2020

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Magnus Carlsen, the world’s best chess player for the last decade, is on the brink of reaching the top in another game – fantasy football. The grandmaster is enjoying his best season ever in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game and after Saturday’s results he climbed to the third position in a table of more than 7 million players worldwide.

 World chess champion on the verge of topping fantasy football table | Sport | The Guardian

n the age of Covid-19 confinement, Elisha Nochomovitz has figured out a way to keep occupied by running a marathon on his balcony. Nochomovitz ran 42.2km (26.2 miles) back and forth, never leaving his 7 metre-long (23 feet) balcony. He saw it as a physical and mental challenge, and also shared images of the feat online as a way to extend his support to medical personnel who were doing an “exceptional job”, he told Associated Press from his apartment in Balma, a suburb of the southern French city of Toulouse.

 Man runs marathon on 7-metre balcony during French lockdown | World news | The Guardian

There’s a lot of reasons people in the UK might be depressed: our current political turmoil; the impending climate crisis; the fact that we may have to travel 200 miles for mental health treatment – the list goes on. Now, a use-at-home headset has been launched to help sufferers treat their depression. The device, created by Flow Neuroscience, is Europe’s first brain stimulation technology which uses small jolts of electricity to manipulate activity at the front of the brain. People with depression typically have lower activity in the left side of their prefrontal cortex – involved in personality, decision-making, and regulating emotions – and higher activity on the right, so the headset can be used to rebalance it. Used in conjunction with a virtual therapy app – which encourages users to eat and sleep better, as well as meditate and exercise more – the headset should be worn for 30 minutes, 18 times over six weeks.

 People in the UK can now buy a headset to combat depression | Dazed

Los Angeles-based investor-backed startup Fleq buys the house of a customer’s choice and sells it back to them in shares, piece-by-piece, in whatever time frame and amount the consumer wants.  In the meantime, Fleq makes money off the deal by charging rent. Fleq reduces the rent as the customer owns more of the property. The idea is that eventually, the consumer will own 100% of equity in their house, if they so choose, and Fleq will step away and hand over the title, without the consumer ever having to pay a downpayment or make interest payments.

 This new startup claims it will help you buy a home without a mortgage

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When Joan Crawford died, her rival Bette Davis intoned: “You should never say bad things about the dead, only good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”

 Yes, Jeremy Corbyn is still here and he’s still right about everything | Barbara Ellen | Opinion | The Guardian

A petty criminal was convicted of the murder in July 1989 but acquitted on appeal, clearing the field for a multitude of conspiracy theories involving shadowy forces ranging from the South African security services to rogue Swedish police with far-right sympathies, the Kurdish separatists of the PKK and the CIA. Hans Melander, the chief investigator, said that over the years the case had generated more than 22,000 leads and files occupying 250 metres of shelves. More than 10,000 people had been questioned since 1986, he said, and 134 had claimed responsibility for the murder. The murder weapon was never recovered despite police testing 788 revolvers over the years, Melander said, adding that the marks on the two 357 Magnum bullets found at the scene – one that killed Palme, and a second that injured his wife, who died in 2018 – were so faint “we can’t even prove they were fired by the same gun”.

 Swedish prosecutors close Olof Palme murder inquiry after 34 years | World news | The Guardian

The benefits of routine exercise have been well documented. Blaring headlines tout weight loss, muscle gain, lower cholesterol, improved mental health, sharper focus, stronger bones and a stronger heart, among other improvements. But a new study has shown that exercise may actually be more important to happiness than wealth. In a large survey of 1.2 million Americans, researchers from Yale and Oxford universities have shown that people who exercise are markedly happier than people who don’t — even if they have less income..

 What makes people happier than money? Yale and Oxford scientists have the answer | TheHill