Inflation may be coming down but its unequal effects can still have a big impact on wellbeing

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Inflation may be coming down but its unequal effects can still have a big impact on wellbeing     Inflation is coming down across developed economies, although not as much as governments and central banks would like. The latest figures tracking UK inflation show prices rose by 7.3% in the year to June 2023, down from 7.9% in May, but still well above the government’s official target of 2%. It’s slowing even more in other major economies including the US and Europe but, again, remains higher than desired. Imagine the following scenario. You commute to work by car and you realise that your petrol bill is 10% higher than last year. Your workplace hasn’t changed location, your car hasn’t changed, your consumption hasn’t changed, but prices have. Annoying, isn’t it? Continued here

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Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie is a 'feminist bimbo' classic - and no, that's not an oxymoron     For some, Barbie is the ultimate “girlboss” – she’s glamourous, successful and owns her own DreamHouse. For others, Barbie represents an outdated female stereotype – a “blonde bimbo girl in a fantasy world”, according to Aqua’s 1997 hit song Barbie Girl. Just ask the man with the megaphone stood outside the press screening of the new Barbie film that I attended in Leicester Square. Vehemently protesting the film, he insisted that Barbie is a bad role model and a danger to young women. Continued here

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A foodie pilgrimage around Auckland, with internationally acclaimed chef Peter Gordon     New Zealand's most populous city sprawls across an isthmus between two harbours, its downtown commercial district perched on the waterfront of the Waitematā, a spiky cluster of skyscrapers and sails. Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population – and one of the most culturally diverse populations – in the world, and its refreshingly unique food culture is heavily inspired by this multiculturalism, along with the region's fertile volcanic soils and its bounty of seafood.As founding chef of a number of Auckland restaurants over the past few decades, including The Sugar Club, which remains at the top of the city's Sky Tower, internationally acclaimed chef Peter Gordon has long been associated with the cutting edge of the city's culinary scene. And after more than 30 years based in London, his restaurants building his reputation as the "godfather of fusion cooking", Gordon returned to Auckland in 2020 to create something he'd long yearned for: a "food embassy for Aotearoa [New Zealand] and the Pacific". Continued here

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eNaira: Nigeria's digital currency has had a slow start - what's holding it back     Nigeria was the first country in Africa to roll out a central bank digital currency. The eNaira was launched in October 2021. The main reasons were to promote financial inclusion, increase cross-border transactions, facilitate diaspora remittances and complement existing payment systems. Continued here

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Asymptomatic COVID-19 is linked to a gene variant that boosts immune memory after exposure to prior seasonal cold viruses     A common genetic variant explains why some people are asymptomatic after being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, according to our recently published study in the journal Nature.Early in the pandemic, we were intrigued that many people did not develop COVID-19 symptoms while still testing positive for it. Because asymptomatic people are unlikely to seek medical help, we knew that collecting DNA samples to study the role of genetics in asymptomatic infections would be difficult. So instead, we took advantage of existing genetic data stored in the Be The Match U.S. bone marrow donor registry. Continued here

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COVID: a gene mutation could help explain why some people don't get symptoms - new research     One aspect of the COVID pandemic that has fascinated both scientists and the public alike is how the infection affects people differently.I’ve previously discussed the potential reasons some people have managed to avoid infection completely. But for those who have been infected, symptoms can range from a mild cold-like illness, to something resembling a flu, to severe respiratory distress and even death. Continued here

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How the UK's new immigration law will put more people at risk of modern slavery     The UK’s illegal migration bill is set to become law after going back and forth between the two houses of parliament. The final sticking point, which the House of Lords tried to address in a series of amendments, was about the bill’s treatment of people who have experienced modern slavery.The government’s aim with the bill is to crack down on small boat crossings. It stipulates that if someone arrives in the UK irregularly, there will be a duty on the home secretary to detain and remove them from the UK. They will also not be able to access protections under the Modern Slavery Act. Continued here

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A celebratory strawberry cake for Sweden's Midsummer festival     On the Thursday night that falls between 18 and 24 June each year, cities all over Sweden go quiet. Stockholm's elegant and bustling streets are empty. Traffic builds on the motorway outside Gothenburg as locals head for the islands. That's when the Swedish countryside calls its people back for a festival celebrating seasonal dishes, fertility and the longest day of the year, held on the Friday closest to the summer solstice. This enchanted event is called Midsummer Eve."In history, the night before Midsummer Day was one of the year's eight magic nights where you could predict the future, and a sort of magic window to the future was open," said Richard Tellström, an author and expert in Swedish food culture. "You could see, if you were lucky, who you were going to marry. So, Midsummer Eve was a party time for youngsters, not elderly people. Historically, there was a big haymaking feast, important for all people living in the countryside before the 1930s, and today that party has merged with the Midsummer festivities." Continued here

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A mysterious interstellar radio signal has been blinking on and off every 22 minutes for over 30 years     Last year, we made an intriguing discovery – a radio signal in space that switched on and off every 18 minutes. Astronomers expect to see some repeating radio signals in space, but they usually blink on and off much more quickly. The most common repeating signals come from pulsars, rotating neutron stars that emit energetic beams like lighthouses, causing them to blink on and off as they rotate towards and away from the Earth. Continued here

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Wonder-Sighting on Planet Earth: The Space Telescope Eye of the Scallop     Each month, I spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars keeping The Marginalian going. For seventeen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor has made your own life more livable in the past year (or the past decade), please consider aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. Your support makes all the difference.“The Eye altering alters all,” William Blake wrote not long before Darwin extolled the eye as the crown jewel of evolution — an organ of “such wonderful structure” and “inimitable perfection” that it magnetizes us to the mystery of life itself. In On the Origin of Species, he began a section titled “Organs of Extreme Perfection and Complication” with a love letter to the eye:To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree. Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real. How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself first originated. Continued here

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Kenya's politicians continue to use ethnicity to divide and rule - 60 years after independence     University of Johannesburg provides support as an endorsing partner of The Conversation AFRICA.Since independence in 1963, Kenya’s politicians have fed and manipulated ethnicity to win elections. Continued here

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Sustainability Progress Is Stalled at Most Companies     Our summer special report helps leaders gain a comprehensive view of risks, learn how to overcome market disrupters, and manage the analytical tools that provide predictive insight for decision-making.Our summer special report helps leaders gain a comprehensive view of risks, learn how to overcome market disrupters, and manage the analytical tools that provide predictive insight for decision-making.While many companies talk the talk of sustainability, claiming to be integrating environmental and societal concerns into their business models, far fewer walk the walk: Managers typically treat sustainability as someone else’s problem and relegate it to a department or even a single individual.1 On the other hand, companies that have been successful in transforming their business models to be more sustainable have embedded sustainability into their corporate DNA. This means that they have endowed their employees with a sense of sustainable ownership, spurring them to engage in more sustainability-supporting behaviors. When every employee integrates environmental and social concerns into every business decision, sustainability progress is accelerated — an aspirational goal for all companies. Continued here

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How New CEOs Establish Legitimacy     CEOs are given the authority to lead by the rules of corporate governance. They gain additional influence and credibility by demonstrating competence. CEOs who achieve legitimacy have a higher level of trust and influence. This legitimacy will be gained by consistently demonstrating specific behaviors. Continued here

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Bola Tinubu is the new chair of ECOWAS - the burning issues that face the Nigerian president     Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected as chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on 9 July 2023. He took over from President Umaro Sissoco Embaló of Guinea Bissau.Nigeria’s experience is needed now to reposition the regional body. The country’s leadership status in west Africa will be useful, considering the challenges confronting the sub-region. Continued here

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As heat records fall, how hot is too hot for the human body?     Daniel Vecellio is supported by a training grant from the National Institute on Aging through the Penn State Center for Healthy Aging.Rachel Cottle is supported by a training grant from the National Institute on Aging through the Penn State Center for Healthy Aging. Continued here

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How having five friends boosts the adolescent brain - and educational performance     As most parents of teenagers are acutely aware, there comes a time when children start prioritising their friends over their parents. While young children rely on their parents for social interactions and influences, there’s a notable switch during adolescence, where the influence from peers and friends becomes more important. Research backs up the idea that friendships are particularly important during adolescent years. They seem to protect against some problems with emotions and behaviour. Amazingly, it appears that our brains can even become synchronised with our friends’. Continued here

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Illegal migration bill to become law: what you need to know     The UK government has succeeded in passing its illegal migration bill. After a series of late-night votes and months of controversy, the bill is now set to receive royal assent and become the Illegal Migration Act 2023. The following round-up will give you the key details of the bill and the analysis of the academic experts who have written about it for The Conversation.The illegal migration bill is the central pillar of Rishi Sunak’s plan to stop small boat crossings, one of his five promises as prime minister. On its journey to becoming law, the bill faced opposition from the House of Lords, Conservative backbenchers in the House of Commons, activists and organisations who support refugees in the UK, and the United Nations. Continued here

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Judicial activism has had vastly different impacts on Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump     Earlier this summer, Brazil’s top electoral court banned former president Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years. Bolsonaro is 68 and will be unable to run for president until he’s 75.Five of seven electoral court judges supported the ban on Bolsonaro, who, in the lead-up to the 2022 election, spread misinformation about the legitimacy of Brazil’s electronic voting system. Continued here

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Ancient DNA reveals the earliest evidence of the last massive human migration to Western Europe     Nomadic animal-herders from the Eurasian steppe mingled with Copper Age farmers in southeastern Europe centuries earlier than previously thought. In a new study published in Nature, we used ancient DNA to gain new insights into the spread of culture, technologies and ancestry at a crucial juncture in European history. Continued here

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Holy voter suppression, Batgirl! What comics reveal about gender and democracy     Each July, comics fans, professionals and scholars descend on San Diego, California, for Comic-Con International – a celebration of the art and business of the comics industry. Comic books used to be a niche genre of interest to a narrow subset of popular culture enthusiasts. Since the 1970s, however, they increasingly have supplied the characters and stories on which film, television and streaming media empires are founded. Marvel, home of the Avengers, turned an almost broke comics and toy company into one of the most lucrative movie franchises in history and became one pillar of Disney’s streaming media empire. Sony continues to make money from its share of the Spider-Man franchise. DC Comics originated fan favorites Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Although their transition to film did not match Marvel’s success, WarnerMedia has doubled down on its investment in DC superheroes. Continued here

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What 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. Continued here

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Are You Failing to Prepare the Next Generation of C-Suite Leaders? - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM DAGGERWING     For many people leaders, that’s been the mantra for the past three years. “Let’s just get through this moment in time, focus on the short-term solutions for our immediate needs, and when things go back to normal, we’ll deal with all the issues we’ve been putting on the backburner.” Continued here

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How chefs became rock stars     Culinary shows such as Top Chef attract millions of viewers. Audiences eagerly tune in weekly to watch famous chefs in impeccable attire offer their advice or criticism of a variety of dishes. The success of these shows can be long-lasting. The Netflix the documentary series Chef’s Table has been running since 2015. It features virtuoso chefs from around the world who would appear to have no end of stories and elaborate recipes. Today, chefs seem to have achieved a rock-star status that their yesteryear peers could barely have imagined. However, the road to such professional admiration has been long and arduous. Continued here

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Drawing in the sand at the beach? Our ancestors did the same 140,000 years ago     The urge to draw images in sand, or create sand sculptures, seems to be irresistible, as a walk on many a modern beach or dune surface will show. Sand is a vast canvas – and may have been used as one for far longer than people realise.When people think of ancient palaeoart, cave paintings (pictographs), rock engravings (petroglyphs), images on trees (dendroglyphs) or arrangements of rocks in patterns (geoglyphs) might come to mind. Until recently it was only possible to speculate that the oldest art might have been in sand. Continued here

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Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - a modern spy film that knows the value of old tech     Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is a pulsatingly entertaining spy film that combines frenetic action, globetrotting visuals and spectacular set pieces. The film is the latest in a near 30-year franchise (itself an adaptation of a popular 1960s TV spy series), Mission Impossible is characterised by state-of-the-art surveillance systems. Dead Reckoning confronts the implications of over-reliance on digital technology. Continued here

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France and Germany clash in race for energy transition     Directeur de recherche émérite au CNRS, économiste de l’énergie, Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) Professeure associée et coordinatrice de la chaire « Energy for Society », Grenoble École de Management (GEM) Continued here

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7 Ways to Make Employees Feel Respected, According to Research     Treating everyone with respect is the foundation of good leadership. Employees who feel disrespected are more likely to also feel excluded or even inferior. The authors offer seven behaviors, based on their analysis of data collected from more than 4,500 employees, that lead to a demonstration and feeling of respect. These include valuing diversity, staying in touch with individuals’ issues and concerns, building trusted, resolving conflicts, balancing results with a concern for others, encouraging open discussion, and giving honest feedback. Authentic and consistent implementation of these behaviors will help you establish a culture of respect and support. Continued here

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Leading 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. Continued here

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You Need to Watch Steven Soderbergh's Secret New Sci-Fi Project ASAP     Directors often make their names with personal projects, then cash in on their new reputation with big studio gigs. For every Nomadland, you’re likely to see several Eternals. But some lucky directors still have the time, clout, and finances to make projects that exist purely for the passion of filmmaking.Steven Soderbergh is one such director. After making a name for himself with Ocean’s Eleven and Magic Mike, he surprised fans with two miniseries released with little to no fanfare this summer. One, Full Circle, is available on Max. The other is a bit harder to find, but absolutely worth it. Continued here

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The Lure of Urban Fishing     Last year, when the journalist Esther Wang was approached by some friends who were starting a local news organization, she agreed to join them, on two conditions. First, she didn’t want to do any podcasting. Second, she wanted to write a column about the hobby with which she had recently become obsessed: fishing in the polluted rivers, man-made ponds, and noxious canals of New York. Wang’s friends agreed to her terms. Their Web site, Hell Gate, launched in May, 2022. OnlyFins, Wang’s fishing column, débuted that same month.“Somehow, they’ve convinced me to podcast,” Wang said recently, standing on a bank beside Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Lake. “So we’ve both won.” With a flick of her wrist, Wang cast a line into the murky water, and her lure, a dark plastic worm, landed with a plop. She slowly reeled the line back in, waiting for a bite. Fishing, with proper permits, is allowed and practiced in all five of New York’s boroughs. The Hudson River is a big draw; it is one of the most significant striped-bass spawning areas in the country, and city fishermen, who cast from boats, piers, and sidewalks, have been known to catch fifty-pounders during the fish’s biannual migrations. (“No fish is more emblematic of New York’s waterfront setting,” the Times once reported.) The city’s freshwater scene isn’t half bad, either. Black crappie, yellow perch, bluegill, and common carp all live in Prospect Park Lake, the last lake in Brooklyn. “You hear about these mythical five-pound bass in the lake,” Wang said, pulling her rod up and frowning at her empty hook. Turtles bobbed in the water, gazing at us. “One time, I snagged a turtle,” she said. “I felt really bad.” Continued here