Malusi Gigaba and Mmusi Maimane celebrate PhD triumphs
Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial. Dive into a world of inspiration, learning, and empowerment. You can only trial once.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Back to school, back to sanity! Decluttering tips for a smooth start to the school year
The start of the school year is your second chance at a New Year The backpacks are zipped, the lunchboxes are packed, and for a brief, blissful moment, you can see your floor again. Back-to-school season is more than just supply lists and after-school pickups. For parents, it's a golden opportunity to reset the house, the routines, and your relationship with kid clutter. As a professional organizer, I see it every year: families riding the wave of summer chaos straight into fall with zero time to course-correct. But here's the secret: the start of the school year is your second chance at a New Year. If you're tired of tripping over last year's lunchboxes, outgrown soccer cleats, and mystery slime containers, here's your game plan. 1. Before you buy, declutter Back-to-school shopping feels like a rite of passage, but it's also a trap. So many families stock up on new supplies before they check what's already hiding in junk drawers and backpacks. Pull out every pencil, marker, glue stick, and folder you can find. Make a "shop at home" bin. Only after that do you go to the store and bring the list, not the guilt! This isn't just about saving money. It's about breaking the acquisition cycle. Buying more stuff to organize your stuff is not the answer. 2. Create a "done with it" bin Kids are sneaky clutter creators. Rocks from recess, half-colored worksheets, broken beaded creations, they end up everywhere! Give your child a designated 'done with it' bin or basket in their room or by the entryway. Every week (Friday's a great rhythm), you do a 5-minute sweep: toss what's trash, save what's special, and reset for the week ahead. This gives kids agency and teaches them how to recognize what's worth keeping. 3. Declutter without the drama Getting kids to part with their stuff can feel like a hostage negotiation. But here's what works: Give them choices: 'You can keep five art projects. Pick your favorites.' Use time limits: 'We're doing a 15-minute toy edit, race you!' Honor their input: Even if you disagree with what they want to keep, letting them decide builds their organizing muscle. Remember: the goal is progress, not perfection. You're raising declutter-literate kids, not minimalist monks. 4. Create zones for sanity Kids thrive on routine, and so do grown-ups. One of the best things you can do? Create clear, designated zones in your home: Drop zone by the door (hooks, a tray, a backpack bin). Homework zone that's stocked but clutter-free. Clothing zone where uniforms, socks, and shoes live together. Every item should have a home, because if it doesn't, it ends up on your kitchen counter. Again. 5. The post-bus clean sweep The house is finally quiet. The kids are at school. You could scroll. Or nap. Or... hear me out... reclaim your space. Take one hour and tackle what you couldn't get to all summer: Purge the toy bin. Edit the bookshelves. Let go of the pool toys. Think of it as your decluttering victory lap, because your home deserves to feel as fresh as your kids' new notebooks. 6. Don't organize alone Back-to-school is overwhelming. The schedules. The activities. The carpools. If it all feels like too much, you're not failing, you're just human. Call in help! Ask a friend to do a toy swap. Get your kids involved. Or hire a pro if that's an option. You don't need to carry the clutter alone. Bottom line? Back-to-school is your opportunity to teach life skills. How to make decisions, how to let go, and how to take care of your space. A clutter-free home doesn't mean you've 'got it all together.' It means you've made space for what matters: peace, presence, and a little breathing room between drop-off and dinner. Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
9 minutes ago
- Forbes
The Emotional Cost Of Dating Men And How Women Are Rewriting Rules
Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images. A new cultural lexicon is emerging, and at the center of it is a term that captures the private exhaustion and public irony many straight women feel toward modern relationships with men: heterofatalism. Initially coined by academic Asa Seresin and recently spotlighted in the New York Times Magazine and Sexual Health Alliance, heterofatalism refers to the resigned belief that heterosexual relationships are emotionally unfulfilling. These viewpoints suggest women pursue them anyway because they feel there might not be better options. However, beyond the memes and gloomy quips lies something more profound: a crisis of expectation, a mismatch of emotional labor, and an opportunity to reframe how straight women approach dating with greater clarity, curiosity, awareness and self-leadership. This article explores the psychological and cultural roots of heterofatalism, synthesizes dating and relationship science and offers tools for dating men today without compromising your softness, emotional essentials or standards. What Is Heterofatalism? When Cynicism Masks Hope Unlike heteropessimism, which performs emotional detachment for irony or cool-girl effect, heterofatalism carries a heavier emotional resignation. Women may say, "I am hesitant about men," only to download the app again the next morning, reflecting not just disappointment in individual men, but in the more all-around system of heterosexual romance. The internal dialogue might become something like: "Even if I know better, even if he might not meet my needs, I want to pursue the connection anyway." As the Sexual Health Alliance notes, heterofatalism often arises from a lack of relational modeling, and from watching women in our families "choose partners they did not seem to like." It can be intergenerational, systemic and reinforced by media that glamorizes dysfunction under the guise of chemistry. But how can we distinguish one from the other? Here's where self-agency comes in. Cultural Conditioning, Romantic Myths And Emotional Labor Popular culture has long sold women the idea that love will heal, elevate and complete us. But research on romantic beliefs suggests that idealizing a partner can actually predict greater disappointment over time, especially when initial chemistry masks incompatible values, true friendship or aligned long-term goals. Even well-meaning narratives like "men should protect and provide" can reinforce benevolent sexism, an ideology that seems sweet but ultimately positions women as passive recipients of male behavior. These beliefs can make women more likely to excuse or romanticize emotional immaturity in men in the personal and professional realms alike. It comes as no surprise that women in heterosexual relationships might often feel like they carry more of the emotional labor, initiating hard conversations, managing conflict and tracking their date's emotional needs. This imbalance contributes directly to the burnout that fuels heterofatalism, a widespread apathy towards the dating scene. The Psychology Behind Attraction And Repetition Classic social-psychology theory suggests people pair with those of similar social desirability, also known as the Matching Hypothesis. Yet in the world of dating apps, this can backfire. Research analyzing millions of profiles reveals that both men and women often pursue partners who are estimated to be about 25% more attractive than themselves, despite these advances yielding fewer responses. In other words, chasing someone perceived as "out of the league" is common, but it is rarely successful. The convenience of mobile dating comes with its own set of challenges. A 2024 Forbes Health survey reports that 78% of users feel emotionally, mentally or physically exhausted from app use — and women report slightly higher rates than men. This aligns with qualitative findings showing "burnout" results from repeated cycles of hope, ghosting and emotional drain, or what researchers call mobile-online-dating fatigue. Gen Z daters report even higher rates: nearly 79% say app fatigue has influenced them to seek offline alternatives or authenticity-first platforms (RAW app data, 2025). Apps like Bumble and Hinge are responding by introducing features such as conversation prompts and "double-date" modes to ease cognitive load and enhance engagement, too. Why We Repeat Patterns: The Pull Of The Unavailable Beyond algorithms and exhaustion, attraction is often shaped by what feels familiar, rather than what is healthy. Many women report being drawn to unavailable or emotionally inconsistent partners due to unresolved attachment patterns. Unsurprisingly, this dynamic perpetuates cycles of disappointment masked as excitement, especially in high-status, emotionally ambiguous men. Heteropessimism refers to the ironic detachment and performative complaint about men while still participating in heterosexual dating. Its emotional tone is often askew and cynical, and it has become a staple of memes and social media commentary, such as 'men are trash.' Heterofatalism, on the other hand, carries a more profound resignation: the belief that dating men may be unsatisfying, but there's no better alternative. Its tone is more defeated and ambivalent, emerging from emotional labor burnout and accumulated relational hopelessness, among others. It's Not About Not Dating Men, But Dating With Discernment, Intention And Self-Sovereignty Heterofatalism is not about giving up on love. It is about letting go of scripts that exhaust us. Instead of abandoning desire, we can choose to desire with clarity and intention. Instead of succumbing to resignation, we can reframe the terms of engagement comprehensively. Because dating men doesn't have to mean enduring disappointment, particularly when you choose based on emotional congruence rather than cultural programming, dating becomes a space of alignment, not depletion. Finally, as a researcher and therapist, Dr. Alexandra Solomon says, 'Healthy relationships are not found, they are built. Moreover, you can only build with someone who is also ready to build with you.' So no, the answer is not to stop dating men. The answer is to stop dating men who drain your brilliance, and to start dating as the woman who chooses herself first.
CBS News
9 minutes ago
- CBS News
Texas is launching new traps to help fight off the New World Screwworm population.
A flesh-eating parasite that once ravaged Texas livestock is creeping back—and the state is stepping it to stop it. The state will be deploying traps with synthetic bait along the Mexican border, Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller announced Monday. The synthetic "swormlure-5" bait mimics the scent of rotting animal flesh to attract and kill adult screwworm flies. The state is working with COPEG, The Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Screwworm Infestation in Livestock, to drop sterile flies into hotspot areas. However, while these flies are making an impact, Miller suggests the process to eradicate them will take years. There is currently a facility in Metepa, Mexico, that produces and drops sterile flies. Miller says the facility has been producing 100 million, but 600 million will be needed to kill off the population. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, approved an $8.5 million initiative to construct a sterile fly dispersal facility at Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas, last month. But according to Miller, that facility is years away from being fully operational, and fears that by then, the screwworm will be all over the United States. Miller said a newer approach is needed to quickly and effectively kill the flies. "We cannot wait for sterile flies alone to turn the tide. That's why we're applying a little cowboy logic and bringing back Swormlure, now with an enhanced formula that's more powerful and effective than ever," Miller said in a statement. Miller says by deploying the traps with the new bait, 90 percent of the fly population will be killed. Leaving the remaining 10 percent for the sterile flies to finish off. The TDA is the lead department on this effort and is working alongside the United States Department of Agriculture and the Mexican government to set up the new traps in hotspots.
