I’ve given myself an impossible task. I set out to explain why mindfulness is the most important skill to learn in 2022 at the exact moment when I have no inclination to practice it. 

Omicron has me upset, disappointed, and worried. Days before Christmas, a loved one and their young, high-risk family tested positive for COVID. Separately, another loved one, despite good intentions, exposed themselves to significant COVID risk just as Omicron began rapidly spreading across the country. The domino effect of that potential exposure threw my — and many other people’s — Christmas plans into disarray. 

For me, anger and uncertainty unleash both adrenaline and motivation. I need to operate at peak problem-solving capacity, trying to anticipate what the future holds. I help my loved ones get tested, scramble to find housing where they can isolate, and talk through their concerning symptoms. Thankfully, they are mostly vaccinated and boosted, but the highly contagious, immune-evading variant presents new questions about its effect on vulnerable children and older adults to which I don’t have answers. 

To be honest, I had a sip of whiskey when I first registered the stakes. Then I flew into action. Only later did I pause to sit with and acknowledge the intense emotions, without pushing them away or letting them drag me deeper into panic. This act of being fully present, paired with self-compassion for the pain I felt, is mindfulness. Mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn also defines it as awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally. 

When I’m practicing mindfulness effectively, I’m not in the past, wishing someone had chosen a different path nor am I imagining a future of devastating consequences. Instead, I’m in the present moment, using self-compassion and radical acceptance to acknowledge how I feel and extend kindness toward myself.  

I share this experience because I suspect it sounds familiar or will become common in 2022, thanks to Omicron. The hardest season of the post-vaccine pandemic may be upon us, and the uncertainty will push many of us into a tailspin of anxiousness. If that weren’t enough, the upcoming year will bring new but expected crises, like extreme weather connected to climate change, and others that we haven’t yet anticipated. Regardless, social media algorithms will amplify our greatest fears and suspicions, pumping users full of rage and cynicism, as late capitalism demands we sacrifice everything for work while neglecting to meet people’s basic needs. This is not a culture naturally prone to mindfulness. Instead, it can make us reactive, callous, and even more likely to worry about catastrophe than we already are as human beings.  

That makes mindfulness the most important skill to cultivate. It deepens our capacity to cope with anxiety and other difficult emotions by gently interrupting runaway thinking and feeling. When practiced in tandem with self-compassion and radical acceptance, it opens the heart and mind in remarkable ways. We see possibility instead of dread. We feel connected instead of solitary.

Mindfulness can seem unattainable when the goal is mistakenly perceived as perfection. Rather, it’s the act of starting again — and again and again — when an impulse, thought, or feeling pulls us into the past or future. Some people use the breath as a physiological tether to the present, particularly as they meditate. Rhythmic breathing calms the nervous system and makes it easier to focus on what’s within our control. But mindfulness doesn’t require breathwork or meditation. Mindfulness can be practiced during activities like walking, washing dishes, gardening, exercising, playing, or driving. When a thought, good or bad, barges in, mindfulness means observing it with curiosity and openness, then returning back to the present moment, where we note the musty smell of leaves in winter or how the horizon meets the highway.  

It’s easy to believe we’re adept at taming anxiety born of uncertainty thanks to the pandemic. But this may be a false assumption. Dr. Jack Nitschke, a clinical psychologist, and associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, told me that exposure to unpredictability doesn’t necessarily improve our coping skills. “I actually don’t think people get better at tolerating uncertainty just because there’s a lot of it,” he said. 

“I actually don’t think people get better at tolerating uncertainty just because there’s a lot of it.”

Instead, when we remain guided by fear and anxiousness, our malleable brain develops neurocircuitry to support those thought patterns and feelings. Anxious thinking becomes a track we unconsciously return to over and over because the brain has developed neural connections to support that habit. Nitschke believes we can also do the opposite. When we pause, bring ourselves back to the present moment, and interrupt a cycle of worried thinking, the brain develops new associations. The more we practice mindfulness, the more the brain learns to lean into it. Something will inevitably blow up this relative calm, like getting bad news, but we remain capable of strengthening our brain connections for mindfulness. Over time, coming back to the present, even in crisis, becomes easier. 

This might be harder for some than others. While Nitschke believes everyone can take advantage of brain plasticity to adopt effective ways of coping with the pandemic and uncertainty, those with histories of trauma or mental illness might feel it’s more difficult to interrupt their dominant thought patterns. Similarly, someone who disproportionately experiences injustice, trauma, and economic hardship may experience mindfulness as a single sandbag in a deluge. 

“There are a number of real concrete, institutional, environmental, community factors that are, in a very tangible way, contributing to the psychological distress that these individuals are experiencing,” Dr. Inger Burnett-Zeigler, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University, told me. 

Burnett-Zeigler believes that mindfulness is one way to address that stress and has studied related interventions in low-income communities of color, particularly among Black women who’ve experienced depression and trauma. In a pilot study in the south side of Chicago, Burnett-Zeigler taught participants techniques like body scanning, seated meditation, yoga, noticing pleasant and unpleasant events, and mindful communication. Most of the women reported improved anger management, enhanced awareness, feeling calm and relaxed, and better control over thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Most also experienced decreased trauma symptoms, but a small number reported worse trauma symptoms. Burnett-Zeigler suspects those participants had so powerfully (and understandably) deployed avoidance and denial to cope with their trauma that mindfulness brought to the surface painful feelings instead of soothing them. 

Burnett-Zeigler remains convinced that the skills encompassed by mindfulness — awareness, stillness, self-compassion, and stress regulation — are valuable tools for anyone. And yet people dealing with trauma may need additional resources fine-tuned for their experience, like yoga classes in which participants aren’t asked to close their eyes and the lights stay on. This is not a small caveat in a time of pronounced grief and trauma, especially in communities of color that experience racial injustice and have also been hit hard by COVID. 

It’s also clear that the burden we carry — some of us bearing much heavier loads than others — will not become lighter anytime soon. When considering a skill to learn in 2022, whether for adventure, self-improvement, or satisfaction, look to mindfulness as a worthy challenge. Instruction is everywhere, including in books, podcasts, online courses, and apps. There is no competition, judgment, or failure; just the ever-present chance to find calm in the midst of relentless uncertainty.  

My biggest pet peeve in apocalyptic movies and TV shows is when people’s hair looks too good. I can believe that society may have collapsed due to a despotic government, alien invasion, or a plague, but I draw the line at characters (mostly women) finding the time to flawlessly style their hair in such scenarios.

Thankfully, HBO Max’s new drama Station Eleven gets the post-apocalyptic look just right. Characters’ hairstyles are practical and lived-in. They look like they’ve been surviving for twenty years — not like they’ve just stepped off a high-fashion runway.

This realistic quality was important to Station Eleven hair department head Nani Casillas, who worked hard to make sure everyone’s hair looked natural given the show’s apocalyptic circumstances.

“Some people might think that doing natural hair is super easy, but it’s actually hard because you have to pay attention to the rhythm of the hair and how it’s behaving,” Casillas told Mashable in a phone interview. 

She and the hair department monitored hair lengths and oiliness throughout shooting in order to keep the looks consistent. The types of hair products — including 5-in-1 leave-in conditioners and texturizing powders — and the amount used varied depending on each actor’s unique hair texture. Aside from consistency, another challenge was realistically conveying the passage of time. To age characters across decades, Casillas worked with wig makers to create life-like wigs and extension pieces.

Station Eleven characters’ hairstyles also depend on their lifestyles and their accessible resources. For example, the Traveling Symphony, a group of actors and musicians who perform at settlements around Lake Michigan, look very different from the survivors staying put at Severn Airport.

According to Casillas, the Traveling Symphony’s migratory lifestyle means that they don’t worry too much about their hair. However, Casillas didn’t want to make them look too distressed. “Something we discussed was that even though a good portion of the population was wiped out [by the pandemic], there were a lot of things left behind,” she said. “You could source things like soap or shampoos, but it would be few and far between.”

Meanwhile, people at Severn Airport have access to power and more resources, so they would be better coiffed. Characters like Clark (David Wilmot) and Elizabeth (Caitlin Fitzgerald) were sophisticated and stylish before the pandemic hit. So, they try to maintain that level of sophistication as best they can in their new lives.

Aside from being a good way of indicating what someone’s post-apocalyptic life is like, the hair in Station Eleven is also a great way of showcasing character, like with the evolution of Kirsten (played by Matilda Lawler then Mackenzie Davis).

“When Kirsten was younger, she was this little bright-eyed theater actress, and her hair was easy and manageable,” explained Casillas. “As you see the passage of time with her, she starts growing into this person who is much more of a survivor.”  

The hairstyle Casillas chose to represent Kirsten’s newfound identity as a survivalist was a braid, which would allow her to travel without worrying too much about her hair. Casillas also found the imagery of the braid compelling. “My thought with the braid was that it emulates a dagger: It has a very sharp point,” she said. Daggers are integral to Kirsten’s character. Her dagger tattoos remind her of how many people she’s killed. Also, she carries knives for protection, even on stage. Casillas emphasizes this more dangerous and protective side of Kirsten by cleverly incorporating it into her hairstyle.

To all the apocalyptic shows and movies out there, take notes: This is how you do it.

Where Kirsten’s hairstyle mimics her intensity and survival skills, fellow Traveling Symphony member Alex’s (Philippine Velge) hair reflects her more carefree way of life. Alex is the only “post-pan” performer in the Symphony, meaning she was born after the pandemic and never experienced the past world. “Alex has no vision of what fashion or trends used to be,” said Casillas. “She was like a clean slate in terms of creativity.”

Casillas ended up giving Velge a freestyle haircut to capture Alex’s post-pandemic fashion sensibilities. “I just started freestyling it as I imagine [Alex] would have done it, and then she would see herself in the mirror and think, ‘Yeah, I think that’s good,'” Casillas said. “She just has this really beautiful inner idea of what beauty was. And that’s how we designed the hair.”

Each hairstyle was designed with Station Eleven‘s overall visual language in mind. Casillas drew inspiration from concept boards by production designer Ruth Ammon and costume designers Helen Huang and Austin Wittick in order to get a sense of the world. She, Huang, and Wittick worked together to come up with the kinds of futuristic, avant-garde headpieces members of the Traveling Symphony would wear during their theatrical performances. Finally, she coordinated with makeup department head Lisa Layman in order to establish just how dirty every character would be. The result of all this collaboration is a cohesive look across the whole show.

From Kirsten’s dagger braid to a host of carefully constructed wigs, Casillas and her team created hairstyles that truly look as if they belong in the apocalypse. They’re proof of natural wear and tear, but they also reveal the ways in which people manage to take care of themselves during difficult times. Crucially, they blend into Station Eleven‘s aesthetic and don’t remove us from its reality by looking overly stylish or sanitized. 

So, to all the apocalyptic shows and movies out there, take notes: This is how you do it.

Station Eleven is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes every week.

What if you could pay less for music, but you had to rely on Siri to play it?

That, in short, is the value proposition of Apple’s latest music plan, Apple Music Voice. And it works — but it’s definitely not for everyone.

Apple sent me a HomePod mini and an iPhone mini so I could test out Apple Music Voice. I’m fairly deeply invested in Apple’s ecosystem of devices, apps, and services, but I haven’t yet used a HomePod mini, nor was I ever a heavy Siri user. To add to that, I’m a voracious music listener with a big collection and subscriptions to all major music streaming services, and I like to tinker with my music choices. Pretty tough test for Apple’s new “Siri first” approach to music, then.

Setting up was simple and in tune with the Voice plan’s name. I initialized the HomePod mini and said, “Hey Siri, start my Apple Music Voice trial,” and that was enough to start a 7-day preview plan. Pretty cool, though things got less cool once I fired up Apple Music on the iPhone. The thing is, Apple Music Voice is truly a voice music plan, and it doesn’t really work that well on an iPhone. The Apple Music app looks half-baked, and it only gives you previews of songs, nudging you to go through Siri at every corner.

Given that the idea is to rely on Siri for your music needs, that’s what I did. But first, here’s a rundown of what you actually get and don’t get with the Apple Music Voice.

First of all, it’s cheap: $4.99 per month after three trial months, which is half the price of the regular, $9.99 Apple Music subscription. For the money, you get access to the entire Apple Music catalog, with zero ads, but you have to chat with Siri to get the music to play; Apple Music app on your phone will only give you previews. You also don’t get Spatial or Lossless audio quality, or the ability to create playlists or see music lyrics.

Hits and misses

Ad-free music for half the price sounds like a pretty sweet deal, but the reality of it is that it only works if you’re not very particular about what you’re listening to. I’d tell my HomePod, “Hey Siri, play something I like,” and it would start something akin to my personal mix tape. Commands like “Hey Siri, play something else,” or “Hey Siri, play some rock and roll” would also work, and Apple mostly did a good job of choosing what I wanted to hear. Finally, if I wanted to listen to a particular track, I could ask Siri for that, and it would comply — and continue to choose similar music after the track was over.

It worked most of the time. But I’m a playlist guy; I love to choose the next track on my phone, again and again. Apple Music Voice simply isn’t designed for that. At a house party, I wasn’t the DJ anymore; Siri was. It may work for some users, but long term, I’d rather upgrade to get more control over what I’m listening to.

Also, Siri’s typical quirks apply. Sometimes I just couldn’t get it to play the right track, no matter how much I tried to speak clearly. And sometimes it was me that was the problem. On one occasion, I wanted to listen to some Khruangbin, only to realize I’m not sure how to pronounce that. After I looked it up and gave it a try, Siri understood it right away. Again, if you’re happy with having Siri choose the music, you won’t have to give her commands very often. If you’re the tinkering type…a full Apple Music subscription might suit you better.

To make Apple Music Voice a bit more compelling, Apple says it added “hundreds” of mood and activity playlists that you can invoke through Siri. These include stuff like “daydreaming playlist,” “vacation playlist,” or “playlist for a day in the park.” I wasn’t able to find an official list of these, but the choice is big enough that simple guessing will often do. This wasn’t without issues either; for example, to my request to play “chillout” music, Siri would play “chill house,” which isn’t exactly the same thing.

There are other limitations. Apple Music is available much more widely than Apple Music Voice. More precisely, you can only get the latter in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This may change in the future, but for now, if you’re not in one of these countries, forget about Apple Music Voice.

Is it worth it?

Apple Music Voice will cater well to a particular type of music listener: Someone who likes music but isn’t too picky about particulars. It also saves five bucks per month compared to the regular Apple Music plan – money that could go toward a HomePod mini purchase, for example. In fact, it’s the cheapest ad-free music streaming plan around, if you don’t count student plans.

The lack of Spatial and Lossless audio does sting a little, but I bet the primary source of frustration with Apple Music Voice will be lack of playlists and the inability to play full songs without using Siri. If you can put up with that, all the other drawbacks will seem minor in comparison.

My verdict is that it’s a decent first step into the world of Apple Music. Try it out, and if you don’t like it, you can always upgrade to a regular Apple Music plan.

The never-ending nature of space is incredible to behold: Brilliant nebulae, massive spiral galaxies, orbiting planets, and everything in between offer up inspiring and mind-bending views, courtesy of our most powerful telescopes and exploratory spacecraft.

There has been no shortage of breathtaking space photos shared in 2021, from both the legendary, Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and from extraterrestrial missions. Take a minute to relax and take in the beauty of outer space and remember that, amid all these expressions of energy and matter swirling, expanding, and colliding across the universe, we’re right here in the middle of it all. That’s pretty cool.

These are the most stunning photos of space of 2021:

A newborn star’s outburst

This captivating picture focuses on a newly formed protostar violently ejecting long streams of matter at incredible speeds, a rare phenomenon known as a Herbig-Haro object. As the matter hits surrounding gas, the collisions erupt in bright, colorful bursts. The star itself isn’t visible amidst this flurry captured by Hubble, but its presence is felt in the gap between the diagonal bursts.

A Martian immersion

NASA’s Perseverance rover captured a panorama of the Octavia E. Butler Landing site on Mars, providing us earthlings with an immersive, 360-degree view of its new Martian home as of Feb. 18. The sweeping vista of the 28-mile-wide Jezero Crater formed by a meteorite impact lets us imagine what it’s like to be right there along for the mission. Within Jezero Crater is evidence of an ancient river delta where water once ran on the surface of Mars, and Perseverance will be collecting data in the area as well as preparing samples of soil to be picked up and returned to Earth in a future mission.

A black hole’s magnetic field

At the center of the Messier 87 galaxy some 55 million light years away lies a black hole. In 2019, a collection of scientists that observed the object using an array of telescopes around the globe released the first-ever image of a black hole, which depicts the light surrounding its dark center, almost like a blurry lava donut. In 2021, we got a new polarized image of the black hole created using more data compiled by the telescopes, which may look similar to the original image but gives new insight into this behemoth. The new lines seen in the ring of light show the gravitational field of this supermassive object, which in turn shows how it affects the material around it.

Evil eye galaxy

NGC4826, also known as the Evil Eye or Black Eye galaxy, is a spiral galaxy about 17 million light years away from Earth. The gas in the inner part of the galaxy rotates in one direction, while the gas further away from the center rotates in the opposite direction, an odd trait for a galaxy. One theory suggests this is because Evil Eye is the result of two galaxies colliding. The dark, almost fluffy-looking gas that wraps its way throughout gives it an almost ominous appearance; hence, the name.

Storms of Jupiter

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, collecting all kinds of data to demystify the big, billowy gas giant and help scientists understand more about our solar system. In this image taken by Juno and color enhanced by citizen scientist Tanya Oleksuik, we see an impressively vivid collection of circular, swirling storms amidst its gaseous bands that circulate south of its famous red spot. The turbulent atmosphere is downright mesmerizing. Jupiter’s atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium and it doesn’t have a solid surface like Earth, so storms are constantly occurring. It’s biggest storm, the red spot, is twice the size of Earth and has raged for about 100 years.

Moody Venus

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is on a hellish mission to the sun where it will gather as much data as it can before its fiery demise, and on the way it passed by Venus. This image, taken by the probe as it zoomed by in July 2020, gives an almost eerie look at one of our closest planetary neighbors. The dark area on Venus is part of the Aphrodite Terra highlands region, which extends around two-thirds of the planet and is home to plenty of flowing lava. The streaks of light that give the image so much life may be particles of dust lit by the sun, or maybe dust that collided with the probe. Stars dotting the background are just icing on the cake.

Perseverance touching down

It’s a big year for Mars, in case you hadn’t already noticed. This image captures the moment just before NASA’s Perseverance touched the surface of the red planet where it will live out its days indefinitely. The dramatic photo was taken by the rover’s jetpack-like lander as it hovered 60 feet above the surface, lowering the rover softly to the ground. The rover traveled with the lander for almost 300 million miles to Mars, the pair entering Mars’ atmosphere at a blistering 1,000 miles per hour with not much more than a parachute to slow it down. Yes, the picture is a unique look at an extraterrestrial landing, but it also represents the collective relief and elation of countless individuals who worked for years to make this mission a success.

Trippy nebula

The Veil Nebula is supernova remnant that’s so large and bright that it can be seen from Earth in clear conditions (the best views are in the fall) with nothing more than a pair of binoculars. This new look at it from the Hubble Space Telescope uses five filters to show off the psychedelic array of ionized gases that make up its body. The nebula is about 2,100 light years away and this image is only a small piece of it. The nebula is estimated to be 130 light years wide, about 100 times wider than our own solar system.

Colliding galaxies

IC 1623, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, is known as an “interacting galaxy system.” What you’re looking at is the chaotic collision of two spiral galaxies. The duo is roughly 275 million light-years away from Earth, their coupling giving off a brilliant array of light wavelengths from across the spectrum. Eventually they’ll marry in a furious, dense blob known as a starburst galaxy.

Big old Ganymede

Jupiter’s icy moon Ganymede was captured in vivid detail by NASA’s Juno spacecraft in June. Ganymede is the biggest moon in our solar system — it’s actually bigger than the planet Mercury. Similar to a handful of other moons in our system, there’s evidence pointing to a liquid ocean lurking below its thick, icy crust. While Juno’s primary focus on its trip is Jupiter itself, the spacecraft also collected data about Ganymede’s surface, composition, atmosphere layers, and magnetosphere.

A lounging spiral galaxy

Roughly 150 million light-years away sits NGC 5037, a spiral galaxy that, from our viewpoint, appears to be chilling at a nice, relaxed angle. NGC 5037’s dusty gaseous arms swirl outward from its bright core, illuminated by star-forming activity. Despite spiral galaxies being the most common form of galaxy in the observable universe, their massive structures are extraordinary sights through the eyes of the Hubble.

A star that lived fast and is dying young

In celebration of Hubble’s 31st birthday, NASA and ESA shared this brilliant photo of the star AG Carinae. AG Carinae is what’s known as a luminous blue variable, an ultra-bright star classified for its short, convulsive life. This massive star was formed just a few million years earlier than this image shows, its size causing conflict between the inward influence of gravity and the outward force of radiation. The ring around the star was caused by an outburst of radiation stretching 5 light-years wide. Luckily it’s not our closest solar neighbor, which sits at just about that same distance away.

A hurricane, from above

Hurricane Larry landed as a Category 1 in Canada in September. In this photo taken from the cupola of the International Space Station, Hurricane Larry’s swirls can be seen from above. NASA selected this image as one of the best taken on the ISS this year.

Off to deep space

The most powerful space telescope ever made successfully launched on Christmas Day, and the James Webb Space Telescope is currently making its way into deep space. This image, shared by NASA, is a final shot of the telescope as it separated from the rocket that transported it off Earth.

A total eclipse, as seen from space

A total solar eclipse was on display in Antarctica on Dec. 4. In this image, captured by a powerful camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite, the moon’s shadow looks like a black smudge over Antarctica.

Peculiar galaxies

The Hubble Space Telescope captured a trio of galaxies in the Arp 195 system, which is listed among some unusual company in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.

Twinkle, twinkle

Near the center of the Milky Way lies this cluster of stars, as pictured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Spiraling out

NGC 6984 is a spiral galaxy that’s 200 million light-years away from Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope has captured this beauty before in 2013.

This story was originally published in April 2021 and updated in July 2021 and in December 2021.

There are two kinds of enduring mystery in the Star Wars franchise. The first is the big-picture, galactic-level kind that should ideally never be revealed, such as the biological aspect of the Force (looking at you, midichlorians). Then there are the “what happened to” kind — character-based mysteries that deepen and enrich the galaxy far, far away when finally revealed.

So when the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett dropped on Disney+ Wednesday with two “what happened to” reveals, Star Wars fans were delighted. One we’d been kind of expecting; the other was the surprising return of beloved musical characters. Both were callbacks to Return of the Jedi, the events of which took place five years prior to the present day in Boba Fett. But in our universe, nearly four decades have elapsed — which makes these character mysteries the most enduring in Star Wars history. Let’s break them down.

Sarlacc surprise

The fact that Boba Fett escaped his apparent death in the Sarlacc pit is something we’ve known since Temuera Morrison’s beloved bounty hunter first reappeared a year ago in The Mandalorian Season 2, episode 1. What that show studiously avoided answering was how he survived. The avoidance made sense, since none of Boba’s newfound friends in The Mandalorian would have known anything about the Sarlacc incident. (And Boba, taciturn at the best of times, was hardly likely to volunteer a story about the time a blind Han Solo accidentally activated his jetpack and sent him hurtling to his doom).

There had to be a good story to the escape, however, since we learned in Return of the Jedi that the Sarlacc was not a creature to be trifled with. Effectively a hundred-meter-tall Venus flytrap nestled in the sands of Tatooine, the Sarlacc was said to digest its victims slowly over a thousand years — “a new definition of pain and suffering,” as the ever-helpful Threepio put it. If it were at all easy to flee, if anyone had ever done it before Boba, why would Jabba the Hutt go to the trouble of dropping his enemies there in the first place?

Here’s where the fact that Star Wars has a long-defunct set of comic books and novels, now known as Legends, comes in handy. In those no-longer-canon tales, Fett escaped the Sarlacc by means of his unique tools — a flamethrower in his wrist gauntlet and the very jetpack that betrayed him in the first place. Book of Boba Fett had its star escape using the first of these tools, after introducing an extra wrinkle: The body of a long-dead Stormtrooper, whose suit Boba used to supply himself with breathable air.

After burning his way through the guts of the Sarlacc, however, Boba appears to have simply clawed his way up through many meters of sand to the surface rather than using the jetpack. Which makes sense for the story in multiple ways. He was covered in digestive juices, after all; not all his equipment was going to be in working order. Requiring such superhuman sand-digging effort also establishes the character’s grit. A jetpack escape would feel unearned, and wouldn’t explain why those pesky Jawas were able to strip his armor from his catatonic body, leaving him a sunburned wreck to be picked up by Tusken Raiders.

Plus, in telling the definitive Sarlacc escape tale, Book of Boba Fett establishes that it will use a cinematic device rarely seen in any Star Wars movie or show so far: the flashback. We’re likely to get more of them as the Book unfolds, given that episode 1 didn’t establish how Boba escaped his Tusken captors, or why he feels the need to rule the Tatooine crime scene in Jabba’s stead. This too is classic Star Wars: the answer to a character mystery should lead us to new character mysteries.

Tatooine supergroup

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The original Star Wars trilogy provided two Tatooine-based pop sensations. First came Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, the band whose Benny Goodman-inspired swing music provided the backdrop to the spaceport cantina where we first meet Han Solo and Chewbacca in A New Hope. Then in Return of the Jedi came the Max Rebo band, which performed a style of music officially and unfortunately known as “Jizz.” Before George Lucas tinkered with the music in the Special Editions of 1997, Max’s band played an experimental, quirky, synth-driven song called “Lapti Nek” for the denizens of Jabba’s palace. Lucas’ replacement was a rather hectic tune (with apparently bawdy lyrics) named “Jedi Rocks.”

Whichever version you prefer, Max Rebo was the clear breakout star of the Jabba’s palace scenes. An adorable blue elephantine creature who hammered away on a primitive form of keyboard, Max stole the show from his lead singer, the stick-legged Sy Snootles. According to Lucasfilm, Max signed what may be the worst music deal in the history of any galaxy; his band would perform for Jabba for life and get nothing more than free food in return.

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But once Jabba was killed on that sail barge, what was next for Max Rebo’s band? The Book of Boba Fett offers something of an answer. Max is seen playing at another cantina in Jabba’s former empire. Sy Snootles and the rest of the band are nowhere to be seen.

But who’s that performing next to Max? A Bith musician who may very well be a member of the Modal Nodes, perhaps even band leader Figrin D’an himself. If so, he seems to have branched out from his traditional horn to some kind of space mandolin. The Modal Node connection is made clear by the fact that they appear to be performing a smooth acoustic version of the classic New Hope cantina music, featuring an astromech droid on drums (thankfully, it seems we’re long past the days when droids were routinely banned from Tatooine cantinas).

Could this be an indication that Tatooine’s two most famous musicians have united to form a new supergroup? How acrimonious was the breakup of their former bands? Did Sy Snootles go solo? Are they working on new material, or merely reworking the old cantina classics? This too is the strength of Star Wars: Even the unexpected reappearance of background characters leads us to intriguing new mysteries. Here’s hoping Book of Boba Fett answers them in later episodes.

Just like any other year since the advent of smartphones, in 2021 we all spent way too much time looking at apps. Now, at least, we have some data telling us which apps were the most popular over the past calendar year.

Apptopia, an analytics firm, released its annual app download rankings to close out the year and, to be honest, there aren’t many surprises to be found here. It turns out the apps that people talk about the most are also the ones that people download the most. However, there are separate lists for downloads worldwide and in the United States, providing at least some interesting differences. 

For clarity, this data includes both iOS and Android downloads. Here were the most popular apps in 2021 globally:

1. TikTok

2. Instagram

3. Facebook

4. WhatsApp

5. Telegram

6. Snapchat

7. Zoom

8. Messenger

9. CapCut

10. Spotify

Again, there’s nothing especially shocking on that list. TikTok being the biggest app of 2021 is a no-brainer, while most of the rest are mainstays like Facebook, Snapchat, and Spotify. The only one that stands out is CapCut, a standalone video editing app that some TikTok users use to cut together their videos before posting them on the TikTok app. CapCut’s owner? That’s right, it’s ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok. 

As for the U.S., things are a little different just because of course they are. Here’s how things shook out in the states:

1. TikTok

2. Instagram

3. Snapchat

4. Cash App

5. Zoom

6. Messenger

7. Facebook

8. WhatsApp

9. YouTube

10. HBO Max

As you can see, TikTok reigns supreme stateside as well. Apparently we like moving money around between individuals more in America because Cash App made it onto our top 10. The same might be said for streaming, as YouTube and HBO Max made the list as well. Interestingly, Netflix and Disney+ (both on last year’s U.S. list) were bumped in favor of HBO Max this time around. But when you slice the data by entertainment apps across the globe, Netflix was at the top with HBO Max placing seventh. HBO Max topped the most downloaded entertainment app list for U.S. users, but Netflix took silver there.

The real lesson here is that you pretty much can’t escape TikTok at this point no matter where you go. If you live in a place where people download smartphone apps, TikTok is most likely going to be king there. We’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s good or not.

For young people, 2021 was a year of Y2K fashion and vintage tech nostalgia.

Gen Z did what young people do best: pick the most iconic accessories and trends of the past and bring them back into style. Forgotten fashion moments like yoga pants and claw clips came to the forefront of pop culture this year thanks to TikTok, a platform that allows cyclical style trends to proliferate and become mainstream again.

With a little help from Emma Chamberlain, Olivia Rodrigo, and an unwavering nostalgia for simpler times, Gen Z brought back a slew of iconic tech and fashion accessories… much to the collective dismay of Millennials.

Here are my favorite things Gen Z brought back:

1. Wired headphones

A cheaper and cooler alternative to AirPods, wired headphones are the latest go-to tech accessory for style influencers. Although they largely became obsolete after AirPods came onto the scene in 2016, they had their comeback in 2021. Pioneered by “It” girls like Lily Rose Depp, Zoe Kravitz, Bella Hadid, and the Olsen twins, wired headphones exude a studied carelessness and have a nostalgic charm. They’ve become so synonymous with fashion “It” girls that there’s an entire Instagram account (@wireditgirls) dedicated to documenting “hot girls with wired headphones.”

SEE ALSO: Why Gen Z is plugging in wired headphones and tuning out AirPods

2. Yoga pants

Or should I say “flared leggings.” Yoga pants were the athleisure pant of choice in the ’90s and early 2000s, but fell out of fashion in the 2010s. Leggings and sweats emerged in place of yoga pants, but thanks to YouTuber and Gen Z fashion guru Emma Chamberlain, yoga pants are back. Now they’ve been rebranded as “flared leggings,” but it’s the same thing. Chamberlain styles her yoga pants with big crewneck sweatshirts and statement sunglasses, or dresses them up with Doc Martens and a turtleneck — and her loyal fans are following her lead.

3. Flip phones

Between TikTokkers encouraging young people to ditch their iPhones, trendy iPhone cases made to look like flip phones, and anti-social media Gen Z icons like Lorde, flip phones are making a comeback. Young people are attracted to both the Y2K aesthetics of flip phones, as well as what they represent: an alternate way of living that doesn’t involve seven-plus hours behind a screen.

SEE ALSO: Is Gen Z bringing flip phones back?

4. Uggs

If yoga pants are back, you already know Uggs are too. They’re a package deal. Emma Chamberlain also championed the return of Uggs. Chamberlain wore Ugg slippers in her “every outfit she wears in a week” video for Vogue and even titled one of her October vlogs, “ugg season.” Chamberlain wasn’t the only fashion icon spotted in Uggs this year. In January, models Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski stepped out in mini Uggs, and in April, Gigi Hadid was photographed in the iconic tall Uggs.

5. Emoji

Gen Z has embraced using emoji… ironically. Rather than using emojis in the cringey Millennial way, like overusing 😂, Gen Z has carved out their own digital language. They’ve repurposed 😭 and 💀 to mean laughing and embraced Apple’s newer less-established emoji. Additionally, young people are using Millennial coded emoji satirically and I’m finding it pretty funny.

SEE ALSO: Emoji helped me find my voice in our new remote reality

6. Butterflies

Butterflies are classic symbols of the Y2K era, and boy did they come back this year. Emanuel Ungaro’s iconic wrap-around butterfly top that Mariah Carey famously wore in 2000 had the internet in a chokehold more than two decades later. Dupes of the legendary top popped up all over digital marketplaces, and it was a staple of fashion TikTok. But the obsession with butterflies didn’t end there, Olivia Rodrigo embraced the trend by releasing a phone case with Casetify covered in butterflies, and she even wore the sequin-covered top for a magazine shoot. Not to mention, baby butterfly hair clips had their moment.

7. Camcorders

Like wired headphones and flip phones, camcorders are vintage tech from the not-so-distant past that Gen Z embraced this year. YouTubers like Chamberlain used camcorders from the ’90s to document their lives on the platform, giving their videos a nostalgic feel. Olivia Rodrigo even used a camcorder to film her “get ready for the Met Gala with me” video for Vogue‘s YouTube channel. Like flip phones, camcorders are not just relics of the past — they evoke a mood that modern tech just can’t replicate.

SEE ALSO: Why YouTubers are using vintage camcorders to feel something

8. Baguettes

Gen Z is nothing if not consistent. Sticking with the early 2000s nostalgia sweeping the internet, the aughts bag of choice, the baguette, is back in vogue. Baguettes are bags so small that they nestle just under your armpit if you wear them slung over your shoulder. Baguettes have been worming their way back into style since 2019, and this year anyone who is anyone was spotted with a tiny bag in tow.

9. Claw clips

Arguably the most practical accessory Gen Z resurrected this year, claw clips were all the rage for young people looking to keep their hair out of their faces while still looking fashionable. Like wired headphones, claw clips have an effortless cool-girl factor that made them the “It” accessory on TikTok. Claw clips were inescapable on the app, working their way into outfit of the days, hot girl tote bag videos, and hot girl bedside table videos. Plus, there are just so many options when it comes to claw clips. Do you want a boxy, neon claw? A classic acrylic? A chic matte-colored claw? The options are endless.

10. Pop-punk

This list wouldn’t be complete without a nod to the music Gen Z bumped this year. Olivia Rodrigo, WILLOW, and Machine Gun Kelly all released music this year inspired by pop-punk, which speaks to the angst we all felt in 2021. Who can blame them? It is brutal out there.

SEE ALSO: 2021 revived pop-punk. It makes perfect sense.

If you want to get your space fix without spending millions of dollars to be flung into the ether a la William Shatner, I have excellent news: It costs zero dollars to follow NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s trek to its final destination.

NASA launched the new $10 billion observatory into space on December 25, naming the tricky and difficult deployment process  “29 days on the edge.” You can track it at the NASA website dedicated to this mission, with details about its location, speed, temperature, and more. As of Wednesday, the telescope is over 355,000 miles away from Earth — which is equivalent to driving the length of the United States more than 120 times. It’s traveled almost 40 percent of its journey to its final orbit. It has unfurled its solar array, and completed two mid-course correction maneuvers, according to Space.com.

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In a positive turn of events, the telescope actually used less propellant than the team originally thought it would need. That means that Webb should have extra propellant, which will allow the observatory to stay in orbit for more than ten years — doubling the five-year minimum for the mission.

Webb is on its way to its orbit, which is nearly 1 million miles away from Earth. The telescope will support operations for years, helping scientists from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency to seek light from other galaxies, explore our own solar system, and check out exoplanets.

“The James Webb Space Telescope represents the ambition that NASA and our partners maintain to propel us forward into the future,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release. “The promise of Webb is not what we know we will discover; it’s what we don’t yet understand or can’t yet fathom about our universe. I can’t wait to see what it uncovers!”

Back in April, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the association that puts on the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), optimistically announced that CES would go forward in 2022. Hooray?! 

But COVID, of course, said: Not so fast.

With the Omicron COVID variant spreading throughout the world, thousands of people gathering in windowless Las Vegas convention centers during the first week of January to salivate over canapés and the latest gadgets sounds like not the greatest idea. That’s especially true considering that some think CES 2020 was an early coronavirus super-spreader event. 

Some major exhibitors apparently agree. Over the last week, multiple big name tech companies have decided to forsake their Vegas trips and “attend” CES virtually. Meanwhile others like Panasonic will be shifting to virtual events but plan to still have limited on-site staffing.

“Due to the large group of participants and the different country-specific regulations, a solid, safe and harmless implementation for all participants is unfortunately not feasible in the current situation,” a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson said in a statement.

The CTA has mandated mask wearing and that attendees show proof of COVID vaccines to enter. It will also be providing free COVID tests. Regarding the cancellations, the CTA’s response has been that they are not that significant considering that there are over 2000 exhibitors, and there had “only” been 42 cancellations, as of Tuesday. 

But when those cancellations include the likes of heavy hitters like Microsoft, the “everything is fine” stance rings a little hollow. 

Mashable decided against attending CES in-person from the get-go, and multiple media organizations have also dropped out in recent days — despite receiving emails from the CTA over the last eight months with subject lines like “Excitement Builds for CES 2022 as Confirmed Exhibitors Surpass 2100.” Excitement builds, indeed.

CES going ahead under the shadow of Omicron is a real bummer for smaller companies that might be hoping to get their start at CES. Not everyone can afford to just cut their losses and cancel a planned in-person presence. But hopefully, COVID precautions and fewer attendees will lead to a safer conference for everyone. 

Here are the major companies that have dropped out of CES in-person events. We’ll be updating this list, so check back for the latest.

• Google

• Amazon

• Lenovo

• Microsoft

• Intel

• AMD

• MSI

• AT&T

• OnePlus

• Meta/Facebook

• Twitter

• T-Mobile (limited attendance)

• Pinterest 

• General Motors

• Procter & Gamble

• Velodyne Lidar

• Panasonic

• Mercedes Benz

UPDATE: Dec. 29, 2021, 12:45 p.m. PST This post has been updated with information about Panasonic and Mercedes-Benz, which confirmed to Mashable they would not be participating in-person at CES.

Take a 15-year-old fandom, add in a heap of meme-based absurdist comedy, and place a 20-year-old who’s never read the source material at the helm. That’s Shaiann Alger’s Twilight fan account.

Without being a part of Twilight fandom, knowing the inside jokes, major characters, or fun facts, Alger’s created a landing space for its enthusiasts, and her profile is just the latest in successful “one-line-at-a-time” fandom accounts. 

“I know, generally, it’s about a vampire and werewolf, but I’ve never read it so I don’t know the exact details of the story,” she explained. 

One-line-at-a-time accounts like Alger’s use a pretty simple format. Pick a book, movie, or TV show, make an account on your favorite social media platform (usually Twitter or, now, TikTok), and start tweeting a single line, sentence, or quote at a similar time each day. Some accounts go chronologically through a screenplay or book, but others mix it up. Schedule the tweets to go up each day and boom! Instant community. 

These accounts live at the intersection of two social media trends — daily out-of-context accounts that share images from the internet’s favorite shows and movies, and repetitively reliable meme accounts that have turned social media posting into a precise, weekly formula. These accounts include the “Ladies and gentlemen, The Weekend” account that tweets a Daniel-Craig-hosting-SNL GIF every Friday, or the Russian Doll fan page that shares the same show image every Thursday.

For fans, one-line-at-a-time accounts serve as daily reminders of lifelong faves and yet another opportunity to commune with fellow obsessives, even as the source material ages and the fanbase dwindles. (Or maybe even convert some new fans). 

After 400 days of posts to @new_poop15, Alger isn’t even done with the first of Twilight‘s 25 chapters yet. (Her account’s name is a play on words referencing New Moon, the second book in the Twilight franchise.) Alger was inspired by fellow TikTok accounts doing the same thing for other cult favorite books, like user @sillyspence, who was reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone one sentence at a time. Her mom also played a part. “I was talking about maybe watching the movie and she was like, ‘Don’t watch the movie. Just read the book. The movie was really bad.'” 

As Alger can attest, one-line-at-a-time pages require consistency, tight schedules, and accuracy (the real fans know when you’ve missed a crucial sentence). 

“I’m kind of retelling Twilight in this slightly twisted, slightly unique way.”

Each of her videos, which have netted more than 29,000 followers and a collective 1 million likes, has a similar vibe. She introduces herself with a different meme-worthy name each day — “Hi. I’m the 50th Shade of Grey and this is day 390 of reading Twilight. One sentence at a time.” — reads a single line, and then gives the viewers an analysis or prediction for the rest of the story. And the viewers in the comment section play right along, guessing with her in playful ignorance. “I wonder if bella will ever be done with lunch or if she’ll just live in the cafeteria forever,” user @captainmorgs commented on the video from Dec. 19. “Haven’t checked in here in a while. Looks like we’ve made some progress. Very good,” wrote user @amberandthings. 

What keeps bringing me back is that for Alger, every sentence is a new, out-of-context piece of information. As a former Twihard and historical witness to the Twilight craze, it’s startlingly fun to watch someone read the book with fresh eyes. Alger’s account is like rediscovering a childhood favorite alongside thousands of friends. It’s a community of people who love the humor of pretending to not know that Edward and Bella end up in eternal love together, and also a group who crave a kind of nostalgia only found in our favorite youth-related media. It helps, too, that the Twilight franchise has found a resurgence online in the last couple years. 

And since she exists somewhere outside the fandom, Alger adds a refreshing spin to something that’s already been consumed and reproduced over and over again. “I try to come up with funny commentary after reading the sentence. And I usually take things very literally. Like when Bella ‘dropped her eyes’. She still hasn’t picked them up. They’re still on the floor,” Alger said. “I definitely think, in a way, I’m kind of retelling Twilight in this slightly twisted, slightly unique way.”

Similar one-line-at-a-time accounts have long taken over Twitter, including ones focused on the entire Twilight Saga. There are even separate script bots for each of the film adaptations — Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn: Part 1, and Breaking Dawn: Part 2. 

Popular bots also tweet multiple lines a day from the scripts of beloved, currently-running TV Shows like Ted Lasso and Succession. And the Lady Bird bot successfully tweeted every line from Greta Gerwig’s award-winning 2017 dramedy in August 2018. The bot was still tweeting lines from the movie in March 2021. 

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And social media is reinvigorating other old media, not just the meme-worthy. Take The Goldfinch bot, which posts a line from Donna Tartt’s 2013 novel The Goldfinch every four hours. The book was adapted into a highly-anticipated film in 2019, the same year the Twitter account was created, and it’s still trending among readers in TikTok’s book community two years later. 

In the same way The Goldfinch won’t leave BookTok recommendations, the last year of online Discourse™ was a cycle of younger generations rediscovering art and media beloved by the rest of us for years. Annoying to some, it’s a testament to the source material’s longevity. Teens obsessed with the online “dark academia” trend are introducing each other to the 1989 movie Dead Poets Society and Tartt’s other 1992 novel The Secret History — which is now the #9 most discussed book on Tumblr. LGBTQ kids are learning about cultural icons and discovering LGBTQ novels, like Madeline Miller’s greek myth retelling The Song of Achilles, published 10 years ago. The intensely dedicated The Song of Achilles bot, posts a quote from the book every single hour and has 24,000 followers. 

Some of the creators who run these accounts become characters to obsess over themselves, especially in TikTok’s universe — just ask the devoted dozen followers that interact with Alger’s videos everyday. 

“I really love the community of people that comment on my videos every day. It’s always so fun to see what they have to say about the sentence or about whatever joke for an intro I made that day,” Alger said. “It almost feels like they’re all just doing the same joke along with me, instead of me doing a performance for a bunch of people.”

The account’s comment section, even on days when only those loyal few are in attendance, remains humorous, light, and positive — hate comments and trolls are rare. There’s inside jokes, like the early Chevy truck “plot line” that dominated dozens of videos, the seven days Alger introduced herself as Beyoncé, or the running gag that she thinks Bella will end up with minor character Eric. 

New fans are joining old fans as Alger reads us one line a day from Twilight, now a 16-year-old book series. “I think I picked one of the best books I could have done for the series, just because it’s a book that everyone knows about. And like, people either really like it or really hate it. And I feel like my videos can capture both of those audiences,” Alger said. 

For some followers, her videos have also been constants in a time of uncertainty. 

During the pandemic, knowing that someone would post a video everyday of something I was already familiar with was a mental comfort and a sense of minute control. Fans can rely on one-line-at-a-time accounts to offer the same brand of content everyday, about a topic they already love.

“Not all my videos will make it on the For You Page. So people are going out of their way to go to my channel and leave a comment, which is about the same amount of work I do for my videos every day,” she said. “It always made me really happy to know that I was kind of helping them by just being some sort of anchor, some sort of thing that happens every single day.”  

Her followers have done the math — it’ll take her 33 years to finish Twilight at the rate she’s currently going. But most seem undeterred. The account will run until Alger decides it’s over, or TikTok dies just like its predecessor Vine, or the world ends, whichever comes first. 

“I plan on reading the entire book right now. Something might happen, like I might die, and then I wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. But you know, assuming something like that doesn’t happen in the next 30 years, I can see myself finishing it. I can see it just becoming a thing that I do every day,” Alger said. I know, carrying on in my optimistic denial and fervent fandom, that I’ll still be there on day 12,386.