We know how much you love our monthly wallpapers, and we’re so happy to offer them for free until the end of each month. If you happen to miss downloading them during that time, no worries! You can still get them for a small fee of $5 per pack. And if you’ve missed a few packs in 2023, we’ve got you covered with a second edition of our Huge Wallpaper Bundle (the first edition can be found here!) – now available at a discounted price! This bundle includes all of our previous wallpapers, so you can beautify your desktop or phone screen with all of them at an affordable price.
Get all 2023 files for as low as $19 with the button below, instead of paying $60 for them separately. This limited-time offer ends on February 28.
If you’re only interested in the social media quotes, you can purchase them separately (they’re also included in the main bundle!)
You can still browse all past (and current!) wallpapers and purchase them separately in thewallpaper library. You will find more details about each 2023 wallpaper and browse older designs.
What’s included in the Huge Wallpaper Bundle?
This bundle includes all 12 wallpaper packages from 2023. Starting from January 2023 and ending in December 2023.
Each design comes in seven different formats – three computer wallpapers, two phone wallpapers, one tablet wallpaper, and a social media-ready square with a monthly quote.
I wasn’t sure if wallpapers with calendars should be included, as those were made for 2023. However, all calendars became actual every few years. Those from 2023 can be used again in 2034 and later in 2045
It gives a total of 84 files! They cost $60 if purchased separately, but in this bundle, you can get them for as low as $19 (limited time only!)!
It also includes 12 social media-ready (perfect for Instagram!) square images with inspirational quotes. Feel free to purchase them separately if it is the only item you want.
This offer is available only until the end of February. After that, you will still be able to get the bundle but for a standard $60 price.
The image above was published on The New York Times homepage on Jan. 16.
What does it show? Why is it important? What are the implications of this information for the coming weeks and months? What is your opinion of this news?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Are you a fan of comic books and superhero movies? Have you seen every film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Do you eagerly mark your calendar when the latest release date is announced? Or are you growing a little tired of the genre?
At the center of 2023’s “The Marvels” is Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, who, if you’ll recall from the 2019 film “Captain Marvel,” destroyed the all-powerful A.I. leading the Kree empire. Joining Carol Danvers is Monica Rambeau, a.k.a. Photon a.k.a. Pulsar a.k.a. Spectrum, who was first introduced in “Captain Marvel,” then later featured in the Disney+ series “WandaVision,” where she was granted superpowers after an encounter with reality-altering witches. And joining these two Marvels is the teenage New Jersey native Kamala Khan, a.k.a. the titular character of the Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel.”
That’s a lot to take in, which is why the first few minutes of “The Marvels” is just a series of flashbacks designed to catch the audience up before the action even begins. Even for dedicated fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the amount of prerequisite knowledge required to watch any M.C.U. movie or show nowadays is tantamount to a college course.
And it seems like audiences are tiring of the constant homework assignments. A year of diminishing box office returns is more proof that the casual superhero moviegoer is becoming more and more of a rarity given how much is being asked of them, which is full, multiplatform investment.
These franchises are spelling their own downfalls, as the price of entry into the fandoms has become frustratingly high for the dedicated disciples of these worlds, and not at all worth it for casual viewers or prospective new fans. This year has been a prime example of what happens when a pop-culture movement takes hold of an industry and then overreaches. We’re witnessing Ragnarok.
Ms. Phillips continues:
The franchises continue to risk fatiguing their current fans and alienating potential ones. More stand-alone films, more inventiveness, more diversions from the grand plots and cookie-cutter setups would give these stories and their fans room to explore, but instead we’re stuck in a cycle of ever-expanding multiverses, narratives and timelines that even the best S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would find impossible to keep straight.
She concludes:
Superhero movies changed the industry. No matter what you think about them as art, the upswing of these comic book stories from the margins to the drivers of popular culture was swift and remarkable. But now these Clark Kents and Bruce Waynes and Rocket Raccoons and various Marvels risk orchestrating the end of this Age of Heroes.
But like in every superhero movie, there’s hope yet: Stories that end. Characters who die. Universes where the stakes are real and cameos and meta-commentaries aren’t just crutches to bait audiences. Stories that don’t cling to a crumbling concept but perhaps start fresh in another corner of the universe.
Superhero movies used to be super. The heroes are still as strong as before. They just need the movies to match.
Would you say you are just as big a fan now as ever? Or are you growing tired of these mega-budget action films? Are the newest movie releases feeling stale, as if they were made on an assembly line? Or are they just plain confusing? Do you agree with Ms. Phillips that we might be approaching the end of the age of superhero movies? Why or why not?
Ms. Phillips writes, “This year has been a prime example of what happens when a pop-culture movement takes hold of an industry and then overreaches.” Do you agree? What did you think of the latest batch of superhero offerings like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “The Flash,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” or “The Marvels”? Are they as good as previous franchise efforts?
What do you think of Ms. Phillips’s recommendation for “more stand-alone films, more inventiveness, more diversions from the grand plots and cookie-cutter setups”? Do you think those changes would help break the cycle of exhaustion — for both filmmakers and audiences?
If you were asked by Marvel or another movie company to help revitalize the superhero film genre, what ideas would you pitch?
More so than any other novel Smith has written, this is a book about novelists, and it is in lambasting the egos of male writers that Smith has the most fun. “God preserve me from that tragic indulgence, that useless vanity, that blindness!” Touchet thinks, years before she takes the plunge into novel-writing herself. While discussing Dickens with Ainsworth, she exclaims: “Oh, what does it matter what that man thinks of anything? He’s a novelist!” One of her cousin’s orotund historical fictions about the court of Queen Anne is described as being “almost as dull as the reign of Queen Anne itself.”
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word orotund in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
If you want a better idea of how orotund can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
Chances are, you’ve come across a job posting (or two) that requires a bachelor’s degree, even if the responsibilities don’t align with that kind of education. That’s because employers typically set the standards around credentials. “Jobs do not require four-year degrees,” Harvard Business School summarized in a recent report. “Employers do.”
Part of that preference has to do with the fact that companies with an educated workforce tend to have higher rates of productivity, per the Economic Policy Institute. But when the average job posting receives around 118 applicants, a degree can also be a way to narrow the applicant pool. It becomes a kind of shorthand. Manjari Raman, program director of Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work, told BBC that “many companies [have taken] the easy route of using the four-year college degree as a proxy” for a particular ability or skill set.
However, we’ve started to see things change. Chalk it up to the growth of data-driven business models or the exciting opportunities bound up in AI, but what companies need from their workforce has been shifting—and often, they can’t find the skilled employees they most need. In fact, the World Economic Forum estimated that reskilling and upskilling will be crucial to ensure workers have key skills. And we’re not just talking about technical skills. Workplace skills, like analytical thinking, remain incredibly important.
To address that problem, more employers have chosen to drop bachelor’s degree requirements, according to The Burning Glass Institute, which gets us to a very important question.
When you’re looking to either begin a career or pivot to a new one, what is your best option: a Professional Certificate or a degree?
Let’s be clear about one thing: You can’t go wrong either way. Ultimately, the answer depends on your short-term and long-term career goals.
Understanding what you want now and what you’ll want later is key. There’s education to meet you where you are. You can find short-term programs, like Professional Certificates, to help you acquire skills quickly. But if you eventually want to advance in your career, what will you need in order to do that? Zooming out and looking a few years ahead can be a great thought experiment to help you make your choice.
Here’s where some light research can be really helpful. Once you have some idea about your immediate and eventual career goals, take time to review job postings for job titles associated with each level: entry-level, associate, mid, and senior. What are the education and credential requirements? If you can, dig a bit deeper: Try to find people who are farther along in the same career and look at their education path through their LinkedIn profile. If possible, seek out informational interviews. Typically, these help you understand a particular role, but you can also ask about the person’s educational path to understand if it might make sense for you.
Professional Certificates vs. degrees
When you have a better idea about the overall credentials you’ll need, reflect on what you need right away and what you may need eventually. Compared with degrees, Professional Certificates don’t take as long to complete, often cost much less, and emphasize technical skills development above all else. In fact, they’re pretty much designed to help you pursue specific roles in months rather than years.
When you’re just getting started in the workforce, a Professional Certificate can be a great way to develop key skills to do the job you’re most interested in pursuing. Or when you’ve already earned your bachelor’s degree and come to realize that your heart lies in a different kind of work, a Professional Certificate can be a great opportunity to reskill in a timelier fashion than pursuing a master’s degree.
Both bachelor’s and master’s degrees take more time to earn compared to Professional Certificates, and they’re also significantly more expensive. Yet, degrees can be worth it. They deepen your subject knowledge, add to your skill set, and are often designed to develop well-rounded graduates who are able to think critically and creatively about the world around them—abilities that rank among the most important for workers to have, according to the World Economic Forum.
There’s also a wealth of evidence out there that any kind of degree raises salary levels and lowers unemployment risk compared to high school diplomas. What’s more, even though entry-level roles may be dropping bachelor’s degree requirements, you may eventually need a degree to advance in your career.
Now that we’ve covered some of the fundamental differences between Professional Certificates and degrees, where’s the best starting point for you?
The answer may lie in beginning with a short-term program, like a Professional Certificate, to build the skills you need now, before eventually returning to pursue a longer-term program, like a degree, when you have the time and want to keep advancing your education. On Coursera, you’ll find both options.
“Professional Certificates are perfect for breaking into a new field. You quickly learn job-relevant skills from the best in the industry and earn a meaningful credential that helps one in four completers get a new job,” says Marni Baker Stein, Chief Content Officer at Coursera. “While Professional Certificates are great to get your foot in the door, a degree is what often unlocks opportunities for advancement. Before you take the leap and apply: see if you can get college credit for that prior learning, and take an open degree course so that you can see exactly what the experience is like.”
There are also a growing number of performance-based online master’s degrees on Coursera, which offer admission based on your ability to pass three pathway courses in a relevant subject. These can be a great option if you have significant experience or training in a tech-heavy field. “Getting admitted to the program in that way, it’s really innovative,” said Atahan Ünal, a student at University of Colorado Boulder.
Deciding what kind of education you should pursue is a matter of weighing your short-term goals versus your long-term goals. We’re at a point in time when education is rising to meet you where you are, rather than asking you to fit a predetermined mold. No matter which direction you ultimately go in, education of any sort holds weight. So where will you go next?
More resources
Start making your career moves with a Professional Certificate. Learn from industry leaders like Google, Microsoft, and IBM to prepare for your career in data analysis, cybersecurity, web development, marketing, and more.
Learn more about affordable degrees on Coursera. Learn from world-class faculty and earn a degree for less than $20,000 USD—all completely online, no application required.
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
The Reveal
We’ll post more information here on the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 25. Stay tuned!
Students 13 and older in the United States and the Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
There’s a particular moment during the workday that people working from home dread: when the sun begins to set in the late afternoon, and only the glow of the computer monitor lights the room. The solution, of course, is to flip on the overhead light, but that doesn’t necessarily make the feelings of malaise dissipate.
Working or learning from home in the depths of winter can be downright dreary. From premature darkness to drops in temperature, there are plenty of ways the season brings you down. But there are even more ways to mitigate the effects of the winter doldrums.
Whether you’re a full-time dev or a code enthusiast, you’re going to be spending a lot of time at your computer. It’s worth it to make your workspace more than just functional, but comfortable and welcoming, too. With a few thoughtful swaps, your home office setup can become a space of warmth and creativity. Ahead, find six tips for making your desk a bit more cozy this year.
Consider rearranging the room
When it comes to sprucing up your home office, there’s a lot of conventional wisdom to go around, like investing in a comfortable chair and making sure your monitor and keyboard are at the correct ergonomic heights. But a winter redo requires special attention to light. Before you get a crash course in artificial light, try your best to maximize daylight.
“If you can, place your desk near a window,” says Tara Bellucci, an interior design editor who’s worked from home for over a decade. “Any sunlight you can get helps a ton.”
This might mean rearranging the layout of your home office, or simply moving your desk closer to a source of natural light. According to research from the National Institutes of Health, a lack of sunlight can impair cognitive function and have a negative impact on mood. An important first step toward remedying a gloomy desk setup is ensuring there’s some sunlight streaming in.
Get strategic with lighting
Aside from incorporating sunlight into your office, strategically installing artificial light can boost your mood. You don’t have to go full Twitch streamer and spend hundreds of dollars on hexagonal LED panels to make a difference — even swapping lightbulbs can do the trick.
“Incorporate bright bulbs, preferably LED bulbs with a color temperature of 5000K,” says Dara Greaney, the founder and CEO of LEDLightExpert.com. “This provides a clear and vibrant illumination but also mirrors the effects of natural daylight.”
Artificial light that mimics daylight, or blue light, is effective at combating depression symptoms, according to Ambience Design Group. You can take things a step beyond the average lightbulb, too.
“The biggest difference I’ve made to my WFH desk setup is installing the BenQ light bar at the top of my monitor,” explains Vivianne Chow, interior decorator and founder of the home decor blog VivandTimHome.com. “You’re able to control the color temperature and brightness of the light and I always keep my BenQ light at a warm color temperature setting. This helps create a cozy and warm atmosphere during the wintertime while creating functional task lighting for your desk.”
More traditional task lighting can also up the coziness factor. A small lamp with a funky shade or an old-fashioned desk lamp could foster the warm, vintage vibes you’re after. (My cozy desk lamp of choice is a banker’s lamp with a green shade.)
Invest in a SAD lamp
SAD, or seasonal affective disorder, is a type of depression that develops during the change in seasons, typically during winter months. According to the American Psychiatric Association, this diagnosis goes beyond a case of the winter blues, as symptoms can interfere with daily functioning. While antidepressants and talk therapy are proven to help, light therapy can also be an effective treatment for some. If you’re concerned you’re suffering from SAD, you should talk to your doctor. They might recommend investing in a SAD lamp, a light box that emits a very bright light to replicate sunlight.
I recently put a Verilux HappyLight at one corner of my desk. I turn it on first thing in the morning to signal to my brain that it is, indeed, the start of the day. The idea is that the bright light snaps my circadian rhythms into sync, boosts my mood, and increases my energy. I’m actually typing these words beside the bright glow of my light box, and it feels energizing.
Put something that brings joy directly in front of you
Minimal desk setups are undoubtedly sleek, but on a dark winter’s day, they may not bring you the good cheer you need. Consider shaking up the streamlined look with accessories that bring you joy.
“At my previous apartment, my desk was tucked into an exposed brick nook, so I decorated the wall with photos of friends and family clipped to string lights,” Bellccui says. Maybe you add a rubber duck, a badge from a hackathon, a custom keycap on your mechanical keyboard, or the first Codecademy certificate you earned as a visible reminder of your progress.
For my own desk—a Danish mid-century modern piece—I purchased a clear plastic mat to protect the wood from scratches and stains. Then, to liven things up, I placed photos and mementos under the mat which I can see while I’m working. Photos of my grandparents, postcards, coasters, and a bingo card imbue personality (and joy!) into my WFH setup. The scrapbook-style display is anything but minimalist, and it’s made winter a smidge more bearable so far.
Step out of your comfort zone with color and decor
Adding pops of color is a no-brainer when it comes to creating cheerful designs. But you’ll need to take things a step further if you really want to make a difference in your office. Try incorporating more color than you’re used to, through things like brightly hued desk accessories and patterned file folders, Bellccui says.
Texture in decor is important, too, as it can soften the hard wood, plastic, and metal surfaces you might have in your office.
“Textural elements are calming, but they also have a functional element to them as well,” says Krista Hermanson, founder of Krista Hermanson Design in Calgary. “Cushions, rugs, curtains, and soft blankets can soften the room’s acoustics. Acoustic privacy is essential if you are not alone in the house during your workday.”
For added coziness, try recreating hallmarks of cozy winter scenes—like a crackling fire. Carving a fireplace into the room probably isn’t possible, but specific candles can foster the same vibe. “Select a candle with a wood wick to add to the ambiance,” says Hermanson. “The wick crackling will transport your mind to relaxing beside a roaring fire.”
Add an unexpected element to your setup
At a certain point, while scrolling through pages of desk accessories and furniture online, they all start to look the same. If you’re in the market for a unique piece that’ll make your WFH setup feel different from the rest, try thinking outside the box. Bellucci, the interior design editor, decided to use a bright-orange dining table as her desk, rather than a more standard model. It’s exactly the kind of swap that will keep you from falling into a dull winter routine.
Similarly, a warm wooden bureau could add storage to your space, while a stained glass floor lamp could cast fun, colorful beams of light around the room. Whatever you choose, aim for warmth and light, the experts say.
Want to show off your own cozy desk setup? Share your space on Instagram and be sure to tag Codecademy.
Do you like to travel? Where have you been that you’ve loved? Where have you always wanted to go?
Each year, the Times Travel section publishes a list of “52 Places to Go.” Here are a few of the destinations the editors suggest visiting in 2024:
The Path of Totality, North America
From the beaches of Mazatlán, Mexico, to the rugged coves of Maberly, Newfoundland, the sky will be the stage on April 8 as a total solar eclipse sweeps across North America. This year, the moon will be near its closest point to Earth, resulting in an unusually wide swath and long-lasting totality.
Paris, France
Already one of the most visited cities in the world, Paris is preparing to welcome millions of travelers this summer as host of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It will be the biggest sporting event in the city’s history, and to mark the occasion many well-known monuments are being transformed into sports and entertainment venues.
Yamaguchi, Japan
Yamaguchi is often called the Kyoto of the West, though it’s much more interesting than that — and it suffers from considerably less “tourism pollution.” A compact city of about 190,000, it lies in a narrow valley between the Inland and Japan seas.
With its impeccable gardens and its stunning five-story pagoda, Rurikoji Temple is a national treasure. The city’s small winding lanes offer an assortment of experiences: pottery kilns like Mizunoue, situated on the grounds of Toshunji Temple; chic coffee shops like Log and Coffeeboy, and older-style options like Haraguchi; and wonderful counter-only shops that serve oden, or one-pot dishes. Just a 15-minute walk south is the hot-springs village of Yuda Onsen.
Dominica, The Caribbean
A patchwork of volcanoes, rainforests, waterfalls and hot springs has earned Dominica, a 290-square-mile independent nation in the West Indies, the nickname the Nature Island. Later this year, visitors will be able to get a bird’s-eye view of the wild landscape thanks to a $54 million, 4.1-mile cable car line that will whisk passengers from the lush Roseau Valley up to Boiling Lake, a roughly 200-foot-wide fumarole flooded with nearly 200-degree water, which currently requires a demanding hike to reach.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration or, describe a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
