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Does ‘laziness’ start in the brain?

Does ‘laziness’ start in the brain?

Understanding the surprising mechanism behind apathy can help unlock scientific ways to boost your motivation We all know people with very different levels of motivation. Some will go the extra mile in any endeavour. Others just can’t be bothered to put the effort in. We might think of them as lazy – happiest on the sofa, rather than planning their latest project. What’s behind this variation? Most of us would probably attribute it to a mixture of temperament, circumstances, upbringing or even values. But research in neuroscience and in patients with brain disorders is challenging these assumptions by revealing the brain mechanisms that underlie motivation. When these systems become dysfunctional, people who were once highly motivated can become pathologically apathetic. Whereas previously they might have been curious, highly engaged and productive – at work, in their social lives and in their creative thinking – they can suddenly seem like the opposite. Continue reading...

We have a practical framework for American resistance. Now we need a spiritual one | Rami Nashashibi

We have a practical framework for American resistance. Now we need a spiritual one | Rami Nashashibi

There is growing understanding that our country is witnessing evil in our public life. Here is a path to confronting it Across the country, organizers are carrying something heavier, clearer and more spiritually charged than anything I have seen in over 30 years of this work. From veteran freedom fighters to young activists, there is a growing alignment around the unmistakable presence of evil in our public life. The horrors unfolding before us have sharpened our collective sight and deepened the understanding that our resistance must be morally unwavering and spiritually grounded. The spiritual framework for this argument begins with a simple conviction. Our movements need to reclaim a moral vocabulary that names evil plainly. Dr King understood this. When he named the pain of poverty, the sickness of racism and the excess of materialism, he called them the “triple evils”, speaking with unflinching clarity about the devastation that this collective evil was inflicting on the country, on our conscience and on our very souls. We are living in such a moment again. The evil is fully out, and anyone with spiritual integrity can see it. Among the forces driving that clarity are Gaza, empire and ICE. Dr Rami Nashashibi is a MacArthur fellow and the founding executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) Continue reading...

‘I took literary revenge against the people who stole my youth’: Romanian author Mircea Cărtărescu

‘I took literary revenge against the people who stole my youth’: Romanian author Mircea Cărtărescu

As the first part of his acclaimed Blinding trilogy is released in the UK, the novelist talks about communism, Vladimir Nabokov – and those Nobel rumours In 2014, when he was travelling around the US on a book tour, Mircea Cărtărescu was able to fulfil the dream of a lifetime: a tour of Vladimir Nabokov’s butterfly collection. Cărtărescu is a great admirer of the Russian-American author, and shares with him a literary career that bridges the western and eastern cultural spheres – as well as a history of being mooted as the next Nobel literature laureate but never having won it. Above all, the Romanian poet and novelist shares Nabokov’s fascination with butterflies. As a child, he harboured dreams of becoming a lepidopterist. On a visit to Harvard, Cărtărescu was allowed access to Nabokov’s former office and marvelled at specimens the St Petersburg-born author had collected. “His most important scientific work was about butterflies’ sexual organs, and I saw these very tiny vials with them in,” he whispers in awe. “It’s like an image from a poem or a story. It was absolutely fantastic.” Continue reading...

Our beautiful multiplex: Milton Keynes council fights to save landmark cinema The Point

Our beautiful multiplex: Milton Keynes council fights to save landmark cinema The Point

The building was once home to the UK’s first US-style multiplex. Now developers are seeking to demolish it for a new housing scheme Forty years ago this month, British cinema-going changed for ever with the opening of The Point in Milton Keynes, the UK’s first US-style multiplex. Looming over Midsummer Boulevard, the Point’s mirrored glass ziggurat and red pyramidal frame audaciously synthesised Maya and Egyptian motifs in a futuristic, hi-tech temple of pleasure. As well as 10 screens (Back to the Future, The Goonies, and My Beautiful Laundrette opened proceedings), there were bars, restaurants, nightclub and even cup holders on seats, an unimaginable novelty for the time. Today, with its cinemas long closed, this now-languishing 1980s superstar is under threat of demolition, caught in a row between local campaigners, politicians and heritage groups trying to preserve it, and developers seeking to demolish it for a much-criticised new housing scheme. Continue reading...

ChatGPT-5 offers dangerous advice to mentally ill people, psychologists warn

ChatGPT-5 offers dangerous advice to mentally ill people, psychologists warn

Research finds OpenAI’s free chatbot fails to identify risky behaviour or challenge delusional beliefs ChatGPT-5 is offering dangerous and unhelpful advice to people experiencing mental health crises, some of the UK’s leading psychologists have warned. Research conducted by King’s College London (KCL) and the Association of Clinical Psychologists UK (ACP) in partnership with the Guardian suggested that the AI chatbotfailed to identify risky behaviour when communicating with mentally ill people. Continue reading...