By Erik Sass TES Editor “In Spain we have a saying that something is ‘riskier than a monkey with a machine gun,’” Juan Fina, president of La Unión de Contribuyentes (Spanish Taxpayers’ Union) told the audience at the European Resource Bank’s meeting in Chisinau, Moldova, on March 29, 2019. That’s the level of danger Spanish politicians are […]
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Do early risers have a leg up on the rest of us?
From FT: In his new book The 5 a.m. Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life, “leadership guru” Robin Sharma lays out an intense daily regimen for personal success, which starts at 4:45 a.m. He says “there’s something magical” to waking before 5 a.m., when the heart is “more open and pure.” Could be—and leaders from […]
NHS wields social influence to bolster health
In the British Medical Journal, Mike Simmons makes the case for using complexity science to improve group performance. To reduce the risk of hospital-borne infections in the NHS, Mike’s group used storytelling and emotional narratives based on the lives of real patients to nudge health workers to improve behaviors—like hand washing—that reduce infections. […]
Marijuana linked to more violent crime (…are you high?)
Psychologists and marijuana researchers Carl L. Hart and Charles Ksir assail writer Alex Berenson in The Guardian for his making alarmist claims about cannabis. In a new book and accompanying op-ed in the NY Times, Berenson claims legalizing cannabis has led to an increase in murders and violent crime in the US. Hart and Ksir […]
Life after terrorism: Offer a path from ISIS back home?
This letter is a response to an op-ed titled “Why We Should Take Back Americans Who Fought for ISIS” by Bryant Neal Viñas from March 4, 2019. To the Editor: Bryant Neal Viñas writes that the United States should take back “those Western foreign fighters who do not have ‘blood on their hands’ — didn’t kill […]
SHENZHEN VS. WEIMAR: Europe at the Crossroads
By Erik Sass TES Editor Paris in spring 2019 is a study in contrasts, juxtaposing fabulous cultural treasures with damaged storefronts and heavy police presence, testimony to the populist eruption that has rocked France in recent months. The contrasts were no less vivid – and the social ferment just as evident – during the […]
“The legislation was drafted, in my opinion, quite poorly.” — Twitch(ing) CEO
Emmett Shear, CEO of Twitch, the popular Amazon-owned interactive live-streaming service, poured cold water on the EU’s hot new Copyright Directive. The law only creates confusion for companies like his, which earn money from ads on live-streams of people playing games they don’t own. “It’s totally unclear what we have to do […]
Newspaper: EU Copyright Law Stifles Innovation
The LA Times published a scathing (well, impassioned) editorial arguing that the EU’s new Copyright Directive could squash small companies that promote aspiring music and movie creators. To comply with the new law, everyone publishing content will need to employ sophisticated filtering technology that prevents such intolerable copyright abuses as parents sharing videos […]
Sorry Finland: Don’t Be Happy, Worry
By Daniel McGroarty GeoPolicy Editor What’s the happiest country on Earth? The data is in: Finland. So says the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network in its new report. Yes, it’s really a thing. But Finland’s happy news comes as others speculate about an inarguably unhappy scenario – that Russia may be […]
Conflict Is The Mother Of Innovation
By Pietro Paganini TES Contributor Once again, reason and science are being obscured by the ideologies and magical thinking that fuel populism and authoritarianism, but weaken innovation and the coexistence of free citizens. The scientific method favours the maturing of ideas into knowledge, bringing more innovation and prosperity and reinforcing the individual […]