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The English National Opera (ENO) has teamed up with a London hospital to teach breathing techniques to people recovering from COVID-19. One of the common lingering effects of the virus is difficulty breathing. Proper breathing is essential for opera singers, so they're in a unique position to help patients recover. 

When in-house opera concerts were cancelled due to the pandemic, the ENO wanted to find other ways to use their skills to help others. They realized they are experts in breathing, so they created a 6-week program, called ENO Breathe, that uses therapeutic techniques reworked by singers. The techniques help restore lung capacity, as well as lessen anxiety through deep breathing exercises.

ENO Breathe recruited 12 people for a pilot program, and it was so successful that the program is being expanded to include other clinics in England. Patients who've taken the lessons say that it has definitely helped. Wayne Cameron, a participant in the program, said, "The program really does help—physically, mentally, in terms of anxiety.”

ENO Breathe has helped not only COVID-19 patients, but also the opera singers themselves. As Jenna Mollica, director of the ENO's outreach programs, puts it, “Everyone’s found it really motivating. It’s fantastic to realize that this skill set we have is useful.”

According to the Harvard Business Review, the higher leaders rise in the ranks, the more they are at risk of getting an inflated ego. The bigger their ego grows, the more they are at risk of ending up in an insulated bubble, losing touch with their colleagues, the culture and ultimately their clients.

An unchecked ego can warp our perspective, twist our values and corrupt our behavior. When we believe we’re the sole architects of our success, we tend to be ruder, more selfish and more likely to interrupt others. An inflated ego also narrows our vision. The ego always looks for information that confirms what it wants to believe. Basically, a big ego makes us have a strong confirmation bias.

Breaking free of an overly protective or inflated ego requires selflessness, reflection and courage. Consider the perks and privileges you are being offered in your role. Some of them are simply perks to promote your status and power and ultimately ego. Support, develop and work with people who won’t feed your ego. Humility and gratitude are cornerstones of selflessness. Make a habit of taking a moment at the end of each day to reflect on all the people that were part of making you successful on that day.

Languages generally develop organically, following changes in culture. But sometimes we have to purposefully change our language to create the culture we need.

Take, for example, sexism. In English, seeing the masculine form of a word—e.g., adding "-man" to a job title, and using he/him/his pronouns—as neutral had been accepted as the norm since the 19th century and still often is. In the 1970s, however, women began to demand equal representation in all things, and that meant in the language, too. 

Studies have shown that people are influenced by the words they see. In one study, people were asked to read a story with the following sentences in it:

• “The foreman reassured himself he had made the right decision.”

• "The foreman reassured herself she had made the right decision.”

When people read the first sentence, they continued on without thinking about it. When they read the second one, they stopped and went back to check that they'd read the sentence right. So masculine forms are clearly seen as masculine, not neutral. It's time to change the language to let everyone in.

Human beings are flawed. So no system of defense that depends on human action is going to be able to protect us 100% of the time. But we can prevent most problems. In 1990, Professor James Reason came up with the "Swiss Cheese model" to create defenses that are hard to break through.

Think about Swiss cheese—it has lots of holes in it, right? Well, the Swiss Cheese defense model takes the "holes", or human flaws, into account by using several layers of defense. Each layer has holes, but not every layer has the same holes. So, put enough different layers together and there won't be a complete series of holes that line up to allow something through. Each human failure will be blocked by other successes.

Scientists and public health specialists are using this model to protect us from the novel coronavirus with layers of protective practices like wearing masks, washing our hands, staying home, etc. As we know, not everyone follows all those measures. But if enough people do, the holes will be smaller and more layers will be in place to block them. We'll be able to slow the rate of infections—and deaths—dramatically. 

Christmas is very popular in Germany—lights, food and decorations abound. Also, of course, presents are a main component for many people, especially younger people. But the Germans are famous for being pragmatic and no-nonsense. So what kind of gifts are commonly given in Germany? Read the chart below to find out.

Rice straw, or wara, is the waste left over from rice production. It used to be used to make tatami mats, bags, and other daily goods, including shoes. But these days most things are made from plastic and other synthetic materials, so farmers are left with mountains of useless wara. In 2007, farmers along with the tourism board of Niigata City in the Niigata prefecture, asked Professor Shingo Miyajima of the Department of Science and Design at the Musashino University to come up with a creative solution to the problem. He suggested using it to make art.

So in 2008, students from the university traveled to Niigata to create sculptures with wara. Niigata's tourism board was hoping to draw more visitors to the area, and organized a festival to showcase the sculptures. It was a huge success! Mushashino art students and farmers have continued to work together every year since to recycle waste products into art.

In 2017, to celebrate the festival's 10th anniversary, the art students were asked to create sculptures twice as big as usual. The results were fantastic! Normally about 4 meters high, the 2017 sculptures reached as high as 9 meters or more! Giant wooden frames were constructed in the basic shape of the sculpture, then thousands of wara bunches were attached to flesh it out. An arduous process that results in stunning works of art. 

(In 2020, the festival had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.)

According to The Economist, languages face a trade-off between complexity and speed. Those packed with information are spoken more slowly, while simpler ones are spoken faster. As a result, most languages are equally efficient at conveying information.

For instance, a Japanese translation of this text would be longer and a Thai one would be shorter, but readers would finish reading it at about the same time.

Have a look at the graph below and discuss what you see with your teacher.

CNN reports that according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), providing a single dose of a future coronavirus vaccine to all 7.8 billion people in the world will require the use of 8,000 Boeing 747 cargo aircraft, and that planning needs to begin now.

IATA's director general and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, said in a public statement that "safely delivering Covid-19 vaccines will be the mission of the century for the global air cargo industry."

There are multiple vaccines being tested in human trials simultaneously around the world. Once a vaccine is approved for use, licensing and large-scale manufacturing will take place. However, without proper planning, these vaccines won't be able to fly the skies.

Among the major concerns cited by IATA is the availability of temperature-controlled facilities and equipment, along with trained staff. Also, the current border restrictions will need to be eased, permits for operators carrying the vaccine will need to be fast tracked, and the flight crew members exempted from quarantine requirements to ensure cargo supply chains are maintained. A final concern is security, with IATA noting that vaccines will be highly valuable commodities. Therefore, shipments will need to be secured and protected from tampering and theft.

Unable to hold face-to-face meetings with potential investors, venture capitalists are seeking new ways to meet start-ups, including a service which arranges virtual meetings inside the video game, Fortnite.

Matchbox.vc matches technology investors with start-up executives through video game sessions in the hopes that companies will find their dream investment.

“Games are an incredible way for people in tech to connect,” said the site's co-founder, Alex Walsh. “It's a lot less stressful since both parties are doing something they enjoy, making it perfect for a first meeting. It's just like any other activity that's been tangential to business for years, like golf, getting coffee, or going for a walk.”

As of early 2020, Matchbox.vc had already been used by investors from prominent funds including Sequoia, Accel, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Samsung’s venture capital wing. With more and more companies asking employees to work from home, services like Matchbox.vc are likely to become more popular.