Latest news with #culturalshift
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Health
- Bloomberg
UK House of Commons Approves Legalization of Assisted Dying
The UK's House of Commons voted to legalize assisted dying on Friday, in a move that is likely to usher in a significant cultural shift over how to handle the treatment of those with terminal illnesses. The measure was passed by a 314-to-291 vote following hours of debate in Parliament, when some members shared their own emotional accounts of loved ones suffering through terminal illnesses. It will now have to go through the House of Lords, which could choose to amend it further but historically has tended not to block legislation passed by the elected house.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
UK Lawmakers Set Final Vote on Legalization of Assisted Dying
The UK's House of Commons will hold a final vote on Friday on whether to allow assisted dying, a move that could usher in a significant cultural shift over how to handle those with terminal illnesses. The measure will go through its third reading with members of Parliament, with the outcome of the vote expected by 2.30 pm. While Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the bill, said she was 'confident' it would pass, several of her colleagues said the result would be too close to call.
CNA
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
Why I use Gen Z and Gen Alpha lingo with my kids, even when they roll their eyes
'Alright, I think I totally nailed that and aura farmed, am I right?' I said, beaming with pride at the back-cam wefie I'd just taken that had actually turned out well. My 16-year-old daughter Kirsten, bless her, fought off every instinct to roll her eyes – an effort I appreciated deeply – and replied with a straight face: 'No, actually. Just by saying that, you lost aura points.' 'Huh, so it wasn't sigma?' I asked, grinning. 'You didn't like the rizz-sults?' This time, her eye roll came not as a conscious decision but a gag reflex. 'Dad,' she said. 'Just. Stop.' 'Okay, merry rizzmas,' I muttered, dashing away before I cracked myself up entirely. BOOMERS ARE OKAY I envy boomers. And I don't mean that sarcastically. It's not so much for their ability to craft and broadcast 'Good Morning, God Bless You' WhatsApp messages faster than they can open the app, but their complete, unadulterated embrace of being… uncool. I'm talking about the (mostly) utter lack of desire to stay relevant in the face of contemporary cultural shifts – whether it's fashion, pop culture, or TikTok. There's a certain beauty in being completely disconnected from new fads and trends. These are people living their best life, in a very real way. But Gen X dads like me grew up with the currency of cool as a core key performance indicator of our self-identity. It's partly us wanting to define ourselves outside of our parents, and partly our unique positioning as a generation birthed at the dawn of consumerism and globalisation. We grew up with movies centred on exploring the idea and value of 'cool' – Back to the Future, Grease and more. We wanted to 'be like Mike', whether it was Michael Jordan in his Nikes or Michael Jackson with his smooth moves. TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL So here's the tension: I know I don't need to be cool to be a good dad – but still, I can't help but try. And yes, sometimes that effort backfires in the form of second-hand embarrassment (or, occasionally, first-hand). But recently, as I try to keep up with a whole new host of Gen Z and Gen Alpha lingo, I've been realising that this struggle goes beyond the superficial. It's not about being cool for cool's sake. Let's be honest – if you're over 40, trying to make conversation with your own dad often felt like hitting a tennis ball against a wall, but the ball's been made entirely out of cotton wool. You'd serve up a topic, hoping for some traction – and it would hit the wall sadly, and fall lamely to the floor: 'Dad, I saw Mission: Impossible today, it was so good!' 'Oh, is it?' It's even worse if they're the ones serving. 'So… how's school?' 'Did you eat already?' That was pretty much the range. I appreciate the effort – but I don't want that for my own kids. I don't want to be a well-meaning but boring dad armed only with mundane questions that go nowhere. So I try – probably too hard at times – to speak their language, quite literally. My attempts to drop Gen Z lingo aren't about trying to impress anyone. At 45, the only thing I'm 'serving' are bad puns and lame jokes. But it is an attempt at connection. An awkward, cringey, sometimes-effective olive branch. The memes we share, the TikToks we laugh at together, the post-mortem chats after another episode of The Mandalorian – these moments mean something. They're small windows into my kids' world. They let me in, just a little. And in the awkward dance of parenting three teenagers (and two preteens!), the older they get, the more that little bit matters. I TRIED SO HARD, AND GOT SO FAR But here's the catch: There's a fine line between showing interest and trying too hard. There's a version of the 'cool dad' that's plain exhausting – the one who's constantly trying to stay relevant, who shows up at school pickup with a backwards cap and ironic slang, skateboard propped over one shoulder like a youth pastor who went too deep on Urban Dictionary. At a certain point, we have to accept that our cultural peak has passed. That's okay. Coolness is a moving target, and by the time we figure out what's in, it's probably already out. (It's probably out precisely because we figured it out.) So maybe the better question is: What does being a good dad look like now, in the age of TikTok and K-pop? It's not about relevance. It's about relationship. And sometimes, that means exchanges looks like this: 'Man, New Jeans' Super Shy is super catchy huh?' 'Dad. That was like, two billion years ago.' 'Yup, but like, aren't they super slay?' 'Oh, please no.' 'By the way, I did get new jeans.' That last random line actually got a stifled chuckle from her. Cue another small win for Gen X dads – connection topped off with a hint of cringe is still connection. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT I may not be the authority on rizz or sigma energy. My jokes may be mid at best. But I'm trying. And I think our kids see that, even when they're groaning and sighing through our cringe. There's a kind of dignity in ageing out of the need to be cool. But there's also a kind of love in making the attempt now and then, even if it's obviously 'not it'. It's not about being cool – our kids don't need us to be cool. It's about caring enough to try and connect with them on their level. So, must I be a cool dad to be a good dad? Nah. But if misusing Gen Z slang helps keep the conversation going with my kids, I'll gladly take the L. Who knows – maybe I could even earn back a few aura points.
ABC News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Young men converting to Russian Orthodoxy in the US
Russia and the US have not traditionally been close culturally but there's a few shifts going on. The Trump administration has a very different relationship and attitude towards Moscow than usual. And mirroring that is an increased conversion to the very conservative, traditional and some say masculine Russian Orthodox Church in pockets of the US. Journalist Lucy Ash has spent a lot of time reporting from Russia... and found some converts who had even left the US for Russia to deepen their ties. Lucy noticed a trend in the US for young men but also women converting to Russian Orthodoxy. Guest: Lucy Ash - journalist and author of The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin.
Forbes
31-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Building An ‘AI-First' Culture: What Does That Even Mean?
AI-first means people-first Lately, there's been no shortage of talk of managing organizations around 'AI-first' approaches, meaning managers would consider whether AI could do a job, or set of tasks, before humans are brought in. But AI-first goes deeper than that, suggesting an organization's entire culture can be redesigned to incorporate the broad intelligence solutions that AI platforms and tools can offer. How would such an organization look, and is this something a decades-old company could pull off? Cisco Systems, which was founded more than 40 years ago, has been undertaking such a transformation over the past three years across all aspects of its business. This includes transforming 'the way that we build product, the way that our products get used by customers, the way that we actually get jobs done within the company,' said Jeetu Patel, president and chief product officer for Cisco. Even in what is one of the most technology-savvy companies in the world, such an effort will meet resistance, Patel recently explained on a recent episode of Michael Krigsman's CXOTalk. 'It's a cultural shift. It's actually fraught with a level of skepticism." Still, 'If you looked at us a year and a half, two years ago, no one would have really said that Cisco is AI first,' he said. An issue being encountered is 'people have actually been afraid of AI, saying, 'Hey, AI's going to take my job, so I'm not going to go out and use it,' Patel added. 'I actually find that it's less about AI taking your job, it's more about someone that uses AI better than you in their jobs is probably the one who's going to take your job.' Ultimately, 'the dexterity that you need to show in the way in which you do everything with AI is going to be pretty important,' he said. 'We've always felt like there's only going to be two kinds of companies in the world. Ones that are dexterous with the use of AI, and others who really struggle for relevance.' There are three key considerations in building an AI-first culture, Patel explained: Customers are also part of the transformation to an AI-first culture. 'One area that we struggle with is that the pace and rate of change is so fast that communicating that to our customers and having them digest that change is a challenge,' said Patel. 'I don't think we've cracked the code on that.' Customers have a view of Cisco from more than three years back, 'and frankly, it's an entirely different company than what it used to be three years ago,' he added. 'I feel like there's so much coming at people all the time that you have to make sure that you distill it down to a few things that make sense.' For example, AI is accelerating the company's responses to support tickets. It also is helping to reduce overhead costs. On the sales side, AI will help accelerate sales meetings, as well as legal and accounting processes involved with the sale. 'All of those things will have AI as a pretty critical component of it, and I do feel like the sales process is going to change quite materially over the course of the next few years. And you will never be in this position where you go completely blind and unprepared into a conversation because AI can get you prepared within a very, very compressed amount of time on what needs to happen.' What's important now for the new generation that's entering the workforce – as well as existing workers – is not to operate out of fear of AI, Patel advised. 'You have to operate from a place of looking at the possibilities and looking at the opportunities that actually can be unlocked. I would urge people to just have a very different kind of mental model, which is, there's nothing that should stop us from actually being curious about how we might be able to use AI, and this technology is going to get easier and easier and easier, where no longer is technical dexterity going to be an impediment.'
