Author: openjargon

• I recently stayed in a beautiful, $827-a-night one-bedroom villa at Disney's BoardWalk Inn.
• The accommodations had a split bathroom, a full kitchen, a laundry area, and two sleeping areas. 
• We could walk to two Disney World theme parks and save money by cooking meals in the great kitchen. 

I've been going to Disney World for over 30 years, and I've been lucky to stay at every on-property hotel.

On a recent trip, my parents and I booked a one-bedroom villa at Disney's BoardWalk Inn using our Disney Vacation Club points. We pay an annual fee for a set number of travel points to use across the Disney property.

The flexible timeshare system has allowed us to stay in large villas located everywhere, from Orlando to Disney's resort in Hawaii. The standard-view villas at BoardWalk Inn typically cost about $830 a night, but three nights (two weekend days and one weekday) cost us 84 points.

Disney is refurbishing its BoardWalk Villas, a project that's estimated to be completed in 2025. But we were lucky enough to stay in a newly completed one.

Here's what it was like taking full advantage of everything the BoardWalk Inn offers.

The fun hotel is within walking distance of both Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

From the moment you walk in, the resort feels like a turn-of-the-century Atlantic City boardwalk.

I was able to check in on the My Disney Experience app a few days before my arrival, and my room was ready when I got to the resort around 1:30 p.m.

The lobby is grand, with miniature models of boardwalk rides, large carousel horses, and plenty of places to sit after a long car ride or plane journey.

The best part about staying here is having easy access to Epcot and Hollywood Studios via complimentary boat transportation or walking. We visited both parks while staying here.

Our recently refurbished villa was bright, spacious, and well-thought-out for families.

Our one-bedroom villa was clean and had a charming turn-of-the-century feel. Plenty of themed Mickey and Minnie artwork adorned the walls.

The entrance of the villa had a small foyer with a closet where we put our suitcases once we unpacked.

The entryway led into a large kitchen, dining room, and living room.

The kitchen and dining room were plenty big for my family to make a few meals while staying at the resort. We love to save money by cooking our breakfasts and lunches.

I loved that the kitchen had full-sized appliances, including a fridge/freezer, oven, stovetop, microwave, and dishwasher. There was also a coffee pot, toaster, and all the cooking utensils and serving ware we needed.

The dining space was plenty big for my family.

Just off the kitchen was the dining room, which had a table, two chairs, and bench seating. The table could easily fit four adults.

We ate our meals here, and at night, we played games while we watched the Epcot fireworks out the window.

Past the kitchen was the massive living room.

I loved the living room because it had ample storage for anyone who was sleeping on the Murphy bed (on this trip, me).

Across from the couch that pulled down into the bed, there was also a large TV and a chest of drawers.

The main bedroom was spacious and comfortable.

The main bedroom featured a comfortable king-sized bed.

Across from the bed was a chest of drawers and a TV.

The outdoor balcony ran the length of the room.

I loved that we could access the outdoor balcony from the living room and the bedroom.

The long outdoor space was adorned with a few chairs and a small bistro table. It was a great spot to enjoy my morning coffee.

From the balcony, I could see the Disney Skyliner gondolas, the front of the resort, and a nearby fountain.

Half of the bathroom is connected to the main bedroom.

One of the main reasons we booked a one-bedroom villa was because it had a split bathroom.

Off of the main bedroom, there was a room with a large tub and a vanity. This part of the bathroom could be closed from the bedroom.

Having a second bathroom area made getting ready in the mornings easier.

The second bathroom had a toilet and stand-up shower.

You could access this from the main bedroom or through the kitchen.

The resort has three pools.

I loved that there were three different pools at the resort.

The main pool is more family-centric, with a slide and a nearby bar. There were lifeguards on duty here.

One pool was tucked away from the rest of the resort but easy to find from our room.

Another pool was smaller and quieter, with plenty of shaded loungers. It did not have a lifeguard.

My family hung out by the quiet pool when we weren't in a park.

We never made it to the third pool on the opposite side of the resort from our room.

Outside, the Disney BoardWalk has plenty of entertainment and dining options.

The BoardWalk Inn is located on the Disney BoardWalk, a free dining and entertainment area.

Because we had a full kitchen, my family chose not to eat at any of the restaurants at the BoardWalk, but I have in the past.

One of my favorite places is AbracadaBar, which features a variety of drinks in a cool space themed like a magician's hideout.

Jellyrolls is also a popular spot for adults.

Jellyrolls is also a popular spot to hang out at the BoardWalk, especially on weekends.

The dueling piano bar often has a line to get in.

Overall, this was a great way to spend a few days at Disney World.

My parents and I loved our stay at Disney's BoardWalk Inn. The newly refurbished villas feel fresh and vibrant and provide all of the necessary amenities.

I loved being able to walk to Epcot to ride Remy's Ratatouille Adventure and Hollywood Studios to see "Fantasmic!"

I definitely plan on staying here again since we had such a good time — having two theme parks at your fingertips is just so ideal.

• Grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein's first Florida case were released this week.
• In 2006, prosecutors heard testimony that Epstein raped girls as young as 14, according to the documents.
• Epstein cut a deal for 1-and-a-half years in jail, with near-daily work release.

Grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein's first Florida investigation were released Monday.

They show prosecutors cut a lenient plea deal with the disgraced financier even after hearing testimony that Epstein had raped girls as young as 14 and paid them to recruit others.

A detective testified before a grand jury in 2006 that the Epstein investigation began the year prior when a woman reported her high school-aged stepdaughter had received $300 for "sexual activity" with a man in Palm Beach, the transcript shows.

The detective testified he interviewed another teenager who brought six friends to Epstein's house, explaining that "the more you did, the more money you made."

A third teen said in the transcript that she visited Epstein's house hundreds of times starting when she was 16 years old. She said she was paid $200 for nude massages and was given $1,000 when Epstein raped her, according to the transcript.

Even though police thought Epstein's crimes were more expansive, The Palm Beach Post reported State Attorney Barry Krischer made the unconventional choice to convene the grand jury behind closed doors and undermined his own case.

Krischer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

In 2008, Epstein struck a deal with prosecutors, dodging federal charges and pleading guilty to a lesser state charge. He was sentenced to 1-and-a-half years in jail and was allowed to leave six days a week on a work-release program.

The Palm Beach Post sued the government in 2019 to release the grand jury transcripts.

Epstein was ultimately arrested again in 2018 on wider federal sex trafficking charges after media reports drew attention back to the case.

He died by suicide in a New York jail at age 66, according to a Justice Department report that found jail officials botched Epstein's final hours by not monitoring his cell and skipping inmate check-ups.

Epstein's associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was also arrested and ultimately convicted of helping run the sex trafficking ring.

• Suspected spy bases linked to China are expanding in Cuba, per a US think tank.
• The Center for Strategic and International Studies found a new potential site near a US naval base.
• Cuba's proximity to the US gives China an intelligence window that is unreachable from its own land.

Potential spy bases believed to be linked to China have been found in Cuba, with one near the Guantánamo Bay US naval base, according to a report by the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

CSIS analysts looked at satellite imagery and open-source information and identified four "active" sites in Cuba that they say are capable of conducting electronic surveillance operations.

One of them is a previously undisclosed building located about 70 miles from the US naval facility in Guantánamo Bay, the report said.

"These four sites are among the most likely locations supporting China's efforts to spy on the United States," it said.

Last year, multiple news outlets — citing officials with knowledge of sensitive intelligence — reported that China wanted to set up a spy base in Cuba.

Two unnamed US officials told Politico at the time that Beijing and Havana were negotiating to build a station about 100 miles off the coast of Florida, possibly to gather signal information on military sites there.

Unnamed US officials also told The Wall Street Journal last year that China and Cuba had agreed in principle to a multibillion-dollar project for the development of the base.

CNN and The New York Times also reported on the agreement and planned facilities.

At the time, the Department of Defense and the White House pushed back on the reports.

An unnamed US official also told the Associated Press last year that China had been operating in Cuba since at least 2019.

China's spy bases in Cuba

CSIS analysts say they have located four bases on the island of Cuba: in Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay, and Calabazar.

The CSIS provided satellite imagery of each site from March and April 2024, showing how they had undergone upgrades over the past decade.

Bejucal, located south of Havana and identified by CSIS as the largest active Cuban facility, has seen the building of a "mysterious" new radome that CSIS believes may include a radar or ELINT device.

Meanwhile, in Wajay, a compound has "gradually" expanded over the past two decades, from just one antenna and several small buildings in 2002 to 12 antennas of various sizes and orientations, significant operations and support facilities, and even a small solar farm, it said.

Calabazar, a small Cuban military complex, now has two visible pole antenna arrays and more than a dozen dish antennas of various sizes dispersed across a gated area, images suggest.

The antennas' number, position, and direction have shifted significantly, likely in response to changes in the site's mission, the report said.

CSIS analysts also uncovered a new, previously unreported installation in El Salao, south of Cuba, near Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, a vital US military base in the region.

"These are active locations with an evolving mission set," Matthew Funaiole, a senior fellow at the China Power Project at CSIS and the report's chief author, told The Wall Street Journal.

A strategic location for spycraft

Some of the systems supposedly set up in Cuba, notably antennas, can gather intelligence by intercepting signals — a practice known in the defense community as signals intelligence, or SIGINT.

These systems' capacities and functions are determined by their size, quantity, orientation, and arrangement, per the CSIS report.

Cuba's proximity to the US provides China with a "significant" intelligence window that is inaccessible from Chinese territory, the CSIS report said.

The White House and the Pentagon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to provide a statement.

• Silversea invited me on a complimentary five-night cruise on its new 728-guest ship, Silver Ray. 
• The ship's cheapest 2024 itinerary is a seven-day cruise for $4,550 per person.
• See all the amenities wealthy cruisers get on Silver Ray, from caviar room service to butlers.

Silver Ray is not where you go to watch travelers in their mid-20s drink cheap margaritas.

No. Silversea's new 728-guest ship is the cruise to go on when you want to be surrounded by 60-some-year-olds who enjoy Champagne, quiet vacations, and $180, 11-course dinners.

In mid-June, the ultra-luxury cruise line's latest and 12th vessel, Silver Ray, set sail on its maiden voyage. At 801 feet long and 54,700 gross tons, it's markedly larger than Silversea's previous ships. And with it, an equally large price tag, starting at $4,550 for a weeklong cruise in 2024.

A vacation that costs $650 per day might sound outrageous, but wait until you see the ship's amenities.

Silver Ray upholds Silversea's long-standing promises of good food, drinks, and service.

In an attempt to capture the next generation of wealthy cruisers, Silver Ray's design moves away from some "stereotypical" luxury ship elements — which Andrea Tonet, Silversea's vice president of product strategy, told reporters in mid-June includes being "very closed and, to some extent, also boring" — in favor of a modern yet understated flair.

The ship is filled with light, and the decor has stylish and contemporary sensibilities without being too unapproachable. Even the elevators have sweeping ocean views.

No need to fear dingy interior staterooms. Every cabin on Silver Ray has a balcony.

The ship's accommodations range from 357 square feet to 1,324 square feet.

The largest suite on Silver Ray, of which there are two, comes with a private hot tub, a library, and a starting cost of $17,000 per person.

However, even the smallest accommodations still have walk-in closets and marble bathrooms.

Most cruise lines offer butlers to guests who've booked the most expensive suites.

On Silversea's cruise ships, every guest has a butler who helps with tasks like booking restaurants, packing luggage, and setting up the dining table for room service caviar.

No need to stay in your cabin to indulge in fine cuisine.

Silver Ray has eight restaurants. Three — the French, Japanese, and chef's table — are up-charged. But if you can't resist a mid-day sushi and sashimi combo, the Japanese restaurant Kaiseki is complimentary during lunch.

It's not the only place that serves up lunchtime sashimi.

The lunch buffet also features raw fish of Kaiseki's quality, as well as stations of pasta, poached seafood, and freshly carved meats, for example.

In the morning, the breakfast buffet includes customizable smoothies blended to order, classic American breakfast items, and even congee.

In the evening, the dining room transforms into the Italian restaurant La Terraza, serving options like whipped mortadella with pecorino chips.

If you prefer more traditional cruise fare (think steaks and lobster tails), there's Atlantide.

But if you want a dinner experience akin to a jazz club, go to Silver Note. There, guests can dine on small plates of beef tenderloin and caviar while being serenaded by a jazz singer and pianist.

(Pro tip: If you forget to reserve a table at Silver Note, you can still enjoy the live music at the restaurant's bar.)

Like the buffet, Silver Ray’s alfresco dining room also wears several hats.

In the morning, the open-air restaurant serves relatively healthy breakfasts. The menu switches to pizzas, salads, and grilled fare during lunch.

In the evening, it transforms into a casual grill-it-yourself restaurant with tabletop hot rocks. Think Americanized Korean barbecue but with shrimp and steaks instead of bulgogi.

Guests in the mood for a more upscale dining experience can pay for La Dame and SALT Chef's Table instead.

For $160, travelers can dine on several courses of fine French cuisine at La Dame.

Or, for $180, they can book one of the 18 seats at the interactive SALT Chef's Table. The 11-course meal showcases regional dishes and ingredients — all plated in front of diners while the chef explains each small course.

During the day, Chef's Table is home to Silver Ray's complimentary cooking class, SALT Lab.

SALT — an acronym for "sea and land taste" — is one of Silversea's prized programs, putting cuisines local to the itinerary's region at the forefront of the cruise.

This means guests who sign up for the cooking class on a roundtrip Portugal cruise could learn to cook Portuguese tarts with almonds, for example.

There's also SALT Kitchen, a more approachable and complimentary answer to SALT Chef's Table.

SALT Kitchen gives guests a taste of local cuisine without a $180 fee.

The menu is divided into two halves: one that remains consistent throughout the cruise and one that changes almost every day depending on the destination.

After dinner, travelers can have a nightcap at the SALT Bar. As you might've guessed, the venue puts a boozy spin on the SALT mentality, leading to cocktails like dry sherry with mint and sparkling lemonade, as an example from the Portugal cruise.

(I promise this is the last SALT-themed venue.)

It's one of eight bars and lounges on the ship, which include a Champagne-focused one and another for whiskey and cigar enthusiasts.

Bars like Panorama Lounge have an alfresco seating area. But if you're in the mood for some live music, head inside the lounge or go to Dolce Vita, both of which have a small stage for entertainers like pianists and violinists.

The bars are a great antecedent to the entertainment at the two-floor, 370-seat Venetian Lounge theatre.

Expect the typical song-and-dance cruise shows on Silver Ray, although the theater also hosts lectures and entertainment reflective of the ship's destinations.

All of the lounges have non-alcoholic cocktails.

But if you want a truly sober experience, go to the Arts Café.

Many new mass-market cruise ships now have a Starbucks. But who needs the coffee chain when you have a café that serves latte art-embellished espresso drinks and tea from TWG Tea?

The observation lounge also has a brew-it-yourself coffee and tea station.

Like any luxury ship, the lounge has sweeping ocean views, literature, and board games like Monopoly and Pictionary.

If none of the books are catching your eye, look for the door to the hidden library. Inside, you'll find a twinkling ceiling reminiscent of Rolls-Royce's Starlight Headlining. It's the perfect, isolated place to curl up with a book and a cup of tea.

You might need that caffeinated pick-me-up after a few hours at the spa.

Massages start at $299 for 75 minutes, while the cheapest facial costs $199 for 50 minutes.

Feeling wrinkly? The spa also offers dermal fillers and Dysport injections.

But if you want to relax without paying, the sauna, steam room, and thermal pool are complimentary for all guests. It's a great way to unwind after a workout at the adjacent gym, supplied with Technogym equipment.

Like any traditional cruise, the largest pool is on an open-air deck.

But unlike most ships, the pool isn't surrounded by lounge chairs. Instead, it's off-centered and closer to the vessel's edge, giving swimmers a panoramic view of Silver Ray's surroundings instead of sunbathers' toes.

Cruise classics like a casino and shopping also appear on Silver Ray.

The casino is notably small. So, if you get bored there, you can spend your money on the stores' perfumes, jewelry, and Silversea merchandise.

But that's assuming you haven't already blown past your vacation budget just by booking the new vessel.

The cheapest Silver Ray cruise starts at $4,550 per person for a seven-day roundtrip sailing from Fusina, Italy, to destinations in Croatia and Italy.

If you want a fare inclusive of shore excursions, it'll be $5,000 per person. (For reference, a spokesperson for Silversea told Business Insider that a SALT cooking class excursion in Lisbon's Time Out Market would be about $219 per person.)

For an additional $1,500, Silversea will also organize your airfare and airport transformations.

But if all you want to do is wine, dine, and relax, the base fare will do. It may be steep, but that's the price of being on a ship filled with fresh-cut flowers, unlimited cocktails, and room-service caviar.

• Jill Biden has led efforts to counter concerns about Joe Biden's age after his shaky debate.
• The first lady is unlikely to join calls for her husband to step down, experts say. 
• A former advisor to Jill told the New York Times that she doesn't want to have her hand forced. 

Joe Biden's inner circle is working overtime to convince voters he has what it takes to be president, and the first lady is leading the charge.

Jill Biden — the president's wife of 47 years — responded to criticism of her husband's age at a Manhatten fundraiser on Friday, saying the 81-year-old is "not a young man."

"When he gets knocked down, Joe gets back up, and that's what we're doing today," Jill said, according to The Washington Post.

Speaking to Vogue magazine over the weekend, Jill said the family "will not let those 90 minutes define the four years he's been president. We will continue to fight."

Despite mounting pressure, Jill is holding her ground.

Michael LaRosa, a former advisor to Jill, told The New York Times that the couple's political partnership has been partly shaped by Biden bowing out of the 1988 presidential race.

It came after an investigation revealed that Biden lifted portions of a speech by United Kingdom Labour MP and Margaret Thatcher challenger Neil Kinnock. It led the media to suspect plagiarism.

"In 1987, she saw him be forced out by the press, pundits and polls, and it was really a scarring experience for both of them," LaRosa told the Times. "I think they learned from that experience and they weren't going to have their hands forced like they were in 1987."

Jill is unlikely to convince the president to drop out

According to a Politico report cited by Business Insider, Democrats close to Biden said his wife is the only person who could convince him to step down.

Katie Rogers, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, wrote in her new book that Jill has a strong influence on her husband's decision-making process.

In an excerpt from the book, titled "American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, From Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden," Rogers wrote that the first lady discouraged Biden from running for president in 2004 by walking into an aide meeting wearing a halter top that had the word "No" written on the stomach.

Andrew Payne, a lecturer in foreign policy at City University of London, told BI that Jill's support for her husband isn't unusual. He said the Biden family's first instinct has historically been "to encourage the president to double down, not tap out."

Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science at University College London (UCL), cautioned that voters should be mindful of speculation about the president and first lady's relationship.

"In public, it's expected that Mrs Biden will support her husband. Behind closed doors, we can only guess at what she's advocating," he said.

The Bidens are out of touch, experts say

Nadia Hilliard, a senior lecturer in US politics at University College London, told BI that Jill will play a "supportive and enabling" role as first lady.

However, she added that Jill and the wider Biden camp's unwavering support could be more harmful than helpful.

"It's possible the Bidens have surrounded themselves with 'yes men' and psyching themselves up to say, 'we can do this,' without being in touch with the millions of people saying, 'you have to step down,'" Hilliard said.

She said this mindset extends to the Democratic party, adding that many will automatically support Biden because of a "genuine fear" that the party doesn't stand a chance with a replacement nominee.

"There's a sense that if he withdraws, Trump wins. That would be a disastrous move," she said.

The Biden campaign downplayed Biden's performance on Thursday, branding it as insignificant in the long run.

Jen O'Malley Dillon, Biden's top campaign strategist, said any drop in the polls after the debate would be due to an "overblown media narrative," according to The New York Times.

The president's deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, told staff that "nothing fundamentally changed about this election" after the debate, the outlet said.

Payne agrees with Hilliard's argument, saying there's a broader question of "whether the president actually should be listening primarily to his inner circle at this stage."

"Many have blamed his advisors for the poor debate performance in recent days, claiming that efforts to shield the president's apparent frailty from the public contributed to the blowback he is now experiencing," Payne said.

"To win in November, the president needs to bring along a diverse range of donors, political elites, and, ultimately, voters. His family will be with him to the end.

"Whether the others will remains to be seen."

• Becca Kufrin starred on "The Bachelorette" in 2018
• She's been engaged to three men she met through the franchise.
• She says she's always felt loved by her husband Thomas Jacobs.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Becca Kufrin. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My love life hasn't been simple. I was the winner of "The Bachelor" in 2018 and said yes when Arie Luyendyk Jr. asked me to marry him. After he broke my heart on screen, I became "The Bachelorette" later that year and got engaged to Garrett Yrigoyen. When we broke up two years later, I appeared on "Bachelor In Paradise." That's where I met my current husband, Thomas Jacobs, who I proposed to.

Despite the turmoil, I've always felt loved. I was very lucky growing up with a loving, supportive family. I've always had an abundance of love and kindness shown to me.

Luckily, when I met Thomas, I recognized that he was raised the same way. He showers love on me, which makes it easy to show that same love, support, patience, and kindness to our 9-month-old son, Benson.

I don't plan to talk with Benson about the shows

I probably won't talk to Benson about my time on the shows, really. Not that he'll probably care as he gets older — I'm assuming he'll find it more embarrassing than anything.

Instead, I want to teach him about relationships by example. Kids learn what they see, so I'm mindful of setting a good example. Benson will see that Thomas and I show each other respect, kindness, patience, and grace. In time, he's going to learn from that. Hopefully, he'll develop kindness and love for our family and the whole world.

I ditched my timeline and discovered myself

I wish I could go back and tell my younger self to ditch the timeline. It's easy to have goals for when you want to be married, have kids, buy a house, and all those things. But really, how that unfolds looks different for everybody. Go easy on yourself, go along for the ride, and let go of the pressure to check boxes.

When I was in my 20s, growing up in small-town Minnesota, I was so focused on finding a partner and settling down. I wanted to check all the boxes of what a traditional life should look like.

Instead, I found myself traveling and getting outside my comfort zone. I experienced so many different things. Because of that, I could focus more on myself, finding what I really wanted and what was going to fill me up, like travel. By the time I had a baby and married at 33, I felt like I knew myself.

I've had to learn how to embrace a little bit of mess

Becoming a mom was a lot harder than I expected. Everyone tells you that, but no one can prepare you for it. Just trying to keep a human alive was intense. I was so used to working from home and having autonomy, so bringing this little other human was a lot. So was navigating my body healing after birth and trying to breastfeed.

Before I had Benson I was so organized and tidy. I've had to let go of that a bit. I'm not sure how one child manages to produce so much mess. I'm constantly wiping down Benson's hands, face, and everything around him. I'm hoping maybe it will rub off on him, and he'll become a neat freak like Mom.

The last five years have been a whirlwind, but I'm excited for the next five. I want to bring Thomas and Benson to meet my family in Croatia. We were married in a courthouse ceremony, so I'm excited to have a bigger wedding celebration with family and friends. I want to have another baby, a sibling for Benson. I love adventure and can't wait to see what comes next.

• I took my first-ever cruise in February and realized cruising isn't for me.
• I had horrible weather and rough seas that left me feeling sick after the cruise.
• I don't want to roll the dice again, so I have no desire to go on another cruise.

I took my first-ever cruise in February and spent a week sailing around the Eastern Caribbean on the Royal Caribbean Wonder of the Seas.

Although I was hesitant to dive headfirst into a weeklong cruise, I figured a few days of sunshine in the middle of Minnesota winter would do me good.

Plus, cruises are as popular as ever — and I was curious to see if they actually lived up to the hype.

Well, my vacation wasn't so sunny after all, and I have zero desire to book another cruise.

The weather was awful — and we had to evacuate our first port

It rained on five of the seven days of my cruise, including all three port days.

So, we scrapped our plans to visit beautiful beaches on St. Thomas and St. Maarten and instead slogged through puddles to check out local shops.

We also had to evacuate early on our first port day at Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas due to an incoming storm.

My friend and I got in a couple of hours of cloudy beach time that day, but we headed back to the ship when it started sprinkling.

On our way back, Royal Caribbean announced we were leaving the island early. I appreciate the cruise putting our safety first, but I was still bummed.

We had unusually rough seas throughout the entire cruise

Having never been on a cruise, I had no idea what to expect in terms of motion and whether I'd get sea sick.

My doctor prescribed a scopolamine patch as a precaution to prevent sea sickness, but I had a negative reaction to it and had to remove it. Still, I figured I'd be fine since Wonder of the Seas is a large ship, and I'd heard you don't feel as much movement on larger ships.

Well, I felt a lot of movement. And I wasn't alone.

Because we experienced some rougher seas, we felt more motion on the ship than is typical, according to conversations with seasoned fellow cruisers on board and comments from the captain.

One night it was so bad that many of us had trouble walking in a straight line down the hallway. Thankfully, other than a couple of hours of nausea I attribute to too much wine and not enough food, I didn't get sick to my stomach.

But that weird sensation of swaying and rocking got to me.

Motion sickness followed me home

Unfortunately, I could still feel some rocking and swaying after we disembarked. Even after returning home, the feeling didn't go away.

My brain knew I was on solid ground, but I felt like I was still on the cruise ship battling rough waves.

As it turns out, I'd developed "land sickness," also known as mal de débarquement syndrome, where you feel as though you're still swaying on the ship once you get off.

Although it's somewhat rare, it's a form of reverse motion sickness that can last for months or even years after a cruise (or other triggering event).

So far, anti-nausea medication and ginger ale haven't helped much.

As I sit and write this over two weeks later, I'm still rocking, swaying, and bobbing. Although I'm slowly getting better, it's definitely not fun.

I'm avoiding cruises from now on

I had some great laughs with friends on board despite the rough seas and lack of sunshine. A lot of what I experienced probably isn't the norm and maybe I was just unlucky.

But considering I wasn't even sailing during hurricane season in the Caribbean, I don't want to roll the dice again and try another sailing.

One bad experience culminating with motion sickness on dry land is enough to make me want to avoid any cruises in the future.

This story was originally published on March 22, 2024, and most recently updated on July 2, 2024.

• Donald Trump is using his broad new immunity powers to fight his hush-money conviction.
• A July 11 sentencing will be pushed back to a yet-determined date as both sides argue over a possible retrial.
• Prosecutors say Trump's efforts are "without merit," but they are agreeing to a brief delay.

Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday agreed to delay Donald Trump's hush-money sentencing, saying that they need time to fight his efforts to overturn his conviction in the wake of Monday's Supreme Court immunity ruling.

"Although we believe defendant's arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request for leave to file" a challenge to the May 30 conviction, prosecutors wrote in a letter to the sentencing judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

The defense has asked Merchan's permission to file a formal challenge of conviction by July 10 — just one day before Trump's original July 11 sentencing date.

"We respectfully request a deadline of July 24, 2024 — two weeks after defendant's requested deadline — to file and serve a response" to Trump's arguments, prosecutors wrote Merchan on Tuesday.

A firm schedule for filings, and a new sentencing date, will likely be set soon, once Merchan agrees to let Trump challenge the verdict, a formality the judge may grant later Tuesday.

This is a breaking story; please check back for developments.

• Scientists have debated for years about what's going on with Earth's inner core.
• A new study offers compelling evidence that the inner core reversed direction and is slowing down. 
• The shift happened in 2010, but it's unclear what triggered it or when the core will change back.

One of the key questions plaguing Earth scientists this past decade is "What's going on down there?"

Below your feet, about 3,400 miles down, is Earth's inner core. It's nearly as large as the moon, as hot as the surface of the sun, and helps maintain the planet's magnetic field that shields us from cell-obliterating cancer-inducing space radiation.

In the last decade, scientists have been getting some unusual data about the inner core's behavior — data that suggests its rotation is going a little haywire.

The data implies that in 2010, the inner core reversed its rotational direction compared to the Earth's surface — a phenomenon called backtracking. Now, the inner core is rotating more slowly than before the shift.

There's no risk of a cataclysmic disaster of dead birds falling from the sky or skin-blistering sunburns in seconds, like in the 2003 blockbuster "The Core." The most we might experience on the surface is a minuscule lengthening in our days as rotation slows, but the change would be so small — we're talking milliseconds — that we probably wouldn't even notice.

New study may settle backtracking debate

Scientists aren't even sure what's really going on down there. It's not like we can crack the planet open and examine it.

Backtracking also hasn't happened in the last 40 years, so the possibility of such a massive object undergoing such an extreme change has been more a topic of debate than a scientific certainty.

But a recent study offers a new way of looking at the data that could help settle the debate. The research team behind the study even goes so far as to say they have the "most definitive evidence" yet that the inner core is, indeed, backtracking and moving more slowly.

"We're showing that it really does happen when about half the community didn't believe any of these studies for a while," John Vidale, a researcher involved with the study and dean's professor of Earth sciences at the University of Southern California, told Business Insider.

Proving the inner core is backtracking

The research team analyzed and compared seismograms from over 100 repeating earthquakes that occurred between 1991 and 2023 in the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Repeating earthquakes are seismic events with nearly identical magnitudes that occur in almost the exact same location, along the same fault. Seismic energy is one of the few ways we can study the inner core because the energy waves can travel from the surface, through the mantle, to the core, and back again, where scientists can detect and measure it.

Vidale and the team looked at how well the seismograms from repeating earthquakes correlated with one another.

"We can see changes in the waveforms of the seismograms as the inner core moves," Vidale told BI.

Their approach offers "the most definitive evidence so far," that backtracking is happening, the team reported in a paper published June 12 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

Typically, scientists measure the time differences between seismic waves and how long it takes them to travel to the core and back. This can help map the core's position and how it changes over time. But it comes with a lot of guesswork around the inner core's structure, "and we don't really know the structure down there that well," Vidale told BI.

The team's new method doesn't require that kind of guesswork because they were simply looking at how well the seismograms matched up.

However, even if we can say with more certainty that the inner core is backtracking and slowing down, it's difficult to calculate an exact speed of rotation or what's causing the shift in the first place.

More likely than not, the inner core's behavior has to do with some sort of drag or friction with the outer core or gravitational influence from Earth's mantle, the researchers reported in the paper.

Whatever the reason, there's still a lot we have to learn about the massive object churning beneath our feet.

• A new report details how Biden had long been in a cocoon before his disastrous debate performance.
• Top aides reportedly have to be careful about what they tell Biden — for fear of setting him off.
• "It's very difficult, and people are scared shitless of him," said a top aide.

In the wake of President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance, top White House aides are starting to open up — albeit anonymously — about how things got to this point.

According to POLITICO, one key explanation is that the president is in a cocoon, surrounded by a tight circle of top aides who keep him isolated in an effort to manage public perceptions of the 81-year-old president.

That reportedly includes tightly managing the information that the president receives in his daily briefing in an effort to avoid triggering a negative reaction from him.

"It's like, 'You can't include that, that will set him off,' or 'Put that in, he likes that,'" a senior administration official told the outlet. "It's a Rorschach test, not a briefing. Because he is not a pleasant person to be around when he's being briefed. It's very difficult, and people are scared shitless of him."

"He doesn't take advice from anyone other than those few top aides," the official added. "It becomes a perfect storm because he just gets more and more isolated from their efforts to control it."

White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates denied that information was being curated to avoid upsetting Biden in a statement to POLITICO.

But the perception of a relatively restricted White House is apparently shared by other Democratic officials outside the building.

"I think the Biden team is pretty insular and doesn't really care what anybody says," a senior House Democrat told the outlet.

The report went on to detail how Biden's relative insularity developed in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was still raging when the president first took office. At the time, social distancing and relative isolation were simply unavoidable.

While many Democrats have been thrown into a state of panic in the wake of Biden's debate, the president and his team have largely hunkered down.

While there may be significant risks to continuing into the November election with Biden at the top of the ticket, there are also potential risks to replacing him, including the possibility of chaotic infighting ahead of the Democratic convention.