Smoking May Compromise Immune Health, Even Years After Quitting - Scientific American (No paywall)

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Smoking May Compromise Immune Health, Even Years After Quitting - Scientific American (No paywall)     Numerous factors shape how a person’s immune system reacts to infections and other challenges. Age, sex and genetics are fundamental contributors—as the COVID pandemic highlighted. Now a new study shows that smoking has an equally important impact on certain immune responses, with some of its effects possibly lasting well beyond when a person quits.To explore which environmental factors had the biggest role, researchers measured the production of cytokines—key messenger molecules that mediate inflammation—in the blood of 1,000 healthy people after exposing the samples to either bacteria, fungi, antibodies or other agents known to elicit an immune response. Smoking was found to greatly alter both the innate response—the body’s general and immediate first line of defense—and the slower, more threat-specific adaptive response. The data suggest that the cytokine secretion in the innate immune response rapidly returns to the level of nonsmokers after a person quits smoking but that the effects on the adaptive response appear to endure for years or decades through a process called epigenetic memory. The results were published today in Nature. Continued here

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What does 'pasture-raised' really mean? - National Geographic (No paywall)     Many chickens fear open spaces, which leave them vulnerable to predators from above. Unless these open spaces are well-designed with trees, brush cover, or even solar panels, “pasture-raised” hens may never experience the pasture. Still, when it comes to chicken welfare, pasture-raised sets the highest standards, and the label indicates the hens can spend most of their day outside—if they want.To get the “free range” label, hens must have outdoor access for at least half of their lives, but like “pasture raised,” there are few requirements for what that outdoor space should look like—it could be concrete rather than grass, for example. And “cage-free” means only that hens aren’t in cages, but they may be kept indoors 24 hours a day. If a carton of eggs has none of these labels, the hens likely lived in battery cages, usually all-wire, communal enclosures in which each bird has 67 to 86 square inches. (For reference, a standard piece of printer paper is 93.5 square inches). Continued here

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Life's Work: An Interview with Tina Turner - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     As a young girl growing up in Tennessee, Anna Mae Bullock liked to sing and recite movie dialogue to entertain her family. By age 20 she had a new name—Tina Turner—and a burgeoning music career with her partner, Ike. But behind the scenes, he was abusing her. Eventually, she found the courage to leave him and move on as a chart-topping, world-touring solo artist. She now lives out of the spotlight in Switzerland and recently released a new book, Happiness Becomes You. Continued here

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Will Marvel's 'Fantastic Four' Copy The Best Sci-Fi Show On TV?     The Fantastic Four are back, and now they’re in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But will their movie be a period piece? On Valentine’s Day, Marvel Studios released a tantalizing promo image with several Easter eggs. Two particular details suggest that not only will Marvel’s Fantastic Four be set in the 1960s, it could introduce an alternate history of spaceflight to the MCU. If any of this sounds familiar, it should; an alternate spaceflight timeline is a very popular sci-fi trope right now. Is Marvel borrowing a premise from For All Mankind? In our timeline, the first issue of The Fantastic Four dropped in the fall of 1961. Like many popular Marvel characters, this superhero team comes from the Silver Age, making them all a bit edgier than their Golden Age predecessors. The early tone and writing of The Fantastic Four is a perfect example of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee honing the Marvel formula, and whatever you think of the MCU, those comics are a great example of how we got here. But is this movie going back to its ‘60s roots? Continued here

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Could mysterious marine fungi save us from antibiotic resistance? - New Scientist (No paywall)     TAKE a walk along a seashore almost anywhere in the world and you will probably see colourful patches of life growing on rocks, sea walls and driftwood. These are lichens, mutualistic partnerships between fungi and algae. In Britain, that might include the brightly coloured orange sea lichen and the yellowish maritime sunburst lichen, plus many other drabber species.Lichens are usually seen as land-living organisms and, indeed, the vast majority are, growing ponderously on inland rocks, tree trunks, leaves and soil. But coastal ones aren’t accidental vagrants from the land: they are marine-adapted species found only on or very near the shore. Until recently, they were thought to be outliers in the almost completely landlubbing kingdom of the fungi. Not any more. “In every marine ecosystem we look at, we find fungi,” says Michael Cunliffe at the University of Plymouth, UK. Continued here

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Did Pluto ever actually stop being a planet? Experts debate. - National Geographic (No paywall)     Declared the ninth planet in our solar system after its discovery in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto is small, marble-colored, and became quickly beloved thanks to its association with Mickey Mouse’s pet dog (who was originally named Rover but renamed after the planet in 1931).To celebrate the 94th anniversary of Pluto’s discovery, we sat down with Brown and Philip Metzger, retired planetary physicist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (and current associate scientist at the University of Central Florida), to get some answers. Are Brown and likeminded people correct in reducing Pluto’s significance and instead focusing on new discoveries like the yet-unconfirmed “Planet Nine”? Or do Metzger and others have a solid argument for the triumphant return of Pluto? Continued here

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The Zone of Interest: How the most horrifying sounds in film history were created     A film about the Holocaust, 10 years in the making, The Zone of Interest has been winning acclaim as one of the most starkly chilling depictions of human brutality ever created.It is one of this year's leading awards contenders, with nine nominations for this Sunday's Baftas, and five for this year's Oscars, where, if it did land the top prize, it would certainly be the most shocking best picture winner in history. Yet a lot of its power lies in what's heard, not what's seen. Continued here

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History's crisis detectives: how we're using maths and data to reveal why societies collapse - and clues about the future     American humorist and writer Mark Twain is believed to have once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”I’ve been working as a historian and complexity scientist for the better part of a decade, and I often think about this phrase as I follow different strands of the historical record and notice the same patterns over and over. Continued here

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The video art of Arthur Jafa: a counterpunch to anyone who wants to put people of colour in their place     Arthur Jafa’s Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death (2016) is, essentially, a music video. Currently on show at the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Brisbane, it is also one of only a handful of video works in the world that could be called a masterpiece with a straight face. Set to the booming rhythms of Kanye West’s Ultralight Beam (2016), Jafa’s work is seven-and-a-half-minutes of impeccably edited montages, most appropriated from the internet. Continued here

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What's behind the collapse in the price of nickel and how can the industry survive?     On Thursday BHP wrote down the value of its West Australian nickel division Nickel West to zero and said it was considering placing the entire division into a “period of care and maintenance”.Nickel is a metal crucial for the production of stainless steel, alloys, electroplating and the batteries used in electric vehicles. Continued here

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Now it's Nationals deputy leader Perin Davey who's had a glass too many     The Nationals have been again embarrassed by an incident involving one of their parliamentarians drinking. Their deputy leader, NSW senator Perin Davey, stumbled over words while at a Senate committee hearing last Tuesday, after attending the party’s regular staff drinks function. Continued here

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The obesity pay gap is worse than previously thought - The Economist (No paywall)     Obese people experience discrimination in many parts of their lives, and the workplace is no exception. Studies have long shown that obese workers, defined as those with a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, earn significantly less than their slimmer counterparts. In America, several state and local governments are contemplating laws against this treatment. On November 22nd, one such ban came into force in New York City.Yet the costs of weight discrimination may be even greater than previously thought. “The overwhelming evidence,” wrote the Institute for Employment Studies, a British think-tank, in a recent report, “is that it is only women living with obesity who experience the obesity wage penalty.” They were expressing a view that is widely aired in academic papers. To test it, The Economist has analysed data concerning 23,000 workers from the American Time Use Survey, conducted by the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Our number-crunching suggests that, in fact, being obese hurts the earnings of both women and men. Continued here

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The Other Time America Panicked Over a President's Age - The Atlantic (No paywall)     One spring day in 1984, I was chatting with Burns “Bud” Roper, the veteran pollster. At the time, I was The Wall Street Journal’s White House correspondent, covering Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign. Thanks to a surging economy, Reagan seemed poised for an easy victory in November. The campaign was shaping up to be a bore. “Bud,” I asked, “is there any chance he could lose?”When it came to polling, Bud had seen it all, going back to Harry Truman versus Thomas Dewey. He told me he hadn’t found anything that could stop Reagan. Then he paused. “Actually, there is one thing,” he added. “People won’t say it if you ask them directly, but when you look deeply at the numbers, a lot of them are concerned about his age.” Reagan was 73 at the time. Continued here

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Hands Down the 50 Weirdest, Most Clever Things on Amazon Under $35     If you’ve ever been scrolling and wondered how people find those clever products that instantly go viral, this is the list you’ve been hoping for. These 50 weird and clever things on Amazon range from a tap-to-dim nightlight shaped like an exhausted duck to a gadget that helps you carry in all the groceries at once. Not only are these the hands-down weirdest products out there, but they’re also all under $35 — with items starting at just $5.This banana hook takes up way less space than an entire fruit bowl on your kitchen counter, and it can be installed with the included screws or adhesive tape. It reduces bruising, keeping your fruit fresh for longer. Use its fold-up design to hide it underneath your cabinet between uses. Choose from several colors in the listing. Continued here

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How 'True Detective: Night Country's Finale Subverts Its Horror Story     True Detective: Night Country is haunted by ghosts. Whether it be the literal ghost of Travis Cohle (Erling Eliasson) or the constant, unseen presence of Annie Kowtok (Nivi Pedersen), whose murder haunts the season and its characters, Night Country's six episodes are full of specters both seemingly literal and emotional. And in the True Detective: Night Country finale, they finally and fully come for Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) and Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster).The central Night Country duo spends the majority of the season's finale trapped during a blizzard at the largely abandoned Tsalal Research Station. While there, Liz and Navarro both see inexplicable things, including objects moving on their own and moments in which time and reality seem to completely bend around them. These moments do a lot to up the episode's tension and suffocatingly ghostly mood. Continued here

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'Green' or 'blue' hydrogen -     Hydrogen can play a key role in Australia’s energy transition by giving us additional ways of storing and moving energy around. As the world shifts towards cleaner energy production, there’s a push to make hydrogen production cleaner as well. In Australia, low-emission hydrogen is produced in two main ways. One method produces what is known as “green hydrogen”. It uses electricity produced from renewables – such as solar, wind or hydro – to “crack” water into separate streams of hydrogen and oxygen. Continued here

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Run out of butter or eggs? Here's the science behind substitute ingredients     It’s an all too common situation – you’re busy cooking or baking to a recipe when you open the cupboard and suddenly realise you are missing an ingredient.Unless you can immediately run to the shops, this can leave you scrambling for a substitute that can perform a similar function. Thankfully, such substitutes can be more successful than you’d expect. Continued here

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Scientists shocked to discover new species of green anaconda, the world's biggest snake     Green anacondas are the world’s heaviest snakes, and among the longest. Predominantly found in rivers and wetlands in South America, they are renowned for their lightning speed and ability to asphyxiate huge prey then swallow them whole.My colleagues and I were shocked to discover significant genetic differences between the two anaconda species. Given the reptile is such a large vertebrate, it’s remarkable this difference has slipped under the radar until now. Continued here

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How newly discovered brain cells have made us rethink the human mind - New Scientist (No paywall)     IT IS strange to think that we still don’t know what our brains are made of. Yet, despite decades of research and the development of high-tech scanning techniques, that is the truth. Sure, we know the basics. The average human brain weighs approximately 1.4 kilograms and has the consistency of soft tofu. It is made up of two general cell types: neurons, which do the thinking, and glia, which support them. But beneath this simple description lies a mind-boggling complexity – a complexity that continues to surprise even neuroscientists.Everyone knows neurons, the cells that send electrical impulses between different areas of the brain. Your brain contains around 86 billion of them and they come in many different varieties depending on their shape, function and properties. But there is still a lot we don’t know about them. Take rosehip neurons, which were discovered in 2018. Named for their shape, the cells seem to damp down the electrical activity of other neurons. Intriguingly, there is no equivalent cell in mouse brains, despite the fact that mice tend to have analogues of other human brain cells. We don’t really know much about what they do in the human brain, says Rebecca Hodge at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, who was part of the team that discovered the cells. Continued here

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How to Make Peace with a Company Decision You Don't Like - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     In our work, there are times when we lead but there are also times when we must follow — and we may not always agree with the path we’re told to follow. We may feel “stuck” in anger, anxiety, and confusion. But, we want to demonstrate resilience to our team and we want to maintain a good relationship with management. So, how do we forge ahead and follow with grace? This article showcases a tool that will help you gracefully and mindfully execute a decision you disagree with. By decelerating and reflecting on eight prompts, you can learn how to process difficult emotions, clearly articulate problems, identify potential upsides, broaden your perspective and develop empathy, and visualize what executing an unpopular decision will actually look like.When Hurricane Idalia struck the northern coast of Florida last year, it wreaked havoc on the home-building company where Elisia worked as a project manager. Several partially completed projects were destroyed, and material in the company’s warehouse and lumber yard were ruined. Management was committed to keeping the company going, but they had to lay off 10% of the staff and told all remaining employees that they would have to take a 20% pay cut for the foreseeable future. Continued here

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The Research Is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and for Companies - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     Managers want employees to put in long days, respond to their emails at all hours, and willingly donate their off-hours — nights, weekends, vacation — without complaining. The underlings in this equation have little control; overwork cascades from the top of the organizational pyramid to the bottom. At least, that’s one narrative of overwork. In this version, we work long hours because our bosses tell us to. (That’s the version most on display in the recent New York Times opus on Amazon.) Continued here

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Netflix Just Quietly Released the Year's Best Disaster Thriller     Having watched their Norwegian neighbors make a decent stab at the Hollywood-style disaster movie with a loosely related trilogy of films about avalanches (The Wave), earthquakes (The Quake), and oil rig explosions (The Burning Sea), Sweden decided to get in on the action themselves last year with The Abyss (or Avgrunden, if you don’t want to get confused with James Cameron’s similarly perilous underwater epic). And they didn’t have to look far for inspiration, either.Out now on Netflix six months after being released in Scandinavia, the quasi-blockbuster is set in the real-life Kiruna, the country’s northernmost town, which in 2014 had to slowly start moving three kilometers east due to the threat of mining subsidence. But with the area’s possible structural collapse still decades away, The Abyss is the only chance many of us will get to witness the carnage that may or may not eventually unfold. Continued here

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Asbestos in mulch? Here's the risk if you've been exposed     Peter Franklin is on the board of Reflections, a not-for-profit organisation for the asbestos awareness and support of people with asbestos-related disease. Mulch containing asbestos has now been found at 41 locations in New South Wales, including Sydney parks, schools, hospitals, a supermarket and at least one regional site. Tests are under way at other sites. Continued here

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'The future has a way of finding you': Georgia Blain's haunting final stories reveal the fragile moments that shape us     I first met Georgia Blain at The Basement. This was back in the 1990s, when the iconic underground jazz venue near Sydney’s Circular Quay still drew a vibrant, edgy crowd. We were young, in our late 20s, and had been invited to read for an event hosted by the Sydney Writers’ Festival; there to be the “bright young things”.I look back and cringe at my awkward younger self, but I can see Georgia very clearly. Her pixie hairdo; her skin luminous in the semi-darkness. Georgia had a way of talking to you that was totally focused in the moment. Continued here

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The Big Decisions that Impact Your Career - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     A career is a marathon not a sprint — and yours will benefit from a good strategy. Here are four smart choices you can make when you’re young that will help you reach success in the future. Work at companies that specialize in your skillset. Having a couple of recognizable brand names on your resume — specifically brands that have a strong reputation in your sector — can help you stand out from the crowd. Work with the best people that you can: people who have impressive experiences, people with a track record of success, and people with whom you can see yourself keeping in touch long-term. Look for opportunities to stretch yourself. If you use your first few jobs to gain a deep understanding of the roles and departments that exist within your sector — and how they work together to meet their collective goals — you will be a more competitive candidate for leadership roles down the line. Don’t get distracted by shortcuts. The truth is that there will never be a substitute for doing great work and building out strong experiences. Continued here

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UPenn researcher on why 'we need to have a way to quantify common sense'--and what that means for AI - Fortune (No paywall)     Whiting and Watts introduced this measure as “pq common sense,” defining common sense as the fraction of claims (q) that are shared by a fraction of people (p). For the study, they had 2,046 people rate 4,407 claims in categories ranging from practical truths to philosophical statements in topics such as geography, mathematics, and culture. Survey participants also classified claims based on their viewpoints of fact versus opinion, literal language versus figures of speech, and knowledge versus reasoning.“We find that plainly worded facts, like claims about physical reality, are the most commonsensical,” Whiting explained. (For example, plants need nutrients in the soil for them to grow.) However, people more aware of others’ emotions exhibited more common sense, and demographics such as age, education, or a person’s political leanings didn’t significantly influence results, he said. Continued here

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AI hiring tools may be filtering out the best job applicants     Body-language analysis. Vocal assessments. Gamified tests. CV scanners. These are some of the tools companies use to screen candidates with artificial intelligence recruiting software. Job applicants face these machine prompts – and AI decides whether they are a good match or fall short.Businesses are increasingly relying on them. A late-2023 IBM survey of more than 8,500 global IT professionals showed 42% of companies were using AI screening "to improve recruiting and human resources". Another 40% of respondents were considering integrating the technology. Continued here

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From Harry Potter to Taylor Swift: how millennial women grew up with fandoms, and became a force     With Taylor Swift pulling in over half-a-million audience members on her Australian tour, we’ve been thinking a lot about fans. In this series, our academics dive into fan cultures: how they developed, how they operate, and how they shape the world today.With the record-breaking success of Barbie and Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, the economic power of women as fans is being stamped on the global entertainment industries. Continued here

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Labor's Stage 3 changes aren't genuine tax reform - here's what would be     Another year, another round of tax cuts. Australian governments have made an art of announcing new income tax cuts as elections draw near. But while such cuts are always popular with the public, they should not be confused with tax reform.Labor’s redesign of the Coalition’s Stage 3 offers larger tax cuts for low and middle earners, and smaller (but still substantial) cuts for higher earners. Continued here

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The third-largest exporter of television is not who you might expect     Much of Ottoman history reads like a soap opera. In the 16th century Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent killed anyone whom he suspected of trying to rival him, including two brothers-in-law, two sons and a handful of grandsons. (And you thought your family had problems.) A show about Suleiman, “Muhtesem Yuzyil” (“Magnificent Century”), first aired in 2011 and was part of the first wave of Turkish dramas to go global. Fans of the show include Cardi B, an American rapper. Continued here

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Hermann Hesse on Discovering the Soul Beneath the Self and the Key to Finding Peace     “Self-hate is really the same thing as sheer egoism, and in the long run breeds the same cruel isolation and despair.” Continued here

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Out of the rabbit hole: new research shows people can change their minds about conspiracy theories     John Kerr works for the Public Health Communication Centre, which is funded by a philanthropic endowment from the Gama Foundation. Many people believe at least one conspiracy theory. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing – conspiracies do happen. Continued here

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The Psychology Behind Unethical Behavior - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     Leaders are often faced with ethical conundrums. So how can they determine when they’re inching toward dangerous territory? There are three main psychological dynamics that lead to crossing moral lines. First, there’s omnipotence: when someone feels so aggrandized and entitled that they believe the rules of decent behavior don’t apply to them. Second, consider cultural numbness: when others play along and gradually begin to accept and embody deviant norms. Finally, when people don’t speak up because they are thinking of more immediate rewards, we see justified neglect. There are several strategies leaders can use to counter these dynamics, including relying on a group of trusted peers to keep you in check, keeping a list of things you will never do for profit, and looking out for ways you explain away borderline actions.On a warm evening after a strategy off-site, a team of executives arrives at a well-known local restaurant. The group is looking forward to having dinner together, but the CEO is not happy about the table and demands a change. “This isn’t the one that my assistant usually reserves for me,” he says. A young waiter quickly finds the manager who explains that there are no other tables available. Continued here

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'Madame Web' Proves the Worst Superhero Movie Trend Needs to Go Away Forever     Kevin Feige was on to something when he chose to steer Marvel away from superhero origin stories. In 2014, the Marvel Studios exec claimed that Doctor Strange would be the last origin story in the franchise’s cinematic universe, and while that hasn’t entirely been the case (see Shang-Chi, Captain Marvel, Moon Knight, or She-Hulk), Marvel’s subversive strategy has served it pretty well. The past decade has seen new heroes and villains introduced in seamless fashion, with each entry of the MCU serving as a back-door pilot, of sorts, for adventures to come. Sony’s Spider-Man universe is relatively young: it’s only been around for half a decade, but not for lack of trying. The studio has held the rights to the eponymous webhead for the past 25 years, and has tried to get a genuine franchise off the ground at least twice before. Though Sony is now leasing Peter Parker out to Marvel Studios, the studio hasn’t stopped trying to establish a comprehensive web of heroes and villains to set itself apart from the MCU. Continued here

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What should a sports fan do when their team lets them down? | Aeon Essays     The Manchester United player Mason Greenwood celebrating a goal at Old Trafford, Manchester, 14 August 2021. Photo by Martin Rickett/PA/Getty The Manchester United player Mason Greenwood celebrating a goal at Old Trafford, Manchester, 14 August 2021. Photo by Martin Rickett/PA/Getty Continued here

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DRC protests: expert explains why Congolese anger against the west is justified - and useful to the government     Since early February, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, has been rocked by protests directed against western embassies. Protests took place in front of the British and French embassies, and in front of United Nations buildings. Throughout the city, American and Belgian flags were burned. The protesters are denouncing what they believed to be western complicity in the war in the east of the DRC. These protests were triggered by the renewed advance of the rebel movement M23. Continued here

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People Don't Want to Be Compared with Others in Performance Reviews. They Want to Be Compared with Themselves - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     Why do people hate performance reviews? Maybe because, according to surveys, most of us don’t think they’re fair. A team of researchers set out to examine this in more detail. In four studies based on the data collected from 1,024 American and Dutch employees, they compared two types of reference points: employees who were compared against each other, and employees whose current performance was compared against their own past performance. The latter seemed to be perceived as far more fair — in that case, participants believed that the evaluations were more individualized, believing that the manager incorporated specific information about them. Thus, they considered that the evaluations were more discerning and accurate, and that they had been treated in a more respectful way.People hate performance evaluations. They really do. According to a survey of Fortune 1,000 companies done by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), 66% of the employees were strongly dissatisfied with the performance evaluations they received in their organizations. More strikingly, 65% of the employees believed that performance evaluations were not even relevant to their jobs. Continued here

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How the maths behind honeycombs can help you work a jigsaw puzzle - New Scientist (No paywall)     Maths tells us the best way to cover a surface with copies of a shape – even when it comes to jigsaw puzzles, says Katie Steckles Continued here

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PlayStation Plus Just Quietly Released the Most Unique Soulslike Game of the Decade     Science can’t explain masochism. There’s some research to support the thin biochemical line between pleasure and pain within the central nervous system, but the psychology of why people seek out pain and humiliation remains a mystery. Without it, we wouldn’t have Soulslikes, the infamous subgenre named for From Software’s notoriously difficult Dark Souls series. It introduced gamers to the concept of being treated like ignoble filth, peons incapable of glory until they hone their skills through hours and hours of punishment. And we loved them for it. So much so that this thriving subgenre is going strong more than a decade later. And now PlayStation+ has dropped one of the most unique Soulslikes in recent memory.Steelrising from French studio Spiders is an alternate universe take on the French Revolution that gives King Louis XIV an army of automatons at his disposal. One automaton, or “automat” as the game prefers to call them, is named Aegis. A bodyguard for Marie Antoinette, Aegis is dispatched by the legendary beheadress to locate her missing children. Along the way, Aegis will battle King Louis’ forces on the foggy, cobbled streets of the French capital and unravel a mystery all her own. Continued here

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Want Less-Biased Decisions? Use Algorithms. - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     A quiet revolution is taking place. In contrast to much of the press coverage of artificial intelligence, this revolution is not about the ascendance of a sentient android army. Rather, it is characterized by a steady increase in the automation of traditionally human-based decision processes throughout organizations all over the country. While advancements like AlphaGo Zero make for catchy headlines, it is fairly conventional machine learning and statistical techniques — ordinary least squares, logistic regression, decision trees — that are adding real value to the bottom line of many organizations. Real-world applications range from medical diagnoses and judicial sentencing to professional recruiting and resource allocation in public agencies. Continued here