By Abrar Ahmed

I remember the most poignant lesson I learned in medical school.

It was a Friday afternoon psychiatry lecture. Knowing our minds were on the weekend, the psychiatrist opened with a story of treating a patient with alcohol use disorder.

The patient was detailing the significant trauma they had endured, and how the alcohol use had escalated dangerously. The patient stopped, probably expecting a long-winded explanation about why alcohol was bad, and why abstinence was the only solution forward. I know I was.

What the psychiatrist told the patient instead shocked me.

“I think it is fortunate that you drink alcohol.”

All of our backs straightened. Did she encourage her patient to drink?

Reading our minds, she continued, repeating what she had told her patient.

“I am not saying that drinking is healthy. But alcohol helped you cope. Without it, you would have coped with your trauma another way. You may have sought a more permanent way.”

We all knew what permanent meant. Patients with a history of significant trauma are at a higher risk of committing suicide.

She continued: “You are alive. Dead people don’t ask for medical help.”

The patient, in stunned silence, finally said: “I think you are right, doc. I never thought of it like that.”

The provincial government’s decision to defund safe injection sites (SIS) brought this memory back to the forefront.

In 2024, the province’s 2024 Community Care and Recovery Act prevented the operation of SIS within 200 metres of schools and child care centres, resulting in the closure of nine sites. The province followed up with a 2026 decision to end funding for SIS, to be replaced with Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub, with a deadline of 90 days, for SSI users to transition to the HART model. The funding is scheduled to end June 13 and will lead to the closure of seven more sites.

On the surface, the HART Hubs seem like a step in the right direction. A centre where patients can access trauma-informed care, counseling, life skills development, medical and nursing support and help with navigating an increasingly complicated medical system. However, the problem is that a focus on an abstinence based model ignores the central tenet that addiction is a chronic and relapsing condition.

Relapses happen. And a person who relapses is at grave risk from the decline in tolerance for potentially fatal complications such as respiratory depression.

An abstinence model assumes that every person using opioids is immediately ready for abstinence. That they are all motivated, and that those who are not, are not worthy of care. In reality, many may not feel ready for abstinence, instead opting for safe consumption. Abstinence is not an immediate focus, but a goal to be worked toward.

I support safe injection sites as the data overwhelmingly supports their benefit. They lead to an increased number of patients seeking addiction treatment services, reduction of transmission of HIV, hepatitis C and B, reduction in overdose deaths and fewer incidents of drug use in public. But I do not want to dismiss the concerns of my friends and family. There is a growing compassion fatigue as the public is faced with the uncomfortable question of how much more it will tolerate in the name of empathy.

The tension exists because safe injection sites are often misunderstood at the policy level as a solution to addiction itself, and that harm reduction is at odds with abstinence. They are not, and they do not need to be.

SIS are a temporary intervention to keep people alive long enough to access care. The true failure is not that SIS exists. But rather that we did not fund the integration of these temporary measures into a broader system of care, including treatment, housing, social work and mental health services.

This intervention recognizes that quitting drugs altogether is a long-term goal. It is an entry point into the health-care system that patients can trust.

Other countries across the political spectrum have taken this comprehensive approach. Switzerland, often viewed as politically centre right, enacted the four-pillar model that emphasizes harm reduction in conjunction with law enforcement, prevention and treatment that is supported with housing. France was more cautious, slowly studying the results of their consumption sites before deciding to expand further.

By not supporting our sites, we have permitted safe injection sites to become targets of frustration, something easy to cut away in budget conversations. Closing sites when we should be thinking about how to integrate them only displaces the problem from supervised areas to public spaces, and allows for fatal overdoses. This is not just a policy debate. It is a reflection of what we believe should happen to people at their lowest point.

My psychiatry professor did not celebrate her patient’s drinking. She recognized it for what it was: a coping mechanism that kept her patient alive long enough to seek help.

Supervised consumption sites are similar in that sense. They are not the end of the story.

But for many, they are the reason there is still a story to tell.

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Previously Published on healthydebate.ca with Creative Commons License

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By Shawna Rosenzweig, The 74

This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.

Chronic absenteeism is one of the most persistent challenges facing schools today. A student is considered chronically absent after missing 10% of the school year, about 18 days in most districts. According to SchoolStatus, the U.S. rate of chronic absenteeism stood at 23.5% in 2024.

Schools have responded with attendance campaigns, tutoring and family outreach. These strategies matter. But they often treat absenteeism primarily as a logistical problem, when for many students it is fundamentally an engagement problem.

Many young people who miss school are struggling with anxiety, social disconnection, academic frustration or a lack of belonging. In other words, they are disengaged long before they become absent.

One overlooked contributor to this disengagement is how young people spend their time outside of school and the kind of boredom they experience there.

Today’s young people are spending an alarming amount of time in passive, solitary screen use. American teenagers average more than eight hours per day scrolling social feeds, watching videos or gaming alone for hours on end. Research has linked heavy passive screen use among adolescents to increased anxiety, sleep disruption and lower well-being.

What young people need more of is the opposite: active, unstructured play, time spent walking in nature and time with peers.

Afternoons that once included neighborhood play, outdoor exploration or community activities are increasingly being replaced by solitary time spent on digital devices. Meanwhile, many schools have reduced recess, arts and experiential learning in favor of more instructional time to improve academic performance.

Ironically, that combination may make it harder for some students to stay engaged with school.

This is where afterschool programs, youth organizations and camps can make a meaningful difference. Research shows that these and other types of out-of-school-time programs can help students develop social and emotional foundations that support school engagement.

Programs run by organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America, YMCA, 4-H, Camp Fire and thousands of local community organizations share several characteristics that appear to matter most.

First, they provide hands-on learning opportunities that differ from the traditional classroom. Whether building a robotics project, cooking together, being exposed to outdoor skills or working on creative arts, these activities allow students to experience curiosity and a sense of accomplishment in low-pressure environments.

Second, they foster meaningful relationships with peers and mentors, including adults who are not grading their academic assignments but supporting their growth. These connections help students build confidence, navigate social challenges and develop a stronger sense of belonging. Research has found that strong developmental relationships with adults are closely associated with higher school engagement and motivation.

Third, these programs often combine academic support with recreation. Homework help, literacy activities or STEM projects are embedded within collaborative and social settings. This balance allows students to rebuild academic confidence while still experiencing autonomy and enjoyment. For students who feel overwhelmed in traditional academic environments, these programs can provide an important bridge back to engagement.

Yet access to these programs remains uneven. According to the Afterschool Alliance, about 22 million children in the United States would enroll in an afterschool program if one were available to them. Cost, transportation barriers and limited program capacity often prevent participation, particularly in lower-income communities.

If policymakers are serious about addressing chronic absenteeism, expanding access to high-quality youth programs should be part of the strategy.

That means several things. States and districts should treat afterschool and summer programs as a core component of their chronic absenteeism strategies, not an afterthought. Federal Title IV funding under the Every Student Succeeds Act can be directed toward community-based youth programs, and more districts should use it that way.

Schools can also build formal partnerships with organizations such as Camp Fire, Boys and Girls Clubs and local YMCAs, to help students connect with them rather than relying on parents and guardians to find these programs on their own. Transportation, one of the most stubborn barriers to participation, can be addressed through late bus routes or coordinated ride-sharing arrangements. And in communities where demand far outpaces capacity, philanthropic and corporate investment in program expansion can help close the gap.

These programs should not be treated as simply another academic intervention. Their value lies in offering something different from the classroom. They create environments where young people can explore, collaborate, take healthy risks and experience the kind of unstructured, active time that fuels creativity and resilience.

In a world saturated with digital distractions and constant pressure, students may not need more stimulation. They may need more opportunities to reconnect with curiosity, community and purpose.

Those experiences may happen after school, in a community center, in a makerspace or around a campfire. But they can help students rediscover a reason to show up in the classroom.

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As temperatures continue to rise around the world, people are becoming increasingly aware of the physical risks associated with extreme heat. Heatwaves can lead to dehydration, exhaustion, and serious health concerns. However, the impact of hot weather goes far beyond physical discomfort. Extreme heat can significantly affect your mood, concentration, productivity, and even the quality of your relationships.

Understanding how high temperatures influence mental and emotional wellbeing can help individuals, families, and workplaces better prepare for periods of intense heat.

The Connection Between Heat and Mental Health

The human body works hard to maintain a stable internal temperature. During extremely hot weather, this process requires additional energy and resources. As the body focuses on cooling itself, other functions can become less efficient, including cognitive performance and emotional regulation.

Research has shown that people often experience increased irritability, frustration, and stress during heatwaves. This is partly because discomfort creates a constant source of distraction. When you feel physically uncomfortable, your patience tends to decrease, making it harder to respond calmly to everyday situations.

In addition, sleep quality often suffers during hot nights. Poor sleep can further contribute to mood swings, anxiety, and feelings of exhaustion.

Why Extreme Heat Makes People More Irritable

Have you ever noticed that tempers seem to flare more quickly on very hot days? There is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon.

When body temperatures rise, the brain can become more sensitive to stressors. Small annoyances that would normally be manageable may suddenly feel overwhelming. This can lead to increased conflict at home, in the workplace, and in social situations.

People experiencing heat-related discomfort may:

• Become impatient more easily
• Have difficulty controlling emotions
• Feel more anxious or stressed
• React more strongly to minor frustrations
• Experience lower overall satisfaction throughout the day

Reducing heat exposure can help minimize these effects. For individuals who work outdoors or in high-temperature environments, wearing a cooling vest can help regulate body temperature and improve comfort during prolonged heat exposure.

How Heat Impacts Focus and Productivity

Extreme heat does not only affect emotions. It can also impair cognitive performance.

The brain requires a significant amount of energy to function efficiently. When the body is struggling to cool itself, mental resources may become limited. As a result, concentration levels often decrease during hot weather.

Common effects include:

Reduced Attention Span

People may find it difficult to stay focused on complex tasks for extended periods. Distractions become more noticeable, and maintaining productivity can feel like an uphill battle.

Slower Decision-Making

High temperatures can affect cognitive processing speed. This means individuals may take longer to analyze information and make decisions.

Increased Errors

Studies have found that workers and students are more likely to make mistakes when exposed to excessive heat. This can have serious consequences in industries where precision and safety are critical.

Lower Motivation

Physical discomfort often leads to mental fatigue. Tasks that would normally feel manageable may seem more demanding, resulting in decreased motivation and engagement.

The Effect of Heat on Workplace Performance

Businesses around the world are becoming more aware of the relationship between temperature and employee performance.

Employees working in hot environments often experience:

• Reduced productivity
• Increased fatigue
• Higher stress levels
• More workplace accidents
• Greater absenteeism

For outdoor workers, construction teams, warehouse staff, and industrial employees, temperature management is essential. Cooling strategies can help maintain both safety and performance during periods of extreme heat.

Organizations that invest in employee comfort often see improvements in morale, efficiency, and overall workplace satisfaction.

How Heat Can Strain Personal Relationships

One of the less discussed consequences of extreme heat is its impact on relationships.

When people are tired, uncomfortable, and irritable, communication can suffer. Small disagreements may escalate more quickly, and patience can wear thin.

Family Relationships

Parents often face additional challenges during heatwaves, especially when children are also feeling uncomfortable. Increased stress levels can create tension within the household.

Romantic Relationships

Partners may become more easily frustrated with one another when dealing with sleep deprivation and physical discomfort caused by excessive heat.

Friendships and Social Interactions

Even social activities can become less enjoyable during periods of extreme heat. People may choose to stay indoors, cancel plans, or interact less frequently, potentially leading to feelings of isolation.

Recognizing that heat may be contributing to emotional reactions can help individuals approach conflicts with greater understanding and empathy.

The Importance of Staying Cool

Managing body temperature is one of the most effective ways to protect both physical and mental wellbeing during hot weather.

Several practical strategies can help:

• Drink plenty of water throughout the day.
• Avoid direct sunlight during peak afternoon hours.
• Wear lightweight and breathable clothing.
• Take regular breaks in shaded or air-conditioned environments.
• Prioritize sleep by keeping bedrooms as cool as possible.
• Use cooling solutions designed for high-temperature conditions.

Companies such as Inuteq specialize in innovative cooling technologies that help individuals remain comfortable and productive in challenging environments. These solutions can be particularly valuable for workers, athletes, and anyone exposed to prolonged periods of heat.

Long-Term Implications of Rising Temperatures

Climate experts predict that heatwaves will become more frequent and intense in many parts of the world. This means that the psychological and social effects of extreme heat may become increasingly important.

Understanding the connection between temperature, mood, and behavior allows individuals and organizations to take proactive steps. By prioritizing comfort and heat management, people can better maintain their focus, emotional wellbeing, and interpersonal relationships.

Conclusion

Extreme heat affects far more than physical comfort. High temperatures can influence mood, concentration, productivity, and the quality of our relationships. Increased irritability, reduced focus, and heightened stress levels are common responses to prolonged heat exposure.

As heatwaves become more common, it is essential to recognize these effects and implement strategies to stay cool. Whether through hydration, environmental adjustments, or advanced cooling solutions, managing body temperature can help protect mental wellbeing and support healthier interactions with others.

By understanding how heat influences the mind and emotions, individuals can navigate hot weather more effectively while maintaining stronger relationships and better overall performance.

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The post Flip the Script and Get Your Avoidant Partner to Chase You appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By Naveena Sadasivam & Te Aniwaniwa Paterson, Grist

“This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.”

About six years ago, law students at the University of the South Pacific convinced the government of the small island nation of Vanuatu to take the harms wrought by climate change all the way to the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest legal authority. Vanuatu, along with the students, waged a campaign to convince the court that climate change was a human rights issue and that countries have a legal duty to protect the planet for future generations. In 2025, the court sided with them unanimously. In a legally nonbinding advisory opinion, it ruled that the failure of countries to tackle climate change is a “wrongful act” and that other nations harmed by a warming planet may seek reparations.

Now, the effort has notched another win. On Wednesday, an overwhelming majority of countries in the United Nations voted to adopt a resolution backing the court’s ruling. The historic decision signals the political support behind the court’s finding that countries have a legal responsibility to address climate change, reduce its impact, and offer reparations to those it has harmed. More than 140 countries voted in favor of the resolution. Just eight  — including the United States, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Russia — voted against (28 countries abstained from the vote).

“This must be a turning point in accountability for damaging the climate,” said Vishal Prasad, director of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change and one of the law students who campaigned to take the case to the International Court of Justice, or ICJ. “The journey of this idea from classrooms in the Pacific to The Hague and the United Nations gives us continued hope that when people organize, the world can be moved to act.”

The near-unanimous decision is a strong signal that multilateral cooperation on climate change has not completely unraveled. Over the past year, global unity on reducing greenhouse gas emissions has proven shaky. After Donald Trump’s administration announced it would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the United States has actively opposed climate action. Last year, it derailed countries that were close to setting a carbon tax on the shipping industry, which is responsible for about 3 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. A deal to regulate the industry’s emissions now seems uncertain. The U.S. has also helped kill a cap on plastics production and berated the International Energy Agency into projecting future energy demand under a scenario that climate action will stall out.

“The unity and clarity expressed by the vote was striking,” said Nikki Reisch, director of the Center for International Environmental Law’s climate and energy program. Reisch said the resolution puts “political weight behind legal norms” and will help translate the international court’s conclusions into practical action. “It will become another pillar and proof of political backing for action and accountability.”

The Trump administration also mounted a campaign to block the United Nations from adopting the landmark international court ruling. In February, the State Department sent a missive to all consulates and embassies noting that it “strongly opposed” the U.N. resolution and that its adoption “could pose a major threat to U.S. industry.” In remarks ahead of the vote, Tammy Bruce, a former conservative radio host and now deputy representative to the U.N. in New York, said that the resolution is “problematic” and that “the United States continues to have serious legal and policy concerns” about it.

“The resolution singles out certain groups for preferential treatment and makes alarmist political statements, such as the idea that climate change is an unprecedented challenge of civilizational proportions,” Bruce said. “Such hyperbolic statements are not appropriate in a resolution on an ICJ advisory opinion.”

The resolution reiterates the International Court of Justice’s core findings and calls on countries to implement measures to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) while transitioning away from fossil fuels. It also affirms that nations must fulfill their climate obligations and that those countries harmed by others’ inaction are entitled to seek redress. Finally, the resolution calls on the United Nations’ secretary-general to submit a report next year on ways to comply with the international court’s findings. The resolution, like most U.N. resolutions, is not legally binding; rather, it’s intended to signal political priorities or views.

The U.N. vote comes as countries are cracking down on climate activism and litigation. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the government moved to amend climate laws to limit civil court proceedings against major greenhouse gas emitters for climate-related harm.

Māori climate advocate Mike Smith is among those whose cases could be affected. Recent reports have found that land theft and colonization have exacerbated the effects of climate change on the Indigenous Māori people, who are more likely to be affected by extreme weather events. Smith is currently pursuing high court proceedings against six of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, and he describes the U.N. vote as a “major shift,” arguing it reflects a changing understanding of climate change not just as environmental damage, but as something with legal consequences.

“We know as Māori that the islands are part of our journey across the Pacific that’s led us here to Aotearoa,” he said. “New Zealand has a responsibility to stand with Pacific countries like Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga, and Tokelau. Not just symbolically, but in supporting stronger legal and international action on climate harm.”

Although the U.N. vote is a victory for Indigenous activists from the Pacific and beyond, they believe that many countries still must be pushed to uphold their climate obligations.

“The law is clear that climate action cannot sit on the shelf, it must be turned into action,” Prasad said.

The Indigenous News Alliance contributed reporting to this story.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/international/in-a-rare-show-of-global-unity-countries-adopt-landmark-climate-ruling/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

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This Story Was Originally Published by Grist.

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The sport of golf appears to be an easy game when you observe it from a distance, but you will experience a complete transformation when you enter the golf course. Florida golfers encounter swing problems because they lack proper posture and they miss putts because they do not know the right techniques. Golfers need coaching sessions, but their work commitments stop them from attending multiple weekly sessions at golf academies. Players now choose Golf Training Videos because these videos allow them to practice at home and train in their local areas.

Video-based golf learning has changed training methods for both beginner and advanced golf players. Golfers have complete access to instructional materials, which they can use as needed instead of relying on irregular in-person training sessions. Online golf learning provides Miami and Orlando golfers with training resources that support their practice sessions.

Why Video-Based Golf Training Is Becoming Popular in Florida

Florida has one of the largest golfing communities in the United States. The combination of Florida’s warm weather and its numerous high-quality golf courses creates conditions that golfers use to enhance their skills. The need for regular lessons poses challenges because people have busy schedules.

This is where golf video lessons come in handy. Golfers can control their training process by stopping and watching sections of the video, which they can also use for practice. Players now have the option to review training videos whenever they need instead of trying to recall all the information from a lesson.

Private learning environments are preferred by many golfers. Video training helps beginners build confidence because it eliminates the pressure to perform in front of instructors and fellow players.

With Golf Training Videos, you can:

• Watch lessons multiple times
• Slow down complicated movements
• Practice whenever your schedule allows
• Focus only on areas where you need improvement
• Build confidence step by step
• This personalized approach helps golfers improve without feeling rushed.

Better Visual Understanding of Techniques

Golf is a highly visual sport. Reading about grip positioning or swing rotation is not always enough. Watching a professional demonstrate proper movement makes learning much easier.

Video training helps golfers understand:

• Body alignment
• Swing path
• Wrist positioning
• Putting techniques
• Weight transfer during swings
• Ball contact timing

Seeing these techniques in action helps players avoid common mistakes that often develop from poor practice habits.

Convenient for Busy Florida Golfers

Florida residents often balance work, family responsibilities, and recreational activities. Driving long distances for golf coaching may not always fit into a busy routine.

• Video-based training allows golfers to practice:
• At home
• At local driving ranges
• During travel
• Before weekend rounds
• In short daily sessions

Even 20 minutes of focused practice using structured golf video lessons can help improve consistency over time.

The process of executing a golf swing requires players to develop consistent performance throughout the entire game. Players possess the ability to execute outstanding shots, but they experience difficulty achieving multiple successful attempts during actual matches.

Through video-based teaching, golfers develop permanent practice methods that establish essential skills through continuous fundamental training. The process of repeating drill exercises enables athletes to develop muscle memory while building self-assurance for their performance during matches.

Lower Costs Than Standard Coaching Services

Florida golfers can access affordable online training programs that provide them with high-quality learning opportunities. This system enables athletes to make progress between their scheduled face-to-face training sessions.

Online sports education programs have become more popular because digital learning methods enable athletes to acquire new skills with greater efficiency. The United States Golf Association (USGA) provides educational materials that demonstrate to golfers at all skill levels the necessity of following established training methods and developing their abilities through structured practice sessions.

Video training provides beneficial content that assists both beginner and advanced golfers. Another major advantage of video training is that it works for golfers at every skill level. Beginners Can Learn:

• Basic swing mechanics
• Grip and stance fundamentals
• Golf etiquette
• Putting basics
• Course confidence
• Experienced Players Can Improve:
• Shot shaping
• Swing consistency
• Short-game control
• Mental focus
• Advanced techniques

This makes video-based learning a practical option for long-term improvement.

Personal Progress Tracking Becomes Simpler Through This Method

Golfers who practice their skills using video analysis throughout their training schedule demonstrate better performance development. Players use video recordings of their swings, which they compare to their instructional lessons, to develop their skills. The method helps people recognize their strengths while they work to find their weaknesses.

The process of measuring progress through various methods helps people maintain their enthusiasm. Golfers maintain their training schedule because they experience minor advancements in swing precision and distance performance and putting skill development. The approach helps people manage their workload because it restricts their ability to maintain focus throughout multiple tasks.

Final Thoughts

Golf improvement requires three essential elements, which include dedicated time, training efforts and the proper educational methods. For many players in Florida, the video-based training system provides them with a successful method to develop their skills because it does not interfere with their everyday activities.

Golf video lessons help beginners and advanced players lower their handicaps by teaching them effective practice methods that build their confidence during matches. The training resources at Instant Golf Improvement provide you with flexible techniques to enhance your game while you follow their detailed instructions to develop a more reliable golf performance.

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By David L. Chandler | MIT News

When MIT mechanical engineering Professor Kripa Varanasi landed in New Delhi in the middle of the night in June 2024 to attend a conference, he found himself in 104-degree Fahrenheit heat.

“This was June, and it was crazy. It was so hot for the whole meeting that I never left the hotel,” with daytime temperatures nearing 122 F.

It didn’t used to be that way. “When I grew up in India, it was not like this,” Varanasi says. “That kind of inspired me.”

He found a way to begin tackling the issue through a grant from the MIT Climate Project that provided seed funding to develop a proof-of-concept prototype of a wearable personal cooling system. The grant was one of four that were part of a Critical Cooling initiative for which the Climate Project requested proposals last year. The projects, which received grants totaling $450,000, are now complete. All have showed promise, and are now exploring ways to further develop their concepts.

Another MIT researcher, Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, looked into the potential of subsurface wells with heat-absorbing materials to supply spaces with air far below peak ambient temperatures while using much less energy than evaporation-compression heat pumps. The aim would be to use such systems in both small apartment buildings and single-family homes in India and other parts of the Global South.

Meanwhile, Asegun Henry, the George N. Hatsopoulos Professor in Thermodynamics, studied the use of an alternative approach to air conditioning to be more energy efficient and eliminate hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants that are potent greenhouse gases. His approach uses a cheap, widely abundant solid “caloric” material — rubber — to obtain a cooling effect, and then uses plain water as an efficient heat transfer fluid. The initial target market is single-family houses and apartment buildings, although larger systems could also serve data centers.

And Gang Chen, the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering, addressed the tendency of existing air conditioning units being expensive and power hungry. They also use refrigerants that are far more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide — and the coolants are likely to leak out when the devices are ultimately disposed of, adding to their global warming contribution. To help address that, Chen’s approach is to use a completely different kind of chemical refrigerant that has no greenhouse impact.

Christoph Reinhart, the Terri and Alan Spoon Professor of Architecture and Climate who leads MIT’s Sustainable Design Lab (SDL), championed the seed fund effort and served as faculty lead. “The term ‘critical cooling’ stems from a collaboration between SDL and Harvard’s Human Rights Entrepreneurs Clinic,” he says. “It is motivated by the fact that climate change increasingly causes heat fatalities, primarily among vulnerable populations, who lack access to active cooling. The impact that MIT can have by ‘cooling people, not spaces’ is enormous.” This vision led to the creation of the grant program, where each of the teams received funding for six months to see what they could do and explore really innovative approaches to the problem.

In collaboration with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), led on J-PAL’s side by Senior Policy Manager Andre Zollinger, the teams started with a workshop that brought together representatives from the World Bank, leaders from the Global South and industry, and engineers with ideas to suggest.

All of the teams made progress and most produced initial prototypes, says Liana Frey, a managing director at the MIT Climate Project, and an effort will be made to further develop and fund these ideas. “We’re continuing to look at different ways of proceeding with the work.”

One of these ways is through air conditioning. Worldwide, air conditioning is only available to about 8 percent of people — and that amount already contributes between 3 and 4 percent of global warming emissions — explains Chen. Meanwhile, the need for air conditioning and other ways of addressing extreme heat is steadily growing as the planet steadily warms up, and many of the people who will be most affected live in regions with limited access to reliable or affordable power and with high levels of poverty. The market for air conditioners is expected to triple or quadruple in coming years, he says, and their contribution to global warming will grow accordingly.

Chen says that he already had some ideas, but he hadn’t had a chance to test them out in experiments, which the grant enabled him to do. After building three prototypes and testing them out, he says, “I’m not at the stage where I can say that I know this will work.” But based on the experiments, he’d like to proceed to build a further prototype. If it works as well as expected, it would make a dramatic difference in air conditioning technology worldwide, including for the intensive cooling needs of new data centers.

Meanwhile, Varanasi’s way of looking at the problem was to consider individuals, not spaces. His devices work through the same principle as how an elephant uses its huge ears to dissipate heat and cool its blood.

The wearable device only consumes about 33 watts, he says, whereas a typical room air conditioner consumes around 1,000 watts. At U.S. material prices, the prototype device would cost about $20, he says, but if sourced with local material in India, he estimates it could be produced at a cost of less than $1 each.

Such garments could be bought in large quantities by the government and distributed to communities, where local entrepreneurs could set up charging stations to recharge the devices after a night’s wear, and other locals could set up businesses to manufacture the systems. The socks themselves would be washable, separately from the cooling material itself. This could enable people to at least get a good night’s sleep even in the extreme heat, he says.

The proof of concept he built used a simulated foot containing a heater, and measured the cooling effect. “We were able to keep it in the zone that we need for the body to stay cool,” he says. “So our initial prototype that we were able to build with this funding showed that this can become a viable solution.”

The same material could be used in other ways, such as to make sleeping bags with built-in cooling, he says. The raw material is widely available, but would be treated in a way that they developed. “It was a fundamental science bottleneck that we were able to overcome, which makes it possible.”

Varanasi says he is exploring various possibilities for how to develop his novel cooling material into a commercial product. “Ultimately, to make anything work, it has to be a business, otherwise good ideas can die,” he says. “It has to be a good business and a sustainable business.”

Luckily, there’s still support for advancing this work. “There are a lot of people interested in this heat-stress question,” says Frey. “It’s just becoming more and more urgent.”

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Reprinted with permission of MIT News

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By H.L. Comeriato, Buckeye Flame

The LGBTQ+ Ohioan who filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) last year after the agency rejected his application for a personalized license plate reading “GAY” has joined another federal suit against the agency.

Lakewood resident William Saki joined plaintiffs Jeffery Wosner and Patrick Corrigan in a new U.S. District Court lawsuit filed earlier this month, calling the BMV’s current interpretation of the state’s guidelines for personalized license plates “arbitrary,” “overbroad” and ultimately unconstitutional, restricting Ohioans’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Saki’s original case was dismissed after the BMV said it had made an error and agreed to revisit current guidelines for personalized plates.

Now, the three plaintiffs are filing another suit, alleging the agency has failed to keep that promise.

Each plaintiff requested personalized license plates that “do not necessarily violate the Special Plate Screening Guidelines, but could be interpreted as having a meaning that would,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Brian Barnwell.

The plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction, requiring the BMV to approve their license plate applications and declaring the Special Plate Screening Guidelines unconstitutional – barring the agency from using them going forward.

Plaintiffs are also seeking the cost of attorney fees and other damages.

“It is important that all members of our LGBTQ+ community have a voice, whether we’re speaking out about all the injustice going on in the world or just asking for something fun and silly like personalized license plates,” Saki told The Buckeye Flame. “My hope is that Ohio follows the judge’s previous orders and makes it easier for everyone to get the personalized license plate that they want.”

‘GAY’ license plate case

Ohioans have been able to purchase personalized license plates since 1973. However, the agency did not establish rules for evaluating applications until 2003, after an Ohioan sued the agency for denying a personalized plate that read “RDRAGE.”

As a result, the BMV created a series of official guidelines, prohibiting personalized plates that are: “profane, obscene, sexually explicit, or scatalogical.” The rules also ban letter and number combinations that reference drugs, “advocate lawlessness” or may “provoke a violent response.”

Last year, Lakewood resident William Saki applied for a license plate reading “GAY” through the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) in advance of National Coming Out Day – October 11 – to “express a central part of his identity.”

When the BMV rejected the plate as “Inappropriate/Invalid,” Saki attempted to register “QUEER” and “HOMO” – both of which were also denied.

When Saki also attempted to register plates including anti-LGBTQ+ slurs, he discovered the BMV allowed “NO GAYS,” “NO HOMOS” and “NO FAGS.”

Ultimately, a federal judge dismissed the suit after the BMV said it “erred in rejecting” Saki’s application and agreed to review its database for other blocked words that do not meet the standard for “offensive, disparaging or socially insensitive” language.

According to the complaint, the agency did not reevaluate its database and failed to produce clear, publicly accessible instructions for Ohioans looking to appeal a personalized plate rejection.

While Saki’s initial request for a personalized plate that reads “GAY” was processed and approved by the BMV, Barnwell said the issue of censorship is far from resolved:

“If you want to call yourself GAY or HOMO or NEGRO or JEW or MUSLIM, that should be your own decision, not the BMV’s,” Barnwell said. “It’s a bit of a slap in the face that we had to file this case at all.”

‘F46 LGB’

Ohio BMV deputy registrar Charlie Norman told reporters with News 5 Cleveland the agency approves roughly 500,000 personalized plates each year. He also described a noticeable uptick in personalized plate rejections since 2019.

Between 2020 and 2025, the number of plates Norman’s four-person office denied jumped by more than 92%

Plaintiff Jeffrey Wonser also sued the Ohio BMV in 2024 after the agency rejected his personalized plate application for “F46 LGB” in 2022.

The complaint claims the numbers and letters could be interpreted to mean “f— the 46th president, Joe Biden, and Let’s Go Brandon,” a term commonly used to insult the former President during his tenure at the White House.

However, the plate also resembles the anti-LGBTQ+ slur “FAG,” and a possible reference to lesbian, bisexual and gay people via the acronym “LGB.”

Additionally, the message could also be interpreted as a pro-LGBTQ+ phrase “intended to reclaim a homophobic slur” – blurring the guidelines even further.

Saki also applied for a plate using the phrase, clarifying on his application that the acronym stands for “Fag love: Gavin and Bill,” a tribute to his partner.

Saki’s application was rejected, along with requests for plates reading: “HOMO,” “FAG,” “FAGGOT” and “CUNTY.”

Ultimately, a judge dismissed Wonser’s suit after determining the statute of limitations had expired. In 2024, he submitted a second application for a personalized plate reading “LGB F46,” which was also denied.

Intent vs. interpretation

The lawsuit highlights the difference between intent vs. interpretation.

Barnwell argues the string of characters “F46 LGB” does not directly violate the BMV’s guidelines because it has “no objective meaning.” Further, he argues that neither the BMV nor the individual is responsible for predicting the public’s interpretation of the plate.

For example, the BMV rejected the plate “FALICE,” for violating guidelines – apparently interpreting the phrase to mean “phallus.” However, the agency reversed its decision after confirming that “Falice” was the applicant’s legal middle name, and not an obscene or sexually explicit reference.

In another example, a BMV censor also rejected an application for a personalized plate that read “84HO,” believing it to be sexually explicit and derogatory. The agency later rescinded that decision and issued the plate after confirming it was for a 1984 Hurst Oldsmobile.

Barnwell said the rule gives the government “unbridled discretion to censor speech.”

“Mike DeWine says we should trust the state to decide which messages are fit for license plates, but it’s hard to trust him when he’s cutting special plates for literal Nazis but refusing to do the same for lesbians or Jews or anyone else who doesn’t belong in whatever painfully boring version of America he’s trying to impose on us,” Barnwell said.

“We’re hoping the Court will put a stop to it once and for all, and tell the BMV that gay people are entitled to free speech and equal protection of the laws,” he added. “And so are Jews and Muslims and Democrats and Republicans – and even the guy who tried to pay good money for a license plate that says ‘POOOOP.’”

Ignite Action

• To register to vote or to check your voter eligibility status in the state of Ohio, click here.
• To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
• To find contact information for your Ohio state senator, click here.
• If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
• If you are an transgender adult in need of immediate help, contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860

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The Buckeye Flame is an online platform dedicated to amplifying the voices of LGBTQ+ Ohioans to support community and civic empowerment through the creation of engaging content that chronicles their triumphs, struggles, and lived experiences.

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Photo credit: Image created by H.L. Comeriato

The post LGBTQ+ Ohioan Sues Bureau of Motor Vehicles Again Over ‘Gay’ License Plate appeared first on The Good Men Project.

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There are very few places in the world that actually match what Orlando offers. From year-round sunshine to elite-level coaching facilities, the city has quietly become one of the top destinations for Orlando golf training. Whether you are a beginner trying to build solid fundamentals or an experienced player chasing consistency, Orlando gives you access to training environments that are built for real progress.

Why Orlando Has Become a Golf Training Hub

Golfers from across the country are coming to Orlando to train. Even international ones are doing so and it is for a reason. According to the National Golf Foundation, 48.1 million Americans played golf in some form in 2025, a record high, reflecting just how much the sport has grown in recent years. It is not just about the weather, though that certainly helps. A combination of top-tier golf courses, advanced technology and highly experienced coaches is offered at Orlando. They truly understand how to develop players at every level.

Technology That Actually Improves Your Game

Modern golf training is not based on guesswork anymore. Orlando training facilities use advanced tools like launch monitors, swing video analysis and performance tracking systems. Such tools give you clear feedback on what is working and what requires improvement.

However, the real value is not the technology itself. It is how coaches use it. Data without guidance can be confusing. In Orlando, the best programs translate that data into simple, actionable steps that you can actually apply to the course. This is one of the key reasons why players see faster and more consistent improvement.

Training That Goes Beyond the Driving Range

A common mistake many golfers make is focusing only on the driving range. The Orlando training programs recognize that athletes show their true abilities during actual competition. The leading Orlando golf schools conduct their training on actual golf courses, which allow students to practice their skills during authentic game situations.

The program teaches students how to manage a golf course while selecting shots and dealing with high-pressure situations. It also teaches students how to hit the ball but also when to use specific shots. The shift in your thinking process functions as the key that enables you to achieve better scores over time.

Year-Round Practice Without Interruptions

Consistency functions as the main factor that determines golf improvement. The weather becomes a major obstacle in many parts of the country. Orlando serves as the solution to this problem. The training program permits you to practice during every season without any extended interruptions, which enables you to develop and keep your training progress.

The training process without interruptions proves especially beneficial when you need to implement significant changes to your playing style. The program enables you to develop your abilities through constant practice without facing interruptions during the entire year. The process leads to the development of dependable and consistent athletic performance.

Finding the Right Fit for Your Goals

The program selection process becomes critical because various options exist. Training requirements vary between different types of golfers. Some players benefit from intensive multi-day programs, while others prefer ongoing coaching with regular sessions.

If you are exploring your options, take time to review what different programs offer. You should examine their coaching methods, together with their training processes and their methods for assessing student development. A good starting point is to explore detailed options like this guide to Orlando golf coaches and schools.

What Makes Orlando Different From Other Locations

Orlando presents a training system that provides complete golf training facilities. The environment offers top-notch courses together with professional trainers who assist dedicated players in their quest for progress. The setting absolutely compels you to maintain your concentration, together with your dedication to tasks.

The system enables athletes to develop their skills through organized training methods. The system provides you with a structured improvement path, which includes scheduled lessons instead of providing you with random advice. The structured training system assists golfers in developing their skills from unpredictable performances to assured gameplay.

A Smart Investment in Your Game

Golf improvement requires golfers to dedicate their time, together with physical effort, while receiving proper instruction. Orlando golf training enables golfers to acquire new techniques through their training sessions. The program establishes a foundation that enables athletes to develop their abilities across an extended period. The proper training setting enables you to enhance your performance through each practice session.

You begin to identify patterns while recognizing your strengths and selecting areas for improvement, which you intend to develop. The process develops into a system that enables you to make better decisions on the golf course while achieving more reliable outcomes.

Conclusion

The city of Orlando has become recognized worldwide as a top destination that provides golf improvement opportunities. The facility provides expert coaching together with advanced technology and continuous training facilities, which enable golfers to enhance their skills. Your choice of training location serves as the crucial factor that determines your success in improvement when you are committed to making progress.

John Hughes Golf offers structured coaching that focuses on achieving results to help you develop consistent performance skills.

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This content is brought to you by James Oliver.

Photo provided by James Oliver

The post Orlando Offers World-Class Golf Training Opportunities appeared first on The Good Men Project.

Most people think dealing with a narcissist requires a dramatic showdown or a tearful appeal to their empathy. It does not.

In fact, appealing to their conscience is like trying to pay for groceries with monopoly money. It is a currency they simply do not accept.

If you have been exhausted by the endless cycle of arguing, explaining, and defending yourself, you are not alone. You are likely experiencing the cognitive fatigue that comes from trying to force a disordered person to see your humanity.

They wont. But there is a pattern to their chaos, and once you see it, the game changes completely.

Narcissists are entirely driven by external validation and the preservation of their public persona. They do not care about your boundaries because they respect you.

They respect boundaries only when crossing them threatens the carefully curated mirror they present to the world.

When you stop appealing to their heart and start managing their optics, something fascinating happens. They listen.

This is not about playing games or becoming manipulative yourself. It is about emotional strategy and pattern recognition. It is about moving from the role of a frustrated participant to a calm, objective observer of human behavior.

Let us look at how shifting your approach from emotional defense to strategic framing can instantly give you your peace back.

Here is the exact behavioral shift that changes everything, allowing you to reclaim your mental clarity and step quietly into actual recovery.

The Architecture of the Mirror

To understand why traditional boundaries fail, you must first understand the psychological anatomy of the person you are dealing with.

A narcissist does not possess a stable, internalized sense of self. Instead, they operate entirely on a system of external feedback.

Think of them as a corporation that relies solely on its public relations department to stay afloat. If the stock price of their public image drops, the entire enterprise collapses.

When you set a boundary based on your feelings, you are speaking a language they do not understand. Saying you hurt my feelings or I need you to respect my space assumes the other person values your internal emotional state.

To a narcissist, your internal state is irrelevant. It is an abstract concept that holds no utility for them. They view relationships as transactional arrangements designed to support their ego.

This is why they override standard boundaries with such ease. If you tell them that their behavior makes you sad, they view that sadness as a sign of your vulnerability, not a cue to change their conduct.

In their minds, your emotional distress is actually proof of their power over you. It confirms that they are the central character in your life, which feeds their need for significance.

The breakthrough happens when you stop viewing their behavior as a personal attack and start viewing it as a predictable mechanical response.

They are simply acting in accordance with their programming.

Their programming dictates that the preservation of their image takes precedence over everything else, including logic, truth, and human connection.

Once you accept this, you stop wasting energy trying to change their character, and you start managing their behavior through the only mechanism they respond to.

The Public Image Leverage Point

The one thing a narcissist fears above all else is exposure.

More specifically, they fear the exposure of their inadequacy to an audience that matters to them. They have spent a lifetime constructing a carefully curated mask.

This mask might be the benevolent family man, the ultra successful professional, the deeply spiritual mentor, or the perpetual victim who is too good for this cruel world.

Whatever the specific flavor of the mask, it is their most prized possession. They will protect it at all costs.

This is where your leverage lies. When you learn to frame your boundaries in a way that hitches your peace to the preservation of their mask, they will comply instantly.

Consider a practical example in a professional setting. Imagine a narcissistic manager who constantly takes credit for your work in group meetings.

If you confront them privately and say it makes you feel unappreciated when you take credit for my ideas, they will likely dismiss you, gaslight you, or label you as overly sensitive.

You have given them an emotional reaction, which they can use to frame you as unstable.

Now, alter the strategy entirely. Imagine you frame the boundary around their professional reputation. You might say something like, I noticed the client was confused about who led the project during the presentation.

To ensure the team looks completely unified and professional in front of the executives, I will present my data directly next time so there is no perception of mismanagement.

Notice what you did there. You did not accuse them of stealing. You did not complain about your feelings.

You quietly pointed out that their current behavior risks making them look disorganized to people whose opinions they value. You framed your autonomy as a favor to their reputation.

Because they are terrified of looking incompetent to the higher ups, they will step back.

They obey the boundary not because they respect your contribution, but because they are protecting themselves.

Moving From Participant to Observer

Reclaiming your sanity requires a total shift in your emotional posture.

Most victims of manipulative behavior spend months or years in a state of hyper vigilance, constantly trying to anticipate the next mood swing, the next insult, or the next betrayal.

This puts your nervous system into a chronic state of fight or flight. You are reacting to every stimulus they throw your way.

To break this cycle, you must move from being a participant in their drama to becoming an objective observer of their psychology. Imagine you are a scientist observing a specific organism in a controlled environment.

When the organism acts out, you do not get angry at it. You simply make a note in your journal. You say to yourself, ah, there is the predictable deflation tactic because they feel threatened right now.

This psychological detachment is your superpower. When a narcissist attempts to bait you into an argument, they are fishing for an emotional reaction.

Any reaction will do. If you get angry, they win because they have controlled your emotional state. If you cry, they win for the same reason. Even your righteous indignation is a form of fuel for them.

When you adopt the mindset of an observer, you stop biting the hook. You look at their provocations with a sense of calm curiosity.

You realize that their vitriol has nothing to do with your worth as a human being and everything to do with their internal instability.

This realization brings an immediate sense of emotional regulation. You stop participating in the tennis match. You just let the ball bounce past you.

The Mechanics of Strategic Framing

Let us break down how to apply this strategic framing in everyday life.

Whether you are dealing with a difficult co parent, an overbearing relative, or a toxic colleague, the formula remains exactly the same.

You must identify what specific image they are trying to project to the world, and then align your boundary with the protection of that image.

Suppose you are dealing with an ex partner regarding a custody schedule. They constantly show up late for drop offs, disrupting your schedule and causing stress for the children.

If you tell them their lateness is disrespectful to your time, they will continue doing it because your frustration pleases them.

Instead, look at the image they want to maintain. Perhaps they want everyone to see them as an exceptional, highly organized parent. You alter your communication to reflect this.

You send a message that says, I know how much you value being a reliable and structured parent for the kids.

To make sure the neighbors and the school see that we have a highly organized routine, let us stick strictly to the six o clock drop off time so the kids never look unprepared.

By framing the request around their desire to look like a reliable parent, you remove the incentive for them to be late. If they are late now, they violate their own ego ideal.

You have effectively trapped them within their own vanity. They will show up on time to prove to themselves, and to you, that they are indeed the excellent parent they claim to be.

This approach requires you to swallow your pride temporarily. It requires you to stop trying to prove that they are a bad person.

You must accept that you will never get them to admit their faults. Once you give up the desire for a confession, you gain the freedom to manage the outcome.

Dismantling the Need for Closure

One of the greatest obstacles to recovery from narcissistic abuse is the desperate search for closure.

We are conditioned by movies and books to believe that every relationship ending requires a deep, meaningful conversation where both parties take responsibility, apologize, and part ways with a mutual understanding.

In the real world of behavioral pathology, this never happens. Seeking closure from a narcissist is an exercise in self sabotage.

They will use your desire for closure as an open door to pull you back into the cycle of manipulation.

They will promise change, offer a superficial apology, or unleash a new wave of gaslighting that leaves you more confused than before.

Real closure is an entirely inside job. It happens when you look at the data of your experience and accept the reality of who this person is, rather than who you wished they would be.

It is the quiet realization that they lack the psychological machinery required to give you an apology.

Expecting an apology from a narcissist is like expecting a blind person to describe a painting. They literally cannot see the damage they have caused because their ego protects them from the shame of reality.

When you accept this, a profound sense of peace takes over. You stop waiting for a conversation that will never happen. You close the book yourself.

You realize that their inability to validate your pain does not make your pain any less real, nor does it prevent your healing. Your closure is your decision to stop engaging with a broken system.

Rebuilding the Broken Compass

Prolonged exposure to emotional manipulation acts like a magnet held next to a compass.

It completely distorts your internal sense of direction. You learn to second guess your instincts, doubt your memory, and rely on the manipulator for your version of reality.

This is the essence of gaslighting, and it leaves you feeling deeply ungrounded.

Recovery requires a systematic rebuilding of your self trust. You must begin to treat your own perceptions as absolute facts.

If an interaction feels wrong, it is wrong. If a comment feels backhanded, it is backhanded.

You no longer need to gather a jury of friends to validate your experience before you allow yourself to believe it.

Start small by practicing decision making without seeking external consensus.

Choose what you want to eat, how you want to spend your Saturday, or what projects you want to pursue without asking for validation from others.

Notice the anxiety that arises when you rely solely on your own judgment, and sit with that anxiety until it passes.

Over time, your internal compass will recalibrate. You will begin to notice behavioral red flags in others much faster, not out of fear, but out of clear pattern recognition.

You will see an insecure person attempting to dominate a conversation and simply choose not to sit next to them. You will see a colleague shifting blame and quietly document your interactions with them.

You become a master of your environment because you trust your eyes more than their words.

The Power of the Low Information Diet

Once you understand the mechanics of the narcissist’s mind, you must implement a strict strategy for ongoing protection.

This is best achieved through what can be called the low information diet. Manipulative people use information about your life as ammunition.

Every dream you share, every insecurity you confess, and every plan you make is cataloged for future use against you.

When you must maintain contact with a narcissist, such as in a co parenting or workplace scenario, you must become a boring conversational partner.

In psychological circles, this is often referred to as the gray rock method. You do not offer any emotional texture to your interactions.

You do not talk about your personal life, your successes, your struggles, or your feelings.

If they ask how you are doing, the answer is always fine, just busy. If they try to bait you with a controversial topic, your response is a neutral that is an interesting perspective.

You become as interesting as a gray rock on the side of the road.

When you deprive them of personal information, you deprive them of leverage. They cannot manipulate a life they know nothing about.

They cannot criticize a plan you have not shared. This boundaries your energy beautifully.

It allows you to interact when necessary without leaving your inner sanctum exposed to their chaos.

Reclaiming Your Cognitive Capital

Think of your mind as a finite pool of capital.

Every hour you spend analyzing why the narcissist did what they did, replaying old arguments in your head, or drafting text messages you will never send is an investment of your cognitive capital.

Right now, that capital is yielding a zero percent return. In fact, it is costing you your health, your focus, and your future.

True recovery begins when you decide to aggressively liquidate your investment in their drama. You redirect that cognitive capital back into your own life.

You put it into your physical fitness, your financial stability, your creative outlets, and the relationships with people who treat you with genuine respect.

This shift can feel uncomfortable at first. Drama is addictive. It floods your brain with cortisol and adrenaline, making a peaceful life feel strangely boring in comparison.

You must train yourself to tolerate peace. You must learn to enjoy a Tuesday evening where nothing goes wrong, nobody is screaming, and your phone is silent.

As you reclaim your attention, you will notice your physical energy returning. The chronic fatigue, the brain fog, and the muscle tension that characterize the aftermath of narcissistic abuse will begin to lift.

You are no longer running a background program in your mind dedicated to surviving a psychological war. You are finally free to live.

The Quiet Power of Ultimate Indifference

The ultimate goal of this process is not anger, hatred, or a desire for revenge. Anger still connects you to them.

Hatred is simply love that has curdled into resentment, and it requires an immense amount of energy to maintain. The true destination of your recovery journey is absolute indifference.

Indifference means that when their name comes up, your heart rate does not spike. When you see a message from them, you do not feel a pit in your stomach.

They become like a bad weather pattern you experienced years ago, an event that occurred, but one that has absolutely no bearing on the present moment.

You reach this state when you fully integrate the lessons of pattern recognition. You realize that they are trapped in a miserable, exhausting cycle of their own making.

They must constantly scam the world for validation, terrified that someone will see past their mask. That is a horrific way to live, and it is a prison sentence they carry with them every single day.

You, however, have stepped out of the prison. You have chosen the path of emotional maturity, strategic boundaries, and absolute self trust. By understanding their psychology, you have neutralized their power.

You do not need to fight them to win. You win by simply stepping off the battlefield, adjusting your focus, and building a life so grounded in reality that their illusions can never touch you again.

The Shift to Autonomy

If you look back at the version of yourself that entered this cycle, you will likely notice a pattern of unchecked empathy and a habit of over-explaining your worth.

You tolerated behavior that violated your logic because you assumed everyone operated with the same basic human decency that you do.

Realizing you were wrong about that is not a sign of weakness. It is the beginning of your psychological education.

The desire to make them understand your pain is a natural human instinct, but it is also the trap that keeps you tethered to their chaos.

True recovery begins the moment you stop looking for justice in a place that is incapable of providing it.

You do not need them to admit they were wrong to know that you were right to walk away.

Your clarity does not require their consensus.
Revenge is a low-yield investment that keeps your focus locked on the past.

The most devastating thing you can do to a narcissist is to become completely indifferent to their existence while building a life of stable, quiet success.

When you stop feeding their ego with your anger, you reclaim the mental bandwidth required to build your own future.

You are now equipped with pattern recognition. You see the mask, you understand the mechanics of the public persona, and you know how to frame boundaries that protect your peace without inviting unnecessary warfare.

This is not about building walls to hide behind, but about establishing clear terms of engagement for who gets access to your life.

As you step forward, trust your eyes over their words and your instincts over their explanations.

The confusion is over, the fog has cleared, and the architecture of their game is fully visible to you.

You are no longer a participant in their illusions.

You are a self-aware observer who has chosen reality, clarity, and the quiet power of your own undivided life.

Checkout my latest book The Narcissist You Married When You Already Knew Better – here

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The post The One Boundary That Narcissists Respect (Because It Benefits Them) appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By U. Washington

The study in Nature reveals for the first time how the decline of insect pollinators undermines essential ecosystem services that support human nutrition and livelihoods.

It’s been long known that insect pollinators are vital for producing many of the fruits, vegetables, and legumes that supply essential vitamins and minerals in our diets, yet clear evidence of how their decline affects people has been limited.

Working in 10 smallholder farming villages and their surrounding landscapes in Nepal, researchers traced the full chain of connections between wild pollinators, crop yields, and the nutrients families rely on. By tracking diets, crop nutrients, and the insects visiting those crops over a year, the research team showed how pollinators directly support both nutrition and livelihoods.

“This study directly connects the crops that local pollinators visit with people’s diets, nutrition, and income,” says Matt Smith, a research scientist in the environmental and occupational health sciences department at the University of Washington.

“It was a real collaborative effort across many partners to collect and analyze a large body of data, making it possible to explore these links.”

The study found insect pollinators were responsible for 44% of people’s farming income and contributed more than 20% of their intake of vitamin A, folate, and vitamin E. When pollinators decline, families risk poorer nutrition leading to higher vulnerability to illness and infections, and deeper cycles of poverty and poor health. One quarter of the global population currently suffer from this “hidden hunger.”

The research shows there is real potential for positive change—nutrition and income can improve when communities support pollinators. Simple steps like planting wildflowers, using fewer pesticides, or keeping native bees can help boost pollinator numbers, strengthening both nature and people’s wellbeing.

Even though smallholder farmers are highly vulnerable to biodiversity loss, these practical local actions could enhance their food security and economic resilience. The findings could also help improve the health and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers around the world.

“Our study shows that biodiversity is not a luxury—it is fundamental to our health, nutrition, and livelihoods,” says lead author Thomas Timberlake, who completed the research while at the University of Bristol and is now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of York, both in the United Kingdom.

“By revealing how species like pollinators support the food we eat, we highlight both the risks of biodiversity loss for human health and the powerful opportunities to improve human lives by working with nature.”

The research shows that human health is deeply tied to the health of nature. By tracking how pollinators support food production and diets, the study reveals that biodiversity loss isn’t just an environmental problem, it threatens public health and economic stability—as highlighted in the recent UK government national security assessment on global biodiversity loss.

With around 2 billion people relying on smallholder farming and with many facing vitamin deficiencies, protecting the ecosystems that support nutritious food is essential and crucial for sustainable development.

The study’s findings offer a practical framework to help policymakers and farmers design more nature‑positive farming systems. Although the research is focused on Nepal, the same connections shape food systems everywhere. Diets, even in industrialized countries, still depend on the pollinators and ecosystems that sustain global agriculture.

The researchers—spanning universities and non-governmental organizations across Nepal, the UK, the US, and Finland—are now putting their findings into action across Nepal to tackle pollinator declines and repair the pollination systems that support food production. Working with farmers, local organizations, researchers, and government partners, they are helping people understand the value of pollinators and how to support them in everyday farming.

By demonstrating why pollinators matter, and sharing simple, practical techniques to support them, the researchers are already seeing farmers adopt changes that boost crop yields, nutrition, and income.

“A ‘win-win’ scenario exists where we can simultaneously improve conditions for both biodiversity and people,” says coauthor Jane Memmott, professor of ecology at the University of Bristol.

“It takes ecological understanding, but it costs remarkably little and there are significant gains for both parties.”

This story was adapted from a press release by the University of Bristol.

Source: University of Washington

Original Study DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10421-x

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Previously Published on futurity.org with Creative Commons License

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For decades, Minneapolis, Minnesota has quietly built a reputation as one of the most influential centers for medical device innovation in the United States. While cities such as Boston and San Diego often receive national attention for healthcare technology advancements, Minneapolis has established its own distinctive position through a combination of engineering expertise, healthcare research, advanced manufacturing capabilities, and a deep commitment to quality.

The region’s medical device ecosystem includes established global manufacturers, emerging healthcare technology companies, research institutions, and a highly skilled workforce dedicated to improving patient outcomes. Behind every successful medical device, however, lies an often-overlooked function that serves as the foundation of innovation: Quality Assurance.

As the Medical Device Industry continues to evolve with new technologies, stricter Regulatory Standards, and growing patient expectations, quality professionals play an increasingly important role in ensuring that innovation and safety advance together. Among those professionals is Shashank Murali, a Minneapolis-based Quality Assurance specialist whose career reflects the broader commitment to excellence that has helped define the region’s healthcare technology sector.

Why Minneapolis Became a Medical Device Leader

The rise of Minneapolis, Minnesota as a medical device powerhouse did not happen overnight. The city developed its reputation through decades of investment in healthcare innovation, engineering talent, and medical research.

The Minneapolis Medical Device Sector benefits from a unique combination of resources. The region has long attracted engineers, scientists, regulatory specialists, and healthcare professionals who contribute to every stage of product development, from concept and design to manufacturing and commercialization.

This concentration of expertise has created an environment where innovation can flourish. Organizations developing cardiovascular devices, diagnostic technologies, surgical instruments, and digital health solutions often find themselves surrounded by suppliers, technical experts, and experienced professionals who understand the complexities of bringing healthcare products to market.

The area’s strong educational institutions have also contributed to a steady pipeline of talent entering the industry. Graduates with backgrounds in biomedical engineering, software development, quality systems, and regulatory affairs continue to support the growth of Healthcare Technology throughout the region.

Equally important is Minneapolis’ culture of collaboration. Medical device companies frequently work alongside healthcare providers, researchers, and regulatory experts to develop products that address real-world clinical needs. This collaborative environment has helped establish Minneapolis as a destination for both innovation and operational excellence.

The Growing Importance of Quality Assurance

While innovation often captures headlines, Quality Assurance remains one of the most critical functions within the Medical Device Industry.

Medical devices are unique because they directly impact patient health and safety. Whether a device is used in a hospital operating room, a physician’s office, or a patient’s home, reliability and performance are essential. Even minor issues can have significant consequences.

Quality Assurance serves as the framework that helps organizations maintain consistency, identify risks, and ensure products meet both regulatory and customer expectations. It encompasses a broad range of activities, including product validation, process monitoring, documentation control, auditing, supplier oversight, and continuous improvement initiatives.

As medical devices become more sophisticated, quality requirements have become increasingly complex. Manufacturers must navigate evolving Regulatory Standards while demonstrating that their products are safe, effective, and consistently manufactured.

Quality professionals help organizations establish and maintain Quality Management Systems that support compliance throughout the product lifecycle. These systems provide the structure needed to manage risk, document decisions, investigate issues, and implement corrective actions when necessary.

In many ways, Quality Assurance acts as a bridge between innovation and patient safety. It enables companies to pursue technological advancements while maintaining the controls necessary to protect patients and comply with regulatory requirements.

Professionals Supporting Industry Excellence

Behind every successful quality system are professionals who understand both the technical and regulatory dimensions of medical device development.

Shashank Murali represents one example of the talent that has helped strengthen Minneapolis, Minnesota’s reputation within the healthcare technology community. Based in Minneapolis and working within the medical device technology sector, Murali has built a career focused on product safety, compliance, risk management, and operational excellence.

With a background in Biomedical Engineering and more than eight years of experience in the field, he has contributed to initiatives involving product validation, quality systems implementation, and regulatory compliance. His work reflects the growing importance of Quality Assurance in ensuring that medical devices meet rigorous safety and performance expectations.

Murali’s professional philosophy centers on integrity, precision, and continuous improvement. Throughout his career, he has emphasized the importance of identifying risks early, maintaining strong quality controls, and viewing compliance as an integral part of innovation rather than an obstacle to progress.

His experience also highlights a reality shared by many quality professionals across the industry: patient safety often depends on work that occurs long before a device reaches a healthcare provider or patient. Activities such as validation testing, documentation review, risk assessment, and audit preparation may not be visible to end users, but they are essential components of product reliability.

As Minneapolis continues attracting professionals with expertise in engineering, compliance, and Healthcare Technology, individuals like Shashank Murali contribute to a culture where quality remains a central priority.

Innovation, Compliance, and Patient Safety

The relationship between innovation and compliance is often misunderstood. In reality, the most successful medical device organizations recognize that strong quality systems can support innovation rather than limit it.

Modern medical devices must satisfy multiple requirements simultaneously. They must address clinical needs, perform reliably, meet user expectations, and comply with applicable regulations. Achieving these objectives requires a structured approach to quality management.

Risk management serves as a particularly important component of this process. By identifying potential hazards early in development, organizations can implement controls that reduce the likelihood of product failures or safety issues.

Audits and documentation also play vital roles. Internal audits help organizations evaluate the effectiveness of their processes, while detailed documentation provides evidence that products have been developed and tested according to established requirements.

Continuous improvement remains another cornerstone of Quality Assurance. Medical device companies routinely analyze performance data, customer feedback, manufacturing trends, and regulatory updates to identify opportunities for enhancement.

The growing adoption of automation, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics is further transforming how organizations approach Medical Device Compliance. Many quality professionals now use data-driven tools to identify trends, predict risks, and improve validation processes. These technologies can enhance efficiency while supporting the industry’s broader commitment to Patient Safety.

In Minneapolis, many organizations have embraced this balance between innovation and regulatory discipline. The result is an environment where cutting-edge technologies can be developed responsibly while maintaining high standards of safety and quality.

The Future of Minneapolis Healthcare Technology

Looking ahead, Minneapolis, Minnesota appears well positioned to remain a significant force within the healthcare technology landscape.

Several trends are likely to shape the future of the Minneapolis Medical Device Sector. Advances in digital health, artificial intelligence, connected devices, and personalized medicine continue creating new opportunities for innovation. At the same time, regulatory expectations are becoming more sophisticated, increasing demand for professionals with expertise in Quality Assurance, Medical Device Compliance, and Quality Management Systems.

As technologies evolve, organizations will require specialists who can navigate complex regulatory environments while helping companies maintain operational excellence. This growing need is expected to drive continued demand for quality professionals throughout the region.

Minneapolis also remains attractive because of its established infrastructure, strong professional networks, and reputation for healthcare innovation. The city’s ability to attract engineers, regulatory experts, quality specialists, and healthcare professionals will likely remain one of its greatest competitive advantages.

For professionals pursuing careers in medical devices, Minneapolis offers a unique combination of opportunity and purpose. The work performed within the region’s healthcare technology sector has the potential to impact patients around the world, making quality and compliance more important than ever.

Maintaining Excellence in a Rapidly Evolving Industry

Minneapolis, Minnesota has earned its reputation as a center for medical device innovation through decades of investment in technology, engineering, research, and healthcare advancement. Yet the region’s success is not driven by innovation alone.

The continued strength of the Medical Device Industry depends on robust Quality Assurance practices that support Patient Safety, product reliability, and regulatory compliance. Through effective risk management, auditing, documentation, and continuous improvement, quality professionals help ensure that medical technologies deliver on their promise.

Professionals such as Shashank Murali illustrate the important role that Quality Assurance specialists play within this ecosystem. Their work helps organizations balance innovation with accountability while maintaining the high standards expected within healthcare.

As Healthcare Technology continues to advance, Minneapolis is likely to remain a destination for talented professionals committed to excellence. The city’s future will be shaped not only by groundbreaking technologies but also by the people and systems dedicated to ensuring those innovations are safe, reliable, and beneficial for patients everywhere.

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By Paula Span

Jules Netherland traveled from her home in the Bronx to the New York state Capitol in Albany several times in the past few years, hoping to persuade the legislature to pass a medical aid in dying bill, allowing terminally ill patients to end their lives with a lethal prescription.

She spoke at rallies. With other members of the advocacy organization Compassion & Choices, she visited legislators’ offices. In 2024, as the state Assembly was debating the aid in dying bill, she helped unfurl a banner in the chamber gallery that read, “Stop the Suffering.”

Her activism was becoming difficult. Netherland, who is 59 and works for a nonprofit, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019. “I did a full year of aggressive treatment,” she said. “Chemotherapy. A mastectomy. Radiation treatment every weekday for five weeks. Six months of two oral medications.”

She recovered and felt well until the cancer returned a few years later. Although metastatic breast cancer is incurable, drugs are keeping her disease at bay for now. Netherland feels fortunate but also fatigued, and she contends with brain fog, gastrointestinal symptoms, and joint pain.

“My energy is really limited,” she said.

As she emailed and called legislators, Netherland feared she might die before the aid in dying bill — first introduced in New York in 2016 — could become law.

‘A Breakthrough Moment’

On June 9, 2025, after the Assembly approved the bill, Netherland was in the state Senate chamber, watching the aye votes mount, and seeing it pass. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an amended version in February; it is scheduled to take effect Aug. 5.

A similar law is slated to take effect in September in Illinois, which would become the 13th state (plus the District of Columbia) where medical aid in dying is legal.

“A breakthrough moment,” said Kevin Díaz, president of Compassion & Choices, which has spearheaded the long campaign for such laws. After almost 30 years — Oregon’s law, the first in the country, was enacted in 1997 — the addition of two populous states means that almost a third of Americans will live in one where medical aid in dying is legally available. “It shows that there’s broad support for this model,” Díaz said.

Polls consistently back that claim. A Pew Research Center survey last spring found that almost two-thirds of respondents didn’t consider the practice “morally wrong,” either because they thought it was acceptable or not a moral issue. Support crossed many political and religious lines: A narrow majority of Republicans and 76% of Democrats both found “physician-assisted death” (also sometimes called “physician-assisted suicide”) permissible; so did most Catholics, Jews, and nonevangelical white Protestants.

In New York, a Siena poll found that 54% of respondents supported aid in dying, including majorities of men and women, of all age groups, and of city, suburban, and upstate residents. A plurality of Latinos supported it; Black respondents narrowly opposed it.

Passing these laws has grown somewhat easier, said Thaddeus Pope, a bioethicist and professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, who tracks such policies. “You can say, ‘We have 10 years in California, 18 years in Washington, and 29 years in Oregon, and nothing bad has happened.’ It becomes more accepted.”

‘You Need A, B, and C’

Yet legalizing medical aid in dying, or MAID, has been and remains a long, contentious process. Catholic leadership and many disability organizations staunchly oppose it. (Pope Leo XIV personally asked Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker not to sign the bill.)

The American Medical Association says that “physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer” and poses “serious societal risks,” although a number of state medical organizations have opted to remain neutral or, as in New York, to support passage.

The Patients’ Rights Action Fund, through a sister organization, has lawsuits pending or on appeal in California, Delaware, and Colorado, arguing that aid in dying laws discriminate against people with disabilities by steering them toward physician-assisted suicide instead of treatment.

“This is a litigation strategy we’ve developed to ultimately get to the Supreme Court,” said Matt Vallière, the group’s executive director, who declined to say whether it would sue to block the Illinois and New York laws.

Even when aid in dying laws succeed, using them can prove challenging. In every state (except Montana, where it became legal through a court decision, so there is no statute governing eligibility), aid in dying is available only to people with incurable illnesses who are expected to die within six months.

It typically involves oral and written requests to two doctors, with mandated waiting periods between requests. Patients must have the mental capacity to make the decision, which disqualifies those with dementia, and they must ingest the medication without assistance. (An amendment Hochul insisted on adds a psychologist or psychiatrist to the process.)

All but two states require patients to be residents. Oregon and Vermont scrapped their residency requirements to settle lawsuits brought by Compassion & Choices. (Courts ruled against a similar suit in New Jersey.)

Moreover, any doctor, hospital, or healthcare system can legally decline to provide aid in dying, and religiously affiliated institutions often opt out. Those that participate can add their own requirements.

“The state can say ‘You need A, B, and C,’ and Columbia-Presbyterian can say, ‘We also want D, E, and F,’” said Pope, the Minnesota bioethicist.

Hotly Debated, Seldom Used

Perhaps these restrictions, or a lack of public awareness, help explain why, despite the headlines and fervent debates, the number of people who actually use the law is tiny in every state — usually 1% or fewer of the deaths recorded annually. The support for giving patients this kind of autonomy at the end of life remains widespread, but the desire to personally exercise it apparently is not.

Still, after studies showed that many patients seeking MAID were dying before they could complete the process, the trend has been to loosen restrictions. California cut its 15-day waiting period to 48 hours; New Mexico allows physician assistants and advanced-practice nurses to write prescriptions along with doctors.

“Most states have now amended their laws two or three times,” Pope said. “We have liberalized.” Telehealth can also facilitate access to participating doctors.

Compassion & Choices is planning legal challenges to end residency requirements in additional states, Díaz said. It is also considering how to “make inroads in jurisdictions with a much different cultural and political environment,” he added, mentioning Florida and other Southern states.

Medical aid in dying represents a shift in power, Díaz said. “The person who has to bear the burden of the suffering should have the ability to decide when it’s enough,” he added.

Anne Gurnett Bander, 72, a retired research scientist in Carmel, New York, cared for her husband for four years as ALS — the relentlessly disabling neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — rendered him bedridden and dependent on feeding and breathing tubes. “By the time he died, the only thing he could do was nod his head,” she recalled.

So being diagnosed with ALS herself last year was “my worst possible nightmare,” Gurnett Bander said. She was planning to fly to Switzerland, where the nonprofit organization Dignitas provides medical aid in dying, when she learned about the New York bill and began speaking publicly in support of it, her voice faltering as her illness advanced.

Gurnett Bander and Netherland say they’re not certain they’ll use lethal drugs to end their lives as their symptoms intensify. Not infrequently, patients complete the necessary steps, secure the prescribed medication, decide they don’t need it after all, and die of their diseases. But both women insist that the choice should be theirs.

“It can offer so much peace of mind,” Netherland said. “I thought, ‘People should have this option.’ Now, they will.”

The New Old Age is produced through a partnership with The New York Times.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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By Peter Chai, The Loop

Conducting a conjoint survey experiment with 4,730 adults, Peter Chai and colleagues found that voters punish sexual violence most severely. Bribery also incurs substantial costs, while adultery and nepotism are penalised less. Meanwhile, male candidates attract heavier punishment for sexual misconduct, whereas female candidates face lighter penalties for nepotism

What do we know about scandals and electoral costs?

How do scandals affect support for political candidates? A large body of research on political accountability and candidate evaluation in democracies suggests that scandals do matter. The literature highlights two key points for research design. First, we should distinguish among different scandal types. Second, candidate characteristics, especially gender, condition how voters respond. Most studies find that scandals reduce electoral support. The size of the penalties across different scandal types, and how they differ for male and female candidates, however, vary across countries and studies.

For example, one study finds that in the UK, sexual harassment scandals impose a greater electoral cost than misreporting of funds, plagiarism, or extramarital affairs. The study also finds that voters punish male candidates more heavily than female candidates for sexual harassment. Another study shows that in Brazil, corruption scandals appear to affect male and female candidates similarly. In Mexico, by contrast, female politicians face harsher penalties.

Candidate characteristics, especially gender, condition how voters respond to different types of scandals of which the candidates are accused

A large conjoint survey experiment in Japan

Despite this growing literature, evidence from non-Western democracies, including Japan, remains limited. To address this gap, my co-authors Mitsuhito Aso, Charles Crabtree and I conducted an online conjoint survey experiment with 4,730 respondents in Japan. We varied candidate attributes and included several hypothetical scandal types, including sexual violence, sexual harassment, bribery, adultery, and nepotism, to estimate how each affects a candidate’s chance of election.

Our results point to two main findings. First, all scandals reduce candidate support, but the size of the penalty varies considerably by type. Voters punish sexual violence most severely, bribery incurs substantial costs, while adultery and nepotism carry smaller electoral costs. Second, these penalties are not gender-neutral. Voters punish sexual misconduct more harshly when the candidate is male, while nepotism appears less costly for female candidates. These patterns, particularly the severe penalties for sexual scandals and the greater punishment of male candidates for sexual scandals, are largely consistent with the findings in the UK study mentioned earlier.

Therefore, the literature suggests that female candidates do not face a uniform disadvantage relative to male candidates in the electoral consequences of scandals. At the same time, voters also appear to apply different standards when evaluating male and female candidates in other respects.

Female candidates do not face a uniform disadvantage relative to male candidates in the electoral consequences of scandals

For example, recent research on visual presentation shows that in Japan, wearing masks in public life reduces support for female, but not male, politicians. Also, female candidates receive fewer votes when they do not smile in campaign photos. As a result, although female candidates tend to face lower electoral costs for certain scandals, they may encounter disadvantages in other dimensions. Moreover, barriers to women’s entry and recruitment into politics can operate well before voters make their choices.

Future research for gendered electoral accountability

Our study points to several directions for future research. First, as with most survey experiments, concerns about external validity remain. For example, media coverage and framing may shape voter responses to scandals in real-world settings, which merit further research. Second, social desirability bias may induce respondents to understate their tolerance for certain types of misconduct. Also, highlighting challenges for future survey design, the scandal labels may bundle multiple cues, such as criminality, norm violations, and degrees of coercion. Finally, other forms of transgression, such as slush fund scandals and controversial ties to religious groups, both salient issues in recent Japanese elections, also deserve closer attention.

Finally, voter heterogeneity may matter in important ways, and the voter’s gender may moderate sanctioning behaviour. For instance, a study finds that in the US, female voters appear more sensitive to female senators’ behaviour than to that of male senators. Another study finds that in the UK, female voters tend to punish female candidates more harshly for misconduct. Also in the UK, male voters appear more lenient toward male perpetrators of sexual misconduct.

Voters do not uniformly punish wrongdoing. Rather, their responses are shaped by gendered expectations about who should be held accountable

A promising avenue for future research on political accountability and candidate evaluation would therefore be to examine the electoral costs of different scandal types and how these scandals are conditioned by candidate and voter characteristics. Another would be to compare these penalties across countries, including Asian contexts.

The takeaway from our research, however, is simple: in democratic politics, voters do not uniformly punish wrongdoing. Rather, their responses are shaped by gendered expectations about who should be held accountable, and how.

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This article was originally published at The Loop and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Ear stacking is no longer restricted to a second piercing. Now it includes multiple piercings, multiple studs, and a complete set that narrates a story in one ear or both. Stud sets from https://u-glam.nyc/ are visually appealing, lightweight, and low-maintenance. These sets help make a style statement without much effort. However, choosing the right set is quite important.

The idea of ear stacking

Ear stacking helps build a visual effect. It creates a vertical arrangement that moves from the earlobe to the upper ear. The stacking looks best when there is a variation in the size, shape, and color of the ear studs.

Generally, people consider each piercing as an individual decision. They buy studs for each piercing separately and have a collection of various studs. However, when used as a stack, the individual pieces look out of place. This is where stud sets become useful. The sets have studs arranged symmetrically so they work together.

Pay attention to piercing placement

The number of ear piercings will determine your stacking options.

• The first piercing is in the earlobe. This is the anchor of any stack. The largest and most prominent stud should be placed on the earlobe.
• The second lobe piercing is just above the first one. You can work with contrast in this area. You can use a smaller stone or one of a different color.
• The upper lobe or the third lobe gets smaller. Try a tiny flat stud at this place.
• If you have cartilage piercings, a tiny stud works best.

Try creating a pyramid style. The largest stud should be at the bottom. Lighter and simpler studs should be towards the top.

Beware while mixing metals in stacking

It is always safe to maintain consistency in ear stacking. If you are wearing gold or silver, it should be gold and silver throughout. It looks clean and cohesive.

Sometimes mixed metals work well for stud earrings set. However, you have to handle the setting cautiously. You can alternate gold and silver in a definite pattern and create a stunning look.

While you are mixing metals in the earring stack, keep the rest of the outfit minimal. In such cases, the ear becomes the center of attraction.

Occasion-specific stacking

You can rearrange and reorganize the same stud pieces for different contexts. For instance, for everyday use, you can work with two studs. You can wear a stud in the lobe and one above it. It is not heavy or hard to maintain.

At casual events, there is no need to wear heavy, layered jewelry. Keep them for grand dinners, business or formal events, especially for nocturnal events. Check that the attire helps it stand out. However, feel free to experiment if you feel so inclined.

Summing it up

Ear stacking looks best when it is not forced. Each stud is beautiful and has its own place. The right size progression, the choice of the proper color, and a suitable pattern make all the difference. So, are you ready for it?

Editorial: Upasna Singh, Founder of U-Glam and New York-Based Stylist

Upasna Singh, Founder and Creative Director of U-GLAM NYC, has made this brand a well-known jewelry house among contemporary women. The interesting designs reflect the New York Fashion scene. She has seen many ups and downs and has used her experience to shape this brand into what it is today. Each of her creations is highly sustainable, and she uses recycled materials for packaging to keep them eco-friendly. As a former Wall Street executive, she draws on her insights and expertise to ensure each piece is unique. No one understands the pulse of the buyer, like her.

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If you think your partner might be toxic, the first thing you should do is look at yourself. Like attracts like, so the chances are you are as toxic as the one you are calling toxic.

I know this because I was once the toxic one as well. I called all my exes a narcissist and everybody was doing me wrong. What I didn’t see, is that I was as much in the game myself as well.

It’s easy to blame failure on somebody else, especially when that person displays a lot of red flags. But you are the one who got into this relationship in the first place. What were you trying to find in somebody who is that toxic?

Look at yourself first

If you are honest with yourself, you would see that you thought you could change them. You saw a broken person and wanted to show them your love so they would find themselves. That in itself is a toxic thought.

Why do you have the need to heal somebody? Who are you to decide they need help? You come into their lives, shower them with love and affection and expect the same in return. When they don’t give you that, your fantasy starts breaking down.

You put even more effort into the relationship and think your love will eventually wake them up. But you are the one that really needs the waking up. You cannot see that the only one you can help is yourself.

They don’t need your saving — you do. If in the end, the relationship doesn’t work out, you blame it on them. “They were not ready. They need more healing. They were lost.”

The truth, however, is, you needed someone to focus your fixing on. You might have showered them with love, but in reality, you are too scared to face your own fears. The fear of losing somebody, despite giving your everything to them.

They are not your project to save

The world loves empathetic people. We praise the people-pleasers who always show up for everyone. The best trait to have as a human being often is the ability to take care of others.

But you can not take care of others if you can’t take care of yourself first. Your love will feel like a cage around them. You start suffocating them because deep inside they feel that you need them. You need them to give yourself some kind of value.

This places a huge burden on your partner. They might not consciously know it, but you are part of the cage they try to get out of. They might display toxic behavior because they are also in a situation that’s not healthy for them. And you are part of it.

This is a hard pill to swallow and not often talked about. We generally protect the ‘victim’ of a toxic relationship, but they are as toxic as the other one too.

The mirror is a scary place

When you get out of a toxic relationship, the last thing you want to do is look at yourself. You feel sorry for what happened to you and seek validation from friends who are confirming your ex always had red flags already anyway.

But do you have the courage to see your own red flags proudly soaring in the skies? They succeeded. Your little savior project has failed, and you are the victim. All you wanted was to give your ex all your love and devotion, how could they turn their back on you?

You dwell in self-pity for how long you’ve put up with them. You should have ended it way earlier! Another toxic idea.

You were the one who stayed. You were the one getting your boundaries crossed. You were the one holding on to something that was doomed to fail.

The only way to get out of your own toxic cycle is to truly look in the mirror. Where is your toxicity in this situation? Why did you keep giving them love while they clearly didn’t want to receive it? Where is your self-respect to not get out of a situation like this?

Stop the victim-mentality

You are not the only victim in your relationship. Two people are drawn to each other because they send out the same vibration. If your partner is toxic, you are also in your own way.

We over-soothe the victim coming out of a toxic relationship. But they lacked the courage to make other choices for themselves. They actively pushed red flags away, believing their love was stronger.

But the harsh reality is that your love is never strong enough to heal a damaged person.

They need to heal themselves. As do you. Your ex is also a victim of you because you couldn’t let them go.

Once you clearly see yourself for who you are — toxic and all — you can start taking responsibility. Take a break from helping and healing others, and focus on yourself.

This is a time for solitude — not for distraction with new relationships or empty sex.

You can learn to be a healthy partner

If you are a healthy partner, it’s impossible to get into a toxic relationship. Because you will recognize the red flags from the start and don’t engage with them any further.

Your level of self-respect is so high that you don’t feel the need to save others any longer. You know everybody needs to walk their own path and there is nothing you can do about it.

And once you have that mindset, you will attract somebody on that same level. When you take responsibility for your own healing, you can expect your partner to do the same. If they don’t, they are not for you.

It’s a healthy choice to walk away from that person when that happens. And when you stay, your toxicity is back in full force. You don’t give yourself the relationship you deserve because you don’t love yourself enough.

Expecting your partner to love you when you don’t even love yourself, is doomed to fail.

How to love yourself?

Start by giving yourself some slack. You tried your best in the ways you thought were good at that moment. We all have some toxicity in us, but it gets dangerous when it overtakes you.

Your Soul living inside you is good enough the way it is. You don’t need to save anyone. Your Soul is just there observing the world around it. Your mind, however, makes you believe that you need to please others to be accepted.

When your mind overtakes your Soul — that’s where toxicity comes in. But you inherently are not toxic. You became toxic because of your circumstances. But you are not your thoughts. You are just a witness to them.

It’s hard to love yourself when you don’t know how that feels. All you want is to be accepted and fit in and you have probably never felt what that is like.

But imagine that everyone is playing that same game. Everyone is trying to fit in. Everyone is trying to be liked by others. Once you step out of it, you will see the game itself. You can be a witness to what’s going on around you and just don’t participate anymore.

If you need more help with loving yourself, I recommend this journal to start. Then move on to inner child healing and shadow healing.

Diving deep to heal

Healing is no easy feat. It’s not a fun little time in your life where you can play your own psychologist and then eat the fruits once you’re done. It’s a constant battle between you and your ego. Your ego tries to pull you back into believing you are not good enough all the fucking time.

After all, that’s where it learned to feel safe. In a certain way, you are addicted to drama and the cortisol and adrenaline that accompanies that feeling. Healing is depressing and hard and will make you feel anxious. It doesn’t come fast either.

And once you healed one part of yourself, another trigger rears its head. It’s easy to abandon this painful self-reflection. And many people do.

But eventually, the reward is that you can be truly happy with who you are. That has always been the goal. As a kid, you were in awe of the world around you. Everything was more beautiful than the previous thing you saw. Life was one big adventure and you couldn’t wait to discover it.

You can get that magic back in your life. All you need to do is take responsibility.

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Like what I wrote? You can find all my relationship articles here. I also appreciate anybody who can buy me a coffee Thank you!

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..A Man’s Kiss Tells You Everything

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You’ve narrowed the list. You have a handful of cities that look promising on paper and a trip planned to see them in person. Now comes the part that matters most: knowing what to look for when you arrive.

Touring a home is a skill most buyers develop fast. Touring a potential hometown takes a little more intention. A neighborhood can look polished from the car window and feel completely wrong once you’re walking through it with kids in tow. This checklist is designed to help you slow down, ask the right questions, and leave each visit with real answers.

Before You Leave Home, Set Your Priorities

A visit is only as useful as the questions you carry into it. Before you fly out or pile into the car, rank the things that genuinely matter to your household. For most families, safety lands at the top. In Rocket Mortgage’s best cities to raise a family report, a survey of 1,000 parents and caregivers found that 65% named safety as their single most important factor, well ahead of school ratings and community ties. Write your own ranking down. When you’re tired and charmed by a beautiful old house, your list will keep you honest.

Start the Visit Outside the House

Arrive in the neighborhood before you tour any homes. Walk a few blocks in each direction from the property. You’re not just checking for curb appeal; you’re reading the street. Are there kids outside? Sidewalks that connect somewhere useful? Neighbors who wave? A block can feel lively or oddly empty, and that quality is nearly impossible to detect from a listing photo. Check at different times of day if your schedule allows. A street that feels quiet at 10 a.m. can tell a very different story at 3 p.m. when school lets out.

Locate the Schools in Person

Pull up the school zone map and then actually drive to the schools. Park outside and watch for a few minutes. Is there visible activity? Are there parent volunteers, maintained grounds, posted announcements for upcoming events? School ratings give you a number; a personal visit gives you a feeling for the culture. If you’re touring during the school year, call ahead and ask if you can briefly speak with an admissions coordinator or take a short walk through the hallways. Many schools welcome prospective-resident families.

Check the Child Care and Activity Landscape

For families with younger kids, child care availability can determine whether a move is workable at all. While you’re in town, search for licensed daycare centers and preschools within a reasonable radius. Note whether there are waitlists, what the typical monthly cost looks like, and whether the hours match a working parent’s schedule. Then look at what fills in the gaps: parks, recreation centers, library programs, youth sports leagues. A city that’s rich in free and low-cost family programming stretches a budget in ways that don’t show up in any cost-of-living calculator.

Stress-Test the Commute

Drive the route from each neighborhood you’re considering to your future workplace, or simulate a realistic version of it. Do this during actual commute hours if you can, not mid-morning. A thirty-minute commute that turns into an hour and fifteen in traffic is a fundamentally different life than the map suggests. Commute time is time away from your family, so treat it as a budget item the same way you would the mortgage payment.

Talk to People Who Already Live There

The most useful information you’ll gather on any tour visit won’t come from a listing agent. It will come from a parent at the playground, a neighbor walking a dog, or someone picking up coffee at a local shop. Ask them directly: What do you love about living here? What’s harder than you expected? Where do families tend to gather? What do you wish you’d known before you moved? People are almost always willing to share, and what they say in thirty seconds usually covers ground that no review site would.

Run a Quick Amenities Audit

Before you leave each area, take twenty minutes to locate the things your family uses regularly. Find the nearest pediatrician’s office, grocery store, urgent care clinic, and public library. Note whether they’re close enough to be convenient or just technically reachable. Families use these places dozens of times a year, and the friction of long drives for routine errands accumulates in ways that quietly affect daily quality of life.

Debrief as a Family That Evening

If your kids are old enough to have opinions, ask for them at dinner. What did they notice? Where did they want to stay longer? A child who got excited at a playground or who found a friendly local dog has registered something real. Younger kids won’t give you a verdict, but they’ll tell you whether a place felt comfortable by whether they relaxed or stayed anxious. Trust those signals alongside your own.

References

• National Center for Education Statistics. Find My School District. https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/
• Child Care Aware of America. State Fact Sheets on Child Care. https://www.childcareaware.org/

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This content is brought to you by Marcy Betterly.

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Beliefs Built in a Very Small World

By Andrea Wilburn

Always faithful

Always wanting to put God first

But like Job worshipped his fears

More strongly than his God

So I worship mine.

I project my helplessness onto God

Convinced that this evil might beat Him

At least for a moment of weakness

Where God wants to love

And He lets his guard down

And He becomes as weak as me

Seeing kindness where it was only an act.

I don’t always see Him as my stronghold

I see Him as a Love that sometimes fails

Seeing good where there is none

And giving an extra chance

To someone who spends it on cruelty.

I am afraid God is like me

I am afraid God will have mercy at my expense

I am afraid God will allow hatefulness

And forgive at the expense of another

I am afraid of scarcity

Where one person’s forgiveness

Is another person’s destruction

Where there is an excess of grace

To the point it takes grace from another

And I am afraid.

But my beliefs were built in a very small world

And I am seeing that I get them wrong

Sometimes. Oftentimes.

If I am learning to see the truth

With more definition and greater clarity

Sure God has already learned

And He will not define love

At the expense of another’s safety.

I don’t understand love in respect to boundaries.

I don’t know what that looks like.

But I trust that God does.

And I trust that He will make a way.

And so I trust.

Thank You.

Amen.

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The Good Men Project is a mission-driven media platform founded in 2010 that explores modern masculinity, men’s mental health, relationships, fatherhood, identity, and social change through personal stories, expert insights, and cultural analysis.

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Here is a summary of the transcript from YouTube, slightly edited with AI.

Intro Summary

So, I know a lot of people watch this channel because they want to find love, but there is something that we have to talk about right now, and that is friendship.

Of course, friendship is inextricably linked to love. For one thing, having a strong foundation of friends gives us the kind of confidence and stability that makes us more attractive when we date. But friendship also makes it possible to be happy even when we don’t date.

And it’s not just happiness that it affects—it’s health. A huge meta-analysis showed that people with strong social relationships had a 50% increased chance of survival compared with those with weak social ties.

In case you didn’t catch that, that means real friendships increase your odds of survival by 50%.

The concept of the loneliness epidemic has had huge attention in recent years, and everyone, in particular, has had something to say about the male loneliness epidemic.

Some people say it’s self-inflicted and that the loneliness stems from men’s own behaviors and choices rather than external systemic factors. Internalized norms like repressing emotions and neglecting platonic friendships cause men to become isolated as adults.

But a lot of people also highlight that women, too, are lonely, as a growing number of women are now single and navigating life alone for the first time in history. Yet their loneliness has not gotten the attention it deserves.

I want to talk about the real struggles we all have in making friends as adults. Along the way, I’ll highlight how some of these struggles are exacerbated by the way men, in general, approach them.

I’m Matthew Hussey. I’ve written two New York Times bestselling books on confidence and human relationships, and I have coached millions of people around the world for nearly two decades through this channel, my live retreats, and my Love Life coaching program.

Subscribe and like this video, and let’s get started.

1. Become a Great Friendship Closer

Let’s talk about four things I believe are really important to making friends as an adult.

Number one: become a great friendship closer.

We can feel deeply uncomfortable being seen to be looking for friendship. On our first day of school, it felt socially acceptable to be trying to make new friends, but that was a long time ago now.

For most of us, we feel like by this point in our life we are supposed to have found our people.

I think this is why when we go on vacation, it feels way easier to make friends. We’re not in our normal life. We’re in some random hotel that we don’t normally go to. So, of course, we’ll go and talk to the people next to us at dinner.

Why wouldn’t we? We’ll have a 10-minute conversation with them and then be like, “Did we just become best friends?”

Oh my God. Well, I guess the most logical thing for us to do is have breakfast tomorrow morning together.

Imagine doing that to someone where you live. It would seem mental.

But the truth is, we can do a better job of making friends where we live by becoming a great friendship closer.

Now, this part isn’t that complicated. It just requires a little bravery.

If you’ve had a great conversation with someone, or you’ve had several really nice exchanges with someone that you keep seeing in the same place over days or weeks, get into the habit of saying to that person, “We should stay in touch,” or, “You know what? We should hang out sometime.”

It doesn’t really need to get any more specific than that at this stage.

All you’re really looking for is a way of staying in touch so that the conversation can continue without you needing fate to bring you back together.

If you’re someone who thinks they can’t do this because it feels really scary, or if you’re a man watching this and you’re like, “I couldn’t possibly do that as a man talking to another man,” stick around for the last point in this video about vulnerability.

2. Follow Up

The second key to adult friendships is the follow-up.

Whether you just got someone’s number or you’ve bumped into them for the fifth time and already have their number but have never hung out before, follow up.

It is often pride that stops us from following up. We prefer to let someone else make the first move or to look aloof and, you know, bump into someone and then text them three weeks from now.

But following up cements the connection.

You don’t always have to follow up immediately to make a plan, although there’s nothing wrong with that.

You could just follow up to say, “It was great running into you, man. I really appreciated the conversation.”

Or you could go a step further and say, “I’m going on a hike this week if you want to join.”

Now, if that doesn’t lead to something, don’t force it.

There’s a fine line between being a friendship closer and a friendship stalker—constantly trying to make something happen with someone who is resisting.

If someone tells you they’re busy or they can’t this week, just put the ball back in their court.

“No worries. Let me know when you’ve got some space.”

Or you can text them a few months from now and say, “Hey, how have you been?” But put the ball in their court to propose something this time.

It is crazy how many friendships never happen because neither person follows up.

Most people don’t follow up in life. The beauty of that is that it’s really easy to stand out and build better connections than other people do if you do that one simple thing.

I know we’re talking about friendship in this video today, but I also know many of you are dating right now and there’s someone you’re in a situationship with and it’s not progressing.

I just want to take a moment to tell you about something we have available for all of you who are looking for real commitment.

It is called From Situationship to Commitment because it is designed to give you a structure—a way of having a conversation with that person that actually graduates it to a committed relationship.

If you struggle getting commitment from people in general, or if there’s someone in your life right now you want more from, this is the perfect guide.

Go check it out at nomorecasual.com.

I know you’re going to love this. It’s free. Go try it out.

3. The Importance of Vulnerability

Back to the video.

The third key to making friends as an adult—and this is especially relevant if you’re someone who struggles to be brave, or if you’re a guy watching this and you’re like, “I just struggle to not look weird” or “I’m afraid I’m going to look weird”—is the importance of vulnerability.

None of what I have said will work unless we can be vulnerable.

And by the way, following up and trying to meet up with someone probably won’t work if you didn’t make a real connection when you were with them.

And for a connection to happen, we have to be prepared to be a little vulnerable with someone.

Vulnerability is a master key.

It happens when someone does something simple, like asking us how we’re doing, and we respond with something beneath the surface.

Someone recently asked me how I’m doing as a new dad. Amidst talking about the things that were amazing about it, I also admitted that because I haven’t been able to work out as much as I normally do, it’s affected my confidence and my mental health a little bit, and that it’s been an adjustment.

Now, that’s vulnerable.

It’s not me pouring out my soul or my trauma. It’s just being a person.

And people love people when they actually get to see them.

A big part of vulnerability is accepting that things won’t always go our way.

There will be times where we have a friendship crush on somebody who we really believe we should be good friends with because we have so much in common, you like the way their mind works, and you admire and respect them.

And that friendship is unrequited.

You try and they shun you, or they don’t give you anything back, or you suggest times to meet and they never seem to want to.

While that is painful and hard, we have to remember the same rule applies to friendships as it does romantic relationships.

We might have an idea of what this relationship should be, but a friendship has to be with someone who is actually available for one.

Additional Challenges for Men

I think it’s worth saying that all of this carries additional challenges for certain kinds of men.

I’m not saying this isn’t true of women too. Women can feel awkward making friends. Women can feel weird, uncool, embarrassed, or feel shunned when they reach out.

But there’s an additional layer for a lot of men: they’re dealing with other men.

If you’re a guy who wants to be open, vulnerable, and make friends, you might not have the right men around you for that right now.

There are plenty of men who are available for this. I know because I’ve spent my adult life cultivating friendships with other men who are open, warm, and vulnerable.

But not all men have that right now.

A lot of men are dealing with other men who are really stunted when it comes to this.

There is truth to the idea that many female friendships are inherently more enriching and offer more support than a lot of male friendships do.

I know that my wife Audrey can call up friends at the end of a very long day and just say, “Hey, I’m tired. This happened and that happened. What are you up to? How are you doing?”

They’ll have a conversation, and that conversation will put energy back in the tank for both of them.

I have friendships like that with other men, but a lot of guys don’t.

A lot of guys do not have a guy they can call tonight and just talk about their feelings, check in, or simply chat. They would feel awkward doing that.

So the activation energy for men to do this is often much higher.

I also know that many men get together around an activity—whether it’s a sport, a game, or business.

They’ll get together with the pretext of having a reason to meet and then spend their whole time focused on that pretext without actually connecting on what’s going on in their lives.

Most women have had the experience of being with a man who went off to see a friend and then came back.

She says, “You saw Jeff? Oh my God, how is he?”

And he says, “Yeah, yeah, he’s fine.”

“He’s fine? His entire family was eaten by bears last week. They had to airlift Jeff from the top of a tree. What do you mean he’s fine?”

“Yeah, it just… I don’t know. It didn’t come up.”

Ironically, I don’t think men will ever feel closer to women than when they are genuinely trying to make friends with other guys and coming away with some of the same complaints women have about men.

Two-word replies. A lack of reciprocal vulnerability. Trying to hang out and getting very little back.

All of this makes it easier to understand why men experience higher rates of depression after divorce and why women end up carrying so much of the emotional labor in relationships with men.

It’s because men often end up relying heavily on their spouse as their primary—sometimes only—emotional support while being unprepared and ill-equipped to provide that kind of emotional support themselves.

Which is what makes many women who date men wish those men had deeper friendships of their own.

Final Thoughts

Now, we are obviously not going to solve all of this in one video.

I have way more to say. This could have been an hour-long video with the amount of notes I made.

But let’s first hear from you.

What is your experience of making friends as an adult?

Are you someone who has prioritized friendships in your life, or are they something that you feel you now want to invest in more at this point in your life?

Leave me a comment. I will be reading.

I’m excited to continue this conversation. It’s an important one.

I’ll be in the comments.

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

Blog → https://www.howtogettheguy.com/blog/ Facebook → https://facebook.com/CoachMatthewHussey Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/thematthewh… Twitter → https://twitter.com/matthewhussey ▼ Connect with Stephen ▼ Youtube → https://bit.ly/StephenHusseyYoutube Instagram → http://bit.ly/StephenHusseyIG

***

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One last big hurdle stands between you and full registration as a pharmacist in New Zealand – the NZ OSCE exam. Run by the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand, its real name is the Assessment Center OSCE examination. What gets tested matters just as much as knowing how each part fits together. Most who stumble tend to repeat similar mistakes others have made before them. Seeing those traps ahead might be exactly what helps you get through on your first try.

This blog covers everything you need to know, from what the OSCE actually assesses to expert time management tips, common mistakes, and how to prepare confidently.

New Zealand Intern Pharmacist OSCE Exam 2026 – Complete Guide

What is the NZ OSCE Exam?

The OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) is a mandatory registration exam administered by the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand. A pass in the Pharmacy Council Assessment Center OSCE examination is required for all registration pathways in New Zealand. This includes NZ and Australian graduates, overseas pharmacists from the UK, Ireland, Canada, and the USA, and those following the Non-REQR (Non-Recognized Equivalent Qualifications Route) pathway.

To register as a fully practicing pharmacist in New Zealand, intern pharmacists must achieve a pass at the Pharmacy Council Assessment Center OSCE examination and be deemed fit to practice by the Pharmacy Council in regard to health, conduct, and competence.

The OSCE tests real-world competency. It does not test memorization of textbook facts. It evaluates how you communicate, reason clinically, handle dispensing decisions, and demonstrate cultural safety in practice scenarios.

Where the OSCE sits in your pathway:

In this table, you will get an idea of where you stand and what the right process is for you to pass pharmacist OSCE exam.

How to Pass the NZ OSCE Exam on First Attempt

If you study with official resources with a strategic plan, then passing the NZ OSCE exam becomes quite easy for you.  Here, I will provide some pharmacist OSCE tips that, if you follow, will make passing this exam possible on your first attempt.

1. Understand the PCNZ Competence Standards Thoroughly

Before you practice any station, read the official PCNZ Competence Standards. Competence standards describe the skills, attitudes, and other attributes attained by an individual based on knowledge and experience. They specify the application of that knowledge and skills to the standards of performance required in a practice setting.

These standards are the blueprint for what examiners are looking for. Download them directly from the PCNZ website.

2. Practice OSCE Stations With a Partner

Just reading how to talk to patients does not mean you can do it well. Try acting out scenes with someone you work with or a trusted advisor. Pretend you are in actual test situations – like explaining a fresh prescription, handling a mistake in filling a script, or answering questions during advice time. Doing these things over and over trains your mind to respond when stress hits. What feels awkward today becomes automatic with repetition.

How to Prepare for New Zealand Intern Pharmacist OSCE Exam

3. Focus on Cultural Safety

Cultural safety is an important part of the OSCE exam. Because it supports fair and thoughtful treatment for every person who needs medicine. As outlined by New Zealand’s Pharmacy Council, these expectations are built into official rules. When people feel respected, confidence in their pharmacist grows.

You need to understand:

• Māori health values and beliefs
• The role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in healthcare
• How to communicate respectfully with people from different cultures

4. Master NZ Pharmacy Law and Ethics

Pharmacy legislation is a tested station area in the OSCE. You need to know how New Zealand’s Medicines Act 1981, pharmacy regulations, and ethical obligations apply in real practice. Vague or uncertain answers on legal matters will cost you marks. Study NZ-specific legislation, not generic pharmacy law from your home country.

5. Complete Mock OSCE Exams Before the Real One

Practicing with the mock under time conditions can help you a lot in your preparation. Use a mock OSCE exam as your preparation tool. If you practice with mock exams, you will understand where you are doing mistake and then can work on them. Your communication skills play a vital role here, so work on them. In the end, review your performance honestly and make sure that where you were weak. Doing these things makes you confident for your real exam.

What Are Common Mistakes Candidates Make in the NZ OSCE?

Figuring out missteps matters just as much as getting the steps right. Spotting patterns helps – here’s what are some of the common mistakes candidates make during the New Zealand OSCE exam:

The OSCE is a competency demonstration. Examiners are trained to assess not just what you say, but how you say it — your tone, listening skills, patient-centered approach, and professional manner.

How to Manage Time in OSCE Stations Effectively

To pass the OSCE exam, you have to learn time management. Because each station is timed. So, if you do not know how to manage, there is a chance of your failing in the exam. Knowledge will work here when you can manage the time.

Here is a practical time management framework for a typical OSCE station:

Some tips to save your time:

• During exam, avoid over-explaining a single point, make it clear and move on.
• If a station covers dispensing or calculations, practice until your speed is automatic.
• Never leave a station silent because partial response is better than nothing.
• Avoid going back to re-explain something unless it was factually wrong.

Time pressure in the OSCE mirrors real pharmacy practice. The process of competence development is a lifelong series of doing and reflecting, and focuses on the behaviors required for effective practice performance. Pharmacycouncil The OSCE is testing exactly that: your ability to perform confidently under real conditions.

NZ Intern Pharmacist OSCE Exam Pattern, Stations & Evaluation

Is the OSCE exam difficult?

Honest answer is yes. Many candidates find the NZ OSCE exam genuinely challenging. It is not because the clinical content is complex to understand, but because this exam tests candidates’ skills that require consistent practice and strategic preparation.

What you do every day, how you talk, think, act, feel, and weigh choices – shapes true professional skill. Not just knowing things, but using them wisely, matters most. During an OSCE, all of it gets seen at once. Time moves fast, much like actual situations. How a person handles that moment reveals their readiness. Decisions unfold without pause. Each step counts. Performance shows more than facts ever could.

Conclusion

Cracking the NZ OSCE exam is a little harder, but with strategic preparation, you can achieve it. As I have shared some pharmacists’ OSCE tips, if you follow those tips and get professional guidance, then no one can stop you from achieving your pharmacist career. Remember time management is important to crack any exam so the OSCE as well. As we know, there are 10 stations in the OSCE, so you have to make a plan for how you gonna manage your time.

See, preparation is quite hard if you are studying by yourself because it becomes boring, and if you have any doubts, then how will you clear your doubts? So, we all need guidance from someone who has experience in the same field, don’t you think so? Well, Elite Expertise is an online platform where you can get professional guidance from an experienced trainer. They will clear all doubts and help you to pass this exam on your first attempt.

FAQ

1. Is the NZ OSCE exam mandatory?

Yes, passing the OSCE is compulsory.

2. What does the OSCE exam test?

It tests communication, clinical reasoning, dispensing decisions, patient counseling, and cultural safety—not just theoretical knowledge.

3. How many stations are there in the OSCE exam?

There are 10 stations in the OSCE exam.

4. Can I pass the OSCE on the first attempt?

To be honest, its depend on your preparation and understanding.

5. Do I need to study NZ pharmacy law?

Yes, knowledge of New Zealand’s pharmacy laws and ethics is essential for passing legal and ethical stations.

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This content is brought to you by Alexander Reid.

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