Rijo Stephen Cletus: Afghanistan: single women and widows are struggling to find their next meal under Taliban restrictions

Afghanistan: single women and widows are struggling to find their next meal under Taliban restrictions

Jamila*, a widow living in Herat, lost her husband in a suicide attack about eight years ago. She has an 18-year-old daughter who is blind and a 20-year-old son who lost both legs in a mine blast.

Since the Taliban gained control of the country, Afghanistan has been on the brink of universal hardship. As many as 97% of people are now estimated to be living in poverty, up from 72% in 2018.

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Sweet temptation: Istanbul's beloved 'brothel dessert'

As I entered the grand arches of Istanbul's Misir Carsisi (Egyptian Bazaar) – considered by many locals to be the city's greatest marketplace – I was hit by a heady aroma of spice and kaleidoscope of colour. Moving with the current of busy shoppers sifting through a sea of produce, I spilled out on the market's backstreets where carts of stuffed mussels and barrels of stringed cheese sat alongside piles of pistachios, rose bud tea and bright pink olives. Transfixed by these treasures, I drifted, dream-like, until I spied the storied sweet I'd come in search of, beckoning beneath a pastry shop's glass.

Halka tatlisi ("ring dessert" in English) is one of Istanbul's favourite and oldest street foods. Found on every corner and said to help restore one's vigour after hours spent walking the busy streets, the circular dough that's deep-fried to a golden-brown and soaked in syrup has long been associated with the city's seedier side. And it's that connotation that gave rise to its local nickname of the "brothel dessert".

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Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century

Back in the 1990s, computer engineer and Wall Street “quant” were the hot occupations in business. Today data scientists are the hires firms are competing to make. As companies wrestle with unprecedented volumes and types of information, demand for these experts has raced well ahead of supply. Indeed, Greylock Partners, the VC firm that backed Facebook and LinkedIn, is so worried about the shortage of data scientists that it has a recruiting team dedicated to channeling them to the businesses in its portfolio.

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A fish that sparked a national obsession

On a cold winter's evening in Portugal, it might come to your table com natas – fresh from the oven and bubbling in cream – layered between fried potato and sliced onion and spiced with nutmeg. Weaving through Lisbon's steep and cobbled streets, it wouldn't take long before you found someone serving it as a light and crispy fritter, dusted with a little coarse salt and dished up with a pot of pungent aioli. You could buy it shaped as mouth-sized fried potato dumplings pastéis style, flavoured with parsley and garlic, for a walk along the banks of Porto's Douro River. You might even come across it as part of a hearty southern bread soup, topped with coriander and a poached egg.

That's because bacalhau – or salt cod – which sits at the heart of all these dishes, runs deep through Portugal's culinary identity, with the country consuming 20% of the world's supply. In fact, so central to Portuguese hearts (and stomachs) is this ingredient, that the saying goes "there are 365 ways to prepare salted cod, one for each day of the year".

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Moving the Needle on Sustainability

Many sustainability initiatives focus on improving the sustainability of products and operations in legacy or adjacent markets or on achieving sustainability gains by exploring new markets with a more diverse set of products. This is a variation on the classic “where to play/how to win” strategy familiar to most executives. Fewer leaders, however, are exploring an important new frontier in sustainability, in which brands actively partner with customers to achieve ongoing impact.

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Shrinking: a psychiatrist doesn't know the "truth" and other issues with the show's depiction of therapy, according to a clinical psychologist

Shrinking is advertised as the story of the grieving therapist Jimmy (Jason Segel) who has lost his wife and wants to try a new approach to his loss, one that involves honesty, including telling his clients exactly what he thinks of them and their problems. Humour (it is hoped), insight into human nature (presumably) and a thoughtful consideration of the role of honesty in therapy will follow.

Unfortunately, for this viewer at least, there was precious little humour, less insight and some rather bizarre assumptions about human nature in general.

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LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky: Skills, Not Degrees, Matter Most in Hiring

Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn, thinks the site should be a place where its members’ billions of years of collective work experience should be freed to upskill anyone, anywhere, any time. Skills, more than degrees or pedigrees, are the true measure of what makes a great new hire, he argues, especially as the workforce evolves in fast and dramatic ways.

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A Better, Fairer Approach to Layoffs

Today layoffs have become companies’ default response to the challenges created by advances in technology and global competition. Yet research shows that job cuts rarely help senior leaders achieve their goals. Too often, they’re done for short-term gain, but the cost savings are overshadowed by bad publicity, loss of knowledge, weakened engagement, higher voluntary turnover, and lower innovation, which hurt profits in the long run.

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South African Tourism wants to sponsor football club Tottenham Hotspur - is it a good idea?

Sponsorship of a sport team, event, or of individuals is an accepted and proven marketing communication tool. As countries, regions and cities are increasingly competing in the global marketplace for the attention of potential customers – in this case tourists – some destinations have also embraced sport as a marketing medium.

Typically, destinations promote themselves through associating with a sport event or team within their geographic location. In Spain, for example, Visit Catalunya sponsors Spanish club FC Barcelona.

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The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj

When terrorists attacked the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, employees of the Taj Mumbai hotel displayed uncommon valor. They placed the safety of guests over their own well-being, thereby risking—and, in some cases, sacrificing—their lives. Deshpandé, of Harvard Business School, and Raina, of the HBS India Research Center in Mumbai, demonstrate that this behavior was not merely a crisis response. It was instead a manifestation of the Taj Group’s deeply rooted customer-centric culture that, the authors argue, other companies can emulate, both in extreme circumstances and during periods of normalcy.

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Coriander: The unsung hero of Indian cuisine

Peek inside any Indian spice box, and you'll likely find the holy trifecta of spices – turmeric, red chilli powder and ground coriander (often mixed with cumin) – that forms the base of many a curry, lentil or vegetable dish.

Though it lacks the striking ochre hue of haldi (turmeric) and isn't associated with any of India's signature red-hot flavours (like chilli powder), coriander (commonly called dhaniya or kothmir in India) is perhaps the most versatile of these spices. Its coarsely ground seeds bring warmth and nuttiness to many dishes, while as a powder, it can be used to thicken curries. As an herb, its fresh stalks and leaves often serve as an aromatic and tangy finishing flavour.

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My Daughter, the Magicianâ€™s Apprentice

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The 10 Best Fitness Trackers To Kickstart Your Health Goals in 2023

From smartwatches to standalone trackers, quantifying your health and fitness has never been easier.

Tracking your health and fitness is no longer just for data-obsessed nerds. Not only are there plenty of smartwatches available with advanced fitness-tracking sensors, but the good ol' fashioned fitness tracker is still alive and kicking — and the latest models offer some pretty high-tech features that can keep your body and mind in tip-top shape.

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You Need to Watch M. Night Shyamalan's Best Apocalypse Movie on HBO Max ASAP

Before you check out Knock at the Cabin, revisit the director's last take on the end of the world.

Crop circles had never looked this good. In 2002, M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs brought something new to the little green men hoax, made ubiquitous in a wheat field in Conholt, England in the 1980s.

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Native Americans have experienced a dramatic decline in life expectancy during the COVID-19 pandemic - but the drop has been in the making for generations

That’s the decline in life expectancy that the COVID-19 pandemic wrought upon American Indians and Alaska Natives, based on an August 2022 report from the National Center for Health Statistics.

This astounding figure translates to an overall drop in average living years from 71.8 years in 2019 to 65.2 by the end of 2021.

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James Gunn's Cohesive DCU Vision is a Radical Misstep for One Huge Reason

James Gunn’s plans for the new DC Universe are, in a word, radical. The DC Studios’ co-head made a shocking string of announcements this past week, delineating the first “phase” of the DCU. While it includes exciting projects like a Green Lantern television series modeled after True Detective and a Wonder Woman series modeled after Game of Thrones, one of the more surprising and groundbreaking pivots is how the new DCU will consolidate roles across multiple mediums. The same actors will portray the same characters in live-action, animation, and video games. While it helps to clarify an increasingly complex continuity, it raises concerns about what happens to the many great voice actors already part of the DC animation library.

Save for a couple of independent storylines (labeled as “Elseworlds”), every storyline will interconnect in the DCU. For example, Viola Davis plays Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, and she’ll also voice the character as an important part of the DCU’s first announced adult animated series, Creature Commandos. She’ll also have her own standalone live-action show.

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Recipe: Boxty pancakes and bacon for St Brigid's Day

St Brigid is Ireland's foodie saint. One of the nation's three patron saints and the most associated with food (particularly farming and dairying), the Irish celebrate her for the first time this year with a new public holiday on 6 February.

St Brigid's Day itself, also known as Imbolc or Óimelg, falls on 1 February marking the beginning of spring in the ancient Celtic calendar. Associated with miraculous abundance of food and a powerful figure in Irish pre-Christian folklore, Brigid was brought under the church and proclaimed a saint.

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The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome

When an employee fails—or even just performs poorly—managers typically do not blame themselves. The employee doesn’t understand the work, a manager might contend. Or the employee isn’t driven to succeed, can’t set priorities, or won’t take direction. Whatever the reason, the problem is assumed to be the employee’s fault—and the employee’s responsibility.

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Mahua: The Indian liquor the British banned

I smelled the sweet flowers before I saw them. During an early morning drive inside the Similipal National Park in the east Indian state of Odisha, I had stopped near a picturesque waterfall where thousands of pale-green blooms were falling from the surrounding trees and carpeting the forest floor.

"These are mahua trees," said Suresh Kisku, my guide from the Santhal tribal community. He pointed towards the cluster of short, stout trunks and dome-shaped canopies that edged a small clearing.

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'Hi-Fi Rush' Ending Explained: How It Sets Up a Sequel for Chai and 808

Hi-Fi Rush doesn’t let up on the gas from start to finish, but it still finds plenty of time for quiet character development amidst all the bombast and rock. The massive surprise shadow-drop from Xbox and Bethesda brilliantly blends rhythm and action games and has a genuinely heartfelt story to boot.

Every one of the main characters gets their time to shine in the final hours, leading right up to the climactic final battle with Kale, who launched a literal hostile takeover of Vandelay before the game started. Hi-Fi Rush’s ending is clear-cut, but there’s still important context to dig into —especially if you take the time to do some of the post-game content.

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Nintendo Direct rumors reveal the blurred lines between guesses and leaks

The video game industry is shrouded in mystery. Games are only sparsely shown to the public, showcases can happen at a moment's notice, and even entire games can be developed without the public ever knowing about it. This is why there is a culture of paying attention to industry insiders and leakers who allegedly seek to give the public a peak behind the curtain as to what is on the horizon. The latest “leaks” that have the internet abuzz are about an impending Nintendo Direct. There is just one caveat, they are all educated guesses.

Don’t you trust me? — The news of a Nintendo Direct is highly anticipated due to the possibility of learning information on any of the company’s many exciting games coming out. With the release of Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom slated for May 12, 2023 many are hoping that a Nintendo Direct will give more insights into what players can expect from the highly anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild.

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Sahlab: The Middle East's answer to the latte

Whether it's ladled from a Bethlehem street vendor's steaming urn or savoured around a California kitchen table, the holiday drink sahlab tells a story in each sip. The first taste is as warming and floral as its sunlit origins. The second reveals a viscous texture as silky as orchid petals. And with the third comes the first hints of its history, the rich flavours of the Levant and the spices of holiday traditions that reach across religions and stretch back centuries.

In the kitchen of cookbook author Blanche Shaheen, steam drifts from small cups, carrying scents that recall the passing of seasons, late winter orange blossoms and the roses of spring. For Shaheen, sahlab isn't simply the winter holiday drink her mother taught her to make. It's also a story of family and the persistence of culture.

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Why Inclusive Leaders Are Good for Organizations, and How to Become One

Companies increasingly rely on diverse, multidisciplinary teams that combine the collective capabilities of women and men, people of different cultural heritage, and younger and older workers. But simply throwing a mix of people together doesn’t guarantee high performance; it requires inclusive leadership — leadership that assures that all team members feel they are treated respectfully and fairly, are valued and sense that they belong, and are confident and inspired. Research involving 3,500 ratings by employees of 450 leaders found that inclusive leaders share six behaviors — and that leaders often overestimate how inclusive they really are. These are the behaviors: visible commitment, humility, awareness of bias, curiosity about others, cultural intelligence, and effective collaboration.

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The Wall Street Journal, Economist and Financial Times all now have female editors -

Provost and Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University in Dubai, Heriot-Watt University

February 1 was a date to celebrate for women in business everywhere. It happened to be the day that water group Severn Trent became the first large UK quoted company to be led by an all-female team by appointing Helen Miles as chief financial officer. That’s certainly worthy of celebration – but not what I had in mind.

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Just Rejected the 1 Thing Jeff Bezos Thought Was Most Important

The most important single thing is to focus obsessively on the customer ..."

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Samia Suluhu Hassan is reforming Tanzania - it's winning her fans but boosting the opposition

A series of political manoeuvres by Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan have set the east African country on an unfamiliar, yet hopeful, political path. Since her elevation to the presidency two years ago following the death of John Pombe Magufuli, the new president has struck a reformist political tone and led reconciliation with a previously marginalised opposition. None of this would have been possible under Magufuli.

Magufuli not only stifled the opposition, but also went as far as threatening to annihilate it. Hassan has made several reforms, including reconciliation talks between the government and the opposition. Her government also lifted the ban on newspapers.

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A Conversation with Bonnie Raitt, Plus Public Enemyâ€™s Chuck D

After more than fifty years in music, Bonnie Raitt is far from resting on her laurels; her latest album, "Just Like ThatÂ .Â .Â .," is nominated for four Grammy Awards this year, including Song of the Yearâ€”a category in which her competition includes BeyoncÃ© and Adele, stars a generation younger. She talks with David Remnick about her early career in the blues clubs of Boston, and reflects on the state of the genre today. Plus, the staff writer Kelefa Sanneh talks with another icon of American music, the rapper Chuck D. Forty years ago, as the front man and m.c. of Public Enemy, he showed listeners how exciting, radical, and unpredictable hip-hop could be. Now, at sixty-two, Chuck D is an elder statesman with a documentary on PBS, "Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World."

After more than fifty years in music, Raitt's latest album is nominated for four Grammy Awards this year, alongside stars a generation younger.

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Introducing PenceGPT, from the Makers of ChatGPT

Thank you for your interest in PenceGPT, a new product from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, in collaboration with former Vice-President Mike Pence (long suspected to himself be a bot of some kind, on account of his dead eyes, soulless demeanor, and three-hundred-and-sixty-degree swivel head). You may be wondering, What sorts of features can I expect from a chatbot that generates text based on Mike Pence’s speeches and interviews? Well, look no further than this handy guide, which summarizes some of PenceGPT’s exciting new offerings:

Woman Identifier: Not sure whether the woman sitting next to you is your wife or your mother? Neither is Mike Pence, apparently. Use this feature to demystify the nature of your relationship with any female human. Simply type, “Who is this woman?” into PenceGPT, and the model, which has been trained on all Pence-approved relationship statuses, will output from the options of Wife, Mother, and Wife/Mother.

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Marvel just revived its primate assassin -- What to know about 'Hit-Monkey'

Monkey mayhem continues on against all odds, Marvel’s Hit-Monkey on Hulu will return for Season 2. The announcement was made on Feb. 2, over a year after its launch on the streaming platform.

Since Marvel’s Hit-Monkey is a story of survival — as well as one of vengeance, poltergeists, martial arts, and friendship — it’s appropriate that it would be the sole survivor of Marvel and Hulu’s proposed four-show animated slate, which includes two that were scrapped entirely (Tigra & Dazzler, Howard the Duck) and one that was canceled after only one season (M.O.D.O.K.).

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The world's surprising fried chicken capital

The little karaage, one of the most popular snacks in Japan, is a delicate and intricate version of fried chicken that is a staple across the country. This delightfully crunchy treat is so beloved that every year, hundreds of thousands of people vote in a country-wide competition to determine which karaage shop serves the best ones. While shops from massive metropolises like Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka should be dominating any large-scale contest, it's shops from one small town, Nakatsu City, located in the Oita prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu, that typically garner the most awards.

The Karaage Grand Prix is the annual competition in Japan whose winner gets to boast that they have the crispiest, juiciest, most flavourful fried chicken, and nearly 1,000 shops enter to compete. Up until 2022, this contest was based entirely on popularity, with common denizens getting to vote on their favourite places. But in 2023, the rules are changing, judges are being brought in to taste test, and the true crown for the best karaage will ultimately be rewarded.

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A brief history of the Black church's diversity, and its vital role in American political history

With religious affiliation on the decline, continuing racism and increasing income inequality, some scholars and activists are soul-searching about the Black church’s role in today’s United States.

For instance, on April 20, 2010, an African American Studies professor at Princeton, Eddie S. Glaude, sparked an online debate by provocatively declaring that, despite the existence of many African American churches, “the Black Church, as we’ve known it or imagined it, is dead.” As he argued, the image of the Black church as a center for Black life and as a beacon of social and moral transformation had disappeared.

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GP numbers continue to fall but the UK isn't unique in losing family doctors

The 2019 Conservative manifesto promised to increase the UK’s GP numbers by 6,000 by 2024. That target will clearly not be met. In fact, the proportion of GPs working full time in England has fallen compared with last year, according to the latest figures from NHS Digital.

There were 26,706 permanent qualified GPs working in England in December 2022, down from 27,064 in December 2021. And if projections from the Health Foundation prove to be accurate, the shortfall is set to increase to around 8,800 GPs by 2030-31, equivalent to one in four posts being vacant. But is the UK unique among wealthy nations in suffering from a crisis in primary care?

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Isla Bryson: Scotland's transgender prisoner policy was assessed as not affecting women

The decision to place double rapist Isla Bryson in the segregation unit at Scotland’s Cornton Vale women’s prison, ahead of sentencing, has sparked a political crisis that looks unlikely to abate soon.

Following a backlash, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon quickly announced that Bryson would not stay at Cornton Vale. That same day, Bryson was moved to a male wing at His Majesty’s Prison Edinburgh. The Scottish parliament’s justice committee has confirmed that it will scrutinise these events.

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Four scepticisms: what we can know about what we can't know | Aeon Essays

The ancient Sceptics used doubt as a way of investigating the world. Later thinkers undermined even that possibility

Ask any philosopher what scepticism is, and you will receive as many different answers as people you’ve asked. Some of them take it to be showing that we cannot have any knowledge – of, say, the external world – and some of them take it to be even more radical in showing that we cannot have any reasonable beliefs. In the interests of getting a handle on the varieties of scepticism, one can locate four different milestones of sceptical thought in the history of Western philosophy. These four milestones start with the least threatening of them, Pyrrhonian skepticism, and continue by Cartesian and Kantian scepticisms to the Wittgensteinian moment in which even our intention to act is put in question.

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Citron: The exquisite fruit that brings rabbis

Every summer, in preparation for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Hasidic rabbis from all over the world travel to the northern part of Italy's Calabria region to handpick the best citron fruits for their lulav, the bundle of four plants used to bless the small, temporary huts built every autumn by Jews to celebrate the holiday. For about two weeks, the orchards around the town of Santa Maria del Cedro fill up with English, Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish-speaking rabbis and their families. With the help of local farmers, they inspect the trees and analyse the fruits, sometimes with magnifying glasses, in their quest for citron perfection.

The most ancient and aromatic of all citrus fruits, citrons are far less known than their renowned yellow and orange cousins. They resemble large, green lemons, have more peel than pulp, and with a sour-bitter flavour, they are not considered desirable for home consumption. This means that, outside of Calabria, you won't typically find them at the supermarket.

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The Whale: Brendan Fraser's comeback offers rare representation of the fat queer male body on screen

The Whale debuted at the 2022 Venice Film Festival to a six-minute standing ovation for its Academy Award-nominated lead, Brendan Fraser, who has returned to the big screen after a considerable hiatus.

Fraser’s fame was amplified in the 2000s by his starring role in The Mummy saga. He was consistently cast as the six-packed hunk, in such films as George of the Jungle (1997) and Gods and Monsters (1998).

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Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Regularly Use These 5 Words

Humility goes further than you think.Continued here

Civil rights legislation sparked powerful backlash that's still shaping American politics

For nearly 60 years, conservatives have been trying to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. As a scholar of American voting rights, I believe their long game is finally bearing fruit.

The 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder seemed to be the death knell for the Voting Rights Act.

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Implementing New Technology

For all the dollars spent by American companies on R&D, there often remains a persistent and troubling gap between the inherent value of the technology they develop and their ability to put it to work effectively. At a time of fierce global competition, the distance between technical promise and genuine achievement is a matter of especially grave concern. Drawing on their long study of the difficulties managers have had in closing this gap, the authors identify half a dozen key challenges that managers responsible for implementing new technology must surmount: their inescapably dual role, the variety of internal markets to be served, legitimate resistance to change, the right degree of promotion, the choice of implementation site, and the need for one person to take overall responsibility.

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Police traffic stops can alienate communities and lead to violent deaths like Tyre Nichols' -- is it time to rethink them?

Assistant professor in the Department of Government, The University of Texas at Austin

The killing of Tyre Nichols has raised questions about the use and risks of a routine part of U.S. policing: the traffic stop.

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Environment plan for England asks farmers to restore nature - but changes are likely to be superficial

The UK government’s environment improvement plan pledges to restore 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of wildlife-rich habitat, create or expand 25 national parks, invest in the recovery of hedgehogs and red squirrels, tackle rising sewage pollution and improve access to green spaces in England over the next five years.

Since 69% of land in England is farmed, much of the plan’s success in improving nature will hinge on its reform of the country’s agricultural sector. Farming is implicated in the extinction risk of 86% of threatened species globally, and accounts for roughly one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, not to mention soil erosion and river pollution.

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The Latest Scientific Breakthrough on Aging

Follow @newyorkercartoons on Instagram and sign up for the Daily Humor newsletter for more funny stuff.

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'Mandalorian' Season 3 Trailer May Reveal an Ancient Alien Species

The Mandalorian Season 3 already looks preoccupied with the past. Despite the fact the series is set in a post-Empire future, there are all sorts of remnants from eras gone by. Grogu keeps having flashbacks to Order 66, and Mando is going back to Mandalore after it suffered some unknown fate. But one moment in the Mandalorian Season 3 trailer suggests a blast from the past that goes back thousands of years — and it could canonize an ancient species long thought to be the stuff of Legends.

First, a quick refresher on Mandalorian history: At its start, Mandalore was overrun with mythosaurs, which are the creatures the Armorer alluded to when speaking of the prophecy of the Manda’lor. They existed happily on Mandalore for millennia until a nomadic colonizing species was introduced: the Taungs. In the non-canon Legends timeline, the Taungs were a species vaguely resembling the Protheans from Mass Effect who basically established Mandalorian culture as a whole. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that the Taungs may have inspired the Protheans.

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How Netflix Reinvented HR

When Netflix executives wrote a PowerPoint deck about the organization’s talent management strategies, the document went viral—it’s been viewed more than 5 million times on the web. Now one of those executives, the company’s longtime chief talent officer, goes beyond the bullet points to paint a detailed picture of how Netflix attracts, retains, and manages stellar employees. The firm draws on five key tenets:

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Cornwall space launch: why launching rockets from UK soil can benefit industry and security

Keith Ryden is the Director of Surrey Space Centre, which designed instruments carried on the LauncherOne rocket. He has been funded by the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the European Space Agency (Esa) to undertake work on space radiation and space weather instruments.

Having the capability to launch satellites from UK soil has been a long time coming. The recent attempted launch from Cornwall did not succeed, despite high hopes.

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An â€œAnger Olympicsâ€ Between Trump and the Rest of the 2024 Republican Field

The Republican Nikki Haley is widely expected to announce a Presidential run later this month. As a former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina governor, Haley brings strong credentials to a sparse Republican field. The defeated former President Donald Trump is making his third bid for the White House. Governor Ron DeSantis, of Florida, is expected to run, but is so far waiting in the wings. Mikes Pence and Pompeo, Trump's former Vice-President and Secretary of State, respectively, are also rumored to be contemplating bids. What can these nascent campaigns tell us about the state of the G.O.P.? The staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos gather for their weekly conversation to explore the 2024 race for the Republican nomination, and what it might take to dislodge Trump as the front-runner.

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Quiz Yourself: Do You Lead with Emotional Intelligence?

Rate yourself on five key dimensions, and see how you compare with others.

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40 years of legal sports betting in Australia points to risks for US gamblers - and tips for regulators

Australians love to gamble. It’s often said that if they could, they would bet on two flies crawling up a wall. The Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge were funded, in part, by government lotteries.

It’s only been five years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal law that essentially banned sports betting in most states, but in Australia, the novelty of legal sports betting has long worn off: It’s been legal since the 1980s.

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George Santos: why the Republicans aren't doing anything about the controversial congressman, yet

Republican Representative George Santos has been continuously embroiled in scandal since his election in November 2022.

The controversial congressman for New York’s 3rd district has admitted embellishing his election campaign. He misled the electorate about his education, falsely claimed his grandparents “survived” the Holocaust, and wrongly suggested that his mother died during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has since apologised for this. Santos has said he has not committed any crimes and that he is sorry for misleading the public.

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The World the 747 Didnâ€™t Predict

On July 15, 1966, Juan Trippe, the founder and C.E.O. of Pan American World Airways, addressed roughly twelve hundred people assembled in the banquet hall of a Seattle hotel. They had gathered to celebrate the Boeing company, founded fifty years earlier, on the shores of nearby Lake Union. Outside the opulent downtown hotel, the world had, seemingly overnight, turned into a more dangerous place. U.S. jet fighters in Vietnam had begun encountering Soviet-supplied MiG-21s; in Europe, volunteers from Eastern Bloc countries were threatening to fly to Southeast Asia to engage Americans in combat.

The Vietnam War was heating up. The Cold War was decades from ending. But Trippe, who'd recently preordered twenty-five units of Boeing's new jumbo jet, which still only existed on paper, spoke of a bright future: "The new era of mass travel between nations may well prove more significant to human destiny than the atom bomb.Â .Â .Â . The 747 will be a great new weapon of peace."

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The Meaning of African American Studies

On Wednesday, February 1st, the first day of Black History Month, the College Board released its long-awaited curriculum for a new Advanced Placement class in African American studies. Two weeks earlier, the Florida Department of Education had rejected the course, claiming that it “lacks educational value and is contrary to Florida law.” Then, nearly a week later, Manny Diaz, Jr., the state’s commissioner of education, released a flyer listing his complaints, based on a pilot version of the course. They included the fact that there were units on intersectionality and activism, Black queer studies, “Black Feminist Literary Thought,” reparations, and “Black Study and the Black Struggle in the 21st Century.” The Movement for Black Lives—which brought out the largest demonstrations in American history, in the summer of 2020, with more than twenty million people participating—was dismissed as a topic of study.

When the College Board released the revised curriculum, all of the sections that Florida complained about had been removed. Representatives of the nonprofit have insisted that they were already planning to revise the pilot version, and that the onslaught from Florida had nothing to do with their changes. It is certainly believable that the preliminary version of the class would have been revised, but it is unbelievable that right-wing complaints did not influence the final outcome. Trevor Packer, the head of the Advanced Placement Program, told Time magazine, last summer, that the Movement for Black Lives had inspired a renewed effort to get the class under way. He said, “The events surrounding George Floyd and the increased awareness and attention paid towards issues of inequity and unfairness and brutality directed towards African Americans caused me to wonder, ‘Would colleges be more receptive to an AP course in this discipline than they were 10 years ago?’ ” It is hard to reconcile that inspiration with the decision to excise almost all mention of Black Lives Matter, intersectionality, police brutality, or any of the litany of issues that shape the experiences of Black people in the United States. Indeed, there is barely any mention of the Black rebellions of the nineteen-sixties, which were the backdrop to the demands of Black students that Black studies be included in college and university curricula. These omissions undermine the legitimacy of the A.P. course and the College Board itself. They also diminish the power of Black studies to make sense of our contemporary world.

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'Knock at the Cabin's Ending is Shyamalan's Most Surprising Twist Yet

You shouldn’t open the door to strangers, but what if they’re trying to save the world?

Knock at the Cabin, M. Night Shyamalan’s adaptation of Paul Tremblay’s 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World, is now in theaters. A gripping home invasion thriller that’s mostly contained to a single space, Knock at the Cabin exhibits Shyamalan at his peak, with expressive camerawork that makes the most of limited physical surroundings.

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Biden's plan for ending the emergency declaration for COVID-19 signals a pivotal point in the pandemic - 4 questions answered

President Joe Biden announced on Jan. 30, 2023, that he intends to end both the national emergency and the public health emergency declarations related to COVID-19 on May 11, 2023.

Biden’s announcement came on the same day that the World Health Organization said it still considers the COVID-19 pandemic to be a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, a status that is reassessed every three months. The WHO’s advisory committee noted that although the pandemic is at a turning point, “COVID-19 remains a dangerous infectious disease with the capacity to cause substantial damage to health and health systems.”

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You Need to Watch Nick Offerman's Best Sci-Fi Story on Hulu ASAP

Before he was Bill, Offerman brought another tender bearded sci-fi man to life in a beautiful and bonkers series.

Nick Offerman has a type, and he plays that type well. From his breakout role as gruff mustachioed libertarian Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation, to his recent masterclass turn as gruff bearded libertarian Bill in The Last of Us Episode 3, his characters tend to have a lot of traits in common. But in 2020, while the world was somewhat distracted, Offerman starred in a sci-fi series from an acclaimed filmmaker that combined Silicon Valley with quantum physics, mystery, and intrigue.

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Here's the Word Apple CEO Tim Cook Has Not Said and Why It's a Lesson for Every Leader

It makes Apple unique among today's tech giants.

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'Fire Emblem Engage' Gift Guide: Best Items to Give All 35 Characters

Ready to take your supports to the next level? Fire Emblem Engage is the latest in the long-running tactics franchise, with a greater emphasis than before on deep combat mechanics. Part of that comes from having great support levels with your party members, and the best way to raise support levels is with gifts. Give the best gifts to your party members, and you’ll have A ranks locked in no time. With 35 characters to unlock in Fire Emblem Engage, it can be difficult keeping track of who likes what. That’s where we come in.

Character spoilers ahead for Fire Emblem Engage. If you don’t want to see everyone it’s possible recruit, consider searching this page by character name or returning later.

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The BBC has a long history of failed attempts to rid it of political influence

Most people probably don’t know who the BBC’s chairman is, or even that the BBC has a chairman. Yet this normally obscure figure has recently hit the headlines. Richard Sharp, BBC chairman since February 2021, is a former banker and a major donor to the Conservative party.

Sharp has links with both former prime minister Boris Johnson and current prime minister Rishi Sunak. Around the time of his appointment, Sharp was involved in securing a large personal loan for Johnson through his distant cousin Sam Blyth.

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Razer's Lightest Gaming Mouse Takes a Heavy Toll on Your Wallet

Razer revealed its lightest gaming mouse ever, which weighs in at 49 grams. The Viper Mini Signature might not be the lightest mouse in the gaming peripherals market, especially compared to Finalmouse’s offerings, but it does feature a unique design.

Instead of the traditional honeycomb design that most ultra-lightweight mouses use to shave off grams, Razer went with a more spider web-like look for its Viper Mini Signature. It does feel like the mouse will be a nightmare when it comes to harboring dust, but you’re paying for performance here, not practicality.

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The ethical dilemmas behind plans for involuntary treatment to target homelessness, mental illness and addiction

Over the past year, cities across the United States have unveiled new policy plans to address homelessness amid rising concerns about health and crime – for homeless people themselves, as well as for surrounding communities. Notably, several proposals include civil commitment, also referred to as involuntary treatment, for people with severe mental illness or substance use disorders.

In November 2022, for example, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to use mental health laws to facilitate involuntary treatment when people are unable to care for themselves, or when their actions endanger others.

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The Other Five Love Languages

'The Last of Us' Season 2 Needs to Fix the Second Game's Biggest Flaw

HBO has found another bona fide hit in The Last of Us. The post-apocalyptic zombie drama has already emerged as one of the more popular and acclaimed TV shows of the past few years, so it didn’t come as much of a surprise when HBO chose to renew it for a second season shortly after its premiere.

It’s already been confirmed that the series’ second season will partly adapt 2020’s The Last of Us Part 2. However, the show’s co-creator and showrunner, Craig Mazin, has also admitted that he believes the game’s story is too large and expansive to be whittled down into just one season of television.

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Microsoft Teams Premium Applies GPT-3.5 to Video Calls

Microsoft is adding OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 to its new Microsoft Teams Premium subscription service, the first obvious (and I’d argue, useful) integration of the company’s language processing expertise since OpenAI and Microsoft announced their expanded partnership in late January.

The updated service costs $10 per month and can automate several traditional administrative tasks you might have to keep track of during a meeting like taking notes or creating summaries. Google introduced a similar automated summary concept for conversations in Google Chat and Google Docs last year, but given the complexities of live video, it seems like OpenAI and Microsoft are taking things a good step further.

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Scientists Created A New Type of Ice -- It Could Also Exist On Distant Moons

Under extremely low temperatures and high pressures, the atoms within ice rearrange themselves. This helps explain why scientists have discovered at least 20 different incarnations of ice in the lab, up in space, or deep within the Earth — some of which have no fixed structure at all.

Now, in a happy accident, scientists appear to have created yet another form. Their results, recently published in the journal Science, may offer our first glimpse at a form of ice that looks a lot like liquid water — potentially transforming our grasp of water and its various quirks.

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Why ChatGPT Could Usher in a New Era of Scientific Discovery

Some of the world’s biggest academic journal publishers have banned or curbed their authors from using the advanced chatbot ChatGPT. Because the bot uses information from the internet to produce highly readable answers to questions, the publishers are worried that inaccurate or plagiarised work could enter the pages of academic literature.

Several researchers have already listed the chatbot as a co-author in academic studies, and some publishers have moved to ban this practice. But the editor-in-chief of Science, one of the top scientific journals in the world, has gone a step further and forbidden any use of text from the program in submitted papers.

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Clever things that make your home & car 10x more organized with almost no effort

Walking into closet chaos is never a fun way to start the day. Neither is cooking in a disorganized or getting ready in a bathroom that’s stuffed with clutter. I mean, even a messy car can make giving someone a ride a moment to avoid. Fixing this level of messiness can seem overwhelming, but creating order from chaos is often a simple matter of owning the proper storage solutions so that your space begins to become decluttered and streamlined as you use it.

To help you achieve this, here are all the clever things that make your home and car 10 times more organized with almost no effort.

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'Last of Us' Episode 4 release date, time, and trailer for HBO's zombie show

You can put away the tissues — for now. After last week’s beautiful, sob-worthy, internet-adored knockout episode that was Bill and Frank’s tragic love story, The Last of Us Episode 4 gets the HBO series back underway with the central journey of Ellie and Joel.

Heading out from Bill and Frank’s with a new set of wheels, Joel and Ellie are now on a quest to find Joel’s brother, Tommy, who might know the location of the Fireflies facility out west that Ellie needs to get to. But before they can get to Wyoming, the duo get caught up while passing through Kansas City, where a new ruthless character awaits them.

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How Netflix Reinvented HR

The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome

A Better, Fairer Approach to Layoffs

Moving the Needle on Sustainability