All posts tagged: narrative

Pieced Together review – poignant narrative game gathers bittersweet fragments of a friendship | Games

Pieced Together review – poignant narrative game gathers bittersweet fragments of a friendship | Games

Published by Sam Flores

There are few things sadder than the end of a close friendship. Whether it happens in a sudden moment of betrayal or after years of gradual separation, the feelings of loss can stay with you for a lifetime. This is the theme of Pieced Together, a quiet, charming narrative game about best pals Connie and Beth, who meet at school in the 1990s and form an immediate, seemingly inseparable bond. Through the ingenious medium of an interactive scrapbook, we play as Connie, glueing in photos, notes and memories of her friend after years of separation. The game begins with several attempts to write Beth a letter, before we cut-out, stick and sort the story of their lives together. The scrapbook process is divided into chapters of Connie’s life. She moves to a new area with her mum, and this is marked through photos of a moving van, a good luck card, a label with “Connie’s stuff” written on it that was stuck on a box full of her things. You place these items on the …

Developer’s Honest Assessment of AI at Work Rattles the Official Narrative

Developer’s Honest Assessment of AI at Work Rattles the Official Narrative

Published by José Betancourt

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images A veteran programmer shared his brutally honest opinions about AI’s role in the workplace, and it’s as much an indictment of the tech as it is of the organizations lazily deploying it. In an X rant that’s being praised in online programming circles, the programmer, Dax Raad, said that what’s holding back software companies isn’t the speed they’re able to churn out code, but the quality of their ideas — an issue AI isn’t going to solve, despite the industry’s fixation on emphasizing its supposed ability to supercharge productivity. “Your org rarely has good ideas. Ideas being expensive to implement was actually helping,” wrote Raad, whose own company OpenAuth sells AI tools. And workers aren’t using AI to be ten times more effective, he continued; instead, “they’re using it to churn out their tasks with less energy spend.” Worse yet, the “two people on your team that actually tried are now flattened by the slop code everyone is producing, they will quit soon.” “Even when you …

The Weak Dollar Narrative | ZeroHedge

The Weak Dollar Narrative | ZeroHedge

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, We have spent a lot of time over the last year debunking “narratives,” which are dangerous to investors, as “narratives” create a rationalization for overpaying for assets. Nonetheless, Wall Street loves a simple story and is happy to jump on a trend with momentum, selling products to unwitting consumers. A good example of that lately has been the “weak dollar” narrative, which has pushed investors to chase foreign assets. The negative correlation between a weak dollar and rising international stock exposure appears to be a free return. Unsurprisingly, the story spreads fast because performance charts look clean during a dollar slide. Reuters recently reported that the US dollar hit a four-year low in late January after President Donald Trump said the “value of the dollar” was “great.” Reuters tied the move to rate cut expectations, policy volatility, and concerns about fiscal deficits and central bank independence. However, in reality, President Trump was more correct than not, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed the dollar trading at a more “neutral level,” as shown below. There are two very important points to take away …

Next Narrative Africa Fund Founder Akunna Cook on Why Hollywood Needs an Africa Strategy

Next Narrative Africa Fund Founder Akunna Cook on Why Hollywood Needs an Africa Strategy

Published by Daniella Wilson

Akunna Cook found her way to the entertainment sector via an unconventional path. A former career Foreign Service officer who served in China, South Africa and Baghdad before returning to Washington to work on U.S.–Africa policy under President Biden, she first arrived on a Hollywood studio lot thanks to public policy. Working alongside President Obama on an initiative to weave policy issues into mainstream entertainment, she helped shepherd otherwise wonky subjects into hit shows — such as gerrymandering subplots in Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal and Kenya Barris’ Black-ish. Her later work in government further exposed her to the accelerating growth of Africa’s media industries, where she championed the reclassification of entertainment exports as strategic assets essential to a nation’s soft power. With the youngest population of any continent and more than 60 percent of Africans under 25, Cook argues that the region represents a demographic force poised to shape global media consumption, political influence and economic growth in the decades ahead. Those convictions led her, after leaving government, to found the Next Narrative Africa Fund (NNAF), a $50 million …

The Reflation Narrative | ZeroHedge

The Reflation Narrative | ZeroHedge

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmnentAdvice.com, The market got off to a strong start in 2026, with investors chasing industrials, materials, and commodity-related stocks as the reflation narrative gained traction. The “reflation narrative” is the belief that a range of policies will boost the rate of economic growth in the U.S. without triggering inflation. As I discussed at our recent 2026 Investment Summit, the markets are banking on the effects of the passage of the OBBBA, tax cuts, and deregulation to fuel earnings and profit growth in 2026. Furthermore, the markets are focused on the Federal Reserve with expectations of further rate cuts and easing of monetary policy. All of these actions aim to increase consumption, investment, and employment, which in turn will increase wages and corporate revenues. Over the last few months, the reflation narrative has re-emerged. After years of tightening by global central banks to tame post-pandemic inflation, the focus has started to shift. Inflation has moderated in the U.S., and growth remains positive, albeit soft in some sectors. Policymakers and market participants are watching …

With new book, Sikh researcher hopes to shift the narrative on the Tenth Guru

With new book, Sikh researcher hopes to shift the narrative on the Tenth Guru

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — In the Sikhi tradition, 10 revered leaders established aspects of the faith over two-and-a-half centuries. Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th in the lineage, installed the final, eternal guide in the Guru Granth Sahib, the essential scripture to almost 30 million Sikhs worldwide.  In time for the 350th anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh’s coronation, Harinder Singh, a senior fellow at the Sikh Research Institute, explores the life of the last Guru in his book “Guru Gobind Singh Sahib: Life, Vision & Wisdom,” released late last year. Working with a calligrapher and graphic designer, Harinder Singh combines poetic text, original art and a contemporary translation of original manuscripts and secondary texts written by the Guru’s court poets — Bhai Nand Lal Goya in Persian, and Chandra Sain Sainapati in Braj and old Punjabi. Harinder Singh also situates the Tenth Guru as “the first diaspora guru,” he said in a January interview. Born outside of Punjab and shaped by civilizations across South Asia, the Guru’s life modeled how to meet cultural conflict “not with otherness, but …

‘False narrative’: Families challenge Trump’s 75-country US visa suspension | Donald Trump News

‘False narrative’: Families challenge Trump’s 75-country US visa suspension | Donald Trump News

Published by Sam Flores

Washington, DC – A group of United States citizens and immigrant rights bodies has launched a lawsuit seeking to challenge the sweeping suspension of immigrant visa processing for 75 countries by the administration of President Donald Trump. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, argues that the Trump administration has relied on a false narrative to justify the visa processing suspension, one of the most substantial restrictions on legal immigration in the country’s history. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The lawsuit charges that the policy “constitutes an unlawful nationality-based ban on legal immigration and a new set of discriminatory, unlawful public charge rules that strips families and working people of the process guaranteed by law”, according to a case overview by the National Immigration Law Center, which is among the groups supporting the legal challenge. The sprawling 106-page complaint further alleges that the administration relies “on an unsupported and demonstrably false claim that nationals of the covered countries migrate to the United States to improperly rely on cash welfare and are likely to become …

David and Victoria Beckham planning to ‘change the narrative’ with huge Spice Girls announcement – exclusive

David and Victoria Beckham planning to ‘change the narrative’ with huge Spice Girls announcement – exclusive

Published by Daniella Wilson

Although the Beckhams have never been strangers to the spotlight, Victoria and David are currently facing more scrutiny than ever before, which insiders now say could lead to the Spice Girls announcement we’ve all been waiting for.  There have been rumours of a rift in the famous family in recent months, with tensions mounting last week following Brooklyn Beckham’s scathing 800-word statement on Instagram, accusing his parents of “controlling narratives” and attempting to “bribe” the 26-year-old into “signing away the rights” to his name. The former England captain, 50, and the Spice Girl-turned fashion designer, 51, have remained silent amid the “worst crisis they have ever faced”, but those close to the couple have now suggested they could be planning to “change the narrative” with a bombshell Spice Girls reunion. “Understandably, David and Victoria are distraught and wish they could have resolved thisprivately. Brooklyn has opened up a whole Pandora’s Box,” a family friend told HELLO!. “This has only just begun. For now, they intend to maintain a dignified silence on any specifics, but it’s heartbreaking …

Trump Slams Davos Elites Over “Green New Scam” As Climate Crisis Narrative Falls Apart

Trump Slams Davos Elites Over “Green New Scam” As Climate Crisis Narrative Falls Apart

Published by Jenni Sidey

President Trump used his time at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to denounce the globalists’ disastrous “Green New Scam” policies that have caused degrowth in parts of the West and helped spark an energy crisis with soaring power prices. “You’re supposed to make money with energy, not lose money. Here in Europe, we’ve seen the fate that the radical left tried to impose on America,” Trump told the elites in Davos. The Climate Hoax was created by the WEF Losers and President Trump just called them out to their faces. “The United States avoided the catastrophic energy collapse which failed every European Nation that pursued the Green New Scam…perhaps the greatest hoax in History…” pic.twitter.com/Pq5mNDUKk6 — Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) January 21, 2026 Just a few years ago, Davos elites were betting big on solving their made-up climate crisis, which was used to loot taxpayers by diverting public funds into risky green energy companies and climate NGOs. But with Trump restoring common-sense energy policies centered on reliable fossil fuel power generation, and rolling back …

Narrative Control Made Easy: Us Versus Them

Narrative Control Made Easy: Us Versus Them

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, Those in charge of narrative control are suffering from the delusion that they’re making sense. Everything is under control until it isn’t. The name of the game in controlling the populace is narrative control, the current term for setting the context, priorities and agenda so the populace complies without being aware they’ve been bamboozled into accepting a system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. The easiest way to control the narrative is to establish the false choice of an either-or binary: Us versus Them. This is easy because it bypasses our rational mind by tapping our hard-wired instinct to divide humanity into members of our group and Outsiders / Strangers who are potential threats until proven otherwise. As a general rule, our values, opinions and fealties stretch along a spectrum. We may have loyalties to values that are typically categorized as “conservative” or “liberal” and find no conflict between them. To control the narrative, all nuance and variability must be crushed into an all-or-nothing litmus test: if you disagree with even one …