An unusual school year has started in earnest, and with it has come the return of digital proctoring programs. This is software that can lock down students’ computers, record their faces and scan their rooms, all with the intention to thwart cheating. These programs, with names like ProctorU and Proctorio, first raised alarms about privacy…
There are many uncanny elements to life during the pandemic, though many of them (Zoom classes, FaceTime births, D.J. sets on Instagram Live) have become almost normal over the last six months. The virtual audience thing, however, is still a work in progress. Sports arenas and TV studios have tried to recreate the experience of…
The risk of coronavirus transmission is lower for outdoor than for indoor dining in almost every case, and the safest course of all is staying at home. But if you do decide to eat inside a restaurant, try to go at an hour when it’s less crowded. Before you sit down, take a quick look…
New Yorkers will be able to eat inside restaurants on Wednesday for the first time since March, and the word that best sums up my feelings about it is: Yikes! The thought of eating inside an actual dining room does not have me cowering under the covers the way it did six months ago, when…
After months of enduring a dearth of protective medical gear and staggering death tolls from the coronavirus pandemic, nursing home operators and employees across the United States experienced something close to elation as rapid-result test machines paid for by the federal government began arriving last month at 14,000 residential facilities that serve the elderly. The…
People whose mothers had diabetes before or during pregnancy have an increased risk for heart disease as young adults, new research suggests. The risk was apparent both for children of mothers with pre-existing Type 2 diabetes and for children whose mothers developed gestational diabetes during pregnancy. The study, in the journal CMAJ, included 293,546 people…
In a pandemic, it’s hard to tell when, and if, to break up. Are you frustrated with him because it’s the apocalypse, or are you frustrated with him because you’re incompatible? That’s a hard thing to parse. You started dating that person for a reason, but things have changed. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s them.…
Credit…Louise Hagger Credit…Louise Hagger In “Coconut & Sambal” (Bloomsbury, $35), Lara Lee, a chef living in London, explores her Indonesian roots, using her grandmother’s cooking as a jumping-off point. (Ms. Lee’s mother is Australian, and her father Chinese-Indonesian.) There are classic dishes: a chicken satay with a spicy peanut sauce, a beef rendang bubbling away…
Following my most recent column offering adults a 2020 back-to-school list for teens’ emotional well-being, several teenage commenters asked that I address them in the same way that I address their parents: “as intelligent people who have the tools to support themselves and their loved ones through this trying time.” Dear teenagers, you are right.…
William Pedersen spent much of his distinguished architecture career designing sleek, towering skyscrapers that stand out among crowded urban landscapes. Several of the world’s tallest buildings came from the drawing boards of his prolific firm, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. But when it came to building his own home — a weekend retreat on the east…