Students are taught to stack one number atop another and multiply each digit of the bottom number by each digit of the top one. For millennia, mathematicians believed this to be the fastest multiplication method, until a 23-year-old made a shocking discovery in 1960, which led to a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

Glen Hansard, Oscar-winning Irish musician, has died in a single vehicle motorcycle crash. He was 56.

Hansard was known for many accomplishments, gaining fame as the guitarist Outpan Foster in the 1991 movie The Commitments. He was the founder and frontman of legendary Irish rock group The Frames, won an oscar with Marketa Iglova for best song with "Falling Slowly" from the motion picture Once, in which they both starred, as well as a successful solo career. Fitzcarraldo - The Frames Revelate - The Frames Falling Slowly - from Once, with Marketa Iglova Glen Hansard NPR Tiny Desk Concert and with a heavy heart, Lay Me Down - The Frames

The director known for scrappy, lo-fi, distinctly Canadian indies takes on his biggest project yet: Anthony Bourdain. (slVulture)

(archive link here) Tony trailer Blackberry trailer (rentable on Prime in Canada; available on AMC+ in the US) And of course, the biggest export of Johnson's career yet, the extremely Toronto-heavy and yet heartfelt movie that even made the US pay attention: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie Audiences unfamiliar with Nirvanna the Band the Show will be able to watch it streaming on Hulu in the US as of July 24th. Fanfare discussion of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie here.

Ik zat zeven dagen in een all-inclusive resort in Turkije, waar we al eerder waren geweest, dus de verrassing was er wel vanaf.

Writer Sarah Wilson argues we’re hurtling toward the same end as ancient Rome and the Mayan civilisation – but there’s plenty to fight for

In Sarah Wilson’s new book, one page is mostly blank. It’s intended as a reprieve, a neutral space “for you to stare at for a minute while your feelings catch up”.

You will need it. In I Eat the Stars, Wilson argues that the world as we know it is in collapse – and that we are too late to avoid the worst.

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Dominic Sessa stars as a conceited yet vulnerable young chef alongside Antonio Banderas – but the feelgood factor is compromised by what we know of the author

For all the drugs and punch-ups, this is an unexpectedly sentimental coming-of-age story – or maybe origin myth – about the formative youthful kitchen experiences of legendary badass chef Anthony Bourdain. It is taken from the opening chapters in his bestselling memoir Kitchen Confidential; Canadian film-maker Matt Johnson directs and Dominic Sessa (the callow kid from Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers) plays the conceited, smug yet lonely and vulnerable young college student Tony. “Anthony” is in the future.

It is the mid-1970s and Tony effectively runs away from home after failing to get a residential summer writing scholarship that he had assured everyone was in the bag. He shows up nearly penniless in the seaside vacation resort of Provincetown, Massachusetts – a place that is pretty similar to Amity Island in Jaws, which is showing at every drive-in. The reason is that he has a desperate crush on Nancy (Emilia Jones) who is there for the summer too and whom he desperately wants to impress with his smouldering intellectualism.

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Thuiskomen na een lange werkdag op de NRC-redactie. GAZONSCHAAMTE. Kinderen een aai over de bol. GAZONSCHAAMTE. Op het bankie naar Even tot Hier kijken en je doodlachen. GAZONSCHAAMTE. NRC op schoot eens kijken of we überhaupt nog iets mogen. GAZONSCHAAMTE. Partner wil al jaren geen seks maar vanavond toch weer eens proberen. GAZONSCHAAMTE. Gazon maaien. GAZONSCHAAMTE. Gazon strelen. GAZONSCHAAMTE. Gazon zoenen en stiekem meer. GAZONSCHAAMTE. Alles met Kim Kötter. Groener gazon bij de buren. GAZONSCHAAMTE. GAZONSCHAAMTE. In het vliegtuig vol vliegschaamte naar Grown Ups 2 kijken. GAZONSCHAAMTE. Schat wil jij het gazon sproeien ik heb waterschaamte. GAZONSCHAAMTE. 

De gazonschaamte is overal, achtervolgt u tot in uw kussensloop, dringt uw lichaam binnen via een gat in uw sok, vestigt zich in uw doucheputje en verkracht uw cavia. Gazonschaamte is de roos op uw schouder, het velletje aan uw neus, de etterende wond op uw bil en het stemmetje in uw hoofd dat zich voortdurend afvraagt: is het leven nog wel de moeite waard als ik gebukt ga onder GAZONSCHAAMTE?

Ja wij hebben er toevallig geen last van

Wie kent dit nog van vroeger?

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Participants in a recently published study spoke 28% fewer words per day in 2019 than they did in 2005. (People are spending more time alone and more time digitally communicating.)

Russia has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorism and placed him on an international wanted list. The country's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the charges on Wednesday, alleging that Telegram failed to remove channels, chats, and bots used by Ukrainian intelligence to recruit young Russians for sabotage and terrorism. The alleged offenses include armed attacks on law enforcement officers and arson targeting transport, energy, communications, and financial infrastructure. According to an FSB news release, these attacks have resulted in numerous human casualties, including women and children. One focus of the allegations is the popular Telegram dating bot "Leo," which reportedly has more than 13 million users and matches people seeking dates or friendship. The FSB said 46 Russian citizens aged between 12 and 22 have been arrested across the country since July 2025. The FSB alleges they had accepted instructions from Ukrainian intelligence officers to carry out attacks inside Russia. The agency went on to claim that Ukrainian intelligence officers had been using Leo while posing as women to establish contact and build fake romantic relationships with young Russian men. According to the FSB, Ukrainian officials would encourage men to pay for cinema tickets, concert tickets, or gifts through phishing links then blackmail them into carrying out attacks in Russia. "Subsequently, representatives of Ukrainian intelligence agencies, posing as Russian law enforcement or Rosfinmonitoring officers, contacted the individuals through foreign messaging apps," the FSB said. "The fake law enforcement officials claimed that the transferred funds had been deposited into accounts of the Ukrainian armed forces, and that the transferred coordinates had been used by the enemy to plan missile strikes and drone attacks." "After this, the deceived and intimidated citizens, unable to critically assess the situation due to psychological pressure, were threatened with criminal prosecution and coerced into committing armed attacks and arson, ostensibly as part of an anti-terrorism security check of the targets and participating in other 'pseudo-operational activities.'" Leo was banned in Russia on December 23, 2025, on the basis that it contained information relating to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and LGBT propaganda. Russia's Supreme Court designated what authorities call the "international LGBT movement" as extremist in November 2023, despite no such formal organization existing, and banned its activities in the country. Russia further accused Telegram of failing to take down content relating to these "prohibited activities" as well as the numerous accounts allegedly used by Ukrainian intelligence. The Kremlin has meanwhile been pushing citizens toward the state-backed MAX messenger. Since 2025, smartphones sold in Russia have been required to come with the app preinstalled. However, government agencies still communicate official updates via Durov’s Telegram, which remains vastly more popular in Russia. Neither Durov nor Telegram have responded officially, other than the messaging platform's social media post of the founder holding his middle finger to the camera. Durov, 41, left Russia in 2014 and now lives in the United Arab Emirates. He holds Russian, French, Emirati, and St Kitts and Nevis citizenship. Although the UAE reportedly has close ties with Russia, it remains unclear whether Moscow will secure an Interpol notice or ask Emirati authorities to extradite Durov. Like cybercriminals who avoid countries likely to honor US extradition requests, Durov will now need to consider where Russian demands might be enforced. In August 2024, the Telegram founder was arrested by authorities in France, where he also holds residency and a passport. Durov was charged with multiple offenses relating to alleged failures to prevent criminal activity on Telegram, including drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime, and the distribution of CSAM. The French case remains open, although Durov was allowed to return to Dubai in March 2025. ®