Over-the-counter opioids: does Britain have a codeine problem?

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Over-the-counter opioids: does Britain have a codeine problem?     Earlier this year, the NHS announced that it had cut opioid prescriptions by almost half a million in four years. But opioids aren’t just available on prescription in the UK. They can be bought over the counter at pharmacies in the form of co-codamol – pills that contain codeine and paracetamol.Each co-codamol pill contains a fixed amount of 500mg of paracetamol and between 8mg and 12.8mg of codeine, depending on the product. (Co-codamol with more than 12.8mg of codeine is only available on prescription.) Continued here

S10

Why 'burning bridges' may not be a career killer     Abbe still remembers the exact moment. She was in a brainstorming session at the US-based magazine where she was an editor, and had come to the meeting with a list of ideas. But she felt like each time she tried to speak, she was interrupted.Abbe grew increasingly frustrated. Finally, she lost her composure. “Can I just finish my thought?” she said. A hush fell over the room, she recalls. For two days, she says she received the silent treatment at work. On the third day, HR called. Continued here

S17

Boris Johnson resignation: why Rishi Sunak can't afford to lose more than one of three impending byelections     The turmoil in the Conservative party unleashed by Boris Johnson’s abrupt resignation from parliament has triggered three separate byelections. The first is in the former prime minister’s London seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, where he had a majority of just over 7,000 votes in 2019 with Labour in second place. The second is Nigel Adams’s constituency of Selby and Ainsty, a safe North Yorkshire Conservative seat with a majority over Labour of more than 20,000. The third is Nadine Dorries’s seat of Mid Bedfordshire, which has a majority over Labour of just under 25,000 votes, making it a very safe seat.Byelections are not generally thought to be a good guide to a party’s performance in a subsequent general election. Certainly, one can find examples of parties doing exceptionally well in byelections but not sustaining the success in a subsequent general election. The classic example of this is the Liberals’ 1962 win in Orpington. It was the first victory for the party outside the celtic fringe and the party leader, Jo Grimond, claimed that it was a major breakthrough. However, the party won only nine House of Commons seats in the 1964 general election. 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

S4

Don't Eliminate Your Middle Managers     Organizations have long seen middle management as ripe for cutting whenever times get tight, and the current moment is no exception. The authors believe that this is a costly mistake. Human capital, they say, is at least as important as financial capital, and middle managers, who recruit and develop an organization’s employees, are the most important asset of all—essential to navigating rapid, complex change. They can make work more meaningful, interesting, and productive, and they’re crucial for true organizational transformation. But if managers are to fulfill this promise, leaders must reimagine their roles, push to more fully understand their value, and train, coach, and inspire them to realize their potential as organizational linchpins. Continued here

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What, Me Worry? | Elizabeth Heichler      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.What does keep me up at night is that humans are already wielding the power of artificial intelligence to control, exploit, discriminate against, misinform, and manipulate other humans. Tools that can help us solve complex and vexing problems can also be put to work by cybercriminals or give authoritarian governments unprecedented power to spy on and direct the lives of their citizens. We can build models that lead to the development of new, more sustainable materials or important new drugs — and we can build models that embed biased decision-making into systems and processes and then grind individuals up in their gears. Continued here

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Why is there such a thing as 'true love' but not 'true grump'? | Psyche Ideas     is a staff writer at Psyche. Her science journalism has appeared in Vice, The New York Times and Wired, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.In the two years before the publication of her book All About Love (1999), bell hooks went around telling friends, lecture audiences, and even people sitting next to her on planes, buses and in restaurants that she was ‘looking for true love’. Continued here

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From The Starry Night to a wheatfield: Van Gogh's darkest symbol     Every element of the natural world tremored with significance in Vincent van Gogh's world. Sunflowers were his symbol of joy and devotion. Stars were glimmers of heaven. Why did cypress trees become his symbol of fortitude?More like this:-       The tragedy of art's greatest supermodel -       10 artworks that caused a scandal -       The 300-year-old pet portraits Continued here

S2

The Power of Small Wins     What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step forward every day. In an analysis of knowledge workers’ diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and perceptions that is critical to performance) than making progress in meaningful work. If a person is motivated and happy at the end of the workday, it’s a good bet that he or she achieved something, however small. If the person drags out of the office disengaged and joyless, a setback is likely to blame. Continued here

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How Professional Services Firms Dodged Disruption     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.Professional services firms have been threatened with disruption for a long time. In 2015, Richard and Daniel Susskind foresaw that technology would cause a “steady decline in the need for traditional flesh-and-blood professionals,” while more recently, CB Insights said that “a tectonic disruption is hitting management consulting.”1 Even earlier, Clayton Christensen and colleagues warned, “Although we cannot forecast the exact progress of disruption in the consulting industry, we can say with utter confidence that whatever its pace, some incumbents will be caught by surprise.”2 Continued here

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The Spanish cheese nearing extinction     Spain's northern coastline is the site of many dramas. The region, situated across the Bay of Biscay from France's Brittany peninsula, is draped in a thick fog much of the year. Its rugged terrain begins at the water's edge with the sheer cliffs and rocky beaches of the Cantabrian Sea, where you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the Hebrides. The scabrous landscape scales up from there, heading inland into the ever-craggier boulders of the Picos de Europa mountain range.Until recent decades, the people living among these peaks were isolated from the region's city centres; the twisting, hairpin road that now snakes through Aviles and Oviedo into the mountains was only just built in the latter half of the 20th Century. It was along this road that I first encountered Casín – a cheese, quite possibly Spain's oldest, that's been made in these mountains since at least the 14th Century. Today, only three Casín makers remain – and in a culinary landscape dominated by Manchego, its survival is an open question. Continued here

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Boris Johnson has triggered a bumper byelection bonanza - I studied 148 past contests to find out what we can expect     The UK is facing three byelections in constituencies all vacated within 24 hours of one another. Former prime minister Boris Johnson announced he was leaving parliament with immediate effect on June 9, leaving his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituents in need of a new MP. His vocal supporter Nadine Dorries had resigned as an MP just hours before in what appears to be a linked case, triggering a byelection in Mid Bedfordshire. And the day after Johnson’s departure, another MP quit. This time, it was former Cabinet Office minister Nigel Adams. A byelection will go ahead in his Selby and Ainsty constituency in North Yorkshire.So what can we expect in these three byelections to be held in the weeks ahead (and perhaps even in a fourth if the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West decide to recall Scottish National Party MP Margaret Ferrier over her lockdown rule-breaking)? Continued here

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How TV shows have grappled with a post-Dobbs America     Two doctors sit, despondent, on the side of a busy road as they watch an EMT zip up the body of their patient into a body bag. The patient died as a direct result of a fatal ectopic pregnancy, which her OB-GYN refused to treat because of a new anti-abortion law in her home state.Tears in her eyes, one of the doctors responds to questions from the EMT about the death. Then she shouts: “It’s the lawmakers, they should actually be made to come out here … look at the carnage they’ve caused. I mean, how are we supposed to be doctors? Women’s lives are on the line, and our hands that are trained to help them, our hands are tied.” Continued here

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Why it's impossible for public policy to rely entirely on science     One of the abiding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is how poorly prepared we were to deal with a crisis of that magnitude. Naturally, politicians have promised to develop better strategies for the future, but so far these promises have not been fulfilled. Continued here

S13

How Steven Spielberg felt that Jurassic Park was 'Jaws on land'     On 11 June 1993, Hollywood changed forever. Jurassic Park was unleashed into US cinemas, and its impact on the movie industry sill reverberates to this day – from the studios competing to buy the rights to Michael Crichton's 1990 novel about a theme park full of genetically recreated dinosaurs, to the marketing and mass-release strategy that helped make it the highest grossing film ever at the time. Not to forget its innovative use of visual effects.More like this:- The 1983 film decades ahead of its time - The 1998 film that predicted the future - David Lynch on 'the beauty in the dark' Continued here

S15

Kenya's budget doesn't allocate funds for new education initiatives - this will stall innovation in the country     President William Ruto’s first budget for Kenya sets no education priorities. The Finance Bill 2023 doesn’t make it clear what Kenya is trying to achieve – stronger foundational learning, technical and vocational skills, or innovation. This is despite the importance placed on deepening technical capacity to drive economic growth, and education reforms spelt out in the official policy. This also comes against the backdrop of a political campaign promise to “bridge current teacher shortage gap of 116,000 within two financial years”. Continued here

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Prosecuting a former president is not an easy decision. A criminal law professor explains why     And yet, a state prosecutor has charged Donald Trump with violating New York business laws. And a federal prosecutor has charged Trump with violating national security laws as well.On one hand, the U.S. judiciary system is based on a basic principle of English law that dates back to the early 1200s, that no one is above the law. As medieval jurist Henry de Bracton explained in “On the Laws and Customs of England,” the law makes the king, and thus, the king must be subject to the law. Continued here

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Risk Intelligence and the Resilient Company     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.Building the resilience of large, complex enterprises is critical in today’s uncertain and interconnected world. At a time when a container ship grounded in the Suez Canal can bottle up 12% of the world’s trade, or a virus can disrupt the global flow of commodities, components, and talent, a corporation’s ability to quickly adapt in the face of unfolding events is essential to its survival and prosperity. Continued here

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Senegal's internet shutdowns are another sign of a democracy in peril     Senegal’s government began blocking several digital platforms – including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and YouTube – in certain areas on 1 June. Days later, it extended the disruptions to all mobile internet and several television stations. The social networks were shut down for two days. This was followed by a four-day mobile internet shutdown. Continued here

S38

LPG is a fossil fuel. Experts explain why it's still Africa's best option for cleaner, greener cooking (for now)     Africa’s growing population desperately needs clean, modern energy in the home. Currently, more than 900 million people, 85% of the region’s population, still rely on solid biomass fuel (like wood and charcoal) and kerosene for cooking. These energy sources are highly polluting, inefficient and unsafe. Many African countries are moving to develop scalable renewable energy resources to fill the gap. These include solar PV, wind, hydro, geothermal, ethanol and biogas resources. The International Energy Agency has identified liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as the most important interim clean cooking fuel during this transition. It’s the most practical, abundant and affordable among the current options. Continued here

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Silvio Berlusconi had a complex relationship with US presidents: Friend to one, shunned by another     When the administration of Geroge W. Bush needed an ally to help sell its proposed invasion of Iraq to a skeptical European audience, Silvio Berlusconi stepped forward.It wasn’t that the Italian prime minister was particularly concerned over the threat of Saddam Hussein’s imagined weapons of mass destruction to his country, or the region – he wasn’t. But it was a chance for the former businessman to burnish his credentials as an international statesman and to draw the U.S. closer into Italy’s orbit. Continued here

S37

South African activist Frank Anthony wrote a novel that has been forgotten: why it shouldn't have been     University of Western Cape provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA.How does it come about that a man who dedicated the greater part of his life to a vision of a just South Africa, and sacrificed his family and personal relationships to do so, disappears from the annals of the country’s history? Continued here

S53

Bad break-up in warm waters: why marine sponges suffer with rising temperatures     Marine sponges have started dying in vast numbers in coastal areas around the globe. Just this year, thousands of sponges turned white and died in New Zealand and in the Mediterranean Sea. This has been happening when the water gets too warm, but the underlying cause has remained a mystery. Until now. We know these sponges play a crucial role in recycling key elements such as carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus. In doing so, they keep nutrient cycles ticking over, to the benefit of all life on Earth. Continued here

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Our Guide to the Summer 2023 Issue     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.Top Takeaways: AI models designed to dynamically account for new circumstances don’t always do so effectively. This scenario, called algorithmic inertia, can result in poor guidance and flawed decisions. The authors explored the causes and consequences of algorithmic inertia by investigating credit-ratings agency Moody’s and its use of algorithmic models to rate mortgage-backed securities in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. They found that the most significant contributing factors to algorithmic inertia are buried assumptions, superficial remodeling, simulation of the unknown future, and specialized compartmentalization. Exposing data and assumptions, and periodically redesigning algorithmic routines, are two key practices for heading off such inertia. Continued here

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Why medieval manuscripts are full of doodles of snail fights     The doodles found in the margins of very old manuscripts are often just as interesting as the content of the manuscripts themselves. One such example is the frequently recurring – and extremely odd – image of knights warring against snails. From the late 13th century through to the 15th century, images of knights fighting snails pop up in all sorts of unlikely places within the medieval literary world. And they reveal fascinating insights into what medieval people thought about the world around them. Continued here

S34

Ultra-processed foods: bread may be considered one, but that doesn't mean it's all bad     Lead for Evidence-Based Medicine and Nutrition, Aston Medical School, Aston University Humans have been eating bread in some form for centuries. But modern bread is a far cry from the bread of the past. In its sliced bread form, it often contains so many more ingredients than the kind our ancestors were eating that it is now widely considered an ultra-processed food. But, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad for us. Continued here

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Glass: Neither a solid nor a liquid, this common yet complicated material is still surprising scientists     Glass is a material of many faces: It is both ancient and modern, strong yet delicate, and able to adopt almost any shape or color. These properties of glass are why people use it to make everything from smartphone screens and fiber-optic cables to vials that hold vaccines. The first step to make glass requires heating up a mixture of minerals – often soda ash, limestone and quartz sand – until they melt into a liquid at around 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit (1,480 Celsius). In this state, the minerals are freely flowing in the liquid and move in a disordered way. If this liquid cools down fast enough, instead of solidifying into an organized, crystalline structure like most solids, the mixture solidifies while maintaining the disordered structure. It is the atomically disordered structure that defines glass. Continued here

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Virginia Woolf would have loved The Great British Sewing Bee - as three of her novels prove     The Great British Sewing Bee is back. The BBC reality show sees 12 amateur sewers compete in increasingly difficult stitching challenges, all hoping to be crowned the Sewing Bee champion. Now in its ninth series, the backstories of this year’s contestants show how sewing often provides an intimate, material connection to mothers and grandmothers. For 49-year-old contestant Lizzie, sewing has been a way to “stay connected” to her mother, who taught her to sew. For Matthew, 30, it’s a reminder of his nan, who was a tailor. Her tailoring certificate hangs above his sewing space. Continued here

S11

Southeast Asia's spicy and flaky curry puffs     Growing up in Malaysia, Seleste Tan remembers strolling past street vendors after school and using whatever leftover pocket money she had to buy a snack. "Those are the days that we always had a curry puff in hand while walking home," Tan said.Years later, memories of those compact deep-fried stuffed pastries have made their way to New York City, where Tan and her husband Mogan Anthony, both pastry chefs by training, run a Southeast Asian-themed patisserie and kuih (cake) shop called Lady Wong. Tan and Anthony both grew up in Malaysia but worked in Singapore before moving to New York City, where they have been since 2006. Continued here

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A science of sexuality is still possible -- but not in the traditional sense     From Sigmund Freud to Judith Butler, the road to a science of sexuality is a fascinating history of ambition and culture wars, error and scientific breakthrough.Psychoanalysts believe desire follows specific laws and follows predictable patterns, while queer theorists argue that laws have exceptions and advocate for a more creative view of sexuality. Continued here