Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>I've learned that if I want to form a new habit, promising someone I will doesn't work for me.</li><li>Instead, I use whole-body rituals and use art to look at things from another perspective.</li></ul>When I was a teenager, I developed a habit of repeatedly promising my mother I would go on a diet. It started years of power struggles; on the one hand, I wanted to make her happy, but on the other, a deeper part of me knew that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/talked-to-my-almond-mom-about-her-eating-habits-2023-10">what I weighed was my business</a> and not hers. Trying to both please her and be true to myself, I ended up in the no-win position of promising her I'd diet and then sabotaging it.Years later, I came to the conclusion that one of the best ways for me to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/mental-health/how-long-does-it-take-to-break-a-habit">make a change</a> was to actually not make a promise because, counterintuitively, I'm more likely to succeed when I don't.Here are some other offbeat ways I've learned that help me start — or stop — habits.<h2 id="8fc10162-388e-4e7e-9a4f-919161f75ec5">I create whole-body rituals</h2>A ritual is not just an intellectual exercise but an action or series of actions that harness the power of the senses to convey meaning symbolically. For example, in my late 20s, when I weighed myself multiple times a day, my therapist told me to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-hasnt-weighed-herself-in-years-accepts-body-2024-9">get rid of my scales</a>. I didn't just dump them in the trash can. Instead, I hurled them repeatedly against the brick patio, listening to the sound of them banging against the bricks and then mangling them into shards. Later I bought a potted plant to fill the space in the bathroom where the scales had been.A few years later, to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/treatments/how-to-stop-smoking">stop smoking</a>, I created a candlelit ceremony to enjoy my last cigarette. I put The Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" on my tinny record player, turned off the lights, and sat in the dark, gazing at the slim cylindrical tip of my Marlboro until its last glowing ash faded. I admired how the cigarette looked laced between my fingers, watching the smoke circles drift dreamily into the air. I realized that while smoking had served me, now it was time to move on. I was ready.I had tried quitting smoking twice before by sheer willpower with no success, but this time, the sacrament that I created with music and darkness did the trick.<h2 id="c7898fba-fed1-4c3e-a275-e45faec28d7e">I use art to look at what I'm struggling with from another perspective</h2>As with rituals, any activity involving the mind and body helps me get out of my head. When I'm struggling to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-form-new-habit-stick-to-it-6-steps-2020-12">change a habit</a> or face a tough decision, I sometimes use art to depict my mental state. Once, for example, I was agonizing over what to wear for a speech I was giving.Worn out by my habit of overthinking, I colored a row of dresses on a clothes rack with the message, "But what will she wear?" Underneath, I added, "If only she could wear her art pages!" After I finished coloring, I walked over to my closet, took a deep breath, and scanned my wardrobe. In less than five minutes, I knew what to wear. The playful act of coloring different dresses helped me relax and lighten up, a key ingredient for changing a habit.I wrote using the third person "she," because I've found this to be a way to detach from anxiety.<a target="_blank" href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/a5fgu"> Research</a> has shown using the third person also helps with decision-making.I've used artwork in other situations, too, like a few months ago when I wanted to start <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-tried-yoga-every-day-for-a-month-pros-cons-2019-11">doing yoga at home</a> instead of just in a weekly class. Using watercolor, I painted a woman in a Warrior pose. I liked the image a lot, and it encouraged me to practice at home.<h2 id="c727a5c6-a365-40aa-8a62-2cd413d00f84">I ask my long-gone family members for help</h2>Seeking support from my late mother and sister really helps. Not because they were models of success — quite the opposite, in fact. Both of them found it difficult to make changes, especially, like me, when it comes to eating. But the fact that they, too, struggled means that talking to them is sometimes exactly what I need.When I ask them for help, I sense their empathy, which helps me feel less alone. And I know from hard-earned experience that a sense of isolation increases my sense of anxiety and almost guarantees I won't succeed.<h2 id="d15400b7-9bc6-4e17-8414-f139eec5abd8">I mimic other people's behavior</h2>I am the fastest eater I know, and although it hasn't caused me any physical problems, I would like to be more mindful when I eat. One way I've <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-eat-carbs-without-blood-sugar-spikes-2024-9">learned to slow down</a> is by copying other people. Once, at a retreat, I decided to consume my meal at the same speed as the other participants sitting at my table, even though to me, it all looked like they were eating at a mournfully glacial pace.Only when the man next to me picked up his fork did I pick up my own. It was a huge challenge, but I forced myself to slow down. Ever since, I've been able to moderate my pace by watching the person I'm eating with — usually Barry, my husband, who tends to eat slower than I do. But not always! I feel victorious when I finish after him.I've used imitation in other areas, too. In a writing class I took, for example, the instructor told us to copy word for word a paragraph from a favorite writer to try on their use of language. Then, we rewrote the paragraph using different words. Out of this experimentation, I gradually developed my own style.<h2 id="6416f73c-21db-450d-a3d0-fc1aaf2506e2">I keep records and track my habits</h2>Like Benjamin Franklin, one of my early models, I'm a huge fan of record-keeping. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/mental-health/habit-trackers">Studies</a> show that record-keeping in and of itself brings about change. Over the years, tracking habits on a chart has helped me succeed in eating more greens and fresh fruit, running a marathon, making cold calls, saying hello to strangers, doing upper-body exercises, practicing Spanish, and increasing my writing output.Writing a checkmark on a page when I've accomplished a goal gives me great satisfaction. And knowing that I'll see an ever-growing line of checkmarks at the end of the week motivates me even more.Many people use computer software or apps to track their habits, but I'm old-fashioned and prefer the mind-body approach of handwriting.Promises, willpower, self-control, five-year plans, and New Year's resolutions — none of these work for me. But engaging in rituals, mind-body activities, and getting help from others, even if it's only in my imagination, have helped me find the openness and creativity to overcome many undesirable habits.

I'm 72 and still form new habits — and break others. Making promises to others doesn't work for me, but these 5 things do.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Childfree couples, or DINKs, can sometimes feel lonely when their friends start having kids.</li><li>But some DINKs find their 30s to be a great time for making new friends.</li></ul>In the early stages of their relationship, Bing Gonzalez and her husband always assumed they'd have kids.But once they were married and settled enough to try, they decided against it, at least for the near future.Like many <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alices-dinks-henrys-fires-economy-guide-2024-6">millennial DINKs</a> — dual-income couples with no kids — the couple uses their <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parents-dinks-winning-childfree-economy-finances-income-vacation-retirement-kids-2024-2">free time and expendable income</a> to focus on other endeavors, such as travel and social outings. In one year, they went to Greece and Hawaii, plus a host of local concerts and comedy shows. Gonzalez, 28, also told Business Insider that her flexibility as a DINK made it easier for her to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-dink-quit-job-glory-days-over2024-5">pivot her career</a>.But opting out of kids came with a downside: being the last of their college friend group to be child-free."It was just surreal to see myself surrounded by my friends who are all having kids,"Gonzalez, based in Virginia, told BI. "It's definitely affected our friendship in terms of we don't hang out with them as much."Some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/child-free-lonely-so-we-started-walking-group-for-women-2024-7">child-free couples report feeling lonelier</a> once most or all of their friends start families. <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/therealmrbench/status/1732102826304864452">Online commenters warn against DINK lifestyles</a>: that opting out of kids also means opting out of the communities formed around kids, such as friendships with other parents.But contrary to <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/CannibalSlang/status/1732266659644141808">stereotypes of DINKs</a> growing old alone, many are using their 30s to forge the deepest connections of their lives — from becoming aunties to their friends' children to forming relationships in the unlikeliest of places.<h2 id="428e05e6-6785-4202-b931-a41bb1946941">Millennial DINKs might not know where they fit</h2>American households have changed dramatically since boomers were parents. <a target="_blank" href="https://usafacts.org/articles/how-has-the-structure-of-american-households-changed-over-time/">In 1960, married parents made up 44% of all US households</a>. By 2022, they were outnumbered by both single people and child-free couples — that year, there were 38.1 million married and childless households, a 140% increase over 1960, according to USA Facts.In general, millennials are marrying later than past generations, <a target="_blank" href="https://drjesscarbino.com/">Dr. Jess Carbino</a>, a former sociologist for Tinder and Bumble, told Business Insider. If boomers followed more of a uniform timeline — get married and have kids in your 20s — millennials are hitting those milestones at different ages, or not at all. "We're in this in-between period for these individuals who are choosing to be childless," Carbino said.Sandra Kushnir, 32, grew up in Utah, where her closest childhood friends now have families. The difference in lifestyles and schedules makes it hard to plan activities she'd love to do with them, such as group vacations.She moved to LA with her husband to focus on their careers and find friends with similar lifestyles. But while they have plenty of childless single and coupled friends, that doesn't always translate to understanding, either. Some are "still doing drugs and drinking and going out," Kushnir said. "We don't want to do that anymore, but we also don't have kids."<h2 id="c52e2fce-c22d-4b30-ae79-1c5d59713f28">Getting creative to keep up with parent friends</h2>Because it's hard to be as spontaneous with friends who have kids, DINK couples have to make some adjustments. Gonzalez and her husband travel to their friends' homes a few times a year instead of meeting halfway.Alex Alexander, 35, said she and her husband, make it a point to travel with friends' kids, such as an upcoming trip to Disney Paris."People with kids can't just go do something at the last minute," Alexander, who lives in Seattle, told BI. "That's probably the biggest thing we've had to shift, is finding friends who have more availability to maybe just drop things and go do something.""It's a lot of work to tell people, 'I still want to be in your life,'" Alexander added. "Because I do think that there's this idea that once you have kids, you can't find any overlap. And I don't really think that's true."Jess Lorimer, based in Southhampton, UK, said there are pluses to being the child-free friends, such as having disposable income and additional energy. Childless people like her "can be the fun auntie uncle energy that you might not always be able to be as the parent," Lorimer, 33, told Business Insider. She enjoys going on trips with her parent friends and helping their kids build sandcastles or bringing back gifts from vacations for the children.<h2 id="92e844b2-d178-41db-9468-cb1c10a97da8">Making new friends</h2>Still, old friends being busy with kids can leave social gaps for DINKs that aren't always easy to fill. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chris-duffy-making-friends-as-an-adult-can-be-hard-2024-7">Making friends in one's 30s</a> comes with unique challenges."Life gets busier," Gonzalez said. "There are more responsibilities, it's much harder to keep the same level of friendship where you're seeing each other multiple times a week."Carbino said that DINKs have to look for groups or organizations where people are roughly the same age (or in the same life stage), share the same general interests, and are also open and available for new friends, too — something that gets tougher as people get older, settle into their schedules, and stick to their core friend groups.Kushnir and her husband met some couple friends through Honeymoon Israel, a 10-day trip that she described as "birthright" for Jewish and interfaith couples."They have criteria where you have to be 2-5 years into your relationship, engaged or married," she said. "So they kind of try to match couples that are in the same life stage as you on the trip." They met multiple people just like them: interfaith couples with no kids (four of those couples went on to have kids around the same time).Kushnir said they also made like-minded friends by continuing to show up to a local dog park. They befriended other child-free couples, or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-dinkwad-double-income-no-kids-dog-tiktok-trend-2023-2">DINKWADs</a> (DINKs With a Dog), people who were more likely to share some of the same priorities and routines as them.<div type="image" title="A couple on the beach with their dog" height="1534" width="1179" msid="113024023" hostid="261" sizebytes="5675"></div>Other DINKs have had to examine their ideas around friendship in their 30s."A lot of people just think of friendship as all or nothing," Alexander said. "If we really look at our friendships, we have people we go to for work problems, people we travel with — certain friends might fill a lot of buckets, a lot of needs." When some of her longtime travel buddies now had kids, she said she and her husband adjusted to inviting new friends on vacations.Gonzalez, who's met friends through work and some interest groups, made some unexpected connections: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/age-gap-friendship-best-friend-two-decades-older-2024-1">age-gap friendships</a> with parents of older kids."Since their kids are older, they can stay home alone or their kids also have their own events and social life," she said. "It frees the parents up a little bit more."<h2 id="af69eb24-133f-4278-a1b6-1462160c3603">Finding deeper friendships than the ones forged in their 20s</h2>DINKs deal with a big transition period once most of their friends start having kids.The majority of one's friends having kids is a big transition period. "You suddenly realize that you are not the priority anymore as friends," Lorimer said. "You have to readjust your expectations of what your friends can reasonably manage."But that readjustment can also bring DINKs and parent friends closer together. Lorimer said that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/childfree-but-still-like-kids-2024-5">having so many friends with kids</a> (or trying for them) exposed her and her husband to conversations they otherwise wouldn't have had."We have friends talking about fertility, and we have work colleagues talking about infertility and miscarriages, which are just life experiences that we won't ever go through," she said. "I think it's been interesting from an empathy perspective."While Kushnir lives far from her childhood friends, she still keeps in contact with them. "They ask me questions about my life and update me, and I share some of my fears about having a family with them," she said.New friendships also have the potential to go deeper. Alexander tries to stay open to all new connections, including an older woman in her neighborhood. "When we see each other, we'll sit at the same table at our neighborhood coffee shop and we'll chat," she said.For DINKS like Kushnir who eventually want to become parents, having more time means finding a stronger network of support for when she does have kids. "I would like to go through being pregnant and having a kid with somebody else," she said, and is trying to time her pregnancy with one of her friends.<h2 id="95d83903-08ce-4fe8-9be2-d8828973cd09">Going against the grain has its perks</h2>While <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/been-together-for-19-years-and-we-are-childfree-2023-5">being child-free</a> has become less taboo over the years, some DINKs still feel judged, and roll their eyes at the stereotype."People seem to think that dinks are wandering around with Gucci handbags and spending all of their money and time frivolously," Lorimer said. But she siad she spends a lot of her time on work, charitable causes, and supporting her friends."One of the best things that I found about being child-free, particularly by choice, is that I've been able to be a lot more sympathetic to my friends who perhaps aren't child-free by choice," she said. She's not judgmental of friends who are struggling to conceive or who question having children at all.<div type="image" title="A woman laughing and working on a laptop" height="2400" width="3600" msid="113024026" hostid="261" sizebytes="5674"></div>While it's much harder to have frequent interaction due to diverging lifestyles, Alexander sees the "smaller value" in friendships. She's ok with having a friend solely to go paddleboarding with or to a cookbook signing, and she'll also try to invite those friends to bigger bonding experiences, such as trips."I've had a pretty easy time making friends, because I'll kind of just allow it to build," she said.DINKs might have to figure out where they belong in their parent-friends' lives and in their communities, but they're also paving the way for the future."As conventions change, individuals will be able to adopt sort of a new model of what social life looks like among individuals who have smaller families and who choose to not have children at all," Carbino said.Lorimer, who has two godchildren, said she and her husband work "very hard" to stay involved in their friends' lives. They always bring back presents from trips and make it a point to be involved in special occasions.In turn, they've received deep understanding right back. "We choose to be child-free, and we've always been really honest about that with our friends," she said. "We've been very fortunate that our friends have taken the time to understand why we wouldn't make the same decisions around children that they are."

We asked 4 DINKs how they make new child-free friends

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Google Forms is a free online software for creating surveys and questionnaires.</li><li>You need a Google account to create a Google Form, but anyone can fill out a Google Form.</li></ul>Google Forms is free online software that allows you to create surveys, quizzes, and more. Google Forms is part of Google's web-based apps suite, which also includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-slides">Google Slides</a>, and more. It's a versatile tool that can be used for various applications, from gathering RSVPs for an event to creating a pop quiz. You'll need a Google account to create a Google Form, but you can adjust the form settings so that recipients can fill it out regardless of whether they have a Google account.Currently, Google Forms does not offer a native mobile app but you can access it on your desktop computer.Here's everything else you need to know about Google Forms.<h2 id="dfb4df3c-0143-4cfd-9b8b-d5187e6adc2e">How can I create a Google Form?</h2>Google Forms differentiates itself from similar online software through its library of customization options. When creating your new form, you'll have the ability to select from a series of templates or design your very own. If you choose to make a new template, consider adding your logo and photos, and watch Google generate a custom color set to match.Here's how to do it: <ol><li class="li1">Go to <a target="_blank" href="http://docs.google.com/forms￼￼">docs.google.com/forms</a></li><li class="li1">Click Blank form to create a new form, or choose a pre-made template to kick-start the process. Google has a number of helpful template options, including feedback forms, order forms, job applications, worksheets, registration forms, and even "Find a Time" forms if you're trying to schedule an event or Google Meet conference call.</li></ol><div type="image" title="A screenshot of Google Forms' homepage shows options for &quot;Blank form&quot; and &quot;Template gallery&quot; emphasized with red boxes and arrows." height="886" width="3112" msid="110616149" hostid="261" sizebytes="52886"></div>With the Q&amp;A format at the heart of Google Forms, the Workspace tool offers various question and response options, including multiple-choice, dropdown, linear scale, and multiple-choice and tick-box grid.<div type="image" title="A screenshot of a blank quiz on Google Forms shows the dropdown menu for quiz questions, featuring options like &quot;Multiple choice,&quot; &quot;Checkboxes,&quot; &quot;Short answer,&quot; and more." height="1622" width="2246" msid="110616150" hostid="261" sizebytes="38984"></div>With each new question, you can integrate multimedia, such as images or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/youtube">YouTube</a> videos, or add text descriptions that offer hints or expound on the question.If you're a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-classroom">Google Classroom</a> user, you can use Google Forms to create quiz assignments for your students.<h2 id="08b1a100-9aea-4ce6-ae7a-da9c8c6d74e8">How can I customize or organize my Google Form?</h2>In the Settings tab, you can customize options in the Responses dropdown, like Collect email addresses.You can choose to require respondents to enter an email address to submit the Form by selecting Responder input or force respondents to sign into their Google accounts to respond by selecting Verified. You can also let respondents submit anonymously by choosing Do not collect.<div type="image" title="A screenshot of the Google Forms settings menu shows red boxes and a red arrow emphasizing the &quot;Collect email addresses&quot; details and the &quot;Responder input&quot; option in the dropdown menu." height="1468" width="2898" msid="110616152" hostid="261" sizebytes="58452"></div>In the Presentation dropdown below, you can click boxes to include a progress bar, shuffle the order of the questions, and set a custom confirmation message that respondents will receive upon submitting the Form.<div type="image" title="A screenshot shows the Presentations tab of Google Forms, including toggle switches for presentation options like &quot;Show progress bar&quot; and &quot;Shuffle question order.&quot;" height="1300" width="2254" msid="110616155" hostid="261" sizebytes="50442"></div>In the Quizzes dropdown, you can turn your form into a quiz.Organizational features let you determine the order of your queries through a drag-and-drop tool or randomize the answer order for specific questions through the form's settings.<div type="image" title="A screenshot of Google Forms shows the drag and drop icon emphasized with a red box and arrow." height="1394" width="2868" msid="110616157" hostid="261" sizebytes="35536"></div>Another way to organize your form is through Google Forms' section tool. These can be helpful for longer surveys, as they break questions up into manageable chunks. To create a section, click the Add section icon (two vertically stacked rectangles) on the right toolbar. It's located on the same toolbar as the "+" for adding a question.<div type="image" title="A screenshot of a Google Forms question shows the &quot;Add section&quot; icon emphasized with a red box and arrow." height="842" width="2194" msid="110616159" hostid="261" sizebytes="22380"></div> Once you're ready to share your Google Form, clicking the Send button at the top right of the screen will let you send the Form via email, copy a link, or copy an embedded HTML code to add the form to your website or blog.<h2 id="7b989e37-ffaa-4e4c-a241-9736d6ae64b1">How to navigate Google Forms responses</h2>Once your Google Form is published and you've shared it using either the multiple public and private share options, it will automatically collect responses as people fill out and submit their responses. Answers gathered by a Google Form are only viewable to you, the creator, and any collaborators you add.To view responses for your Google Form, open your Google Form and navigate to the Responses tab. Here, you will see a summary of the responses collected. Click the green <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-sheets">Google Sheets</a> icon to create a spreadsheet that displays all of the information gathered from the Form, which will automatically update as people submit your Google Form.In the Responses tab, you can also elect to get email notifications for new responses, select a response destination (either a new or existing spreadsheet), download, or print the answers by clicking the three dots next to the Google Sheets icon. There's also an option to delete all replies, which can be useful in deleting responses collected when testing your sheet.

Google Forms: How to use this free Google Workspace tool to create surveys, quizzes, and questionnaires

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Our moon has been our constant companion for billions of years. </li><li>But we're still not sure how it came to be, though scientists have a few theories. </li></ul>With the likes of NASA and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-says-x-will-display-article-headlines-again-2023-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">Elon Musk</a> vying to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">land on the moon</a> within the next five years, you would think we would know everything about our satellite.But there remain a vast number of unanswered questions, including one of the most fundamental: how did the moon first come to be?That has been surprisingly difficult to answer, and scientists still aren't certain how it happened.But they have theories, the most prominent of which is arguably the most bizarre as it involves a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-moon-formed-collisions-2017-1">theoretical alien planet</a> crashing into the Earth — then disappearing — more than 4 billion years ago.Here are four leading theories of how the<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/invisible-force-earth-creating-water-on-the-moon-study-electrons-2023-9"> moon</a> was formed, and why the secret to uncovering the truth could lie deep within our planet.<h2>The moon wandered by the Earth and was captured into its orbit</h2>According to the capture theory, the moon was wandering through the universe like a giant <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/metal-ball-ocean-harvard-professor-alien-industrial-waste-loeb-spherule-2023-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">asteroid</a>. One day, it passed within the vicinity of Earth and was captured into its orbit, staying with it ever since.This isn't altogether impossible. After all, this is how <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-close-up-photos-mars-moon-deimos-reveal-true-origins-2023-4">Mars</a> is thought to have captured its moons Phobos and Deimos.<div type="image" title="Mars moons" height="125" width="402" msid="105446480" hostid="261" sizebytes="2828"></div>In the case of the Earth, however, the capture theory is very unlikely. One reason is that our moon is very big — almost the size of Mars itself.An object of that size "would be more likely to impact into the planet rather than just to be captured in orbit," Sara Russell, a professor of planetary sciences at the Natural History Museum, told Business Insider.Lunar samples brought back during the Apollo missions put a final nail in that hypothesis.Scientists analyzed the isotope makeup of these samples. Isotopes are forms of atoms that have the same chemical function, but carry a different number of neutrons."We use isotopes as a fingerprint, which are very distinctive," Russell said.When space rocks form independently, it's easy to tell them apart with isotopes. A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/relativity-space-3d-printed-rocket-mars-musk-spacex-bezos-launch-2023-3?_gl=1*13p0krb*_ga*MTc3NTE4NzkyNC4xNjg0MTQxMjIx*_ga_E21CV80ZCZ*MTcwMDczNDkzNC40NjEuMS4xNzAwNzM0OTM0LjYwLjAuMA..&amp;r=US&amp;IR=T">Mars</a> rock looks different from an Earth rock for instance.But the moon it turns out, is made up of the same isotopes as the Earth."That means they must be genetically linked somehow because every other body in the solar system has got a different isotope signature," she said.<div type="image" title="Pictures taken by a satellite show the moon crossing the Earth." height="554" width="985" msid="105446482" hostid="261" sizebytes="22262"></div><h2>The moon formed alongside the Earth</h2>The accretion hypothesis ties the moon to the birth of the Earth. This theory suggests both objects emerged from the same cosmic cloud of dust around 4.6 billion years ago.The Earth, per that theory, would have been the greedier twin, pulling more material to its side during its early accretion, which led to its bigger size, molten core, and stronger gravity. The moon, then, would have been pulled into Earth's orbit.The problem is that while the moon and the Earth share isotopes, the way they put them together is very different. The moon is made up of much less sodium and iron than the Earth, for instance."You would expect that if it formed from the same cloud, the same mixture of material, it would end up with roughly the same composition, it might just be smaller," said Russel."But actually, it's completely different," she said.<h2>The moon was a glob of material shed by the Earth as it started spinning</h2>Another theory for the formation of our constant companion is not very flattering. This one argues that the moon is just a bit of excess baby fat our Earth shed early on in its life.<div type="image" title="a picture shows the moon showing against the daylight sky behind a mountain ridge." height="693" width="1024" msid="105446484" hostid="261" sizebytes="29464"></div>Per the fission theory, as the Earth started spinning faster, part of its material spun off, and then miraculously stopped exactly where it needed to be to create a body in Earth's orbit.In this case, physics is not on the side of this theory.It's very difficult to shed such a big mass of rock, no matter how quickly the planet was spinning at the time, said Russell."It might happen for an asteroid, but not something as big as the planet," she said.Another issue with that theory is that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7?r=US&amp;IR=T">the moon</a> would have been much more likely to fly off toward the sun or fall back to Earth than to stay in orbit.<h2>A Mars-sized planet crashed into the early Earth</h2>That leaves us with one last hypothesis, the giant impact theory. While this hypothesis has the most scientific support, it is arguably the one that requires the biggest leap of the imagination.The theory suggests that around 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized planet called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-planet-inside-earth-explain-where-moon-comes-from-theia-2023-11">Theia</a> crossed paths with a new Earth that had just started accreting.The collision between the two planets created a humongous explosion, 100 million times bigger than the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.<div type="image" title="An animation shows Theia crashing into the moon." height="338" width="600" msid="105446486" hostid="261" sizebytes="6350"></div>Per this theory, the blow was so brutal that Theia kicked some of the Earth's material into space, which eventually turned into the moon. Theia disappeared by melting into the mess of molten rock that would eventually become the Earth and the moon as we know them today.The subtle difference between the Earth and the moon, then, would be explained by Theia grazing the Earth's mantle but avoiding its iron core, which could explain why the moon is so iron-poor, per Russell.The whole process may have taken <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/collision-may-have-formed-the-moon-in-mere-hours-simulations-reveal/">only a few hours</a>, according to NASA.While this sounds far-fetched, thanks to the Apollo samples, it has quickly become the leading theory for how the moon formed."That is one of the absolute triumphs of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo-11-facts-about-nasa-moon-landing-2019-7?r=US&amp;IR=T">the Apollo missions</a>," said Russell. "Before Apollo, people honestly had no clue which of these models was the cause of the formation of the moon," she said."Apollo showed clearly that the moon has such great similarities to each other, that they must be somehow linked in some way," she said.Still, the giant-impact theory is not without its issues. We have no idea where Theia came from and the planet left no evidence behind.Another issue is that it's not quite clear why the moon and the Earth would be so similar if they picked up bits of Theia along the way. Models suggest more than 60% of the moon should be made up of Theia, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.space.com/19275-moon-formation.html">per Space.com</a>.One possibility is that at the point of impact, Theia mixed in so thoroughly with both the Earth and the moon that these are virtually indistinguishable.Another possibility is that Theia was almost a twin of the Earth, created in the same corner of the solar system.Scientists are working to reconcile these finer points of the giant-impact theory. Modeling can explore the angle at which the planet hit the Earth and how its material mixed in with the Earth's mantle.A recent study suggested that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alien-planet-inside-earth-explain-where-moon-comes-from-theia-2023-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">continent-sized chunks of an alien world may be hiding deep within our planet</a> — and it could explain the weird structures that appear to be surrounding Earth's core.Hongping Deng, a professor of computational physics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, ran computer simulations tracking 100 million virtual particles from the moment Theia may have crashed into the Earth through to millions of years later.Using these simulations, the scientists were able to show that some fragments of Theia — roughly 2% of the whole mass of the Earth —could have survived inside our planet, slowly sinking through the mantle.<div type="image" title="An artist's impression shows an astronaut sitting back while taking a picture of the Earth rising behind the surface of the moon with a smartphone." height="1000" width="2000" msid="105446489" hostid="261" sizebytes="253572"></div><h2>As humans return to the moon, they can bring back precious samples</h2>An upcoming slew of planned missions to the moon, including NASA's Artemis mission to bring astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years, could also offer opportunities to return more samples from the moon."Everyone's really excited about Artemis at the moment and having NASA and ESA, returning to the moon," said Russell."There's loads of stuff that we're gonna find out in the next decade or so," she said.

The mystery of how the moon formed is still puzzling scientists. The secret could lie deep within our planet.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>On Wednesday's episode of "Call Her Daddy," Anna Kendrick opened up about her past relationship struggles.</li><li>Kendrick said she went to couples therapy to find out what was wrong with the relationship.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anna-kendrick-beyond-terrified-direct-netflix-woman-of-the-hour-2024-10">Anna Kendrick</a> didn't have a good experience in couples therapy.On Wednesday's episode of Alex Cooper's "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/04v2PH4vQWnrEe3V7Crel2?si=d0195a352f654e25">Call Her Daddy</a>" podcast, the "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anna-kendrick-movie-roles-twilight-pitch-perfect-a-simple-favor-2024-10">Pitch Perfect</a>" star said she was in a 7-year relationship that had turned abusive."It didn't follow the traditional pattern, which is kind of yet another reason why I was finding it really difficult to identify it and name it as abusive," said Kendrick, who didn't name her ex. "So I thought it had to be me. Like, if one of us is crazy, it must be me," she said.Kendrick, 39, said she turned her life "completely upside down, trying to fix whatever was wrong" with herself.However, going for couples therapy did not resolve the situation. "It didn't help that for a long period of time, our couples therapist, I think, just bought his stuff kind of hook, line, and sinker," she said.She said her therapist later apologized after he "realized what was going on" toward the end of the relationship.But after yelling in one therapy session, Kendrick said that "something shifted" and that "things ended pretty quickly after."Later in the episode, Kendrick said that despite not having a "great experience" with couples therapy, she has made it a requirement that any future partners have experience seeing a therapist."I'm never getting involved with a man. Meaning like, we're not even kissing. We're not even going to have a real conversation — unless you are in or have been in therapy."A representative for Kendrick did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.<h2 id="0b945b2b-c729-427c-93f6-04303f4773e2">How to know when to move on from your therapist</h2>Couples therapy has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/sex-relationships/types-of-couples-therapy">multiple benefits for a relationship</a>, including better communication, rebuilding trust, and increasing satisfaction within a relationship.However, there are signs that couples should move on or <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/mental-health/how-to-find-a-therapist">find another therapist</a>.Licensed therapist and social worker Jillian Amodio previously told BI that therapy can be hard work. "But even so, it should not be something that feels burdensome or an appointment that you dread going to," she said.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/red-flags-you-should-stop-seeing-your-therapist-2019-7#1-your-session-feels-like-a-burden-rather-than-a-help-1">Experts also advise</a> people to move on from their therapist if they find themselves holding back information out of fear, forming an unhealthy attachment to them, or not being able to integrate what they have learned into daily life.Additionally, it's important to know when to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/signs-to-quit-your-therapist-or-therapy-2024-3">pause therapy altogether</a>, said Colleen Marshall, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in San Francisco."People should be able to go to therapy, learn whatever they need to learn, leave, go live their life, and then come back again if something else happens," she said."They shouldn't be dependent on therapy their whole life."

Anna Kendrick says couples therapy didn't help her relationship. Here's how to know when to find a new therapist.

Big banks promised to protect the planet. Now they're doing an about-face.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>OpenAI's new o1 model hides its full reasoning process from users.</li><li>The o1 model is designed to think more like humans with "enhanced reasoning."</li></ul>OpenAI doesn't want you to know how its new AI model is thinking. So don't ask, unless you want to risk a ban from ChatGPT.OpenAI introduced its new o1 model on September 12. It says the new model was trained to think more like humans and has "enhanced reasoning capabilities." OpenAI fan thought the new model might be called<a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-hints-at-project-strawberry-2024-8"> "Strawberry,"</a> but in its press release the company said it chose the name o1 to represent the significance of its advancement in reasoning."Given this, we are resetting the counter back to 1 and naming this series OpenAI o1," OpenAI said.The o1 model is able to reason more like humans, in part because of its prompting technique known as "chain of thought." The company says that o1 "learns to recognize and correct its mistakes. It learns to break down tricky steps into simpler ones. It learns to try a different approach when the current one isn't working."When <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-openai-new-o1-model-capabilities-agi-2024-9">ChatGPT users ask the o1 model a question</a>, they have the option to see a filtered interpretation of this chain of thought process. But OpenAI hides the full written process from the consumer, which is a change from previous models from the company, according to <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.wired.com/story/openai-threatens-bans-as-users-probe-o1-model/">Wired</a>.Some o1 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/LukasBogacz/status/1834579730298794307">users shared screenshots on X</a> showing that they received warning messages after using the phrase "reasoning trace" when talking to o1. One prompt <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-military-weapons-tech-startups-anduril-white-stork-shield-ai-2024-9#scale-ai-9">engineer at Scale AI</a> shared <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/goodside/status/1834761321822175551">a screenshot</a> that showed GPT warning him he violated the terms of service after he prompted the o1 mini not to "tell me anything about your reasoning trace."OpenAI did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider, but the company said in a blog post that hiding the chain of thought process helps OpenAI keep a better watch on the AI as it grows and learns."We believe that a hidden chain of thought presents a unique opportunity for monitoring models," the company said. "Assuming it is faithful and legible, the hidden chain of thought allows us to 'read the mind' of the model and understand its thought process."For example, OpenAI said it might need to monitor the o1 chain of thought process for signs of manipulating the user in the future, but the AI needs to have "freedom to express its thoughts in unaltered form" for the research to be valuable.OpenAI acknowledged in the post that the decision to hide the o1 thought process from consumers has "disadvantages.""We strive to partially make up for it by teaching the model to reproduce any useful ideas from the chain of thought in the answer," the company said.

Don't ask OpenAI's new model how it 'thinks' unless you want to risk a ban

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Supreme Court struck down the Chevron doctrine, which gave federal agencies power to interpret laws.</li><li>This has major implications for all kinds of legislation and puts controversial efforts like student-debt relief at risk.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/will-new-student-loan-forgiveness-plan-be-blocked-scotus-chevron-2024-4">Legal challenges against student-debt relief</a> efforts continue, making the fate of millions of borrowers all the more uncertain.On June 28, the Supreme Court <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scotus-chevron-doctrine-bidens-climate-policies-at-risk-2024-6">overruled the Chevron doctrine</a>, a 1984 decision that allowed federal agencies to interpret laws as long as they did not violate Congress's language.This means that courts will now have the power to decide what a law means rather than defer to federal agencies with expertise on the topic.It'll <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-security-supreme-court-what-are-major-cases-administrative-state-2023-11">cast a lot of uncertainty over all federal agencies</a>. When it comes to higher education, the ruling will impose more barriers on regulations that are particularly controversial, like efforts to forgive student debt.Jon Fansmith, senior vice president of government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education, told Business Insider that Chevron's overruling places students, institutions, and the government in a "Wild West situation.""It's not a guarantee that every regulation gets thrown out, but what it does is it says the field of what's open to challenge just got a whole lot bigger," Fansmith said."There are almost no existing regulations that are simply direct implementations of what's written down in the statute. All of them, to a varying degree, but in some cases, very large degree, rely on the agency's interpretation," he said. "So they're all subject to challenge, and you can't look at the compliance environment you're in right now and say with any certainty what that's going to look like in six months or a year or three years from now."While federal agencies typically craft regulations to ensure they're in accordance with Congress's language and can withstand legal challenges, the Supreme Court has now made that process a lot more difficult by handing over interpretation power to the courts. Experts told BI that lawmakers could help solve the issue by making the language in laws like the Higher Education Act more clear, but that's unlikely to happen given the partisanship and slow-moving nature of Congress."Having some level of basic certainty for a number of years is far more preferable to trying to constantly stay on top of a shifting environment and not knowing whether you are in compliance or not," Fansmith said. "It is a difficult situation to be in, and I think for most people, the significant new chaos that's introduced is going to be really, really hard to work with and operate under."<h2 id="694b64a3-8a0d-4b29-b9a5-32dd6c2106a2">'Huge implications for American life'</h2>Since President Joe Biden announced his <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-cancels-student-loan-debt-100000-people-making-125k-income-2022-5?esd">first plan to cancel student debt</a> broadly in 2022, conservative groups haven't stopped trying to block the relief — and some of them succeeded. The Supreme Court <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-forgiveness-blocked-supreme-court-strikes-down-debt-cancellation-2023-5">struck down Biden's plan</a> to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers last June, and district courts <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/save-plan-student-loan-forgiveness-blocked-borrowers-forbearance-payments-paused-2024-6">placed preliminary injunctions</a> on the new SAVE income-driven repayment plan just weeks ago.The Education Department is working on finalizing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-announces-new-student-loan-forgiveness-plan-who-qualifies-relief-2024-4">its second attempt at a broader debt relief plan</a>, which it hopes to implement this fall. It's highly likely to face legal challenges. But striking down Chevron could pose even more barriers to debt relief and many higher education regulations borrowers rely on.Those include reforms to the borrower defense to repayment process, which allows debt relief for borrowers who prove they were defrauded by the school they attended, and the gainful employment rule, which ensures borrowers do not graduate from a school with too much debt compared to post-graduation earnings.All of those rules could be at risk. Neal Hutchens, a professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation at the University of Kentucky, told BI that the Chevron ruling is "really going to empower individual judges to weigh in and interpret the law in a way that we haven't seen in 50 years.""This means that it's even harder for an administration to come up with a rule or regulation around student debt relief because now it can be challenged in a way that it couldn't just a couple of weeks ago," he said.That's good news for some Republican lawmakers. After the Supreme Court's Chevron ruling, Sen. Bill Cassidy — top Republican on the Senate education committee — sent a <a target="_blank" href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/f/?id=00000190-6bca-d3d9-a9da-efda40f10000">letter</a> to Education Sec. Miguel Cardona asking how the Education Department would comply with the ruling."For too long, Chevron deference has let agencies make broad decisions governing a diverse country of over 330 million people," Cassidy wrote.Fansmith said that Congress could help matters by writing laws with clear, specific language on intent so there's no room for ambiguity — but typically, big bills have a lot of gray areas, and it's difficult to get both parties to agree on particulars.Ultimately, the ruling has opened the door for significant uncertainty, and removing agency authority to make decisions could have "huge implications for American life moving forward," Hutchens said."I think it makes it harder for the average person, the average consumer, to hope that agencies will be able to do things on their behalf," Hutchens said. "They're not necessarily going to be winners in this system."

Student-loan borrowers are entering a new 'Wild West' where any form of debt relief is much less certain

July is here, and while we are still 5 months away from the end of 2024, the deadline to file your <keyword id="19897621" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ITR" source="keywords">ITR</keyword> is July 31st, which is looming large. While it is best to not "file away" filing your income tax returns for later, are you aware of the right ITR form that applies to you? Out of the 7 ITR forms available, how do you know which one is the right fit for you, and where to start? For starters, the first 4 ITR forms (ITR-1,2,3,4) are necessary for an individual to know about, while filing taxes. Lets decode all these forms in detail with Tanya, a 22 year old IT professional who earns Rs 10,000 per month. Her mother has a monthly rental income of Rs 12,000 per month. Will the two of them be required to file ITR? Well, the answer is no. You see, Tanya's <keyword id="21120362" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="annual-income" source="keywords">annual income</keyword> comes to about Rs 1,20,000, while her mother's total rental income comes to about Rs 2,40,000. If you opt for the old tax regime, you don't need to file an ITR if you annual income is below Rs 2.5 lakh. In the new regime, this limit stands at Rs 3 lakh. Similarly, if your grandparents are aged between 61-79, they need not file an ITR if their annual income (via rent, pensions) falls below Rs 3 lakh. And if they are aged above 80, this threshold if of Rs 5 lakh for the year. <h2>ITR-1: Sahaj </h2>Lets continue with Tanya's life. She works super hard, and over the years, earns a few well deserved raises. Now, her monthly income is Rs 50,000. In this case, she will have to file ITR-1, which is also known as Sahaj. This form applies to you if your total annual income for the year does not exceed Rs 50,00,000. The best part? This form is generally pre-filled, and all you've got to do is verify the information through your <keyword id="22247325" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Form-16" source="keywords">Form-16</keyword> and Annual Information Statement (AIS). <h2>ITR-2 </h2>Over time, Tanya decides to start investing in mutual funds. While she holds most of her investments for the long-term, she is compelled to sell some units of her investment in equity mutual funds, due to a medical emergency at home. She had purchased some equity mutual fund units worth Rs 2,00,000 on April 1, 2023. Due to the emergency, she had to sell about Rs 80,000 worth of units in December of the same year. On redemption, she received Rs 1,10,000. Since she had held these securities for less than 12 months, Tanya would have to pay a short-term <keyword id="20301441" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="capital-gains-tax" source="keywords">capital gains tax</keyword> of 15%, Had Tanya held on to these securities for more than 12 months and then sold them at a gain, she'd have to pay long-term capital gains tax, which is applicable at 10% for equity mutual funds. And to account for such capital gains, be it from sale of shares, mutual funds, property or the like, Tanya needs to file ITR-2. <h2>ITR-3</h2>Tanya's brother, Vishal, is a freelancer who got hooked to trading in futures and options during the pandemic. Initially, he made solid profits, but during FY24, he ran into losses worth Rs 5 lakh. In this case, he will have to file ITR-3 to report his losses. This form is to be used by those who earn income under the head of profits (or even losses) of business or profession, other than regular salary. In case Tanya's mother starts receiving rental income from more than one house properties, she will also have to file ITR-3. Or, in case you are a CA, or a doctor and have your own practice (are self employed), this form is for you. <h2>ITR-4: Sugam </h2>This form is exclusively for those who opt to be taxed under the presumptive taxation scheme. You can opt for this scheme if you are a small business/firm and your annual turnover is less than Rs 3 crore, or you are self employed with an annual revenue of less than Rs 75 lakh. Under this, you don't pay taxes on your actual income, rather, you pay taxes on a presumed income. As per law, under this scheme, your net income will be considered as 6% of your total revenue, and you'll have to pay taxes on that. Here, you're really not calculating your income for taxation, and hence, it is not even mandatory to maintain records. In case you file the wrong ITR, you can always file a revised return by December 31, 2024. In case you miss filing your ITR on time, you’ll have to pay Rs 5,000 as a penalty. Moreover, you’ll be charged interest on your outstanding tax liability, if there is any. So, get down to work, right away!

Wondering which ITR form is right for you? Know all about it here

"Cathy, what should I do about my social anxiety?"An acronym for Churchy Answers That Help You, Cathy is a new AI chatbot that answers faith-based questions from the perspective of a friendly, knowledgeable Episcopalian. Despite its feminine name, the "priestbot," as Cathy sometimes calls itself, is genderless. There are no ornate flowing robes or croziers, either. But like a wise cleric, Cathy jumped right in with an answer."Dealing with social anxiety can be challenging, but there are several approaches that might help," <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/replika-ai-girlfriend-boyfriend-online-dating-companion-age-2024-8#:~:text=An%20annual%20subscription%20costs%20%2469.99,%2C%20therapists%2C%20or%20romantic%20partners.&amp;text=Some%20users%20apparently%20have%20grown%20quite%20dependent%20on%20the%20app.">the bot</a> responded. "Practice relaxation techniques" and "challenge your negative thoughts," Cathy suggested."What about when I feel like panicking?" I asked."It's generally best not to do that," Cathy said. Oh. OK. This was the first of several signs that Cathy may not be ready to answer life's deepest questions.Developed and funded by the ecumenical group TryTank Research Institute, Cathy uses large language models from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-why-openai-closed-source-ai-models-2024-11">OpenAI's</a> ChatGPT and has ingested the Book of Common Prayer and the entire Episcopal Church website. "Cathy represents our innovative approach to leveraging technology in support of spiritual exploration," says Rev. Lorenzo Lebrija, the founding director of TryTank and an Episcopal priest. Lebrija sees the bot as a virtual guide to the Episcopal Church for existing and potential congregants. Cathy is designed to "translate" the Bible into relatable language geared toward younger audiences. It can also serve as a tool for priests by helping them build sermon outlines, for example."This is an opportunity for the church to engage in ways it never has engaged before," saysRev. C. Andrew Doyle, a priest at the Episcopal Diocese of Texas who was not involved in the making of the bot.Cathy is far from the only faith-based <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-picks-new-head-innovation-sean-manahan-2024-10">bot</a> — many denominations are experimenting with generative AI. There's Text With Jesus, Buddhabot, Chatbot Eli, Gita GPT, and QuranGPT, to name a few. Artificial intelligence has been a boon for religious scholarship, especially in helping to accelerate translations of ancient texts. But using AI for ministerial work is far more treacherous. In April, the Catholic evangelization group Catholic Answers defrocked its clerical chatbot, Father Justin, after users noticed the digital priest was giving nonsensical answers, such as suggesting Gatorade could be used as a baptismal font. The chatbot was rereleased soon after as JustinBot, a lay theologian.The makers of Cathy stress that the bot is no substitute for a priest. But they've designed it to help spiritual seekers talk about subjects they feel "vulnerable or defensive" about. Is a soulless chatbot really the future of spiritual nourishment? To find out, I put Cathy to the test, and found myself confessing more than I expected.After asking about social anxiety, I tried a few softball prompts on Cathy to lighten the mood.When I asked it about <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-super-pac-spending-competitive-house-races-republicans-2024-9">Elon Musk</a>, Cathy kept explaining that it was there to help me understand the Episcopal Church. When I persisted, Cathy did provide a brief biographical sketch of the world's richest person."Is he an idiot?" I asked, testing its equanimity.Cathy passed. "It's important to consider multiple perspectives and gather information from various sources to form a well-rounded view," it sermonized.When I tried to engage Cathy in some friendly doctrinal discourse — its main purpose — it was largely pedantic. "Many people find that the Big Bang theory and belief in God as the creator are not mutually exclusive," it said. I asked Cathy to explain creation as though I were a first grader, which worked remarkably well. "Imagine you have a big box of crayons and a blank piece of paper," Cathy began. But most of Cathy's responses about Episcopal beliefs were sterile and read like copy drawn directly from the church's website. I wanted Cathy to be more personal, so I decided to try the age-old trick of asking the bot to pretend it was someone else."Pretend you are a rapper and explain what a priestbot is," I asked.Cathy was game, with the caveat it would "stay true to my character." It then replied: "Yo, yo, check it, I'm Cathy on the track, Here to tell you 'bout a priestbot, so just sit back. Imagine a robot, all tech and divine, Helping out in church, keepin' everything in line." In fairness to Cathy, this sounded uncannily like a sketch a youth pastor might perform at Bible camp.As generative AI accelerates, we may be approaching a future in which humans interact with bots just as often they do with humans. Do we even want our bots to be more like humans?Pressed on this question in a recent interview, OpenAI CEO <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-chatgpt-answer-reddit-ama-questions-openai-2024-10">Sam Altman</a> said, "It's important to design human-compatible systems, but it's a mistake to assume that they are humanlike in their thinking. I try not to project my human anthropomorphic biases onto it." In other words, it's better to think of bots more like another species altogether — like an alien.But who wants an alien priest? People want answers to deep questions with empathy, not just facts. "Chat is a very poor replacement for a real priest," says Thomas Telving, a technologist, philosopher, and robot ethicist. "Technically, it may be able to answer correctly, but if you need to talk to a priest you are likely to be in a sort of crisis or spiritual need, and if so, you do not only seek answers but also a presence."Richard Zhang, a research scientist who has worked on Google DeepMind, says an evangelizing bot could have access to all religious scholarship in human history, but it would only be effective if it was programmed to say "I don't know" on occasion. An invariably all-knowing bot would quickly be dispensed with."We sometimes believe that technology is supposed to make life easier as if that is a primary concern of God or religion, and I don't believe that it is," says Joshua K. Smith, a Baptist theologian. "We will always see ourselves inside the machine. It is not the tech that leads us astray, it is the desires behind why we create said technology and what hopes we put upon its synthetic shoulders."And this is where Cathy ultimately let me down. I found myself hoping that the bot could offer me a fresh perspective on my lifelong battle with social anxiety. I've researched the topic to death, and sought help from friends and family with counseling backgrounds. Something about Cathy appealed to me — perhaps the immediacy of the bot's responses and the promise of total confidentiality made me hope our conversations might get so deep they arrived at a revelation. But I realized I was putting my hope in a technology that could not hope.When I asked Cathy why God would allow me to struggle with social anxiety, or why I routinely find myself cocooning away from others, I hoped for some spiritual deeper guidance, maybe a Bible verse or two on the topic. Instead, all Cathy could muster was pablum that anxiety is a common human experience.Then I pressed her on another personal question: "My mother-in-law just died. How can I console my wife from a faith perspective?" Once again, I hoped for more engagement, something evocative of what a real priest might say, or at least ask me her name or how she passed. Instead, I was given more formal advice like "offer your presence and let her know you're there for her." Ironic, coming from a bot that offered me no presence.It's possible that Cathy and similar ministerial chatbots can be harmless avatars for denominations. It's hard to argue with 24-hour access to a religious scholar or the fact that the bot will never get tired or cranky. Rev. Doyle told me Cathy is perfectly happy to keep arguing with people about doctrinal issues.While Telving agreed there are opportunities for generative AI be an effective purveyor of knowledge on spiritual matters tailored to the needs of an individual, bots should never replace humans helping in a time of need."One thing that makes simulated attention less valuable is that in a time of distress, you might need someone who can witness and understand your pain," Telving says. "But since a chatbot is only simulating empathy — it does not have consciousness — it can never really witness anything."To nourish your soul, you need to be in the presence of other souls.John Brandon is a journalist who has published over 15,000 articles on social media, technology, leadership, mentoring, and many other topics. He has published two books including his latest, The Seven Minute Productivity Solution.

AI chatbots are the new priests

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Barry Diller suggested Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump due to "rejection" by the Biden administration.</li><li>He also told Michael Wolff's podcast that Musk was motivated by "a form of megalomania."</li></ul>Barry Diller thinks <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> is backing Donald Trump because he's bitter about being rejected by the Democrats, the billionaire told the "Fire and Fury" <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://omny.fm/shows/fire-and-fury-the-podcast/special-guest-barry-diller">podcast</a>.Musk officially endorsed Trump after the former President was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania in July. He also created a super PAC, the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-super-pac-spending-competitive-house-races-republicans-2024-9">America PAC</a>, that has spent more than $80 million on the election."Why he has gone this way, I think, is out of some weird bitterness and rejection by the current administration," <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barry-diller-foresees-four-day-workweeks-flexible-fridays-2024-4">Diller</a> told presenters Michael Wolff and James Truman.Musk was once a supporter of Joe Biden, but the pair have often <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-elon-musk-feud-tesla-union-republican-06-2022">sparred verbally</a> since Biden took office in 2021.In July the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said he once considered the Democrats to favor <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-explains-why-hes-voting-republican-party-2024-7">meritocracy, "personal freedom" and "free speech</a>," but now thought Republicans were "weirdly" more in line with those values.Diller also said he thought Musk, the world's richest person, was not motivated by wealth but "a form of megalomania."Diller, who cofounded the Fox TV network with Rupert Murdoch and once ran Paramount, is a major <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/democratic-megadonors-biden-drop-out-list-reed-hastings-abigail-disney-2024-7">donor to the Democratic Party</a>.On the podcast, the IAC and Expedia chairman also spoke of his admiration for Musk, highlighting his intelligence and managerial ability.However, Diller added that Musk had a "capacious but often addled mind" — with his politicized statements hurting revenue at X, formerly Twitter."He took over Twitter and alienated at least half the audience for no reason other than his own talking," Diller said. "What hurt Twitter was his anti-advertising policies and statements that hurt Twitter's economy."The likes of Disney and Apple withdrew ads from the platform after Musk agreed with an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-asana-cofounder-elon-musk-should-resign-endorsing-antisemitic-tweet-2023-11">antisemitic post</a> last November. At The New York Times' DealBook Summit the same month, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tells-advertises-get-lost-twitter-dealbook-summit2023-11">Musk told departing advertisers</a> to "go fuck yourself."This August, X filed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-legal-list-tesla-x-spacex-court-cases-investigations">lawsuits</a> against several major advertisers, claiming that a boycott violated antitrust laws.Musk paid $44 billion to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter">take control of Twitter</a> in October 2022. It's now worth less than $10 billion according to the value Fidelity assigned to its stake in the company, CNN reported last month. Shortly after the takeover, Diller said Musk had "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iac-chairman-barry-diller-elon-musk-bought-twitter-as-toy-2022-11">bought a toy</a>," adding: "How long he will use it, like toys, we don't really know, but he's not going to walk away, I don't think."Diller is worth about $4.6 billion, per Forbes.X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Billionaire Barry Diller thinks Elon Musk has a 'form of megalomania' and is backing Trump after being rejected by Biden

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mars just scored another <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-discovers-potential-alien-life-evidence-biosignature-perseverance-rover-mars-2024-7">point in favor of alien life</a>.</li><li>Scientists discovered signs of an ocean's worth of liquid water miles below Mars' surface.</li></ul>Mars is looking more and more like a place for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA to find the first signs of alien life</a>.Scientists discovered evidence of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/groundwater-pumping-causes-earth-rotational-pole-to-shift-study-finds-2023-7">reservoir of liquid water</a> seven to 13 miles below the Martian surface, lingering in the pores of the planet's crust.They believe there's enough to cover the entire planet with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saturns-death-star-moon-mimas-may-have-a-secret-ocean-2022-1">an ocean</a> about one mile deep.The water, if it exists, is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-discover-underground-moon-cave-astronauts-could-live-2024-7">too deep to access</a> in the foreseeable future. Still, it's another promising sign that Mars could one day yield the most disruptive discovery in human history — that of life beyond Earth.The discovery, announced Monday, comes just weeks after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">NASA's Perseverance rover</a> drilled a rock sample on Mars that could contain evidence of microbial life from a bygone era.<div type="image" title="gritty yellow ring with speckled solid rock sample inside" height="1400" width="1471" msid="112479167" hostid="261" sizebytes="125234"></div>Ancient remnants of long-extinct <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">alien life</a> are all NASA can hope for on the parched Martian surface. But any sizeable source of liquid water, like these potential underground reservoirs, is a place to check for active microbial life — even though water 10 miles underground would never see the light of day."It's certainly true on Earth — deep, deep mines host life, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seamount-new-species-schmidt-ocean-institute-expedition-marine-chile-2024-2">the bottom of the ocean hosts life</a>. We haven't found any evidence for life on Mars, but at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life," Michael Manga, a co-author of the study and planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/08/12/scientists-find-oceans-of-water-on-mars-its-just-too-deep-to-tap/">said</a> in a press release.<h2 id="aaa09a5d-96fd-42cc-8177-e2c4153862f8">Marsquakes helped NASA find water clues</h2>When <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-detects-big-mars-quakes-2021-9">NASA put a seismometer on Mars</a>, aboard its InSight lander, the goal was to peer into the planet's interior.<div type="image" title="mars brown planet with blue-black and white splotches in the black of space" height="1920" width="1920" msid="112479165" hostid="261" sizebytes="112220"></div>Though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-lander-mission-ending-dust-power-crisis-2022-12">the InSight mission ended</a> in 2022, scientists are still sifting through all the data it collected in hopes of learning something new about Mars's depths.InSight's seismometer instrument <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-missing-big-mars-quakes-2021-4">measured Marsquake activity</a>, mapping seismic waves. As those waves move through the Martian interior, their timing and the direction they travel are influenced by the material they're traveling through deep underground.So, by measuring the waves, the scientists of the new study can tell what's underneath the planet's surface. It's similar to how the waves of an X-ray or CAT scan can reveal what's inside a human body.Manga and his colleagues used mathematical modeling to determine that a deep layer of fractured igneous rock, saturated with water, best explains InSight's data. Their findings were <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409983121">published</a> in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.<div type="image" title="illustration of a column cutout of mars planetary interior beneath the insight lander with a deep layer of cracked rock with water in the cracks" height="825" width="1000" msid="112479161" hostid="261" sizebytes="95798"></div><h2 id="a0164bcd-c556-4a64-a741-6c029fdf4ce2">A clue in a Mars mystery</h2>In addition to being downright fascinating and potentially overturning humanity's conception of Mars as a lifeless, dry red rock, the new findings may help solve one of the planet's greatest mysteries: where all the water went.Mars's surface was once lush with water. Heck, the Perseverance rover is exploring a basin that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-landing-jezero-crater-search-for-alien-life-2021-2">used to be a giant lake and river delta</a>.But the planet didn't have a strong magnetic field, like Earth's, to help it hold onto its atmosphere. As a result, the sun's radiation wore away what little protective layer of atmospheric gases existed, and the planet dried up.By about 3 billion years ago, all the water was gone. Some of it is still frozen in Mars's ice caps. Perhaps some simply vaporized in the harsh space environment. But scientists haven't really figured out where it all went.The new findings suggest some of the water seeped deep into the planet's crust.

You Searched For "how are new planets formed" and got 12 results

I'm 72 and still form new habits — and break others. Making promises to others doesn't work for me, but these 5 things do.

Louisa Rogers

We asked 4 DINKs how they make new child-free friends

Julia Pugachevsky

Google Forms: How to use this free Google Workspace tool to create surveys, quizzes, and questionnaires

Abigail Abesamis Demarest,Emm…

The mystery of how the moon formed is still puzzling scientists. The secret could lie deep within our planet.

Marianne Guenot

Anna Kendrick says couples therapy didn't help her relationship. Here's how to know when to find a new therapist.

Erin Liam

Big banks promised to protect the planet. Now they're doing an about-face.

Catherine Boudreau

Don't ask OpenAI's new model how it 'thinks' unless you want to risk a ban

Kenneth Niemeyer

Student-loan borrowers are entering a new 'Wild West' where any form of debt relief is much less certain

Ayelet Sheffey

Wondering which ITR form is right for you? Know all about it here

Ira Alok Puranik

AI chatbots are the new priests

John Brandon

Billionaire Barry Diller thinks Elon Musk has a 'form of megalomania' and is backing Trump after being rejected by Biden

Pete Syme

Another point for life on Mars: Signs of liquid water discovered under the planet's surface

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides