A new Times quiz – The New York Times

Today, my colleagues at the Upshot section are introducing a beta version of a weekly history quiz. It’s called Flashback, and it’s free for all readers for a limited time.

The quiz is simple: It asks you to put eight historical events in chronological order. Times editors choose the events each week, and most are connected to news events from the previous week. In today’s quiz, for example, you’ll notice that one of the events involves the Women’s World Cup and another involves Ivy League admissions.

Like many Morning readers, I’m a game player. I do the Bee and Wordle every day, and I have long been hoping that The Times would expand into historical and trivia quizzes. Flashback represents an early attempt to do so. I’ve had a great time playing the internal versions that my colleagues have shared in recent weeks.

One tip: Pay close attention to the photographs and other visuals. They sometimes contain clues.

For people who want to go deeper, you’ll find links in the game to Times reporting, sometimes including our original coverage of the event from decades past.

You can play the first edition of Flashback here. There will be a new version of Flashback each Sunday for at least the next four weeks.

If you enjoyed the quiz — or didn’t — my colleagues welcome feedback at [email protected]. And if you have an idea for a feature they should create in the future, let them know.

NEWS

War in Ukraine

The Sunday question: Should Trump’s trials be televised?

Cameras would foster trust and reduce misinformation by letting Americans make their own judgments about history-making proceedings, Neal Katyal writes in The Washington Post. The University of Iowa law professor Cristina Tilley made the counter case to NPR, arguing that a focus on courtroom drama would undermine viewers’ understanding of the legal minutiae the actual jury must consider.

MORNING READS

“Rooftoppers”: They scale buildings and share the photos of their views on social media. Critics say they’re reckless.

What is worse: Drippy AC units or sudden storms? Take our quiz on summer in New York.

Ending affirmative action: Military academies may be next.

Vows: They were teenagers when they met.

Lives Lived: Charles J. Ogletree Jr. was a Harvard law professor who helped reframe debates around criminal justice, school desegregation and reparations. He also mentored young Black lawyers, including Barack Obama. He died at 70.

TALK | FROM THE TIMES MAGAZINE

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a scientist, member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and author of the perennial best seller “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.” We spoke earlier this year about finding ways to feel hopeful about the challenge of climate change.

In “Braiding Sweetgrass,” you write about nature as capable of showing us love. If that’s true, doesn’t it also have to be capable of showing us the opposite?

The answer that comes to mind is that it’s not all about us.

What?!

[Laughs.] Some of these cycles of creation and destruction that promote change might be bad for us, but we’re one of 200 million species. Over evolutionary time, major changes that are destructive are also opportunities for adaptation and renewal.

Another message in your work is that prioritizing the objective scientific worldview can close us off from other useful ways of thinking. But how does one keep an openness to other modes of inquiry from tipping over into skepticism about scientific authority?

When we do conventional Western science, our experimental designs are designed to optimize objectivity and rationality so that we come to some perceived truth about the natural world — minus human values and emotions. That means that the questions that we can validate with Western scientific knowledge alone are true-false questions. But the questions today that we have about climate change are not true-false questions.

What are the keys to communicating a sense of positivity about climate change that’s counter to the narrative we usually get?

So much of what we think about in environmentalism is gloom-and-doom, but when you look at examples where people are taking things into their hands, they’re joyful. That’s healing not only for land but for our culture as well — it feels good.

Tall windows: These six children’s book creators work together in an open loft.

Our editors’ picks: “How to Love Your Daughter,” a novel about regret, and eight other books.

Packing light: Bring one of these six paperbacks on your next trip.

Times best sellers: “Baking Yesteryear,” a collection of retro recipes, debuted on top of the advice, how-to and miscellaneous list.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Watch the best shows on Hulu right now.

Make hot pot at home.

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Buy fancy Jell-O shots in serious bars.

THE WEEK AHEAD

What to Watch For

• Ohio holds a special election on Tuesday to determine rules around ballot initiatives. The outcome could affect an abortion vote later this year.

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will release its Atlantic hurricane outlook on Thursday.

• Sheila Oliver, New Jersey’s lieutenant governor who died last week, will lie in state for three days.

What to Cook This Week