Up North
Northern accents are becoming more similar, according to research by the University of Manchester. A team led by linguistics specialist Dr Patrycja Strycharczuk set out to find out if there is such a thing as Great Northern English and used machine learning to analyse the voices of people from several major cities across the north of England. The computer struggled to distinguish between the accents of people from Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield – suggesting they do speak in a very similar way – while accents from Liverpool and Newcastle were a lot more distinct. They also found that some traditional dialect features are no longer present, but most speakers still sound distinctly northern – which suggests that a general northern accent is emerging.
Going vegan
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the trend towards vegan diets, according to a new study by Mintel. The market intelligence agency reports that 25% of UK citizens aged between 21 to 30 said the pandemic has made a vegan diet more appealing. And the research shows that a vegan diet is proving more attractive to 12% of Brits overall, with numbers rising to 22% of Londoners. Some 23% of consumers said they had been eating more fruit and vegetables since the start of the pandemic. Alex Beckett, Associate Director of Mintel Food & Drink, commented: “People want the world to change for the better right now and they are searching for ways to show compassion.”
Sexist video
More than one in three women has been told by her manager to “dress sexier” for video calls since the start of the pandemic, according to a survey by law firm Slater and Gordon. Reasons were that it would “help to win new business”, it’s important to “look nicer for the team” and “it would be more pleasing to a client”, said the survey. Most women told to dress more provocatively did not report their boss to their HR department, and one in four actually agreed to change the way they looked for fear of a negative impact on their career. Slater and Gordon employment lawyer Danielle Parsons said: “It is categorically wrong for a manager or anyone in a position of power to suggest, even politely, for a woman to be more sexually appealing in the workplace.”
Going electric
Buying and owning an electric vehicle (EV) is now more cost-effective than getting a new petrol or diesel car, says insurance company Direct Line, which calculates that EVs now cost an average of £107 a year less to own over their whole lifetime. The average total cost of buying a new EV and driving it for about 14 years has been calculated as £52,133, compared with £53,625 for an equivalent petrol-fuelled model. This means the EV would cost the owner £3,752 a year during the course of its life, while the annual total for a petrol car amounts to £3,858. The running costs for an EV are 21% lower, with an average of £1,742, or £33.50 per week, compared with £2,205 per year or £42.40 per week for a diesel car.
Time off
People who work during weekends and holidays feel less motivated, according to a study in the Harvard Business Review. The research, by authors at London Business School and Cornell University, and involving 1,298 US employees, found those who worked weekend days felt less intrinsic motivation for work. This was in spite of the widely held assumption that more flexible working hours boost motivation. The researchers found motivation could be boosted by telling workers the weekend was a time they could catch up on their work and plan ahead, rather than treating it as leisure time.