All posts tagged: Teach

What intentional communities can teach us about resilience amid global instability

What intentional communities can teach us about resilience amid global instability

Published by Sam Flores

As conflict intensifies in the Middle East, energy markets swing wildly and the cost of living keeps climbing, a pressing question is emerging for anyone who is tied in to the fluctuating energy and food markets: how do we build resilience? Big political and economic solutions still matter. But they take time. Increasingly, attention is turning closer to home, and to communities themselves. Among these, intentional communities – once seen as niche – stand out as an increasingly viable option. Intentional communities are groups of people that share land and resources collectively. They can include cohousing and housing cooperatives as well as other projects. These communities do not constitute an escape from the world, but a way of coping with it. In some cases, they are already softening the shocks of global instability. One of the most visible consequences of conflict in the Middle East is felt in energy bills at home. Disruptions to oil and gas supply chains push up fuel prices. That ripples through everything like transport, food and heating. In the UK, …

Czech startup lets factory workers teach robots by demonstration

Czech startup lets factory workers teach robots by demonstration

Published by skeptic

A Czech startup is making factory automation easier by letting workers teach robots new tasks through simple demonstrations instead of complex coding, as Anthony King explores. What if training a robot to handle dirty, dangerous work on the factory floor was as simple as showing it how? Czech startup RoboTwin is doing exactly that, helping factory workers teach robots new skills by demonstration. Instead of writing complex code, workers perform the job once and RoboTwin’s technology turns those movements into a robot programme – opening the door to automation for smaller manufacturers. Founded in Prague in 2021, RoboTwin builds handheld devices and no-code software that capture human movements and translate them into instructions for industrial robots. The aim is to make automation faster, simpler and more accessible to manufacturers that do not have specialist robotics programmers. “The robot basically copies the human demonstration,” said Megi Mejdrechová, RoboTwin’s co-founder and chief technology officer. “People with no coding skills can transfer their know-how and experience to robots.” Mejdrechová, a mechanical engineer trained at the Czech Technical University …

What chess’s “intermezzo” moves can teach us about making better life decisions

What chess’s “intermezzo” moves can teach us about making better life decisions

Published by Jenni Sidey

Excerpted from Thinking Sideways: How to Think Like a Chess Player and Win at Life by Jennifer Shahade. Published by Pegasus Books. Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved. Sneaky sideways moves that strong chess players swear by are called “intermezzos,” or “in-between moves.” The American chess genius and unofficial World Champion Paul Morphy executed these many times in the New Orleans cafés where he won game after game in the 1800s. Morphy’s move seemed obvious. Why not just recapture the piece that was just taken? But then, BOOM. Morphy interrupted the sequence with a different aggressive move, throwing his opponent’s position into turmoil. Intermezzos are shocking. When Judit Polgár played one against another top grandmaster, he jumped out of his chair. Intermezzos are reminders that instead of looking far in advance, we should search for little surprises that no one else sees. The futility of planning far in advance is nailed in one of my favorite one-liners, from the late comedian Mitch Hedberg:  “Where do you see yourself in five years?” “Celebrating the five-year anniversary …

What chess’s “intermezzo” moves can teach us about making better life decisions

What chess’s “intermezzo” moves can teach us about making better life decisions

Published by Jenni Sidey

Excerpted from Thinking Sideways: How to Think Like a Chess Player and Win at Life by Jennifer Shahade. Published by Pegasus Books. Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved. Sneaky sideways moves that strong chess players swear by are called “intermezzos,” or “in-between moves.” The American chess genius and unofficial World Champion Paul Morphy executed these many times in the New Orleans cafés where he won game after game in the 1800s. Morphy’s move seemed obvious. Why not just recapture the piece that was just taken? But then, BOOM. Morphy interrupted the sequence with a different aggressive move, throwing his opponent’s position into turmoil. Intermezzos are shocking. When Judit Polgár played one against another top grandmaster, he jumped out of his chair. Intermezzos are reminders that instead of looking far in advance, we should search for little surprises that no one else sees. The futility of planning far in advance is nailed in one of my favorite one-liners, from the late comedian Mitch Hedberg:  “Where do you see yourself in five years?” “Celebrating the five-year anniversary …

Parents Who Raise Kids Who Make Smart Decisions Later Tend To Teach These 9 Things Early On | Kathryn Brown Ramsperger

Parents Who Raise Kids Who Make Smart Decisions Later Tend To Teach These 9 Things Early On | Kathryn Brown Ramsperger

Published by Jenni Sidey

Imagine your child is applying to colleges. Yes, even if they are small children right now, you can imagine this. What do you want for them at that time? How will you know if they’re making the right decision? Or, perhaps, you can imagine your child got all the way through grad school, but they still don’t have a job. Would you be concerned? What if research encouraged you not to interfere but to support, even when you wonder if they’re ready to fly solo?  Every parent hopes their child will grow into someone who makes good choices, even (and especially) when nobody’s watching. But that kind of judgment doesn’t just show up one day. The parents who seem to get this right and raise solid decision-makers are teaching skills that stick, rather than trying to control every move. Parents who raise kids who make smart decisions later tend to teach these 9 things early: 1. How to find focus Monkey Business Images via Shutterstock Today’s distractions are everywhere. Social media can be persuasive and vicious. John …

11 Basic Life Lessons Most Parents Completely Forget To Teach Their Kids

11 Basic Life Lessons Most Parents Completely Forget To Teach Their Kids

Published by Jenni Sidey

Parents do not want to set their children up for failure. They want to give them all the knowledge they can to move forward in life. No matter how hard they try, there will still be some things that they forget to teach. If school doesn’t cover it, these kids might be entering the world without some basic life lessons. I remember when I was in school. I never learned anything about finances. When I was thrown into the world as an adult and had to balance my bank account, I was lost. The first overdraft fee I experienced rocked my world. And don’t get me started on taxes! These are things no one taught me, even though my parents meant well and tried to check every box. Some parents also forget to teach their children life skills like resilience and emotional regulation. While they mean well, these things can fall through the cracks. These are 11 basic life lessons most parents completely forget to teach their kids 1. Budgeting digitalskillet from Getty Images Signature …

Teach about non-religion and religions equally! Peer urges law change after Supreme Court ruling – Humanists UK

Teach about non-religion and religions equally! Peer urges law change after Supreme Court ruling – Humanists UK

Published by Sam Flores

The future of Religious Education (RE) was raised in the House of Lords yesterday during a debate on the Government’s curriculum and assessment review, with peers highlighting longstanding concerns about the subject’s quality and status. RE is compulsory for all pupils in England but is not part of the national curriculum. This results in significant variation in what is taught. Humanists UK has long called for RE to be reformed into a subject that is consistent across all schools and fully inclusive of non-religious worldviews, in line with the law, and welcomed the curriculum and assessment review’s recommendation that RE be placed on the national curriculum. During the debate, All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group member, Baroness Burt of Solihull, highlighted the legal requirement for teaching about religion and belief to be ‘objective, critical and pluralistic’, and stressed the importance of including non-religious worldviews: ‘In England, the High Court in Fox v Secretary of State for Education drew attention to the importance of ensuring that pupils receive a balanced understanding of the diversity of beliefs present in …

What an ancient Chinese philosopher can teach us about Americans’ obsession with college rankings

What an ancient Chinese philosopher can teach us about Americans’ obsession with college rankings

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — Each March, many of the country’s most selective colleges and universities release their admissions decisions, reviving debates over the roles of race, wealth and privilege – and putting Americans’ cultural obsession with rankings back in the spotlight. Meanwhile, a more personal set of questions will emerge in many homes and schools. Who got into a “better” school, and why? And for those who didn’t, what to do with a dream school deferred? What’s missing are more fundamental questions about the costs of striving for status and how to know when to stop. From my former life as a college counselor to my current one as a psychology professor, I’ve spent more than two decades working with Asian American families, the demographic group that often finds itself at the center of college admissions debates. I listen as they grapple with questions of race, social status and who makes it in the U.S. and why. I’ve also seen firsthand, both inside and outside of the research lab, how some students’ never-ending quest for achievement …

How the UK forgot to teach its children to cook – and why Ainsley Harriott has vowed to fix it

How the UK forgot to teach its children to cook – and why Ainsley Harriott has vowed to fix it

Published by Daniella Wilson

Sign up to IndyEat’s free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free Years ago, during Ainsley Harriott’s Ready Steady Cook heyday, a viewer wrote in about a jacket potato he’d made on the show – topped with a little leek and cream cheese. The man explained he didn’t normally cook but had tried the recipe and loved it. Twenty years later, Harriott ran into him again. “He said, ‘I wrote to you,’ and I said, ‘Yes! I remember!’” Harriott recalls. “Now he’s a chef. I thought, bloody hell…” For Harriott, it was a reminder of how small moments in the kitchen can spark something bigger. And it’s exactly the kind of spark he hopes to ignite again through a new initiative aimed at young cooks. New research suggests that more than half of young people are not confident cooking a meal for themselves or others. According to the survey, many say they cannot prepare everyday dishes such …