If you were a bit underwhelmed about the recent Pentagon report into UFOs, you are not alone. For all the hype surrounding this official US government investigation into unidentified flying objects (now rebranded as UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena) you might have hoped to read evidence of what the recently deceased Donald Rumsfeld might have referred to as “known unknowns”. But sadly, all but one of the 144 instances of UAP sightings must remain in the “unknown unknowns” column for the time being.

In a finding that does at least balance the bitterness of this disappointment with a shade of levity, the one UAP which could be identified and moved into the known knowns column turns out to have been a “large deflating balloon”. The UFO craze that has obsessed Washington in recent years had more to do with wishful thinking.

In other news of fairy tales, we read of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s reinvention of Cinderella, billed as a refreshingly “feminist” take on the old story. But, as film expert Alexander Sergeant points out, the story well predates the Brothers Grimm and other male interpreters. In fact there is evidence that it originated as a women’s fable in ninth-century China, making its way to Europe via the Silk Road.

Another popular tale – this one more modern, dating from 1930s Russia – is the story of the Soviet-era miner Alexei Stakhanov. Stakhanov famously extracted such a huge amount of coal in one night shift that he became the model for the ultimate worker. His story has given us the word “Stakhanovite”, which is used to praise someone with an enormous capacity for work. Unsurprisingly, many bosses have picked up on his example as a way of flogging more work out of the rest of us.

This week we also considered an eco-friendly solution for the all-too common modern “blandscapes” that blight our built environment. We also welcomed the EU’s decision to protect “Rooibos” tea and heard from one Rodin scholar who has learned to loathe The Thinker.

From our colleagues around the world we had expert analysis of the jailing of Jacob Zuma in South Africa, the row over the Olympic selection of transgender athlete Lauren Hubbard and, from the US, a discussion of critical race theory.

Try to make time to listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast, a discussion of the aforementioned UAP report. And, if you like what you hear, listen to narrated versions of some of our most popular articles in partnership with News Over Audio. And to keep up with all the latest from the world of vaccines, make sure you read our weekly vaccine round-up.

Jonathan Este

Associate Editor, International Affairs Editor

Unidentified aerial phenomena remain a mystery. US Department of Defense/US Navy

The truth is still out there: why the current UFO craze may be a problem of intelligence failings

Kyle Cunliffe, University of Salford

The recent Pentagon report has more questions than answers when it comes to UFOs. Here's why that's not surprising.

An engraving by Gustave Doré of the famous ball scene in Charles Perrault’s Cinderella. Prisma Archivo/Alamy

How Cinderella lost its original feminist edge in the hands of men

Alexander Sergeant, University of Portsmouth

Cinderella has been taken further and further away from its origins that we forget it was originally a radical story about female desire, servitude and violence.

Coal miner Alexei Stakhanov in 1935. ITAR-TASS News Agency / Alamy Stock Photo

How a Soviet miner from the 1930s helped create today’s intense corporate workplace culture

Bogdan Costea, Lancaster University; Peter Watt, Lancaster University

A record-breaking Soviet miner from 1935 embodied a system of values that is central to contemporary work cultures today.

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