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Explore the transformative journey of embracing compassion and authenticity in the workplace with “better places.”
Robert Rasmussen, founder and CEO of Agile Six, brings his vision of what a business community can aspire to become.
Rooted in the timeless wisdom of ahimsa, or nonviolence, this heartfelt narrative moves beyond the zero-sum game of winners and losers to reveal the profound impact of our words and actions on the world around us, says a review published on goodreads.com.
LONDON: In an era in which retro gaming is somewhat mainstream with remakes, reboots and remastered games emerging on a daily basis, “Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog” on Nintendo Switch takes things to the next level.
Going further back in time than most, it is a throwback to classic PC-9800 visual novels, blending deep storytelling with a minimalist approach to gameplay. If you enjoy immersive narratives and do not mind slow pacing, this game delivers a compelling experience — though it may not be for everyone.
“Gun-Dog” is all about story. Its deep, character-driven narrative demands patience, rewarding players willing to engage with a text-heavy experience. It starts by setting the scene of the Solar War and our protagonist being unable to prevent the loss of his crewmates. Four years later, they (you can choose your own name) are re-assigned to the Jovian patrol ship Gun-Dog which has orders to investigate mysterious signals coming from the edge of Jovian Space.
On board, the assortment of characters includes a love interest, a rival from the past and others who all seem to be hiding something. While choice is limited to movement, item interaction and conversation, the game excels at making you feel like your actions matter, especially when decisions come with a countdown clock to force your hand.
This is not an action-packed adventure. The game moves deliberately and offers little in the way of fast-paced mechanics. Exploration is limited, but the weight of each choice — especially in high-pressure moments — keeps engagement high. With sparse visuals and bit-crushed music, “Gun-Dog” leans into its retro inspirations. Interestingly, putting it on mute might give the best experience; the soundtrack can be more of a distraction than an enhancement.
“Gun-Dog” is a game for those who love slow-burn, text-heavy adventures with minimal gameplay distractions. If you are looking for deep lore, strong characters and a narrative experience, it is worth the time. Just be ready for a slower ride than that offered by most modern games.
Author: David Wagner
With more than 160,000 named species, moths are a familiar sight to most of us, flickering around lights, pollinating wildflowers about meadows and gardens, and as unwelcome visitors to our woolens.
They come in a variety of colors, from earthy greens and browns to gorgeous patterns of infinite variety, and range in size from enormous atlas moths to tiny leafmining moths.
Moths of the World is an essential guide to this astonishing group of insects, highlighting their diversity, metamorphoses, marvelous caterpillars, and much more.
Author: Donald E. Canfield
The air we breathe is 21 percent oxygen, an amount higher than on any other known world. While we may take our air for granted, Earth was not always an oxygenated planet.
How did it come to be this way? Donald Canfield covers this vast history, emphasizing its relationship to the evolution of life and the evolving chemistry of Earth.
He guides readers through the various lines of scientific evidence, considers some of the wrong turns and dead ends along the way, and highlights the scientists and researchers who have made key discoveries in the field.
Authors: Edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns
This classic one-volume edition of the complete writings of Plato is now available in paperback for the very first time.
The editors, Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, chose the contents from the work of the best modern British and American translators.
The volume contains prefatory notes to each dialogue, by Hamilton; an introductory essay on Plato’s philosophy and writings, by Cairns; and a comprehensive index with cross references.
In a new foreword, acclaimed philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein describes Plato’s unparalleled importance to philosophy down to the present day.
Author: Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard’s essay “Total Eclipse” begins with stale coffee and roadside chatter but detonates into a primal reckoning with the universe’s indifference.
Published in her 1982 collection “Teaching a Stone to Talk,” the essay documents Dillard’s experience of the 1979 solar eclipse, transforming a celestial event into a visceral confrontation with human fragility.
Dillard lulls readers with the mundane: tourists snapping photos, jokes about “eclipse burgers,” and the nervous anticipation of a crowd waiting for darkness.
Then, with the moon’s first bite into the sun, her prose turns feral. Colors warp, the sky bleeds, as if reality were glitching. This is not a mere description; it is an assault on our trust in the ordinary.
The essay’s power lies in its unflinching honesty. When totality hits, Dillard does not romanticize awe or resilience. Instead, she strips humanity bare: we are temporary creatures dwarfed by cosmic forces. The vanished sun becomes a “black pupil,” the landscape a “film reel skipping.”
Unlike typical nature writing that seeks solace in beauty, “Total Eclipse” offers no comfort. The returning sunlight feels like a lie, the restored world a fragile façade.
Dillard admits she is shaken, haunted by the void’s indifference. It is this refusal to soften the blow that makes the essay endure. In an age of curated awe, her words are a gut-punch reminder: darkness does not care if we blink.
Stylistically, Dillard masterfully mirrors the eclipse’s arc — calm, chaos, uneasy calm. This is not a science lesson or a spiritual guide, but a raw testimony that some truths cannot be explained, only endured.
“Total Eclipse” remains vital because it dares to stare into the abyss without blinking. Dillard does not ask us to find meaning but to confront how little meaning there is to find.
And in that confrontation, there is a strange kind of clarity: to see our smallness is to glimpse the universe, unforgiving and vast.
