Friday 7th June 2024
  • The return of Cambodia's food lost during the Khmer Rouge regime

    A Cambodian chef is one of a few women looking to revive her culture's nearly forgotten Khmer recipes; her recent cookbook, Saoy, was named 'the best cookbook in the world'.

    Cambodian (also known as Khmer) cuisine consists of subtle curries and fresh flavours, yet despite its palate-pleasing complexity, it has barely made it onto the international map. In recent years, however, this has begun to change, with contemporary female chefs making it their mission to preserve and share Khmer recipes and ingredients that were nearly lost during the brutal Khmer Rouge period of the 1970s, when many restrictions were placed on local foods, from eating to farming.



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  • Ask Sanyin: What's the Right Way to Carry Out Layoffs? | Sanyin Siang

    The spring 2024 issue's special report looks at how to take advantage of market opportunities in the digital space, and provides advice on building culture and friendships at work; maximizing the benefits of LLMs, corporate venture capital initiatives, and innovation contests; and scaling automation and digital health platform.

    The spring 2024 issue's special report looks at how to take advantage of market opportunities in the digital space, and provides advice on building culture and friendships at work; maximizing the benefits of LLMs, corporate venture capital initiatives, and innovation contests; and scaling automation and digital health platform.

    It's tempting to deal with a difficult situation by getting it over with and moving on. But leaders making decisions that have a significant impact on employees' lives should aim to be thoughtful and compassionate. Layoffs can shatter trust and leave remaining employees feeling insecure. Tending to emotions and caring about the ramifications for those who are let go as well as those who remain is critical.

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  • Rivian's New R1S and R1T Are In a Heart-Stopping Race to Smoke Tesla

    I tried Rivian's updated SUV and truck and the mission to make Tesla sweat has never been more clear.

    The minute I strapped on a helmet to test out Rivian’s new generation of electric vehicles, I could tell the Amazon-partnered electric car company was entering a new stage.

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  • This Experimental Male Birth Control Works Even Better Than Expected

    The treatment, known as NES/T, just completed its phase two clinical trial with flying colors.

    In 2018, a handful of couples ditched their birth control to embark on a one-year trial of a hormonal topical gel as their only contraceptive. This gel, however, was for men to use in order to suppress their sperm levels enough that they wouldn’t impregnate their partner. Over the next 6 years, 200 monogamous couples at 15 sites worldwide completed this experiment as part of a phase 2 clinical trial for the gel, which may become the first available hormonal male birth control.

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  • This Clever Persona-Inspired Horror RPG Just Got Its First Public Demo At Steam Next Fest

    If you think you have a busy schedule, imagine needing to squeeze in some time to fight demons — or just give Demonschool a shot and see what it's like for yourself. Developer Necrosoft’s Demonschool blends Persona-style schedule management with a novel turn-based battle system and low-key horror vibes for a game that feels totally unique despite its familiar influences. And during this month’s Steam Next Fest, it’s getting its first-ever demo so you can check it out for yourself.

    Demonschool follows Faye, the world’s last demon hunter, who’s just enrolled at a new university that happens to be overrun with, you guessed it, demons. It’s a demon school, in other words. There, she meets up with Namako, Destin, and Knute, whose latent demon-fighting abilities awaken in her presence. From there, the group battles an infestation of supernatural ghouls that somehow involves their school’s administration, the Yakuza, and a mysterious wave of amnesia affecting people all over town.

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  • This Extremely Popular Artificial Sweetener Is Linked to Blood Clots, Study Shows

    Low-calorie sweeteners are having a rough go as of late. Last July, the World Health Organization warned of aspartame’s possible cancer-causing properties in humans. (Our analysis of that here.) Now, researchers have found a link between consuming large amounts of the low-calorie sweetener xylitol and an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and death. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that sweetens many reduced-sugar foods, baked goods, chewing gums, and toothpastes. The team, led by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic, published their findings today in the European Heart Journal.

    “We gave healthy volunteers a typical drink with xylitol to see how high the levels would get and they went up 1,000-fold,” senior study author Stanley Hazen, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic, told CNN.

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  • The Most Iconic Sci-Fi Dystopian Franchise of the Century is About to Get Even Bigger

    The Hunger Games saga was one of the last pop culture phenomenons of the 2010s. It came at the tail end of the decade-defining young adult novel craze, and while the books weren’t the most sophisticated, their film adaptations brought the industry closer to prestige than ever. The Hunger Games and its sequels felt like “real” movies: aesthetically and narratively complex, and featuring a caliber of actors few expected to see in YA dystopia.

    When the franchise made a surprising comeback last year with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it reaffirmed just how much potential it still had. The fans who’d grown up with the series all seemed to want more, and with a new book on the horizon, the Hollywood powers that be clearly feel the same.

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  • Xbox Game Pass Just Quietly Released One of the Most Overlooked RPGs of 2023

    Up until now, one of Square Enix’s best modern series has been strangely hard to play. In 2018, Octopath Traveler launched on Nintendo Switch, before coming to PC the next year and Xbox One two years after that. Octopath Traveler 2 hit Switch, PlayStation, and PC in 2023, avoiding Xbox entirely. That meant that unless you were playing on Switch or PC, you couldn’t play both parts of the excellent series on the same platform — but that changes now. Starting June 6, the original Octopath Traveler is finally on PlayStation and its followup is on Xbox. Not only that, but both Octopath Traveler games are coming to Xbox Game Pass for the occasion, so you can experience two of the best RPGs in recent years with your subscription.

    You don’t actually need to play the original Octopath Traveler before playing the sequel. Both games tell separate stories, each following a cast of eight distinct characters on their own quests. One critique that both games faced is that its eight cast members’ missions, while interesting in their own right, don’t intersect in a particularly satisfying way. Despite that, their individual stories are fascinating on their own and well worth following.

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  • 10 Years Later, Netflix's Most Underrated Found-Footage Thriller is Back -- With a Twist

    Ever since The Blair Witch Project popularized the found-footage horror, the format has been a go-to for movies on a budget. However, fans can only watch so many spooky tales of “real” abandoned cameras and missing persons before the shtick gets old.

    In 2014, however, a duology used the technique to make a smart, intimate horror movie that’s equally terrifying and goofy. Now, a decade later, the series is returning in a new form that’s perfect for its story.

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  • 'FFXIV' Director Reveals Two Vital Pieces of Lore You Need to Know Before Dawntrail

    The Dawntrail expansion is an opportunity for Final Fantasy XIV to launch a brand-new story, one that doesn't have to get wrapped up in all the details of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark tale that concluded with Endwalker. However, that doesn't mean that the new update won’t build on the game’s decade of storytelling and lore-building, and now we have a hint at where things could be going. During the Dawntrail media tour, director Naoki Yoshida detailed a couple of pieces of lore that he thought players should be familiar with before Dawntrail, so we’ll help break everything down.

    During a group Q&A that Inverse attended alongside the Dawntrail media tour, a pre-submitted question was asked about what lore should players be familiar with, and Yoshida, at first, seemed cagey on answering. After a few seconds of thought, he said “Myths of the Ream, the new Alliance Raid, would probably allow for some background information into more of the lore.”

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