How IKEA Became Sweden’s National Brand
In 1950, Ingvar Kamprad began selling furniture. Seeing the logistical difficulty of shipping large items far away, Ingvar decided to flat-pack the furniture, which also reduced the chance of damage during transport. The company created a catalog that customers could browse through and order with from afar.
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.
The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire
Michael Oswald’s film The Spider’s Web reveals how at the demise of empire, City of London financial interests created a web of secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and hid it in a web of offshore islands. Today, up to half of global offshore wealth is hidden in British jurisdictions.
The German Island With A Population Of 16
The 16 residents who live on the tiny German island of Oland must cope with extreme flooding on a regular basis. But they have no intention of leaving.
Horror Stories From Inside Amazon’s Mechanical Turk
The workers of Mechanical Turk, Amazon’s on-demand micro-task platform, say they have encountered mutilated bodies, graphic videos of botched surgeries, and what appeared to be child pornography. They say they have been asked to transcribe Social Security numbers and other personal data.
Lifetime Free 1st Class Air Travel Pass: A Disaster
In 1982, American Airlines had an idea to offer a lifetime free first-class air travel pass to its wealthiest customers. The person holding this pass could fly on American Airlines at any time it wanted, to any destination it wanted, for as many times it wanted, for the rest of its life after paying a one-time fixed membership fee.
The Productivity Paradox
Higher productivity means the expectation of rising wages and abundant job opportunities. In a time of Facebook, smartphones, self-driving cars, and computers that can beat a person at just about any board game, how can the key economic measure of technological progress be so pathetic?
The Day The Pirates Came
For Sudeep Choudhury, work on merchant ships promised adventure and a better life. But a voyage on an oil tanker in West Africa, in dangerous seas far from home, would turn the young graduate’s life upside down. His fate would come to depend on a band of drug-fuelled jungle pirates – and the whims of a mysterious figure called The King.
Counterfeiting Microsoft Windows Restore CDs Landed Me In Prison For A Year
In 2012, while living in China, longtime e-waste recycler Eric Lundgren manufactured 28,000 PC restore discs to be used in refurbished computers sold in the United States.
The Madness Of Airline Élite Status
When you fly a lot for work, as I do, you check your frequent-flier mile balance often, to provide data for competitive commiseration. Frequent fliers sometimes go to great lengths to keep their airline élite status, and those efforts are often completely out of proportion to the perks.
The Ancient Tombs Kept Under Lock And Key
A sense of mystery surrounds the keyhole-shaped kofun tombs in Japan. Although the iconic Mozu Tombs in Sakai city, Osaka have recently been awarded UNESCO World Heritage status, surprisingly little is actually known about these intriguing monuments, kept under lock and key by the Japanese government.
Former FBI Agent Explains How To Read Body Language
Former FBI agent and body language expert Joe Navarro breaks down the various ways we communicate non-verbally. What does it mean when we fold our arms? Why do we interlace our fingers? Can a poker player actually hide their body language?
The Unhackable Email Service
Ladar Levison built an encrypted email service called Lavabit that counted a prominent figure among its users: Edward Snowden. When the FBI demanded Levison decrypt Snowden’s communications, he had two options, either hand over the encryption key or destroy his servers. He chose the latter.
Songdo, The World’s Most Futuristic City
The world’s most futuristic city is Songdo, South Korea. Within the larger city of Incheon, Songdo is a $40 billion project that embraces the 21st century design concepts of Aerotropolis and Ubiquitous city.
“The Fence”, Award-Winning Short Film About Britain In The 80s
Set on the rough and ready streets of 1980’s Bristol, United Kingdom. This short film follows a council estate boy and his scoundrel friends as they rip through the estates. Motorcycles, cars and punch ups to be expected!
How Cities Became Childless
American cities are getting more expensive, and families are being pushed out. Welcome to the future of urban living, where young people have to make a choice: money or babies?
How Do Airlines Price Tickets?
To the average buyer, airline ticket prices appear to fluctuate without reason. But behind the process is actually the science of dynamic pricing, which has less to do with cost and more to do with artificial intelligence.
Alcohol vs Drugs: Which Is More Dangerous?
The social drug of choice in Western culture is alcohol. Yet drinking is estimated to kill 100,000 a year in the UK alone. Should we wean ourselves off alcohol or even ban it, and instead promote other less harmful but currently illegal alternatives?
Why Every Japanese Criminal Is Guilty
Every system of justice is inevitably found to be unjust. The question is in which direction, and how far. This is a fairly basic outline of Japan’s idiosyncratic nature.
2,000 Drones Replace Fireworks On New Year’s Eve In Shanghai
Nearly 2,000 drones took to the night sky and illuminated the Huangpu River in Shanghai to welcome in the new year. At around midnight, the drones gathered to form a running man. It moved forward, showing the changes and achievements Shanghai has made in the past 40 years.
Reversing Ageing: New Studies Show It Can Be Done
The Horvath clock is extremely accurate at predicting how old you are and can even predict when you’ll die. The clock itself is part of the aging mechanism, hence physically being able to dial back the hands of the clock could mean becoming physically younger.