Here's the Number 2 Reason Remote Workers Won't Go Back to the Office, According to a Survey

Let's talk about something almost nobody likes to talk about.

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To Adapt During Crisis, Take a Lesson From Jazz

The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.The winter 2024 issue features a special report on sustainability, and provides insights on developing leadership skills, recognizing and addressing caste discrimination, and engaging in strategic planning and execution.Crises, whether supply chain disruptions, natural disasters, or the arrival of an upstart rival, are a revealing moment for leaders. Such scenarios can push companies to the brink of meltdown or usher in dramatic organizational transformation. Whether an organization withers or thrives during a crisis is shaped by its resourcefulness — how it uses its existing resources.

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Do mocktails scratch the Dry January itch?

For Chicago comedian Kristi Durkin, 1 January ushered in a wave of new year's excitement – and a 31-day alcohol-free challenge. "Everyone on the internet is going sober," jokes Durkin. "Everyone is drinking, like, tart cherry juice, and I'm really susceptible to internet trends."Durkin, 26, has latched onto Dry January, an annual challenge popularised by advocacy group Alcohol Change UK. Each January, participants commit to a month without alcohol, ostensibly to "dry out" after the holidays, and explore the merits of a sober lifestyle

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Tilgul: A Indian sweet that encourages kind words

My cousin handed me a fistful of a tilgul, a simple gul (jaggery) and sesame sweet made with ghee (clarified butter), whispering words that everyone should carry with them at all times of the year: "tilgul ghya, goad-goad bola" ("take this sweet, speak good and kind words"). The words, a mantra for joyful and kind-hearted living, are typically spoken as people exchange the treatin the western state of Maharashtra to mark Makar Sankranti, an Indian holiday on 14-15 January that honours the year's end and a new beginning.As children, my cousins and I grabbed chunks of the tilgul – available as ladoo (round sweets), papdi (brittle), barfi (fudge), revdi (coin-sized treats), gajak (bars) and other forms – as we beelined for the door to the yard to resume playtime. The significance of the words was lost on us at that time; today, as mums ourselves, we realise the importance and implication of exhorting kindness and goodness in a world that can be unbearably hard and hostile.

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In re-electing its government, Taiwan has kept the status quo, but the victory hides a transformed political landscape

After months of intense campaigning, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) emerged victorious in the 2024 Taiwan presidential election, securing an historic third consecutive term. However, the party’s dominance has gone from absolute to relative; it secured only 40% of the presidential votes, and fell short of retaining the majority of legislative seats. Meanwhile, the Kuomintang (KMT) failed to retake the presidency as well as the majority of legislative seats. The remaining seats are held by Taiwan People’s Party (TPP).

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Urban Kenyans mistrust police even more than rural residents do: study sets out why it matters

Across the African continent – from Nigeria and Ghana to South Africa – widespread protests have taken place to demand police reform in the wake of police misconduct and brutality. A continent-wide survey done in 2022 shows very low trust in the police and a prevailing perception of the police as the most corrupt among key institutions.Low public trust in police poses a serious problem for the most central state institution tasked with upholding law and order. Trust influences both police effectiveness and the perception of safety among the public.

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60% of Africa's food is based on wheat, rice and maize - the continent's crop treasure trove is being neglected

By 2020, about 20% of the continent’s population (281.6 million) faced hunger. This figure is likely to have increased, given the impacts of successive droughts, floods and COVID-19.Yet historically, Africa had 30,000 edible plant species, and 7,000 were traditionally cultivated or foraged for food. The continent is a treasure trove of agrobiodiversity (a diversity of types of crops and animals) and its countries could easily feed themselves.

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Don't count Biden out: January polls are historically unreliable

As 2024 begins, Joe Biden’s hopes of being re-elected president of the United States look shaky. Recent approval ratings have him at 39 per cent, consumer sentiment on the economy sits near a 10-year low and early polls have him down about two points in a hypothetical rematch with Donald Trump. First, in seven of the last eight presidential elections, the Democrat has won more votes. The Electoral College aside, American voters lean Democratic.

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Canadian schools need to address digital sexual violence in their curricula and policies

Technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) is on the rise among Canadian youth. In an international study that included Canada, over half of the young women and girls surveyed reported being sexually threatened and/or sexually harassed online. This kind of sexual violence can include online sexual harassment, extortion, receiving unsolicited explicit images and non-consensual distribution of intimate images.More than four in five undergraduate students in Canada have reported experiencing online sexual violence, including sexually explicit comments, emails or messages.

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How to strengthen community resilience in a world plagued by crises

Rural communities are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, a new federal report has found, because they often have fewer resources to handle environmental or social disruptions. While these communities may be innovative, they often lack access to the resources that broad networks, connections and collaboration can bring. Their focus on addressing immediate issues often depletes any existing resources, which limits their ability to build connections and networks.

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Canada should not fall behind on implementing safety measures for children online

Public Scholar & PhD Candidate, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University Recent legislation about age verification for adult content sites has sparked an interesting scenario in the Canadian parliament. On Dec. 13, Bill S-210, An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material, passed the second reading in the House of Commons with a vote of 189 to 133.

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When should you start? How much should you give? How to make sure pocket money teaches your kids financial skills

Giving kids pocket money can be a really challenging decision for families. It raises questions about when to start it, how much to give and whether it should be tied to chores. There is no one “right age” but you could reasonably consider pocket money when children start school and begin learning to add and subtract.

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More than 4 billion people are eligible to vote in an election in 2024. Is this democracy's biggest test?

2024 is going to be democracy’s biggest year ever. In a remarkable milestone in human history, over four billion people – more than half of the world’s population across more than 40 countries – will go to the polls.National elections will be held in the United States, India, Indonesia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Mexico, and South Africa to name just a few. The European Union will also go to the polls. This busy calendar of elections is as extraordinary for the diversity of nations and peoples participating as it is for its huge scale.

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The first Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain. How can I use the Disney character?

The earliest versions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse entered the public domain in the United States at the start of this year, 95 years since they were introduced to the public in the film Steamboat Willie. Many characters come into the public domain on New Year’s Day (Public Domain Day) every year. For works “made for hire”, including films, copyright in the United States lasts 95 years; for other works it is the life of an author plus 70 years.

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Help, I've just discovered my teen has watched porn! What should I do?

Unlike in previous generations, you’re unlikely to discover your adolescent’s first exposure to adult sexual content from finding a scrunched-up Playboy magazine under their mattress. With easy access to the internet and the use of tablets and mobile phones, it’s more likely to be from free, mainstream online porn. And it can be a very shocking introduction to sex.

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Do they see what we see? Bees and wasps join humans in being tricked by illusions of quantity

If you’ve ever been tricked by a visual illusion, you know the feeling of disconnect between what your eyes perceive and what is actually there. Visual illusions occur due to errors in our perception, causing us to misperceive certain characteristics of objects or scenes.As it turns out, many non-human animals also experience these effects, including illusions of item size, brightness, colour, shape, orientation, motion or quantity. We study these illusions and the differences between animals as it can tell us how visual systems evolved.

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Antarctica is the only continent without a permanent human population, but it has inspired a wealth of imaginative literature

When I was working on my book Antarctica in Fiction, friends and colleagues would joke about what an easy task I had taken on. How many writers would choose to set a novel in a continent with no permanent human population? Surely a dozen or so books would cover it. To begin with, I too vastly underestimated the work involved. I quickly found that there are many hundreds of novels set in Antarctica, even if you limit the selection to those available in English.

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As the billionaires gather at Davos, it's worth examining what's become of their dreams

Gathering for their annual World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland this week, the world’s business and political elite will be digesting some unpleasant reading courtesy of the aid agency Oxfam International. Oxfam’s annual report on global inequality released this morning shows the wealth of the world’s five richest billionaires has more than doubled since the start of the decade, while 60% of humanity has grown poorer.

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TikTok says orange cats are 'dumb', and tortoiseshell cats have 'an attitude'. But how true is that?

If you’ve watched cat videos on social media lately, you may have encountered the idea a cat’s coat colour tells us something about their personality. Orange cats are supposedly “dumb”, always falling off beds or getting themselves stuck in awkward places. Tortoiseshell cats are often said to have a strong-willed attitude (sometimes referred to as “tortitude”). Black cats are “smarter”, if social media is to be believed.

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Freshwater national poll holds steady at a 50--50 tie between Labor and the Coalition as Trump set for big win in Iowa caucus

Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Freshwater poll for The Sunday Telegraph had a 50–50 tie between Labor and the Coalition, unchanged from a Freshwater poll for The Financial Review in mid-December.

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Following the Voice failure, Indigenous politicians are calling for the UN's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to be implemented. What is it and what would it mean?

Senior Yorta Yorta Elder and Fellow School of Social and Political Science, University of Melbourne., The University of Melbourne The Voice referendum was a disappointing result for many, but there is hope that much of its vision could be achieved via a different path. The Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs has presented a report to federal parliament calling for the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

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The Thomas Edison of Bedding

Los Angeles is lousy with pitches—unsolicited ideas proffered in elevators, at buffet spreads, while waiting for the barista to brew a chagaccino. In recent years, friends of Lee Eisenberg, an Emmy-nominated writer (“The Office”) and creator (“Jury Duty”), had been worn down by his spiels on his latest project—a new kind of duvet cover. No more wrestling unruly comforters into floppy, restrictive sleeves with elusive corners, Eisenberg promised. Heads nodded, but eyes rolled, too. “Everyone acknowledged there was a problem,” he recalled recently. “I don’t know that anyone acknowledged I was the person to fix it.”Eisenberg has now sold hundreds of told-you-so’s, at almost two hundred bucks a pop. While traditional duvet covers open on one side, requiring a bed-maker to awkwardly slide a comforter through a single entry slot, Eisenberg’s Nuvet unzips on three sides. He likens the situation with traditional duvet-cover design to “having two pieces of bread and trying to smush the meat in, or the tomatoes.” He pressed his palms together horizontally to illustrate. “That’s a really stupid way of making a sandwich.” The Nuvet, he said, is open-faced.

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'Beyond The Spider-Verse' Might Erase the Franchise's Most Intriguing Villain

Miles Morales is a long way from home in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. In a shocking twist, Brooklyn’s one and only wallcrawler is transported to a universe that’s not his own, Earth-42. There, he comes face to face with himself: Miles G. Morales. In this timeline, Miles was never bitten by a radioactive spider, and thus never became Spider-Man. Instead, he followed in his uncle’s footsteps to become the Prowler, a development that will spell real trouble for our Miles in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.Aside from the threads set up in Across’ cliffhanger ending, not much is known about the plot of Beyond the Spider-Verse. Miles is trapped in Earth-42, while Gwen Stacy, Peter B. Parker, and his other friends are launching a rescue mission to bring him home. Miles is also racing against time to save his father from an imminent demise, which also happens to be a canon event: an experience that cannot be prevented without tearing apart the very fabric of time and space.

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Einstein's "Greatest Mistake" Could Actually Help Explain Why the Universe Is Expanding So Quickly

Dark energy may be a hypothetical vacuum energy first proposed by Einstein — or it may be something stranger and more complicated that changes over time.For the past quarter of a century, scientists have believed “normal” stuff like atoms and molecules that make up you, me, Earth, and nearly everything we can see only accounts for 5 percent of the universe. Another 25 percent is “dark matter,” an unknown substance we can’t see but which we can detect through how it affects normal matter via gravity.

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