Arts funding cuts in the UK have bitten deep. The Arts Council has lost a third of its funds, forcing it to axe some of its projects and scale down others. In this atmosphere of austerity, arts fundraising needs to go into overdrive to save some of Britain’s best cultural assets from extinction.
Shaan Patel is such a driven and high-achieving person that his claim to boost anyone’s SAT score by 200 points or more carries some credibility. From humble beginnings growing up at his parents’ motel in Nowheresville, Nevada and attending the local public school which had a dropout rate of 40%, he graduated from Yale with an MBA and USC with an MD. And his own SAT score on the way there? A perfect 1600, after starting out with only an average score. This lends weight to his claim that he can boost anyone’s SAT score by 200 or more, because he boosted his own by several hundred points.
International luxury goods group Kering owns brands such as Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Boucheron, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen. Possibly stemming from the company’s origins in the timber industry – or perhaps in spite of them – since 2012 it has been committed to a sustainability plan that aims to minimise its impact on the environment. This includes avoiding PVC in manufacturing operations, sourcing gold from ethical providers, and purchasing its leather from responsible and verified sources.
It’s funny how the contestants on TV baking shows like the Great British Bake Off always seem to have plenty of creative ideas and expert baking skills. The results on the day vary – otherwise there wouldn’t be a show – but they all seem to have been studying, learning and baking like crazy before getting on the show and receiving their first challenge.
With music education facing extinction in UK schools and budget cuts leading one prominent musician to proclaim the situation ‘child abuse’, at least it’s good to know that some of our friends across the pond are getting it right, at least in one major city. Chicago schools are generating high levels of student engagement through allowing them to form their own mariachi bands.
Where would we be without toys? If we were never allowed to use fascinating objects as springboards for our imaginations, our brains would fail to develop properly. We project ourselves onto toys, explore the world with them, learn with them. We discover cause and effect, relationships, and our own identities through toys. From Ancient Mesopotamia to Toys ‘R’ Us, children have constructed their realities with the help of tangible playthings, either made for them by their parents or made by the children themselves out of what’s lying around.
What did the Romans ever do for us? Well, they gave us roads, sanitation, a legal system, and lots of cool gadgets. The Greeks weren’t half bad either. Some of the great engineering feats of history were accomplished two millennia or so before our own era, which we tend rather arrogantly to consider the pinnacle of technology.
The Open College in the UK is offering a course in Dog Psychology. Upon completion you will have earned the right to have after your name the designatory letters Dip.Dog.Psy and will be awarded with a Diploma Certificate bearing the title.
It’s a cruel fact that the world’s call centres and fast food restaurants are full of workers who have an arts degree but don’t know how to capitalise on it. World famous Central Saint Martins arts and design college aims to change this. It doesn’t just train people to be arty and then release them into the wild to fend for themselves – it also offers a trio of courses in business skills aimed at helping students live their dream and make a living from it.
Despite globalization, each country and region has its own business systems and culture. From one country to another there can be dramatic differences in how people view authority, how much personal responsibility they take for their companies’ fortunes, and how organisations are structured. Finance and accounting methods vary widely. HR practices are by no means homogeneous around the globe. So executives working in global business need to be made aware of these regional differences and develop the ability to function effectively within them and transition smoothly between them.
Bletchley Park, a suburb of Milton Keynes in England, was central to World War Two intelligence efforts. Scientists including Alan Turing designed the first ever electric programmable computer there (Colossus) and used it to crack the Nazi’s Enigma Code. Bletchley Park is synonymous with British codebreaking and also now houses the National Museum of Computing.
