Repopulating A Japanese town
As the Japanese populace shrinks and ages, and young people leave the suburbs and rural areas for cities, more and more communities are becoming ghost towns. The municipality of Okutama, on the outskirts of Tokyo, has come up with a novel solution: Give away houses to young families for free.
Lisbon’s Outdoor Art Gallery – In Pictures
Street art has transformed Quinta do Mocho, an area once plagued by crime and unemployment. In 2014, local officials decided to improve the district’s image, and invited Portuguese and foreign artists to paint murals for what they now call ‘the biggest open-air art gallery in Europe’.
Why Thinking Of Cities As Nature Is Key To Fighting Climate Change
Cities are responsible for over 75% of greenhouse gas emissions and should be seen as living, dynamic systems that evolve with people alongside nature if we are to better design solutions to tackle the climate crisis, says one expert.
Why China’s First Military Base Abroad Is In Africa
For many countries, the Republic of Djibouti has become the central anchor point in the region. It hosts military bases from France, the United States, Japan, Italy and, since 2017, China. The fact that so many countries want to be present here has to do with the location, which is important for a lot of reasons.
What Will An Ice-Free Arctic Look Like?
Several years in the past decade have reached new lows for summer sea ice extent, raising questions about what will happen in this new Arctic as the ice declines and retreats. How will the ecosystem respond? Can treaties keep fishing in the central Arctic in check?
How Leonardo Da Vinci Made A “Satellite” Map In 1502
When infamous Italian politician Cesare Borgia brought Leonardo da Vinci — the guy who drew this portrait — to the city of Imola, it was as a military engineer. When Leonardo was installed at Borgia’s newly acquired fort, one of his duties was to help Borgia learn the territory.
The Strange Persistence Of First Languages
Czech was the only language I knew until the age of 2, when my family began a migration westward, from what was then Czechoslovakia through Austria, then Italy, settling eventually in Montreal, Canada. Along the way, a clutter of languages introduced themselves into my life.
Inside A Secretive $250 Million Private Transit System Just For Techies
Today, there are an estimated 1,020 private commuter shuttle buses in the Bay Area, according to unpublished data from the San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). Add that up and you have a private transportation system worth more than $250 million.
Road To The Future
While road types can vary greatly depending on their use, location and construction method, the majority are formed from crushed rock, sand and asphalt in a process that releases volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere. In order to curb the environmental impact of road construction, a number of new innovations are now being trialed.
“Glacier Exit”, A Portrait Of Rapid Environmental Change
Filmmaker Raphael Rogers stood on the ice dunes of the glaciers of Alaska in the midst of a snowy winter. The silence and majesty of the mountains surrounding us, the bluest ice we had ever seen and the steady rush of ice turned to water.
Detroit’s Salt Mine: A City Beneath The City
This gigantic mine, 1,160 feet beneath the surface, spreads out under Detroit over more than 1,400 acres with 50 miles of roads. A huge sea covering the region evaporated more than 400 million years ago, forming salt deposits that were gradually buried by glacial activity.
Short Film: “Dirty Machines: The End Of History”
“Dirty Machines: The End of History” a highly polished sci-fi teaser for a longer-form series that envisions a future where time travel has become a form of tourism. It’s stylish, but beyond the undeniable aesthetic panache, Matthew Olson’s film feels completely transformative as a world-building exercise.
Silicon Valley’s Online Slave Market
At the center of this powerful investigative film is Fatou, a 16 year old in Kuwait City who has been there for nine months. We follow her rescue and journey back home to Guinea, West Africa and ask: what’s being done to control the apps promoted on Google, Apple and Facebook-owned Instagram?
“Ten Meter Tower”, Award-Winning Doc About Fear
To jump or not to jump? The premise at the heart of Axel Danielson and Maximilien van Aertryck’s “Ten Meter Tower” might seem simple, but the award-winning documentary is a deceivingly smart portrait of human behavior in the face of fear.
How Air Pollution Is Doing More Than Killing Us
Emerging studies show that air pollution is linked to impaired judgement, mental health problems, poorer performance in school and most worryingly perhaps, higher levels of crime. These findings are all the more alarming, given that more than half of the world’s population now live in urban environments.
The Diamond Cartel: History’s Greatest Monopoly
A cartel is a group of companies coming together to fix the price of a product. Like how major oil countries come together as the cartel OPEC, to fix the price of crude oil, except with a diamond. Once these locals catch on to how profitable the diamond trade is, they’ll started trading diamonds and smuggling it.
How Helsinki And Oslo Cut Pedestrian Deaths To Zero
They cut speed limits, changed street design, removed space for cars and generally made life harder for motorists. Now it appears the work is paying off. Oslo and Helsinki are reaping the rewards of committed action on making their roads safer, reducing pedestrian fatalities to zero last year.
When Digital Nomads Come To Town
Cities from Canggu to Medellín are welcoming tech workers, but locals complain they’re being priced out. Nomads cluster in safe and prosperous neighborhoods. The income differential between the nomads and the local professional class is immense. The result is runaway price inflation.
Cash For Kim: North Korean Forced Laborers In Poland
On its website, the CRIST shipyard advertises that they build ships for various clients throughout Europe. And we know that North Koreans are still working here today. VICE gained exclusive access to documents that reveal the wages of North Korean laborers in Poland before the Kim regime’s deductions.
Why Are Millions Of Chinese Kids Parenting Themselves?
Generations of Wang Ying’s family farmed the misty mountains of Liangshan, one of China’s poorest regions. But now, the 14-year-old girl lives on her own as the sole caretaker of her two younger siblings. They are among an estimated 9 million “left-behind children” raising themselves in the Chinese countryside.
Germany’s Tiny Geographic Oddity
Surrounded by Switzerland, but owned by Germany, the tiny enclave of Büsingen am Hochrhein has managed a binational existence for centuries. The village’s eastern border lies a mere 700m from the rest of the Federal Republic of Germany.