How Spanish fluency became a competitive business advantage

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How Spanish fluency became a competitive business advantage     During her first couple years in the advertising industry, Dani Herrera says colleagues asked her questions like, "Should we schedule this meeting for later in the afternoon? I know you people like to take a little siesta after lunch" and "How come you speak English so well?"When Herrera moved from Argentina to New York City for work in her early 30s, she knew it would be a big adjustment – but she didn't expect to be on the receiving end of micro- and macro aggressions at work for her cultural and linguistic background. Continued here

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Visa exploitation review urges tougher penalties and a ban on temporary migrants in sex work. Would this solve the problem?     Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has railed against the exploitation of Australia’s migration system, saying it has been “used to perpetrate some of the worst crimes to humanity, sexual slavery and human trafficking”. After releasing a long-awaited review into the country’s immigration and visa system, conducted by former Victoria Police commissioner Christine Nixon, O'Neil pledged to take immediate action against the offences revealed in the report. Continued here

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The Sycamore Gap: four other significant tree destructions from history     The felling of a single sycamore tree prompted an outpouring of grief last week. The tree – known as the “Sycamore Gap” – had been an iconic landmark and its location, Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, is a protected Unesco world heritage site. The Sycamore Gap was an inspiration to photographers and artists and a focal point for common rites of passage – proposals, family reunions, remembering the dead. Planted in the late 19th century, the roots of the Sycamore Gap tree reached deep into individual and collective memory. The legends associated with such trees connect us with the past and remind us that we live in their shadow. Continued here

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A First-Generation Tale of Strife and Success     Alejandra Campoverdi grew up with her immigrant mother, aunts, and grandparents, in a crowded Santa Monica apartment with fashion-magazine cutouts on bedroom walls. Her outfits gestured toward the status to which she aspired. She wore a plaid uniform skirt to what is now Saint Monica Preparatory, the Catholic school she attended thanks to financial aid and her grandma taking on work as a teacher’s aide. In high school, she connected with her Latina identity and her teen-age, gang-member boyfriend, Spider, by dressing like a chola—a female counterpart to a cholo, a term often used to describe a Mexican American gang member—with brown lipstick, baggy pants, and hair teased high.Campoverdi was the first in her family to graduate from college, at the University of Southern California. There, she joined the Delta Delta Delta sorority; her new uniform, she writes, was “Reef sandals and Roxy shorts.” When she enrolled at the Harvard Kennedy School, she took “mental notes of the ‘Harvard look,’ ” opting for outfits such as a “red-and-white plaid blazer, jeans, and boots.” Campoverdi went on to work on the Presidential campaign of Illinois Senator Barack Obama and got a job in the Obama White House, where she “wore a blazer buttoned to my collarbone and a knee-length skirt.” She worked for Obama from his first day in office until 2012, spending part of that time as special assistant to the deputy chief of staff for policy, and the rest as deputy director of Hispanic media, a position that allowed her to help craft the Administration’s appeal to Latinos. Continued here

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Death of the Armenian dream in Nagorno-Karabakh was predictable but not inevitable     Thirty-five years ago, more than 100,000 Armenian protesters took to the streets to convince Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that Nagorno-Karabakh – an ethnically Armenian enclave stuck geographically in the neighboring republic of Soviet Azerbaijan – ought to be joined to Armenia.In recent days, more than 100,000 people have taken to the streets again. But this time it is Karabakh Armenians fleeing their homes to find refuge in Armenia. They have been decisively defeated by the Azerbaijanis in a short and brutal military operation in the enclave. Their dream of independence appears over; what is left is the fallout. Continued here

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The battle for NZ's farming heartland: Groundswell, ACT and the changing face of rural politics     Andrew Hoggard’s resignation in May as president of Federated Farmers, followed swiftly by his appearance high on the ACT Party’s candidate list, might have seemed seem like just another of the election’s minor subplots. But this abrupt change of political hats represents the latest step in a 20-year journey that has seen one of the oldest and most powerful political alliances in New Zealand history begin to break. Continued here

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Bradfield's pipedream: irrigating Australia's deserts won't increase rainfall, new modelling shows     For generations, Australians have been fascinated with the idea of turning our inland deserts green with lush vegetation. Both sides of politics have supported proposals to irrigate the country’s centre by turning northern rivers inland. Proponents have argued water lost to evaporation would rise through the atmosphere and fall back as rain, spreading the benefits throughout the desert. But this claim has hardly ever been tested. Continued here

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What is an attosecond? A physical chemist explains the tiny time scale behind Nobel Prize-winning research     “Atto” is the scientific notation prefix that represents 10⁻¹⁸, which is a decimal point followed by 17 zeroes and a 1. So a flash of light lasting an attosecond, or 0.000000000000000001 of a second, is an extremely short pulse of light. In fact, there are approximately as many attoseconds in one second as there are seconds in the age of the universe. Continued here

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Guerilla gardening: how you can make your local area greener without getting into trouble     When Richard Reynolds first started gardening around London’s streets, he was so worried he might be arrested that he worked under the cover of darkness. Reynolds was one of the UK’s first modern guerrilla gardeners, a movement that encourages people to nurture and revive land they do not have the legal rights to cultivate.Gardening, in general, offers physical and mental health benefits. But as many as one in eight British households have no access to a garden or outdoor space of their own. Continued here

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Everything Now: eating disorder recovery is treated with sensitivity and nuance in Netflix comedy drama     Netflix couldn’t have chosen a more resonant title than Everything Now for their new comedy drama series. When I came out of a residential clinic in 2009 for treatment of anorexia, I did a parachute jump, started volunteering and decided to have a baby on my own. Some of these were impulsive – yet heartfelt – attempts to “catch up” on a life that had been passing me by. This sense of things moving on while you have been trapped in the depths of an eating disorder is probably even more potent in the intensified temporal rhythms of teenage years. Continued here

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The F.T.C. Finally Takes On Amazon     Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, established her prominence as a legal scholar largely by critiquing Amazon’s sprawling business. In 2017, while she was still a student at Yale Law School, she published a paper titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” which argued that the accepted paradigm for analyzing antitrust violations was outdated. In the nineteen-seventies, American antitrust enforcement increasingly prioritized the so-called “consumer welfare” standard, which centered on the idea that consumer prices were the most important factor in judging whether a firm was engaged in anticompetitive behavior.Khan’s argument against the dominance of the consumer-welfare standard rested on an analysis of the business practices of Amazon—which she called “the titan of twenty-first century commerce,” and which now, according to some estimates, controls about half of the U.S.’s online-shopping market. Despite the fact that Amazon offered low prices, she wrote, its dominance was still detrimental to the economy. Amazon would sell products near or below cost in order to gain market share, making it more difficult for smaller businesses to compete, thereby reducing choices for consumers. In the era of the Internet, a framework that analyzed the benefits to consumers primarily through the metric of cost was no longer realistic, because, among other reasons, companies could use huge amounts of data to fine-tune what they charged particular shoppers for particular items. Even if the cost of goods wasn’t immediately going up, she wrote, companies like Amazon posed longer-term threats that needed to be taken seriously. Continued here

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Why was the US House speaker just ousted from his job? And what does it mean for the Republican Party?     US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been ousted – by his own Republican Party – from the second-most important post in the American government. It was the first time in US history a speaker had been voted out in this way. As speaker of the House of Representatives, McCarthy was the most powerful single individual in the legislative branch, able to directly impact government policies from national security to infrastructure investments. Continued here

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Why Obama's "Car Czar" Thinks Biden Should Stay Out of the U.A.W. Strike     Last Tuesday, President Biden joined members of the United Auto Workers on a picket line in Belleville, Michigan, as part of the union's strike against Detroit's big three automakers: General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, which owns Chrysler. Biden was the first American President to ever appear on a picket line, a signal that the Democratic Party, under his Administration, is increasingly willing to embrace labor unions, which in the past several years have reached their highest levels of popularity in more than half a century. (The next day, former President Donald Trump also travelled to Michigan, and gave a speech castigating the Biden Administration at a non-union manufacturing shop.)Biden's support for unions, especially compared with other recent Presidents, has not been met with universal approval within the Democratic Party. Steve Rattner, a former economics journalist and investor who became the "car czar" in the Obama Administration, criticized the move, telling NBC News, "For [Biden] to be going to a picket line is outrageous." I recently spoke by phone with Rattner, who is currently the chairman and C.E.O. of Willett Advisors, LLC, which manages the personal and philanthropic assets of Michael Bloomberg. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed his worries about the strike, why C.E.O. pay has grown so rapidly, and his critique of the Biden Administration. Continued here

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Climate change challenges marine conservation efforts in Atlantic Canada     Extreme ocean changes due to climate change are not an abstract or future scenario. This summer alone, 23 per cent of the world’s oceans experienced a heat wave, corresponding to an area roughly equivalent to the entire Atlantic Ocean. Those extreme events, against a backdrop of more gradual global warming, have widespread effects on ocean life and their environments. For example, some species might leave their preferred environment in favour of more suitable temperatures, others might adapt locally or go extinct. Continued here

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'We could eradicate malaria by 2040' says expert after revolutionary vaccine is approved by WHO     The World Health Organization has approved a new vaccine that scientists argue will be a game-changer in the fight against malaria, which kills half a million people in Africa every year. Trials have shown that the R21/Matrix vaccine, developed by Oxford University together with the Serum Institute of India, reduces malaria by up to 75%. It can be manufactured cheaply and on a mass scale. The Conversation Weekly spoke to chief investigator Adrian Hill, who is also director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, about this revolutionary vaccine. Below are edited excerpts from the podcast.We’re seeing about 75% efficacy by counting the reduction in numbers of malaria episodes over a year. The best vaccine prior to this was about 50% over a year, and lower than that over three years. Continued here

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4 Crucial Questions to Remember from 'Loki' Before Season 2     The TVA may be trying to save all time, but we’ll get you through the next few weeks of television.The Time Variance Authority may be all about manipulating time, but they haven’t stopped the wait for Loki Season 2 from being over two years long. In that span, we’ve seen new heroes enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Bruce Banner’s cousin twerk with Megan Thee Stallion, and an underwhelming secret invasion. Continued here

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Nobel prize in physics awarded for work unveiling the secrets of electrons     The 2023 Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to a trio of scientists for pioneering tools used to study the world of electrons.Electrons are sub-atomic particles that play a role in many phenomena we see every day, from electricity to magnetism. This year’s three Nobel physics laureates demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light in order to investigate processes that involve electrons. Continued here

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LGBTQ+ Americans feel they are just getting by in retirement and face greater financial risks     While preparing for retirement can be difficult for anyone, LGBTQ+ Americans face unique challenges that can cast a shadow over their golden years. For example, LGBTQ+ people over age 60 leave the workforce sooner, are less likely to believe that their retirement savings are on track and struggle more to pay medical bills than their straight and cisgender counterparts. They’re also twice as likely to report having experienced discrimination in the past year.These findings are based on our analysis of data from the the Federal Reserve Board’s annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, or SHED. We used data from 2019 to 2021 to compare the nearly 500 LGBTQ+ respondents age 60 and older with their cisgender counterparts. Continued here

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Here's why we need a disability rights act - not just a disability discrimination one     The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has shared its final report. In this series, we unpack what the commission’s 222 recommendations could mean for a more inclusive Australia.There were more than 200 recommendations for federal and state governments to consider within the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability’s final report, released on Friday. Continued here

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Grocery retailers are benefiting from food subsidies in Northern Canada     Soaring food prices, growing profit margins and record-high profits in the food industry have severely impacted the lives of many Canadians. According to Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s largest grocery chains recently agreed to work with the federal government to stabilize prices.But for Canadians living in remote northern communities, food affordability has been a crisis for decades. Grocery prices are routinely two to three times higher in Northern Canada. Continued here

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Sycamore Gap: what the long life of a single tree can tell us about centuries of change     Only a few individual trees could be rightly labelled as world famous, but the tree at Sycamore Gap along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England was one of them. No wonder its recent felling provoked public outcry and collective mourning. The tree’s dramatic and photogenic setting made it a culturally significant landmark, often used as a symbol of the surrounding Northumberland region. However, this single tree also symbolised our relationship with the landscape in this part of the world, both past and future. Continued here

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From glowing cats to wombats, fluorescent mammals are much more common than you'd think     Recently, several mammals have been reported to “glow” under ultraviolet (UV) light, including our beloved platypus. But no one knew how common it was among mammals until now.We also examined the glow to determine if it was really fluorescence and not some other phenomenon. Then, we tested if the fluorescence we observed in museum specimens was natural and not caused by preservation methods. Continued here

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Have some economists severely underestimated the financial hit from climate change? Recent evidence suggests yes     Senior lecturer in Economics / Institute for Climate Risk and Response, UNSW Sydney Scientists say severe climate change is now the greatest threat to humanity. Extreme weather is expected to upend lives and livelihoods, intensifying wildfires and pushing ecosystems towards collapse as ocean heatwaves savage coral reefs. The threats are far-reaching and widespread. Continued here

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Cosmetic surgery boosts some people's mental health - but for others it makes problems worse     Demand for cosmetic procedures is higher than ever. From breast augmentations to “tweakments” such as lip fillers and Botox, more and more people around the world each year are undergoing procedures to change how they look.There are many reasons why cosmetic procedures may be on the rise, from falling costs and lower stigma to social media and Instagram filters. Continued here

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Birds, worms, rabbits: Francis of Assisi was said to have loved them all - but today's pet blessings on his feast day might have seemed strange to the 13th century saint     Each year, if you happen to be in New York around Oct. 4, you may catch sight of something unusual: a whole menagerie of animals being welcomed into the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, from spaniels and parrots to even the occasional camel or cow.Since the end of the 20th century, it has become more and more common in the United States for animals and their human companions to be blessed on or around the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. The focus is usually on pets, though St. John the Divine’s Episcopal service is especially spectacular, with all kinds of creatures participating in a liturgy that includes a procession into the sanctuary, followed by blessings of individual animals outside. Continued here

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Superconductivity at room temperature remains elusive a century after a Nobel went to the scientist who demonstrated it below -450 degrees Fahrenheit     On April 8, 1911, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes scribbled in pencil an almost unintelligible note into a kitchen notebook: “near enough null.” The note referred to the electrical resistance he’d measured during a landmark experiment that would later be credited as the discovery of superconductivity. But first, he and his team would need many more trials to confirm the measurement. Continued here

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History teaching in South Africa could be vastly improved - if language skills were added to the mix     In recent years there’s been growing recognition among education experts that integrating content and language learning is key to promoting comprehensive academic achievement.This is particularly relevant in multilingual education systems where English serves as the primary medium of instruction. Continued here

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Book review: African thinkers analyse some of the big issues of our time - race, belonging and identity     The subjects of race, identity and belonging are often fraught with contention and uneasiness. Who are you? Who belongs? Who is native, or indigenous to a place? These perennial questions arise around the world.They are the subject of the book The Paradox(es) of Diasporic Identity, Race and Belonging, edited by Benjamin Maiangwa, a political scientist at Lakehead University in Canada. Continued here

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Do 'sputnik moments' spur educational reform? A rhetoric scholar weighs in     Ever since the USSR surprised the United States with the Oct. 4, 1957, launch of the world’s first artificial satellite – Sputnik 1 – U.S. politicians and other public figures have used the term “sputnik moment” to describe times of crisis, where some sort of action is urgently needed in the realm of education.From the publication of the landmark A Nation at Risk report on education in 1983 to the polarizing election of Donald Trump, one moment after another has been compared to the sputnik episode. Continued here

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You Need to Watch Tom Cruise's Best Sci-Fi Epic On Netflix ASAP     The most unrealistic thing about Steven Spielberg’s 2005 War of the Worlds remake is that Tom Cruise plays a character named Ray. Given all the heroic leads Cruise has played, thinking of him as a Ray seems impossible. Ethan, Peter, and even John are all fine for Cruise. But he’s no Ray. It feels like an unintentional nod to the “Martian heat-ray” weapon so prevalent in the 1953 movie and H.G. Wells’ original 1898 book. But truly shocking detail about this version of War of the Worlds is that it has no right to be as good as it is. Spielberg’s take on the classic is one of the best alien invasion movies of all time, and still looks and feels amazing today. It’s worth revisiting now that it’s on Netflix. Continued here

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Indigenous Peoples Day offers a reminder of Native American history - including the scalping they endured at the hands of Colonists     For the third year, the United States will officially observe Columbus Day alongside Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 9, 2023. In 2021, the Biden administration declared the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day. Continued here

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What Your Airplane-Seat Choice Says About You     Whether you gladly fork up the extra cash to secure control of the window shade, or are just a plain psycho who doesn’t mind being nestled between two complete strangers on a red-eye flight, here are some things that your airplane-seat choice says about you.Your last relationship ended because you wouldn’t move in, and now, late at night, you lie awake wracked with the profound certainty that they’re the one who got away. Continued here

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Climate change is about to play a big role in government purchases - with vast implications for the US economy     Associate Director of the Soil Carbon Solutions Center, Colorado State University Each year, the federal government purchases about 50,000 new vehicles. Until recently, almost all of them ran on diesel or gasoline, contributing to U.S. demand for fossil fuels and encouraging automakers to continue focusing on fossil-fueled vehicles. Continued here

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'Emotionally, he's destroyed me': why intimate partner sexual violence needs to be taken as seriously as stranger rape     Last month, That 70s Show actor Danny Masterson was found guilty of raping two women in the early 2000s. However, the jury could not reach a verdict on a third allegation of rape involving Masterson’s former girlfriend. The case, along with countless others, points to the challenges in understanding and responding to cases of intimate partner sexual violence. Intimate partner sexual violence refers to sexual harm and/or abuse perpetrated by a current or former partner. It can include rape and sexual assault, as well as a broader range of sexually harmful behaviours. Continued here

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How might the First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum affect Australia's international reputation?     In late September, American rap legend MC Hammer made a spectacular intervention into Australia’s upcoming referendum to establish a Voice to Parliament for First Nations people. In a tweet, he urged Australians to “repair the breach”. Hammer’s tweet garnered some 1.1 million views, 1,300 retweets and 5,700 likes. It also triggered a wave of online criticisms from “no” supporters. Some accused him of being a “one-hit wonder” with no place in the debate. Continued here

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I'm working to revitalize an Indigenous language and bring it into the future     Language is foundational to Indigenous communities, including my own, and a vital connection to our cultures. It is well documented how residential schools in Canada and boarding schools in the U.S. devastated Indigenous languages and severed cultural connections. While our languages are in decline, efforts to sustain them are ongoing, and I am taking part in that work. Continued here

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Is marriage modern? Anna Kate Blair's novel poses the question, but doesn't answer it     Sophia’s fellowship at MoMA is coming to an end. About to turn 30, she is facing future job precarity. In this transitional state, she becomes engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Robert – an academic and avid hiker, who plops a marriage proposal onto her lap, then embarks on a five-month trek through the Appalachian Mountains.Sophia’s engagement shakes out a constellation of loose questions about potential choices, possibilities and limitations. Her relationships have previously been with women, her queerness suppressed in a longstanding heterosexual relationship that is easy and affirming, but ultimately, the reader feels, taken for granted – not so much by Robert as by Sophia herself. Continued here

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The dawn of domestic robots could dramatically cut gender inequality when it comes to household work     Domestic work is vital for society to function. Meals need to be cooked, clothes and homes cleaned, and people need to be cared for. These tasks take time and, generally speaking, are not shared equally within households. Some of these tasks are now becoming automated. This could benefit gender equality, but we also need to monitor some of the risks. Continued here

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What the new Assassin's Creed game tells us about ninth-century Baghdad - from the art historian who worked on the game     Gamers the world over will be familiar with the incredibly detailed historic cityscapes the Assassin’s Creed franchise has produced so far. Following earlier forays into ancient Damascus and Athens, the forthcoming instalment, Mirage, takes players into ninth-century Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate.As an expert in Islamic architecture, art, and history, I worked with world design director Maxime Durand and Mirage historian Raphaël Weyland to bolster the game’s historical grounding, including the new educational feature, entitled The History of Baghdad. Gamers will be able to explore, in an interactive way, the economy, government, arts, beliefs and daily life of the time. Continued here

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In the depths of Hobart's MONA, a volcano is stirring     In the darkness, a rumble. A sonorous boom. Deep within the subterranean caverns of MONA, a volcano stirs. This is Hrafntinna (Obsidian), an immersive installation by Icelandic artist and musician Jónsi.While living in Los Angeles in 2021, pandemic restrictions prevented Jónsi (frontman of Sigur Rós) from experiencing firsthand the eruption of Fagradalsfjall, 40 km from his hometown of Reykjavik, Iceland. Continued here