If you’re one of the 54 million people in the U.S. planning to travel during the Thanksgiving weekend, you’ll want to bookmark this project from Google Maps, Google News Labs, and the visual journalists at Polygraph.

It’s a suite of data-driven trip-planning tools that serve as a cheat sheet for anyone attempting to travel this week. To make it, the group looked at historical aggregated data collected from the total number of cars on the road at all times, which was determined by the speed and location of Android phones with location services enabled (all that traffic information, according to the researchers, is anonymous).

The resulting visualizations show you how to avoid traffic jams in 25 cities. Simply select your city from a pull-down menu and the viz tells you the best time to leave before Thanksgiving and, equally crucially, when to return after Thanksgiving.

In addition to traffic data, Google also dug into Search trends by state, resulting in a few other hilarious visualizations. Could it be mere coincidence that the number three most popular search for the Friday after Thanksgiving in Ohio is “tattoo shop,” and the fourth is “liquor store?” Or that in Maryland, the top search for that Friday is “pub?” I don’t think so.

No matter where you look, people will be on the move this weekend.

According to AAA, some 54.3 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles as part of a Thanksgiving trip this year, while a record 30.6 million will fly on a U.S. airline, per CNN. However you break those numbers down, they add up to a lot of people clogging up the roads and skies, trying to get to their destinations in one piece.

Will the weather cooperate? The good news is that it mostly will, meaning the vast majority of travelers this weekend won’t have to contend with the additional burden of terrible weather on top of an already-stressful trip. However, there will be a few trouble spots across the country, according to new data from AccuWeather. Here’s the breakdown:

• Northeast: If you’re traveling in the Northeast, bundle up! The National Weather Service is predicting record cold temperatures, with some areas at 25 to 30 degrees below normal. If you’ve seen all those funny “Cold Turkey” headlines, you probably already knew this. AccuWeather also predicts batches of snow for the area and says drivers should brace for possibly slick portions of interstates 75, 81, 87, 90, 91 and 95.
• Southeastern Texas: Travelers in this area faced reduced viability and wet roadways earlier in the week, according to AccuWeather. The good news is, conditions are improving and expect to be fair today.
• West Coast: A storm is expected to hit the West Coast midweek. For travelers, that might not be the best news, but rain is exactly what the area needs after weeks of devastating wildfires near Los Angeles and San Francisco. According to AccuWeather, reduced visability from the smoke remains the biggest concern for drivers in the region. It also says heavy snow is expected over the Sierra Nevada, which could impact drivers traveling over parts of I-80. Finally, travelers in Seattle and Portland can expect mild travel disruptions due to rain. More info here.

If you’re looking for real-time traffic and travel information for the Thanksgiving weekend, I’ve rounded up a few good resources below. Good luck!

• Google: As my colleague Jesus Diaz wrote, a data-driven project from Google Maps, Google News Labs, and Polygraph offers a suite of trip-planning tools that can serve as a travel “cheat sheet” of sorts. Find it here.
• CNN is providing real-time updates for Thanksgiving travelers. Find it here.
• FlightStats is an open-source project that offers real-time updates from airports, the FAA, and other useful sources. Find it here.

Here are the coldest wind chill values forecast for Wednesday night into Thanksgiving Day. pic.twitter.com/iirSaU31uw

— NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) November 19, 2018

If you need an example of something that is unequivocally bad for the environment, here’s a suggestion: plastic water bottles. One million are sold each minute across the world, and though they’re technically recyclable, only 7% of tossed bottles become new ones. The rest end up in landfills and waterways.

Some companies are trying to mitigate this industry’s harm. Evian, for example, has pledged to create all of its plastic bottles from recycled plastic by 2025. And in recent years, the apparel industry has stepped up to make an impact by integrating recycled plastic bottles into supply chains. Adidas is integrating recycled plastic into its shoes, and the clothing startup Aday has developed a jacket spun from 41 reconstituted water bottles.

One of the sectors for which incorporating recycled plastic makes the most sense is outdoor gear. That industry began gravitating toward synthetic materials like polyester and acrylic because they were cheap to produce, and performed well in extreme conditions. But manufacturing synthetic threads is as detrimental to the environment as making plastic bottles is. They both, after all, originate as crude oils, and not only are the processes water and energy intensive, they also require the use of chemicals that contaminate the environment.

Companies like The North Face recognize that their use of synthetic materials is at odds with their sustainability goals–but also crucial for delivering their outdoorsy customers the high performance gear they expect. The ThermoBall, for instance, is one of the brand’s signature jackets. It’s got a quilted look as a result of its design, which features clusters of synthetic insulation designed to trap heat.

This fall, The North Face rolled out an updated version of the ThermoBall, called the ThermoBall Eco, which is made from recycled materials. The shell is made from recycled polyester, and the insulation includes at least five plastic bottles that otherwise would’ve ended up in landfill.

“Sustainable business practices are a part of our DNA,” says Tim Bantle, general manager for The North Face’s urban exploration and mountain lifestyle divisions. In 2017, the company introduced a “climate beneficial” beanie made with wool sourced from a sheep farm that sequesters carbon, and earlier this year, launched a collection of shirts and sweatshirts made from plastic collected from Yosemite, Grand Teton, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks.

The ThermoBall, Bantle says, is one of The North Face’s largest product collections, and being able to convert the whole line is a testament to how much materials innovation has evolved. “There are so many areas across our products where we could switch to more sustainable practices, but sometimes the technology or science hasn’t caught up,” he says. “In this case, everything lined up.”

What’s also happening now is that some brands, like Aday, are launching amid all of these advances and incorporating them from the get-go. The Seattle-based company Arvin Goods is still new–it launched in 2017–and from the beginning, it’s been committed to creating basics like socks and underwear from recycled materials.

Just this week, it rolled out its latest product line: A beanie made from a material called Polylana. Developed by a global organization called The Movement, which is working to push the fashion industry in a more sustainable direction, Polylana is essentially an alternative to 100% acrylic threads. The thread is formed from a combination of proprietary pellets created to mix seamlessly with recycled polyethylene terephtalate flakes–or in regular English, ground-up plastic bottles. In contrast to 100% acrylic, Polylana threads use 76% less energy, 85% less water, and result in 76% less waste.

For Arvin Goods, working with Polylana threads made sense when rolling out a beanie line. Most beanies are made from 100% acrylic because it’s cheaper than wool, the other commonly used material, and less scratchy. “Acrylic is nasty, chemically,” says Arvin Goods cofounder Dustin Winegardner. “It uses a lot of water and energy.” By sourcing yarn for its beanies from Polylana, Arvin Goods can reduce acrylic use by 60%. (Polylana still has to be mixed with 40% acrylic to retain the “loft,” or slightly fluffy quality to the yarn that people expect in beanies, but ideally that could be switched out for a more sustainable material eventually.) “We say that our beanie is a reduced-impact choice,” Winegardner says.

What’s most promising about these developments is the partnerships that brought them about. The North Face sources its insulation from PrimaLoft, a company that also supplies Patagonia (which has been incorporating plastic bottles in gear for several years) and other outdoor apparel companies. Polylana also supplies yarn to retailers like Esprit and Dorothy Perkins, neither of which are particularly upscale or environmentally conscious brands. These partnerships show that incorporating plastic bottles into supply chains is not only the right move, from an environmental standpoint–it’s also economically feasible for a variety of brands. And soon, for consumers, wearing plastic bottles may become the norm, not the exception.

Most of us know O’Doul’s as that weird beer in the corner of the bodega cooler. Released in 1990 as a nonalcoholic alternative for people who wanted beer without the booze, it’s since become something of a culturalpunching bag. But many of us would like to have the social experience of drinking without actually drinking–suggesting that part of O’Doul’s bad rap might be its green-and-gold branding, which portrays it as a faux-Irish lager rather than embracing its role as a beer alternative.

In anticipation of “Blackout Wednesday,” as the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when many college students come home and party is known, the Anheuser-Busch corporate social responsibility department has developed a potentially brilliant marketing play. In select bars across Manhattan, they’ll be experimenting with a new, limited-edition O’Doul’s can design by the celebrated graphic designer Mr. Kiji.

Instead of green and gold, Kiji reimagined the can with quirky geometric patterns and retro pastels. The typography looks more like something out of a zine than a label for a beer can; the whole design is pure Instagram bait.

“I came into this role a few months ago when we were looking across our portfolio. We have over 100 brands . . . and you can imagine we don’t give the same priority to all those brands, when we have Budweiser, Bud Light, and Goose Island,” says Adam Warrington, vice president of corporate social responsibility at Anheuser-Busch. “But then we have O’Doul’s. At 28 years old, there’s a a level of equity in the brand, but it’s not a new brand. It’s been there for a while and it’s been untouched for a couple decades.”

According to Anheuser-Busch metrics, only about a third of millennials have ever tried a nonalcoholic beer, and Warrington admits that O’Doul’s is not on the radar for most of them. That’s strange, in a way, given that young people largely seem to be drinking alcohol less often than previous generations, while cultural movements like mindfulness, daybreaker parties, and mocktails are in.

The company realized that this booze-less beer offered an opportunity to experiment with the brand’s identity, timed with one of the biggest drinking holidays of the year. Repackaging O’Doul’s as something attractive, even cool, to imbibe, could make it a tool for what the company dubs its “responsible drinking” initiative, the perfect way to say “enjoy drinking our product as much as you can, but not too much!”

Over a beer at the Anheuser-Busch offices, Mr. Kiji agreed to the project, instructed to completely ignore any brand legacy for the product. He developed several concepts, and the company liked them so much, they chose not one, but two designs to become cans.

Honestly, O’Doul’s has never looked better. The can celebrates art and design in a way that’s on par with the craft brew scene’s own design renaissance, in which thousands of brewers around the U.S. have embraced distinctive visuals to stand out on the shelf with a lot more than a logo.

“This is not part of a grand O’Doul’s brand refresh. That would be for the colleagues of mine in marketing,” Warrington cautions. But it’s clear that Anheuser-Busch’s CSR department, at the very least, would love to see the project scale outside a one-night event–noting that the design itself was developed to work beyond a can, on bottles and other marketing materials, too. “Depending on the reaction, you never know. We’ll see what happens.”

It’s holiday time again, and for many that means lots of time with family and friends. And even though you’re spending time celebrating with the people you love, for many, such togetherness is not without its stressors.

Relationships with family and longtime friends may be loaded with triggers and patterns that make them tricky to navigate, says executive performance coach Neeta Bhushan, author of Emotional GRIT: 8 Steps to Master Your Emotions, Transform Your Thoughts, and Change Your World. “The relationships are so intricate because they’ve known you and you’ve known them [for so long],” she says. This can make it difficult to be patient and not assume ill intent, especially if you’ve had negative or frustrating experiences in the past, she says. “It’s that Uncle Harry, who has always done something in a certain way. It’s going to be triggering you even more,” she says.

But, by day, you’re an accomplished professional, skilled at dealing with difficult people. You may have even been trained by your company to manage various personality types and steer tough conversations toward successful outcomes. Bhushan says you can use some of those same wisdom, leadership, and emotional intelligence skills to handle difficult personalities around the dinner table. Here are four common types and how you can cope.

The Opinionater

He wears his voting choice on his sleeve–or on his hat–and will tell you all the reasons why you’re wrong about the latest political news or polarizing current event. Ignoring conventional wisdom about discussing religion or politics, he dives into controversial conversations with the zeal of a teenager at a Taylor Swift concert.

How to deal: If you were dealing with an agitated coworker or employee at work, you’d likely work to defuse the situation by trying to understand their viewpoint, says conflict coach Kira Nurieli, founder of Harmony Strategies Group, which handles dispute resolution and mediation. Treat your opinionated family member the same way.

“People think that engaging in a political conversation means you are actively sharing your opinion. That doesn’t have to be the case,” she says. Use the same skills you use engaging an employee to get more information. Remove the emotion from it and ask open-ended questions about why he feels that way or what he things the benefits of his viewpoint are. You don’t need to engage. Let him speak and feel like someone is listening, she says. “You can use those kinds of questions, that kind of inquiry just to sort of get to know what that person’s perspective is in a non-judgmental way.” If you remove the emotion from the conversation, you may find that you have common ground, she adds.

Of course, if he’s the type who can’t engage that way, you’re free to remove yourself from the conversation, she says. Head to another room or strategically position yourself at the opposite end of the table.

The Boundary-Buster

No matter how accomplished you are, you’ll always be that awkward 12-year-old in their eyes. They treat you like a child and make comments on everything from your clothing choices to your career progression to your romantic life. Nothing stops them from crossing the parameters of polite and respectful conversation to put their nose in your business.

How to deal: Take a breath and try to get to a place of understanding rather than anger. The person may just be curious about your life and have a poor way of asking questions or making conversation, says Jasmijn Bol, a professor at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business who teaches a course on “passive knowledge.” “Because depending on what the underlying motives are, I think your approach would be different,” Bol adds.

What are the reasons they’re asking? If a parent is asking indelicate questions because they’re worried about you, you may be able to answer in a way that alleviates the worry without revealing more than you wish. If the person is just asking to make conversation, you may be able to steer the question in another way, Bol says.

In such situations, you may need to be prepared for disappointing results–at least at first, Bhushan adds. When you reinforce boundaries or make it clear that you have new ones, sometimes people react negatively. Standing firm even when there is pushback is something to be proud of, she says.

The Freeloader

This is the person who shows up late with extra people in tow, and nary a side dish to offer. It’s not that the freeloader is a bad person, but they never offer the least bit of assistance. When dinner is over, they make themselves scarce, but can usually be found in front of the television while others clear away the meal. You’re lucky if you get a “thank you” out of this person as they walk out the door.

How to deal: It can be frustrating when others don’t help in the way you want them to. But, think about how you would handle such a situation in the office, Nurieli says. Did you make your expectations known? Were you clear with direction? If you wanted the person to bring something, did you ask them to do so? Be sure you have delegated properly and made your needs known, she says.

The Pot-Stirrer

Some people love drama. Whether they’re spilling someone’s confidences or gossiping about someone else, the pot-stirrer loves to create conflict or tension. Nothing makes them happier than to orchestrate an argument, and then sit back and watch the sparks fly, disavowing any responsibility for what’s happening.

How to deal: In such challenging dynamics, Nurieli defaults to empathetic curiosity. Many people are lonely, and family gatherings may give them an opportunity to demand attention. “A lot of people who are either teasing or belittling or are just engaging in a lot of conflict, they often want attention at these family functions. It’s often about attention,” she says.

What if you responded in a different way than engaging, she posits. You could try to direct positive focus on the pot-stirrer, focusing on good news or having a positive conversation. You could simply not react or remove yourself from the situation. Or you could ask questions that either probe why the person shared the story or change the conversation altogether. Sometimes, just listening to people is enough to get them to calm down, she adds.

“You’d be surprised how many times people come to mediation and they just want their say. This is what happens with family dynamics, people just want to be heard. They want to be validated. If you provide that then you don’t have to engage in conflicts,” she says.

One of the most effective overall methods of dealing with difficult family members is to try to come to the gathering with a blank slate, Bhushan says. “A lot of times we go into these things with the stressful feelings and the negative emotions. But what if it’s met with a completely blank slate? What you acted as if you were meeting some of the people for the very first time, even though you’ve known them your whole life?” she says. Shedding the assumptions and negativity around their intentions can make difficult behavior easier to tolerate–at least to get you through dinner.

A few minutes before intermission of the Cirque du Soleil’s wonderful new show, Volta, the audience is treated to a nostalgic remembrance of the formative years of Waz, the main character. Called “Daydreaming,” the segment reveals Waz’s memories of his childhood and mother. As the adult Waz sits and gazes off into the distance watching old home movies, we see those moments displayed large and in brilliant color on the outer walls of the room in which he’s sitting.

One of the magical things about Cirque du Soleil is that, for 35 years, show after show, the Montreal-based company has transfixed audiences worldwide without revealing the many layers of technology and automation going on behind the scenes as acrobats soar, jugglers wow, and clowns amuse. The idea is that the audience needn’t think about it. And here, too, even as we see Waz’s teen years unfold, our minds aren’t on the technology enabling it.

But with Volta, Cirwue has raised its own personal bar when it comes to technology–and the result is right there, front and center, for all to see.

There are currently 20 Cirque shows spread around the world. Volta, the newest, made its San Francisco premiere last week, marking 30 years that the Cirque has been coming to town. Throughout the two-hour show, scene after scene takes place in and around a large movable cube. Moments like “Daydreaming” are played out on the inside, where Waz sits amid mementos and ponders his past, while the video montage of his childhood is played out in gorgeous, high-resolution video on the outside.

Throughout the show, we see stunning high-quality visuals on the cube’s side, sometimes no more than boisterous explosions of color, and sometimes melancholic musings on Waz’s past.

The cube is reminiscent of a similar prop in Needles & Opium, a 2017 play from Robert Lepage, himself a theatrical wunderkind from Quebec. In that show, the cube is also used as a center of the story and as a canvas for lighting effects, although using projection, not LEDs.

Volta’s cube is reflective of the Cirque’s desire to use technological advances to further its storytelling goals. For example, with its 2016 show, Luzia, the company incorporated water in a third of the acts, making it by far the largest traveling water show in its history. And with Crystal, which began touring this year, Cirque built a show on ice for the first time. Similarly, in Volta, the idea was that LEDs would become a vital component of advancing the narrative.

The results, which were released earlier this month, demonstrated that “awe packs enough disruptive punch to pull show-goers into a shared experience that makes audience members feel more emotionally connected to the people around them, turning the performances into a form of spectacular ‘group hug,’ rather than an isolated, individually experienced entertainment moment.”

The study also found that awe leads us to feel more creative; live more fully in the moment; boosts our willingness to try new experiences; increases our tolerance for risk; and shifts our brains into a state of bliss.

But back under the big top in San Francisco where Volta is playing through February 3, none of that is on the audience’s mind as more than 2,000 people watch one of the best new Cirque shows in years. Filled with acts featuring juggling, jump-rope skipping, acrobats on ladders, extravagant trampolining, and even a performer suspended from above by her hair, Volta feels both faithful to the Cirque’s roots and eager to break new ground. With the show’s spotlight on action sports such as BMX–featuring performers flying up ramps on bikes and bouncing off walls–Cirque is signaling it wants to move forward. It may do so one small step at a time, but there’s no doubt this isn’t your parents’ Cirque.

The biggest lie foisted upon us by untold reels of cinema is that not only do comeuppances usually come, they often arrive in a timely manner. The high-seas pirate is keelhauled, the stock market scoundrel financially ruined, the duplicitous Romeo unceremoniously dumped. This is what pop culture has promised us, along with hoverboards.

As it turns out, a lifetime of moviegoing has actually left us unprepared for a world where no fallout has yet befallen Donald Trump on this, the third Thanksgiving since the 2016 election.

For the third year in a row, many of us who are barely holding it together through each day’s unique yet familiar tortures must trudge home to parents with whom we fundamentally disagree on everything. For the third year in a row, the tension between liberal and conservative family members will be potent enough to marinate the turkey in an extra coat of ennui. But for anyone dreading having to rehash the same old dinner table arguments again, like fourth-day leftovers, I offer a simple solution: Don’t make your political and social points at the dinner table. Make them in your Netflix queue.

That’s right, movies may have damaged us with unrealistic expectations for satisfying conclusions, but they may just be our Thanksgiving salvation. Below you will find 11 crowd-pleasing films to watch over Thanksgiving that will stealthily deliver social messages to your Trump-loving family, like so many Trojan Turkeys. Not be confused with regular old (lower case) turkeys (aka terrible movies), these films will have the whole room subconsciously gobbling down anti-MAGA ideology, and the only arguments you’ll have will be over whether it’s too soon for round two of dessert.

Black Panther

On the surface: An origin story-free Marvel franchise-starter with an on-fire director (Creed’s Ryan Coogler), dazzling action scenes, and a fully realized depiction of high-tech utopia Wakanda.

The message: Not all African countries are “shithole countries”; build bridges, not walls.

A Quiet Place

On the surface: A left-field horror-thriller hit from writer/director/star John Krasinski about a family trying to evade monsters who kill anything that makes a sound.

The message: In times of oppression, you have to fight for the ability to use your voice, i.e., voter suppression, gerrymandering, and journalist-bashing suck.

The Other Guys

On the surface: A raucous Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg comedy about the riffraff of the police force attempting to fill the shoes of two superstar cops.

The message: A searing indictment of white collar crime on Wall Street. (Seriously.)

Contagion

On the surface: Steven Soderbergh’s sobering epic about a worldwide health epidemic.

The message: Deregulation isn’t inherently a good thing–like, say for instance, in terms of requiring food service workers to wash their hands.

The Big Sick

On the surface: Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon’s sharp, sweet romantic comedy about a couple of young lovers who meet extremely cute and then break up just as one of them (Zoe Kazan) goes into a coma.

The message: Before you go into a coma in the United States, it’s important to make sure you have healthcare; otherwise, your friends will have to make a GoFundMe in your honor to ensure you don’t die.

Robocop

On the surface: A kickass action flick about a murdered police officer, resurrected through technology, seeking revenge on the thugs who killed him.

The message: Corporations and the police state should have nothing to do with each other; down with private prisons!

The Lego Movie

On the surface: A rip-roaring animated adventure in which Chris Pratt’s hapless hero becomes convinced he’s a Matrix-ian “The One”-type (mini)figure.

The message: Tune out the chorus suggesting “Everything is awesome” when it’s clearly not. Think for yourself.

Wall-E

On the surface: Lonely, Earthbound robot Wall-e falls in love with fellow mechanized being EVE and follows her to the spaceship containing Earth’s former inhabitants.

The message: Rapidly consuming all the world’s resources will have consequences.

Snowpiercer

On the surface: In a post-apocalyptic near-future, Earth’s survivors live on a gigantic train with a perpetual-motion engine, sorted into class distinctions that remain across generations.

The message: It may be time to consider that capitalism is the real problem.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown

On the surface: A fun, animated romp in which Manny (Ray Romano) and the gang set out to find safe haven from their swiftly melting glacial enclosure.

The message: Global warming is the single biggest threat we are currently facing.

Dinesh D’Souza’s Death of a Nation

On the surface: Okay, lumping this one in with the other crowdpleasers is a stretch. And we can’t actually recommend that anyone watch this trash. The only crowds pleased by D’Souza’s hamfisted, fact-averse propaganda are matinee-trotting MAGA granddads. It’s a documentar-ish about why Donald Trump is basically Lincoln.

The message: It’s more of a meta-message here: haphazardly pardoning ass-kissing felons like D’Souza is bad for society.

NASA will begin a new chapter in decoding the evolution of our solar system on Nov. 26, when its InSight lander performs the first Mars landing in six years and provides our first in-depth look at the Martian interior.

En route since May, InSight is targeting a 3 p.m. EST touchdown on Elysium Planitia, a flat expanse on the Martian equator. It’s the first surface mission since the Curiosity rover, and roughly 373 miles from its landing site. NASA will cover the event live from Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, which is managing the $814 million mission. (You can also watch the event with other humans at landing parties worldwide.)

Unlike Curiosity, however, the solar-powered InSight will remain in place, using three instruments to study the planet’s seismic activity, rotational wobble, and underground temperatures to determine the planet’s interior structure and geothermal activity, and a liquid or solid core. (The next Mars landing after InSight, the Mars 2020 Rover mission–which announced its landing site Monday–will search for the potential of ancient life by collecting and caching samples for return to Earth for further study.)

What’s InSight doing on Mars?

The data InSight collects may help explain how all terrestrial (rocky) planets formed, including Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and why Earth and Mars began evolving the same way, but diverged so that only one presently sustains life on its surface. Unlike Mars, Earth’s geological churning has erased structural evidence of its first several tens of millions of years after forming 4.5 billion years ago.

A comparative example is the Kepler mission close-ups of other solar systems, prompting scientists to readjust assumptions about our own. “We had models on how the solar system formed and everyone was happy with them until Kepler found large [gaseous] Jupiter-sized planets closely orbiting other stars,” instead of farther away, says Meyer. “We realized the models worked for our solar system, but didn’t necessarily explain what was going on in others.”

The mission has been a dream of InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt. After a rejected 2006 attempt, his revamped proposal was accepted in 2010, and beat two competitors in 2012 for funding. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, cost-capped science missions overseen by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.

“Bruce has been trying to get a seismometer to Mars for decades,” says Troy Hudson, an InSight instrument systems engineer at JPL, who walked Fast Company through portions of the science. (Hudson’s talk on InSight science can be found here.)

InSight–or, Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport–will use seismometers and timing of the Martian rotation to ascertain the constitution of its mantle and core, and current geothermal activity. While that technology has been around for decades on Earth, enabling an intact landing and functioning on Mars took an international mindset. Research institutes in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom helped design parts of the instruments, while Lockheed Martin Space in Denver designed the spacecraft.

A carefully choreographed landing

Even without a sky crane, the Insight landing will be as harrowing as Curiosity’s nail-biter in its series of exquisitely timed movements.

They include the lander and back shell separating from the cruise stage, turning the heat shield toward the atmosphere, which it will hit at a 12-degree angle that will prevent its burning up or bouncing off. Seventy miles above the surface, the temperatures will exceed 1800 ºF, and InSight will face 12 g’s as it rapidly descends from 13,000 mph to 1000 mph. At 10 miles, InSight will deploy a supersonic parachute, jettison its heat shield, release the landing legs, and transmit radar toward the surface to gauge its distance and speed.

At a mile from the surface, the lander portion will detach from the back shell and parachute. Its back thrusters will ignite, rotating the lander away from the back shell, bringing it to a soft landing on the surface, and turning off the moment it hits ground, so as to not tip the lander over. Scientists chose the site for its sunny exposure, dearth of rocks, and a low-enough elevation to ensure sufficient atmosphere for a safe landing, including in a dust storm.

“When you’ve worked on something this complex and challenging for a decade, and it all hinges on that eponymous ‘7 minutes of terror,’ for those of us involved in the mission, it will be the most harrowing experience of our lives,” says Hudson.

To relay data from its entry, descent, and landing, InSight will pair with a separate flyby mission, Mars Cube One (MarCO), the two first deep-space CubeSats, which have accompanied InSight along for the ride to Mars. Once on the surface, the craft will unfold its solar panels to power up, but will take up to two months months before the instruments get to work. Specifically, two days before the robotic arm unlatches from the deck; 10-15 days of site reconnaissance with onboard cameras, and another 30-40 days of methodically placing the seismometer and heat flow instruments on the ground.

“This is the part of the mission that will involve the greatest number of people working simultaneously and it’s one of the many things on InSight we’ve never done before,” says Hudson. “We’ve never deployed instruments this sophisticated for ‘remote’ operation to be physically separated from the lander.”

The RISE instrument will measure Mars’s wobble

As Mars spins on its axis and orbits the sun, it wobbles like a top as the sun pushes and pulls it in its orbit (as does Earth). We know that Mars wobbles every Martian year, but we don’t know by how much. That variation will help scientists determine the size and composition of Mars’s core. A liquid core will create a greater wobble.

Observing those frequency changes and measuring the degree of wobble over InSight’s Mars-year-long mission (roughly two Earth years) will suggest whether Mars’s core is liquid or solid.

It will also be a step toward explaining the planet’s weak magnetic field. A stronger magnetic field, like Earth’s, is thought to be beneficial for life because it deflects much of the sun’s solar wind, reducing the sun’s ability to strip away a planet’s atmosphere. Swirling convection currents within Earth’s liquid iron outer core create this planetary dynamo. Mars’s lack of a strong magnetic field, possibly due to a thinner or absent liquid outer core, is a likely culprit in Mars having lost much of its early atmosphere to stripping from solar wind.

SEIS will measure Marsquakes

SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) will measure Mars’s internal activity and structure via seismic waves from marsquakes, meteorite strikes, landslides, dust storms, and tidal bulges in the crust from the pull of Mars’s two moons. As the seismic energy moves through Mars, the waves reflect at layer boundaries and bend in response to changes in the properties of the material through which they travel.

“Seismology is analogous to using ultrasound to see inside your body,” says Hudson. “Different seismic sources, like quakes or impacts, generate waves with unique characteristics, like the different timbres of musical instruments.”

Seismometers detect vertical ground movements through springs and weights, whose motion generates an electrical voltage that is recorded digitally. Greatly improved from the 40-year-old seismometers in the Viking landers, SEIS is sensitive enough to detect vibrations smaller than the width of a hydrogen atom.

Such sensitivity requires protection. On Earth, scientists bury seismometers in the ground, which they don’t have the ability yet to do on Mars. After landing, InSight’s robotic arm will place SEIS on the ground, then place over it a dome-shaped cover, the Wind and Thermal Shield. This “portable hole” will protect SEIS from Mars’s 100º F-temperature swings and features a Mylar-and-chainmail skirt that conforms to the ground surface to keep out vibrations from wind.

Related: Will the humans kill Mars? 

Although Mars has calmer tectonics than Earth, scientists expect it to experience considerably more detectable meteorite hits, thanks to a thinner atmosphere and no ocean. If SEIS detects any, it will coordinate with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for visual confirmation.

“If InSight hears something and we think it’s in a certain area of Mars, we can see if there were fresh impactors,” says Hudson. Scientists expect to detect five to 10 meteor impacts during InSight’s two-year mission.

In addition to these high-energy seismic events, SEIS will sense much slower changes. “We’ll also see how Mars flexes and bulges under tides,” he adds. “Just as the gravity of Earth’s moon creates tides, Mars’s moons (much smaller than Earth’s, but much closer to their parent planet) cause its crust to rise and fall. This tidal motion of the land is very small; on the scale of a millimeter. The seismometer will pick up how fast it rises and falls, and from that we can constrain how thick the crust is. A thicker crust moves less.”

It was SEIS’s design that proved the most challenging, leading to the delayed launch, says Hudson. Because of their sensitivity, its instruments needed to be encased in a vacuum. But the engineering team kept detecting a slow leak. It turned out to be the connection between the instrument components on both sides of the vacuum, requiring a complete design and manufacturing overhaul.

The delay resulted in about $150 million in cost overruns and caused the mission to miss the 2016 launch window, requiring waiting another 26 months for the next Mars launch opportunity. But the extra time also allowed for Hudson’s team to make improvements to the mission’s one-of-a-kind heat flow instrument.

HP³ will take Mars temperature: “No one before has created a device like this”

Last to deploy will be the HP³ (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package), which will gauge the heat coming from the interior of the planet, left over from the planet’s formation and from the decay of radioactive elements. This is the same heat that helped shaped the surface of Mars, with some of the tallest mountains in the solar system and a volcano three times the height of Mount Everest. Foremost, constraining the heat flow will help resolve whether Mars, Earth, and the Moon sprang from the same material, as scientists believe, and how geologically active Mars is today.

Related: Here’s how NASA plans to build on other planets

But HP³‘s specific data-taking needs to happen well below the surface. In order to avoid surface temperature swings, readings must be taken three to five meters (some 10 to 16 feet) underground. To that end, engineers devised a self-burrowing cylindrical probe, or mole, attached to a long tether embedded with temperature sensors capable of measurements accurate to a hundredth of a degree. A mechanism inside the probe will hammer it down as much as five meters–deeper than humans have dug on any other planet, moon, or asteroid–pulling the tether behind it.

“As the mole penetrates, it stops periodically to measure the thermal conductivity of the ground,” says Hudson. “Once it has reached its final depth, the embedded sensors report the change in subsurface temperatures with depth: the geothermal gradient. The increase we expect to see over five meters is only one or two degrees. That’s tiny, but it’s enough for HP³‘s temperature sensors. Going deep is challenging, but the further we get below those first two meters, the cleaner the data will be.”

The mole design faced challenging requirements: it had to be a self-contained drilling mechanism less than 1-kg (2.2 lbs.), able to function on 10 watts of available power, strong enough to penetrate a variety of planetary soil types, and robust enough to survive the self-imposed and violent accelerations of the hammering. All while containing some delicate temperature and orientation sensors.

“No one before has created a device like this–capable of self-propelled penetration into a planetary subsurface while using so few resources,” says Hudson. “The HP³ mole can simultaneously produces intense hammer strikes of over 10,000 g’s, can survive tens of thousands of those violent shocks, uses less power than a Wi-Fi router, and weighs barely more than a pair of shoes.”

The drilling will also offer a batch of extra data.

“There will a 30-day period where the mole will be hammering for a couple of hours a day every four days, creating vibrations the SEIS will be able pick up,” he adds. “We’ll be able to use that information to characterize the subsurface near the lander, such as the depth to the bedrock layer. Doing so is not one of the mission requirements; it’s an example of us trying to squeeze every last drop of science from this mission.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on national TV Tuesday night to assure Washington, Wall Street, and America that you can still trust Facebook.

He spoke on CNN’s AC360 with Laurie Segall, who queried the CEO on various revelations from the recent New York Timesbombshell–which detailed his company’s transparency problems in the wake of the infestation on the social network by Russian trolls. Zuckerberg also addressed calls for his own resignation as Facebook’s chairman of the board.

Overall, Zuckerberg repeated many of the points he made on a call with journalists last Friday, so the interview didn’t break any big news. But it did provide more color to the overall story.

Catering to conservatives?

Zuckerberg contradicted one of the main points in the Times‘s story. Facebook was conflicted on whether or not to take down a statement posted on Facebook by then-candidate Donald Trump in December 2015 calling for a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the United States. The Times said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg “delegated” the task of deciding to three underlings, including a Republican attorney named Joel Kaplan whom Sandberg had hired.

Kaplan reportedly argued that the post should stay up because Trump is an important public figure, and that taking it down might violate his free speech. He said taking it down might also “stoke a conservative backlash.” (Kaplan, in a surprising lapse in PR judgment, was the guy sitting directly behind his friend Brett Kavanaugh during the wall-to-wall TV coverage of the judge’s confirmation hearings.) Kaplan’s argument apparently won the day–but not the part about conservatives, according to Zuck Tuesday night.

Zuckerberg, the Times reported, did not participate in the debate. On CNN tonight Zuckerberg said something different.

Segall: I know Facebook is under a lot of pressure from the Democrats and Republicans, the government in general. Are [Facebook] leaders making content decisions based on appeasing political leaders? . . . did they in that situation?

Zuckerberg: No. They didn’t. And I was involved in those conversations, and I think it’s very important that people have the opportunity to hear from what political leaders are saying. So, you know, in those cases, I don’t think that a lot of the content violated our policies.

Segall: So, it wasn’t accurate, though, that part of the reason they didn’t take down the post was because there was concern over a conservative backlash?

Zuckerberg: No, that was certainly not any part of the conversation that I had.

Definers, and the truth

In October 2017, Facebook asked a GOP opposition research firm called Definers Public Affairs to help deflect criticism away from Facebook. One way Definers reportedly did this was to plant negative news stories about anti-Facebook groups (like Freedom from Facebook), and about tech rivals like Google and Apple, on a conservative news site called NTK Network that was one of its affiliates. In the interview with CNN, Zuckerberg defended Definers’ work.

Zuckerberg: Yes. Look, from the review that I’ve done so far, it doesn’t appear that anything that the group said was untrue as far as we can tell.

The Buck Stops With Zuck

In the conference call last week Zuckerberg said he knew nothing about Definers until he read about the firm in the Times story. He said the firm was hired by his communications team and that he had no knowledge of it.  Since then Zuck has apparently understood that throwing your company’s comms team under the bus isn’t the best look.

Zuckerberg: Well, I–like I said on the call, you know–I learned about this when I read the report as well. But I’m not so sure that that’s the most important point. I think your question is right that this is–I do run the company. I am responsible for everything that happens here.

Sandberg said in a Facebook post last Thursday that she also didn’t know about Definers. “I did not know we hired them or about the work they were doing, but I should have,” she wrote.

Sandberg’s future

Lots of speculation has swirled around Sheryl Sandberg’s possible firing as a consequence of the Times story. Zuckerberg said some of the same things to Segall that he said to reporters on the Friday conference call. From the conference call last week: “Overall, Sheryl is doing great work, and she will continue to be my partner in the work,” Zuckerberg said. “We have made great progress, and she’s a big reason for that.”

The message sounded a little different on CNN. To my ear, Zuckerberg didn’t exactly rule out the possibility of Sandberg’s departure. It all depends on your interpretation of the meaning of the first word of his answer. Was he saying “yeah” to acknowledge Segall’s question? Or “yeah” Sandberg won’t be fired? Check out the video clip and decide for yourself.

Segall: There are a lot of questions about Sheryl Sandberg’s role in the latest controversy. Can you definitely say Sheryl will stay in her same role?

Zuckerberg: Yeah . . . look, Sheryl is a really important part of this company and is leading a lot of the efforts to address a lot of the biggest efforts that–the biggest issues that we have. And she’s been an important partner for me for 10 years. And, you know, I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done together. And I hope that we work together for decades more to come.

(Source: CNN Business)

Sandberg’s firing would be a surprise indeed, but it could happen. (Why Joel Kaplan still has a job is a mystery to me.)

Stepping down is “not the plan”

Some Facebook shareholders, and some in the media, have called for Zuckerberg to give up his current role as chairman of the board. Zuckerberg has almost total control over the company because he owns 60% of its voting shares. A new chairman might install a much-needed check on Zuckerberg’s power, the thinking goes.

The answer is still no, however:

Segall: You are CEO and chairman of Facebook. That’s an extraordinary amount of power given that you rule a kingdom of 2 billion people digitally, essentially . . . So, you’re not stepping down as chairman?

Zuckerberg: That’s not the plan.

Segall: Would anything change that?

Zuckerberg: I mean, in fact, eventually, over time. I mean, I’m not going to–I’m not going to be doing this forever, but I certainly–I’m not currently thinking that that makes sense.

There are about 8,000 people on my newsletter list.

That’s not a ton of people–your email list may have five times that. But these are my people. I love them. It feels like I’ve scratched and clawed for each one, so I treat the list with kid gloves. I only send posts I deem “perfect.” So when one unsubscribes, it feels like a dagger.

My goal is to eventually get to 100,000 subscribers. Yet, I’ve only recently realized my subconscious goal has been to send emails that I think will yield the fewest unsubscribes. This is why I only send a handful of emails each year, despite having hundreds more sitting in drafts. I don’t want to lose anyone.

This is why there are 8,000 subscribers, not 100,000.

Loss aversion is hardwired into each of our brains and it’s killing us. The research behind Amos Tversky’s and Daniel Kahneman’s Prospect Theory from the late 1970s indicates that humans feel roughly twice as much pain and anger at losing something as we feel happiness at gaining something of the same magnitude. For example, if you buy a cup of coffee with a $10 bill, but later notice you received change as though you’d paid with a $20, you’ll feel pleasantly surprised–and maybe slightly guilty. But if you realize you paid with a $20 and got change for a $10, you’ll be livid.

Entrepreneurship is hard enough without adding loss aversion. It’s like we’re all trying to run a marathon while dragging an 85-pound weight. Give yourself a break. Here’s how to shed the weight.

Exactly when loss aversion becomes disastrous for founders

Let’s start with my email list. Being an entrepreneur is emotionally exhausting, so founders tend to optimize for what’ll create the least “emotional drag.”Worst of all, founders tend to overestimate what they have and the general instability of the lifestyle amplifies the feeling of loss.

That means my goal for an email campaign is going to be to minimize unsubscribes, whether that’s a good business decision or not. Spoiler alert: It is not. I’ve seen many founders get a customer to sign up for their service before it launches. In an effort to not bother them until the full-featured product is live eight months later, they don’t contact them again. They didn’t want to lose the customer. But by the time they reach back out, that customer had long forgotten they existed and deleted the email.

This is how damaging the behavior can be

I’m currently letting the fear of losing 25 subscribers dictate when, where, and how I provide value to 8,000 people. I’m letting a handful of people who might not be interested enough in what I’m trying to do at Tacklebox (this is not a crime nor a personal attack) dictate how fast Tacklebox grows. Sheesh.

How do we combat this? By implementing systems to identify and minimize loss aversion. Here are three steps to take.

1. Focus on data points

Treating everything like an experiment that yields data points is a great way to remove harmful emotions. If I send an email and 25 people unsubscribe, that’s not a bad thing, it’s just a data point, the result of an experiment. If that same email leads to 10 new applications for Tacklebox, that’s another data point. These data points can all relate back to exactly who your customer is, and how well you’re solving a problem for them.

2. Only celebrate and prioritize things you do, not things that happen because of things you do

Don’t get upset over people who unsubscribe and don’t get happy about subscribers. Get happy about things you can control. I can control sending emails with good content. I can’t control if someone got a new job and no longer wants to launch a startup, so they unsubscribe. A process you can control is greater than people’s response to that process.

3. Create and follow metrics that optimize your goals, not ones that minimize loss

Understand the decisions you need to make, understand the data you need to make those decisions, and create and follow metrics that increase the experiments that’ll get you the data that’ll lead to those decisions. Everything else is irrelevant.

Our goal as entrepreneurs isn’t to avoid losses. It’s to build things that help people.

Brian Scordato is the founder of Tacklebox Accelerator, a seven-week program in New York City to help idea-stage founders with full-time jobs validate and build their startups. He writes a popular bi-weekly newsletter on startup tactics and loves Tar Heel basketball.

Apple designers may pore over the smallest details of emoji, from classics like the poo symbol or the dancing woman to newer additions like New York bagel and bald person. But “Sad squinting crying see-no-evil baby” is the only emoji that really matters. You didn’t get it in your latest iPhone update? That’s because I, a person of great talent, made it myself.

Detroit has been demolishing about 200 vacanthouses per week since December 2014, with a goal to take down6,000 houses in one year. Much of the demolition work is concentrated in about 20 neighborhoods where the blight removal is projected to have immediate positive effects of improving remaining property values and clearing land for future development.

While Detroit may be an extreme example, economic decline, disinvestment, racial segregation, and natural and human-made disasters have left other U.S. communities with unprecedented amounts of structural debris, abandonment, and blight, too.

As scholarswhofocus on understanding the complex circumstances that have led to blight, we also have some ideas about potential solutions that could prevent this cycle the next time around.

We’ve coined the term domicology to describe our study of the life cycles of the built environment. It examines the continuum from the planning, design, and construction stages through to the end of use, abandonment, and deconstruction or reuse of structures.

Domicology recognizes the cyclical nature of the built environment. Ultimately we’re imagining a world where no building has to be demolished. Structures will be designed with the idea that once they reach the end of their usefulness, they can be deconstructed with the valuable components repurposed or recycled.

Thinking about the end at the beginning

The U.S. reached a record high of 7.4 million abandoned homes in 2012. When people leave homes, the local commercial economy falters, resulting in commercial abandonment as well. The social, environmental, and economic consequences disproportionately affect already struggling communities. Abandoned buildings contribute to lower property values and are associated with higher rates of crime and unemployment. Due to the scale of the problem, local governments are often unable to allocate enough resources to remove blighted structures.

All human-made structures have a life cycle, but rarely do people embrace this reality at the time of construction. The development community gives little thought to the end of life of a structure, in large part because the costs of demolition or deconstruction are passed on to some future public or private entity.

Currently, publicly financed demolition and landfilling are the most frequent methods used to remove abandoned structures, but these practices generate a huge amount of material waste. Upwards of 300,000 houses are demolished annually, which generates 169.1 million tons of construction and demolition debris–about 22% of the U.S. solid waste stream.

Here’s where a shift to a new domicology mind-set can help. Unlike demolition, deconstruction is a sustainable approach to systematically disassembling buildings, which can result in up to 95% material reuse and recycling. This method, however, may increase time and cost, while at the same time potentially creating a vibrant reuse market for salvaged materials.

Domicology’s comprehensive paradigm shift from landfill-dependent demolition waste streams to sustainable construction, deconstruction, and material salvage will affect both methods of construction and the materials used. For example, in design and construction of structures, modular components tend to be easier to dismantle than “stick-built” methods. Construction techniques that rely more on connectors like screws instead of glues or nails mean dismantlers can remove materials with less damage, increasing the value of the salvaged material.

On the materials side, using salvaged wood products to create new structural wood products can reduce reliance on virgin timber, which has recently experienced shortages and price fluctuations. Salvaged concrete can be used as aggregate in new construction. In some cases, even roof shingles can be melted for asphalt road surfacing. In the Midwest, where there are substantial numbers of abandoned properties, an underground “scrapper” economy has emerged that salvages copper and other valuable metals from structures.

What needs to change?

All of this requires forethought in recognizing that structures have an end of life. There is value in planning, designing, and building in such a way that when a structure reaches the end of its usefulness, people can maximize the salvage of the materials removed from these structures. Creating a value in the end of life of a structure also decreases the likelihood of walking away from these valuable resources–reducing private sector abandonment in a community experiencing distress.

Governments can help by putting in place policies, incentives, and regulations to prevent abandonment and facilitate removal. Domicology will depend on figuring out the best processes and technologies for safe removal. Deconstructors will need to hire differently skilled laborers than for a standard demolition. And for domicology to work, there will need to be a way to take the removed material to a place where it can be given a second life of some kind.

As with any paradigm shift, the most challenging issue is to change current mind-sets. People need to leave behind a “build it, use it, demolish it” perspective and replace it with a “plan it, design it, build it, use it, deconstruct it, and reuse the materials” view. Builders must imagine at the beginning of a structure’s life what will happen at the end of it.

Economics do add up

Our domicology team recently tested the economic feasibility of using deconstruction practices rather than demolition as a way to reduce blight. We also wanted to explore how feasible it would be to establish a deconstruction-based repurposing economy.

Our findings suggest that the central collection, reuse, and repurposing of material from legacy cities in the Great Lakes region is feasible with the help of specific policies, practices, and targeted economic development strategies.

A crucial support would be a strong supply chain for salvaged materials. In Europe, California, and the East Coast of the U.S., deconstruction firms can more easily acquire the material from blighted structures, access a skilled deconstruction labor force, and use low-cost modes of transportation to move salvaged materials to processing facilities. All these advantages make deconstruction cost-competitive in those regions against demolition and disposal.

As these ideas take hold and spread through planning, design, financing, and construction industries, the goal is to prevent another blight epidemic like the one we see today in Detroit.

Rex LaMore is director of the Center for Community & Economic Development and adjunct faculty in the Urban and Regional Planning Program at Michigan State University.George H. Berghorn is assistant professor of construction management at Michigan State University.M.G. Matt Syal is professor of construction management at Michigan State University. This article is republished from the Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Here is the link to the original article.

Yesterday, we got some rare good news. Two of the three private equity firms that saddled now-defunct retailer Toys “R” Us with debt—leading to its ultimate bankruptcy and closure—agreed to set up a $20 million severance fund for the workers who lost their jobs.

These employees have been fighting for months to get their voices heard. When the store closed up shop, every employee was left high and dry with no notice. Executives, however, were given steep bonuses as part of the bankruptcy. Now, reports CNN, the firms KKR and Bain Capital have have agreed to pay. The third private equity group, Vornado, has yet to comment on the matter.

This news comes at a time when many people likely have Toys “R” Us on their minds, given that Thanksgiving is just a day away, and Black Friday is right after that. Many shoppers have grown up going to stores like Toys “R” Us for most of their holiday shopping. This year, they’ll have to do without it.

Some interesting context comes courtesy of a new survey from Corescore Research. The firm looked at where former Toys “R” Us buyers were likely to shop, compared to all total toy buyers, and found that they generally preferred going to brick-and-mortar stores, like Walmart and Target, rather than buying on Amazon. Total toy shoppers generally preferred Amazon, but the physical stores still ranked high on their list of preferred places to buy toys. The findings aren’t terribly surprising, but they indicate how not all consumers are embracing the supposed retail apocalypse.

Overall, this holiday season is part of our slow trudge away from the retail landscape we knew 10 years ago. As the older businesses die off, many people have been left in the dust. This settlement is a reminder that workers should still fight for what they are owed–and that maybe there’s still a place for some stores, too.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and a whole lotta debt are coming. But before you jingle all the way to the mall to save a few dollars on your holiday shopping spree, new data from Adobe may serve as a warning: While 49% of consumers surveyed think the best day to buy toys is Black Friday, Adobe data shows that Cyber Monday is actually the best.

That said, businesses have seemingly given up on offering discounts on just one day and are now spreading the cost-saving Christmas cheer all season long. “Big discounts are on the horizon in the coming days, and shoppers need not wait until Cyber Monday for some of the best deals in computers, televisions, and tablets,” says Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights.

So what gifts should you fill your virtual shopping cart with? So far, according to Adobe, these are the hottest toys on the internet, and if you don’t recognize them, you may just be a little outside of the target market:

• L.O.L. Surprise! toys like the Bigger Surprise with 60+ Surprises and the Pearl Style 2 Unwrapping Toy
• Fingerlings, like: Glitter Panda, Baby Monkey with Mini BFFs, and Kingsley the Baby Sloth
• Little Live Pets, like: My Kissing Puppy, Sparkles My Dancing Unicorn
• Video game consoles, including Nintendo Switch, NES Classic, and Xbox One X
• Gadgets like: Digital cameras, Amazon Fire TV, and Amazon Echo

Last year it was a Sam Smith slow-jam dance routine. The year before, a Christmas-themed Frankenholiday. Now, for the 2018 holidays, Apple has gone animated to convince us we all have creative talents worth sharing.

Between Instagram, Snapchat, and every other social platform, the world is awash in oversharing. But if we’re feeling weary with the gaggles of nano-influencers, maybe it’s because the wrong people are doing the all the sharing?

Created with agency TBWA/Media Arts Lab, the short film Share Your Gifts features a soundtrack by 16-year-old songwriter Billie Eilish, who reportedly recorded the tune at her parent’s house on her Mac (natch). There’s also a handful of subtle brand and band nods that give us a window into the main character Sofia’s personality and style: the Supreme sticker on her laptop, along with ones for DFA Records and MOCA, as well as a Sonic Youth T-shirt, pink knit hat, and a pair of Nike Cortez.

It’s a lovely short film, brilliantly crafted and perfectly in line with Apple’s long-built image as more than a piece of technology—a tool to help facilitate anyone’s creativity.

To that end, the brand also created a collection of behind-the-scenes videos to go beyond the metaphor in the animated short and talk to some of the creators behind it–including color artist Deborah Cruchon and editor Marianne Karaan–about how they specifically use their own Mac in their work. It’s certainly a nice touch that the IRL creatives Apple chose to profile are women, a subtle nod back to Sofia in “Share Your Gifts.”

Check out the brief Making-Of video:

There’s also a video spotlighting how Eilish crafted the song, “Come Out and Play”:

Below are the videos featuring color artist Deborah Cruchon, and editor Marianne Karaan.

If you have a family member who isn’t shy about voicing their political beliefs, you’re probably approaching this year’s Thanksgiving get-together with at least some sense of dread. You’re not alone. And since this year’s Thanksgiving occurs just a few weeks after the most contentious midterm elections in recent memory, the tension could be running especially high.

Sure, you can try to impose a ban on political discussion during the holiday gathering–good luck with that. When politics are this much on people’s minds, it’s impossible to avoid it altogether. Even chitchats about the weather can turn into a debate on climate change. A rant about football can lead to arguments about Colin Kaepernick.

But there’s a simple conversational recipe to keep the peace this Thanksgiving: ask three parts “question” to one part “statement.” Because if we’re asking a lot more than we’re telling–and we’re asking those questions with good intentions and the right tone–we can have more civil, engaging conversations, even with those who don’t share our views.

Questions don’t divide people. Answers do

The writer and humanitarian Elie Wiesel once observed: “People are united by questions. It is the answers that divide them.” In my years researching the power of questioning for a series of books on the subject, I talked to expert communicators in various fields–hostage negotiators, conflict resolution specialists, therapists, and coaches. I found that they always turn to questions when they need to build trust and rapport with others pretty quickly. These professionals often must forge connections with people who are angry, alienated, and in some cases dangerous–people who are even more difficult to reach than your obnoxious uncle.

When you ask someone a question, “you’re showing that you care about that person,” notes relationships researcher and professor of psychology Arthur Aron. Beyond that, if the question you ask is a good one, Aron says, “it encourages that other person to reveal something about themselves. That creates an opportunity for you to respond to what they are revealing.”

In his 30 years of research, Aron has found that after sharing a series of questions and answers, his study participants, who may be from very backgrounds and social groups, tend to like and understand each other much better. The positive feelings can extend toward the whole overall group of the other person–for example, Aron found that after exchanging thoughtful questions with someone from another race, a participant was more likely to have a positive feeling about that individual and all members of the other race.

The key to asking productive questions

A lot depends on what you ask and how you ask it. When asking questions in general–and especially when questioning someone who holds very different views than yours–you should be guided by your own unspoken question: What can I learn from this person who sees things differently than I do?

To avoid descending into conflict, your questions need to be fueled by curiosity. When we ask questions that are, at its core, accusations, such as “How could you support them?” we show that we aren’t particularly interested in the answers. We’re in fact, looking to shame people. But when you’re genuinely curious, you open your mind to new information, and the other party probably feels like you’re making an effort to understand their point of view.

How to find common ground when you disagree

You can signal your curiosity in simple ways: by listening intently, but also by prefacing your own questions with phrases like, “I’m curious about something…” or “I was wondering about this, and maybe you can help me understand…” It’s especially important to “soften” questions when discussing hot-button issues. For instance, instead of “How could you support that candidate?” ask “I’d love to know what you admire most in that candidate you supported. What’s your favorite thing about them?”

You can then use their answers to try to find some area(s) of agreement. No, I don’t mean that you need to abandon your own beliefs; the idea is to try to find some element of the other’s belief that seems reasonable and understandable to you.

James Ryan, former dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, often relies on the question “couldn’t we at least agree that…” and fills in the blank with anything that seems like a reasonable point both sides can accept. This can be a building block to a civil conversation where the discussion, Ryan says, “focuses on what we agree on, instead of what we disagree on.” For example, when he and fellow professors begin to argue about different teaching methods, “I may ask something like, ‘Couldn’t we at least agree that everyone in this room wants to improve education for our students?'”

Don’t try to change people’s mind

Ultimately, you need to resist the idea that you can change someone’s mind about an issue. Research suggests you are unlikely to be able to do that, even if the facts seem to be on your side.

Here are two great questions, shared by the radio interviewer Krista Tippett, that can help create that slight shift. After you’ve solicited the other person’s views and shared your own, try asking: “Can you find anything in your position that gives you pause?” Then follow that up with: “Is there anything in my position that you are attracted to or find interesting?” But be sure to turn those two questions on yourself, and share aspects of your position that may give you pause.

If all else fails, steer the subject away from contentious issues altogether. Ask questions that move the conversation to a safer place. Prompts like, “What binds our family together? What are some of the family accomplishments and traditions we hold dear?” are great for reminding everyone that there are certain values that transcend political differences.

Ultimately, you’ll find that you probably have more similarities than you think. As humans, we’re just hardwired to focus on the negatives. Don’t let that tendency ruin your Thanksgiving.

Warren Berger is the author of The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Beautiful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect and Lead. 

While Hallmark likes to talk about the comfort, joy, and chestnut-roasting warmth of the holidays, the more honest (okay, cynical) members of society know that the most prevalent feeling around the holidays is guilt.

Guilt for not finding the right presents, guilt for not visiting your parents frequently enough to update their operating systems, guilt for not giving enough to charity, guilt for eating too much pie, guilt for leaving too many leftovers, and so on.

Anyway, get ready to feel more guilt: Each year since 1988, Swedish business data group HUI Research has picked what it thinks will be Sweden’s most popular Christmas gift of the year. The chosen gift, according to Sweden’s edition of The Local, says, “often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” This year HUI saidthe most popular gift in Sweden would be “the recycled garment.” So either everyone’s getting North Face jackets made from recycled plastic bottles or, you know, hand-me-downs. And they’re going to love them!

“The recycled garment reflects the Swedish interest for new sustainable alternatives and increasing concerns about climate and environment,” the firm said in a statement. “The recycled garment captures a time where new business models and technological innovations enable a more sustainable consumption.”

Happy Holidays!

More than four months after Scott Pruitt resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in disgrace, the public is finally receiving details about the special interest money spent to confirm him as the agency’s administrator.

Protecting America Now, a Washington, D.C.-based dark-money nonprofit created to support Pruitt’s confirmation, filed its first tax return last week—almost two years after President Donald Trump announced his nomination. The filing showed the organization raised about $460,000 last year and spent $385,000 on “issue advocacy.”

Politicoreported last year that Protecting America Now was bankrolled by energy companies. E&E Newsobtained a fundraising pamphlet from the nonprofit promising anonymity to their donors.

At least one energy company voluntarily disclosed its donation to Protecting America Now. Pioneer Natural Resources, a Texas oil and gas company, gave $100,000 to the organization, its largest individual donation in 2017.

Pruitt, who served as Oklahoma’s attorney general from 2011-17, had a tumultuous tenure at the EPA. While his efforts to roll back environmental regulations won support from conservatives, his opulent spending generated constant negative news coverage and sparked at least 13 federal investigations.

Although Protecting America Now ended 2017 with only $33,000 in the bank, the organization appears to have found new life. It spent more than $400,000 backing Republican Kevin Stitt in his successful campaign for governor in Oklahoma this year, according to the Tulsa World.

This story was produced by MapLight, a nonprofit organization that reveals the influence of money in politics.

Some Amazon customers woke up to an email from “Earth’s Most Customer-centric Company” noting that their names and email addresses had been briefly disclosed due to a “technical error.” This being the internet, the affected customers quickly shared the emails on Twitter, and while people have a lot of questions, so far Amazon has provided very few answers.

In the email sent to customers, Amazon wrote that: “The issue,” whatever it was, “has been fixed.” It also noted that this was not the customer’s fault, and claims “there is no need for you to change your password or take any other action.” (Maybe change your password anyway?)

We reached out to Amazon for further comment. While there is plenty of speculation about what caused the glitch–or who was behind it–one thing is certain: The security lapse comes days ahead of Black Friday and the start of the busiest retail season of the year. A lack of transparency from Amazon could scare users away from the site. Or, you know, not.

Woke up to this email from Amazon. Cool…thanks for the technical error. "There is no need for you to change your password or take any other action." Well @AmazonHelp I'm changing my password anyway. #Amazon#AmazonEmail#TechnicalErrorpic.twitter.com/OAheQ4MPLD

— A.C. Junior (@OfficialMisterC) November 21, 2018

Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer, has said it will cut 7,500 jobs over the next two years in its largest ever restructuring. The layoffs will hit communications, human resources, and administrative roles.

The report comes courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, which points to the primary reasons Ikea is rethinking its business. While the company is the largest furniture retailer in the world, and it’s privately owned–which means it’s immune to the whims of Wall Street–it has experienced two years of slow growth in brick-and-mortar stores. It also has an antiquated online strategy, which for years, really only served as a digital catalog to get you to visit the store. These factors contributed to the company falling short of its goals.

As part of the restructuring, Ikea says it is creating more jobs than it plans to cut. The company will be opening 30 new stores in major cities, with a focus on delivery instead of self-service to support the digital business. Along with these new stores and program expansions will come 11,500 new jobs, the company claims. In other words, the future of Ikea is looking a lot more like the distribution hubs of Amazon, or even Target.

While the job eliminations may come as a surprise given that the company made over $14 billion last year in profits, the rest of Ikea’s strategy does not. Ikea’s leader of digital transformation, Michael Valdsgaard, shared a lot of the company’s thinking with Fast Company earlier this year, saying, “The business model of Ikea having a blue box in a cornfield, and you jump in the car with your family and have an ice cream [at the store], is not the only thing we should offer our customer. For the majority of people in the world, Ikea isn’t accessible. Apps can make Ikea accessible.” Apps, or just a decent website with two-day delivery, too.