Greece

While most people start running for the physical benefits of the sport, it can also be hugely beneficial for your mental health. A study on 14,000 people undertaken by Asics(opens in new tab) during the pandemic has found that 82% of UK runners say running helps to clear their mind, and 78% feel more sane and in control as a result of running.

Please see below selected Europe-related change from 2015 and earlier, For change from 2016 onwards, please see What's Changing? - Economics.

December 2015

• Finland's government is drawing up plans to give every one of its citizens a basic income of 800 euros a month and scrap benefits altogether. A poll commissioned by the agency planning the proposal, the Finnish Social Insurance Institute, showed 69% supported the basic income plan.

Aristotle coined the term "phronesis", meaning practical intelligence. It's the kind of wisdom that emerges from the long training of mind, body, character and engagement with a tradition.

This chimes perhaps with Malcolm Gladwell's assertion that acquiring true expertise in a discipline requires an average of 10,000 hours of practice.

Now, why can't adult footballers everywhere watch this and see how simply "the beautiful game" can be played?

Pace David Bowie, and in the light of the hagiography building in some quarters around the late Steve Jobs, one wonders who are the real enduring, beyond "just for one day" heroes, ancient and modern?

A good candidate from my childhood is Alexander the Great, from the moment I first shed a tear when reading in a Ladybird history book (a constant companion, and part of a set which I preserve with fondness and gratitude to this day) about Alexander dying (at just 33, thereby giving him a special bond with Jesus in my young mind) "far from his homeland".  As a long-standing, albeit non-heroic exile from my own homeland, this still resonates...

Halcyon Highlights is a bi-weekly round-up of some of the most compelling trends that we have spotted over the past fortnight.  + , - or = indicate whether we consider each trend/development to prove mainly positive, negative or neutral/too early to judge...