Why are the data centres that run the internet often sited close to cheap sources of power such as hydroelectric power stations? Because their energy consumption is so enormous.
Why are they increasingly located inside the arctic circle or even under the sea? Because much of the energy cost is due to the need to cool the thousands of hot web servers.
A common side effect of lockdowns and worry over COVID-19 is difficulty in getting the right quantity and quality of sleep. Increased home working has led to people losing touch with normal routines – not only work routines but bodily ones like eating and sleeping. Understandably, our bodies can become confused in the absence of the usual stimuli that tell us what time it is, how long it is till lunch, and when to switch off and hit the sack for a restful night’s sleep.
The BBC has used research data from the Institute for Fiscal Studies to publish an interactive salary checker based on degree subject and university in the UK. It shows how graduate earnings vary five years after leaving each institution and subject, relative to the average degree, whatever that is. And it shows data for men and women, thus highlighting the gender pay gap.
Sophia Smith is a lifestyle blogger, graphic designer and a food enthusiast. Sophia has contributed to a number of publications including Eco Warrior Princess, Naughty Nutrition, Herbs Mother Earth Living, Yoga Trade, Sivana Spirit, Bonvita Style, Carousel, and Cause Artist.
You can find out more about her writing by following her on Twitter (@sophia_bri)
Wednesday this week is World Kindness Day, bringing a swathe of global initiatives and events aimed at promoting being nice to each other. People worldwide will be encouraged to go out and do something they wouldn’t usually do that will benefit somebody else, directly or indirectly.
Increasingly, we can’t just enjoy food any more without considering its effect on the environment. Tucking into a juicy steak is, for growing numbers of people, no longer simply an exercise in indulgence devoid of concern for the meat’s provenance, whether it was relatively happy and humanely slaughtered, and how much methane it farted out when it was alive.
Drones are filling our skies. If companies like Amazon manage to negotiate their way past aviation restrictions, drones will soon be delivering our shopping to our homes and workplaces. No longer just toys and aerial photography tools, drones are here to stay. They are used in search and rescue, disaster relief, bomb disposal, military and civilian reconnaissance, archaeology, infrastructure inspection, anti-poaching, conservation, construction and law enforcement.
The World Health Organization recently added workplace burnout to its International Classification of Diseases as an occupational phenomenon. It isn’t classed as a disease but a ‘factor influencing health status’.
It is no surprise that if the place where you spend most of your waking life is getting you down, then you are not going to be the happiest bunny on the block and eventually something will have to give. The WHO define burnout as follows:
What is the real value of an MBA? The skills developed, or the prestige of the issuing institution? For those seeking to add an MBA to their resume, their answer to that question will make the difference between spending thousands of dollars and spending no dollars at all.
A new video lecture course has emerged which brings a fresh angle on the ancient and classical worlds, delivered by a lecturer whose enthusiasm for her subject shines through and brings ‘dead’ history to life. If you are looking for a deep dive into the civilizations which preceded the Middle Ages – how they lived, what they believed, how they rose and fell, what they left behind and their influence on successive civilizations right up to the present day – then this video lecture series is for you.
In 1233 a papal bull decreed that anyone admitted to the mastership at the University of Toulouse should be allowed to teach freely in any other university. Ever since then it has been set in stone that the rite of passage into a master’s degree is a three or four-year undergraduate degree. Pretty much by definition, a master’s is a follow-on from a bachelor’s degree.
