we moved away from the logos on the courts iswhether it was perception or realitythere was a sense that maybe the logos added some slipperiness to the court, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said before Game 2.
Digital Larry OBrien Trophies have been placed on the court to appease people (like me) who complained about no Finals logos or signage on the court during Game 1 of the NBA Finals. You can see them magically appear just before tip-off. pic.twitter.com/Jp6Oc5mU99— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) June 9, 2025
But painting takes time. Making a custom court involves building, sanding, painting, and drying, which would take too long for the NBA’s quick-turn Finals schedule. There was less than a week between this year’s semifinals and Game 1.
Since 2021, the NBA has added virtual Finals logos on the court for viewers at home as a workaround, and it’s found other ways to bring in NBA Finals branding into the game, including logos on uniform jerseys, warmups, basket stanchions, courtside signage, and game balls. Still, Silver said he understood the fans’ disappointment.
I think for a media-driven culture, whether its people watching live or seeing those images on social media, its nice when youre looking back on highlights and they stand out because you see that trophy logo or some other indication that its a special event, he said recently at an event. So, well look at it.
The time commitment involved in making basketball courts presents a challenge, but Silver suggested there still might be a solution. Maybe theres a way around it, he said.
In 2020, Lainy Hedaya Hoffstein was assembling an Ikea table in her driveway when it dawned on her: tools in her hands didnt reflect her identity as a designer. I felt like the tools I was using from these very big brands were very clunky, she recalls, likening them to old machismo tools that belong in a workshop.
Five years later, the designer-turned-entrepreneur has transformed that eureka moment into a new tool brand called Tinkr. Launching today, online and in Target nationwide, Tinkr bills itself as a brand for the average DIY-er. There’s a hanging kit, a wall patch kit, and a painting kit, all priced around the $20 mark. But the real star is a stylish $80 toolbox that comes in navy and the now-obligatory sage, and wouldn’t look out of place in your living spacenext to your sexy dumbbells and your sexy broom.
[Photo: Tinkr]
Inside, Hoffstein has outfitted every tool with the kind of soft-grip thermoplastic rubber (TPR) you would find on a smart phone case, and tweaked some tools so they fit more comfortably in smaller hands. The hammer, for example, has a divet to guide the placement of your thumb, while the shaft grows thicker towards the end of the handle for better control. There’s even a rest for your phone or tablet inside the box, because lets be honest, most people follow DIY tutorials on a screen these days, says Hoffstein.
Skeptics might write off Tinkr as aesthetics posturingthe level comes with a blue mineral spirit instead of a yellow one because it didn’t really vibe. But for Hoffstein, the design upgrades were necessary to make DIY projects seem more approachable. Her message: If you can cook, you can DIY.
[Photo: Tinkr]
A booming market with a gap
The DIY movement has come a long way over the past decade. Fueled by the global pandemic and lockdowns that kept us stuck at home, staring at the imperfections on our walls, the global market for DIY home improvement today is worth about $861 billion. The trend is expected to keep growing, with the market reaching $1.2 trillion by 2031.
Hoffstein declined to share projected revenue, but she has done market research and surveyed enough DIY influencers to know there is a gaping hole waiting to be filled. The problem, it seems, is rooted in both design and marketing mistakes. She says the tools that populate home improvement stores today are overly engineered, aggressively masculine, and uncomfortably bulky in ways that can drive people away from DIY projects. Historically, these tools have been geared towards contractors and professionals, alienating the home DIY persona that was born during the pandemic.
[Photo: Tinkr]
She might be onto something. According to a survey by AtomRadar for Fast Company, 35% of the 500-plus people surveyed said they have felt uncomfortable, intimidated, or excluded while shopping for DIY tools. Men were as likely to feel intimidated as women.
Overall, a lack of approachable information was the biggest contributor to feelings of exclusion or discomfort, with 54% of people identifying this as a factor. But 30% of participants said that product design specifically contributed to a feeling of exclusion, while while 29% chalked it up to marketing or branding. (Tinkr is launching with a library of how-to videos on its socials, as well as on Target’s website. All you have to do is scan the QR code that comes on the paper sleeve the toolbox comes in.)
[Photo: Tinkr]
Of course, the team runs the risk that a new DIYer, who has no idea where to start, would look to established brands that have already built trust with consumers. Some, like Dremel, recently began catering to the home DIYer, too. But Hoffstein believes that people would choose Tinkr instead becauseestablished or notthese brands are still making tools that look inaccessible.
“[DYI] is a lot easier than people think and because of the way the tool industry has presented itself, it makes everything look intimidating,” says Hoffstein. “I want to break that.”
Two hidden letters embedded inside a Major League Baseball team’s logo were clues on Jeopardy! And if you didn’t know their secret meaning before, don’t worrybecause some of their own players and fans didn’t either.
The clue in the “Logo-A-Go-Go” category for $200 was: “Some players have been on this MLB team for quite some time before noticing that its ball-and-glove logo forms the letters M and B.” Contestant Ted Nyman gave the correct response: “Who are the Milwaukee Brewers?”
https://t.co/grUCHPgadT pic.twitter.com/Hmoit4kX0Z— Richard (@ifiwasrichard) June 9, 2025
The Brewers announced a rebrand in 2019 for the club’s 50th anniversary. The team brought back an old logo first used in 1978 that cleverly placed a lowercase B underneath a letter M to form a baseball mitt out of the team nickname’s initialsand they’re hidden in plain sight.
[Image: FC]
It’s a concept by Tom Meindel, a former art history student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire who submitted the design to a team logo contest. The contest was open to the public, and out of nearly 2,000 submissions, Meindel’s logo won. (He received $2,000 for his work.) That the Brewers revived his classic ball-in-glove logo for their 50th anniversary is a testament to the logo’s simplicity and proof that nostalgia sells in sports.
You can’t unsee the hidden M and B in the Brewers logo once you see them. But like the Jeopardy! clue said, it’s not always obvious at first glance, including to the team’s own fans and players.
“I had actually been in the organization for probably five years before I figured it out,” right fielder Ryan Braun admitted in 2019. And in an open poll that year on what was then called Twitter, the Brewers team account asked: “How old were you when you realized the glove is also an ‘m’ and a ‘b’?” And the responses were 39.1% for “Always known,” 31.4% for “Far too late in life,” and 29.5% for “Wait. What?!”
Artificial intelligence is shaking the intellectual, emotional, and economic foundations of the world. A glance at mainstream or social media confirms that the world ahead will look nothing like the one were leaving behind.
Technological disruption is nothing new. From bronze smelting in Benin and steel forging in Japan to Themistocless naval buildup in ancient Greece, history shows that transformative technologies spark societal shifts and national urgency.
Todays urgency is AI. The White Houses recent executive order (EO) on AI education echoes past anxietiesthis time, about Chinas rapid advancement.
You may have missed this EO amid the recent flood of them. But it’s a pivotal moment. Though well-intentioned, the EO lacks the depth needed for a truly informed AI educational policy.
The EO defines its mission as providing opportunities to cultivate the skills and understanding necessary to use and create the next generation of AI technology. It outlines three imperatives:
Expose our students to AI at an early age.
Train teachers to effectively incorporate AI into their teaching methods.
Promote AI literacy to develop an AI-ready workforce.
These steps are necessary. AI is a profound shift, one that exposes long-standing deficiencies in our educational systemparticularly our neglect of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Still, the EO falls short in three key areas. Speaking as president and CEO of the Center of Science and Industry, a board member of the National Academies, and a lifelong STEM advocate, I say this: You cannot teach AI without also teaching critical thinking, ethics, and wisdom.
Our national conversation must expand beyond technical training. As AI (and eventually artificial general intelligence) integrates into every part of life, we face a stark choice: Do we become passive consumers of knowledge, or do we intentionally cultivate wisdom?
Technical proficiency alone turns us into carbon versions of AI. Instead, we need a cultural shiftone that champions critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and curiosity in classrooms, workplaces, and homes.
The goal isnt just to understand AI, but to navigate the world it creates. Techno-optimism must be balanced with rigorous intellectual and moral interrogationor the doomers may be right.
Though the EO doesnt address the human-AI relationship, Ill give it the benefit of the doubtits not a full policy, but a starting point. I hope future policy goes further, confronting AIs risks and outlining how education and society should respondboth philosophically and practically.
For what it’s worth, my ideal AI curriculum would include more than practical skills. It would explore:
Martin Heideggers insights on how technology shapes experience
Nick Bostroms paper clip thought experiment
Shoshana Zuboffs critique of surveillance capitalism
Soon, AI wont need to be taughtit will be omnipresent. In the 1990s, we trained students to use a mouse and browse the web. But intuitive design soon made that obsolete. The same is happening with AIonly faster.
Rather than focus on todays tools, AI education should teach how to understand technologys evolution.
Computer scientist Alan Kay once said, Technology is anything that was invented after you were born. Maintaining global leadership requires more than technical prowessit demands cultural vision.
After Sputnik, America feared falling behind in the space race. In the 1990s, it was Japan. Now, it’s China. But the true question is: Which nation will use AI to become the better society?
French philosopher and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville once said, America is great because it is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. That quote echoes as I reflect on the EO and our future.
To lead in AI, we must prioritize wisdom over raw intelligence. That greatness wont come from executive ordersbut from the strength of our social order.
The United States ranks 24th out of 100 on the list of happiest countries, according to the latest World Happiness Report. Being in the top 25% seems fair when you consider everything thats happening in the world, but the stats arent great when you look at the happiness of people aged 30 and younger. In this demographic, the U.S. falls to number 62 on the list.
Its unsettling, because it was always youth that pulled the happiness levels up on these scales, says Jennifer Moss, author of Unlocking Happiness at Work: How a Data-driven Happiness Strategy Fuels Purpose, Passion and Performance. They’re the ones that are supposed to be the hopeful, pushing-back-against-the-status-quo generation. Right now, they’re struggling, and I think this is the canary in the coal mine.
Still, the report found a lot of good in the world. Participants were asked Have you helped a stranger or someone you didnt know who needed help in the past month? Seventy-one percent of Americans said yes. That seems like a reason for hope, right?
In reality, we’re actually more prosocial than we’ve ever been, says Moss. We just hear about how awful and terrible and unhappy the world is.
Happiness is ultimately a choice, says Moss. If you are feeling unhappy, its possible to rewire your brain for more positivity. Here are five things you can do today.
1. Surround Yourself with Happy Friends
Ever walk into a room after two people are fighting and immediately feel awkward or tense? Or maybe you hear laughter down the hall, start smiling yourself, and get up to see whats going on?
Absorbing the emotions of others around you is called the contagion effect, and it can be beneficial. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that proximity and time spent with a happy friend, sibling, parent, or neighbor increases your own happiness by as much as 34%.
We have a relational energy with other people, says Moss. We can use the contagion effect for ourselves [by spending more time with people who are happy].
2. Look for Abundance
Henry Ford once said, Whether you think you can or you think you cantyoure right. In other words, what you expect is often what you get. This attitude trickles over into happiness, as well. Instead of being disappointed by what you dont have, focus on what you do. Shifting your mindset from scarcity to abundance can rewire your brain, says Moss.
It’s called attention retraining, says Moss. It’s an exercise for your prefrontal cortex. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. When you’re going through stress or feeling low, this exercise can pull you out of the feeling that everything is hopeless.
Take it one step further by keeping a gratitude journal, recording three things youre thankful for each day. Research published in the Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry found that happiness and gratitude are interconnected. Thankfulness for even small blessings is associated with an improved mood and a greater sense of happiness.
3. Choose Happiness for Others
Another way to boost your happiness is to make someone else happy. For example, grab a coffee for a coworker, pay a genuine compliment, or simply let someone merge in front of you on the way into work.
Acts of altruism or kindness stimulate the feel-good chemicals in our bodies, such as serotonin and oxytocin, which regulate our mood, says Moss. It also increases the connectivity we have with people, she says. It makes us more trusting. And when we are engaging in altruism, it lowers our cortisol, which is the stress hormone.
A study published in the Review of General Psychology found that performing five acts of kindness in a single day increases your own happiness beyond that timeframe. It has a half-life, says Moss. It’s like taking medication and having it last for a month.
4. Seek Out Brief Positive Interactions
Another way to boost your happiness is as simple as acknowledging strangers. Research by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D., published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that brief positive interactions, like eye contact or a smile, activates the Vagus nerve, which impacts your nervous system.
She calls it the positivity resonance, explains Moss. It activates a part of the brain that calms you down.
Consider this as you navigate the office hallways, step onto an elevator, or encounter people on a walk or in the grocery store line. Those minimal relationships you have in passing can help boost happiness and reduce loneliness.
5. Slow Down
Finally, make a point to slow down and savor positive experiences. We’re all going really fast right now, trying to keep up, says Moss. Stopping along the way, though, can increase your brain’s capacity to notice and retain positive emotion.
For example, take time to look at an unusual cloud shape or smell the blooming flowers. Reflecting on it can give you joy and appreciation, says Moss. Were in a state of chronic digital distraction, which is weakening the prefrontal cortexthe part of the brain that helps us manage our emotional regulation.
Making Happiness a Habit
Knowing how to rewire your brain is the first step. he second is to put the actions into play, which can be challenging if youre feeling unhappy and stressed out. Moss recommends putting reminders on your calendar that nudge you to take a walk in nature, record an entry in your gratitude journal, or make plans with a friend or family member who always boosts your mood.
Make it a habit or ritual, she says. Knowing you have something to do or report to at a certain time can trigger those feel-good chemicals to start before the alarm goes off. Youll create preemptive healthy emotions, knowing youre going to do something that makes you happier.
Dont be frustrated if in a month you haven’t completely rewired your brain, adds Moss. Rewiring is about consistency and frequency and fluency, she says. Celebrating small wins will provide the positive reinforcement our brains love. The more we do it, the more it becomes easy to practice.
Ill admit it: I dont always wear a bike helmet. That’s especially true for short, unplanned rides using bike shareit doesn’t make sense to carry around a bulky helmet when I might not even use it.
A new inflatable bike helmet, the Ventete aH-1, was designed to help tackle that problem. When the helmets not in use, it flattens so it can more easily fit in a bag. When you need to use it, it comes with a tiny battery-powered pump that fully inflates it in 30 seconds.
After a decade of development by a London-based startup, the helmet came out in the U.K. last year and immediately sold out. It’s not yet available in the U.S., but I had the chance to try it out. (The design was one of the winners of Fast Company‘s 2025 World Changing Ideas Awards.)
It looks nothing like any helmet I’ve ever seen. Instead of foam, it’s made from a series of ribs covered in strong, triple-laminated nylon. The flattened version isnt smallits roughly as long as a laptop. Even when its not inflated, its still somewhat thick. But unlike a typical helmet, it did easily squeeze into my backpack.
It took me a couple of attempts to figure out how to inflate it, although the company has now tweaked the design so that the pump can be operated hands-free. In the version I tested, I had to hold the pump at a particular angle on the helmets Presta valve to work correctly. (When it did work, the buzz of the pump was also very loud: I was slightly embarrassed to use it in public.) But it was fast. A tiny level on the side shows when its correctly inflated. A strap at the back helps customize the fit.
[Photo: Ventete]
The design actually outperforms typical helmets on safety. When Imperial College London ran a study testing 30 different bike helmets, the aH-1 scored 44.1% better than the others in linear impact tests.
[Photo: Ventete]
“It’s incredibly strong,” says Colin Herperger, cofounder and CEO of Ventete, the startup that designed the helmet. “One of the founders drove his car on it. If you think about any other helmet, it would be in pieces. When people think about an inflatable structural system, they think it’s probably soft or squishy, and in fact, it’s the opposite. It’s actually super stiff.”
[Photo: Ventete]
The design is also comfortable to wear. When I tried riding with it on a hot day, my head stayed cool. Herperger points out that EPS foam, the material used in conventional bike helmets, is the same material used to insulate coolers to keep ice from melting.
In a standard foam helmet, “heat is trying to leave your head, and it’s reflecting it back down and causing you to further overheat,” Herperger says. In the new design, “because of the chamber system, it’s actually lifted off the head, and you get a conductive airflow between the head and the helmet. So the hot air is just drawn away from your head.”
I liked the way the origami-like design looked, too. It’s something I’d definitely be willing to wearthough at 350 (around $475) for the helmet and pump, it isn’t cheap. And because it’s still waiting for regulatory approval in the U.S., I can’t keep using it now. While the timeline for approval isn’t clear, it may roll out here later this year.
Last year, Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes signed a three-year deal, reportedly worth $100 million, to take their hit podcast SmartLess to SiriusXM. Now the trio are doing the next obvious thing . . . launching their own discount wireless network brand.
SmartLess Mobile is not a two-months-late April Fools joke, but a real, honest-to-pod, low-cost, direct-to-consumer wireless brand. According to a press release, the logic is that since nearly 90% of our phones data is over Wi-Fi, consumers are paying for unlimited data they dont use. The new brands tagline is: Dont get OutSmarted. Get SmartLess.
In a series of spots for the launch campaign, created by the ad agency Rethink, Arnett, Bateman, and Hayes are shot in black and white, riffing on what the new brands catchphrase should be. Shot by director Sam Jones, each has a striking resemblance to the podcasts six-part 2023 docuseries SmartLess: On the Road, also shot by Jones.
Ryan Reynolds Redux
The vibe of the SmartLess campaign is a self-awareness about pitching itself as a new brand and the eye rolls that may induce. Its also straight out of the Ryan Reynolds Advertising Playbook of satirizing the very thing youre doing to sell your product. Just as Reynolds was upfront about his ad gimmicks, so too are Arnett, Bateman, and Hayes in their own way as they lounge around and try to think up brand catchphrases. The other two spots, “Corporate Brainstorm” and “America, We Have an Announcement,” are so random that they almost feel like outtakes.
The other similarity to Reynolds is how SmartLess Mobile is bringing celebrity brand ownership to the wireless category. Back in 2019, Reynolds bought a 25% stake in Mint Mobile and began pitching the brand to consumers. By 2023, T-Mobile announced it was acquiring the brand for more than $1 billion.
Perhaps Reynolds was merely the tip of the spear, driving celebrity brand ownership beyond the low-hanging fruit of booze and beauty and into the realm of less sexy, but no less popular, brand categories.
“The wireless industry has normalized complexity and confusion, but SmartLess Mobile disrupts that with radical transparency, said SmartLess mobile chief brand officer Jeni McAleese, in a statement. When you can make people laugh about a real problem while genuinely solving it, you’re not just marketingyou’re providing a public service.”
Just like Mint Mobile, SmartLess Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), meaning its a communications services company that doesnt own the telecom network infrastructure. SmartLess Mobile CEO Paul McAleese is a seasoned wireless exec who co-founded i-wireless, another MVNO that operated on Sprint’s network.
According to the company, all three podcast hosts are equity investors in SmartLess Mobile, and the lead investor is Thomvest Asset Management, a fund manager owned by Toronto-based billionaire Peter Thomson.
Who knew the celebrity brand timeline could go from tequila to telecom so quickly? The explosion of celebrity-backed brands caused consumer fatigue in some categories (like beauty) as far back as 2021. In that context, this is a shrewd move by the SmartLess crew, bringing celebrity to a virtually wide open and unexpected product category.
Boring is the new cool. Today, its a wireless network. Tomorrow, you might be signing up for Armchair Expert Home Insurance.
Have you been hearing about the dire wolf lately? Maybe you saw a massive white wolf on the cover of Time magazine or a photo of Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin holding a puppy named after a character from his books.
The dire wolf, a large, wolflike species that went extinct about 12,000 years ago, has been in the news after biotech company Colossal claimed to have resurrected it using cloning and gene-editing technologies. Colossal calls itself a de-extinction company. The very concept of de-extinction is a lightning rod for criticism. There are broad accusations of playing God or messing with nature, as well as more focused objections that contemporary de-extinction tools create poor imitations rather than truly resurrected species.
While the biological and philosophical debates are interesting, the legal ramifications for endangered species conservation are of paramount importance. As a legal scholar with a PhD in wildlife genetics, my work focuses on how we legally define the term endangered species. The use of biotechnology for conservation, whether for de-extinction or genetic augmentation of existing species, promises solutions to otherwise intractable problems. But it needs to work in harmony with both the letter and purpose of the laws governing biodiversity conservation.
Of dire wolves and de-extinction
What did Colossal actually do? Scientists extracted and sequenced DNA from Ice Age-era bones to understand the genetic makeup of the dire wolf. They were able to piece together around 90% of a complete dire wolf genome. While the gray wolf and the dire wolf are separated by a few million years of evolution, they share over 99.5% of their genomes.
The scientists scanned the recovered dire wolf sequences for specific genes that they believed were responsible for the physical and ecological differences between dire wolves and other species of canids, including genes related to body size and coat color. CRISPR gene-editing technology allows scientists to make specific changes in the DNA of an organism. The Colossal team used CRISPR to make 20 changes in 14 different genes in a modern gray wolf cell before implanting the embryo into a surrogate mother.
All thats left of dire wolves today are bones, like these skulls on display in a museum. [Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images]
While the technology on display is marvelous, what should we call the resulting animals? Some commentators argue that the animals are just modified gray wolves. They point out that it would take far more than 20 edits to bridge the gap left by millions of years of evolution. For instance, that 0.5% of the genome that doesnt match in the two species represents more than 12 million base pair differences.
More philosophically, perhaps, other skeptics argue that a species is more than a collection of genes devoid of environmental, ecological, or evolutionary context.
Colossal, on the other hand, maintains that it is in the functional de-extinction game. The company acknowledges it isnt making a perfect dire wolf copy. Instead it wants to recreate something that looks and acts like the dire wolf of old. It prefers the if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, its a duck school of speciation.
Disagreements about taxonomythe science of naming and categorizing living organismsare as old as the field itself. Biologists are notorious for failing to adopt a single clear definition of species, and there are dozens of competing definitions in the biological literature.
Biologists can afford to be flexible and imprecise when the stakes are merely a conversational misunderstanding. Lawyers and policymakers, on the other hand, do not have that luxury.
Deciding what counts as an endangered species
In the United States, the Endangered Species Act is the main tool for protecting biodiversity.
To be protected by the act, an organism must be a member of an endangered or threatened species. Some of the most contentious ESA issues are definitional, such as whether the listed species is a valid species and whether individual organisms, especially hybrids, are members of the listed species.
Colossals functional species concept is anathema to the Endangered Species Act. It shrinks the value of a species down to the way it looks or the way it functions. When passing the act, however, Congress made clear that species were to be valued for their aesthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value to the Nation and its people. In my view, the myopic focus on function seems to miss the point.
Despite its insistence otherwise, Colossals definitional sleight of hand has opened the door to arguments that people should reduce conservation funding or protections for currently imperiled species. Why spend the money to protect a critter and its habitat when, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, you can just pick your favorite species and call up Colossal?
Putting biotechnology to work for onservation
Biotechnology can provide real conservation benefits for todays endangered species. I suggest gene editings real value is not in recreating facsimiles of long-extinct species like dire wolves, but instead using it to recover ones in trouble now.
Projects, by both Colossal and other groups, are underway around the world to help endangered species develop disease resistance or evolve to tolerate a warmer world. Other projects use gene editing to reintroduce genetic variation into populations where genetic diversity has been lost.
For example, Colossal has also announced that it has cloned a red wolf. Unlike the dire wolf, the red wolf is not extinct, though it came extremely close. After decades of conservation efforts, there are about a dozen red wolves in the wild in the reintroduced population in eastern North Carolina, as well as a few hundred red wolves in captivity.
The entire population of red wolves, both wild and captive, descends from merely 14 founders of the captive breeding program. This limited heritage means the species has lost a significant amount of the genetic diversity that would help it continue to evolve and adapt.
In order to reintroduce some of that missing genetic diversity, youd need to find genetic material from red wolves outside the managed population. Right now that would require stored tissue samples from animals that lived before the captive breeding program was established or rediscovering a lost population in the wild.
Recently, researchers discovered that coyotes along the Texas Gulf Coast possess a sizable percentage of red wolf-derived DNA in their genomes. Hybridization between coyotes and red wolves is both a threat to red wolves and a natural part of their evolutionary history, complicating management. The red wolf genes found within these coyotes do present a possible source of genetic material that biotechnology could harness to help the captive breeding population if the legal hurdles can be managed.
This coyote population was Colossals source for its cloned ghost red wolf. Even this announcement is marred by definitional confusion. Due to its hybrid nature, the animal Colossal cloned is likely not legally considered a red wolf at all.
Under the Endangered Species Act, hybrid organisms are typically not protected. So by cloning one of these animals, Colossal likely sidestepped the need for ESA permits. It will almost certainly run into resistance if it attempts to breed these ghost wolves into the current red wolf captive breeding program that has spent decades trying to minimize hybridization. How much to value genetic purity versus genetic diversity in managed species still proves an extraordinarily difficult question, even without the legal uncertainty.
Biotechnology could never solve every conservation problemespecially habitat destruction. The ability to make functional copies of a species certainly does not lessen the urgency to respond to biodiversity loss, nor does it reduce human beings moral culpability. But to adequately respond to the ever-worsening biodiversity crisis, conservationists will need all available tools.
Alex Erwin is an assistant professor of law at Florida International University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
How many times have you used the words good or bad today?
From checking your weather app to monitoring the progress youve made on your to-do list, to scrolling through social media, opportunities to make snap evaluations abound. And the more you sort things into these categories, the more instinctive making these judgments becomes. You may find yourself filtering everything that comes your way in terms of good or bad.
A dark cloud triggers bad, a social media post of baby animals triggers good, a news story about a political scuffle triggers bad. Whether you think something is good or bad, or worthy of a like or not, is an important piece of information. But if that categorization is the only thing thats on your mind, the only lens through which you interpret the world, youll miss out on a lot.
Im a philosopher who specializes in happiness, well-being and the good life. I study how ones state of mind influences ones experiences of the world.
In my recent book, The Art of the Interesting, I explore the ways the evaluative perspective squashes your ability to experience psychological richness and other positive dimensions of life. The more you instinctively react with a good or a bad, the less of the world you take in. Youll be less likely to engage your mind, exercise curiosity and have interesting experiences.
Evaluation narrows your mind
When you instinctively label something as good or bad, you focus only on the features that make that thing good or bad.
You look outside, and all you see is the darkness of the clouds, threatening your plans for the day. You dont notice the cooling shade those clouds create, nor the dramatic ways the wind makes them morph. You dont notice the flowers unfurling, nor the child walking by who is also looking up at the clouds, but with a wide-eyed look of wonder.
When snap evaluations reign, you effectively shut yourself off from a wide range of possible experiences. When everything around you is just good or bad, nothing can be perplexing, mysterious, or intriguing. Nothing can be simply new, or simply challenging, or simply stimulating. Nothing is interesting, for your mind has filtered out these possible sources of cognitive engagement. It sees what it expects, and nothing else.
Open your mind for more psychological richness
Snap evaluations narrow your perspective and limit your minds potential to connect and engage with other aspects of your experiences. But you can unlock this potential simply by resisting any instinct to judge and instead viewing the world without trying to evaluate what you see.
Right away, youll start to notice more, and youll activate your minds internal drives for curiosity and exploration.
Freed from the dead-end judgments of good/bad, you can explore what is novel, allow yourself to be challenged, and tackle the complexities inherent to human experiences. Traffic jams can become sources of intrigue, rather than just a bad way to start your day. Delicious meals wont just taste goodtheyll spark your curiosity and stimulate your creativity. Youll go from seeing a coworker as difficult and irritating to recognizing them as an individual with human imperfections whos deserving of your compassion.
Youll also feel the pains, struggles, and rewards that arise through these mental engagements. Youll experience rich, intense moments and a greater range of emotions. Youll find your life chock-full of unusual and unique experiences with very few instances of boredom and monotony.
Over time, your mind will become more adept at finding connections, exercising creativity, and operating from a place of cognitive complexity. Youll start to view the world more holistically, as full of connections waiting to be discovered.
All of these are signs that your life has become more psychologically rich.
Expand your mind, expand your sense of self
Psychological richness and, more generally, experiences of novelty and interestingness are valuable on their own. But theres evidence that theyre also important due to their effects on your sense of self. When you engage in new, interesting activities, you not only broaden your horizons and develop fresh perspectives, but you also become more confident in your ability to do whatever comes next. In these ways, you expand your very sense of self.
The connection between psychological richness and self-expansion is intuitive. Novel, interesting activities stimulate the mind, challenging it to engage and explore. This process can expand your confidence in your abilities and provide you with a greater sense of control over your environment. As ones sense of self expands, ones very presence within the world shifts.
One recent study explored the influence of psychological richness on pro-environmental behavior. While its common to feel sad, anxious, angry, powerless, and helpless in the face of climate change, developing psychological richness can transform these negative attitudes.
Researchers found that people who experience psychological richness were more willing to engage in sustainable activities. They believe this correlation is mediated by self-expansion, which helps subjects feel more confident that their actions would have an impact on the daunting problem of climate change.
Cut out good and bad, go for interesting instead
Everyone has the capacity to develop a sense of presence and agency in the world that enhances the very experience of life. A habit of snap evaluations inhibits this capacity, but you can train your mind to be more apt to engage and explore.
The easiest way to do this?
Stop saying, or thinking, good and bad. When you find yourself inclined to do so, force yourself to say something else. Start right now and begin your journey to engage with the world in a more rewarding way.
Lorraine Besser is a professor of philosophy at Middlebury.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
