How Chicken Became The Rich World’s Most Popular Meat
Humans gobble so many chickens that the birds now count for 23bn of the 30bn land animals living on farms. Chicken is cheap and delicious. Fans of cheap chicken have selective breeding to thank. Farmers have also benefited from the healthy reputation of chicken.
How To Trick People Into Saving Money
Walmart has an incentive to become the place people think about when they think of their financial future. Inside Walmart’s curious, possibly ingenious effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts.
The $15BN Island That Will Make Or Break Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has reclaimed two square kilometers of land from the Indian Ocean to double the size of its capital and retain talent, but will the investment pay off?
Why Planet Hollywood Went Bankrupt
In the mid 1990’s, two entertainment moguls along with plenty of huge celebrities like Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger came together to create a restaurant business unlike any other. But as quick as this idea grew, the sooner everything came crashing down. This is the story of Planet Hollywood.
The Dictatorship Of Data
Big data is poised to transform society. Yet big data also exacerbates a very old problem: relying on the numbers when they are far more fallible than we think. Nothing underscores the consequences of data analysis gone awry more than the story of Robert McNamara.
How An Obsession With Home Ownership Can Ruin The Economy
Many dream of owning their own home, and thanks to huge financial incentives in the rich world many have been able to so. But government policies to encourage home ownership were a huge mistake.
The Unhealthy Truth Behind ‘Wellness’ And ‘Clean Eating’
I thought about food all day; I woke up at night thinking about sausage rolls, pizza, roast chicken with crisp, lemon-rubbed skin. Food friends and foes drew into two distinct camps in my mind, and I saw ill-health at every turn and in every mouthful. I became fearful and thin. I had found wellness. I was not well.
Big Tech Takes Aim At The Low-Profit Retail-Banking Industry
After years of timidity Big Tech, with its billions of users and gigantic war chest, at last appears serious about crashing the fintech party. Amazon and Apple introduced a credit card. Facebook announced a new payments system and Google said it would start offering current (checking) accounts in America.
The Everything Town In The Middle Of Nowhere
On any given day, thousands of packages from Walmarts, Targets, and stores around the country travel north along a two-lane road out of Billings, Montana — past the Tumbleweed Saloon, past cows grazing on empty rangeland, past the Busy Bee Cafe and stands of short pines — to the town of Roundup, where they will be unboxed, re-boxed, and sent off to Amazon.
First Came Better Beer. Now Craft Breweries Want To Be Better For The Planet
In the age of climate crisis, water’s role in craft beer is under increased scrutiny. Small breweries might make better beer, but large breweries are traditionally far more efficient with water usage — and are only getting better at pointing this out to sustainability-minded consumers.
It’s No Crime To Drink Wine By Yourself
From the moment we start to learn about wine, we are taught that drinking responsibly is a social activity. Wine is for sharing, for drinking with friends or family over a meal. But self-imposed isolation does not require you to forgo good food or good wine, despite the social stigma.
Confused About What To Eat? Science Can Help
Potent societal powers create a culture of nutrition confusion that not only obfuscate the truth about diet, they undermine science as a whole. Begin by asking critical questions when digesting diet news. Does the writer have an advanced degree in nutrition, or does she or he have expertise in science journalism?
On The Hunt For The World’s Rarest Pasta
Delicate and impossible to replicate, su filindeu (or the “threads of God”) is a pasta made of hundreds of tiny strands by a single woman in a hillside town in Sardinia. She’ll make it for you too—if you’re willing to walk 20 miles overnight.
Why Do We Work So Hard?
Work, in this context, means active, billable labour. But in reality, it rarely stops. It follows us home on our smartphones, tugging at us during an evening out or in the middle of our children’s bedtime routines. It becomes our lives if we are not careful. It becomes us.
Everything You Don’t Know About Chocolate
The beloved bar has come a long way in quality and complexity. Here’s a primer on how it’s made, and how to choose the best and most ethically produced.
How Migration Could Make The World Richer
Many of the recent political shifts in the West—the election of Donald Trump, the rise of populism in Europe and Brexit—can be partially attributed to the fear of mass migration. Yet increasing migration is one of the quickest ways to make the world richer.
Sweden’s Cashless Society Dream Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be
Just one per cent of Sweden’s GDP circulates as cash. As debates over the need for cash rage along lines of age, wealth and location, the country is looking to create a digital currency.
How IKEA Helped Swedish Meatballs Go Global
Swedish meatballs are no longer just a domestic dish. They have gone global, thanks to the efforts not of Sweden’s mothers but of one giant furniture company: IKEA. The firm wanted to make something that was easy to serve, tasty and affordable for most people.
Meet The Bag Man: 10 Rules For Paying College Football Players
How to buy college football players, in the words of men who deliver the money. These men are fans who believe they’re leveraging football success $500 or $50,000 at a time.
Use A ‘Fake’ Location To Get Cheaper Plane Tickets
I can’t explain airline pricing but I do know some plane tickets can be cheaper depending on where you buy them or, even better, where you appear to buy them from. This is all about leveraging foreign currencies and points-of-sale to your advantage.
Substituting Beans for Beef Would Help The U.S. Meet Climate Goals
Even if nothing about our energy infrastructure or transportation system changed—and even if people kept eating chicken and pork and eggs and cheese—this one dietary change could achieve somewhere between 46 and 74 percent of the reductions needed to meet the target.