SSC News Desk New research from TENA quantifies a behavior that physicians have tracked for decades — men overriding basic physical signals when the stakes feel high enough. The survey question sounds mundane: have you ever delayed a bathroom break during a sporting event because you didn’t want to miss anything? According to new research…
The question isn’t whether AI caused the layoffs. It’s why “AI” became the answer companies reach for, whether or not it’s the whole truth. As of early August, tracking data puts 2026’s tech layoffs at 205,832 workers across 322 separate events. Of those, AI was specifically cited as a factor in 173 events, affecting roughly…
The debate isn’t really about a test. It’s about what happens when a 10-campus system tries to apply one admissions policy to schools with acceptance rates ranging from 11 percent to over 95 percent. Randy Schekman supported the University of California’s decision to drop the SAT. Now the Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist, who teaches introductory…
The accounting shift could finance infrastructure, housing and business investment. Whether it strengthens the economy depends on what the government buys with the money. Bryson Davis | Social Storytellers Collective Britain’s Treasury is examining how to borrow billions more without abandoning the government’s existing fiscal rules. Chancellor John Healey said there was scope for faster and greater investment,…
Regional growth is real. So is the fact that new hiring does not automatically replace jobs erased by bankruptcies, closures and corporate restructuring. SSC News Desk | Social Storytellers Collective Houston added roughly 24,000 jobs during the first half of 2026. Nearly 20 employers also reported layoffs affecting 2,697 workers. Those numbers are not contradictory. They describe an economy expanding in…
Nigeria approved military salary increases of up to 80 percent this year, with the largest gains directed at lower-ranking personnel — the soldiers most likely to desert, most likely to defect, and most likely to be recruited by the armed groups they are being paid to fight. The annual military wage bill rises from 660 billion naira to 924 billion naira as…
The company’s own numbers contradict the reason usually given for layoffs like this one. That contradiction is the actual story. Zillow laid off more than 500 employees on Tuesday, about 7 percent of its global workforce, in what CEO Jeremy Wacksman called the company’s largest round of cuts this year, according to a company blog…
Every pandemic boomtown saw prices cool off. Only Austin built its way into a hangover this deep, this long. Austin’s home prices have fallen 14 to 24 percent from their May 2022 peak of roughly $552,000, depending on which dataset and geography you use, according to reporting by James Rodriguez for Business Insider. That range…
The Your Way Champion and Whopper Guarantee are brand initiatives. They are also an admission about what fast food stopped being — and what it costs to get it back. Part of Society, Economy & Wellness — examining how economic pressure reshapes labor, access, and everyday life. NEWS DESK | SOCIAL STORYTELLERS COLLECTIVE Four months…
Over 1,600 workers have lost jobs in the Charlotte region so far in 2026. Most of the companies cutting them never said a word publicly. Part of Society, Economy & Wellness — examining how economic pressure reshapes labor, access, and everyday life. NEWS DESK | SOCIAL STORYTELLERS COLLECTIVE The Charlotte Observer’s Desiree Mathurin reported this…