The 'gay world cup': why LGBTQ+ audiences love Eurovision

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The 'gay world cup': why LGBTQ+ audiences love Eurovision   In 1956, seven European countries – Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany – gathered in Lugano, Switzerland for the first ever Eurovision Song Contest. The competition was only broadcast in select countries, meaning only a small number of viewers watched Swiss entry Lys Assia win the grand prize with the song Refrain.Over the years, the contest has become a glitzy, kitschy spectacle of both the beautiful and the bizarre, drawing in over 160 million viewers at last year’s event. In 2023, Eurovision returns to the UK (last year’s runners up) on behalf of 2022 winners Ukraine for the first time since 1998, a day few anticipated after years of zero success. Continued here

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How Women End Up on the "Glass Cliff"   By now everyone is familiar with the glass ceiling—the informal barrier that keeps women out of upper management. In the past few years, researchers have found that women have a better chance of breaking through that ceiling when an organization is facing a crisis—thus finding themselves on what Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam, of the University of Exeter, have termed the “glass cliff.” But the question remains why. Continued here

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The 4 Types of Organizational Politics   Politics can become a dysfunctional force in organizations, but it can also be beneficial. To learn how to skillfully navigate organizational politics, managers first have to map the terrain. To do this, consider two questions: are you dealing with politics at the individual level or the enterprise level? And second, are you dealing with formal authority and structures or hidden, unspoken norms? Depending on the answers to these two questions, we end up with four different types of political terrain: “the weeds,” where personal influence and informal networks rule; “the rocks,” where power rests on individual interactions and formal sources of authority; the “high ground,” which combines formal authority with organizational systems; and “the woods,” or an organization’s implicit norms, hidden assumptions, and unspoken routines. Influential executives understand how to navigate all four terrains. Continued here

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Pillars of Resilient Digital Transformation - SPONSORED CONTENT FROM Red Hat   The acceleration of digital transformation because of the pandemic recast the position of the chief information officer (CIO) to that of a big-picture strategist. From ensuring ongoing alignment of IT and business demands to leading the transition to full digital enablement, the CIO role requires expert proficiency in a broad range of both technology and management skills. Continued here

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Deciding Whether to Respond to Breaking News (or Not)   As leaders, there is no way to anticipate and be ready with a public response for every scenario. In this excerpt from her new book, Pfizer Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Sally Susman provides a five-point framework of questions to help leaders figure out whether and how to weigh-in: Does the issue relate to our purpose? How does it impact our stakeholders? What are our choices for engagement? What’s the price of our silence? How does the issue relate to our values? Continued here

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With Burnout on the Rise, What Can Companies Do About It?   In Microsoft’s most recent Work Trend Index — a global survey of workers across multiple industries and companies — 48% of employees reported feeling burned out at work. This is a startling statistic that shows how an old problem is taking on new meaning in a more uncertain world. As we redefine the workplace for the next generation, HR and people managers have an opportunity to help address the human energy crisis and proactively turn the tide against burnout. Demographic data from the Work Trend Index shows that burnout is prevalent among people of all ages but is 11 percentage points worse for Gen Z and millennials (53%) — those in the early phase of their career or rising leaders — than for baby boomers (42%). Fixing burnout starts with listening intently to employees to identify the warning signs — and then working proactively to address issues before they arise. In this article, we point to the importance of measuring true burnout and its three dimensions, explore some of the impacts of burnout we’ve found in our internal research, and identify what leaders, managers, and employees can do to mitigate these negative effects of burnout. Continued here

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Flies' head: a spicy stir-fry from Taiwan   In the early 2000s, a curious dish named "flies' head" began to appear on restaurant menus across Taiwan - a stir-fry of garlic chives and pork mince, accented with tiny bits of fermented black beans."It has a similar colour scheme to a green bottle fly, which is how it gets its name," said Taiwanese food writer Chen Ching-I. "The body is greenish and brown, which are like the chives and the pork." She noted that the fermented black beans are reminiscent of the fly's beady, dark eyes. Continued here

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Suzume, Polite Society, John Wick: Twelve of the best films of 2023 so far   This tough-minded, heart-breaking drama about race, class and motherhood was France's entry to last year's Oscar race, and I'm still mystified as to why it wasn't nominated. Alice Diop puts her experience making documentaries to good use, as she bases her story on the real-life case of a young Senegalese woman in France charged with abandoning her baby on a beach to die. Diop invents Rama, a pregnant novelist who goes to the town of Saint Omer to witness the trial, which plays into her own doubts and fears. As Laurence, the mother on trial, Guslagie Malanda is unnaturally calm, almost frozen in resignation. Kayije Kagame as Rama lets you see her mind racing and her heart pounding as she watches, even though her face is impassive. Diop based her dialogue on court transcripts, but the results go far beyond dry facts on the page to create an enthralling film with two profound and vivid women on screen. (CJ)Lucas Dhont follows his award-winning debut, Girl, with another delicate yet emotionally shattering coming-of-age drama that is so naturalistic you could mistake it for a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Its heroes are Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav de Waele), two 13-year-old boys who enjoy an intimate friendship in bucolic Belgium. But when they enrol in a new school, peer pressure stretches their relationship to breaking point. Superhumanly sensitive to the pains of being a teenager, Dhont understands that it doesn't take overt bullying to make young people feel as if they are under unbearable attack. The boys' classmates' casual questions are enough to change them forever. (NB) Continued here

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S8

A new source of fire records, hidden in the sands, gives us a bigger picture of the risks   Sand dunes are not an obvious place to find high-quality fire records. For a start, anyone who walks on the forested sand dunes of South-East Queensland will be impressed by the intensity of ant activity at their feet. The ant nests extend at least 2 metres below the surface. As the ants move materials around their nests, any charcoal from past fires that’s preserved in the sand would be severely disturbed.Somewhat surprisingly, though, soil pits dug at the bottom of the slope of dune front walls (the leading edge of a dune) revealed different sediment layers are preserved there. This shows ant activity is not intense on the foot slopes. It’s possible for undisturbed charcoal records to be recovered from this part of the dune. Continued here

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The Nakba: 75 years after losing their home, the Palestinians are still experiencing the "catastrophe"   When Palestinians commemorate the Nakba (the catastrophe) on May 15, they are not only remembering a violent historical event that took place 75 years ago which led to the uprooting of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. Nor just the destruction of more than 400 villages and towns and the killing of thousands others. They are also marking the fact that the Nakba did not end in 1948, but continues in different forms to this day.What Palestinians call “ongoing Nakba” still generates suffering, destruction of homes and loss of Palestinian lives. They experience it in the continuing Israeli annexation of their land and attacks launched regularly against their homes in Gaza. And they see it in the regular violations of their human rights, both inside Israel and in the “occupied territories” and Gaza Strip. Continued here

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Seinfeld: how a sitcom 'about nothing' changed television for good   A quarter of a century ago, on 14 May 1998, the final episode of Seinfeld was broadcast, ending one of the most significant sitcoms of all time after nine seasons and 180 episodes. In fact the self-styled “show about nothing” was so important we can talk about the pre-Seinfeld and post-Seinfeld eras. Set in Manhattan, Seinfeld focused on the minutiae of daily life for four friends: Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), his best friend, George Costanza (Jason Alexander), his ex-girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and his neighbour Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). Continued here

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How to navigate difficult conversations with your teenager   Important conversations with teenagers are among the biggest challenges of parenting. They can feel like walking a tightrope. Lean too much – or too little – into commands and restrictions and you’re likely to tip over. Conversations with teens are difficult for a number of reasons. First of all, adolescence is a time when young people develop their own identities. To try out different parts of those identities they make more decisions without their parents, some of which can be quite risky. Continued here

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The UK is offering payments to abuse victims - but it may not be enough to help them leave   For the 1.7 million women in England and Wales who are victims of domestic abuse, the cost of living crisis has added more barriers to leaving their abuser. The charity Women’s Aid has found that the vast majority of women living with their abuser have now found it even more difficult to leave for financial reasons.In partnership with Women’s Aid, the Home Office is attempting to combat this through a new scheme to support victims in leaving their abuser. The fund will provide a one-off payment of £250 to individuals experiencing abuse, and £500 if they have children. Continued here

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Wagner Group: what it would mean for the UK to designate Putin's private army a 'terrorist organisation'   The UK is reportedly planning to officially designate the Russian mercenary firm Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation. This would put Wagner on a list with 78 other groups, including ISIS, al Qaeda and newer white supremacist organisations.The UK has had lists of “proscribed organisations” for decades, previously including groups in the Northern Ireland conflict, and then creating a more global list in the early 2000s. Once an organisation is listed, it becomes a criminal offence to belong to the group or support the group – with a punishment of up to 14 years in prison. Dozens of other countries have similar lists. Continued here

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Is loneliness really as damaging to your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day?   Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, recently warned that “being socially disconnected” has a similar effect on mortality as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. This statement was widely reported in the media, including in the Washington Post, the Times and the Daily Mail. But where does this “15 cigarettes a day” figure come from?They concluded that lonely people are 50% more likely to die prematurely than people with strong social relationships. They then used a statistical tool called “random effects models” to compute that the influence of social relationships on the risk of death is comparable to well-established risk factors for death, such as smoking cigarettes. Continued here

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Erdogan has wrecked Turkey's economy -   Turkey’s 2023 election is one of the most significant in its hundred-year history. After years of currency crashes, vanishing foreign currency reserves and surging inflation, rethinking economic policy will be a top priority for whoever is sworn in after the vote on May 14.President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) came to power in 2002 not long after the previous incumbents’ economic mismanagement had caused a major crisis that sent the lira and stock market plunging. In exchange for an IMF rescue, the outgoing government had introduced reforms such as an independent central bank, banking and finance regulators, taking steps to reduce public deficits and debt, and proper public procurement rules. Continued here

S16

Gene therapy helps combat some forms of blindness - and ongoing clinical trials are looking to extend these treatments to other diseases   Jean Bennett was a founder of GenSight Biologics and Opus Genetics and was a scientific (non-equity holding) founder of Spark Therapeutics. She and her husband waived any potential financial gain from Luxturna in 2002 so that they could conduct the clinical trials. Her team received funds from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Foundation Fighting Blindness and Spark Therapeutics to run those trials. She is a co-author on a number of gene therapy patents, including one on LCA5 gene therapy that was licensed to Opus Genetics. She also is a co-author of intellectual property relating to use of virtual reality for vision assessment. She also serves on Scientific Advisory Boards for several groups and serves on Boards of two companies (Opus Genetics and REGENXBIO) and a private Foundations (RDFund).An estimated 295 million people suffer from visual impairment globally. Around 43 million of those people are living with blindness. While not every form of blindness can be cured, recent scientific breakthroughs have uncovered new ways to treat some forms of inherited blindness through gene therapy. Continued here

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Tupac's 'Dear Mama' endures as rap artists detail complex relationships with their mothers, street life and the pursuit of success   In hip-hop music, it sometimes seems as if songs to and about mothers are common enough that audiences might take them for granted. As someone who studies hip-hop and how it shapes and is shaped by society and culture, I don’t believe rap has ever abandoned the idea that a song for your mother or mother figure is expected of any artist. Continued here

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Lessons from 'Star Trek: Picard' - a cybersecurity expert explains how a sci-fi series illuminates today's threats   Society’s understanding of technology and cybersecurity often is based on simple stereotypes and sensational portrayals in the entertainment media. I’ve written about how certain scenarios are entertaining but misleading. Think of black-clad teenage hackers prowling megacities challenging corporate villains. Or think of counterintelligence specialists repositioning a satellite from the back of a surveillance van via a phone call.The show’s protagonist is Jean-Luc Picard, a retired Starfleet admiral who commanded the starship Enterprise-D in a previous series. Starfleet is the military wing of the United Federation of Planets, of which Earth is a member. In Season 3, the final season, Picard’s ultimate enemy, the Borg, returns to try conquering humanity again. The Borg is a cybernetic collective of half-human, half-machine “drones” led by a cyborg queen. Continued here

S19

Meditative mothering? How Buddhism honors both compassionate caregiving and celibate monks and nuns   Buddhist saints are often described as maternally compassionate, with the endless patience of a mother who feeds, cleans and cares for children around the clock. In fact, the Theravada branch of Buddhism holds mothers in such high esteem that two men among the Buddha’s chief disciples, Sariputta and Mogallana, are said to be “like the mother giving birth” and “the nurse raising a child.” Yet in Buddhism, as in some other religions, views of motherhood are complex. Motherlike compassion is idealized – yet so are celibacy and monasticism. Historically, the faith does not have a core ideology that values marriage and procreation as central virtues to be pursued at the cost of spiritual study and enlightenment. However, as a scholar of gender and family in Buddhism, I have noticed shifting views about how spirituality and motherhood can be combined. Continued here