As we come to the end of a crazy 2020, many of us are suffering from COVID-19 exhaustion. But as two vaccines begin their rollouts, we’ve also begun to visualize what post-pandemic life might be like.

Most would agree that the new normal that begins to take shape in 2021 won’t be the old one. By forcing us from our routines, the pandemic has prompted us to reexamine the ways we live and work, and how we mix life and work together.

Image: Images: VectorFun/iStock; Lars Kienle/Unsplash; James McDonald/Unsplash

2020 was a year of extreme weather around the world. Hot and dry conditions drove record-setting wildfires through vast areas of Australia, California and Brazil and Siberia. A record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season landed a double blow of two hugely destructive storms in Central America. Long-running droughts have destroyed agricultural output and helped to push millions into hunger in Zimbabwe and Madagascar. A super-cyclone unleashed massive floods on India and Bangladesh.

Cities throughout time have faced challenges, vast changes, and civil strife, but our future—much like our past—will be urban. The nature of humanity and progress is that we need to be around one another to think collaboratively, create what is next, and collectively drive toward the future.

Quarks and gluons are the building blocks of protons and neutrons, which in turn are the building blocks of atomic nuclei. Scientists’ current understanding is that quarks and gluons are indivisible—they cannot be broken down into smaller components. They are the only fundamental particles to have something called color-charge.

2020 HAS BEEN like a giant magnifying glass for our country, our cities, and ourselves. The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to reevaluate our priorities and examine what it is about travel that makes us all love it so much — and miss it when that privilege is taken away from us. It’s not the perks of an airport lounge or the Instagram likes you get on a vacation selfie. It’s the people and the places where we can connect with each other — be it with our travel companions or complete strangers.

Christmas is a special time when we break the monotony, relax, spend time with our loved ones, and pamper ourselves a little. But, if we didn't have a routine to return to, we wouldn't enjoy the difference. So do not worry if it takes time to change the vacation chip .

Traveling during vacations causes such a great emotional stimulus, that it even plays a more important role in our state of happiness than other events in our lives, according to a study carried out, with users from all over the world, by Booking.com , a company that connects travelers with accommodations.

For the past half-century, California has dominated America’s tech industry. From the development of precision farming to the incubation of aircraft, space, semiconductors and computer systems, this state has emerged time and again at the cutting edge of future industries.

Before the ink was dry on November’s ballots, pundits were out in full force proclaiming that once again nothing would get done in Washington. Senate Republicans would block Biden and House Democratic initiatives with an eye to 2022, they said, and Democrats would propose things that would appeal to their liberal base but be dead on arrival in the Senate.

Indeed, it is likely that many Democrats and the Biden administration will make a social policy agenda their top priority—expanding health care, reforming policing, etc. At the same time, with President Trump out of office, some Republicans will look for a return to free-market, supply-side economics. This is a recipe for gridlock.

Far from the medical labs and test tubes, a fisherman in old rubber boots walks across the docks of West Ocean City to inspect his catch.

He peers in a crate of spiny tails and grasping claws, hundreds of a common yet precious creature, among the oldest species on Earth: horseshoe crabs.

Image: Horseshoe crabs, the plentiful, strange and ancient life form crawling beneath the Chesapeake waters, carry within them a highly-prized, copper-based, blue-colored blood that's used worldwide for testing vaccines and medical devices for toxins. (Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS)

We are pleased to share our latest report, Reflecting Community Priorities in Economic Development Practices.* This report builds on our past work addressing how incentives can be used to support equitable economic development and steps economic development organizations can take to better serve residents and communities, as well as businesses. 

Any business in any sector is ultimately vulnerable to disruption or obsoletion if it doesn’t plan and adapt for the future. Technological progress creates lots of opportunities but also leaves destruction in its wake. Much of that destruction exacts a human cost in the form of jobs that are lost as one company or industry supplants others. If you’re in an industry that is morphing, waning, or struggling to keep up with shifts in the economy, it’s understandable that you might be worried about your job.

Image: https://hbr.org - Illustration by The Project Twins

For the past several years, manufacturers around the world have begun devoting substantial resources to join the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Industry leaders are starting to see transformational impact not just in individual assets, production lines, or sites, but across the entire end-to-end value chain. They’re now looking to build on their leads.