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In the challenging economic scenario of a global pandemic, which has brought about confinements, telework, shop closures, furlough schemes, but also new business opportunities for pharmaceutical or computer companies, what are the top job skills that thriving companies are seeking in their new recruits? Here you have a collection of four articles that list the most highly demanded soft and tech skills in the corporate world. The first article comes form HR Vision, it quotes the recently published World Economic Forum report, " The Future of Jobs ", which predicts that by 2025, in the summit of a digital and biological revolution -the 4th Industrial Revolution- companies will be seeking candidates with communication and interpersonal skills, the so-called "soft skills", like "complex problem solving", "critical thinking", "creativity", "people management" or "emotional intelligence" to outperform robots and get things

Carbon dioxide levels continue at record levels, despite COVID-19 lockdown, the WMO reports . The increase in carbon dioxide from 2018 to 2019 was larger than that observed from 2017 to 2018 and larger than the average annual growth rate over the last decade. The rise has continued in 2020. The lockdown did cut emissions of many pollutants and greenhouse gases, but any impact on carbon dioxide levels - the result of cumulative past and current emissions - is in fact no bigger than the normal year to year fluctuations.  “Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries and in the ocean for even longer. The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO₂ was 3-5 million years ago, when the temperature was 2-3°C warmer and sea level was 10-20 meters higher than now. But there weren’t 7.7 billion inhabitants,” said WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas. “The COVID-19 pandemic is not a solution for climate change. However, it does provide us with a platform

Lewis Hamilton recently won his 7th F1 title in Turkey, matching Michael Schumacher's all time record. This feat has prompted the British media to relish a debate about Lewis Hamilton's place in the history of F1 and British sport in general. Here you can listen to a BBC Radio 5 Live programme, " Chequered Flag ", where a panel of 3 journalists, Rebecca Clancy, from The Times , Scott Mitchell from The Race and Saith Hardy, a freelance reporter from the USA, talk about the most popular sportsperson in Britain nowadays: his recent victory in the Turkish Grand Prix,and his leading role as an activist in various social causes, including racism.  The podcast lasts 53':48", and there is no script, so it can be suitable for C2 students. Below you can find the glossary and here, on this link, a list of the different sections of the interview which can be used as a supplementary listening guide for the students who might need that kind of written support. If you want

 by Andrew Glikson The linear nature of global warming projections by the IPCC (2014 ) Assessment Report (AR5) (Figure 1) appears to take little account of stadial cooling events , such as have followed peak temperature rises in previous interglacial stages. The linear trends appear to take only limited account of amplifying positive feedback effects of the warming from land and ocean. A number of factors cast doubt on IPCC climate change projections to 2100 AD and 2300 AD , including: The flow of large volumes of cold ice melt water into the oceans, leading to stadial cooling effects, such as in the North Atlantic ( Rahmstorf et al 2015 ; Glikson, 2019 ) and around Antarctica (Bonselaer et al., 2018). Paleoclimate observations indicate that during the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles, at least for the 800,000 years, every time temperatures reached a peak a sharp cooling followed ( Cortese et al. 2007 ). Amplifying feedbacks from land and ocean drive non-linear climate trajec

Diwali festival celebrates the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil. It is observed by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and New Buddhists all over the Indian subcontinent and in the diaspora, at the end of October or at the beginning of November, depending on the Hindu moon calendar. In 2020 Diwali begins on 13th November and it runs for five days, but the main celebration is held on the second day, November 14th.  Different gods are worshipped in different parts of India, and in the families, houses get spotlessly clean, clay oil lamps are lit, "to symbolize the purification of the mind and to remove negativity, clutter and ignorance" and fireworks and firecrackers are let off in the streets. Other Diwali traditions include playing cards, baking and eating sweets, dressing up in the best attires, and exchanging gifts. Finally on the fifth day of Diwali, brothers and sisters honour their common bond by getting together and sharing food. If you want to

Above image shows that, in October 2020, the Arctic Ocean was very hot. The Copernicus image below shows temperatures averaged over the twelve-month period from November 2019 to October 2020. Keep in mind that, in the Copernicus image, anomalies are compared to the 1981-2010 average. Note that the shape of the recent twelve-month period is similar to the 2016 peak, when there was a strong El Niño, while in October 2020 the temperature was suppressed due to La Niña and due to low sunspots. The image below shows how a hot Arctic Ocean distorts the Jet Stream and hot air moves all the way up to the North Pole.  Above image shows the Northern Hemisphere at November 12, 2020, with a temperature forecast of 2.0°C or 35.5°F at the North Pole at 1000 hPa at 15:00Z. On the right, jet stream crosses the Arctic Ocean (at 250 hPa). At surface level, a temperature was forecast to be 0.6°C or 33.2°F.  As it turned out, the highest temperature at the North Pole was 1.1°C or 34.1°F on November 12, 202

Can we categorize people's personality? Psychologists have tried to do so, it is part of their job.  The video below,  "The Myers-Briggs Personality Types Explained  by Psych2Go, shows a well-established questionnaire, the  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator . which was constructed by two American female psychologists following Jung's theories, to find out your personality in a short list of 16 possible personality types. Personality tests, horoscopes etc. could be priceless materials to introduce character description adjectives in the EFL class.  This lesson plan for C1 students includes the Myers-Briggs test, a list of synonyms and some horoscope work, to present and practice this lexical area. You will come across words like: to check out, proper, at face value, eccentric, to flex muscles, a gut instinct , to spot , hands-on , to give away, to have a hard time, to excel, to crave , [to be] in the spotlight, to dive deep, reluctant, willing, to thrive , to carve, to forge, ins