Author: NY TIMES

Prairie voles are stocky rodents and Olympian tunnellers that surface in grassy areas to feast on grass, roots and seeds with their chisel-shaped teeth, sprouting migraines in farmers and gardeners.But to Larry Young, they were the secret to understanding romance and love.Professor Young, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta, used prairie voles in a series of experiments that revealed the chemical process for the pirouette of heart-fluttering emotions that poets have tried to put into words for centuries.He died on March 21 in Tsukuba, Japan, where he was helping to organize a scientific conference. He was 56. The cause…

Frank Wakefield, an innovative bluegrass mandolinist whose sweeping musicality led to collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and Jerry Garcia, and whose unique voicings and technique expanded the parameters of his instrument, died on Friday at his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He was 89.Marsha Sprintz, his companion of 47 years, said the cause was complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.In a career that spanned seven decades, Mr. Wakefield played with a host of bluegrass luminaries, including Jimmy Martin and the Stanley Brothers.He first made his mark in the early 1950s after joining a band led by the singer and…

Dozens of family members of Israeli hostages and their supporters gathered in protest on Thursday opposite the Israeli military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv while the country’s war cabinet convened there to discuss developments in talks aimed at securing the release of the captives.The protesters blocked a sidewalk near the building where Israel’s top officials were meeting and, using loudspeakers, they counted to 209 — the number of days that had passed since the hostages were seized on Oct. 7. They called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal that would secure the remaining hostages’ release, no matter…

The court is a tribunal of the Council of Europe and rules on cases where there are accusations that civil or political rights have been violated by member states who have agreed to accept its jurisdiction. Thursday’s judgment was given by seven judges from various countries.In the ruling, the court found that no violation by Italy had occurred.“It couldn’t have gone any other way,” said Lorenzo D’Ascia, a lawyer for the Italian government involved in the case. He noted that the European court had affirmed that there was international consensus about the need to protect cultural artifacts from looting. The…

Last March, Law Roach seemed to be at the peak of his career as a celebrity stylist. He had won the first stylist of the year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and was working with Zendaya, Celine Dion, Anya Taylor-Joy and Anne Hathaway, among others. Then, out of the blue, he announced on Instagram that he was quitting.“The politics, the lies, and false narratives finally got me!” he wrote. “You win … I’m out.”Cue shock, horror and a lot of speculation. There were rumors that he had called Priyanka Chopra Jonas fat. Rumors that he had…

An article on a fake online news outlet that Meta has linked to Russia’s information operations attributed the clashes unfolding on American college campuses to the failures of the Biden administration. A newspaper controlled by the Communist Party of China said the police crackdowns exposed the “double standards and hypocrisy” in the United States when it comes to free speech.On X, a spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanaani, posted a cartoon of the police arresting a young protester in the guise of the Statue of Liberty. “Imprisonment of #freedom in the U.S.A.,” he wrote.As protests over the…

The judge overseeing a landmark U.S. antitrust challenge to Google tried to poke holes in both sides’ cases during closing arguments Thursday, as he weighs a ruling that could reshape the technology industry.Judge Amit P. Mehta was presiding over the first day of closing arguments in the most consequential tech antitrust case since the U.S. government sued Microsoft in the late 1990s. The Justice Department has sued Google, accusing it of illegally shoring up a monopoly in online search. Google has denied the claims.On Thursday, Judge Mehta questioned the government’s argument that Google’s dominance had hurt the quality of the…

Scientists observed a wild male orangutan repeatedly rubbing chewed-up leaves of a medicinal plant on a facial wound in a forest reserve in Indonesia.It was the first known observation of a wild animal using a plant to treat a wound, and adds to evidence that humans are not alone in using plants for medicinal purposes.The male orangutan, Rakus, lives in the Gunung Leuser National Park on the island of Sumatra and is thought to be around 35 years old. For years researchers have followed orangutans like him on his travels through the forest, threading his way through the canopy in…

Is it simply the music flowing out of your earphones? According to the law, the answer is a bit more complicated. Source link

In the months after Israel began its military campaign in Gaza, thousands of musicians and fans from countries including Iceland, Ireland and Sweden signed petitions urging Eurovision’s organizers to ban Israel from the event over the high rate of civilian deaths and the widespread destruction in the occupied territory, where the United Nations says the population is now on the brink of famine.The campaigners say that Eurovision’s ban on Russia participating after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine set a precedent. But Eurovision’s organizers reject the comparison. “We understand the concerns and deeply held views around the current conflict in the…