Author: Overcoming Adversity | Buteau’s Odyssey

Unlike gamification, where game elements are incorporated into real-world activities, the idea of serious games is to use entire games directly to solve serious problems. The most famous example is FoldIt, in which players fold virtual proteins, watching scores fluctuate as they try to achieve some scientific goal. In 2011, FoldIt players solved the structure of an enzyme that the AIDS virus needs to reproduce, enabling researchers to develop drugs that target it. If you ask me, the three most serious problems facing humanity today are climate change, wealth inequality, and political polarization. In that order. If we don’t solve…

There is something sacred about starting fresh with the new year. There is an air of hope and belief. Hope is something that is necessary for survival. Without hope, we have no motivation to move forward when facing life’s challenges. As a physician, researcher, and scientist, who has faced many health challenges over the past 12 years, the new year is a time of reflection. When I was misdiagnosed in 2013, I had to make tough decisions. I was an ER doctor who could no longer work the long hours required by this role. Since then, my body has progressively…

NFL Wild Card Weekend delivered a memorable slate of football, including four late comebacks from some of the league’s most exciting quarterbacks.Matthew Stafford, Caleb Williams and Josh Allen all delivered late-game heroics, as did Brock Purdy to knock out the reigning champions on Sunday. In the nightcap on Sunday, the Patriots advanced as Drake Maye improved to 1-0 in the playoffs. Then, the Texans dominated the Steelers.Here is where things stand after the Wild Card Round:Sound Smart: 8 Observations From NFL Wild Card WeekendNFL Playoff Bracket NFL Divisional Round MatchupsNFCSaturday on FOX, 8 p.m. ET: No. 6 49ers at No.…

I’m Thinking of Ending Things is structured around a man freezing to death inside a deserted high school after a lifetime of isolation. As his body shuts down, his mind begins replaying memories out of order. The film shows these memories as conversations and relationships that never fully settle into one version of reality. What we are watching is a life attempting to justify itself before it ends. The horror comes from how familiar this process feels. The man revisits moments where he imagined different outcomes and better versions of himself. His mind rewrites events in real time as regret…

When people talk about time, we rarely keep our hands still. We gesture backward when mentioning the past, forward when talking about the future, or sweep our hands sideways as if laying events out on an invisible timeline. These movements may feel automatic, but they reveal something profound about how the human mind understands time. Across languages and cultures, people use space to think about time. And our hands, quite literally, show us how. Why We Use Space to Talk About Time Time is abstract. We cannot see it, touch it, or point to it directly. Cognitive science has long…

The morning Sam was to return to school after the holidays, it was his dad’s turn to wake him up. Surprised to find an empty bed, he played a hunch and checked the downstairs coat closet, a retreat for an occasionally overwhelmed Sam. Bingo. Sam’s dad: “What’s up, Sam?” Sam: “I don’t like school and I don’t want to go.” Sam’s mom joined in: “Sam, you love school – your friends, your teacher…” Sam: “No, I don’t.” Parental pillow talk the night before had centered around what a wonderful, if busy, holiday the family had enjoyed, and how well the…

A24’s Mother Mary, arriving Spring 2026, is shaping up to be less a music drama and more a harrowing and spiritual reckoning. Directed by David Lowery (The Green Knight, 2021), the film stars Anne Hathaway as an untouchable pop icon whose private life fractures into something darker, stranger, and far more dangerous than her public image could ever allow.  Hathaway’s Mother Mary exists in two forms, and the trailer opens by introducing us to both. The first version is the version the world knows: luminous, ethereal, almost saintly beneath stage lights and beautiful makeup. But that illusion collapses quickly when…

“Hot off the record-setting resurrection of EVIL DEAD RISE, writer/director Lee Cronin turns to one of the most iconic horror stories of all time with an audacious and twisted retelling: LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY. The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace—eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare. The film stars Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, with Veronica Falcón. The film is written and directed by Cronin, and produced by James Wan, Jason Blum and…

Now the (postseason) fun begins.Super Bowl LX will take place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California — home of the San Francisco 49ers — on Feb. 8, 2026.Here are the odds for the NFL title game at DraftKings Sportsbook as of Jan. 11.This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.Super Bowl LX oddsSeahawks: +275 (bet $10 to win $37.50 total)Rams: +300 (bet $10 to win $40 total)Patriots: +550 (bet $10 to win $65 total)Bills: +600…

Over my decades of practice, seeing thousands of people who use donor conception to have their children, I have seen a steady increase in people who want to either co‑parent or who plan to use the sperm or eggs of someone they know and plan to call that person “mom” or “dad.” While I have seen many of these beautiful arrangements work out well, many have not. Unfortunately, it seems that we often mistake feeling good about something for “it will be good for us.” Perhaps that is why we choose donors based on their looks or personalities, even though…