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S5Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail   Businesses hoping to survive over the long term will have to remake themselves into better competitors at least once along the way. These efforts have gone under many banners: total quality management, reengineering, rightsizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnarounds, to name a few. In almost every case, the goal has been to cope with a new, more challenging market by changing the way business is conducted. A few of these endeavors have been very successful. A few have been utter failures. Most fall somewhere in between, with a distinct tilt toward the lower end of the scale.
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S7The Hard Side of Change Management  Everyone agrees that managing change is tough, but few can agree on how to do it. Most experts are obsessed with “soft” issues, such as culture and motivation, but, say the authors, focusing on these issues alone won’t bring about change. Companies also need to consider the hard factors—like the time it takes to complete a change initiative, the number of people required to execute it, and so forth.
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S10 The Working Limitations of Large Language Models  Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.Large language models (LLMs) seem set to transform businesses. Their ability to generate detailed, creative responses to queries in plain language and code has sparked a wave of excitement that led ChatGPT to reach 100 million users faster than any other technology after it first launched. Subsequently, investors poured over $40 billion into artificial intelligence startups in the first half of 2023 — more than 20% of all global venture capital investments — and companies from seed-stage startups to tech giants are developing new applications of the technology.
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S41Miniature organs on chips could revolutionize health-care research  An organoid is a miniaturized version of an organ. As the name suggests with the Greek suffix oid, meaning “like,” an organoid is designed to mimic the organ it represents. These three-dimensional structures are generated from stem cells and, although only about one millimetre in size, they effectively emulate the morphology or function of the actual organs. Yet this is only half the narrative. “Organs-on-chips” are a technology that uses intricately carved tunnels (microchannels) on a piece of plastic or polymer that can house cells. These channels facilitate the flow of cell culture media, replicating blood flow in the human body.
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S52S57How Moral Can A.I. Really Be?  A few years ago, the Allen Institute for A.I. built a chatbot named Delphi, which is designed to tell right from wrong. It does a surprisingly decent job. Type in, “Cheating on an exam,” and Delphi says, “It’s wrong.” But write, “Cheating on an exam to save someone’s life,” and Delphi responds, “It’s okay.” The chatbot knows it’s rude to use your lawn mower when your neighbors are sleeping, but not when they’re out of town. It has limitations, however. As the cognitive scientist Tomer Ullman has pointed out, a couple of misleading adverbs are enough to trip it up. When asked to judge “Gently and sweetly pressing a pillow over the face of a sleeping baby,” Delphi responds, “It’s allowed.”As someone who studies moral psychology, I found Delphi’s shortcomings satisfying. Human moral judgment is rich and subtle, emerging through the complex interplay of reason and emotion—not the sort of thing that you’d expect a large language model to understand. After all, L.L.M.s string together words based on probability, not a deep conscious appreciation of what these words mean. For this reason, some computer scientists call L.L.M.s “stochastic parrots.”
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S60The French Are Not Happy About "Napoleon"  Americans are so used to seeing history played by Americans that the oddity of it hardly registers anymore. Charlton Heston was the Spanish El Cid and the Hebrew Egyptian Moses and the Judean Ben-Hurâbelieve it or not, he won an Oscar for that oneâand his Midwestern accents were taken for granted whomever he played and wherever the character was supposed to have lived.And why not? No one expects the actors in a production of "Julius Caesar" to speak good Latin. Fiction is the premise of all fictions, and that simple truth, along with the (perhaps declining) companion truth that, for the most part, movie stars are made in America, is enough to explain the phenomenon. Indeed, the whole point and rationaleâthe raison d'être, as we say in Englishâof the theatrical arts is to extend our circles of compassion through acts of creative empathy: we want people who are unlike the characters they play to inhabit them so that in acts of sympathetic resonance we too expand ourselves. It's why we love Laurence Olivier's Shylock, or, for that matter, Russell Crowe's gladiator.
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S65Astronomers Discover Six Alien Planets Orbiting In Perfect Synchrony  All six planets around nearby star HD 110067 are sub-Neptunes, and they're linked in a chain of orbital resonances.Astronomer Rafael Luque, of the University of Chicago, and his colleagues recently discovered six planets orbiting a nearby star in a series of resonant orbits, like exquisitely-balanced cosmic clockwork. All six belong to an enigmatic type of planet called “sub-Neptunes” — planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune — which seem to be very common everywhere in the Universe except here in our Solar System.
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S662023's Most Misguided Action Thriller Tanks a Legendary Director's Return  The extraordinary Hong Kong filmmaker selected a nearly wordless project for his hiatus-breaking return to the American action scene, which he ghosted after 2003's underperforming Ben Affleck thriller Paycheck. And while Woo’s talent for conducting harmonious bursts of violence delivers the same instinctual fight sequencing that guided him through his classic Chow Yun-fat collaborations and domestic hits like Face/Off, the script’s ambitious erasure of dialogue ends up sinking the movie.Joel Kinnaman stars in Silent Night as renegade Texan protagonist Brian Godluck, who loses his precious son on Christmas Eve thanks to a gangbanger's stray bullet. Brian pursues the trigger-happy thugs on foot, but takes an intentional round to the throat for his efforts. He's surgically repaired, but is robbed of his ability to speak as a result, unable to vocalize the agony chewing up his insides. Brian's wife Saya (Catalina Sandino Moreno) watches her husband collect empty liquor bottles until she exits the situation, leaving Brian with only one path forward: merciless revenge.
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S69Cybertruck Leak Suggests "Beast Mode" and Camper Accessory Are on the Way  Even on the cusp of the Cybertruck’s official release, we’re still relying on leaks to get a fuller picture.Recently, a resourceful team of Tesla followers found a bunch of optional add-ons by digging through the Tesla app. Going through the code, Tesla App Updates identified a possible performance trim called “Beast Mode,” an optional light bar, and a camper accessory.
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S70Hypnosis Could Work Wonders on IBS  As far-fetched as it may seem, research suggests that hypnotherapy can help patients find relief from all sorts of gut disorders.The change in Zack Rogers was sudden. In the middle of his 12th birthday party, his stomach started hurting. He went to bed early that night, missing much of his own slumber party, and then stayed home from school the whole next week. The stomach pain was excruciating, and he couldn’t keep any food down. He lost 40 pounds in just a few weeks.
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S68Netflix's Narnia Movies Could Break Expectations in One Surprising Way  For writer-director Greta Gerwig, Barbie was just the beginning. Warner’s billion dollar baby proved that there’s still endless IP to mine — and with Barbieland now in the rearview, Gerwig is headed to another magical land ripe for franchise potential. Per The New Yorker, Gerwig is taking on Narnia next: she’s in talks to write and direct “at least two” films based on C.S. Lewis’ wildly popular Chronicles of Narnia series for Netflix. Though the finer details of the deal are still more or less under wraps, plans seem to be taking shape for the first of Gerwig’s two adaptations — but the fledgling franchise may not start where anyone expects.Netflix film chief Scott Stuber has been involved with the reboot since 2018, and he’s rightfully excited about partnering up with Gerwig. As Narnia is such a well-known property, however, the creative team have apparently been looking for ways to keep their interpretation fresh. Rather than adapt the series in chronological order — starting with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, as Disney’s Narnia franchise did — Gerwig &. Co could be taking a slight detour, and adapting the books out of order altogether.
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S70S4S6What Having a "Growth Mindset" Actually Means  Scholars are deeply gratified when their ideas catch on. And they are even more gratified when their ideas make a difference — improving motivation, innovation, or productivity, for example. But popularity has a price: People sometimes distort ideas and therefore fail to reap their benefits. This has started to happen with my research on “growth” versus “fixed” mindsets among individuals and within organizations.
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S8How Our Brains Decide When to Trust  Trust is the enabler of global business — without it, most market transactions would be impossible. It is also a hallmark of high-performing organizations. Employees in high-trust companies are more productive, are more satisfied with their jobs, put in greater discretionary effort, are less likely to search for new jobs, and even are healthier than those working in low-trust companies. Businesses that build trust among their customers are rewarded with greater loyalty and higher sales. And negotiators who build trust with each other are more likely to find value-creating deals.
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S9What Makes a Leader?  When asked to define the ideal leader, many would emphasize traits such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision—the qualities traditionally associated with leadership. Such skills and smarts are necessary but insufficient qualities for the leader. Often left off the list are softer, more personal qualities—but they are also essential. Although a certain degree of analytical and technical skill is a minimum requirement for success, studies indicate that emotional intelligence may be the key attribute that distinguishes outstanding performers from those who are merely adequate.
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S11How women drinkers could save the male-centric beer industry  Boldly displayed in the craft-beer section of a supermarket in New York City are four-packs of brightly coloured cans with geometric patterns, inviting consumers to experience the fruit-forward beers within them. If their aesthetic comes off as "feminine", especially amid the masculine marketing of the cans beside them, that's the point.The company behind the drinks in this pastel-and-jewel-toned packaging is Talea Beer Co, a woman-owned Brooklyn-based brewery, founded in 2019 by LeAnn Darland and Tara Hankinson, both 37.
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S12Rosa Parks: The 'no' that sparked the civil rights movement  On a winter's evening in 1955, a 42-year-old African-American woman named Rosa Parks, tired after a long day of work as a seamstress, boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama to get home. She paid her fare and took an empty seat in the area of the bus marked "coloured".Fifty-five years earlier, Montgomery had passed a law to segregate bus passengers by race. The front of the bus was reserved for white citizens, the seats at the back for black citizens. But it had also become a custom that bus drivers would instruct a black passenger to give up their seat if there were no "white-only" seats.
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S13People who experienced childhood adversity had poorer COVID-19 outcomes, new study shows  Adults who faced adversity during childhood were significantly more likely to die from or be hospitalized because of COVID-19. That’s the key finding of my team’s recent study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The study of 150,000 adults in the United Kingdom found those reporting the most childhood trauma had a 25% greater likelihood of death associated with COVID-19, as well as a 22% increase in hospitalization after contracting COVID-19. These figures held up even after accounting for demographics and health conditions.
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S14S15S16There's a financial literacy gender gap - and older women are eager for education that meets their needs  Every day, families across the U.S. have to make difficult decisions about budgeting, spending, insurance, investments, savings, retirement and on and on. When faced with these choices, financial literacy – that is, knowing how to make informed decisions about money – is key.As a social scientist who studies aging and the social safety net, I recently took part in a large analysis of older women’s financial literacy. My team and I found that men’s financial literacy scores were 25% higher than women’s on average, even though the two groups showed no difference in math skills or overall cognitive ability.
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S17S18Opera in Cape Town: critics trace how a colonial art form was reinvented as African  Many people thought that classical opera in South Africa – regarded as a western, colonial art form that was the preserve of white people during apartheid – would die with democracy in 1994. Instead the opposite happened. Black singers emerged as the new stars and the format of opera began to be Africanised for new audiences. Critics mapped this transformation as Cape Town established itself as a hotbed of the new opera. One such critic was Wayne Muller, who became an academic and wrote a PhD on the view of these changes. Now he has a book on the subject called Opera in Cape Town: The Critic’s Voice. We asked him five questions.Like most things western European, opera in South Africa is part of a colonial legacy. Sources – from various journal articles and the South African Music Encyclopaedia (1979-1986) – refer to the early 1800s as the time when opera came to South Africa via Cape Town.
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S19Low emissions and economic survival - countries in the global south aren't getting a fair deal  In 2015, more than 140 countries signed up to the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. For countries in the global south this is a huge task. On the one hand they have committed to low emissions. On the other their economic survival depends on using resources that produce high emissions. International economic law scholar Olabisi D. Akinkugbe unpacks the issue of climate justice, and how climate laws and foreign investment laws fit into the picture.Climate change policies are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (which mainly come from the use of fossil fuels) and shift socio-economic activities towards the use of renewable energies. But, unless these changes are made in a manner that considers historical responsibility for the economic imbalances between countries, they risk crippling the economies of the global south.
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S20Climate action for Africa in 2023: three big developments  2023 is highly likely to be the hottest year ever recorded. And climate change is to blame for one-quarter of the global population being exposed to dangerous levels of extreme heat. We need signs that countries are taking steps to address this. Specifically, we need climate action that helps us adapt and that cuts greenhouse gas emissions, if we want to minimise the escalating losses and damages from climate change.
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S21Climate change: 3 key goals Nigeria must focus on at COP28  Global environmental stakeholders will converge in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, from 30 November to 12 December 2023 for the UN Climate conference known as COP28. The conference aims to continue negotiations to address the global climate crisis. Nigeria’s main agenda in the conference is climate finance needed for climate change mitigation and adaptation.Past conferences have resulted in some landmark agreements. However, the negotiation process to institute international climate finance has been thorny for developing countries. Nigeria’s diplomatic and negotiating strategies will have to be top-notch at COP28.
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S22S23S24S25How to get someone out of a cult - and what happens afterwards  At the beginning it looks like the group will meet some need or ideal. For most people it seems to work initially - at least somewhat. A recent Netflix documentary showed the experiences of people in the Twin Flames Universe group, which offers online courses in finding your soulmate. For those who joined Twin Flames, it seemed that they were no longer alone. Former members say every aspect of their lives were controlled. A statement on the group’s website says these claims “distort” their “true aims and methods” and “misrepresent the autonomy of our community members.”
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