Author: TECH

A plan was hatched to save a cherished waterway Activists who hope to reverse the decline of a treasured British waterway have unveiled their own four-step manifesto in response to a widely criticised action plan announced last month by the UK government. The River Wye, which flows 155 miles (250km) from Wales, through England, to the Severn estuary, has been devastated by nutrient run-off linked to intensive chicken farming. The UK government said last month it would fund on-farm poultry manure combusters to the tune of £35m, pilot anaerobic digestion plants and provide more grants for slurry stores to process…

Over one billion people in the world are living with mental health conditions, according to the World Health Organisation.While this means that mental illnesses are no longer uncommon, it does not necessarily mean there is less stigma associated with them.A survey conducted by AsiaOne in 2025, which polled 1,079 respondents in Singapore on their attitudes and perceptions towards mental health, found that 42 per cent of people tend to avoid telling others that they are receiving help for mental health conditions.Although there is a five percentage point drop from the results of AsiaOne’s survey in 2024, a significant proportion of…

Martin Luther King Jr. has come to be revered as a hero who led a nonviolent struggle to reform and redeem the United States. His birthday is celebrated as a national holiday. Tributes are paid to him on his death anniversary each April, and his legacy is honored in multiple ways.But from my perspective as a historian of religion and civil rights, the true radicalism of his thought remains under-appreciated. The “civil saint” portrayed nowadays was, by the end of his life, a social and economic radical who argued forcefully for the necessity of economic justice in the pursuit of…

                                According to the CDC, about 25% of all workers have been exposed to hazardous noise. Many of these claims go unreported due to the gradual onset and a lack of awareness of the risk and symptoms. Many workers are simply not aware that their work environment can put them at risk, especially in industries with moderate, but still damaging, noise levels. A significant number of adults who have noise-induced hearing damage still report their own hearing as “good” or “excellent,” highlighting a major gap between perception and…

Social Security remains one of the most important financial pillars for retired Americans, especially at a time when inflation pressures, geopolitical uncertainty, and global market volatility continue to affect household finances. In 2026, that importance becomes even more visible. According to the Social Security Administration, the average monthly benefit now stands at about $2,071, translating to roughly $24,800 a year for the typical retiree. That figure alone highlights how heavily millions of seniors rely on the program to meet daily living costs.But at the very top end of the system, payouts look dramatically different. In 2026, the maximum possible Social…

Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is simply believing you’re worthy of the trip. “Life hasn’t been the easiest on me lately. I won’t get into all the details now, but the tough times I’ve been living through have left me with many cracks. And although I’ve still managed to be a reasonably successful person, on most days I struggle desperately with my self-confidence. I just don’t feel good enough. I feel flawed. I feel like my cracks make me undesirable…” Those are the opening lines of an email I received recently from a new reader of our blog.…

What happens when a clinician, who is trained to help others through tough times, faces depression themselves? Many experience it, but few talk about it. They arrive on time, think clearly, and care about their clients. Outwardly, everything seems fine. In private, though, things can feel very different. A clinician’s depression may not show up as clear despair. More often, it feels like emotional numbness, quietly withdrawing, or slowly losing interest in things that once mattered. Pleasure fades, curiosity lessens, and the work goes on, but it feels heavier and less alive. Since clinicians are trained to notice distress, they…

“On Father’s Day last year Debbie and I lost our son, Lincoln West, to suicide,” grant recipient Rick West said. “As you can imagine, our priorities in life have shifted and Debbie and I are determined to turn our pain into purpose. In October 2024, we formed the Lincoln’s Life Mattered Foundation with the goal of shifting from a culture of silence and stigma to one of openness, understanding, and support. The grant provided by the Ministry of Health is critical in helping our newly formed foundation achieve this goal. “The funds will directly support our Healthy Minds, Healthy Communities…

Some of the millions of Americans who receive Social Security benefits may see surprisingly larger paychecks this year.Given the latest cost-of-living adjustment of 2.8 percent, up from 2.5 percent in 2025, some beneficiaries will see the maximum monthly check increase to $5,251 — a significant jump from the $2,071 average Social Security check.Those who receive the maximum benefit will take home more than $63,000 in 2026, which is on par with what the average senior household spends in a year, according to the Motley Fool. While the maximum benefit has a far greater appeal than the average, there are three…

The Global Foodbanking Network is a nonprofit that supports food banks in more than 50 countries through food recovery and redistribution. In the fall of 2024, they released an annual impact report that broke down the year’s successes. Their metrics showed that — in addition to providing over 1.7 billion meals to 40 million people in need globally — food banks also diverted an estimated 1.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. By intercepting unspoiled food destined for the landfill, and redistributing food from local farms and wholesale produce markets, the 2023 report offered evidence that community-led solutions to addressing global hunger…