doing

15Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SELF

Is ‘Doing Nothing’ A Form Of Resistance, An Indulgence Or All The Rage For The Lucky Few?

The pandemic has either created too much free time or too little. Kitchen-table commutes and reduced social obligations expand mornings and weekends for some, while caretakers and gig workers are exhausted by the constant, overlapping demands of home and work. It’s no surprise, then, that idleness is trending. Concepts like “niksen,” Dutch for “doing nothing,” and “wintering,” resting in response to adversity, have entered the wellness lexicon. Doing nothing is even being called a new productivity hack, aligning the practice with an always-on culture that seeks to optimize every waking minute. While such prescriptions largely target the privileged who have the resources to curate their schedules, idleness can also be a form of resistance to the capitalist machine. Artist Jenny Odell’s be...

LGBTQ Advocates Are Split On Whether Biden Is Doing Enough To Protect The Community As Pride Month Closes

27Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

LGBTQ, POLITICS, TOP FOUR

LGBTQ Advocates Are Split On Whether Biden Is Doing Enough To Protect The Community As Pride Month Closes

For more than a year, as more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced into state legislatures and eight states have signed anti-LGBTQ bills into law, LGBTQ+ advocates have been waiting on President Joe Biden. “In the LGBTQ community, it is clear that our house is on fire,” said Mayra Hidalgo Salazar, deputy executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. Advocates have been asking Biden — often hailed as a champion of LGBTQ+ equality— to put that fire out. But the response to the president’s Pride month executive order has been mixed: Many groups praised it. Others said nothing. A few publicly criticized it, saying it lacked teeth. During a reception with advocates on June 15, Biden signed the order aimed at curbing LGBTQ+ discrimination. The 13-point plan tasks the Departm...

Here’s What Scientists Are Doing Right Now To Understand The New Coronavirus Omicron Variant

10Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Here’s What Scientists Are Doing Right Now To Understand The New Coronavirus Omicron Variant

Scientists around the world have been racing to learn more about the new omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2, first declared a “variant of concern” on Nov. 26, 2021 by the World Health Organization. Officials cautioned that it would take several weeks before they’d know whether the recently emerged coronavirus variant is more contagious and causes more or less serious COVID-19 than delta and other earlier variants, and whether current vaccines can ward it off. Peter Kasson is a virologist and biophysicist at the University of Virginia who studies how viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 enter cells and what can be done to stop them. Here he explains what lab-based scientists are doing to help answer the outstanding questions about omicron. Does prior immunity protect against omicron? These are the key lab...

If They Know Many Others Are Already Doing It People Become Less Likely To Contribute To A Virtual Public Good Like Wikipedia Or Waze

1Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS

If They Know Many Others Are Already Doing It People Become Less Likely To Contribute To A Virtual Public Good Like Wikipedia Or Waze

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea While people tend to contribute more to a virtual public good if they see others doing the same, this effect reverses if they become aware too many people are participating, according to research that I conducted over the summer. Public goods are things that many people share. They can be physical, such as highways, clean air and blood banks, or virtual, like a free online encyclopedia or mobile traffic app. Combining methods from geography, urban planning and big-data analysis, my co-authors and I studied millions of postings by users of a mobile navigation app called Waze, in which users voluntarily post traffic-related updates and road conditions in real time. All users of the app benefit as more of them f...

In The COVID-19 Era, Older Adults See Time Differently And Are Doing Better Than Younger People

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

In The COVID-19 Era, Older Adults See Time Differently And Are Doing Better Than Younger People

Time in the era of COVID-19 has taken on new meaning. “Blursday” is the new time word of the year – where every day seems the same when staying home and restricting socializing and work. As a public health and aging expert and founding director of the Texas A&M Center of Population Health and Aging, I have been studying the impacts of COVID-19 with an interest in debunking myths and identifying unexpected positive consequences for our aging population. It is common to view older adults as especially vulnerable. Public health statistics reinforce the picture of older adults infected with SARS-CoV-2 as more likely to have serious complications, to be hospitalized and to die. But what do we know about how older adults themselves are responding to social distancing restrictions in place...

11Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

CULTURE

Get to know Niksen: The art of doing nothing

Niksen means doing nothing or, more specifically, performing an action without a clear purpose or a deadline There is the Japanese way to organize - KonMari - the Danish way to establish a cozy home - hygge - and the Swedish way to live a balanced life - lagom. Apparently, there is also the right way to do nothing, thanks to the Dutch and niksen. Interglot.com’s Dutch to English translation of niksen is: “idle; lounge around; sit around; do nothing much ...” In essence, according to dutchreview.com in 2018: “Niksen means doing nothing or, more specifically, performing an action without a clear purpose or a deadline. For instance, for the Dutchies, looking out the window as people pass or going to the beach to stare at the waves for a while is considered niksen. And by doing so, they obtain...

Emilia Clarke Talks About Doing Nude Scenes

25Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

CELEBRITIES

Emilia Clarke Talks About Doing Nude Scenes

Emilia Clarke has been pretty vocal about her nude scenes in Game of Thrones. But she's also been relatively flip-floppy on her stance on them. After Season 4 of Game of Thrones, Clarke vowed to never do a nude scene for the show again. She told interviewers in 2015 that "sex scenes should be more subtle," saying that she'd be participating in fewer of them in upcoming seasons of the show. "I'm British, so I cringe at that sort of thing anyway. I can't stand it," she added. Clarke clarified her statements later, claiming they were taken out of context. "Sometimes explicit scenes are required and make sense for the characters/story, as they do in Westeros. If it’s gratuitous for gratuitous sake, then I will discuss with a director on how to make it more subtle," she said. Clarke recentl...