European cities rank highly in quality-of-life rankings. MEDITERRANEAN/Getty Images Oxford Economics' 2026 Global Cities Index ranked cities around the world on their quality of life. US cities ranked highly for economics, but fell short in the quality of life category. European cities dominated the quality of life list, while only one US city made the top 20. Cities in the US rank high globally in terms of economics, but they have some ground to cover in quality of life, according to a new report. For its 2026 Global Cities Index, economic advisory firm Oxford Economics ranked 1,000 cities across the globe based on five categories: economics, human capital, environment, and quality of life. Every category is viewed from an economic lens, even quality of life, where indicators include income equality and housing expenditure, among others. "The Global Cities Index records the progress cities are making across a comprehensive range of metrics," Mark Britton, managing director of city services at Oxford Economics, said in the report. "Sitting alongside our forecasts and scenario models, its ability to highlight how paths change under different conditions and its capacity for comparability shows you not just where cities stand today, but also where they are heading." The overall list features several US cities in the top 20 — eight, to be exact, with New York taking the No. 1 spot. However, when highlighting quality of life specifically, only one US city made the cut. Quality of life, which accounts for 25% of a city's overall score, wasn't a bright spot for the US, but plenty of other cities excelled in that category. See which cities ranked highest in quality of life, according to Oxford Economics. 20. Venice, Italy Venice, Italy. adisa/Getty Images Overall score: 51.2 Quality of life score: 86.3 19. Stuttgart, Germany Stuttgart, Germany. Cyril Gosselin/Getty Images Overall score: 70.7 Quality of life score: 86.5 18. Prague Prague. rusm/Getty Images Overall score: 78.1 Quality of life score: 86.9 17. Sydney Sydney. zetter/Getty Images Overall score: 88.3 Quality of life score: 87.2 16. Munich Munich. Nikada/Getty Images Overall score: 85 Quality of life score: 87.3 15. Berlin Berlin. Nikada/Getty Images Overall score: 84.6 Quality of life score: 87.7 14. Zurich Zurich. pawel.gaul/Getty Images Overall score: 89.1 Quality of life score: 87.7 13. San Jose, United States San Jose. f11photo/Getty Images Overall score: 89.6 Quality of life score: 87.9 12. Linz, Austria Linz, Austria. Mariendom Overall score: 70.6 Quality of life score: 88 11. Basel, Switzerland Basel, Switzerland. @ Didier Marti/Getty Images Overall score: 79.6 Quality of life score: 88 10. Paris Paris. Fani Kurti/Getty Images Overall score: 93.4 Quality of life score: 88.1 9. Ghent, Belgium Ghent, Belgium. MEDITERRANEAN/Getty Images Overall score: 74.9 Quality of life score: 88.4 8. Dresden, Germany Dresden, Germany. Achim Thomae/Getty Images Overall score: 59.4 Quality of life score: 88.5 7. Luxembourg Luxembourg. rusm/Getty Images Overall score: 82.5 Quality of life score: 89 6. Oslo, Norway Oslo, Norway. MEDITERRANEAN/Getty Images Overall score: 89.1 Quality of life score: 89.3 5. Bern, Switzerland Bern, Switzerland. joe daniel price/Getty Images Overall score: 78.2 Quality of life score: 89.8 4. Grenoble, France Grenoble, France. RossHelen/Getty Images Overall score: 67.7 Quality of life score: 90.8 3. Singapore Singapore. primeimages/Getty Images Overall score: 82.1 Quality of life score: 91.6 2. Bergen, Norway Bergen, Norway. Thomas Roell/Getty Images Overall score: 80 Quality of life score: 94.3 1. Canberra, Australia Canberra, Australia. HADI ZAHER/Getty Images Overall score: 79.4 Quality of life score: 100 Read the original article on Business Insider

We went aboard a cruise ship navigating some of the world's most dangerous waters. In the Arctic, drifting icebergs, sea ice, sudden storms and fierce winds make sailing unpredictable. Yet every year, around 100,000 cruise passengers travel to Greenland to explore its remote coastline and experience one of the world's last great wildernesses. Read the original article on Business Insider

Ina Garten's recipes will keep you cozy this fall. Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images I've made dozens of Ina Garten's recipes, and some of her dishes are perfect for fall. Garten's chicken chili is quicker and lighter than your traditional chili recipe. And her weeknight Bolognese and rigatoni with sausage will keep you cozy as temperatures dip. This year's descent into fall has been more of a crawl, but I think we're all ready for some cozy weather. And what better accompaniment to a classic rom-com and your favorite sweater than a dish by Ina Garten? The "Barefoot Contessa" star has built a whole career on recipes that are easy and comforting. I've made dozens of Garten's dishes, so I decided to look back and find a few that I think are perfect for this busy season. From a Bolognese that's ready in 30 minutes to a cake packed with the flavors of autumn, these are Garten's best fall dishes. Ina Garten's breakfast sandwiches will energize you for chaotic fall mornings. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider The start of fall is so hectic. Work ramps back up, school is back in session, and the prep and stress of the holidays begin to creep in. Travel-friendly and loaded with protein, a breakfast sandwich is just what you need. And Garten's version only requires five ingredients: English muffins, whole milk, avocado, bacon, cheddar cheese, and eggs that you can cook in the microwave. The microwave eggs are surprisingly creamy, and the sandwich is deliciously filling. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider Everything in Garten's breakfast sandwich works so well together. She recommends using thick-cut applewood-smoked bacon, which provides a crispy contrast to the soft eggs. Spreading the avocado on the bottom adds both flavor and nutrients, and I love the tanginess of the sharp white cheddar. If you're making this sandwich for more than two people, I recommend cooking the eggs on the stove rather than in the microwave to save time. But this is a great recipe to teach your kids so they can make breakfast on their own. And if you're a college student, you could easily whip this up in a dorm. Get the full recipe for Ina Garten's bacon, egg, and cheddar sandwich here. Making a huge batch of Garten's homemade chicken stock has been my fall tradition for years. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I began testing Garten's soup recipes in 2023 and knew something was missing after I kept using boxed stock. "Store-bought is fine!" might be Garten's most famous catchphrase, but she believes homemade chicken stock is akin to "liquid gold." "Nothing available on the market has the depth of flavor or richness of stock you've made yourself," she wrote in "Go-To Dinners," her October 2022 cookbook. "It contributes such great body and aroma to so many dishes. Plus, having a big pot of chicken stock simmering away on my stove just makes me feel good." Garten's stock is packed with flavor because it involves simmering three roasting chickens for hours alongside carrots, onions, celery, parsnips, garlic, and plenty of herbs. There's no flavor left in the chicken once the stock is ready. If you'd rather save the meat for meals, you can always take the chicken out once it's cooked through and continue to simmer the aromatics. I also recommend freezing chicken bones so you always have some on hand for more stock. The recipe makes enough stock to last through the winter, and it provides the base for so many delicious soups. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider Garten's recipe provides nearly nine quarts of stock, and you can store it in the freezer for up to six months. My absolute favorite Barefoot Contessa soup to make with the stock is Garten's chicken pot pie soup, which I whip up anytime my fiancé and I are craving a bowl of comfort. Her ravioli en brodo is a delicious twist on chicken noodle, while her Italian wedding soup is light and bright. If you want to switch things up from soup, you can also use the stock to make Garten's one-pot chicken and orzo — another delicious meal for chilly nights. Get the full recipe for Ina Garten's homemade chicken stock here. Garten's chicken chili is a lighter twist on the traditionally hearty dish. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider Garten served traditional chili for two decades at the specialty food store she ran in the Hamptons before becoming a cookbook author and Food Network star. When Garten decided to switch up the chili and use chicken instead of beef, it became even more popular than the original recipe. The dish also features red and yellow bell peppers, fresh basil, and a variety of seasonings, including chili powder, ground cumin, and red pepper flakes. Garten serves the chili topped with green onions, cheddar cheese, corn chips, and sour cream. When I first made Garten's chicken chili for some friends, they said it made them feel "so warm and cozy." Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider The tomatoes and spices build a rich broth, and each bite of chicken is so tender and juicy. It's also a great dish for hosting because you can lay out the toppings in individual dishes, allowing everyone to personalize their bowl to their own preference. Plus, who doesn't love a bowl of chili on football Sunday? Get the full recipe for Ina Garten's chicken chili here. Garten's weeknight Bolognese is ready in 30 minutes. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider My pasta cravings always hit when temperatures start to dip. And during this busy season, Garten's weeknight Bolognese is a perfect fit. The recipe includes ground sirloin, crushed tomatoes, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, and fresh basil, but it's designed to be adaptable and pantry-friendly. Garten says you could easily swap the sirloin for any ground meat and skip the cream and basil if you need. And while she recommends using orecchiette, any dried pasta will work with this recipe. My family couldn't get enough of Garten's speedy Bolognese. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider It's pretty incredible how much flavor Garten manages to create in a dish that traditionally simmers for hours on end. The rich sauce bursts through every bite of the small pasta shells, which I personally loved for this dish, and the freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top makes it feel extra comforting and indulgent. "It's a very meaty, very hearty pasta," my dad said before declaring that the dish was "perfect." We loved the dish so much that it earned the second spot in my ongoing ranking of Barefoot Contessa pasta dishes. Get the full recipe for Ina Garten's weeknight Bolognese here. If you're searching for a cheesy pasta with little clean-up, Garten's one-pot dish is the perfect fit. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider The rigatoni pasta is paired with sausage and fennel, plus some onion, garlic, heavy cream, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and a few additional ingredients. It all comes together in a big pot or Dutch oven, and you'll have dinner on the table in an hour. Garten says this pasta is one of her "all-time go-to dinners." Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider "You can make the whole thing in one big pot, bring it to the table, and everyone loves it," Garten told her viewers in a 2017 episode of "Barefoot Contessa." With its beautiful golden hue and rich, meaty sauce, Garten's one-pot pasta is the kind of dish that lifts your spirits. There's also lovely depth to the flavor, thanks to the sweet sausage, salty Parm, and the bite from the fennel. Get the full recipe for Ina Garten's rigatoni with sausage and fennel here. As with her chicken chili, Garten developed the recipe for her apple spice cake at the Barefoot Contessa store. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider "We used to have all kinds of cakes like this out on the bakery counter, and you could come buy a whole cake, but you could also buy a piece," Garten said in an early episode of her Food Network show. "It's not fancy, just really delicious and earthy, and you always want to come back for more." The recipe includes Granny Smith apples, rum, raisins, pecans, and plenty of sugar and spice. The cake is packed with autumn flavors. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider Soaking the golden raisins in rum gave them a flavor that almost reminded me of caramel, and their sweetness helped temper the Granny Smith apples' sourness. All the spices infused the moist cake with a warm nuttiness, while the pecans added some delicious crunch. I followed Garten's advice and tried the cake with some ice cream and caramel, which were delicious additions. But the cake isn't super sweet, so you could also enjoy it on its own with some tea or coffee for breakfast. Now it's really starting to feel like fall. Get the full recipe for Ina Garten's apple spice cake here. Is there a dish you love making in the fall season? Share it with us in the comments. And check out more easy recipes here. Read the original article on Business Insider

The couple has been together for four years without merging bank accounts. Courtesy of Catherine Work My fiancé and I have been together for four years and have never had a joint bank account. We're transparent about our incomes, savings, and spending, and we've never had a fight about money. We plan to pay for our wedding together, but we won't combine our finances after we get married. My parents have a shared bank account and kept all their large purchases in both their names, so I thought sharing an account would be my financial destiny, too, if I ever got married. I didn't question it until recently. Now, my partner and I are getting married in just a few months, and we don't plan to combine our finances. After four years together, we've never had any accounts or cards in both of our names. The closest we ever got to that was me using his credit card on a payment app when we were in Vietnam because mine didn't work. We both contribute to rent and household expenses. We pay back the other person our half of large purchases like flights and hotels, but we don't keep a tab of who owes who what (a nice change from my previous romantic relationships). We've always been open about money We were upfront about our income, debt (or lack thereof), and our mutual desire to live below our means from day one. After about three years of dating, we told each other how much we have in savings. We continue to be transparent about money and agree on the vast majority of each other's purchases — it helps that we're both very frugal. We've built up trust over the years, and we'll continue to offer up personal financial information when we want to, knowing we have privacy. Neither of us has the login information for the other's bank, but we know we can always ask how much the other is earning or spending. I thought the next step was a shared bank account with two credit cards — I assumed that's what love and commitment meant in an economic way. We kept asking ourselves how having both our names on one account would improve our lives, and we kept coming up blank. I also didn't want to waste time filling out paperwork or calling my bank for something I wasn't even interested in. Keeping finances separate works for them. Courtesy of Catherine Work Our system works for us We've lived together for almost four years and never had a fight about money. I have some financial anxiety, and I think having a shared account might actually make that worse. Since my fiancée makes more and pays for more, I regularly check in to see if he's still OK with that. We approached our wedding, our first big purchase together, the same way we plan travel — with Excel, conversations, and making sure we stay under budget to cover unexpected costs. My fiancée bought our rings, and I bought our flights (we're getting married in Denmark). We both agreed to contribute the same amount of money to the wedding. Every payment we make for the big day goes into a spreadsheet, and at the end of all our purchases, if one of us has spent significantly more, the other will make the next large purchase. Keeping our financial stressors low is also made easier by the fact that we won't plan to have kids or pets, or make any large purchases like a house or a car. Taking care of our parents is the only thing that might one day impact how we view our financial setup. Another thing we agreed on from the start was that we wanted a pre-nup. Not sharing a bank account and having a pre-nup might not sound romantic (or like we can't share) to some, but if anyone were to look at our purchases, they'd immediately see we do spend our money on each other—just with separate accounts intact. We haven't fought about money, and I'd like to keep it that way I know I'm going into a marriage with dignity and respect. My future husband won't get a notification if I spend over $100, he won't be able to review a bank statement at the end of the month to see how many ice creams I've treated myself to, and we won't know how much the other person spent on a Christmas present. We'll never have to ask the other person if we can spend money or fear that our separate emergency funds will be depleted by the other. My parents shared a bank account, and they often fought over money — one thing I promised myself I'd never do with my future spouse. Keeping our finances separate has worked so far, and I believe it'll continue to after we're married. We're both open to changing our minds one day, but until we have a good reason, we're very happy having separate accounts, together. Read the original article on Business Insider

Factories built to supply America’s electric-vehicle boom are getting a second life making batteries for the power grid. As EV demand weakens and electricity demand from data centers and new factories strengthens, battery makers are shifting toward stationary storage, but the new market still relies on federal incentives and a supply chain that remains partly dependent on China. The shift is visible at TransGrid’s Atlas projects in Arizona, where the contractor Qcells is using LG Energy Solution’s US-made battery cells. (Source: Bloomberg)

Laura Massetti, a career coach for young workers, said that Gen Z workers struggle with unwritten rules and need professional training. Courtesy of Laura Massetti Laura Massetti spent 15 years leading teams and saw Gen Z workers struggle with unwritten rules. Massetti said Gen Z workers need training on communication, judgment, and follow-through. As AI levels technical skills, Massetti said human skills can help early-career workers stand out. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Laura Massetti, founder of Real Work Ready, which helps early-career professionals develop workplace skills. Massetti has more than a decade of experience in the corporate world, leading sales and marketing teams. The essay has been edited for length and clarity. I spent 15 years in the corporate world, leading sales and marketing teams. I loved mentoring early professionals, but I often found myself thinking: My goodness, I wish I could make this process go quicker. I never only look at whether someone could do the work. It is more about whether they could communicate clearly, exercise good judgment, and follow through. As a career coach for young workers, I know there are things that you, as an employee, get judged on that no one actually puts inside the rubric. We expect people to figure them out over time, but in reality, someone has to teach them. Gen Z needs feedback in a workplace that expects people to figure things out I don’t think that Gen Z is unready for work. I think no one has taught them what to do. This generation grew up with a cellphone in their hands. They’d post something on Instagram and get 10 likes. They’re used to instant feedback: Tell me what I need to grow. That’s not how the workplace is built. We have annual reviews. You learn through experience; you learn the hard way. Young workers are digitally fluent, which makes this generation incredible for so many reasons. But growing up digitally, compounded by the pandemic, left gaps in opportunities to practice face-to-face interaction. Now they’re entering workplaces with other generations, and those generations set the rules. Meanwhile, AI is taking on tasks that used to help people develop. We learned shoulder to shoulder with someone. How are new hires supposed to learn if we’re outsourcing those opportunities? You’re being judged on things no one puts in the rubric There are areas you’re being judged on that no one actually puts inside the rubric, including communication and clarity, prioritization and judgment, your ability to follow through, professional presence and credibility, ownership and reliability, and organizational awareness. It’s not just about how you communicate. When you enter the workplace, do you know how to get stuff done? How aware are you of the organization you operate in? You need to understand when to use email, when to use Slack, and when to stop by someone’s office. You can’t walk in and assume you know the rules. In one new-hire program at a company with about 100,000 employees, a manager told me that someone had pinged the CEO on Slack to request a skip-level meeting. Mind you, that would’ve been probably 10 skip levels. Poor thing, he had no idea. No one had told him that wasn’t how you reached out to the CEO in that organization. I’ve also seen people show up to meetings unprepared, without what they needed or knowing how to follow up. Dressing appropriately is something I had to learn on my own. About six months into my job, I wore a full black business suit to a meeting in Miami. It absolutely did not match the environment. I was way too formal. Match the client’s environment and match how they dress. The other day, I saw someone meeting their manager in a suit jacket over a basketball jersey and shorts, but wearing loafers. Your job is to show your manager that they can trust you to be professionally present and to deliver. Managers have a responsibility here, too. When we say, “They’ve been here for two years, and they’re just not getting it,” we need to ask ourselves: What aren’t they getting? What am I judging them on that I haven’t clearly explained? Practice the human skills that will set you apart My company now offers a six-month program that combines online training with weekly role-playing of workplace scenarios. We practice things like how to react when you receive feedback. The goal is to give people experiences they might otherwise wait years to encounter. My advice to every fresh graduate and those entering the workforce is that, at a time when AI is making skill sets equalizers, you will need to define how you’ll be different. Technical skills are still incredibly important. But how do you communicate, exercise judgment, execute an idea, and get people’s buy-in? I’ve never made a hiring decision based on technical capability alone. It’s mostly about whether I can trust that person. Knowing the ins and outs of coding is one thing. Being able to speak to a boardroom and convince people of an idea is another ability you can bring to an employer. Those are the skills I believe will make all the difference. Read the original article on Business Insider

Native audio models process or generate acoustic representations directly, preserving timing, tone, speaker cues, and other information that a text transcript discards. This guide explains the mechanism, trade-offs, evaluation, and controls that matter in practice.

How participant-aware evaluation changed performance across three machine-learning models The post When EEG Models See the Same People in Training and Testing appeared first on Towards Data Science.

The author and her son moved into her husband's 2-bedroom townhome. Courtesy of Ashley Archambault When my husband and I got married, we had to decide where to live. My son and I ended up moving into his 2-bedroom home. There are a few pros, but we didn't consider how much we'd miss having a guest room. When my husband and I got married, we each had our own homes. I had a one-story, 3-bedroom home, while my husband had a 2-story, two-bedroom townhome. At first, we compared the pros and cons of each house. For instance, my house had a large yard, which can be a perk size-wise, but lawn maintenance was a chore. While my husband was willing to move, we ultimately chose his house, mainly because it was so close to his job. I knew from experience what a blessing an easy commute is, and I didn't want him to have to give it up, so we decided to consolidate. My son and I moved from our 3-bedroom home to my husband's 2-bedroom townhouse. I was giddy when we got married, and thinking more about moving in together and planning our wedding than the long-term realities of living in a smaller home. The lack of an extra bedroom was an issue we didn't foresee My son and I still occasionally miss our old home, but I don't regret selling my home and moving in with my husband. The worst part of downsizing has been no longer having a guest room. I mainly used the third room in my house as an office, but the bedrooms at my husband's house were large enough that there would be room for an office in ours. And my son would still have his own bedroom, so we didn't realize how much we'd miss the extra bedroom until it was too late. It's nearly impossible for us to have anyone spend the night or a weekend with us I'd mostly thought of the extra room as my office, and didn't consider that we also used it as a guest room. Now, without it, it's difficult to have anyone over for the night. We have a few options, but none of them are appealing to anyone, including our potential guests. When I had my own home, it was so easy to have friends visit for the weekend, because I could offer them a room. Having space for guests is a privilege I didn't realize I'd miss. I can still offer the chance to stay, but when someone takes us up on it, my husband and I feel kind of awful the whole time. We've had guests overnight and offered them the couch pullout or the air mattress. But despite our best efforts, everyone feels a little awkward because our guests have no privacy without an actual room of their own. Sometimes, we've thought of offering our bedrooms — or at least one of them — while my son would get displaced to the living room on an air mattress. He honestly loves doing that anyway, because he thinks it's like a sleepover, but the problem comes in the morning. Our downstairs space is pretty much just the living room and kitchen, so when someone comes downstairs in the morning, whoever's sleeping on the giant air mattress — whether our guests or my son — will inevitably be woken up. In our next home, having an extra bedroom will be a requirement My husband and I both miss having guests, as he could also have more guests over before my son and I moved in. We don't like that we don't feel we can offer loved ones a place to stay, or that when we do, the best we can offer them is an air mattress or my 12-year-old's bedroom. In addition to wanting to have more company over, my husband and I have aging parents. We don't want to find ourselves in a situation where one of them needs living assistance, and we don't have the space. There are a few things we want in a forever home, like a more spacious kitchen, of course, and a giant garden in the back, but having a guest room again is at the top of our list. Read the original article on Business Insider

Research suggests listening more while talking less. Killing aimless meetings can help, too.

The single-player is just OK, but according to the players, that doesn't matter.

Nilay Patel / The Verge: An interview with YouTuber Benn Jordan, who recently testified in Congress against license plate readers, on Flock, privacy, the surveillance backlash, and more  —  Today, I'm talking with Benn Jordan, musician, YouTuber, researcher, and investigative journalist.

The DNA inside our cells isn’t just a series of instructions, but something far more dynamic. Like scientists, AI models don't yet have the data to properly decode it.

History is littered with ideas that have been tossed aside, only for them to gain relevance at some later date. Think of Moby-Dick: forgotten in Melville's time, but now regarded as the great American novel. Or the work of economist Hyman Minsky, which became influential a decade after his death, when the 2008 financial crisis made “the Minsky Moment” a mainstream term. These are just a couple of the things we talk about with the legendary musician David Byrne on today's podcast. Byrne's new book, Sleeping Beauties: Why Good Ideas Go Dormant and How They Wake Up, looks to categorize numerous “sleeping beauties” — ideas that were lost but then rediscovered. Besides Melville and Minsky, we also talk about the lost Roman recipe for concrete and we get into Byrne's thoughts on how to write a song and his own experience of having his music rediscovered by a new generation. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times: A profile of Alexandr Wang, who sources say is “an operator”, had “all” of Zuckerberg's support during Meta's AI revamp, and is being touted as his successor  —  The 29-year-old in charge of the company's Superintelligence Labs is being touted as a potential successor to Mark Zuckerberg

FinTech Global: Reach Security, which develops AI-powered exposure management tools for securing enterprise systems, raised a $50M+ Series B led by Top Tier Capital Partners  —  Reach Security has secured more than $50m in a Series B round led by Top Tier Capital Partners, while unveiling Reach Everywhere …

Mike Butcher / Pathfounders: Duvo, which develops tech to automate business processes across enterprise systems, including ERPs and legacy apps, raised a $32M Series A led by Balderton  —  He didn't get very far.  He discovered that much of the company's operational knowledge just wasn't documented anywhere.

FinSMEs: Montevideo, Uruguay-based Scanntech, which develops market intelligence tools using POS data, raised $180M in a Series F led by L Catterton and Partners Group  —  Scanntech, a Montevideo, Uruguay-based provider of a retail intelligence, data analytics, and marketing services platform, raised $180M in Series F financing.

Cate Lawrence / Tech.eu: London-based Scarlet, which certifies AI and software for medical devices, raised a $50M Series B led by Headline to support its US and Asia-Pacific expansion  —  Led by Headline, the funding will support the London-based company's expansion into the US and Asia-Pacific as it tackles lengthy …